JS, Letter, , Hancock Co., IL, to [, New Haven Co., CT], 28 July 1840. Featured version copied [ca. 28 July 1840] in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 162–163; handwriting of ; JS Collection, CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for JS Letterbook 2.
Historical Introduction
On 28 July 1840, JS wrote to regarding land purchases in the , Illinois, area. Hotchkiss was a land speculator from and one of the men from whom the had purchased extensive tracts of land in , Illinois, in summer 1839. Hotchkiss wrote to JS on 1 April 1840 and again sometime during June, suggesting in both letters the possibility of selling to the Latter-day Saints additional land in the area (southeast of Nauvoo), in the area (northeast of Nauvoo), or in both areas. In this response to Hotchkiss’s June letter, JS briefly discussed the Rock River land offer and outlined the difficulty church leaders would have in punctually making the initial payments on a separate property of about four hundred acres they had purchased from Hotchkiss the previous year. Nevertheless, JS promised Hotchkiss that the church would make the payments as soon as possible. JS also informed Hotchkiss that he had recently paid the full amount due to for another parcel of land that the church had purchased from Hotchkiss and White.
The original letter is apparently not extant. This version, which copied into JS Letterbook 2 probably around the time the letter was sent, does not include an address for , but the letter was likely mailed to Hotchkiss’s residence in , Connecticut. If Hotchkiss sent a response to this letter, it has not been located.
good title deed for the same, and who would be induced to make purchases and make an effort to raise money for the sake of getting a deed which effort they would not be so likely to make if we could only give them a bond, this I think will work both to your advantage and ours. and hope that we shall be able soon by and by to make some cash sales. I hope this arangement with will meet your approbation, altho it is a departure from the common rules of business, but was induced to do so from the advantages which will result from it and which I hope will be mutual.
The amount of interest paid to after deducti[n]g $61.50 which was coming from him to you for rents was eighty four dollars and forty cents. told us, that you agreed to pay him as much interest for the money as he could get elsewher[e] we accordingly (in good faith) allowed him at the rate of ten per cent.
Hoping the course pursued will meet your approbatio[n]—
I am respectfully
Your Obt Svt
Joseph Smith J[r]
To Esqr.
P.S. You will recollect the verbal agreement entered into by us that the notes for the interest would not be exacted for at least five years. Notwithstanding which we use our endeavoers to meet them as fast as possible. and think that when I have the pleasure of seeing you again, that you will be fully satisfied with the course we have taken and our endeavours to meet all our engagements.
In early 1841, churchagents indicated in a report that by that time land sales in the “Hotchkiss purchase” amounted to about $83,000 and that those in the “White’s purchase” amounted to about $15,000. Most of the land sales enumerated in the report, however, would have come from the land purchased by church leaders on 12 August 1839 from Hotchkiss, Tuttle, and Gillet and the land purchased from Hugh White on 30 April 1839, rather than the land parcels purchased from Hotchkiss and William White described in this letter. The majority of land sales were purchased on credit rather than with cash. (Report of Agents, ca. 30 Jan. 1841.)
Aside from the unusual nature of JS concluding White’s rent transaction with Hotchkiss, JS was likely concerned that Hotchkiss would disapprove of the Saints’ receiving immediate title to the land from White. The deed would not normally have been transferred to them by White but would instead have been given to the church by Hotchkiss upon receipt of full payment ten years after the original purchase date. (Bond from Horace Hotchkiss, 12 Aug. 1839–B; Receipt from William White, 23 Apr. 1840.)