Apr 27, 2017 - Sale 2444

Sale 2444 - Lot 212

Price Realized: $ 23,750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,500 - $ 3,500
(MORMONS.) Smith, Joseph. A pair of legal documents signed by Joseph Smith in cases against the Nauvoo postmaster. Documents Signed as Mayor and Justice of the Peace. Each one page, 5 1/4 x 7 3/4 inches or more, docketed on verso; minimal wear. (MRS) Nauvoo, IL, 1 December 1842

Additional Details

Amos Davis was a postmaster and general store owner in Commerce, IL before the arrival of the Saints, but joined the church and was baptized in 1840. In the first of these documents Smith orders that Davis pay a $25 debt plus $7.50 in fees on a recent judgment in favor of Ira Miller. The other is a signed complaint by William C. Walker against the same Amos Davis "for assault & battery at the house of said Davis on the 1st day of December 1842, also for violating the ordinances of the city of Nauvoo." It is endorsed with Smith's signature as mayor, witnessing Walker's oath.
Joseph Smith's manuscript history notes for the preceding day: "Had Amos Davis brought before the Municipal Court for slander, but in consequence of the informality of the writ drawn by Esqre. Wells, I was nonsuited" (see the Joseph Smith Papers). A related subpoena of the same date from this case appeared at auction in 1979. What exactly triggered Smith's legal assault on Davis for this day is unknown. Provenance: sold by the Carnegie Book Shop to the consignor, 18 November 1964.