24 Heartbreak at Kirtland: The Move to Zion

Frederick G. Williams, the prominent and respected Church and community leader, must have felt hurt, embarrassed, sad, and resentful at the turn of events that had occurred to foment discord in Kirtland. The Lord’s prophecy that his farm would be a Church stronghold for only five years had come true! “I will not that my servant Frederick G. Williams should sell his farm, for I, the Lord, will to retain a strong hold in the land of Kirtland, for the space of five years, in the which I will not overthrow the wicked, that thereby I may save some.”¹

Leaving Ohio for Missouri meant not only giving up property and possessions but also renouncing his term as justice of the peace (he resigned his office on September 25, 1837) and a good portion of his medical practice. It meant leaving family and friends, the temple, and all that they had worked for and so generously offered to the Prophet and the Lord. But there is no evidence that he ever intended to do anything other than follow the Prophet to Zion. He sent his family first, while he remained to face the courts over the Kirtland Safety Society Anti-Banking lawsuits.

A Mishap Involving Lovina and Burr Riggs Seen in Vision

The first of his family to leave for Missouri was the eldest daughter, Lovina Susan, and her husband, Burr Riggs, who probably departed in late 1836. Lovina and Burr had been married on November 19, 1834, in Kirtland by J. C. Dowen, justice of the peace.² They purchased their first forty acres of property in Missouri on December 7, 1836, in the newly created Caldwell County, Mirabile Township (No. 11), which is where Far West would be established.³ Prior to their departure, friends had gathered at the Williams home to bid the Riggses adieu and to witness the pronouncement of blessings upon their heads under the hands of Lovina’s father. Among the guests was the Prophet Joseph Smith, who saw in vision that the couple’s wagon would overturn on the journey but that no one would be injured.

It was a general time of rejoicing for several months [after the temple dedication on March 27, 1836] among the Saints. They frequently met from house, to house, to break bred, and drink wine and administer to the poor and afflicted. We also would attend a blessing at Dr Frederick G. Williams. His eldest daughter had been lately married, and was about to leave for Missouri: he therefore blest her family previous to their leaving. He laid his hands upon each of their heads, and the scribe wrote them. The prophet Joseph was present, and had a vision of their journey, saw their wagon turn over, but no one was injured. It came to pass even as he said.⁴

Waterway Route to Missouri

Next to depart for Missouri was Rebecca, in 1837,⁵ with their three unmarried children: Joseph Swain (age eighteen, an invalid who would die in less than a year), Lucy Eliza (age sixteen), and Ezra Granger (age fourteen). The bill for the family’s travel expenses indicates that there were five persons in their party (had Lovina returned to Kirtland to accompany the family to Missouri?). It shows that they traveled primarily by boat, but also by wagon and carriage, and that the Williamses transported an estimated 3,000 pounds of freight, while W. Marks (probably William Marks) sent another 1,000 pounds along with them. The bill also indicates that the Williamses brought with them a mare and a gig (a two-wheeled, one-horse carriage), which likely provided the ground transportation for Rebecca and some of the family.

The above bill for expenses discloses that the first leg of the trip was by land to Wellsville, Ohio, a port city on the Ohio River some ninety miles southeast of Kirtland.⁷ Before the family’s departure from Kirtland, it would appear that they packed and loaded their possessions (and perhaps other things) into teamsters’ wagons and sent them off as freight. As noted, the wagons also accommodated 1,000 pounds of freight sent by W. Marks. The teamsters were paid $8.25 to transport the Williamses’ goods to Wellsville and $5.25 for the teamsters’ expenses at Wellsville. In addition, there was a separate amount of $5.00 paid to Gaylord (perhaps the proprietor of the moving company) at Wellsville, a $2.25 fee for rent (perhaps for a place for the Williamses to stay in Wellsville while awaiting the departure of their boat), and a cartage or hauling fee of $2.25, which would pay for unloading the wagons and loading the freight onto the boat. The last three amounts paid (Gaylord, rent, and cartage) are listed as “proportion,” meaning that that was the Williams family’s share of the total cost. Storage and cartage of freight for W. Marks at Wellsville came to $0.81.

The longest portion of the trip was made by riverboat, first on the Ohio River, then the Mississippi, and finally on the Missouri River. Their passage on the Ohio River portion cost $9.00 per person, for a total of $45.00. The cost of transporting 3,000 pounds of freight onboard was listed at $1.50 per hundred pounds, for a total amount of $45.00. W. Marks’s 1,000 pounds cost $15.00. The Williamses paid an additional $25.00 to transport their horse and carriage aboard the boat.

