Stranger Provides $500 in Gold to Joseph Smith for Purchase of Mr. White's Farm at Commerce (Nauvoo), 1839

In 1839, when Joseph Smith and other brethren were attempting to buy Mr. White’s farm in Commerce (later Nauvoo) for $2,500 with $500 down, the group despaired because they lacked the required down payment. According to the accounts, Joseph emptied his purse and gave each of the brethren a half dollar, leaving himself with nothing, and told Bishop Knight to go complete the purchase. He declared, “Now you all have money, and I have none; but the time will come when I will have money and you will have none!”

The next morning, as the papers were being signed at Mr. White’s table, an unnamed stranger drove up in a carriage and asked for Joseph Smith. The man said he was "on a speculation" and wanted to buy land; when he could not inspect land that day he asked if Joseph needed money. Joseph asked for $500. The stranger walked in, emptied a small sack of gold on the table and counted out $500. One report adds that the stranger then gave Joseph an additional $100 (some summaries have characterized the gift as $600 total). The incident is reported in Benjamin F. Johnson’s recollection, is recounted in Hyrum L. Andrus and Helen Mae Andrus’s They Knew the Prophet (1974), and is summarized by the Joseph Smith Foundation.