No Man Knows My History (Arkosh History)

by Fawn M. Brodie

To pay for the vast acreages he had contracted to buy, the prophet devised an ingenious system of land exchange. New converts in the East were advised to turn over their property to the church through his agents, Isaac Galland and William Smith (who had once more been forgiven and reinstated as an apostle). These agents in return gave orders on land in and about Nauvoo. The Eastern property was then either sold outright or transferred to the Hotchkiss syndicate in payment on the $53,000 debt. The system had a bad defect in the high interest rate on the loans, which on the Hotchkiss purchase amounted to $6,000 in two years. To meet the interest Joseph had to make considerable profit on the land he sold to his own people.