From Wellsville, the family traveled south on the east side of the Buckeye State down the Ohio River (which is the boundary between Ohio and today’s West Virginia). They may have made stops along the way as the river passed by the West Virginia towns of Bridgeport, Lubeck, and Huntington. The Ohio River then turns west and forms the southern border of three states: Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. The river took them by Portsmouth and Cincinnati, then moved on between Indiana and Kentucky. The boat evidently tied up at Louisville, Kentucky, for the bill of expenses mentions that a fee of $11.00 was “paid at Louisville for Marks.”

After Louisville, the river took them past Evansville, Indiana, and on between Illinois and Kentucky until the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. At this point, the boat traveled north up the Mississippi to St. Louis, where it discharged its passengers and freight. The family paid a cartage bill of $1.75 (W. Marks was charged $0.62) to transfer their goods to another boat, this one traveling the Missouri River; they then continued their journey west through Missouri. The passage for five passengers on the Missouri River was listed at $28.00 (three at $6.00 each and two at $5.00). They paid an additional $15.00 for transporting the horse and carriage and $0.75 per hundred pounds of freight (now estimated at a combined weight of 4,452 pounds) for a total of $35.62. One early stop that was noted on the bill was St. Charles, Missouri, where they purchased glass, listed at a cost of $2.25.

Although the bill does not specify this, it is likely that the family debarked at Lexington, Missouri, for it is the closest port town to Richmond, Missouri, some ten miles north. The travel expenses (to transport their freight) to Richmond is listed at $34.63. The travel expenses from Richmond to Far West, some twenty-five miles further north, is listed at $3.77. The discrepancy in costs suggests that perhaps some of the freight was meant for Stake President David Whitmer, who would move his home to Richmond at the end of 1837 and the beginning of 1838. Whitmer, of course, paid the initial travel bill.

Traveling by Boat

Traveling to Zion by boat, rather than by wagon, may not have always been the usual mode of transportation for the emigrating Saints, as it cost considerably more. Perhaps President Williams felt it would be safer and easier for his wife and children, especially the invalid Joseph Swain. On average, passengers traveling by boat would not face as many challenges and perils as they would on land; also the river route would be much faster, since a steamer could travel about six miles per hour, both day and night. A decade later, in 1849, for example, the steamer Hibernia set a speed record on the Ohio River when it made the trip between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh in just 46 hours and 15 minutes.⁸

Of course Williams had been a pilot on the Great Lakes and was acquainted with navigation. In addition, he had traveled this same route by steamboat in company with his fellow missionaries to the Lamanites in 1830, some six hundred miles from Cincinnati to the mouth of the Ohio River, where it joins the Mississippi.⁹ It is also possible that the Brethren saw his family’s trip by boat as an opportunity to send supplies that otherwise would be costly and time-consuming to send by ground transportation.

The bill of expenses is silent on the type of boat used by the Williams family. But we can safely assume that it was a steamboat driven by a paddlewheel. We can also assume that they traveled on a packet boat¹⁰ that carried mail, passengers, and goods on a regularly fixed route with a published schedule for departure and arrival, for it is highly unlikely that the five passengers in the Williams party (who were also transporting 4,000 pounds of freight) would have left the means and date of their travel to chance. That they traveled on a steamboat and not a flatboat or keelboat, both immensely popular on the midwestern rivers, can be adduced from the fact that half of the Williamses’ voyage was spent going upstream against the currents of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. The flatboats (which might reach sixty feet in length) could travel downstream only.¹¹ Keelboats, although able to make the return trip, were very slow against the currents; they depended on sails, cords, and especially poles in the hands of brawny men to go upstream. “Keelboats covered the 1,950 miles from Pittsburgh to New Orleans in from four to six weeks, depending on the seasonal stage of the river. The trip back took four to six months or more.”¹² “With the dawn of the nineteenth century, steam replaced brawn and breeze to rapidly accelerate the growth of inland America. Up-river trips that had taken four months were made in four weeks, later in four days.”¹³

Unlike the steamboats in the eastern United States, which distinguished between passenger and cargo boats, all steamboats on the midwestern rivers carried both passengers and goods. But the cargo was not placed in a hold. “The great bulk of packet freight was carried on the main deck, stacked in lots according to the consignee and in geographical order.”¹⁴ The typical pre–Civil War variety of steamboats were between 182 and 345 feet in length by 49½ feet in width, and could accommodate some eighty-four passengers in private staterooms. The centerpiece of the amenities for the well-to-do was the spacious grand saloon, which served as a combination dining room and drawing room with a well-stocked bar and a barbershop. “Relaxation on the long river trips consisted of sewing, gossip, snuffing, and watching the bank slide by for the women and, for the men, talk of politics, business, cards, and drinking.”¹⁵

During the 1840s and ’50s, and especially after the Civil War, steamboat interiors became increasingly ornate in the owners’ effort to dazzle and astonish the public. It had its desired effect, for the vessels were often referred to as floating palaces.

