The United States Attorney in Illinois files a complaint to recover a debt Joseph Smith owed from the 1840 purchase of the steamship NAUVOO. The judge upholds the Illinois law that no church can legally hold more than ten acres of property, but he also rules that all the property which exceeded the allotted ten acres that Joseph held either personally or as trustee-in-trust after 1842 must be sold to pay the creditors. This includes all the other property Joseph had conveyed to Emma or the children after that time.
[Source: On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
[Original Source: Dallin H. Oaks and Joseph I. Bentley, "Joseph Smith and Legal Process: In the Wake of the Steamship Nauvoo" BYU Law Review, 1976, No. 3, pp.750-66, reprinted in BYU Studies Journal 19:167-99 (Winter 1979).]
ReplyDeleteAlso, correct date should be Aug.19th.
ReplyDeleteU.S. Atty. for Illinois was Archibald Williams. Judge was Nathaniel Pope.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archibald_Williams_(judge)
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Pope
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Drummond_(judge)
ReplyDeleteDrummond succeeded Pope who died Jan.23,1850. Error in original article.