CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Missouri Persecutions and Expulsion

During the hot summer months of 1838, relations between the Latter-day Saints and their northern Missouri neighbors continued to deteriorate rapidly. Elder Parley P. Pratt, who had arrived in Far West in May after returning from missionary service in the East, described the tense situation that existed by July 1838. He said, “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.”¹ For these and other reasons, violence erupted that eventually resulted in the expulsion of the entire Church from the state of Missouri.

[click for enlarged version] [Bitmap] [PDF] Northwest Missouri

Election Day Battle at Gallatin

In 1831 a family named Peniston had become the first white settlers in what was to become Daviess County. The next year they built a mill on the Grand River to grind flour and meal for incoming settlers. They developed the village of Millport. When the county was created in 1836, there were still fewer than a hundred settlers. The town of Gallatin was platted to serve as the county seat, and as it grew, Millport, three miles to the east, declined. The Saints poured into Adam-ondi-Ahman, some four miles north of Gallatin, in the summer of 1838. They quickly began to outnumber the Gentiles in Daviess County.

The year 1838 was an election year. The original settlers naturally wanted to elect a state legislator who was one of their own. William Peniston, a staunch foe of the Saints, was a candidate. He was afraid that with the rapid influx of Mormons, he would not win the election because most Church members supported John A. Williams. About two weeks before the election, Judge Joseph Morin of Millport advised two elders of the Church to go to the polls “prepared for an attack” by mobbers determined to prevent Mormons from voting.² The election was to be held on Monday, 6 August, in Gallatin, which was at that time merely a straggling row of “ten houses, three of which were saloons.”³

Hoping that the judge’s prediction would prove false, a number of Mormon men went unarmed to Gallatin to vote. At 11 A.M., William Peniston addressed the crowd of voters, hoping to excite them against the Mormons: “The Mormon leaders are a set of horse thieves, liars, counterfeiters, and you know they profess to heal the sick, and cast out devils, and you all know that is a lie.”⁴ Election days in the West were rarely orderly, but with Peniston’s inflammatory speech, and with some of the crowd filled with whiskey, a fight was inevitable. Dick Welding, the mob bully, punched one of the Saints and knocked him down. A fight ensued. Even though outnumbered, one of the Mormons, John L. Butler, grabbed an oak stake from a nearby woodpile and began to strike the Missourians with strength that surprised himself. The Missourians armed themselves with clapboards or anything that came to hand; during the brawl that followed, several persons on both sides were seriously hurt. Although few Mormons voted that day, Peniston still lost the election.

Distorted reports of the fight reached Church leaders in Far West the next morning. Hearing that two or three of the brethren had been killed, the First Presidency and about twenty others left immediately for Daviess County on Wednesday, 8 August. They armed themselves for protection and were joined en route by Church members from Daviess, some of whom had been attacked by the election mob. They arrived that evening at Adam-ondi-Ahman and were relieved to learn that none of the Saints had been killed.

While in that vicinity the Prophet determined that it would be wise to ride around the region with some of the other brethren to determine political conditions and to calm fear that had arisen in the county. They visited several of the old settlers in the vicinity, including Adam Black, the justice of the peace and newly-elected judge for Daviess County. Knowing that Black had participated in the anti-Mormon activities, they asked him if he would administer the law justly and if he would sign an agreement of peace. According to Joseph Smith, after Black signed an affidavit certifying that he would disassociate himself from the mob, the brethren returned to Adam-ondi-Ahman. The next day a council composed of prominent Mormons and non-Mormons “entered into a covenant of peace, to preserve each other’s rights, and stand in each other’s defense; that if men did wrong, neither party would uphold them or endeavor to screen them from justice, but deliver up all offenders to be dealt with according to law and justice.”⁵

The goodwill lasted less than twenty-four hours. On 10 August, William Peniston swore out an affidavit in Richmond, Ray County, before the circuit judge, Austin A. King, stating that Joseph Smith and Lyman Wight had organized an army of five hundred men and had threatened death to “all the old settlers and citizens of Daviess county.”⁶ Upon hearing this information, Joseph waited at home in Far West for further developments. When the sheriff learned that Joseph was willing to submit to arrest if he could be tried in Daviess County, he declined serving the writ and went to Richmond to consult with Judge King.

For about two weeks the tensions increased in Daviess and Carroll counties. Adam Black falsely claimed that 154 Mormons had threatened him with death unless he signed the agreement of peace. The Prophet responded that Black’s statement “shows him in his true light—a detestable, unprincipled mobocrat and perjured man.”⁷ Civil war appeared imminent as rumors and exaggerated stories circulated throughout Missouri and false reports of a Mormon uprising reached Governor Lilburn W. Boggs.⁸

The Stage Set for War

In September the Prophet reflected upon the deteriorating circumstances and outlined the Church’s course of action. He made the following statement:

“There is great excitement at present among the Missourians, who are seeking if possible an occasion against us. They are continually chafing us, and provoking us to anger if possible, one sign of threatening after another, but we do not fear them, for the Lord God, the Eternal Father is our God, and Jesus . . . is our strength and confidence. . . .

“. . . Their father the devil, is hourly calling upon them to be up and doing, and they, like willing and obedient children, need not the second admonition; but in the name of Jesus Christ . . . we will endure it no longer, if the great God will arm us with courage, with strength and with power, to resist them in their persecutions. We will not act on the offensive, but always on the defensive.”⁹

The next day Joseph Smith asked Major General David Atchison and Brigadier General Alexander Doniphan of the Missouri state militia for advice on how to end the hostilities in Daviess County. Both had been lawyers for the Saints during the Jackson County troubles in 1833–34 and continued friendly toward the Church. General Atchison promised he would “do all in his power to disperse the mob.”¹⁰ They advised the Prophet and Lyman Wight, who was also present, to volunteer to be tried in Daviess County. Accordingly a trial was held on 7 September just north of the county line at the home of a non-Mormon farmer. Wary of possible mob activity, Joseph Smith stationed a company of men at the county line “so as to be ready at a minute’s warning, if there should be any difficulty at the trial.”¹¹ No incriminating evidence against the two leaders was presented, but bowing to pressures, Judge King ordered them to stand trial before the circuit court and released them on five hundred dollars bond.

Unfortunately this did nothing to quell the mob spirit. Enemies of the Church, including many from other counties, prepared to attack Adam-ondi-Ahman. Lyman Wight held a colonel’s commission in the fifty-ninth regiment of the Missouri Regiment, which was directed by the state under General H. G. Parks. Lyman directed the arming of over 150 men, part of the state militia, to defend the town against the mobs. Both Mormons and mobbers sent scouts throughout the countryside, occasionally took prisoners, and generally insulted each other. Only the prudent actions of generals Atchison and Doniphan prevented violence. Late in September, General Atchison wrote to the governor: “Things are not so bad in that county [Daviess] as represented by rumor, and, in fact, from affidavits I have no doubt your Excellency has been deceived by the exaggerated statements of designing or half crazy men. I have found there is no cause of alarm on account of the Mormons; they are not to be feared; they are very much alarmed.”¹²

About this same time a committee of “old citizens” in Daviess County agreed to sell their property to the Saints. Joseph Smith immediately sent messengers to the East and South to try and raise the necessary funds, but the rapidly escalating conflict made this tentative agreement impossible to fulfill.¹³

Siege of DeWitt

During these conflicts, equally ominous events occurred between the Saints and their neighbors in DeWitt, Carroll County. A few Mormons had been welcomed earlier when they began settling in DeWitt in June 1838, but by July it was obvious to the citizens of Carroll County that the Latter-day Saints would soon outnumber them. As in Jackson, Clay, and Daviess counties, the fear of losing political control motivated the “old settlers” to believe the false reports about the “deluded Mormons” and to develop a pretext for driving them out. Three separate meetings were held in July to unify the citizens to expel the Mormons.

When approached with the ultimatum telling them to leave, George M. Hinkle, leader of the Saints and a colonel in the Missouri state militia, defiantly declared that the Saints would defend their rights to remain in DeWitt. Conditions throughout September remained at a standoff. Violence was avoided partly because many Carroll militiamen were away fighting in Daviess County during September. Late in September, the Saints at DeWitt sent a letter to Governor Lilburn W. Boggs asking for assistance in defending themselves against “a lawless mob” from Carroll and other counties, but they received no response.

Meanwhile the non-Mormon forces in DeWitt continued to increase as troops from Ray, Howard, and Clay counties arrived almost daily. The Latter-day Saints also received reinforcements and began building barricades.

The first week in October was a fearful one for the Saints because fighting broke out between the two camps. John Murdock recorded: “We were continually employed day and night guarding [the Saints]. . . . One night . . . I traveled all night from one sentinel to another to keep them to their duty.”¹⁴ The need for food and shelter became critical. The anti-Mormon forces considered this siege “a war of extermination.”¹⁵

While exploring for a new settlement, the Prophet Joseph Smith was met by a harried emissary headed for Far West to inform the brethren of the situation in DeWitt. Disappointed, the Prophet said, “I had hoped that the good sense of the majority of the people, and their respect for the Constitution, would have put down any spirit of persecution which might have been manifested in that neighborhood.”¹⁶ Changing his plans, Joseph traveled secretly on back roads to avoid enemy guards and slipped into DeWitt, where he found a few defenders opposing the large mob. The Prophet found that the Saints were experiencing systematic starvation and grievous privations.

Church leaders decided to appeal once again to the governor for assistance. They obtained affidavits from sympathetic non-Mormons about the treatment of the Saints and their dangerous situation. On 9 October they received the governor’s reply that “‘The quarrel was between the Mormons and the mob,’ and that ‘we might fight it out.’”¹⁷ This blasted whatever hopes the Saints may have still entertained for executive relief.

