No. 575: Charles Brewer, an assistant surgeon in the U.S. 10th Infantry, wrote a friend about the Mountain Meadows Massacre in this 1859 letter, acquired in an auction by the LDS Church this week."Evidence of murders too horrible to be told & perpetrated by the authority of the Church are becoming unraveled,'' Brewer wrote. Photo courtesy of Spink Shreves Galleries. The LDS Church purchased this document for $12,000. Angry content letter by Lieut. Benjamin Wingate of the 5th US Infantry, Camp Floyd, Utah Territory, March 24, 1859. He tells his friend A.L. Hardy of Lexington, Indiana, that the mail has been delayed by cold weather and deep snow. The soldiers hope Congress will send them better rations, but Wingate doubts it. Courtesy of Spink Shreeve Galleries.
Some of the early Mormon Church’s most poignant and embarrassing episodes are recounted in a trove of letters and other original documents sold at auction this week in New York.
None of the items, from the descriptions on the auction house Web site, appears to contradict history. But they do illuminate the bitter contention between Mormons and non-Mormons in Illinois, describe the grueling pioneer trek West, and show military men’s disgust over the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
Among the papers are first-person accounts of mob violence in the Midwest, the burning of the Nauvoo Temple and the ruse that entailed burying rocks rather than bodies in the caskets of murdered church founder Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, through a benefactor, bought a number of pieces in the collection, which belonged to a 97-year-old Minnesota man who died in June, leaving behind a massive collection of Americana.
The Floyd E. Risvold Collection, American Expansion & Journey West, grossed a stunning $8.2 million in a three-day auction at the Spink Shreves Galleries in New York and online.
The collection, considered perhaps the best to be offered for sale since the 1940s, had been expected to bring about $5 million.
Risvold, a colorful historian, author and collector for more than 50 years, had participated in expeditions in the West with the Coast and Geodetic Survey in the 1930s and ’40s.
No. 574: In an angry 1859 letter, Lt. Benjamin Wingate of the 5th U.S. Infantry at Camp Floyd tells a friend that if justice could be found in Utah, ?all the head devils would be hung higher than havon (heaven)? for the Mountain Meadows Massacre. The LDS Church acquired the letter in an auction this week. Photo courtesy of Spink Shreves Galleries. The LDS Church purchased this document for $35,000. An incredible group of six letters, three entirely in Johnston's hand, 1857-58, while a colonel commanding the Army of Utah; with one document signed by Johnston and by Jesse L. Reno.Courtesy of Spink Shreeve Galleries.
The 50 pieces related to Mormons and early Utah history created much of the buzz surrounding the auction, said Charles Shreves, president of the gallery. Those pieces grossed close to $650,000 for Risvold’s family and the auction house, according to a tally of the online prices paid and assuming a 15 percent auction fee.
LDS Church spokesman Scott Trotter confirmed that the Utah-based faith was acquiring documents from the auction house, but declined to say how much it spent (records show at least $150,000) or what it will do with the material.
Shreves said Friday that Mormon items, in particular, went for much higher prices than expected. He said the church’s purchases were made via a benefactor.
“Many, many of the items blew away our estimates,” he said.
While the LDS Church snagged several key documents, those going for the highest amount went to other bidders.
For instance, other bidders won an 1841 contract, signed by Joseph and Hyrum Smith, to buy a share in the steamboat Nauvoo, which went for $72,500, and an 1844 letter from Olive G. Frost, a plural wife of both Joseph Smith and Brigham Young who bears her testimony to an uncle, which sold for $60,000.
“There is so little great Mormon material on the market,” said Shreves, explaining what he called “extraordinary interest” from collectors, dealers and the church.
Among the items the church won in the auction are documents from a lawsuit brought by Joseph Smith in 1841-42; letters from a non-Mormon who lived near Nauvoo; letters from Army men about the Mountain Meadows Massacre, and letters written by Col. Albert Sidney Johnston, who commanded the Army in Utah.
Several Brigham Young University historians were not familiar enough with the collection to comment, according to a school spokesman. Historian Richard Bushman, Smith’s biographer and one of the general editors for The Joseph Smith Papers project of the LDS Church, likewise said he was unfamiliar with the documents.
Historian Will Bagley, who wrote Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows , said two letters acquired by the church buttress his contention that Young was complicit in the southern Utah massacre of Arkansas immigrants in September 1857.
The letter written by an assistant surgeon at Camp Floyd, Bagley said, indicates that even before the Army or tribal agents went to southern Utah to investigate, Mormons were telling soldiers about the massacre.
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