The U.S. Government obtains a judgment against Joseph Smith for $5,184.31 in the U.S. District Court for Illinois. The debt may have been for a steamship that Joseph bought but was behind in paying for. (1)
Nauvoo, Illinois. Joseph Smith bought a horse, which he named Joe Duncan. (2)
-- Jul 12, 1842
George Miller: Left Nauvoo 12 July 1842. (3)
-- Jul 14, 1842
In a public speech Joseph Smith calls Orson Pratt's wife Sarah "A whore from her mother's breast." Sarah had accused Smith of proposing plural marriage to her while her husband Orson was away on a mission. Sarah later reported in an interview that Joseph told her, "If any woman, like me, opposed his wishes, he used to say: 'Be silent or I shall ruin your character!'" Orson Pratt writes a 'suicide' note: "I am a ruined man! My future prospects are blasted! The testimony upon both sides seems to be equal: The one in direct contradiction to the other . . . [I]f the testimonies of my wife and others are true then I have been deceived for twelve years past-my hopes are blasted and gone as it were in a moment . . . If on the other hand the other testimonies are true then my family are ruined forever. . . .My sorrows are greater than I can bear! Where I am henceforth it matters not." (1)
-- Jul 15, 1842
Thousands of Nauvoo Mormons search for Orson Pratt after discovering a suicide note. They find him distraught because Joseph Smith (according to Pratt's wife.) or John C. Bennett (according to Joseph Smith) had tried to seduce Pratt's wife Sarah. The ST. LOUIS BULLETIN publishes Martha Brotherton's account of her invitation to enter into polygamy in Nauvoo. She tells how she was privately approached by Brigham Young and asked "were it lawful and right -- could [you] accept of me for your husband and companion?" Young stated that "Brother Joseph has had a revelation from God that it is lawful and right for a man to have two wives; for as it was in the days of Abraham, so it shall be in these last days -- if you will accept of me, I will take you straight to the celestial kingdom." Brotherton reports that when she hesitated, Young left the room and returned ten minutes later with Smith. "Well, Martha," she reports the prophet as saying, "just go ahead, and do as Brigham wants y
ou to.- I know that this is lawful and right before God.- I have the keys of the kingdom, and whatever I bind on earth is bound in heaven, and whatever I loose on earth is loosed in heaven." Martha begs for time to consider the offer, then left for St. Louis, where she publishes her story. (1)
Footnotes:
1 - On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com
2 - BYU Studies Journal, volume 46, no. 4: A Chronology of the Life of Joseph Smith
3 - Cook, Lyndon W., The Revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith: A Historical and Biographical Commentary of the Doctrine and Covenants, Seventy's Mission Bookstore, Provo UT, 1985
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