Under these circumstances the earliest Mormon settlers of DeWitt urged their brethren to leave in peace. The Saints, Joseph Smith included, gathered up seventy wagons and sadly abandoned DeWitt on 11 October. “That evening a woman, of the name of Jensen, who had some short time before given birth to a child, died in consequence of the exposure occasioned by the operations of the mob, and having to move before her strength would properly admit of it. She was buried in the grove, without a coffin.” The mob “continually harassed and threatened” the traveling Saints, and several more of them died from “fatigue and privation.”¹⁸

Growing Distress in Caldwell and Daviess Counties

Encouraged by their success against the Saints in DeWitt and emboldened by the noninterference of the governor, the anti-Mormon forces marched toward Daviess County to remove the Mormons from there. News that eight hundred men were advancing on Adam-ondi-Ahman and that a large force was being raised to move against Caldwell County alarmed Church leaders. General Doniphan, who was in Far West when the message was received, ordered Colonel Hinkle to muster a militia from among the local residents to protect the Saints. Since the anti-Mormons were technically also members of various other militia units, an ironic conflict of militia versus militia developed.

On the Sabbath the Prophet spoke to the Saints using as his text a saying from the Savior: “Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his brethren.” He concluded by asking volunteers to join him in the public square the next morning. A company of about one hundred men, authorized by General Doniphan as state militia from Caldwell County, left for Adam-ondi-Ahman on Monday.¹⁹

Meanwhile the opposition was at work in Daviess County. Many houses were burned, and livestock was driven off. In addition, many of the scattered families were forced to flee to Adam-ondi-Ahman for safety and shelter amid a heavy snowstorm on 17 and 18 October. Joseph Smith remembered, “My feelings were such as I cannot describe when I saw them flock into the village, almost entirely destitute of clothes, and only escaping with their lives.”²⁰

General H. G. Parks, commanding officer of the Missouri militia in Daviess County, who witnessed these events, informed General David Atchison of the worsening situation. General Atchison, commander of the militia in northern Missouri, appealed to Governor Boggs warning him that the Missourians intended to drive the Mormons from Daviess and Caldwell counties, and he strongly urged the governor to visit the scene of trouble. This was Atchison’s third futile appeal to the governor, but, as with others to follow, it was ignored. Governor Boggs never appeared willing to hear the Saints’ side of the story, even from trustworthy sources such as General Atchison, but instead he chose to believe inflammatory anti-Mormon reports.

As hostilities in Daviess County increased, General Parks authorized Lyman Wight, a colonel in the militia, to organize a force of Mormon men and use them to disperse all mobs found in Daviess County. General Parks addressed the assembled troops: “I have visited your place frequently, [and] find you to be an industrious and thriving people, willing to abide the laws of the land; and I deeply regret that you could not live in peace and enjoy the privileges of freedom.”²¹

Guerrilla warfare raged between Mormon and anti-Mormon forces for two days as both sides plundered and burned. Members of the Church considered taking from the Gentiles to be a necessity laid upon them because their own goods had been stolen. A young Mormon militia officer, Benjamin F. Johnson, said, “We were being hemmed in on all sides by our enemies and were without food. All the grain, cattle, hogs, and supplies of every kind were left in the country, or so far from home they could not be obtained except with a strong guard. So our only possible chance was to go out in foraging companies and bring in whatever we could find, without regard to ownership.”²² This matter was magnified by the non-Mormons in the court proceedings that followed the Mormon War. For their part, the anti-Mormons often set fire to their own haystacks and property and then blamed it on the Saints. Rumors soon spread to the rest of Missouri that the Mormons were either stealing or destroying all the property of their neighbors.

In Far West the Saints were warned that two notorious anti-Mormons, Cornelius Gilliam and Samuel Bogart, officers in the militia, were planning assaults on the Caldwell County settlements. Meetings were held where the Saints covenanted to defend themselves and not desert the cause. Residents of the outlying settlements were instructed to gather to Far West, and the city hastened its preparations for defense.

Tragically, two members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Thomas B. Marsh and Orson Hyde, deserted the cause of the Church on 18 October and joined with the enemy at Richmond. Marsh swore out an affidavit, which was also mostly endorsed by Hyde, stating that “the Prophet inculcates the notion, and it is believed by every true Mormon, that Smith’s prophecies are superior to the laws of the land. I have heard the Prophet say that he would yet tread down his enemies, and walk over their dead bodies; and if he was not let alone, he would be a second Mohammed to this generation.”²³ This statement further justified the actions of the anti-Mormons in their own minds.

Regarding this treachery, Joseph Smith remarked that Thomas B. Marsh “had been lifted up in pride by his exaltation to office and the revelations of heaven concerning him, until he was ready to be overthrown by the first adverse wind that should cross his track, and now he has fallen, lied and sworn falsely, and is ready to take the lives of his best friends. Let all men take warning by him, and learn that he who exalteth himself, God will abase.”²⁴ Thomas Marsh was excommunicated 17 March 1839, while Orson Hyde was relieved of his duties in the Council of the Twelve. On 4 May 1839 Orson Hyde was officially suspended from exercising the functions of his office until he met with the general conference of the Church and explained his actions.²⁵ On 27 June, after repenting and confessing his error, he was restored to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. After years of misery, Brother Marsh returned to the Church in 1857.

Battle of Crooked River

A turning point in the “Mormon War” in Missouri was the Battle of Crooked River, which took place at dawn on Thursday, 25 October 1838. A principal cause of this tragedy was the provocative actions of Captain Samuel Bogart from Jackson County, an enemy of the Saints. For days Bogart ranged the line between Caldwell and Ray counties, allegedly trying to prevent a Mormon attack. But instead of merely conducting their assigned patrols, Bogart’s men twice entered Caldwell County and attacked the homes of the Saints, ordering the members to leave the state and taking three Mormon men prisoners. “On hearing the report, Judge Elias Higbee, the first judge of the county, ordered Lieutenant Colonel Hinkle, the highest officer in command in Far West, to send out a company to disperse the mob and retake their prisoners, whom, it was reported, they intended to murder that night.”²⁶

Members of the militia had been waiting several days for a call to arms. When the drums beat at midnight calling them to the public square, seventy-five men were mobilized into two companies commanded by David W. Patten and Charles C. Rich. As dawn approached they arrived at a ford on the banks of the Crooked River, twenty miles from Far West. Patten’s patrol approached the crossing, unaware of Bogart’s concealed position along the banks of the river. Suddenly one of Bogart’s guards opened fire. Elder Patten ordered a charge, but silhouetted by the dawn, his men made good targets. In the quick, hard-fought skirmish, several men on each side were wounded. One of the wounded was Elder Patten of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The Prophet reported, “Brother Gideon Carter was shot in the head, and left dead on the ground so defaced that the brethren did not know him.”²⁷

The brethren freed the three prisoners, one of them was also wounded, drove the enemy across the river, and then turned to care for their wounded. Elder Patten was carried to the home of Stephen Winchester near Far West, where he died several hours later. He thus became the first martyred Apostle in this dispensation. His faith in the restored gospel was such that he had once expressed to the Prophet Joseph Smith the desire to die the death of a martyr. “The Prophet, greatly moved, expressed extreme sorrow, ‘for,’ said he to David, ‘when a man of your faith asks the Lord for anything, he generally gets it.’”²⁸ At his funeral in Far West two days after the battle, Joseph Smith eulogized him: “There lies a man that has done just as he said he would—he has laid down his life for his friends.”²⁹

Patrick O’Bannion also later died from his wounds. James Hendricks, another of the critically injured, was temporarily paralyzed from his waist down and had to be carried about on a stretcher. The entire responsibility for his family fell to his wife, Drusilla, who endured the additional dangers in Missouri and the arduous trek to Illinois with strength of character and deep faith.

Exaggerated accounts of the battle soon reached Governor Boggs in Jefferson City. One rumor was that Bogart’s entire force was massacred or imprisoned and that the Mormons intended to sack and burn Richmond. These reports provided Boggs with the excuse he needed to order an all-out war against the Saints.

Extermination Order and Haun’s Mill Massacre

Northern Missouri was in an uproar the last week of October as “mobs were heard of in every direction.”³⁰ The mobs burned houses and crops, rustled cattle, detained prisoners, and threatened the Saints with death. General Atchison again urged Governor Boggs to come to the area. But instead, on 27 October, he ordered his militia to war. Relying solely upon the false reports of a Mormon insurrection, Boggs asserted that the Saints had defied the laws and initiated hostilities. Therefore, he wrote, “The Mormons must be treated as enemies and must be exterminated or driven from the state, if necessary for the public good. Their outrages are beyond all description.”³¹ By this time public opinion was so strong against the Saints that even those who knew the truth would not side openly with them. Governor Boggs’s “extermination order” was an outgrowth and expression of the popular will.

General Atchison was in charge of the state troops but was dismissed by the governor prior to the surrender of Far West. The command was given to General John B. Clark. General Clark did not arrive at Far West until a few days after the surrender. General Samuel D. Lucas, a long-time anti-Mormon from Jackson County, was left in temporary command of the militia that was rapidly gathering from all sides to encircle Far West. By 31 October over two thousand men surrounded Far West, and most of them were determined to fulfill the governor’s order.

It was at Haun’s Mill that violence again erupted. This small settlement twelve miles east of Far West was founded by Jacob Haun, a convert from Green Bay, Wisconsin. He had moved to Shoal Creek in 1835, hoping to avoid the persecutions his fellow Saints were experiencing elsewhere in Missouri. Haun’s Mill consisted of a mill, a blacksmith shop, a few houses, and a population of about twenty to thirty families at the mill itself and one hundred families in the greater neighborhood. On 30 October nine wagons with immigrants from Kirtland had arrived at the site. They had decided to rest a few days before traveling to Far West.

Immediately after the battle of Crooked River, the Prophet Joseph Smith advised all Saints in outlying areas to move to Far West or Adam-ondi-Ahman. Unwilling to abandon his property, Jacob Haun disregarded the Prophet’s counsel and instructed the small community to remain. This unwise decision proved fatal. Haun’s group planned to use the blacksmith shop as a fort in the event of an enemy attack. Guards were posted to protect the mill and the settlement.

