The Revised and Enhanced History of Joseph Smith by His Mother
Edited by Scot Facer Proctor and Maurine Jensen Proctor
Chapter 48, Part 1
Hyrum Smith gives sworn statement of the trials, tribulations, abuses, and privations of the Saints in Missouri. Mob action at Far West, Diahman, DeWitt, and Haun’s Mill. Missouri militia marches on Far West to lay siege to the city. Joseph, Hyrum, and others are taken prisoner and marched to Independence, Richmond, and Liberty. Sufferings and privations of these leaders and the Saints in general are enumerated. Joseph and others spend six months under guard and in prison. Sufferings of the brethren in Liberty Jail. More than twelve thousand Saints are driven from Missouri. Brethren are aided in escaping.
March 1838 to April 1839
Here I shall introduce a brief history of our troubles in Missouri, given by my son Hyrum when Joseph was before the municipal court at Nauvoo, June 30, 1843, on a writ of habeas corpus:
Hyrum Smith, sworn, said that the defendant now in court is his brother, and that his name is not Joseph Smith Jr., but his name is Joseph Smith Sr. [1] and has been for more than two years past.
“I have been acquainted with him ever since he was born, which was thirty-seven years in December last, and I have not been absent from him at any one time, not even the space of six months, since his birth, to my recollection, and have been intimately acquainted with all his sayings, doings, business transactions, and movements, as much as any one man could be acquainted with any other man’s business, up to the present time, and do know that he has not committed treason against any state in the Union, by any overt act, or by levying war, or by aiding and abetting, or assisting an enemy, in any state of the Union. And that the said Joseph Smith has not committed treason in the state of Missouri, nor violated any law or rule of said state, I being personally acquainted with the transactions and doings of said Smith, whilst he resided in said state, which was for about six months in the year 1838; I being also a resident in said state, during the same period of time. And I do know that said Joseph Smith never was subject to military duty in any state, neither was he in the state of Missouri, he being exempt by the amputation or extraction of a bone from his leg, and by his having a license to preach the gospel, or being in other words, a minister of the gospel. And I do know that said Smith never bore arms as a military man, in any capacity whatever, whilst in the state of Missouri, or previous to that time; neither has he given any orders, or assumed any command in any capacity whatever.
“But I do know that whilst he was in the state of Missouri, that the people commonly called ‘Mormons,’ were threatened with violence and extermination; and on or about the first Monday in August, 1838 [2] , at the election at Gallatin, the county seat in Daviess County, the citizens who were commonly called ‘Mormons’ were forbidden to exercise the rights of franchise, and from that unhallowed circumstance an affray commenced, and a fight ensued among the citizens of that place, and from that time a mob commenced gathering in that county, threatening the extermination of the ‘Mormons.’ The said Smith, and myself, upon hearing that mobs were collecting together, and that they had also murdered two of the citizens of the same place, and would not suffer them to be buried, the said Smith and myself went over to Daviess County to learn the particulars of the affray; but upon our arrival at Diahman, we learned that none were killed, but several were wounded [3] .
“We tarried all night at Colonel Lyman Wight’s. The next morning, the weather being very warm, and having been very dry for some time previous, the springs and wells in that region were dried up. On mounting our horses to return, we rode up to Mr. Black’s, who was then an acting justice of the peace, to obtain some water for ourselves and horses. Some few of the citizens accompanied us there, and after obtaining the refreshment of water, Mr. Black was asked by said Joseph Smith if he would use his influence to see that the laws were faithfully executed and to put down mob violence, and he gave us a paper written by his own hand, stating that he would do so. He [Joseph Smith] also requested him to call together the most influential men of the county the next day, that we might have an interview with them. To this he acquiesced, and accordingly, the next day they assembled at the house of Colonel Wight and entered into a mutual covenant of peace to put down mob violence and to protect each other in the enjoyment of their rights. After this, we all parted with the best of feelings, and each man returned to his own home.
“This mutual agreement of peace, however, did not last long; for, a few days afterwards, the mob began to collect again, until several hundreds rendezvoused at Millport, a few miles distant from Diahman. They immediately commenced making aggressions upon the citizens called ‘Mormons,’ taking away their hogs and cattle, and threatening them with extermination, or utter extinction, saying that they had a cannon, and there should be no compromise only at its mouth. They frequently took men, women, and children prisoners, whipping them and lacerating their bodies with hickory withes, and tying them to trees, and depriving them of food until they were compelled to gnaw the bark from the trees to which they were bound in order to sustain life, treating them in the most cruel manner they could invent or think of, and doing everything they could to excite the indignation of the ‘Mormon’ people to rescue them, in order that they might make that a pretext for an accusation for the breach of the law, and that they might the better excite the prejudice of the populace, and thereby get aid and assistance to carry out their hellish purposes of extermination.