The saloon extended through the center of the boiler deck and along almost its entire length, as befitting its function as the centerpiece of the steamboat. It served as a combination dining room and drawing room decorated in the most ornamental manner. The saloon had an air of spaciousness because of its height and vaulting although it was not usually very wide. The ceiling, elaborately decorated with frescoes, rosettes, diamonds, half diamonds and pendant acorns all painted in rich colors, was supported by rows of ornate columns with their connecting carved arches. On each side of the main saloon were rows of stateroom doors opening into individual cabins. Above the stateroom doors were the windows of a clerestory. These skylight windows were usually of colored glass, often sporting a multi-colored pattern, which played a dazzling ballet as the light bounced off the glass pendants of the chandeliers on to white walls. To avoid stark-white saloon and cabin interiors, some postbellum boats used walnut or rosewood inlaid with root ash and ebony panels. Handsome upholstered and carved furniture was often complemented by a grand piano. A large silver water cooler with drinking cups chained to its sides, was generally located at the forward end. Off to the right hand side was a bar, presenting a colorful scene of sparkling glassware, liquor bottles and mirrors. In the stern of the saloon, reserved for ladies, a huge mirror appeared to double the length of the room. Furnishings and decorations in the ladies’ saloon were often more elaborate than in the men’s. The most colorful aspect of the ladies’ section was a bright flowered carpet, usually a Brussels, though sometimes a Wilton or a Turkish velvet. The furniture was generally of mahogany, rosewood or walnut, ornately carved and upholstered in rich fabrics such as brocade, velvet, and satin. Fine oil paintings of river scenes and symbolic sculptures decorated the saloons, adding color and elegance.¹⁶

Deck Accommodations

Four out of five steamboat travelers were main-deck passengers who could not afford cabins. They slept wherever they could, provided their own food, and had no toilet facilities. The number of deck passengers could reach as high as three hundred or more per steamboat.¹⁷

Only a thin layer of planking separated the cabin passengers from the deck passengers, but the miserable squalor of the main deck was a world apart from the gilt splendor of the boiler deck. Nowhere was nineteenth-century inequality between the well-to-do and the poor thrown into sharper relief than on the better western river boats on which, during the prewar years, a high percentage of deck passengers were foreign immigrants. . . . Like inanimate cargo, human freight was provided with transportation, nothing more—no bed, no food, no toilet facilities, no shelter except the deck overhead, not even deck space. Boats had no assigned capacity for deck passengers. As many were taken aboard as had money to pay to squat on the freight. ¹⁸

A contemporary guide indicated that while main-deck travel was less expensive, deck passengers would have a rough time of it; the guide also provided potential steamboat passengers with information on how to find a safe place to sleep on deck.

The traveler with little money will find deck passage suited to his pocketbook. The average deck fare is ¼ cent per mile, with rates as low as 1⁄6 cent per mile. However, deck passage may be very rough. The main deck has the boiler, fuel, and cargo.

Most steamboat captains load the cargo, including animals, on the deck first. Then the deck passengers scramble for the space that is left. Find boxes or bales marked for port farther than your own destination. These should make a good bed for your journey. With luck you will find a crate with cargo piled higher on at least one side of it. In this way, you will be sheltered from the wind and rain. If you can, avoid the boat’s guards [guardrails]. The danger of being pushed overboard is too great. There is little or no protection from the elements.¹⁹

We can only hope that some or all in the Williams party were accommodated in a stateroom. The difference between cabin and deck travel was, of course, reflected in the fares; but not knowing the season of the year they traveled or the steamboat they took (price wars were common), it is difficult to tell what the $9 price per ticket the Williams party paid would have entitled them to for the downstream portion of their trip on the Ohio River. “Downstream rates were usually about half the upstream rate.”²⁰ In addition to the difference in rate between downstream and upstream, the price also fluctuated according to the season of the year: the higher the water level, the cheaper the fare. Rates also depended on the amount of traffic on the river: less traffic, higher fare.²¹ We know that in the 1820s cabin passengers paid from $100 to $125 for the 1,400-mile, three-week trip upstream from New Orleans to Louisville. By midcentury upstream cabin fare had dropped to $12 for the same trip, which now took little more than four days. In this same period, deck fares had dropped from $8 or $10 to $3.²² Hence $9 for downstream on the Ohio River may well have secured the Williamses some cabins with berths in them. The drop in prices for steamboat travel was not limited to the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. In the east, the North River Steam Boat Company began by charging $7 per person to travel from New York to Albany in thirty-six hours. That price dropped to $5, then to $1.50, and then to nothing in a short time, as the company found it could make a profit from the spirits sold at the bar and the food eaten at dinner, even though a five-course meal cost only $0.50.²³ Similarly, the steamboats in California, which operated for less than two years, were forced to drastically drop their prices. “In the early 1850s the fare to Sacramento tumbled from thirty dollars a head to ten, to five, to one, and finally to a dime.”²⁴