On Sunday, 28 October, Colonel Thomas Jennings of the Livingston County militia sent one of his men to the settlement to conclude a peace treaty. Both sides pledged not to attack each other. The non-Mormons, however, did not disband as promised. On Monday a group of Missourians in Livingston County decided to attack Haun’s Mill, probably intending to carry out the governor’s order. On Tuesday afternoon, 30 October, approximately 240 men approached Haun’s Mill. Joseph Young, Sr., a member of the seven presidents of Seventy and a recent arrival at Haun’s Mill, described the late afternoon setting: “The banks of Shoal creek on either side teemed with children sporting and playing, while their mothers were engaged in domestic employments, and their fathers employed in guarding the mills and other property, while others were engaged in gathering in their crops for their winter consumption. The weather was very pleasant, the sun shone clear, all was tranquil, and no one expressed any apprehension of the awful crisis that was near us—even at our doors.”³²

At about 4:00 P.M. the mob approached Haun’s Mill. The women and children fled into the woods, while the men sought protection in the blacksmith shop. David Evans, the military leader of the Saints, swung his hat and cried for peace. The sound of a hundred rifles answered him, most of them aimed at the blacksmith shop. The mobbers shot mercilessly at everyone in sight, including women, elderly men, and children. Amanda Smith seized her two little girls and ran with Mary Stedwell across the millpond on a walkway. Amanda recalled, “Yet though we were women, with tender children, in flight for our lives, the demons poured volley after volley to kill us.”³³

The rabble entered the blacksmith shop and found ten-year-old Sardius Smith, son of Amanda Smith, hiding under the blacksmith’s bellows. One ruffian put the muzzle of his gun against the boy’s skull and blew off the upper part of his head. The man later explained, “Nits will make lice, and if he had lived he would have become a Mormon.”³⁴ Alma Smith, Sardius’s seven-year-old brother, witnessed the murder of his father and brother and was himself shot in the hip. He was not discovered by the mob and was later miraculously healed through prayer and faith. Thomas McBride was hacked to death with a corn knife. Although a few men along with women and children escaped across the river into the hills, at least seventeen people were killed, and about thirteen were wounded.³⁵ Jacob Haun was among the wounded, but he recovered. Years later the Prophet remarked, “At Hauns’ Mill the brethren went contrary to my counsel; if they had not, their lives would have been spared.”³⁶

The survivors hid throughout the evening and night, fearing another attack. The next day a few able-bodied men buried the dead in a dry hole that had been dug for a well. Joseph Young had become so closely attached to young Sardius Smith during their trip from Kirtland that he broke down and could not lower the boy’s body into the common grave. Amanda and her eldest son buried Sardius the following day.

The devastated survivors left Missouri during the winter and following spring along with other Church members. The mob continued to persecute some of the widows before they left, but the Lord helped them. Amanda Smith remembered the reassurance she received from the Lord as she crept into a cornfield to pray aloud.

“It was as the temple of the Lord to me at that moment. I prayed aloud and most fervently.

“When I emerged from the corn a voice spoke to me. It was a voice as plain as I ever heard one. It was no silent, strong impression of the spirit, but a voice, repeating a verse of the Saints’ hymn:

‘That soul who on Jesus hath leaned for repose
I will not, I cannot, desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake!’

“From that moment I had no more fear. I felt that nothing could hurt me.”³⁷

Siege of Far West

Meanwhile the anti-Mormon militia forces continued to gather around Far West in preparation for an attack. The militia of Far West barricaded the city with wagons and timber, but by Wednesday, 31 October, the anti-Mormon forces outnumbered those of the Saints by five to one. Neither side was eager to begin the battle, and the day was spent in a standoff, with each side trying to decide what to do. In the evening General Lucas sent a flag of truce, which was met by Colonel Hinkle, the leading officer for the Saints. Colonel Hinkle secretly agreed to Lucas’s demands that certain leaders surrender for trial and punishment, Mormon property be confiscated to pay for damages, and the balance of the Saints surrender their arms and leave the state.

Returning to Far West, Hinkle convinced Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Lyman Wight, Parley P. Pratt, and George W. Robinson that Lucas wanted to talk to them in a peace conference. The brethren were shocked when Hinkle turned them over to Lucas as prisoners. Parley P. Pratt described this tragic scene: “The haughty general [Lucas] rode up, and, without speaking to us, instantly ordered his guard to surround us. They did so very abruptly, and we were marched into camp surrounded by thousands of savage looking beings, many of whom were dressed and painted like Indian warriors. These all set up a constant yell, like so many bloodhounds let loose upon their prey, as if they had achieved one of the most miraculous victories that ever graced the annals of the world.”³⁸

The shrieking continued throughout the night, terrorizing the citizens of Far West, who feared that their Prophet may have already been murdered. Most Saints spent the night in prayer. In the enemy camp the brethren were forced to lie on the ground in a cold rain and listen to a “constant tirade of mockery” and vulgarity from their guards. “They blasphemed God; mocked Jesus Christ; swore the most dreadful oaths; taunted brother Joseph and others; demanded miracles; wanted signs, such as: ‘Come, Mr. Smith, show us an angel.’ ‘Give us one of your revelations.’ ‘Show us a miracle.’”³⁹

In a secret and illegal court-martial held during the night, the prisoners were sentenced to be executed the next morning on the public square in Far West. When General Alexander Doniphan received the order from General Lucas, he was indignant at the brutality and injustice of the affair and replied, “It is cold-blooded murder. I will not obey your order. My brigade shall march for Liberty tomorrow morning, at 8 o’clock; and if you execute these men, I will hold you responsible before an earthly tribunal, so help me God.”⁴⁰ Intimidated by Doniphan’s courageous response, Lucas lost his nerve. The prayers of the Saints were answered.⁴¹

The same night word reached Far West that the enemy intended to arrest the remaining participants of the Battle of Crooked River. So before dawn about twenty brethren slipped out of Far West and headed northeast toward Iowa territory. Hyrum Smith and Amasa Lyman were not so fortunate. They were arrested and joined the other prisoners.

On the morning of 1 November, as George Hinkle marched the Mormon troops out of Far West, the Missouri militia entered the city. While searching for arms they vandalized the town, plundered valuable possessions, raped some of the women, and forced the leading elders at bayonet point to sign promises to pay the expenses of the militia.⁴² Many prominent men were arrested and taken as prisoners to Richmond. The rest of the Saints were told to leave the state.

Plans were made to take the Church leaders to Independence for public display and trial. Thinking they might yet be executed, Joseph Smith and his fellow prisoners begged to see their families one last time, and they returned to Far West on 2 November. Joseph found his wife and children in tears because they thought he had been shot. “When I entered my house, they clung to my garments, their eyes streaming with tears, while mingled emotions of joy and sorrow were manifested in their countenances,” he wrote. He was denied the privilege of a few private moments with them, but Emma wept and his children clung to him until “they were thrust from me by the swords of the guards.”⁴³ The other prisoners suffered similarly as they bade farewell to their loved ones.

Lucy Smith, Joseph and Hyrum’s mother, hurried to the wagon where they were kept under guard and was barely able to touch their outstretched hands before the wagon departed. After several hours of grief, she was comforted by the Spirit and blessed with the gift of prophecy: “Let your heart be comforted concerning your children, they shall not be harmed by their enemies.”⁴⁴ A similar revelation came to the Prophet Joseph Smith. The next morning as the prisoners began their march, Joseph spoke to his companions in a low, but hopeful tone. “Be of good cheer, brethren; the word of the Lord came to me last night that our lives should be given us, and that whatever we may suffer during this captivity, not one of our lives should be taken.”⁴⁵

Meanwhile, General John B. Clark, the governor’s designated commanding officer for the Mormon War, arrived in Far West. He ordered everyone to stay in the city, and the starving Saints were forced to live on parched corn. On 6 November he addressed the suffering citizens and indicated that he would not force them out of the state in the depths of winter. He said, “for this lenity you are indebted to my clemency. I do not say that you shall go now, but you must not think of staying here another season, or of putting in crops. . . . As for your leaders, do not once think—do not imagine for a moment—do not let it enter your mind that they will be delivered, or that you will see their faces again, for their fate is fixed—their die is cast—their doom is sealed.”⁴⁶

Another contingent of militia surrounded the Saints who had fled to Adam-ondi-Ahman for safety. After a three-day board of inquiry, all Mormons were ordered out of Daviess County, but permission was granted for them to go to Far West until spring.

While preparing for their exodus, the Saints again sought relief from the Missouri legislature. Although their grievances were clearly defined and considerable sympathy was shown by many members of the legislature and newspapers in Missouri, an official investigation was never launched. Instead, the legislature appropriated a meager two thousand dollars for the relief of the citizens of Caldwell County.

In Prison Bonds

Joseph Smith and a few other prisoners were taken to Independence and placed on public display. They were then transferred to Richmond, where they were chained together under guard in an old vacant house for over two weeks. In mid-November a thirteen-day trial began, presided over by circuit judge Austin A. King. The evidence was stacked against the Church leaders. Sampson Avard, the first witness, hypocritically accused the Prophet of responsibility for the wrongs of the Danites; other witnesses were equally bitter. When the prisoners submitted a list of defense witnesses, the witnesses were systematically jailed or driven from the county. Alexander Doniphan, counsel for the Saints, said that “if a cohort of angels were to come down, and declare we were innocent, it would all be the same; for he (King) had determined from the beginning to cast us into prison.”⁴⁷

For two horrible weeks, the prisoners were abused by the guards. One November night the brethren listened for several hours to “obscene jests, the horrid oaths, the dreadful blasphemies and filthy language” as the guards rehearsed the atrocities they had inflicted on the Saints. Parley P. Pratt lay next to the Prophet and listened until he could “scarcely refrain from rising . . . and rebuking the guards.” Suddenly Joseph Smith rose to his feet shackled and unarmed and spoke in a “voice of thunder”: “‘SILENCE, ye fiends of the infernal pit. In the name of Jesus Christ I rebuke you, and command you to be still; I will not live another minute and bear such language. Cease such talk, or you or I die THIS INSTANT!’