“Immediately on the authentication of these facts, messengers were dispatched from Far West to Austin A. King, judge of the fifth judicial district of the state of Missouri, and also to Major-General Atchison, commander-in-chief of that division, and Brigadier-General Doniphan [4] , giving them information of the existing facts and demanding immediate assistance.
“General Atchison returned with the messengers and went immediately to Diahman and from thence to Millport, and he found the facts were true as reported to him; that the citizens of that county were assembled together in a hostile attitude, to the amount of two to three hundred men, threatening the utter extermination of the ‘Mormons.’ He immediately returned to Clay County and ordered out a sufficient military force to quell the mob.
“Immediately after they were dispersed and the army returned, the mob commenced collecting again. Soon after, we again applied for military aid, when General Doniphan came out with a force of sixty armed men to Far West; but they were in such a state of insubordination, that he said he could not control them, and it was thought advisable by Colonel Hinckle, Mr. Rigdon, and others, that they should return home. General Doniphan ordered Colonel Hinckle to call out the militia of Caldwell, and defend the town against the mob, for, said he, ‘you have great reason to be alarmed,’ for, he said, Neil Gilliam, from Platte County, had come down with two hundred armed men, and had taken up their station at Hunter’s Mill, a place distant about seventeen or eighteen miles northwest of the town of Far West, and, also, that an armed force had collected again at Millport, in Daviess County, consisting of several hundred men, and that another armed force had collected at DeWitt, in Carroll County, about fifty miles southeast of Far West, where about seventy families of the ‘Mormon’ people had settled, upon the bank of the Missouri River, at a little town called DeWitt.
“Immediately, whilst he was yet talking, a messenger came in from DeWitt, stating that three or four hundred men had assembled together at that place, armed cap-a-pie [5] , and that they threatened the utter extinction of the citizens of that place if they did not leave the place immediately; and that they also surrounded the town and cut off all supplies of food, so that many of them were suffering with hunger.
“General Doniphan seemed to be very much alarmed, and appeared to be willing to do all he could to assist and to relieve the sufferings of the ‘Mormon’ people. He advised that a petition be immediately got up and sent to the governor. A petition was accordingly prepared, and a messenger immediately dispatched to the governor, [6] and another petition was sent to Judge King.
“The ‘Mormon’ people throughout the country were in a great state of alarm, and also in great distress. They saw themselves completely surrounded with armed forces on the north, and on the northwest, and on the south. Bogart, who was a Methodist preacher and who was then a captain over a militia company of fifty soldiers, but who had added to his number out of the surrounding counties about a hundred more, which made his force about one hundred and fifty strong, was stationed at Crooked Creek, sending out his scouting parties, taking men, women, and children prisoners, driving off cattle, hogs, and horses, entering into every house on Log and Long Creeks, rifling their houses of their most precious articles, such as money, bedding, and clothing, taking all their old muskets and their rifles or military implements, threatening the people with instant death if they did not deliver up all their precious things and enter into a covenant to leave the state or go into the city of Far West by the next morning, saying that they ‘calculated to drive the people into Far West, and then drive them to hell.’ Gilliam also was doing the same on the northwest side of Far West; and Sashiel Woods, a Presbyterian minister, was the leader of the mob in Daviess County; and a very noted man of the same society was the leader of the mob in Carroll County; and they were also sending out their scouting parties, robbing and pillaging houses, driving away hogs, horses, and cattle, taking men, women and children, and carrying them off, threatening their lives, and subjecting them to all manner of abuses that they could invent or think of.
“Under this state of alarm, excitement and distress, the messengers returned from the governor, and from the other authorities, bringing the fatal news that the ‘Mormons’ could have no assistance. They stated that the governor said that the ‘Mormons’ had got into a difficulty with the citizens, and they might fight it out for all what he cared. He could not render them any assistance.
“The people of DeWitt were obliged to leave their homes and go into Far West; but did not do so until many of them had starved to death for want of proper sustenance, and several died on the road there and were buried by the wayside without a coffin or a funeral ceremony. The distress, sufferings, and privations of the people cannot be expressed.
“All the scattered families of the ‘Mormon’ people, in all the counties except Daviess were driven into Far West, with but few exceptions. This only increased their distress, for many thousands who were driven there had no habitations or houses to shelter them and were huddled together, some in tents, and others under blankets, while others had no shelter from the inclemency of the weather. Nearly two months the people had been in this awful state of consternation, many of them had been killed, whilst others had been whipped until they had to swathe up their bowels to prevent them from falling out.
