A Documentary Note on a Letter to Joseph Smith. Romance, Death, and Polygamy: The Life and Times of Susan Hough Conrad and Lorenzo Dow Barnes

In the final year of Joseph Smith's life, he engaged in frequent correspondence with political leaders, Church officers, family members, and others. Here, Smith explores a letter written to Joseph Smith from a Mormon missionary and presiding elder named Jedediah Morgan Grant, headquartered in Philadelphia PA. Written in August 1843, the letter concerns, among other things, a young female Latter-day Saint then living with her mother and sisters in Philadelphia. The letter is remarkable for several reasons, notably the veiled glimpse it provides into Joseph Smith's practice of polygamy.