-- October 2, 1842
Bathsheba Smith wrote to her missionary husband about their three-month-old son: "George Albert was sick last saterday and sunday. He had quite a feavor. I was vary uneaseey about him . . . I took him to the fount and had him baptised and sinse then he has not had any feavor. He is about well now." [Bathsheba B. Smith, Letter to George A. Smith, October 2, 1842] (1)
-- October 5, 1842
Joseph Smith Diary, "Sister E[mma]. is worse, many fears are entertained that she will not recover. She was baptised twice in the river which evidently did her much good." (1)
-- Oct 24, 1842
[Nauvoo Temple] Carpenters began laying the temporary floor over the font in the basement. (2)
-- Oct 28, 1842
[Nauvoo Temple] Workmen finished laying joists and the temporary floor over the basement and its enclosed font, and then they set up benches for the Saints to sit on. (2)
-- Nov 1, 1842
Joseph Smith baptizes Emma Smith for her health - "to the temple [the font being the only part completed] for the benefit of her health" (3)
-- December 1842
Horace S Eldredge cut holes in the frozen river seven mornings in a row for the purpose of baptizing John Bills for rheumatism and bleeding lungs (3)
-- December 17, 1842
Edison Wipple writes "there have been hundreds baptized in the font and in the river for their health and in every case it has proved useful." [Edson Whipple, Letter to Philadelphia, December 17, 1842, Nauvoo] (1)
-- ca. 1843
Apostate Oliver Olney wrote "it has been a caution to see the river foam with [Mormons] on Sundays aftermeeting in warmpleasant days." [Oliver H. Olney, The Absurdities of Mormonism Portrayed (ca. 1843)] (1)
-- Feb 28, 1843
Jacob Scott writes, "Nearly All the Church have been Baptized again, for the Remission of their Sins, since they joined the Church, I have also by the hands of Br. Joseph (as he himself has been,) & I would advise Jan and you Mary, to attend to it as soon as you can have the opportunity of an Elder or Priest of the Church to administer it." (3)
-- May 11, 1843
Journal of Joseph Smith on 11 May 1843, "6 AM baptized [blank spaces] Sisters Snow, Louisa Bemen, Sarah Alley &c." These rebaptisms could have been associated with plural marriages. Eliza R Snow had become Joseph Smiths plural wife on 29 June 1842, Louisa Beaman on 5 April 1841 and Sarah Alley had been sealed as a plural wife to Joseph B Noble on 5 April 1843. The blank space and &c of this 11 May 1843 entry in Joseph Smith's journal may be explained by the affirmations of Emily and Eliza Partridge that they were sealed to Joseph Smith as plural wives on this date in the presence of his wife Emma. (3)
Footnotes:
1 - Stapley, Jonathan & Wright, Kristine, '"They Shall Be Made Whole": A History of Baptism for Health,' Journal of Mormon History, Fall 2008
2 - Brown, Lisle (compiler), Chronology of the Construction, Destruction and Reconstruction of the Nauvoo Temple
3 - Quinn, D. Michael, "The Practice of Rebaptism at Nauvoo," BYU Studies (1978), 18:2:226
LDS History Chronology: Unconventional Baptisms
Mormon History Timeline: Forms of Rebaptism in LDS History
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
