|
Share the article on
this page with a friend.
Click
here.
|
|
| 
The
Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt — Revised and Enhanced Edition
Edited by Scot Facer Proctor and Maurine Jensen Proctor
Chapter 21,
Part 1
Remove
to Missouri — National anniversary at Far West —
Corner stone of a temple — Insurrections — Defense — Attack
on De Witt, Carroll County — Mob chaplain — Surrender and flight
of the citizens of De Witt — Action of the governor — General
defense.
April
1838–October 31, 1838
In April, 1838, I took leave of New
York, and, with a small colony, emigrated once more to Missouri.
We settled in Caldwell
County in May. Here I again commenced
anew; built a house and made a farm. I also devoted much of
my time to the ministry; I visited many different neighborhoods,
and was everywhere received with hospitality, and listened to
with interest and attention.
On the 4th of July, 1838, thousands of the
citizens who belonged to the Church of the Saints assembled
at the City of Far West, the county seat
of Caldwell, in order
to celebrate our nation’s birth. We erected a tall standard,
on which was hoisted our national colors, the stars and stripes,
and the bold eagle of American liberty. Under its waving folds
we laid the corner stone of a Temple of God, and dedicated the land and ourselves and families to Him who had
preserved us in all our troubles. [1]
An address was then delivered by S.
Rigdon, in which was portrayed in lively colors the oppression
which we had suffered at the hands of our enemies. [2] We then and there declared our constitutional
rights as American citizens, and manifested our determination
to resist, with our utmost endeavors from that time forth, all
oppression, and to maintain our rights and our freedom, according
to the holy principles of liberty, as guaranteed to every person
by the Constitution and laws of our country.
This declaration was received with
shouts of hosannah to God and the Lamb, and with many long cheers
by the assembled thousands, who were determined to yield their
rights no more, unless compelled by superior power.[3]
Soon after these things the war clouds
began again to lower with dark and threatening aspect. Those who
had combined against the laws in the adjoining counties, had long
watched our increasing power and prosperity with jealousy, and
with greedy and avaricious eyes. It was a common boast that, as
soon as we had completed our extensive improvements, and made
a plentiful crop, they would drive us from the State, and once
more enrich themselves with the spoils.
Accordingly, at an election held in Davies County, a portion of
these bandits undertook to prevent the members of the Church of
the Saints from voting — forcing them from the poll box, and threatening
to kill whoever should attempt to vote. As some voters were attacked
they defended themselves, knocked down several of their opponents,
gained the victory, and cast in their votes. [4]
This was a pretext for a general rising of the insurrectionists
in all the adjoining counties. They were alarmed for fear the
“Mormons,” as they called them, should become so formidable
as to maintain their rights and liberties, insomuch that they
could no more drive and plunder them. Public meetings were held
in Carroll, Saline, and other counties; in which resolutions were
passed and published, openly declaring the treasonable and murderous
intention of driving the citizens belonging to the Church from
their counties, and, if possible, from the State. [5]
Resolutions to this effect were published in the journals of Upper
Missouri, and this without a single remark of disapprobation.
Nay, more: this murderous gang, when assembled in arms and painted
like Indian warriors, and when openly committing murder, robbery,
house burning, and every crime known to the laws, were denominated
citizens, whites, etc., in most of the journals of the State.
While those who stood firm to the laws of the land, and only defended
themselves, and their homes and country, were denominated “Mormons,”
in contradistinction to the appellation of “citizens,”
“whites,” etc., as if we had been some savage tribe, or
some colored race of foreigners.
In pursuance of the resolutions thus passed and published, a formidable
banditti were soon assembled under arms, to the amount of several
hundred, and rendezvoused in Davies
County. Here they commenced firing upon
our citizens, plundering, and taking peaceable citizens prisoners.
The people of the Church made no resistance, except to assemble
on their own ground for defense. They also made oath before the
District Judge, Austin A. King, to the above outrages.
One thousand men were then ordered into service, under the command
of Major-General Atchison, and Brigadier-Generals
Parks and Doniphan. These marched to
Davies County
and remained in service thirty days. But, judging from the result,
they had no intention of coming in contact with the mob, but only
to make a show of defending one neighborhood, while the
mob were allowed to attack another. The gang now withdrew
from Davies County and proceeded to De Witt, Carroll County. Here they laid siege for several
days, and subsisted by plunder and robbery, watching every opportunity
to fire upon our citizens.
