Go Back and Buy the Farm

Description

It was May 1839, when the Prophet Joseph Smith first came to the area then called Commerce. He had heard of the large tracts of land available there since his time in Liberty Jail, and unlike some of his contemporaries who advocated scattering and not building again, Joseph was determined to build another city and gather the Saints to the Temple. Accordingly, he went to negotiate purchasing land from Mr. Hugh White. The asking price was twenty-five hundred dollars—five hundred down and the balance to be paid in one year. Philo Dibble was there and records this,

Joseph and the brethren were talking about this offer when some of them said: “We can’t buy it, for we lack the money.” Joseph took out his purse, and, emptying out its contents, offered a half dollar to one of the brethren, which he declined accepting, but Joseph urged him to take it, and then gave each of the other brethren a similar amount, which left him without any. Addressing the brethren, he then said: “Now you all have money, and I have none; but the time will come when I will have money and you will have none!” He then said to Bishop [Vinson] Knight: “You go back and buy the farm!”

Hugh White raised the price three times to twenty-eight hundred dollars, but the agreement was finally struck. Philo continues,

The bargain was closed and the obligations drawn up, but how the money was going to be raised neither Brother Knight nor the other brethren could see. The next morning Joseph and several of the brethren went down to Mr. White’s to sign the agreement and make the first payment on the land. A table was brought out with the papers upon it, and Joseph signed them, moved back from the table and sat with his head down, as if in thought for a moment. Just then a man drove up in a carriage and asked if Mr. Smith was there. Joseph hearing it, got up and went to the door. The man said, “Good morning, Mr. Smith; I am on a speculation today. I want to buy some land and thought I would come and see you.” Joseph then pointed around where his land lay, but the man said: “I can’t go with you today to see the land. Do you want any money this morning?” Joseph replied that he would like some, and when the stranger asked, “How much?” he told him “Five hundred dollars.” The man walked into the house with Joseph, emptied a small sack of gold on the table, and counted out that amount. He then handed to Joseph another hundred dollars, saying: “Mr. Smith, I make you a present of this!” After this transpired, Joseph laughed at the brethren and said: “You trusted in money; but I trusted in God. Now I have money and you have none.”

From that land purchase and those that followed, Nauvoo the Beautiful rose on the banks of the Mississippi River.

Source: https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/memories/KWJ5-25V