“He ceased to speak. He stood erect in terrible majesty. Chained and without a weapon; calm, unruffled and dignified as an angel, he looked upon the quailing guards, whose weapons were lowered or dropped to the ground; whose knees smote together, and who, shrinking into a corner, or crouching at his feet, begged his pardon, and remained quiet till a change of guards.”⁴⁸

At the end of the trial, Judge King bound Joseph Smith and five others over for further prosecution and ordered them placed in Liberty Jail in Clay County. Parley P. Pratt and several others were to remain confined in Richmond, and most of the other prisoners were released.

In reality the two-story, twenty-two-foot square stone jail in Liberty was a dungeon. Small, barred windows opened into the upper level, and there was little heat. A hole in the floor was the only access to the lower level, where a man could not stand upright. For four winter months the Prophet and his companions suffered from cold, filthy conditions, smoke inhalation, loneliness, and filthy food. Perhaps worst of all, they were unable to accompany the faithful Saints, who were being driven from the state. Yet these were months of special significance to Joseph Smith and the Church. In the Prophet’s absence, Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and John Taylor demonstrated superior leadership ability and commitment. In his despair, Joseph Smith received priceless spiritual instructions from the Lord. Because of the things revealed there, Liberty Jail could be called a temple-prison.

Public opinion in Missouri was turning against Governor Boggs and the mob as Joseph Smith and his colleagues languished in jail waiting for state officials to determine what to do with them. Toward the end of March 1839, the Prophet wrote a long letter to the Church, parts of which now appear as sections 121, 122, and 123 of the Doctrine and Covenants. After reviewing the wrongs perpetrated upon the Saints, the Prophet had appealed to the Lord:⁴⁹

“Oh God, where art thou? And where is the pavilion that covereth thy hiding place?

“How long shall thy hand be stayed, and thine eye, yea thy pure eye, behold from the eternal heavens the wrongs of thy people and of thy servants, and thine ear be penetrated with their cries?

“Yea, O Lord, how long shall they suffer these wrongs and unlawful oppressions, before thine heart shall be softened toward them, and thy bowels be moved with compassion toward them?” (D&C 121:1–3).

The Prophet then inserted the Lord’s response to his plea:

“My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;

“And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes.

“Thy friends do stand by thee, and they shall hail thee again with warm hearts and friendly hands” (D&C 121:7–9).

By April the prisoners in Liberty were sent to Daviess County for trial. A grand jury brought in a bill against them for “murder, treason, burglary, arson, larceny, theft, and stealing.”⁵⁰ A change of venue was obtained, but while en route to Boone County for trial, the prisoners were allowed by the sheriff and other guards to escape to Illinois because some officials had concluded that the prisoners could not be successfully prosecuted. Later in the summer Parley P. Pratt and Morris Phelps also escaped from a jail in Columbia, Boone County, and made their way to Nauvoo. King Follett, a fellow prisoner, was recaptured but finally released in October 1839, being the last of the Saints held in bond.

For the fifth time in less than ten years many of the Latter-day Saints had left their homes and began anew to build a place of refuge. Though the last several months were marred by financial disaster, bitter persecution, apostasy, and expulsion from Missouri, most Church members did not lose sight of their divine destiny.⁵¹ As Joseph said in his letter to the Saints: “As well might man stretch forth his puny arm to stop the Missouri river in its decreed course, or to turn it up stream, as to hinder the Almighty from pouring down knowledge from heaven upon the heads of the Latter-day Saints” (D&C 121:33).

Endnotes

1. Parley P. Pratt, ed., Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, Classics in Mormon Literature series (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1985), p. 150.

2. See History of the Church, 3:56.

3. In Missouri: A Guide to the “Show Me” State, rev. ed. (New York: Hastings House, 1954), p. 510.

4. In History of the Church, 3:57.

5. History of the Church, 3:60.

6. In History of the Church, 3:61.

7. History of the Church, 3:65.

8. The previous five paragraphs are derived from James B. Allen and Glen M. Leonard, The Story of the Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1976), p. 124.

9. History of the Church, 3:67–68.

10. History of the Church, 3:69.

11. History of the Church, 3:73.

12. In History of the Church, 3:85.

13. Previous three paragraphs derived from Allen and Leonard, Story of the Latter-day Saints, p. 124.

14. “Journal of John Murdock,” 1 Oct. 1838, LDS Historical Department, Salt Lake City, p. 101; spelling standardized.

15. Leland Homer Gentry, “A History of the Latter-Day Saints in Northern Missouri from 1836–1839,” Ph.D. diss., Brigham Young University, 1965, p. 201.

16. History of the Church, 3:152.

17. History of the Church, 3:157.

18. History of the Church, 3:159–60.

19. History of the Church, 3:162.

20. History of the Church, 3:163.

21. Lyman Wight, in History of the Church, 3:443–44.

22. Benjamin F. Johnson, My Life’s Review (Independence, Mo.: Zion’s Printing and Publishing Co., 1947), p. 37.

23. In History of the Church, 3:167.

24. History of the Church, 3:167.

25. See History of the Church, 3:345.

26. History of the Church, 3:169–70.

27. History of the Church, 3:171.

28. Lycurgus A. Wilson, Life of David W. Patten (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1900), p. 58.

29. In History of the Church, 3:175.

30. History of the Church, 3:175–76.

31. In History of the Church, 3:175.

32. In History of the Church, 3:184.

33. Andrew Jenson, The Historical Record, July 1886, p. 84.

34. In Jenson, Historical Record, Dec. 1888, p. 673; see also Allen and Leonard, Story of the Latter-day Saints, pp. 127–28.

35. See History of the Church, 3:326.

36. History of the Church, 5:137.

37. In Jenson, Historical Record, July 1886, p. 87.

38. Pratt, Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, pp. 159–60.

39. Pratt, Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, p. 160.

40. In History of the Church, 3:190–91.

41. Previous four paragraphs derived from Allen and Leonard, Story of the Latter-day Saints, p. 128.

42. See History of the Church, 3:192.

43. History of the Church, 3:193.

44. In Lucy Mack Smith, History of Joseph Smith, ed. Preston Nibley (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1958), p. 291.

45. In Pratt, Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, p. 164.

46. In History of the Church, 3:203.

47. History of the Church, 3:213; previous two paragraphs derived from Allen and Leonard, Story of the Latter-day Saints, p. 130.

48. Pratt, Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, pp. 179–80.

49. Previous three paragraphs derived from Allen and Leonard, Story of the Latter-day Saints, pp. 130, 132.

50. In History of the Church, 3:315.

51. Derived from Allen and Leonard, Story of the Latter-day Saints, p. 134.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Refuge in Illinois

Some people saw the flight from Missouri as evidence that the Lord had forsaken the Saints. The Prophet Joseph was in Liberty Jail with no prospect of release. Whatever hope the Saints had of regaining political rights and property in Missouri or establishing the city of Zion was dimmed. Even some Church members questioned the wisdom of gathering the Saints again into one location.

Where were the Church members to go for refuge? The vast Indian tracts to the west were not open to settlers. Iowa to the north was sparsely settled but offered little timber upon its vast, rolling plains. Going south meant traveling through hostile Missouri communities. The route east was most familiar and reassuring to Church members. Many of the Saints had traveled it only months before in exile from Kirtland. Now some of them were considering a return to Ohio. Crossing the Mississippi and pausing in some of the small Illinois communities along its bank, however, provided the respite necessary for the Saints to receive new direction from Church leaders.

[click for enlarged version] [Bitmap] [PDF] Options were limited as the Saints were driven from Missouri from the fall of 1838 into the spring of 1839. The most attractive possibility was to return east. For economic, political, and humanitarian reasons, Illinois initially welcomed the refugees.

Resettlement of the Saints

The months following the surrender of Far West severely tested the leadership of the Church. The entire First Presidency—Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, and Hyrum Smith—were in jail. The ranks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles had been thinned. David W. Patten had been killed in the Battle of Crooked River, Parley P. Pratt was in jail, and his brother Orson was with a group of Saints in St. Louis. Thomas B. Marsh, William Smith, and Orson Hyde were disaffected with the Church and consequently were of no help. Therefore the responsibility of overseeing the needs of the Church during the winter of 1838–39 and throughout the exodus from Missouri to Illinois fell mostly upon Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball. John Taylor was called to the apostleship in December 1838. Wilford Woodruff and George A. Smith were added the following April; both of these men were able to provide valuable assistance during this critical time.

Church leaders delayed as long as possible the decision to leave Missouri, hoping that the legislature would revoke Governor Boggs’s extermination order. They sent numerous petitions to state officials and to the legislature requesting them to let the Saints remain in their homes, but their pleas were ignored.

Meanwhile the Missourians grew impatient with the lingering Saints. In early 1839 Church leaders became convinced that their people could no longer hope to remain in Missouri. On 26 January, Brigham Young had created the Committee on Removal to facilitate the exodus. Throughout the winter and spring this committee arranged to feed, clothe, and transport the poor. By formal resolution nearly four hundred Latter-day Saints covenanted to place all of their available property at the disposal of the committee “for the purpose of providing means for the removing from this state of the poor and destitute who shall be considered worthy, till there shall not be one left who desires to remove from the state.”¹ Even Joseph Smith somehow sent one hundred dollars from Liberty Jail to assist the effort.

By mid-February conditions were such that a large scale migration of the Saints began. Wagons and teams, although not of the best quality, had been acquired; food reserves were in place along the migration route; and there was a temporary break in the weather. Nevertheless, leaving Missouri was not easy for the refugees. Many people sold precious possessions and lands at unreasonably low prices to obtain means to flee the state. One Missourian bought forty acres of good land from a Church member for a “blind mare and a clock.” Some other tracts of land sold for only fifty cents per acre.² Some people with oxen teams made several trips between Caldwell County and the Mississippi River, two hundred miles to the east, to convey friends and relatives out of danger. Amanda Smith, widowed at Haun’s Mill, and her five children left Far West by ox team. Once her family was beyond the reach of the Missouri mobs she sent her team back to help other Saints in their trek eastward.

