, Receipt, , Caldwell Co., MO, to on behalf of JS, Oct. 1838; handwriting of ; signature of ; one page; JS Collection, CHL. Includes docket.
One leaf measuring 3½ × 7¾ inches (9 × 20 cm). The bottom of the leaf is unevenly hand cut. docketed the leaf, and at some point it was folded, perhaps for transmission and storage. The document has undergone conservation, which involved gluing mesh to the recto and verso of the leaf.
Little is known of the document’s custodial history. Presumably, the document was filed with JS’s financial papers in , Missouri, and has remained in continuous institutional custody. The Historical Department of the LDS church cataloged the receipt in the JS Collection in 1973.
Johnson, Register of the Joseph Smith Collection, 10.
Johnson, Jeffery O. Register of the Joseph Smith Collection in the Church Archives, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City: Historical Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1973.
Historical Introduction
In October 1838, signed a receipt acknowledging payment on an order that was issued on JS’s behalf in , Ohio. The order was originally given to church member , likely in exchange for money or land he gave to to help the church with its debts. In return, Marks, who was acting as an for JS in Kirtland, provided Tanner with the order. Tanner could then take the order to , Missouri, where the order would be exchanged for money or land through . Partridge was overseeing church finances while JS was traveling to areas of conflict to aid the Saints and gather men to fight against vigilantes.
The order gave to is similar to the many other orders Marks created in early 1838 as Latter-day Saints transferred their property to him before leaving . Although Tanner’s order is apparently not extant, the description of it in the receipt indicates the order was for one hundred dollars. Tanner presumably sold the order to in sometime between July and October 1838. Clark apparently presented the order to , who paid Clark $27.50 on JS’s behalf and wrote the receipt featured here. Clark then signed and returned the receipt to Partridge to retain as proof of payment.
Clark, who apparently sometimes went by his middle name of Baldwin, was born in Connecticut in 1778 and married Mary Keeler in 1802. Shortly after he joined the church in spring 1835, Clark and several members of his family moved to Clay County, Missouri, and from there to Caldwell County, Missouri. (Clark, “Timothy Baldwin Biography”; Rich, Journal, 7 May 1835.)
Clark, A. Charles. “Timothy Baldwin Biography.” Presented at the Dedication Ceremony of the Timothy Baldwin Clark Grave Site, Hillcrest Cemetery, Bolingbrook, IL, 7 May 2004. FamilySearch. Accessed 10 Oct. 2016. https://familysearch.org/photos /stories/10021886.
Rich, Charles C. Journals, 1833–1862. Charles C. Rich Collection, 1832–1908. CHL. MS 889, box 1.
The Tanner family left Kirtland in spring 1838 and arrived in Far West by early July 1838. (Elizabeth Tanner, Autobiography, [2]; “Sketch of an Elder’s Life,” 14–15.)
Tanner, Elizabeth Beswick. Autobiography, not before 1885. Photocopy. CHL.
“Sketch of an Elder’s Life” (John Tanner). In Scraps of Biography, Faith-Promoting Series 10, pp. 9–19. Salt Lake City: Juvenile Instructor Office, 1883.