At this time they had one or more pieces of artillery, in addition
to small arms and ammunition in abundance. A Presbyterian priest,
“Rev.” Sashel Woods, served as chaplain to the gang, and
said prayers in the camp evening and morning. They succeeded in
killing a number of citizens in and about De Witt. They also turned
a gentleman, named Smith Humphrey, and his wife and children out
of doors, when sick, and setting fire to the house, burned it
to ashes before their eyes. At length they succeeded in driving
every citizen from the place, at the sacrifice of everything which
they could not take with them.
This happened during a cold, stormy time in October; and, as many
of the citizens were sickly, and robbed of shelter and everything
comfortable, they came near perishing. Some of them, in fact,
did perish before they arrived in Caldwell, a distance of sixty miles. Here the survivors
were hospitably taken in by their brethren. The militia, under
General Parks, made some show of trying to prevent these outrages;
but all in vain. At length the General informed the citizens that
his forces were so small, and many of them so much in favor of
the insurrectionists, that it was useless to look any longer to
them for protection.
Several messages were also sent to the Governor, Lilburn W. Boggs,
the old mob-leader, [6] imploring protection. But he
was utterly deaf to everything which called for the protection
of the “Mormons,” as he called us. But, on the contrary,
he harkened to the insinuations of the mob which were without
shadow of foundation. At one time he called out an army, and put
himself at their head to march against the “Mormons.” But,
as he approached the upper country with this formidable force
of several thousand men, he was officially notified that the “Mormons”
were not in a state of insurrection, but were the victims of those
who were so, and that they needed his help.
His Excellency then disbanded his forces, and returned to Jefferson City, to await till the mobs should compel the “Mormons”
to some act which might be considered illegal, which would give
him some pretext for driving them from the State.
After the evacuation of De Witt, when our citizens were officially
notified that they must protect themselves, and expect no more
protection from any department of the State Government, they assembled
in Far West to the number of one thousand men, or thereabout,
and resolved to defend their rights to the last. A call was made
upon every person who could bear arms to come forward in defense
of our houses, homes, wives and children, and the cause of our
country and our God. In the meantime the bandits, elated with
success and emboldened by the negligence of every department of
the State Government, were increasing in numbers daily. They were
concentrating in Davies County,
with artillery and military stores, with open threats that they
would now drive the citizens from Davies and Caldwell
Counties. [7]
In their marauding expeditions they took a
number of citizens prisoners. Among these was Mr. Amasa Lyman, [8] a minister of the gospel, and
an excellent citizen of Caldwell County. They kept him prisoner for
a number of days, while his family were in suspense and knew
not his fate. They abused him in various ways, and held frequent
consultations to kill him; but at length he was set at liberty.
The people of Davies County assembled
several hundred men for defense. Several parties of the banditti
were met, disarmed and dispersed. A detachment under Colonel
D. W. Patten, [9] marched against their main body with
a posse of about one hundred men, met and dispersed them,
with the loss of their artillery and some military stores. Another
party were dispersed and disarmed by the Sheriff of Caldwell
County and his posse, as they were on the march through
that county to reinforce the banditti of Davies.
While these transactions were going forward,
small parties of the enemy were busily engaged among the settlements,
in plundering and burning houses; driving women and children
from their homes to perish with hunger and cold, and robbing
them of beds, bedding, furniture, wearing apparel, etc., etc.
Hundreds were thus compelled to flee to the cities and strongholds.
Many women and children came in at the dead hours of the night,
and in the midst of dreadful storms of rain and snow, in which
they came near perishing. [10]
While these things were transpiring in Davies,
Caldwell was threatened
from every quarter. Her citizens were driven from her frontiers,
and came pouring into the town of Far West, from day to day,
with women, children, goods, provisions, etc.; in short, with
everything moveable which they had time to bring. Lands and
crops were abandoned to the enemy. The citizens were under arms
from day to day, and a strict military guard was maintained
every night. Men slept in their clothes, with arms by their
sides, and ready to muster at a given signal at any hour of
the night.
During this state of alarm guns were fired
and the signal drum beat in the middle of a dark and gloomy
night of October. The citizens came running together with arms
in hand. An express had arrived from the south part of the county,
stating that a party of the enemy were plundering houses, carrying
off prisoners, killing cattle, and ordering families out of
their houses, on pain of having them burned over their heads.
A portion of the militia, under Captain Durphy, went with a
deputy sheriff to the scene of the riot. I was one of the posse,
the whole consisting of about sixty men.
This company was soon under way, having to
ride through extensive prairies a distance of some twelve miles.
The night was dark, the distant plains far and wide were illuminated
by blazing fires, immense columns of smoke were seen rising
in awful majesty, as if the world was on fire. This scene of
grandeur can only be comprehended by those acquainted with scenes
of prairie burning; as the fire sweeps over millions of acres
of dry grass in the fall season, and leaves a smooth, black
surface divested of all vegetation.