Charles C. Rich fled Missouri sometime in November to avoid arrest for his involvement in the Battle of Crooked River. He left behind his twenty-three-year-old wife, Sarah, who finally was able to leave Far West with the help of her father, John Pea. Her health was poor, and she was confined to a wagon bed for the entire journey to the Mississippi. She was accompanied by Hosea Stout’s wife, Samantha. Once there they found the ice breaking up and the crossing extremely hazardous. George Grant voluntarily braved the ice floes to carry a message to their husbands. As he neared the Illinois shore, he fell through what had appeared to be solid ice. He was, however, rescued.

Charles C. Rich and Hosea Stout, upon hearing that their wives had arrived, crossed the river in a canoe to meet them. The next morning they decided it would be best to bring Sarah, who was about to have her first child, and two other women to the Illinois side. They were forced by lack of space to leave Sarah’s father to wait for the ferry. On the return journey huge blocks of ice threatened to crush the small canoe. Occasionally the men jumped onto the ice to push the craft out of danger. Meanwhile, Sarah’s father, watching with tear-filled eyes, saw the party’s safe arrival on the Illinois side.³

For Emma Smith, the months after Joseph’s arrest were especially trying. In February 1839 a neighbor, Jonathan Holman, helped her place her four children and her meager belongings into a straw-lined wagon pulled by two horses. On the evening prior to her departure she received from Miss Ann Scott the priceless manuscripts of her husband’s “translation” of the Bible. James Mulholland, the Prophet’s secretary, had given the papers to Ann for safekeeping thinking that the mob might not search a woman. Ann had made two cotton bags to hold the documents. Emma used these same cotton bags to carry the manuscripts from Missouri to Illinois, tying them under her long skirt.

When the party arrived at the Mississippi they found the river frozen over. Rather than risk the weight of the wagon, Emma walked across the ice holding two children, with the other two clinging to her skirt. They finally arrived safely at the outskirts of the village of Quincy, Illinois, where Emma lived until Joseph’s release.

Arrival in Quincy

Until mid-spring 1839 Church leaders who were not in jail had no definite plan for where the Saints should settle. Word reached the leaders that the citizens of Illinois were sympathetic to their plight and would welcome the Saints. Many people in Illinois believed that a large influx of Mormons would help their struggling economy. The state’s politicians also encouraged immigration because Illinois was nearly equally divided between the Whigs and Democrats. Each party hoped to attract the large Mormon vote.

Benevolent residents in Quincy, a community of twelve hundred, were generous and sympathetic to the plight of the exiles. Many of them opened their homes and provided jobs. They collected money, food, clothing, and other necessities on more than one occasion. The Democratic Association of Quincy was particularly instrumental in assisting the Saints. It convened three times during the week of 25 February to consider ways of helping the homeless exiles. Sidney Rigdon was invited to report on the condition of the Saints; collections were taken up, and resolutions were passed condemning Missouri’s treatment of the Mormons. The association resolved that the people of Quincy should “observe a becoming decorum and delicacy [around the Saints] and be particularly careful not to indulge in any conversation or expressions calculated to wound their feelings, or in any way to reflect upon those, who by every law of humanity, are entitled to our sympathy and commiseration.”⁴ The leaders of the association also tried to help the Church gain redress from Missouri.

Peaceful relations with the people of Quincy and the Democratic party were threatened, however, by the unwise conduct of Lyman Wight. In a series of letters published in the local newspaper, he blamed the Missouri outrages on the national Democratic party. Quincy Democrats were understandably upset by his accusations and asked Church leaders whether this reflected the official view of the Church. On 17 May the First Presidency wrote a letter disavowing Wight’s accusations. They also asked Elder Wight, if he continued to write against a political party, to make it clear that he was representing his own views and not those of the Church.

Throughout the late winter and spring, thousands of Latter-day Saints arrived at the western bank of the Mississippi across from Quincy. Elizabeth Haven wrote that in late February “about 12 families cross the river into Quincy every day and about 30 are constantly at the other side waiting to cross; it is slow and grimy; there is only one ferry boat to cross in.”⁵ Moderating weather caused dangerous ice floes to further inhibit progress of the crossings. When another cold spell set in and the river again froze over, scores of Saints hurried to cross on the ice.

As Quincy filled with hundreds of refugees, the living conditions there deteriorated. The Saints, most of whom were almost entirely destitute, suffered from hunger in the cold, rain, and mud.⁶ Even so they kept up their religious observances. For a time the Saints were more numerous than any other religious denomination in the community. Non-Mormon Wandle Mace took in many Saints and was eventually converted himself. His home was used as a meeting and council house and as a shelter for the destitute. He reported that “Very many nights the floors, upstairs and down, were covered with beds so closely it was impossible to set a foot anywhere without stepping on a bed.”⁷

The story of Drusilla Hendricks is typical of the Quincy experience. Her husband, James, had been shot in the neck in the Battle of Crooked River and had to be carried about on a stretcher. The family arrived in Quincy on 1 April and secured a room “partly underground and partly on top of the ground.” Within two weeks they were on the verge of starving, having only one spoonful of sugar and a saucer full of corn meal to eat. Drusilla made mush out of it. Thinking they would eventually starve, she washed everything, cleaned their little room thoroughly, and waited for the worst. That afternoon Rubin Alred came by and told her he had had a feeling they were out of food, so on his way into town he had a sack of grain ground into meal for them. Two weeks later they were again without food. Drusilla remembered, “I felt awful, but the same voice that gave me comfort before was there to comfort me again and it said, hold on, the Lord will provide for his Saints.” This time Alexander Williams arrived at the back door with two bushels of meal on his shoulder. He told her he had been extremely busy but the Spirit had whispered to him that “Brother Hendricks’ family is suffering, so I dropped everything and came by.”⁸

Eight to ten thousand Latter-day Saints migrated to western Illinois that season. The community of Quincy could not accommodate all the new arrivals. During the spring and summer of 1839 many people were forced into surrounding farmlands and adjoining counties wherever they could find a place to stay.

Settling Nauvoo

While the Saints were scattering across eastern Missouri and into Illinois, Joseph Smith was confined in Liberty Jail. Soon after the fall of Far West a group of veterans from the Battle of Crooked River became lost as they were escaping from their oppressors and ended up at the Des Moines River just north of where it joined the Mississippi. There they met Isaac Galland, one of the largest land speculators in the area. After hearing the plight of the Saints, Galland offered to sell the Church large parcels of land in Iowa and Illinois. In February the men took this information to the Church leaders in Quincy who were meeting to decide what to do next.

Sidney Rigdon, Edward Partridge, and a few others questioned the wisdom of gathering to one place again; they felt that this had been the major source of their problems in Missouri and Ohio. On the other hand, Brigham Young counseled the Saints to gather so they could better help each other. Uncertain how to act, the brethren wrote to the Prophet asking his advice. On 22 March the Prophet advised the brethren to buy the property and not to scatter.

In April, Joseph and Hyrum Smith and their fellow prisoners were allowed to escape from Missouri. They arrived in Quincy on 22 April 1839. The Prophet felt that it was the prayers of the brethren that had helped him escape. As Joseph arrived at the Quincy ferry, Dimick B. Huntington recognized him: “He was dressed in an old pair of boots full of holes, pants torn, tucked inside of boots, blue cloak with collar turned up, wide brim black hat, rim sopped down, not been shaved for some time, looked pale and haggard.”⁹ Since the Prophet wanted his arrival to be unnoticed, they took the back streets of the city to the Cleveland home four miles away from town where Emma was staying. She recognized her husband as he climbed off his horse and met him joyfully halfway to the gate.

Since the spring planting season was approaching, the Prophet wasted no time in moving the Church into action. Two days after his arrival a council meeting decided to send him and several others upstream to Iowa “for the purpose of making a location for the Church.”¹⁰ The next day the Prophet examined lands on both sides of the Mississippi River.

[click for enlarged version] [Bitmap] [PDF] Although the largest tracts of land the Church purchased were in Iowa, the most important Latter-day Saint communities were in Illinois.

Once the decision was made to gather and relocate the Saints, the Church leaders moved vigorously to procure the necessary land. By the end of the summer of 1839 four major land transactions were completed to provide the Church the area it needed. The largest parcel was nearly twenty thousand acres of land purchased from Isaac Galland on the Iowa side of the river, as well as a small portion in Illinois. The other three purchases, totalling over six hundred acres, were across from the Iowa bank on a horseshoe-shaped bend in the river in Illinois. Two small towns, Commerce and Commerce City, had been platted on this land, but they had only a handful of dwellings between them. Some of the flatlands near the river were swampy because of a high water table and springs that flowed from the foot of the bluffs to the east and were consequently unhealthy. But Joseph Smith and the brethren were certain that they could make the area a suitable place of habitation for the Saints.

Since both the refugees and the Church in general had little cash, the land was purchased largely on credit. Reasonable interest rates and long term payments were attractive at the time, but given the indigent circumstances of the Saints, they became a heavy burden on the Church’s resources throughout the Nauvoo period. For the next several years Joseph Smith solicited funds from Church members to help with the payments. Properties were sold in Nauvoo, but the Saints could rarely pay with cash. Consequently the payment for the properties on both sides of the river was never totally resolved during the period the Church was in that region.

After making the original land purchases on 30 April 1839, the Prophet and his associates returned to Quincy to complete preparations for the migration northward. A conference was held near Quincy on 4–5 May. At this time the body of the Church sanctioned the land acquisition and resolved that the next conference would be held in Commerce the first week in October. By 10 May the Prophet had returned to Commerce with his family and taken up residence in a small log house known as the Homestead close to the river on the southern end of the peninsula. While land was being cleared, surveyed, and platted, and the swamp drained, most arriving Saints lived in wagons, tents, or dugouts. Joseph and Emma took many of them into their own meager quarters. Across the river in Montrose, several families, including those of Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, and Orson Pratt, lived in empty military barracks left from the Black Hawk War.

In a public letter on 1 July, Joseph Smith called upon all Saints everywhere to migrate to the new site. Thousands responded to his call. During this same time Joseph was occupied with dictating his personal history and teaching the members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who were soon to leave on missions to Great Britain.