Passengers, Pastimes, Perils

Herman Melville described the human cargo, including Mormons, found among the passengers on midwestern riverboats as follows:

As among Chaucer’s Canterbury pilgrims, or those oriental ones crossing the Red Sea towards Mecca in the festival month, there was no lack of variety. Natives of all sorts, and foreigners; men of business and men of pleasure; parlor men and backwoodsmen; farm-hunters and fame-hunters; heiress-hunters, gold-hunters, buffalo-hunters, bee-hunters, happiness-hunters, truth-hunters, and still keener hunters after all these hunters. Fine ladies in slippers, and moccasined squaws; Northern speculators and Eastern philosophers; English, Irish, German, Scotch, Danes; Santa Fé traders in striped blankets, and Broadway bucks in cravats of cloth of gold; fine-looking Kentucky boatmen, and Japanese-looking Mississippi cotton-planters; Quakers in full drab, and United States soldiers in full regimentals; slaves, black, mulatto, quadroon; modish young Spanish Creoles, and old-fashioned French Jews; Mormons and Papists[;] Dives and Lazarus; jesters and mourners, teetotalers and convivialists, deacons and blacklegs; hard-shell Baptists and clay-eaters; grinning negroes, and Sioux chiefs solemn as high-priests. In short, a piebald parliament, an Anacharsis Cloots congress of all kinds of that multiform pilgrim species, man.²⁵

All passengers, whether in cabins or out on the deck, faced some physical dangers as well as some challenges to morals and decorum. “The worst period for steamboat casualties was from 1830–1839 when 272 were destroyed after less than three years of travel.”²⁶ Between 1811 and 1851, the hazards included hitting snags and other sunken obstructions (which was the most common hazard of all, accounting for 57.5 percent of all disasters), exploding boilers (relatively common at 21 percent), fires (also common at 17 percent), collisions with other vessels (less common at 4.5 percent),²⁷ pirates (somewhat common through the first part of the nineteenth century),²⁸ hostile savages (somewhat common through the 1830s), drunken passengers and crewmembers (very common), swearing and brawling sailors (very common), card-shark gamblers (common), ladies of the evening (common), and, in the relatively frequent experience of Church members, to find individuals who were rude and disrespectful toward the Mormons.²⁹ In the winter it was cold; in the summertime the passengers had humid heat and mosquitoes to contend with; and always they faced the ever-present stench of hot oil, food refuse, and manure, both animal and human. James Audubon, who traveled as a cabin passenger from Louisville to St. Louis in 1843, described his vessel as “the very filthiest of all filthy old rat-traps I ever traveled in; and the fare worse.”³⁰

But river travel also provided the Williams party and other passengers with some quiet and peaceful moments on board that allowed for meditation, reading, and conversations. The slowly passing landscape also afforded some beautiful vistas for all concerned. For young Ezra, exploring every inch of the vessel must have been exciting, while watching the river traffic go by was an ever-changing adventure. He would have been intrigued by the diversity of nationalities, races, classes, and languages on board. Rebecca certainly would have had her hands full with her children: caring for the invalid eighteen-year-old Joseph; keeping a close watch over her sixteen-year-old daughter, Lucy;³¹ and reigning in the inquisitive fourteen-year-old Ezra.

Route to Missouri by Missionaries to the Lamanites

We know in general the route Frederick G. Williams took to Missouri with his fellow missionaries to the Lamanites in 1830–31. Parley P. Pratt recounts in his autobiography that they traveled by land from Kirtland west to Cleveland (home of Frederick’s parents) and Sandusky (both situated on Lake Erie), then southwest to Cincinnati, a distance of some three hundred miles. In Cincinnati they boarded a steamer bound for St. Louis but, due to ice, made it only to the confluence of the Ohio River with the Mississippi, a distance of some six hundred miles. They then walked two hundred miles to St. Louis and from there another three hundred miles to Independence. ³²

Route Taken by Zion’s Camp

We know in greater detail the route and the distances between encampments that President Williams took with Zion’s Camp in 1834.³³ On their march to Missouri, the company generally kept to the outskirts of civilization, but their proximity to towns and rivers makes it possible to reconstruct their route today. They left Kirtland on May 5 and traveled south to Streetsboro, then southwest to Wooster. From Wooster they traveled west past Mansfield and Bucyrus to Upper Sandusky, where they again headed southwest to Bellefontaine. From Bellefontaine they traveled south to Springfield, then southwest to Dayton. From Dayton they traveled west across the rest of Ohio to Richmond, Indiana.

