MISSOURl

MORMON

FRONTIER

Number 34 Jackson coun Missouri Ma t 2004 IN THAT COUNTRY AN ESSAY by H. D. Spidle

DEDICATION -In special consideration for the memory of preceding generations of my Missouri family who, had they the facts available to me, may have reached a different view of the story than that which I believe they held.

Note: All rights reserved [by the author] for this copyrighted material [including Inap page].

FORWARD their time to be rational, tolerant citizens. So by extension, I think it possible that early Momonism J# 77!cz/ CowHtry began as an idea for the insert of a inculcated into the psyche of frontier Missouri a few paragraphs into an autobiographical sketch meant social/cultural schism so deep that a lingering hostile only to be read by close family. However, in the writing remembrance would simply survive generations. it became much expanded and now seems more suited Nonetheless, across those generations and certainly as standalone narrative. I am not Mormon but an within my family, innocence of historical fact about the interest in this A4:or77go# sJory springs from a time and story seems to have been pervasive. And it is probably instructive (albeit anecdotal) that my siblings find place of earliest memory and tales passed down from my Caldwell County, grandparents. The four of them were themselves in somewhat supportive surprise on reading born in the early 1870's and all lived long enough that I a draft of the manuscript. So perhaps some good may knew them well. On my matemal side the family had come of its wider dissemination. migrated to that part of Missouri shortly after the trouble As for the process, I had begun assembling notes for of the late 1830's. And it is then that they were likely the autobiographical effort, when a visit last summer to well indoctrinated by non-Mormon neighbors (and that place of first remembering brought into focus a desire to reflect on that which led to this essay. Then perhaps others as well) with a singular, uncontested view of the story. Because thereafter, the drama as too, I was encouraged by the amount of information family oral history would take on a life of its own. readily available from that remarkable storehouse of Thus in commencing this work my journey was not infomation, the internet. Especially helpful was an only for the discovery of fact but to understand as well easily directed access to works still in print which deal the vehemence of my people toward all things Mormon. with the history and/or the lives of those involved in the And for the first undertaking I was well rewarded, less drama. Thus for facts and flavor, about the story, about so for the second. It would be easy of course to dismiss the actors and about Mormonism, I'm much indebted to this frustration as having confirmed a detemined the well researched and carefully drafted pertinent secondhand bigotry on the part of my ancestors and their works of whters Stephen C. Lesueur, Roger D. Launius, Armand L Mauss and Terryl L Givens. Also peers. But there must be more to it than that. It is a recollection that my known predecessors seemed for of good use was the Historical Atlas Of Mormonism e2 Number34 Ma t 2004 MISSOURI MORMON FRONTIER FOUNDATION edited by Messrs S. Kent Brown, Donald Q. Cannon and intent, the responsibility is entirely mine. And at any Richard H. Jackson. And finally, a little monograph on rate a caveat is in order. I am by training an engineer, the history of Caldwell County by Dr. Bertha Ellis not a historian, so what the reader will encounter is a Booth (whom my mother would have known from structure built on a generous foundation of the Caldwell's Kidder Institute) was most illuminating. I scholarship of others, albeit painted with a personal was led to thatjewel by Mr. Michael Riggs, a gentleman brush... and in the colors of my choosing. intent on saving an historic log cabin of the period. H. D. Spidle So those fine sources delivered the stuff of my Smith County, Texas interpretation; but should that interpretation fail, either April, 2004 on matters of historical accuracy, judgment or desired

IN THAT COUNTR:I

... It is as though fior more than a hundred and fiifly years silence and denial had conspired to perpetuate as valid, only that remembered as negative toward Caldwell 's Founding Mormons . . .

When you look at a roadmap of Missouri, it is in the back rattler, indecisive as to where to follow the upper part of the state that US 36 Highway is shown as moming sun. In the dry season, from late summer and a ribbon stretching from the western border at Saint well into autumn, the steep-banked watercourse can Joseph on the Missouri River, to Mark Twain's wither to an infimity hardly worth its name. Indeed in Hannibal on the great Mississippi, about 200 miles to many places it can then be crossed without so much as the east. And some 50 miles from St. Joe, the outlined wetting one's boots. And there in that lazy-sun time of rectangle of Caldwell County hangs on that road like a year, all is quiet except for the tired rasp of cicadae, the dish towel on a clothesline. So let us zoom in there. plaintive query of the whippoorwill and the full-throttle As recently as a generation or two ago the passerby croak of bullfrogs complaining at the lack of mud in would have noted a patchwork landscape of well defined which to play. Visiting the stream in that timid state can family farms, each of 80, 120 or perhaps 160 acres. And mislead a person (even those who know better) into typical of the genre would be a well kept century-old, thinking its purpose entirely innocuous. two-story house accompanied by outbuildings, a grove Because there is another Shoal Creek. . .that of angry, of trees and the ubiquitous windmill. But the small raging demon which during periods of heavy rain, family farm as economic unit has nearly disappeared, so invites into its many tributary arms the watershed of nowadays the traveler will experience mostly an perhaps 100,000 acres, and then has its way with pretty expanse of undexpopulated and unfenced tilled prairie much anything it wants. In those times the flood plains punctuated by small towns which, now long past their becomejust that. And Shoal Creek in flood is something prime, struggle to survive. Such then is creative to behold. It is known to wreak havoc with crops and destruction worked by transforming time. However, one other property a like; but in receding, its anger spent, unchanging and distinguishing feature of the county is leaves in its wake a benevolent calling card of thick rich that of Shoal Creek which, commencing in Clinton life giving silt. I think it has always been so. County just to the west bisects Caldwell on its way to In Caldwell's 36 square mile Fairview Township, delivering its contents into south-bound Grand River in which is about midway in the north/south direction but contiguous Livingston County to the east. toward the eastern border of the county, there is a place Point to point, from beginning to end, it's a distance on the north side of this creek called Haun's Mill...and of no more than 50 miles, but Shoal Creek is much now just a marker really for what was there a long time longer than that. On close inspection, its topology ago. I was born very near there in the mid 1930's, as appears to have been laid out by a confused diamond- was my mother before me (1900) and her MISSOURI MORMON FRONTIEF{ FOUNDATION Number 34 t 2004 Pa