Sometime during these busy weeks the Prophet named the new Illinois site Nauvoo, a Hebrew word meaning “beautiful.” The first formal use of the name Nauvoo was to place it on the official plat of the city on 30 August 1839. The United States post office adopted the name change in April of 1840, and in March of that year the city council passed an ordinance incorporating the sites of Commerce and Commerce City into Nauvoo. Once the success of this gathering place seemed assured and the Saints began swarming into the area, other landholders saw advantages in creating subdivisions which were attached to Nauvoo as “additions.”

Sickness and a Day of God’s Power

In the summer of 1839 the swamp area on the Nauvoo peninsula had not yet been drained. While the Saints gathered, cleared, drained, built, and planted, they were oblivious to the danger of the Anopheles mosquito. This tiny insect, which bred profusely in the swampland and along the Mississippi riverbank, transmitted parasites to the red blood cells of humans by its bite. The disease this caused, characterized by periodic attacks of chills and fever, is now known as malaria, but people in the nineteenth century called it and diseases with similar symptoms the ague (pronounced `a gyu).

Scores of Church members on both sides of the river fell ill. The residents of the temporary tent city surrounding the Prophet’s home were stricken by the disease as were the Saints staying in his home. Emma nursed the people night and day, while Joseph’s six-year-old son carried water for the sick until he also caught the disease. The pestilence was indiscriminate, affecting all ages and classes. One of the early fatalities in the city was Oliver Huntington’s mother, Zina. The Prophet Joseph invited Oliver to bring his family, who were all ill to his home for needed care. The Whitney family was in a similar situation. Elizabeth Ann reported that they “were only just barely able to crawl around and wait upon each other.”¹¹ In those circumstances Elizabeth gave birth to her ninth child. When Joseph learned of their plight he insisted that the family move in with him. They accepted his offer and took up residence in a small cottage in Joseph’s yard. By 12 July, Joseph Smith, Sr., was so ill he was near death.

Eventually Joseph Smith also became ill, but after several days confinement he was prompted to arise and extend help to others. The day of 22 July was, in the words of Wilford Woodruff, “a day of God’s power” in Nauvoo and Montrose.¹² That morning the Prophet arose and, being filled with the Spirit of the Lord, administered to the sick in his house and in the yard outside. More sick people were down by the river, and there too he administered with great power to the faithful. One such, Henry G. Sherwood, was near death. Joseph stepped to the door of Brother Sherwood’s tent and commanded him to rise and come out; he obeyed and was healed. Elder Heber C. Kimball and others accompanied the Prophet across the river to Montrose. One by one they visited the homes of the Twelve and administered to those who needed a blessing. Brigham Young, Wilford Woodruff, Orson Pratt, and John Taylor then joined Joseph in his mission of mercy.

One of the most memorable of the healings in Montrose was that of Elijah Fordham. When the brethren arrived he was lying in bed unable to speak.

“Brother Joseph walked up to Brother Fordham, and took him by the right hand. . . .

“He saw that Brother Fordham’s eyes were glazed, and that he was speechless and unconscious.

“After taking hold of his hand, he looked down into the dying man’s face and said: ‘Brother Fordham, do you not know me?’ At first he made no reply; but we could all see the effect of the Spirit of God resting upon him.

“He again said: ‘Elijah, do you not know me?’

“With a low whisper, Brother Fordham answered, ‘Yes!’

“The Prophet then said, ‘Have you not faith to be healed?’

“The answer, which was a little plainer than before, was: ‘I am afraid it is too late. If you had come sooner, I think it might have been.’

“He had the appearance of a man waking from sleep. It was the sleep of death.

“Joseph then said: ‘Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ?’

“‘I do, Brother Joseph,’ was the response.

“Then the Prophet of God spoke with a loud voice, as in the majesty of the Godhead: ‘Elijah, I command you, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, to arise and be made whole!’

“The words of the Prophet were not like the words of man, but like the voice of God. It seemed to me that the house shook from its foundation.

“Elijah Fordham leaped from his bed like a man raised from the dead. A healthy color came to his face, and life was manifested in every act.”¹³

They next visited Joseph B. Noble, who was also healed. Wilford Woodruff remembered this as the “greatest day for the manifestation of the power of God through the gift of healing since the organization of the Church.”¹⁴

As the brethren were at the river bank preparing to cross back to Nauvoo, a nonmember who had heard of the miracles that day asked the Prophet if he would come and administer to his dying twin babies about two miles from Montrose. Joseph said he could not go, but he gave Wilford Woodruff a red silk handkerchief and told him to administer to them, promising that when he wiped their faces with it they would be healed. The Prophet also promised that the handkerchief would remain a bond between them as long as Wilford kept it. Obedient to the charge, Wilford testified that the children were healed. He treasured the keepsake the rest of his life.¹⁵

Despite this unusual demonstration of faith and power, sickness raged among the Saints in Nauvoo throughout the summer and into the fall. Only as winter approached did the outbreak begin to subside. In October, Elizabeth Haven reported from the general conference held in Nauvoo, which she attended. She wrote home to New England: “The Prophet says it is a sickly place, but is made known to him that it shall be sanctified and be a place of gathering.”¹⁶

The illnesses were not confined to Nauvoo. Many Latter-day Saints in Quincy also suffered between February and September of 1839. In Commerce many people were sick, but there were few deaths. In Quincy, however, death caused great “havoc among the Saints.” Elizabeth Haven wrote to her family, “O my friends, you know nothing about the ague, how it prostrates and bewilders the mind and impairs the health.” Some families suffered the loss of two or three of their loved ones. The Goddard family, living across the street from Elizabeth, lost both parents and a sixteen-year-old daughter. Five children survived, but at one time four of them were sick. Providentially, Elizabeth did not contract the disease. She spent the summer and fall nursing others. So great was the need for nursing care that she did not get to a Sabbath meeting between June and October. She considered the trials of Far West small compared to “what they have been of late.”¹⁷

Seeking Redress for Missouri Grievances

While the Prophet and others suffered in Liberty Jail in 1838–39, they had discussed how to obtain redress from the state of Missouri for the land and property lost by the Saints during the persecutions of 1833 and 1838–39. In 1833 the Lord directed the brethren to petition the local and state governments. If this failed they were to seek help from the federal government (see D&C 101:81–91). This approach had been used first in 1834 when the Church unsuccessfully appealed to President Andrew Jackson. In March 1839, while in the Liberty Jail, the Prophet received a revelation that the Church should again appeal to the United States government for redress of the wrongs the Saints had suffered in Missouri. The members of the Church were charged to gather “up a knowledge of all the facts, and sufferings and abuses put upon them by the people of this State [Missouri].” This would be “the last effort which is enjoined on us by our Heavenly Father, before we can fully and completely claim that promise which shall call him forth from his hiding place” (D&C 123:1, 6).

Because of ill health Sidney Rigdon had been released from prison before the other members of the First Presidency. In Illinois he met with Governor Thomas Carlin and related the plight of the Saints. He also developed a plan to obtain redress based on a statement in the United States Constitution that “the general government shall give to each State a republican form of government.” Sidney Rigdon felt that such a government did not exist in Missouri, so he planned to present the story of the persecutions to the governors of the respective states and their legislatures, hoping to induce as many as possible to pass a resolution to “impeach” the state of Missouri. He proposed sending Church representatives to each state capitol to lobby for the Church. The plan got as far as the appointment of his son-in-law, George W. Robinson, to collect the affidavits and general information on the subject; Sidney secured a letter of introduction to the governors and the president from Governor Carlin.¹⁸

It became obvious that it was useless to petition the officials of Missouri for help. The impracticality of Rigdon’s plan was also soon evident. In May 1839 a conference appointed Sidney Rigdon to take the Latter-day Saint grievances directly to Washington, D.C. His delays, however, led to the additional appointment of Joseph Smith and Elias Higbee at the October conference in Commerce to approach President Martin Van Buren. Orrin Porter Rockwell was also invited to accompany them. They left Nauvoo on 29 October 1839 and were joined en route to Springfield by a new convert, Dr. Robert D. Foster. In Springfield the Prophet wrote to his wife, “It will be a long and lonesome time during my absence from you and nothing but a sense of humanity could have urged me on to so great a sacrifice, but shall I see so many perish and [not] seek redress? No, I will try this once in the [name] of the Lord.”¹⁹

Because of illness Sidney Rigdon was left at the home of John Snyder in Springfield. The Prophet left him in the care of Dr. Foster and Orrin Porter Rockwell and then proceeded with Elias Higbee to the nation’s capital, arriving on 28 November. The next day they scheduled an interview with a very reluctant President Van Buren. He was not impressed with their letters of introduction and tried to turn them away, but Joseph’s insistence led to an audience with the president. When Van Buren asked the Prophet how his religion differed from other Christian denominations of the day, Joseph said that the “mode of baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands” were the essential differences. “We considered that all other considerations were contained in the gift of the Holy Ghost.”²⁰

The president, responding to the states rights political philosophy of the day and being anxious not to offend his political allies, realized the Mormon-Missouri conflict was a touchy issue. He was therefore unsympathetic to the pleadings of the brethren. Joseph later asserted: “I had an interview with Martin Van Buren, the President, who treated me very insolently, and it was with great reluctance he listened to our message, which, when he had heard, he said: ‘Gentlemen, your cause is just, but I can do nothing for you.’”²¹ The Prophet also tried convincing leading senator John C. Calhoun of his concerns, but was rebuffed.