In Indiana, Zion’s Camp continued west to Indianapolis, then slightly southwest to Greencastle, then west again to Blanford on the border with Illinois. In Illinois, they continued their journey due west past Decatur, Springfield, and Jacksonville until they reached the Mississippi River; they then traveled south to the town of Louisiana, Missouri, on the Mississippi River. In Missouri, they traveled due west, parallel to the Missouri River, past the towns of Paris, Huntsville, Prairie, and Richmond, until they arrived within five miles of Liberty on July 24, 1834. On this day a terrible cholera epidemic broke out, which quickly took several lives, including that of Algernon Sidney Gilbert, the mercantile partner of Newel K. Whitney in Kirtland. Gilbert had established and managed a similar Church-sanctioned general store and bishop’s storehouse in downtown Independence, across from the courthouse.

The Williams Land Route to Missouri

A somewhat different land route from Kirtland to Liberty was plotted by Frederick G. Williams (possibly written in 1836 for his daughter or in 1837 for his wife), whose handwritten manuscript bears the following title on the back: “Rout[e] and distances from Kirtland to Clay County MO.” A lengthier and slightly more informative title is written on the front.

A list of the names of places on the route (via

Columbus Ohio) from Kirtland, Ohio to Liberty Clay

Co Mo and distances annexed thereunto

To	Cleveland	Ohio	Miles	20
"	Wooster	"	"	53
"	Mount Vernon	"	"	42
"	Columbus	"	"	46
"	Springfield	"	"	42
"	Fairfield	"	"	14
"	Dayton	"	"	11
"	Eaton	Indiana [Ohio]	"	25
"	Richmond	"	"	15
"	Centerville	"	"	06
"	Dublin	"	"	12
"	Indianapolis	"	"	50
"	Green Castle	"	"	40
"	Clinton	Illinois [Indiana]	"	40
"	Paris	"	"	16
"	East Okaw River	"	"	36
"	Springfield	"	"	65
"	Carrolton	"	"	50
"	Beeman Ferry	Illinois River	"	12
"	Clarksville	Mississippi River	"	18
"	Salt River	(via Bowlingreen)	"	50
"	Chariton	Missouri River	"	75
"	Grand Pass	Missouri River	"	35
"	Tasbo Creek	Missouri	"	21
"	Lexington	"	"	08
"	Richmond	"	"	12
	Liberty			30
		Total		844

On the reverse side of the sheet, which shows creases indicating it had been folded three times, is the shortened title at the top and some financial notes, including names and amounts. There is also written “one day” and eight mathematical operations (multiplication and addition) randomly placed right side up and upside down, as though the sheet had been used as scrap paper.

Rout and Dist
ances from Kirt
land to Clay Co
        Mo

Wm McLellan
Recd of Carl,	8 dollar
& the interest note was	3 3d
To Bent act	1.55
Ralph Cox	12.5
Burr had tonnage note	5.5034

Route, by towns and miles, from Kirtland to Far West, by Frederick G. Williams. Courtesy Church History Library.

Williams’s route takes the traveler west from Kirtland to Cleveland (where his brother now lived in his parents’ old home), then southwest through Wooster to Columbus. From Columbus, the route turns west to Springfield, southwest through Dayton and Eaton, then northwest for a short distance across the border to Richmond, Indiana.

In Indiana, the route goes due west from Richmond to Indianapolis, slightly southwest to Greencastle, then west again through Clinton (just above Terre Haute), and across the border to Paris, Illinois. In Illinois, the route goes west from Paris to Springfield, then southwest through Carrolton to the Illinois River (Beeman ferry), and across the Mississippi River to Clarksville, Missouri.

In Missouri, the route goes west from Clarksville through Bowling Green, then over seventy-five miles west to the Missouri River in Chariton County. It then follows the Missouri River (perhaps by boat?) in a southwesterly direction past Grand Pass to Lexington. From Lexington it turns north to Richmond, then west to Liberty.

Comparing the two in a summary way, the route Zion’s Camp had taken in 1834 was due south of Kirtland and then southwest to Wooster. From Wooster the camp traveled west across the state to Upper Sandusky, then moved in a southwesterly direction to Springfield. From Springfield they proceeded west in a virtual straight line across Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, until they reached their destination.

By contrast, Williams’s plotted route began by going west to Cleveland, a similar path to the one followed by the missionaries to the Lamanites in 1830. From Cleveland, Williams’s route follows a line that goes southwest through Wooster and Columbus to Springfield and Dayton. From that point, like the route of Zion’s Camp, the Williams route turns west and follows a virtual straight line across the rest of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. Williams likely chose the road between Cleveland and Columbus not only because it was on a diagonal and therefore shorter (essentially the route I-71 takes today), but also because it was the main road and, as such, could offer the traveler any needed supplies or assistance. Zion’s Camp, on the other hand, generally avoided contact with civilization as it made its way to Missouri.