The thousand meteors, blazing in the distance
like the camp-fires of some war host, threw a fitful gleam of
light upon the distant sky, which many might have mistaken for
the Aurora Borealis. This scene, added to the silence of midnight,
the rumbling sound of the tramping steeds over the hard and
dried surface of the plain, the clanking of swords in their
scabbards, the occasional gleam of bright armor in the flickering
firelight, the gloom of surrounding darkness, and the unknown
destiny of the expedition, or even of the people who sent it
forth; all combined to impress the mind with deep and solemn
thoughts, and to throw a romantic vision over the imagination,
which is not often experienced, except in the poet’s dreams,
or in the wild imagery of sleeping fancy.
Chapter 21 to be continued next
week.
Notes
[2] A month earlier Sidney Rigdon delivered what was
afterward called his “Salt Sermon” because he had taken as his
text: “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost
its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good
for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot
of men” [Matthew 5:13]. “The doctrine of the text the speaker
applied to the dissenting brethren and intimated that the ‘trodden
under foot of men’ should be literal, much to the scandalizing
of the church, since the dissenters made capital of it to prejudice
the minds of the non-‘Mormons’ of the surrounding counties.”
Brother Rigdon built the text of his July 4, 1838, talk upon
this saying: “Better, far better to sleep with the dead,
than be oppressed among the living.” He went on to give
a warning to all: “We take God and all the holy angels to witness,
this day, that we warn all men, in the name of Jesus Christ,
to come on us no more for ever, for from this hour we will bear
it no more; our rights shall no more be trampled on with impunity;
the man, or the set of men who attempt it, do it at the expense
of their lives. And that mob that comes on us to disturb us,
it shall be between us and them a war of extermination; for
we will follow them until the last drop of their blood is spilled;
or else they will have to exterminate us, for we will carry
the seat of war to their own houses and their own families,
and one party or the other shall be utterly destroyed. Remember
it then, all men. We will never be the aggressors, we will infringe
on the rights of no people, but shall stand for our own until
death ... We this day, then, proclaim ourselves free with a
purpose and determination that never can be broken, No, never!
No, never! No, never!” (Roberts, Comprehensive History
of the Church, 1:438, 440–41).
[3] Thousands
gathered upon the prairies of this frontier town in a sparsely
settled area of Missouri, cheering and
shouting about their rights as American citizens and decrying
the Missouri militia and mobs. To an outside observer,
the assembly may have seemed like a gathering for war. Less
than three months later, a militia of over three thousand soldiers
arrived to put down this supposed rebellion.
[5] During this tumultuous time, Parley and Mary Ann
Pratt’s first child, Nathan, was born in Caldwell
County, Missouri, on August 31, 1838.
[6] Lilburn
W. Boggs, a landowner in Jackson County, Missouri, was heavily
involved in meetings that formed a secret constitution in 1833
to drive the Saints from their homes and lands in Jackson County. The Saints found it repulsive
that Boggs, who actively led efforts to expel the Saints, had
been elected governor of the state.
[9] David Wyman
Patten, born November 14, 1799, was at this time the senior
member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Though Thomas B.
Marsh, designated by age as the first member of that quorum,
was not excommunicated until March 17, 1839, he was already
disaffected from the Church.
[10] Lucy Mack Smith recorded: “The people were all
driven in from the country, and there was more than an acre
of land in front of our house completely covered with beds,
lying in the open sun, where men, women, and children were compelled
to sleep in all weather. These were the last who had got into
the city, and the houses were so full that there was no room
for them. It was enough to make the heart ache to see children
in the open sun and wind, sick with colds and very hungry, crying
around their mothers for food and their parents destitute of
the means of making them comfortable, while their houses, which
lay a short distance from the city, were pillaged of everything,
their fields thrown open for the horses belonging to the mob
to lay waste and destroy, and their fat cattle shot down and
turning to carrion before their eyes, while a strong guard,
which was set over us for the purpose, prevented us from making
use of a particle of the stock that was killed on every side
of us” (Smith, Revised and Enhanced History of Joseph Smith,
408–9).
Click
here to sign up for Meridian's FREE email updates.
© 2007 Meridian
Magazine. All Rights Reserved.
|
|
| About
the Author: |
Scot Facer Proctor and Maurine Jensen
Proctor are the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Meridian Magazine.
They live in the Washington, D.C. Metro area. |
| Article
Archive: |
|
|
| What
do you think? |
| |
Format
for Print
Click Here |
|
|
|
