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Letter from Joseph Tippets, 2 April 1843

Source Note

, Letter, between and , [Hancock Co., IL], to JS, [, Hancock Co., IL], 2 Apr. 1843; handwriting presumably of ; four pages; Newel K. Whitney, Papers, BYU. Includes address and archival marking.
Bifolium measuring 12½ × 7½ inches (32 × 19 cm) and ruled with thirty-two horizontal gray lines. The letter was trifolded twice in letter style and addressed. The letter was refolded for filing.
In late 1844, following JS’s death, became one of the interim church trustees and was appointed “first bishop” among other bishops. It was presumably during this time that many of the church’s financial and other administrative records passed into his possession. This document, along with many other personal and institutional documents that Newel K. Whitney kept, was inherited by Newel K. and ’s daughter Mary Jane Whitney, who was married to Isaac Groo. The documents were passed down within the Groo family. Between 1969 and 1974, the Groo family donated their collection of Newel K. Whitney’s papers to the J. Reuben Clark Library (renamed Harold B. Lee Library in 1973) at Brigham Young University.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Willard Richards, Journal, 9 Aug. 1844; “Conference Minutes,” Times and Seasons, 1 Nov. 1844, 5:693; see also Minutes, Times and Seasons, Dec. 1839, 1:30.

    Richards, Willard. Journals, 1836–1853. Willard Richards, Papers, 1821–1854. CHL. MS 1490, boxes 1–2.

    Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

  2. [2]

    Andrus and Fuller, Register of the Newel Kimball Whitney Papers, 24; Wilkinson et al., Brigham Young University, 4:255.

    Andrus, Hyrum L., and Chris Fuller, comp. Register of the Newel Kimball Whitney Papers. Provo, UT: Division of Archives and Manuscripts, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, 1978.

    Wilkinson, Ernest L., Leonard J. Arrington, and Bruce C. Hafen, eds. Brigham Young University: The First One Hundred Years. Vol. 4. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1976.

Historical Introduction

On 2 April 1843, Latter-day Saint wrote a letter to JS seeking counsel in the wake of his misfortunes. Tippets had joined the in the early 1830s in and, along with his extended family, had contributed substantial resources and labor toward building the in , Ohio, and purchasing land for the church in . With other church members, Tippets was expelled from Missouri in 1839 and relocated to . His first wife, Rosalia Elvira Perry, died in 1841, leaving him to raise two children on his own. In June 1842, he married Amanda Melvina Perry, Rosalia’s sister. In 1843 he lost his home in , Illinois, to fire. Emphasizing his faithfulness in paying to the church, in the letter featured here Tippets mentioned a blessing he had received from and asked JS when the prosperity it promised would be realized.
wrote the letter from the home of his father-in-law, , located in , “about fore miles from and about five from .” The letter lacks any postage marks, indicating that Tippets sent it to with a courier or delivered it himself, presumably when he attended the church’s April 1843 . There is no known reply.

Page [2]

best ad vantage we new how, the next year my brother came on with his family and my mother and also a sister of ours who had ben crazy for several years and remains so yet, it became my duty to take care of my mother and sister who was crazy it being my mothers choice to live with me, she being old and considerable helpless and my sister being crazy truly envolved me in quite a task I setteled in fare a few miles from where I went to work with great courage to open a farm supposing that when I got my self a holme and settle my family, I would go forth and preach the gospel, but behold and lo before I got fairly settled the enemy came upon me and drove me from my holme and expeled me from the with thousands of others of the saints, this truly was a day of trial and a scene of suffering, but this I could have got along with verry well had it not ben for my old mother <​&​> crazy sister who ware both almost helpless and a gra [great] deal of trouble, to be driven from my holme with the loss of all most all things under circumstances of this kind rendered it verry destressing in deed, desstressing in deed, to youse an old exspression I just esscaped with the skin of my teath or in other words I just made out to rais team and money a nough to bring us out of the , after ariving in the state of I wrented a small peace of land a bout sixteen miles east of near farm where I taried two years during which time a was lade of on s farm, I then thought I would settle there as I was clean exhausted in propperty and tired of moving a bout, I a gain took courag baught me a peace of land broke up about thirty acers acres bilt me a house &c, dureing which time I dreamed the following little dream which is worthy of notice not feeling fairly satisfied with my situation, I fancied my self [p. [2]]
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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from Joseph Tippets, 2 April 1843
ID #
1029
Total Pages
4
Print Volume Location
JSP, D12:145–150
Handwriting on This Page
  • Joseph Tippets

Footnotes

  1. [6]

    The Tippetses arrived in Missouri in December 1835. They rented land in Clay County in 1836 and subsequently purchased property there. (Tippets, Autobiography, 26–28.)

    Tippets, John Harvey. Autobiography, ca. 1882. Photocopy. CHL. MS 5668.

  2. [7]

    Alvah and his wife, Abigail Tippets Tippets, arrived in Missouri in 1836. (Tippets, Autobiography, 32–34.)

    Tippets, John Harvey. Autobiography, ca. 1882. Photocopy. CHL. MS 5668.

  3. [8]

    Abigail Lewis Tippets. (1850 U.S. Census, Pottawattamie Co., IA, 115[A].)

    Census (U.S.) / U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population Schedules. Microfilm. FHL.

  4. [9]

    Pamelia Tippets. (1850 U.S. Census, Pottawattamie Co., IA, 115[A]; 1860 U.S. Census, Brigham City, Box Elder Co., Utah Territory, 199.)

    Census (U.S.) / U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population Schedules. Microfilm. FHL.

  5. [10]

    In September 1838, Tippets acquired forty acres in Caldwell County, Missouri. (Land Patent for Joseph H. Tippets, Caldwell Co., MO, no. 9227, General Land Office Records, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior.)

    General Land Office Records. Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior. Digital images of the land patents cited herein are available at http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/.

  6. [11]

    See “Part 3: 4 November 1838–16 April 1839.”

  7. [12]

    In February 1839, Tippets sold property in Clinton County, Missouri, for $100, which likely contributed to the funds he used to move his family out of the state. (Clinton Co., MO, Deeds, 1833–1904, vol. A, pp. 457–458, 5 Feb. 1839, microfilm 1,005,935, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.)

    U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

  8. [13]

    The Freedom branch was organized on 27 October 1840 near Payson, Adams County, Illinois, and Henry Miller was selected to preside. (JS History, vol. C-1 Addenda, 1.)

  9. [14]

    Although documentation for Tippets’s land purchase has not been located, the 1840 census recorded that he lived in Adams County. (1840 U.S. Census, Quincy Township, Adams Co., IL, 27.)

    Census (U.S.) / U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population Schedules. Microfilm. FHL.

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