Although there is no date on the document, Williams must have prepared the route in anticipation of his family’s move to Missouri. We can assume that it was made after he became acquainted with the area during his mission to the Lamanites (1830–31) and his travels with Zion’s Camp in 1834. He likely didn’t plot the course until after the temple dedication in Kirtland in March 1836 but certainly before his daughter and son-in-law departed Kirtland for Missouri sometime in September or October 1836. In all probability, the route was prepared specifically for Lovina and Burr’s use, for the latter’s name is included on the back side of the document in reference to tonnage. William E. McLellin’s name is also included. We know that McLellin left Kirtland after August and purchased property in Illinois on November 7, 1836.³⁵ Perhaps he traveled with the Riggses part way. The fact that Williams has Liberty as the final destination, and not Far West, strengthens the belief that the route was plotted in 1836, for Far West did not become the headquarters of the Church until January 1838.

A Firm Represents Williams’s Financial Affairs

Before he left Kirtland, Frederick G. Williams placed some of his financial affairs in the hands of Henderson & Punderson, a well-known firm of druggists and grocers doing business at 137 Saint Clair Street in Cleveland.³⁶ Lewis Henderson and Ebenezer F. Punderson were not only partners but brothers-in-law. They likely became acquainted with President Williams through their common interest in medicine and perhaps even supplied some of his drugs. They were charged with the responsibility of going to court to collect some of the overdue debts owed to Williams. We know this from the Cowdery docket, which was first used by Justice Oliver Cowdery, and then transferred to his brother Justice Warren A. Cowdery when he was elected to replace Oliver. In eighteen of the thirty-seven cases involving Frederick G. Williams that appear in the Cowdery docket, Williams is represented at court by Henderson & Punderson. These cases, with Williams as the plaintiff, involved promissory notes that had not been paid; they were heard by the court, Justice Warren A. Cowdery presiding, between January 8 and January 25, 1838. Eight of these debts were owed from his medical practice and are confirmed in his account ledger.³⁷ The remaining ten may be for services Williams performed as a justice of the peace, or perhaps they were simply loans.³⁸ The officer of the law who executed the judgment in each of the above eighteen cases was constable Luke S. Johnson, one of the original Apostles in this dispensation who had been excommunicated from the Church on September 3, 1837. In summary form, the eighteen cases are as follows:³⁹

We see that the value of the promissory notes due Williams varied from $0.63 to $20.50, with the majority at $5 or less, arranged as follows: two at $1 or less, two at $2 or less, three at $3 or less, two at $4 or less, two at $5 or less, one at $6 or less, three at $7 or less, and three over $10. According to the court record, four of the notes specified that they would come due “one day after the date;” another said “three days after the date.” Most, however, either did not specify or simply stated that they were to be paid “on demand.” The total amount outstanding was $103.67, or a little over half of the $200 Williams earned (and paid taxes on) as a doctor in 1837.

The record also indicates that only four of the eighteen defendants ever repaid or paid on their debts. Ezra Carpenter paid $3 in cash to square his debt, while the remaining three paid in kind. Joseph Young paid $3 worth of books on his $20.50 debt; Alba Whittle turned over a gun on his $4.25 debt; and Zebedee Coltrin paid some $8 worth of kitchenware on his original debt of $6.69, plus court and constable fees. Appealing to the law for redress in this instance was not very successful.

The eighteen cases presented by Henderson & Punderson before Justice Cowdery by no means represent all the credit extended by President Williams. Several other promissory notes are referenced in the Cowdery docket and are found among his papers, and many more are listed in his probate file. One note was nearly three times the combined total of the eighteen small ones, and with the larger amounts, the promissory notes tended to stipulate the due date. For example Hyrum Stratton and Solomon Hicks owed $277.50 and had over a year to repay the debt.

Kirtland 29th August 1837

For value received we jointly and severally promise to pay to F G. Williams or bearer two hundred and Seventy Seven dollars and fifty cents on or before the fifteenth day of October next

Hyrum Stratton & 
Solomon [Hicks]⁴⁰

Wearing Many Hats: President Williams, Esquire Williams, Doctor Williams

We can easily imagine that Frederick was kept busy as a husband and father tending to the preparations for his family’s move to Missouri. Ohio had been Frederick’s home for the past thirty-eight years, or since he was twelve years old; it had been Rebecca’s for twenty-two years, since their marriage in 1815. Many things would have accumulated. Besides all the packing and travel arrangements and saying good-bye to friends and family—some of whom were in Cleveland (Frederick’s brother, William Wheeler Williams Jr.) and across Lake Erie in Michigan (Rebecca’s sister, Sarah Swain Clark)—he would have been busy disposing of his home and businesses, paying debts, and tying up his financial affairs.

