JS, Letter, [, Hancock Co., IL], to , , Des Moines Co., Iowa Territory, 2 July 1840; handwriting of ; two pages; Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City. Includes address and notations.
Bifolium measuring 9¾ × 7¾ inches (25 × 20 cm) when folded. The recto of the full, unfolded sheet contains twenty-six printed horizontal lines that extend across three-quarters of the sheet, stopping at an unlined area intended for the letter recipient’s address. Embossed in the upper left-hand corner of the recto is a decorative star and “D & J. Ames Springfield”, the insignia of a Springfield, Massachusetts, paper mill firm. The document was trifolded in letter style but appears to have not been sealed. The address was written on a lined portion of the third page; the fourth page is blank. Mathematical calculations and a graphite notation were inscribed on the third page.
retained this letter with his personal papers. The document was included in the collection of his papers that his descendants donated in 1972 to the Special Collections of the J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
Whiting, “Paper-Making in New England,” 309; Gravell et al., American Watermarks, 235.
Whiting, William. “Paper-Making in New England.” In The New England States: Their Constitutional, Judicial, Educational, Commercial, Professional and Industrial History, edited by William T. Davis, vol. 1, pp. 303–333. Boston: D. H. Hurd, 1897.
Gravell, Thomas L., George Miller, and Elizabeth Walsh. American Watermarks: 1690–1835. 2nd ed. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2002.
Dye, Della L. “Frederick Kesler Papers, 1837–1899.” Unpublished finding aid, 1975, for collection held at Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City. Online version at Archives West, Orbis Cascade Alliance. Accessed 15 May 2017. archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv16976.
Historical Introduction
On 2 July 1840, JS responded to a letter he had received from . Kesler had been a month earlier after hearing JS preach a sermon in , Illinois, the previous year. Apparently, Kesler had recently traveled to Nauvoo from his home in , Iowa Territory, where he had lived since 1835. For an unknown reason, he was not able to meet with JS during his visit, at which time he may have left his letter for JS. Though Kesler’s letter is not extant, some of its contents can be inferred from JS’s response. JS’s letter addressed several topics, including the possibility of Kesler building another mill in Augusta—a location Kesler apparently had recommended as a place where the could settle.
The letter is in the handwriting of JS’s scribe and bears no postmarks, suggesting that a private party carried it from to ’s home in .
Kesler, Frederick. “A Brief Sketch & Life of Bp F. Kesler.” Frederick Kesler, Papers, 1837– 1899. Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City.
Kesler, Frederick. “A Brief Sketch & Life of Bp F. Kesler.” Frederick Kesler, Papers, 1837– 1899. Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City.
Page [1]
July 2nd 1840
Dear Sir/
I was sorry I had not the pleasure of seeing you when you were at this place. I should have been glad to have had some conversation with you on the subject treated on in your letter, however as I had not that priviledge I shall give you such information on the subject as I think will be best.
From what I have seen of the Country and from the information I have had I think that — would be a very desireable place for a location for the , and consequently I should advise you to proceed in building your mill and making what other improvements you may think wisdom.
I shall reccommend the location to the brethren as they come along but do not think there will be many come until the fall or early next Spring.
I will do what I can to find a purchaser for your brothers house &c— I am sorry that he should feel so inemical to you and to the saints generally.
I probably shall have an oppertunity of seeing you before long when we can converse on these subjects &c &c &c [p. [1]]
The need for additional mills in southeastern Iowa was demonstrated in a nineteenth-century history of Lee County, Iowa, that recorded accounts of people waiting “a week at a time” in order to grind their wheat or corn at one of the first mills built there in 1835. Kesler was an experienced millwright; he had constructed mills in Ohio, Iowa Territory, and Mississippi. (History of Lee County, Iowa, 399; Kesler, “Brief Sketch,” 1–4; “Programme,” in Autobiographies, Frederick Kesler, Papers, Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City.)
The History of Lee County, Iowa, Containing a History of the County, Its Cities, Towns, &c., a Biographical Directory of Citizens. . . . Chicago: Western Historical Co., 1879.
Kesler, Frederick. “A Brief Sketch & Life of Bp F. Kesler.” Frederick Kesler, Papers, 1837– 1899. Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City.
Kesler, Frederick. Papers, 1837–1899. Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City.
There is no record of JS encouraging church members to move to Augusta. By September 1841, however, fifty church members resided there. (“Minutes of a Conference,” Times and Seasons, 15 Sept. 1841, 2:547–548.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Kesler’s brother had apparently moved away from the area. When Kesler and his five siblings were orphaned in 1821 or 1822, they were separated and placed in different homes. Of his siblings, he wrote in his autobiography, “We grew up amongst strangers & to a verry great exstent became strangers to each oather & as we grew up scatering over the cuntry & thus becoming lost to each oather.” It is unclear which of his brothers—Peter or Jacob—Kesler referred to in his letter to JS. (Kesler, Autobiography, 1.)
Kesler, Frederick. Autobiography, circa 1886. CHL. MS 10857.