206

"The Saints are well armed, and always were."

Ebenezer Rand.

Pair of partial letters offering a non-Mormon perspective on Nauvoo in the 1840s and beyond.

Carthage, IL, 1865 and [1872?]
Partial Autograph Letters to Nathaniel Reynolds, one of them signed. Each [4] pages on one sheet, one 9¾ x 7¾ inches, the other 12½ x 7¾ inches; separations at folds, minor wear.

  • Notes: These partial letters were written by Ebenezer Sanborn Rand (1804-1885) of Carthage, IL, who emigrated west from Marblehead, MA to Illinois in the 1830s. His correspondent Nathaniel Reynolds (1806-1882) was an old friend from Marblehead who had gone west at about the same time. Reynolds apparently became a Mormon, while Rand did not--he had been part of the jury which acquitted the murderers of Joseph and Hyrum Smith in 1844. In these letters, Rand updates his old friend on the state of Mormon affairs in Illinois, interspersed with pointed critiques of the faith. 

    The first letter is addressed to Mr. Nath. Reynolds, from Carthage on 1 December 1865. It is 4 pages in length, and ends in mid-sentence with no signature.  

    "Momentous questions are to be decided. The nations are arming. Even that people who dwell in the far west and who claim (as I understand) to compose the only true Church of God now on earth, even they are marshalling their harts. I know their Lieut. General well, an old acquaintance, Daniel H. Wells, formerly of this county, where he now has a wife & child. The 'Saints' are well armed, and always were. Once they had in their possession while at Nauvoo over 2/3 of all the arms in the state. I suppose they now in all the territory number about from 8 to 10 thousand men capable of bearing arms. They have a strong position. There are some Indians in the territory. Can you tell me why the Indian chiefs occasionally used to visit Navoo for?"

    The second letter begins on page 16, ends with a signature on page [19], and is apparently written to the same friend. He discusses the prophet's son Joseph Smith III. "You ask about Joseph and Nauvoo. Mr. Morrill, our representative to the state legislature, resides at Nauvoo, informs me that Joseph has left Nauvoo and moved to Plano in this state [he moved in 1866]. . . . There are but a few Mormon families in Nauvoo. I have frequently thought it strange that you never corresponded with Joseph. In so doing you may have obtained farther testimony that the Mormons were not a 'unit.' You may learn this however (if you can see straight) from his [April 1868?] letter in the Chicago Journal I sent you. He professes not to be a polygamist. . . . He does not go with Brigham in some other things. . . . How strange that one who is looked upon as being the successor, as a prophet, to his father, should be an adherent to that faction who owned the Expositor Press which was destroyed at Nauvoo in 1844. . . . The Mormon Church a unit! Sidney Rigdon is somewhere in the state of New York. . . . And where is Don Carlos Smith and William Smith, both brothers of Joseph? They were both prominent Mormons. And where is the old lady, the mother of all the Smiths? She was left in Hancock County in poor circumstances . . . She became the possessor of the Egyptian mummies which was brought from the east 25 or 6 years ago. There were hyroglyphics with them that Joe used to read. I saw them in Nauvoo long ago, when Mormonism was in its glory. It was not common to exhibit except for a price, but your humble servant was shown them by no less a personage than the prophet's lady, free of cost. . . . I have been considerd friendly to your people, but the last I saw of the mummies they were on exhibition in our courthouse at 10 cents a show, attended by a drunken fiddler. The exhibition was for the benefit of the old lady." Rand resumes his letter at one point on Sunday, 18 February [1866 or more likely 1872]. 

    With--a mortgage from Hancock County, IL, dated 29 April 1844 (two months before the murder of the Smiths).  It is signed by Jason H. Sherman, a prominent anti-Mormon; and Hancock County Clerk George W. Thatcher. Also named is Thomas Gregg, the vociferous anti-Mormon newspaper editor, as administrator of an estate. Ebenezer Rand is also mentioned.

    and--7 other Rand family letters or partial letters, 1862-1883 and undated, none of them with LDS-related content.
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