Before the location of the narrative moves to Missouri, let us try to gain a richer appreciation of the pressure under which President Williams was living by expanding his schedule as family provider to include not only his Church-related responsibilities (as a member of the First Presidency and an officer in the Kirtland Safety Society), but also the known dates of his assignments as justice of the peace, and as doctor, each of which required some preparation and travel time, as well as the time it took to execute the tasks.

In the weeks before he resigned his commission as justice of the peace on September 25, 1837, we find a busy Esquire Williams handling many real estate transactions and other judicial responsibilities. Besides executing and certifying deeds (and serving as one of two witnesses), other duties he performed included holding court (for example August 8, 1837), performing weddings (August 16, 1837), and administering oaths of office (September 22, 1837). We should note again that the picture of his judicial life in Kirtland, though busy, is still incomplete. For example, we know of only five cases in which Williams presided in court during August and September 1837, and we know of these only because they were referenced in cases transferred to the Cowdery docket. However, there must have been dozens more that cannot be verified because of the absence of Williams’s docket.

Justice of the Peace Chronology: August 1837

August 3, 1837—Royal and Sarah Barney sold to Jason Bunnell; witnesses F. G. Williams & Friend Barney.⁴¹

August 8, 1837—Justice F. G. Williams held court and rendered his judgment on behalf of the plaintiff Matthew Allen vs. defendants Joseph Smith Jr., Oliver Cowdery, Jared Carter, Vinson Knight, Roger Orton, and Reynolds Cahoon, “being the Kirtland Steam Company,” for the sum of $23.00 debt and $1.31½ costs.⁴²

August 13, 1837—Edmund and Lana Durfee sold to William Gould; witnesses F. G. Williams and James Foster.⁴³

August 15, 1837—Reynolds and Thirza Cahoon sold to David H. Redfield; witnesses F. G. Williams and Harvey Stanley.⁴⁴

August 16, 1837—On August 8, 1837, Justice F. G. Williams held court and rendered his judgment on behalf of the plaintiff Matthew Allen vs. Kirtland Steam Company for the sum of $23.00 debt and $1.31½ costs. “On the 16th of August Oliver Granger became surety for the said J. Smith Jun and others aforesaid for the stay of execution.”⁴⁵

August 16, 1837—F. G. Williams, justice of the peace, performed the wedding of Luke Luckore to Mary Foster.⁴⁶

August 18, 1837—F. G. Williams, JP, was a witness for the plaintiff in the suit of Stephen Porter vs. defendant Edwin D. Webb for the recovery of pay for one wagon. “The parties appeared, several witnesses were sworn, the proofs and allegations were heard, and the cause deferred for decision to the 21st, at 5 o’clock P.M.”⁴⁷

August 21, 1837—Continuance of the above case. F. G. Williams, as one of the plaintiff’s fourteen witnesses was paid for one day. The amount of $4.75 was divided among the witnesses. The plaintiff did not prevail.⁴⁸

August 21, 1837—Justice F. G. Williams held court and rendered his judgment on behalf of the plaintiff in the suit of Wilmot and Stikney vs. defendant Elijah Sperry for the sum of $11.19 debt and $0.37½ costs.⁴⁹

August 24, 1837—William and Emily McDonald sold to William Gould; witnesses F. G. Williams and Artemus Millet Edmund.⁵⁰

August 24, 1837—John and Eliza A. Johnson Jr. sold to Levi Richards; witnesses F. G. Williams and Emily H. Johnson.⁵¹

August 25, 1837—Jacob and Abigail Bump sold to C. Quine Jr.; witnesses F. G. Williams and Edmund Pettingill.⁵²

August 25, 1837—Hiram and Rebecca Winters sold to Noah Packard; witnesses F. G. Williams and Thomas Burdick.⁵³

August 25, 1837—Hiram and Rebecca Winters sold to Edwin Smith; witnesses F. G. Williams and Thomas Burdick.⁵⁴

August 28, 1837—Justice F. G. Williams held court and rendered his judgment on behalf of the plaintiff Samuel H. Smith vs. defendant Simeon [Magoon] for the sum of $24.11 debt and $1.50 costs.⁵⁵

August 28, 1837—Joseph and Lucy Smith Sr. sold to Levi Richards; witnesses F. G. Williams and Samuel H. Smith.⁵⁶

Justice of the Peace Chronology: September 1837

September 4, 1837—Justice F. G. Williams held court and rendered his judgment on behalf of the plaintiff Jacob Bump vs. William Barker for the sum of $81.04 debt and $0.66 costs.⁵⁷

September 5, 1837—Roger and Clarissa Orton sold to James Randall; witnesses F. G. Williams and Benjamin Ellsworth.⁵⁸

September 14, 1837—Justice F. G. Williams likely had just begun the court proceedings, whereupon “the parties attended without process and the defendant confessed judgment in favor of the plaintiff for thirty dollars and six cents debt and cost of suit taxed at $0.12½.” The plaintiff, Van Buskirk and King vs. defendants Samuel Brannan, Samuel H. Smith, and Don C. Smith for the sum of $30.00 debt and $0.12½ costs.⁵⁹