“About this time General Parks, who was one of the commissioned officers, came out from Richmond, Ray County, to Diahman, and I, myself, and my brother Joseph Smith went out at the same time.
“On the evening that General Parks arrived at Diahman, the wife of the late Don Carlos Smith, [7] my brother, came into Colonel Wight’s about eleven o’clock at night, bringing her two children along with her, one about two and a half years old, the other a babe in her arms. [8] She came in on foot, a distance of three miles, and waded Grand River, and the water was then about waist deep, and the snow about three inches deep. She stated that a party of the mob, a gang of ruffians, had turned her out of doors, had taken her household goods, and had burnt up her house, and she had escaped by the skin of her teeth. Her husband at that time was in Virginia [9] , and she was living alone.
“This cruel transaction excited the feelings of the people of Diahman, especially of Colonel Wight, and he asked General Parks in my hearing how long we had got to suffer such base treatment. General Parks said he did not know how long. Colonel Wight then asked him what should be done. General Parks told him he ‘should take a company of men, well armed, and go and disperse the mob wherever he should find any collected together, and take away their arms.’ Colonel Wight did so precisely, according to the orders of General Parks, and my brother, Joseph Smith, made no order about it.
“And after Colonel Wight had dispersed the mob, and put a stop to their burning houses belonging to the ‘Mormon’ people and turning women and children out of doors, which they had done up to that time, to the amount of eight or ten houses, which were consumed to ashes, after being cut short in their intended designs, the mob started up a new plan. They went to work and moved their families out of the county, and set fire to their houses, and not being able to incense the ‘Mormons’ to commit crimes, they had recourse to this stratagem — to set their houses on fire and send runners into all the counties adjacent to declare to the people, that the ‘Mormons’ had burned up their houses and destroyed their fields; and if the people would not believe them, they would tell them to go and see if what they had said was not true. Many people came to see — they saw the houses burning; and being filled with prejudice, they could not be made to believe, but that the ‘Mormons’ set them on fire; which deed was most diabolical and of the blackest kind; for indeed the ‘Mormons’ did not set them on fire nor meddle with their houses or their fields.
“And the houses that were burnt, together with the pre-emption rights, and the corn in the fields, had all been previously purchased by the ‘Mormons’ of the people, and paid for in money, and with wagons and horses, and with other property about two weeks before; but they had not taken possession of the premises. This wicked transaction was for the purpose of clandestinely exciting the minds of a prejudiced populace and the executive, that they might get an order, that they could the more easily carry out their hellish purposes in expulsion or extermination or utter extinction of the ‘Mormon’ people.
“After witnessing the distressed situation of the people in Diahman, my brother, Joseph Smith, and myself, returned back to the city of Far West and immediately dispatched a messenger with written documents to General Atchison, stating the facts as they did then exist, praying for assistance if possible, and requesting the editor of the Far West to insert the same in his newspaper, but he utterly refused to do so.
Watch for Chapter 48, Part 2 next week in Meridian.
Notes
[1] Hyrum gave this report to the court after his father, Joseph Smith Sr., had died, meaning that the Prophet, Joseph Smith Jr., who now also had a son by the name of Joseph, had then become Joseph Smith Sr., according to the custom of the time. To avoid confusion, however, in this book, throughout Hyrum’s report the “Sr.” has been dropped from Joseph’s name altogether. This sworn statement of Hyrum’s was first published in full in Times and Seasons 4 ( July 1, 1843): 246–56.
[2] It was Monday, August 6, 1838.
[3] The early Saints referred to Adam-ondi-Ahman as “Diahman.” On May 19, 1838, Joseph received a revelation that states: “Spring Hill is named by the Lord Adam-ondi-Ahman, because, said he, it is the place where Adam shall come to visit his people, or the Ancient of Days shall sit, as spoken of by Daniel the prophet” (D&C 116).
[4] Alexander William Doniphan (1808-1887) proved to be a true friend to the Saints in Missouri. He was a prominent lawyer in Liberty, Missouri, in 1833. He was elected to the Missouri state legislature in 1836, 1840, and 1854. He was instrumental in helping establish Caldwell and Daviess Counties as a refuge for the Saints. He refused to carry out his commanding officer’s order against the Mormon leaders at Far West. He later refused a general’s commission in both the Union and the Confederate armies during the Civil War. He died at Richmond, Missouri, a hero to the Saints.
[5] That is, “from head to foot.”
[6] Governor Lilburn W. Boggs had been one of the large
landowners in
[7] Agnes Coolbrith Smith was widowed on
[8] These daughters were Agnes and Sophronia.
[9] The Times and
Seasons stated that Don Carlos was on a mission in
