CHAPTER XI.
PROPHET'S RETIREMENT FROM EDITORSHIP OF "TIMES AND SEASONS"—PROGRESS OF WORK ON THE TEMPLE—DIVISION OF NAUVOO INTO TEN WARDS—WM. SMITH IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE—GOVERNOR FORD ON MISSOURI'S DEMAND FOR THE PROPHET.
Tuesday, November 15, 1842.—About home. Wrote for the Times and Seasons the following:
VALEDICTORY.
I beg leave to inform the subscribers of the Times and Seasons that it is impossible for me to fulfill the arduous duties of the editorial department any longer. The multiplicity of other business that daily devolves upon me renders it impossible for me to do justice to a paper so widely circulated as the Times and Seasons. I have appointed Elder John Taylor, who is less encumbered and fully competent to assume the responsibilities of that office, and I doubt not that he will give satisfaction to the patrons of the paper. As this number commences a new volume, it also commences his editorial career.
JOSEPH SMITH.
Elder Taylor proceeded to his duties as editor.
Elder Bradley Wilson died suddenly in his 74th year. He received the gospel in Ohio, removed his family to Missouri, and was driven to Nauvoo in 1839. He has left seven sons and thirty-nine grand-children residing in Nauvoo.
Wednesday, 16—About home. In the evening started on a journey to the counties north, in company with John D. Parker.
Thursday, 17.—There was a severe snow storm, and Elder Alpheus Harmon (who was just returning from a mission), and another man, were frozen to death on the prairie between Nauvoo and Carthage. The Mississippi was frozen over, which fulfilled my prophecy of the 5th instant.