September 15, 1837—Edmund Bosley sold to Oliver A. Crary; witnesses Oliver Cowdery and Ezra. G. Williams, Frederick’s fourteen-year-old son.⁶⁰

September 20, 1837—Jared & Lydia Carter sold to Susanna Hinckley; witnesses F. G. Williams and Cyrus Smalling.⁶¹

September 22, 1837—F. G. Williams, justice of the peace, administered the oath of office to Sylvester Smith as Kirtland town clerk, pro tempore.⁶²

September 23, 1837—O. M. and Mary Duel sold to Oliver Granger; witnesses F. G. Williams and Samuel Newcomb.⁶³

September 24, 1837—F. G. Williams, justice of the peace, issued a transcript [“by demand of the plaintiff,”] Daniel Carter, in the suit vs. defendants George W. Gee, Jared Carter, and Henry Stanely, and signed his signature. Judgment was rendered against the defendants for the sum of $66.00 debt and $0.12½ costs.⁶⁴

September 25, 1837—Justice F. G. Williams certified to a document with his signature. The document stated: “September 14, 1837 the parties attended without process and the defendant confessed judgment in favor of the plaintiff for thirty dollars and six cents debt and cost of suit taxed at $0.12½. Execution issued to B. G. Phelps constable.” To which Esquire Williams added: “Taken signed and acknowledged before me 25 Sept 1837 F G Williams JP.”⁶⁵

September 25, 1837—Oliver & Lydia Granger sold to Sedowick H. Ferrer; witnesses F. G. Williams and Sarah M. Granger.⁶⁶

September 25, 1837—Oliver and Alice Olney sold to William Aldrick; witnesses F. G. Williams and Warren A. Cowdery.⁶⁷

September 25, 1837—Blake and Assenath Baldwin sold to James Randall; witnesses F. G. Williams and M[arcellus] D. Cowdery.⁶⁸

September 25, 1837—John F. and Susan L. Boynton sold to Barshaba Willey; witnesses Samuel Brannon and D. H. Redfield.⁶⁹

September 25, 1837—William and Rosannah Marks sold to Susannah Boynton; witnesses F. G. Williams and Sophia Robinson.⁷⁰

September 25, 1837—William and Rosannah Marks sold to William Miller; witnesses F. G. Williams and Sophia Robinson.⁷¹

September 25, 1837—Joel McWethley sold to Benjamin Andrews; witnesses F. G. and Ezra G. Williams, Frederick’s fourteen-year-old son.⁷² Note: The presence of Ezra still in Kirtland on this date indicates that Rebecca left for Missouri with all her children only after September 25, 1837, which is quite late in the season. Note: Daughter Lucy Eliza Williams had served as a witness once before, on June 10, 1837.⁷³

September 25, 1837—Officially resigned his commission as justice of the peace.⁷⁴

Doctor Williams’s Medical Chronology: 
August–September 1837

Rather than intersperse the medical dates with those of Frederick’s activities as justice of the peace, I will keep them separate and only briefly summarize them in the following list:

It is evident from the above, that Doctor Williams was now requiring that his patients pay when treated and that all outstanding debts be met as soon as possible. Many payments were made on September 25, 1837, the day he resigned his commission as justice of the peace. Of course, he would have needed money to pay for the passage of his family, for 3,000 pounds of freight (by land and by river steamer), and for living expenses once they arrived in Missouri. He would have also needed money to meet his needs while still in Kirtland, to meet the expenses for his own trip to Missouri, and, of course, to begin life again in a new land.

Perhaps in preparation for Rebecca’s travel by boat, some of the payments the doctor received would have been especially welcome in kind; hence, the number of “sundries” and “goods” that appear, plus the “mended gig” (August 31, 1837). If the Williamses were going to keep the sundry goods, they would have gone as freight with Rebecca; and if all the sundry goods were to be taken by her, that would mean she did not leave until October 1 at the earliest. I have already noted that their fourteen-year-old son, Ezra Granger Williams, had served as a witness in one of his father’s deed-certifying procedures on September 25, 1837, so the late departure date for Rebecca and her children is certainly plausible.

This, of course, opens the possibility that the fifth passenger on the trip was Frederick G. Williams himself. But if that is true, why is the bill of expenses made out to Mrs. Williams? And since he was in court in Ohio on October 24 and working on the Gilbert estate with Newel K. Whitney in Ohio on October 29, that would push his travel date back to October 30. This still leaves a possibility that he traveled with his family, but that would mean that the trip by boat took them a month (which is likely due to the number of stops, transfers, and the weather conditions), for Frederick G. Williams’s first appearance as a doctor in Missouri is not until November 30, 1837.