Matthew C. Godfrey - The Joseph Smith Papers: Documents, Volume 7: September 1839–January 1841

Receipt from Wesley Williams, 5 September 1839

Source Note

Wesley Williams, Receipt, Carthage, Hancock Co., IL, to JS and others, 5 Sept. 1839; handwriting of Wesley Williams; one page; JS Office Papers, CHL.

One leaf, measuring 4 7 inches (10 19 cm). The original size of the paper is unknown; the right side of the page was torn off, and the bottom was cut off. Wesley Williams inscribed the document on the recto, and the verso is blank. The leaf has been folded three times. The document has undergone conservation; the front and the back are covered with silk crepeline. The receipt was apparently received by JS and has presumably remained in continuous institutional custody.

Historical Introduction

On 5 September 1839, Hancock County, Illinois, recorder Wesley Williams issued a receipt to JS and others acknowledging payment received for recording the plat of the town of Nauvoo, Illinois. A few months earlier, on 30 April 1839, church agents George W. Robinson and Alanson Ripley had contracted with Isaac Galland and Hugh White, two of the areas early settlers, to purchase approximately 180 acres of land in the vicinity of Commerce, Illinois.

Illinois law required any party wishing to lay out a town to have the property surveyed, to have a plat or map drawn based on that survey, and to have the plat recorded by the county.

Joseph Smith & co To Wesley Williams

Recorder of Hancock County

To recording Town plot of Nauvoo

Carthage Sept. 5th. 1839 [p. [1]]

Nauvoo plat. The original plat of Nauvoo, Illinois, was surveyed by James Brattle in August 1839. The copy shown here was entered into the Hancock County, Illinois, plat book by John Mather on 3 September 1839. The church acquired the land shown in the plat in April and August 1839 from earlier settlers in the area and from land speculators living in Connecticut. (Courtesy Family History Library, Salt Lake City.)

_________________________

Robinson paid Galland $18,000 for approximately 47 acres of land in the southwest portion of the peninsula that became Nauvoo. Ripley purchased from White approximately 130 acres immediately east of the land purchased from Galland. (Hancock Co., IL, Deed Records, 18171917, vol. 12-G, p. 274, 30 Apr. 1839, Hancock County Recorders Office, Carthage, IL; Hancock Co., IL, Bonds and Mortgages, 18401904, vol. 1, pp. 3132, 30 Apr. 1839, microfilm 954,776, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.)

Bonds from Horace Hotchkiss, 12 Aug. 1839A and B, in JSP, D6:553556, 557559.

The land acquired in the larger 12 August 1839 agreement with Hotchkiss, Tuttle, and Gillet included portions of the previously surveyed and platted town of Commerce and the entirety of the plattedbut never developedCommerce City adjacent to it. (Hancock Co., IL, Plat Books, 18361938, vol. 1, pp. 1011, Commerce Plat, 24 May 1834; pp. 2627, Commerce City Plat, 28 Apr. 1837; pp. 3739, Nauvoo Plat, 3 Sept. 1839, microfilm 954,774, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.)

An Act Providing for the Recording of Town Plats [27 Feb. 1833], Public and General Statute Laws of the State of Illinois, pp. 676678, secs. 1, 4, 10.

Hancock Co., IL, Plat Books, 18361938, vol. 1, pp. 3739, Nauvoo Plat, 3 Sept. 1839, microfilm 954,774, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.

The remainder of the text was copied from Williamss entry of the plat in the county plat book. (Hancock Co., IL, Plat Books, 18361938, vol. 1, p. 37, microfilm 954,774, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.)

The Nauvoo plat consisted of 161 blocks, the majority of which were subdivided into 4 one-acre lots. A few of the blocks, however, were not subdivided into lots, and a number of blocks were fractional, containing fewer than 4 lots because of irregular geographic features (primarily the shoreline of the Mississippi River) or limitations imposed by the boundaries of the land purchased. These exceptions account for the disparity between the 590 lots paid for in the recording and the 644 lots that would have resulted from 161 blocks of 4 lots each. The land the church purchased from Hotchkiss, Tuttle, and Gillet also included land that had already been surveyed as part of the plats of Commerce and Commerce City, but these areas were not resurveyed and, though included in the later municipal boundaries of Nauvoo, were not included on the original Nauvoo plat. (Hancock Co., IL, Plat Books, 18361938, vol. 1, pp. 1011, Commerce Plat, 24 May 1834; pp. 2627, Commerce City Plat, 28 Apr. 1837; pp. 3739, Nauvoo Plat, 3 Sept. 1839, microfilm 954,774, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; see also Act to Incorporate the City of Nauvoo, 16 Dec. 1840, pp. 472488 herein.)

The Illinois statute governing the recording of town plats stipulated that county recorders were entitled to four cents per lot recorded and that surveyors were entitled to twenty-five cents per lot surveyed and platted. (An Act Providing for the Recording of Town Plats [27 Feb. 1833], Public and General Statute Laws of the State of Illinois, p. 678, sec. 10.)

Letter to Isaac Galland, 11 September 1839

Source Note

JS, Letter, Commerce, Hancock Co., IL, to Isaac Galland, Kirtland Township, Geauga Co., OH, 11 Sept. 1839. Featured version copied [between 11 Sept. and 3 Nov. 1839] in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 7173; handwriting of James Mulholland; JS Collection, CHL. For more information on JS Letterbook 2, see Source Notes for Multiple-Entry Documents, p. 547 herein.

Historical Introduction

On 11 September 1839, JS wrote to Isaac Galland in response to a letter Galland had written from Chillicothe, Ohio, on 24 July 1839.

In his 24 July letter, Galland informed JS that he had informally proselytized during the journey to Ohio. He devoted most of the letter to recounting conversations with fellow boat passenger and former United States senator Arnold Naudain, to whom Galland sold a copy of the Book of Mormon, and with Chillicothe resident Dr. Benjamin Owen Carpenter, with whom Galland debated repeatedly about theology.

JSs scribe James Mulholland copied the letter into JS Letterbook 2 sometime between 11 September 1839 and Mulhollands death less than two months later on 3 November. If Galland sent a response, no such letter has been located.

Isaac Galland. Galland was an early settler in what became Nauvoo, Illinois. By summer 1839, he sold nearly eighteen thousand acres of his land in both Illinois and Iowa Territory to the church. (Church History Library, Salt Lake City.)

Commerce Ill, 11th Sept r 1839

Dear Brother [Isaac] Galland

We have had the great pleasure of recieving your favour of 24th July, and learning thereby that you and your family had arrived at Chillicothe in safety and in health. We percieve that you have had rather a narrow escape from serious accident, and doubtless the hand of the Lord is to be acknowledged in the matter, although unpercieved by mortal eye.