Gerrit J. Dirkmaat
Author of Joseph Smith Papers: Documents: February 1833 - March 1834
About the Author
Works by Gerrit J. Dirkmaat
From Darkness Unto Light: Joseph Smith's Translation and Publication of the Book of Mormon (2015) — Author — 20 copies
The Joseph Smith Papers Documents, Volume 8: February-November 1841 (2019) — Editor — 14 copies, 1 review
Associated Works
The Council of Fifty: What the Records Reveal about Mormon History (2017) — Contributor — 21 copies, 1 review
Foundations of the Restoration: 45th Annual Brigham Young University Sidney B. Sperry Symposium (2016) — Contributor — 16 copies
Producing Ancient Scripture: Joseph Smith's Translation Projects in the Development of Mormon Christianity (2020) — Contributor — 12 copies
Business and Religion: The Intersection of Faith and Finance [2018 Church History Symposium] (2019) — Contributor — 4 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Dirkmaat, Gerrit John
- Birthdate
- 1978-10-31
- Gender
- male
- Places of residence
- Layton, Utah, USA
- Education
- University of Colorado, Boulder (PhD|History|2010)
- Occupations
- historian
Professor of Church History and Doctrine - Organizations
- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Brigham Young University
Diplomatic History (senior assistant editor)
Joseph Smith Papers Project
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Statistics
- Works
- 10
- Also by
- 14
- Members
- 70
- Popularity
- #248,179
- Rating
- 4.8
- Reviews
- 1
- ISBNs
- 9
During this time, Nauvoo was growing, with revelations having just been received about building the temple and the Nauvoo House, and the Saints were being gathered. Some of the important documents included relate to the Nauvoo City Council and Nauvoo Legion, land and financial transactions, Orson Hyde’s trip to Jerusalem, three revelations, and fifteen sermons given by Joseph Smith. The following are some examples.
There were weekly educational meetings held, referred to as the Nauvoo lyceum, where Joseph Smith and others spoke, with two to three speakers and debate during each meeting. William P. McIntire took notes at some of these, including a talk given by Joseph Smith on February 9:
The Nauvoo City Council, based on the bad experiences they had in Missouri, passed a religious freedom ordinance on March 1 declaring:
Thomas Cooke Sharp was the editor of the Warsaw Signal. He had been friendly (or at least neutral) to Joseph Smith and the church in his writing, and had even been invited to the laying of the Nauvoo temple cornerstone. But then he became very critical, going as far as to start an anti-Mormon political party. Joseph responded with this letter:
In October 2, the Nauvoo House cornerstone was placed. Many items were sealed in it, including the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon, which Joseph apparently thought of including at the last minute, and ran home to get it. It was thought that it would be kept safe, but unfortunately it was close enough to the Mississippi River that later flooding caused significant damage.
Some observers later noted the significance of including that manuscript. Frederick Kesler wrote that he saw “the prophet Joseph Smith Hide up the manuscript of the Book of Mormon I stood nearby heard and saw what was done on that important occation.” Warren Foote later wrote, “I was standing very near the corner stone, when Joseph Smith came up with the manuscrip of the Book of Mormon, and said that he wanted to put that in there, as he had had trouble enough with it.” Another observer, John Brown, wrote that JS said the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon had been “a great deal of trouble to preserve” and that he stated, “I now deliver it up to the Lord and will not have the care of it any longer” (page 298, footnote 85).
John Laws was a nonmember politician in Philadelphia that apparently had friends and family members that had joined the church. He had written letters to newspapers defending against criticism of the church, and wrote a letter to Joseph Smith on October 18 to get more information about some allegations:
On November 16, Joseph Smith wrote a letter to John M. Bernhisel. Bernhisel was a recent convert that had asked Joseph to pick out a plot for him in Nauvoo for him to come to. He had sent a letter with money for the purchase and a book by John Lloyd Stephens called Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan. “The work recounted ‘a journey of nearly three thousand miles in the interior of Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, including visits to eight ruined cities, with full illustrations from drawings taken on the spot by Mr. [Frederick] Catherwood,’ an English artist. Stephens’s book was mentioned in a June 1841 article in the Times and Seasons, which declared that accounts like Stephens’s ‘prove beyond controversy that, on this vast continent, once flourished a mighty people’ and gave ‘more proofs of the Book of Mormon’” (page 367, footnote 447). In the letter thanking him, Joseph said, “I received your kind present by the hand of Er. [Wilford] Woodruff & feel myself under many obligations for this mark of your esteem & friendship which to me is the more interesting as it unfolds & developes many things that are of great importance to this generation & corresponds with & supports the testimony of the Book of Mormon; I have read the volumnes with the greatest interest & pleasure & must say that of all histories that have been written pertaining to the antiquities of this country it is the most correct luminous & comprihensive” (page 367).
This volume shows how things were in Nauvoo in 1841 and Joseph’s leadership of both Nauvoo and the church. The actual documents are available online at the Joseph Smith Papers website, but, as always, the annotations and other helpful information in the book make it a worthwhile purchase for those interested in the history of the church and the life of Joseph Smith.
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