TO HYRUM SMITH
1831 MARCH 3, 4

ALS Joseph Smith, Kirtland, Ohio, to Hyrum Smith, Harpersville, Broome County, New York, 3 March 1831, 3 pp., Joseph Smith Collection, LDS Church Archives. At the time he received this letter, Hyrum Smith was residing with Newel Knight in Colesville, New York. After Hyrum's departure, Knight found the letter and kept it. Following his death, his wife, Lydia, displayed it as a valuable keepsake of the early Church until she gave it to Susa Young Gates after 1881 in payment for a literary favor. We know this because it was still in the possession of Mrs. Knight in March 1881, when Daniel Tyler notified Wilford Woodruff of its existence and content. It was evidently from Susa Young Gates that the letter came to the Church Archives (See "An Unpublished Letter of the Prophet Joseph," Improvement Era 9 [December 1905]: 167-69. The letter of Daniel Tyler to Wilford Woodruff, 3 March 1881, MS, is in the Wilford Woodruff Collection, LDS Church Archives).

In fall 1830, four missionaries (Oliver Cowdery, Peter Whitmer Jr., Parley P. Pratt, and Ziba Peterson) were called to preach the restored gospel "in the wilderness among the Lamanites," as the Indians were known to believers in the Book of Mormon.414 Traveling through the area of Parley Pratt's former residence in Ohio's Western Reserve, the missionaries added some three hundred converts to the new faith, including an influential Campbellite minister, Sidney Rigdon.

After requesting that an overseer be sent from New York to care for the young flock in Ohio, the missionaries, accompanied by one of their converts, Frederick G. Williams, continued their journey west. Traveling in a season remembered as "the winter of the deep snow," they reached their destination at Independence, Missouri, near the Indian lands of the frontier, in December.415

To sustain the group, Whitmer and Peterson found employment in a tailor shop, while the others crossed the Kansas River, eager to present their message to the Delaware and Shawnee Indians. But as word of their activity spread, opposition from sectarian missionaries and Indian agents forced them to leave the Indian lands. Consequently, they turned their attention to the white population of Jackson County.416

Back in New York, Joseph Smith had no sooner sent John Whitmer to preside over the new converts in Ohio than he received a revelation that directed all the Saints in New York to gather there. The Prophet arrived in Kirtland on 1 February 1831, and a month later wrote this letter to his brother Hyrum, who was presiding over the Saints at Colesville, New York.417

Kirtland Geauga County Ohio
March 3th 1831
Brother Hyram

we arived here safe and are all well I hav[e] been engageed in regulating the Churches here as the deciples are numerous and the devil has made many att<e>mpts to over throw them418 it has been a serious Job but the Lord is with us and we have overcome and have all things regular the work is brakeing forth on the right hand and on the left and there is a great Call for Elders in this place we hav[e] recieved a leter from Olover [Oliver Cowdery] dated independence Jackson County Missouri January the 29th 1831 these are the words which he has written saying- My dealy dearly beloved bretheren after a considerable lengthy journy I arived avail myself of the first opertunity of communicating to you a knowledge of our situation that you may be priviledged of writing to us for we have not heard any thing from you since we left you last fall we arived here at this place a few days since which is about 25 miles from the Shawney indians on the south side of the Kansas River at its mouth & delewares on the north I have had two intervi<e>ws with the Chief of [ ] that the delewares who is a very old & venerable looking man419 after haveing laying before him & eighteen or twenty of the Council of that nation the truth he said that <he> hand they he and they were very glad for what I their Brother had told them and they had recived it in their hearts &c- But how the matter will go with this tribe to me is uncirtain nether Can I at presen<t> Conclude mutch about it the wether is mutch is quite severe and the snow is Considerable deep which makes it at present quite dificcult traveling about I have but a short time to write to you my bloved Bretheren as the mail leves thi[s] place in morni the morning [p. 1] but I wish some of you to write <to> me immediately a full letter of all your affairs and then I will write to you the situation of all the western tribes &c thus reads most of the letter Saying to us the god of my father Jacob be with you all amen I remain in Christ your Brother forever

Oliver

My Dearly Beloved Brother Hyrum

I <have> had much Concirn about you but I always remember you in your <my> prayers Calling upon god to keep <you> Safe in spite <of> men or devils I think <you> had better Come into this Country immediately for the Lord has Commanded us that we should Call the Elders of this Chursh to gether unto this plase as soon as possable

March forth this morning after being Colled out of my bed in the night to go a small distance I went and had and an awful strugle with satan <but> being armed with the power of god he was cast out and the woman is Clothed in hir right mind the Lord worketh wonders in this land

I want to see you all may the grace of God be and abide with you all even so Amen

your Brother forever
Joseph Smith Jr

PS if you want to to write to Oliver direct your letter direct your to independence Jackson County misouri [p. 2]Harrison and O[r]son prat420 arrived here on Feb 27th they left our folks well David Jackways421 has threatened to take father with a supreme writ in the spring you had <beter> Come to fayette and take father along with you Come in a one horse wagon if if you Can do not Come threw Bufalo for th[e]y will lie in wait for you God protect you I am

Joseph [p. 3]

Mr. Hyram Smith

Harpers Vill B<r>oom Co. N. Y.

Kirtland Mills. O

3 March 25