The Prophet and Elder Higbee then contacted various other senators and representatives. The Illinois delegation treated them especially well, and Illinois Senator Richard M. Young promised to introduce their petition to Congress. The lengthy petition detailed the difficulties the Saints had endured since 1833 in Missouri and concluded: “We make our appeal as American Citizens, as Christians, and as Men—believing that the high sense of justice which exists in your honorable body, will not allow such oppression to be practiced upon any portion of the citizens of this vast republic with impunity; but that some measures which your wisdom may dictate, may be taken, so that the great body of people who have been thus abused, may have redress for the wrongs which they have suffered.”²²

Meanwhile the brethren wrote home asking the Saints to gather and send as many certificates and affidavits as possible verifying the persecutions and proving their ownership of Missouri land. In all the Prophet said he submitted the claims of about 491 individuals against the state of Missouri.²³ At the same time the embarrassed Missouri congressional delegation began building its own defense, based on transcripts of a hearing held in Richmond, Missouri, where numerous anti-Mormons and ex-Mormons testified.

While he was still in the East, the Prophet visited various branches of the Church. In Philadelphia, he spoke to a congregation of about three thousand Saints. He also spent several days with Elder Parley P. Pratt who was in Philadelphia arranging for the publication of several books. Parley P. Pratt remembered:

“During these interviews he taught me many great and glorious principles concerning God and the heavenly order of eternity. It was at this time that I received from him the first idea of eternal family organization. . . .

“It was from him that I learned that the wife of my bosom might be secured to me for time and all eternity.” These blessed personal encounters with the Prophet affected Parley for the rest of his life.

“I had loved before, but I knew not why. But now I loved—with a pureness—an intensity of elevated, exalted feeling, which would lift my soul from the transitory things of this grovelling sphere and expand it as the ocean.”²⁴

The prevailing view in the nation, especially among southern politicians, was that questions like those raised by the Latter-day Saints were clearly state concerns. It was felt that the Constitution provided no authority for national intervention. These views clearly reflected the national debate over the sovereignty of the states that would culminate two decades later in the American Civil War.

Joseph Smith left Elias Higbee in Washington to await the results of the petition to Congress, and he returned to Nauvoo. On 4 March 1840 the Senate committee announced that Congress would do nothing; they recommended that the Church seek redress in the state or federal courts in America, a course that the Saints had found totally useless. In the April general conference of the Church the Saints voted that “if all hopes of obtaining satisfaction for the injuries done us be entirely blasted, that they then appeal our case to the Court of Heaven, believing that the Great Jehovah, who rules over the destiny of nations, and who notices the falling sparrows, will undoubtedly redress our wrongs, and ere long avenge us of our adversaries.”²⁵

Nauvoo Charter

The new gathering place for the Saints included not only Nauvoo, Illinois, and Montrose, Iowa, but also several neighboring locations on both sides of the river. Members of the Church settled in established communities such as Carthage—the Hancock County seat—La Harpe, and Fountain Green. And they established small settlements of their own at Ramus, Lima, and Yelrome (the name of Isaac Morley, the settlement’s founder, spelled backward). There were also numerous suburbs surrounding Nauvoo itself. But clearly Nauvoo was the center place, and within a few months it gained political and economic influence in western Illinois.

Following Joseph Smith’s return from the East, serious discussions began about the form of government that Nauvoo should have. The arrival of a prominent Springfield citizen, John C. Bennett, in Nauvoo in June 1840 prompted decisive action on this issue. The ambitious and energetic Bennett had quickly gained acceptance in military, medical, and political circles in the state capital. Governor Thomas Carlin had named him the state militia’s quartermaster general. Before going to Nauvoo, Bennett wrote to the Prophet expressing indignation at the injustices Missouri had inflicted upon the Latter-day Saints and offering his assistance. Soon after he arrived he accepted the gospel and was baptized. His acquaintance with numerous government officials made him the logical person to lobby for a charter government for Nauvoo. At the October general conference, Joseph Smith, Robert B. Thompson, and John C. Bennett were nominated to draft a proposal and carry it to Springfield.

Bennett’s lobbying efforts with both political parties were successful, and the Nauvoo charter became law on 16 December 1840. It was similar to the charters granted to Chicago and Alton in 1837, Galena in 1839, and Springfield and Quincy in 1840. It granted the right to establish a local militia, a municipal court, and a university. Church leaders were elated with its broad and liberal provisions, which seemed to ensure that government officials would no longer be able to take advantage of the Saints as they had in Missouri. Nauvoo’s legislative and executive powers resided in the mayor, four aldermen, and nine councilors. The mayor and aldermen also served as judges of the municipal court, a change from the pattern of other chartered cities. This meant that five men controlled the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the local government.

John C. Bennett was elected Nauvoo’s first mayor on 1 February 1841. Other Church leaders, including Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, and Hyrum Smith, were elected aldermen, ensuring a local government that would be friendly to the Saints. Immediately the city council created a militia unit, the Nauvoo Legion, which gradually grew to three thousand enlistees. Also, according to Nauvoo charter provisions, the Nauvoo Legion was under the control of Joseph Smith and other civic leaders, although it was technically part of the state militia. Once again jealous anti-Mormon observers became apprehensive about the unabated growth of Mormon influence and power in their area.

For the first time in a decade, the Saints felt some security. The Lord had again led them to find a refuge. The Apostles were able to go on their appointed mission to Great Britain. Their prophet was safe and well and leading the Church. Peace abounded, and opportunities to extend the gospel of Jesus Christ seemed readily available.

Endnotes

1. In History of the Church, 3:251.

2. History of Caldwell and Livingston Counties, Missouri (St. Louis: National Historical Co., 1886), p. 142.

3. See Kenneth W. Godfrey, Audrey M. Godfrey, and Jill Mulvay Derr, Women’s Voices (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1982), pp. 103–5.

4. In History of the Church, 3:269.

5. Letter from Elizabeth Haven to Elizabeth Howe Bullard, 24 Feb. 1839, in Ora H. Barlow, The Israel Barlow Story and Mormon Mores (Salt Lake City: Ora H. Barlow, 1968), p. 143.

6. See Wilford Woodruff Journals, 18 Mar. 1839, LDS Historical Department, Salt Lake City.

7. In Barlow, Israel Barlow Story, p. 156.

8. Drusilla Dorris Hendricks, “Historical Sketch of James Hendricks and Drusilla Dorris Hendricks,” typescript, LDS Historical Department, Salt Lake City, pp. 22–23.

9. In David E. and Della S. Miller, Nauvoo: The City of Joseph (Salt Lake City: Peregrine Smith, 1974), p. 26; spelling standardized.

10. In History of the Church, 3:336.

11. “A Leaf from an Autobiography,” Woman’s Exponent, 15 Nov. 1878, p. 91.

12. Wilford Woodruff Journals, 22 July 1839; punctuation standardized.

13. Wilford Woodruff, Leaves from My Journal, 2d ed. (Salt Lake City: Juvenile Instructor Office, 1882), p. 63.

14. Woodruff, Leaves from My Journal, p. 65.

15. See Woodruff, Leaves from My Journal, p. 65.

16. In Barlow, Israel Barlow Story, p. 163.

17. Letter from Haven to Bullard, 30 Sept. 1839, in Barlow, Israel Barlow Story, pp. 158, 160–61.

18. Andrew Jenson, The Historical Record, Mar. 1889, p. 738.

19. In Dean C. Jessee, ed., The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1984), p. 448; spelling and punctuation standardized.

20. In History of the Church, 4:42.

21. History of the Church, 4:80.

22. In History of the Church, 4:38.

23. History of the Church, 4:74. Additional appeals were made by the Church in 1842–43. A total of 703 petitioners filed individual affidavits; petitions can be read in Clark V. Johnson, “The Missouri Redress Petitions: A Reappraisal of Mormon Persecutions in Missouri,” Brigham Young University Studies, Spring 1986, pp. 31–44.

24. Parley P. Pratt, ed., Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, Classics in Mormon Literature series (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1985), pp. 259–60.

25. In History of the Church, 4:108.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The Mission of the Twelve

As the Saints were settling Nauvoo, the Prophet Joseph Smith was planning further overseas expansion of the Church. This expansion had begun with the call of Elders Heber C. Kimball and Orson Hyde to England in 1837. As early as 1835 the Lord had instructed members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles that they were to be “special witnesses of the name of Christ in all the world” and that they were to “build up the church, and regulate all the affairs of the same in all nations.” They were given the keys “to open the door by the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ” to all the world (D&C 107:23, 33, 35). The Twelve were further promised that “in whatsoever place ye shall proclaim my name an effectual door shall be opened unto you, that they may receive my word” (D&C 112:19). This promise was fulfilled the very day it was revealed, 23 July 1837, when Elder Heber C. Kimball and his companions were invited to preach in the Vauxhall Chapel in Preston, England, an invitation resulting in the first baptisms in the British Isles. As the work went forward in that land with great success, even more participation from the Apostles was anticipated.

The Twelve Called to Britain

Shortly after Joseph Smith settled in Far West, Missouri, in March 1838, he had begun preparing for an expanded missionary effort by the Twelve to Great Britain. One of the Apostles, David W. Patten, was instructed by revelation to prepare for a mission the next year (see D&C 114:1). On 8 July 1838 another revelation called John Taylor, John E. Page, Wilford Woodruff, and Willard Richards to the Twelve. The Apostles were charged “to go over the great waters, and there promulgate my gospel, the fulness thereof, and bear record of my name” (D&C 118:4). The Lord also told them the exact day, 26 April 1839, they were to leave Far West to depart for England.

When the revelation was received, the brethren anticipated little difficulty in fulfilling these directions, but the subsequent persecutions and the expulsion of the Saints from Missouri made an April departure from Far West extremely dangerous. Many mobsters harassed the remaining Church members in Missouri and openly boasted that the revelation would not be fulfilled. But Brigham Young urged his colleagues to go to Far West as the Lord had directed and promised that the Lord would protect them.

Shortly after midnight on 26 April, Elders Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, John E. Page, Orson Pratt, Wilford Woodruff, John Taylor, and George A. Smith gathered with about twenty other Saints at the Far West temple site. In the moonlight they recommenced laying the foundation of the Lord’s house by rolling up a large stone near the southeast corner. Brigham Young reported, “Thus was this revelation fulfilled, concerning which our enemies said, if all other revelations of Joseph Smith were fulfilled that one should not, as it had day and date to it.”¹ In the early morning hours Theodore Turley, one of the Saints who had been at Far West with the Twelve, went to the home of apostate Isaac Russell to say goodbye. Russell was astounded that his friend was in Far West with members of the Twelve and speechless upon learning that the prophecy was fulfilled.

