1.2.31

See images of the original document at josephsmithpapers.org.

September 15, 1843 • Friday • Second of Two Entries

¹Minuts of the

Thirteenth Meeting of the Society

August [September] 15²

Meeting commenced with singing prayer by Sister [Elizabeth Ann] Whitney

The following persons receivd into the Society to wit

Juliet Balis [Bayles]	Christiana Riser
Cynthia Weston	Sarah Meecum [Mecam]
Mary Devenport [Davenport]	Alvira Meecum [Elvira Mecham]
Mary Pugh	Elisa Alvera Alred [Eliza Elvira Allred]

The minuets of the last meeting read Sister Whitney spoke verry feelingly to the Society upon the necessity of being united in faith that sickness may be turnd aside lives prolonged desird the Society to pray for Siste[r] Emma Sister Joshua [Sarah] Smith said she had visited the sick found them better but had carried them tonicks and pills 3^$ worth spoke of her inabilaty to visit the[m] as She had done as her strength was failing said that Sister [Elizabeth] Jones had to[o] hard a task desird some one would take the young man who was sick on her hands Br Willcox family was represented as extreme〈ly〉 poor Sister Pack proposed that Sis [Mary] Woolley & Siste[r] Geene [Esther Gheen] be added to th[e] Committee to look after the poor also that the 1^♢ 2^d 3^d & 4^th ward be join’d as one and all meet togather which was carried—

Donations		$
Sarah Meeks	sundry articles	1	00
Sister [Lucy] Hatfield	to3 flowr	00	90
Sister Price	sundry articles	00	50
Sis Lyons	sundries	00	50
Br Heaps [Thomas Heap]	1 pint wine	00	25
Sister Ivins	flour	00	50
Sister Smith for keeping Sister Nickeson two weeks		3	00

[p. [120]]

It was proposd that the comittee go forwa[r]d and do all the good they can

A union of feeling prevaild in behalf of the poor and afflicted

Donations	$
To Sundries given by Br felshaw [William Felshaw] for poor	00	50
Sundry articles by Sis [Susanna] Yocum	2	00
To Sundry articles & attendance on Sister [Elizabeth] Dobson	2	25
To attendance on Sister [Phebe] Emmet	1	25
To sundry articles persons names unknown	00	75

Meeting ajournd

Prayer by Siste[r] J Smithe [Sarah Smith]

Notes

1. text: Unidentified handwriting ends; Phebe M. Wheeler begins.

2. As indicated here, the record book gives the date of this meeting as August 15 and describes it as the thirteenth meeting of the society. However, both the date and the meeting number are very likely scribal errors, as this meeting appears to be the same meeting described in the immediately preceding entry dated September 15 and called the twelfth meeting. The minutes for the September 15 meeting, recorded by an unidentified scribe, and for this “August 15” meeting, recorded by Phebe Wheeler, contain the same contents, including the speakers and the eight women admitted as members of the society, except that the minutes for the preceding September 15 entry end abruptly and appear incomplete. Given the placement of this entry in the record book, the correct date for this meeting appears to be September 15, rather than August 15. Two other factors make it highly unlikely that the meeting being described could have occurred on August 15 or even any time in August: first, the seventh meeting of the society was held August 13, making it improbable that there was another meeting held two days later; and second, this meeting records a vote in favor of recombining the four wards into one for Relief Society meetings, a vote that almost certainly did not occur in August, because the minutes of two early September meetings show the society still meeting separately in wards.

3. text: Possibly “10”.