This volume is made possible by the help and generosity of numerous people and institutions. We are particularly grateful to the administrators and officials of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, which sponsors the project. We also express deep appreciation to the Larry H. and Gail Miller Family Foundation for its continued support of the project. The foundation’s generosity and encouragement have enabled us to meet an ambitious production schedule while adhering to the highest scholarly standards. In particular, we express sincere gratitude to Gail Miller. Her continued devotion to this work has made this and all other volumes of The Joseph Smith Papers possible.
The Joseph Smith Papers Project relies on the skills and dedication of employees and volunteers in the Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as well as on independent scholars and editors. Employees who have assisted us include Britta Adams, Jeff Anderson, Darcee Barnes, Heather Claridge, Mark G. Coulson, Brett D. Dowdle, Chad Foulger, Melissa Garrison, Lorin Groesbeck, David W. Grua, McKinsey Kemeny, J. Chase Kirkham, Elizabeth A. Kuehn, Sharon E. Nielsen, Taylor Nelson Orr, Jay A. Parry, Benjamin Pykles, Jenny Rollins, Megan Sanderson, Kate Staker, and Stephanie Steed. We are also indebted to Matthew J. Grey, Christopher C. Jones, and Stephen O. Smoot for assistance with various research and translation queries. We especially thank scholars Bryon Andreasen, Joseph Johnstun, and Benjamin E. Park, whose research was indispensable to this volume. Nathan Lassen Jones and Jeffrey D. Mahas each assisted us by drafting one of the documents in the volume, among other services.
We are grateful to Christy L. Best, who helped identify and catalog documents; Jay R. and Naoma W. Eastley, volunteers at the Church History Library, who assisted with research and preliminary drafts for much of the Geographical Directory; and Eleanor Brainard and Lee Ann Clanton, also volunteers, who helped with document transcription. We also thank Brian P. Barton, Noel R. Barton, Wayne T. Morris, and Steven Motteshard, who provided professional genealogical research services in support of the Biographical Directory. Other research used in the Biographical Directory was provided by a volunteer team headed by Patricia L. Spilsbury and consisting of Joyce Bastian, Ann Collet, Brenda Homer, Shirley Romney, Kathy Williams, and JoAnne Wright. We thank them for their help. We are also grateful to Kate Mertes, who created the index for this volume; Carolyn Call Ashton, Nicole Christensen Fernley, Kaytee Johnson, and Catherine Reese Newton of the Joseph Smith Papers, who skillfully typeset the volume; and Margaret A. Hogan, who carefully proofread the volume. We express our thanks to Brandon Metcalf for his diligent assistance with documents and to the staff of the Preservation Division, Church History Department, who, among other things, facilitated digitization of the textual and some of the contextual images. Thanks to Benson Y. Parkinson of the Publishing Services Department for assisting with publishing the book simultaneously in print and digital channels. We also thank Deborah Gayle Gates for administrative assistance and Debra Xavier Abercrombie and Benjamin H. Wood for their efforts in marketing the project and the volume.
Many libraries and repositories have provided essential assistance. We sincerely thank the management and staff of the Church History Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, where the majority of Joseph Smith’s papers are located; the Family History Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City; and the L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. We express special thanks to the Community of Christ Library and Archives, Independence, Missouri, and to the historians and site directors of the Community of Christ; in particular, we thank Lachlan MacKay and Rachel Killebrew for their assistance and support. We also thank George Shaner at the National Archives and Records Administration, Washington DC; Christopher Schnell and Debbie Hamm at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, Illinois; John Reinhardt at the Illinois State Archives, Springfield; Kerry Asbridge at the Hancock County Clerk’s and Recorder’s Office, Carthage, Illinois; and John Neally at the Hancock County Circuit Clerk’s Office, Carthage, for their assistance with documents and questions. We likewise thank the staffs at the Huntington Library, San Marino, California; Illinois Regional Archives Depository, Malpass Library, Western Illinois University, Macomb; and the Special Collections Department, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, for their excellent assistance.
The maps in this volume were developed by Geographic Information Services, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, under the direction of David Peart, with cartography by Jonathan West, Blake Baker, Keith A. Kato, and John Martineau. Several of these maps were based on work done by Brandon Plewe and his team of researchers from Brigham Young University for earlier volumes of The Joseph Smith Papers. We thank those who were involved in the cartography and research for these maps. Their names are listed alongside the maps in this volume.
We also thank the management and staff at Deseret Book for the professional help and advice they provided regarding the design, printing, and distribution of this volume. We especially appreciate the contributions of Sheri L. Dew, Laurel Christensen Day, Celia Barnes, Richard Erickson, Kristen Evans, David Kimball, Derk Koldewyn, and Shara Meredith.