JS, Blessing, to , , Hancock Co., IL, 23 Mar. 1843; handwriting of JS; one page; Whitney Family Documents, CHL.
Historical Introduction
On 23 March 1843, JS inscribed a blessing in , Illinois, for eighteen-year-old , promising blessings for her and her family on the condition that she “remain in the to the end.” Sarah Ann, daughter of and , first met JS when he and his family briefly moved in with the Whitneys in early 1831. Over the succeeding twelve years, her family interacted often with JS, in part because of her parents’ ecclesiastical positions—Newel was a of the and Elizabeth Ann was a counselor in the of the .
In 1842, JS introduced plural marriage to the Whitney family, who preserved a rare contemporaneous textual record of their experiences. On 27 July 1842, and JS in a plural marriage. A revelation addressed to Newel on the day of the 1842 sealing promised him “honor and immortality and eternal life to all your house both old and young.” Less than a month after the sealing, JS spoke of his desire “to get the fulness of my blessings sealed upon” his own head and the heads of Newel, , and Sarah Ann Whitney. Three days later, Newel and Elizabeth Ann were blessed “with part in the first reserrection also with many other blessings together with the promise to all [the Whitneys’] House the same day.” Finally, about a week later, Newel K. Whitney was “blessed above others with long life[,] the of the [,] a double portion of the spirit heretofore confered upon all my fellows[, and] with all gifts posessed by my progenitors who held the Priesthood before me anciently.” Of the several documents promising blessings to Whitney family members, the blessing featured here is the only document directed solely to Sarah Ann.
On the day JS wrote the blessing for , JS also blessed with eternal life and promised him an eternal marriage with his recently deceased wife, , sister of . Joseph Kingsbury later reported that his blessing was connected with a plan JS introduced to have Kingsbury and Sarah Ann Whitney undergo a “pretended marriage.” Sarah Ann and JS were sealed to each other in July the previous year, and JS and others counseled Kingsbury to enter the agreed-upon relationship “for the purpose of Bringing about the purposes of God.”
It is unknown when on 23 March 1843 this blessing was given or what relationship it had to the blessing given the same day to . Unlike the Kingsbury blessing, which apparently is a record of a verbal blessing JS pronounced upon Kingsbury, JS composed this document for —“the one into whose hands this may fall”—evidently while she was not present. According to Kingsbury’s recollection, he, Sarah Ann, and her parents were together when JS pronounced Kingsbury’s blessing. It is unknown whether JS wrote the blessing for Sarah Ann before, during, or after this meeting. JS composed the blessing on stationery of a unique style and shape; this same stationery was used for at least one other document—a document written at an unknown time by to her mother, . That the stationery was apparently kept in the Whitney family may indicate that JS received the paper from the Whitneys. JS noted that he wrote the document in “,” though at the time he was supposed to be on a trip to , Illinois.
Few of ’s own writings survive, and none is known to illuminate this blessing from her perspective. However, the Whitney family preserved a significant number of family and church records. This document, along with a select few other records likely important to the family, was isolated from that larger collection, suggesting that Sarah Ann, her , and other family members assigned those select documents a special status.