There were no further preparations for the mission to Great Britain until the Saints had found a gathering place at Commerce (Nauvoo). On 27 June 1839 the First Presidency and the Twelve met in a special conference. After making a humble confession of his follies and sins, Orson Hyde was restored to fellowship with the Twelve.² The Prophet Joseph Smith instructed the brethren about the basic principles of the gospel to better prepare them to fulfill their missions. A week later in Montrose, Iowa, following additional instructions, the First Presidency blessed each Apostle and his wife individually. Concerning those who were blessed, Wilford Woodruff recorded that “if we were faithful we had the promise of again returning to the bosom of our families and being blessed on our mission and having many souls as seals of our ministry.” After the blessings, Joseph Smith instructed them that they were “not sent out to be taught but to teach—let every man be sober, be vigilant, and let all his words be seasoned with grace, and keep in mind that it is a day of warning and not of many words.”³

On Sunday, 7 July, the Twelve spoke at a farewell meeting held in their behalf. Each one bore powerful witness of the work they were engaged in. Clearly, they were anxious to be on their way to England; unfortunately, they were not able to leave immediately. The next week a malaria epidemic hit the Nauvoo vicinity. The Apostles were stricken, and their mission was temporarily postponed. But after the “‘day of God’s power’” on 22 July, “All of the Twelve were . . . determined, ‘sick or not,’ to fulfill their mission. On Sunday, August 4, a day of fasting and prayer, the Prophet renewed his instruction to ‘go forth without purse or scrip, according to the revelations of Jesus Christ.’”⁴

The Missionaries Depart

John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff, still sick from malaria, determined to depart immediately. Wilford Woodruff wrote, “Early upon the morning of the 8th of August, I arose from my bed of sickness, laid my hands upon the head of my sick wife, Phoebe, and blessed her. I then departed from the embrace of my companion, and left her almost without food or the necessaries of life. She suffered my departure with the fortitude that becomes a saint, realizing the responsibilities of her companion. . . .

“Although feeble, I walked to the banks of the Mississippi River. There President Young took me in a canoe . . . and paddled me across the river. When we landed, I lay down on a side of sole leather, by the postoffice, to rest. Brother Joseph, the Prophet of God, came along and looked at me. ‘Well, Brother Woodruff,’ said he, ‘you have started upon your mission.’ ‘Yes,’ said I, ‘but I feel and look more like a subject for the dissecting room than a missionary.’ Joseph replied: ‘What did you say that for? Get up, and go along; all will be right with you.’”⁵

John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff struggled on their journey to the east coast. In Indiana, John Taylor became deathly ill, and Wilford had to leave him behind, committing him into the hands of the Lord. After a miraculous recovery, Elder Taylor continued on his journey. He was stricken again, but finally met Elder Woodruff in New York.

The departures of the other brethren were similarly difficult. Brigham Young was prepared to leave on 14 September, just shortly after his wife, Mary Ann had given birth to a daughter. When he left Montrose, however, he was so ill that he could not walk the five hundred feet to the river unaided. Three days later, Mary Ann, still weak from childbirth, arranged to cross the river and care for her husband who was staying at the home of Heber C. Kimball in Nauvoo. On 18 September, Brigham and Heber decided it was time to start on their appointed mission. Both men were so ill that they had to be helped into a wagon. All of the Kimball household were bedridden except four-year-old Heber Parley, who could just manage to carry water to the sick.

As the men drove off, Heber said he felt that “my very inmost parts would melt within me at leaving my family in such a condition, as it were almost in the arms of death. I felt as though I could not endure it. I asked the teamster to stop, and said to Brother Brigham, ‘This is pretty tough, isn’t it; let’s rise up and give them a cheer.’ We arose, and swinging our hats three times over our heads, shouted: ‘Hurrah, hurrah for Israel.’ Vilate, hearing the noise, arose from her bed and came to the door. She had a smile on her face. Vilate and Mary Anne Young cried out to us: ‘Goodbye, God bless you.’”⁶

Elders Young and Kimball were joined en route by George A. Smith. As they traveled Brigham reached into his trunk and always found just enough money for the next stage coach fare. He thought Heber was replenishing the fund, but later discovered that he had not. The brethren had started their trip with $13.50 in donations, yet they spent more than $87 on coach fares. They had no idea how the additional money had gotten into the trunk “except by some unseen agent from the Heavenly world to forward the promulgation of the Gospel.”⁷ The brethren stayed a few weeks in upstate New York due to sickness. Brigham Young became sick in Moravia, New York, and was nursed to health by the Caleb Haight and William Van Orden families. Brother Van Orden also made an overcoat for George A. Smith, who had only a quilt around his shoulders to keep him warm.

Seven of the Apostles arrived in New York City during the winter. There they preached the gospel, conducted other Church business, and obtained funds for their passage to England. Parley P. Pratt remembered, “During the few days that we were together in New York we held many precious meetings in which the Saints were filled with joy, and the people more and more convinced of the truth of our message. Near forty persons were baptized and added to the Church in that city during the few days of our brethren’s stay there.”⁸ Wilford Woodruff, John Taylor, and Theodore Turley were the first to sail for England, leaving 19 December 1839 and arriving twenty-three days later. The others left in March and arrived in Liverpool on 6 April 1840, the tenth anniversary of the Church’s organization.

The need for the Twelve in Britain was soon apparent. After the first mission there in 1837 many members had fallen into apostasy and had left the Church due to persecution and lack of mature local direction. Attacks on the Church in local newspapers grew in number and intensity, and ministers of various denominations aroused opposition through sermons and lectures. Within the Church, some had challenged the authority of the mission presidency—Joseph Fielding, Willard Richards, and William Clayton—and had led small factions of the Saints astray, slowing missionary success.

Elder Heber C. Kimball had written several encouraging letters from America that buoyed up the Saints and identified those disrupting the progress of the work in England. But if the Church was to remain in Britain, there was a pressing need for strong preachers and teachers who were firmly grounded in the doctrine of the restored gospel and for mature and experienced leaders who could set the branches in order.

The British Isles were ripe for the coming of the members of the Twelve as missionaries. Most British subjects shared language, culture, and heritage with the missionaries from America. Freedom of religion was a strong tradition in Britain. There was not the strong reliance upon clergy typical on the European continent. The people loved to read the Bible, taking pride in the King James translation that the Apostles used in their preaching. England also had a strong central government that ensured uniform application of the laws respecting the practice of religion. This meant that the missionaries were legally equal with other ministers wherever they went in the country. Moreover, the industrial revolution had shattered the social standing of the lower classes and left them feeling they had been abandoned by their ministers. Many were seeking spiritual and temporal satisfaction and support in their lives.

This was the preparation the Lord provided to take the gospel to Great Britain.

[click for enlarged version] [Bitmap] [PDF] During the mission of the Twelve to England, many parts of Great Britain were introduced to the gospel. Edinburgh, Scotland. The first missionaries arrived here in December 1839. Elder Orson Pratt arrived on 18 May 1840; the following morning, at Arthur’s Seat, a prominent hill overlooking the city, he prayed that the Lord would help him find two hundred people to baptize in Scotland. Bishopton, Scotland. Here, on 14 January 1840, Alexander and Jessie Hay became the first converts baptized in Scotland. Castle Frome, England. Wilford Woodruff preached here and at the Hill Farm between March and July 1840. He baptized many of the members of the United Brethren, including John and Jane Benbow. Douglas, Isle of Man. John Taylor dedicated this island in 1840 and held a celebrated debate with a local minister. He preached to relatives of his wife, Leonora Cannon Taylor, aunt of George Q. Cannon. Herefordshire Beacon, England. Here on 20 May 1840, with Elder Brigham Young presiding, a council decided to publish the Book of Mormon and an LDS hymnbook in Britain. Liverpool, England. The first LDS missionaries landed here in 1837. As the headquarters of the Church in Britain from 1842 to 1929, Liverpool housed the mission, emigration, and printing offices. The Millennial Star was published here, as were other important Church publications. By 1900, eighty-five thousand Latter-day Saints had emigrated to America through Liverpool. London, England. Missionary work started here on 18 August 1840. London was the birthplace of several General Authorities, including Charles W. Penrose, George Teasdale, and George Reynolds. Loughbrickland, Ireland. John Taylor baptized the first Irish convert, Thomas Tait, here on 31 July 1840. Milnthorpe, England. This was the birthplace of President John Taylor. Newchapel, England. Site of the London England Temple, which was dedicated by President David O. McKay on 7 September 1958. Manchester, England. This city was the headquarters of the Church in Britain from 1840–42. Elder Brigham Young served most of his mission here. The first stake in Great Britain was organized by Elder Harold B. Lee on 27 March 1960, and the first area conference of the Church convened here in August 1971. Preston, England. Heber C. Kimball preached the first gospel sermon here on 23 July 1837. A branch was organized that August. Preston served as Church headquarters from 1837–40. Willard Richards was ordained an Apostle at a conference held here in April 1840.

The Twelve in Great Britain

Wilford Woodruff and John Taylor, the first of the Twelve to arrive in England, hastened to Church headquarters in Preston to meet with the mission presidency. There they decided to separate; Elder Taylor returned to Liverpool with Joseph Fielding, and Elder Woodruff traveled south with Theodore Turley to the Staffordshire Potteries, so called because of the industry carried on there.

Elders Taylor and Fielding began working in Liverpool on 23 January and baptized their first converts on 4 February. Also in February they baptized the entire family of George Cannon, brother of John Taylor’s wife, Leonora. George Q. Cannon, then but a boy of twelve, would become a noted missionary in the Hawaiian Islands, a member of the Twelve Apostles, and a counselor to four Presidents of the Church, including his uncle John Taylor. The work in Liverpool grew steadily, and by the time the remaining members of the Twelve arrived in England in April, a branch of the Church was functioning in that port city.