To Bichmond and Liberty

Mormon Settlement in Frontier Missouri,1831-1839 e4 Number34 Ma t 2004 MISSOURI MORMON FRONTIER FOUNDATION

parents before her (1870 and 1874). Indeed, my bright 28 year old Liberty (Clay County Seat), Missouri grandmother was from a family (Guffey) which has lawyer and legislator by the name of Alexander William owned land thereabouts since the 1840's. We lived within Doniphan (later of Mexican War fame), who drafted the a mile of the mill site with no intervening neighbors, so separation papers and coaxed consideration and approval that locale is a place of some note in the collective through the state legislature. The idea was to solve a memory of my people. And certainly, for me as a child, growing problem by setting aside an entire county as safe an awakening sense of the outside world relied as much haven (feome/cz#cJ was Doniphan ' s tern) for the increasing on the ever present influence of Shoal Creek in our lives numbers of an emigrating religious sect who were in the as did for example, the rhythm of the seasons or the habit of finding themselves unwelcome wherever they coming and going of extended family. Thus, reviewing its went. Will Doniphan and fellow attorneys (who were also history for but little more than the past century would be senior commanders in Missouri's volunteer militia) had worth a tale, even if told to none but my grandchildren. represented the group in earlier disputes; so he knew them But, as with a difference in character between the dry and well and hoped that an unwritten understanding for their wet seasons, there is another history of Shoal Creek; one encouragement to migrate exclusively into newly much older and darker...one that whispers of a sad and established Caldwell might leave them in peace. And too, sinister drama which for those involved, eventually forced the area seemed a good choice because at the time that a great migration to a land far away. And for Shoal part of the state remained sparsely settled. Many early Creek, what was left in the trouble's wake would sully homesteaders had quickly moved on once they discovered reputations, both of men and places...and yes, including the prairie surface to be mostly a hard thick crust before even that of the great State of Missouri. I've always been which the breaking plows of the day resigned in much drawn to the story and can recall as a small child, frustration. But let's here pause to consider relevant having sleep disturbed by thoughts of that place, Haun's details of background. Mill. A nd in the intervening decades those nightmare images, though now as faded as an old photograph, have never altogether disappeared. What follows is an attempt These people of Doniphan's concern (by self to make personal sense of it. reference a peculiar people) also called themselves Saints (or in groups, the Brethren) and called their covenant The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the LDS). From early on Caldwell County, Missouri had a Locals called them Momon after their ancillary book of strange and lurid history. The district was created as a worship by that name. Since the early 1830's their steady 430 square mile parcel carved out of, and separated from, numbers had fled persecution from a settlement at the central part of super-sized Ray County. Ray, though Kirtland near Lake Erie in northeastern Ohio. And they only about 25 miles wide, extended at the time from its were relocating into northwest Missouri...some to upper southern reach on the Missouri River, north for more than Ray and Carroll Counties, but more into the lowlands of 100 miles to Missouri's border with the Iowa Territory. Jackson County in and around the recently founded After the partition, Caldwell's contiguous neighbors (1827) village of Independence. That area, on the Blue became, to the north, Daviess (created out of Ray at the River and near the flood plains of the Missouri was about same time), and to the northeast and southeast fifty miles southwest of what would become Caldwell respectively, Livingston and Carroll. Add to this County. The land had been peopled by farmers of geography Clinton County to the west and of course European ancestry for some time. And too, the peaceful Caldwell' s parent, Ray to the south. And just west of Ray indigenous Indian tribes had practiced an agrarian lay C lay C ounty w hich w as s eparated b y t he M issouri lifestyle there for longer than anyone knew. Indeed in River from its southern neighbor Jackson County. This 1804 when, at the direction of President Thomas realignment took place some fifteen years after the Jefferson, M essrs L ewis a nd C lark e mbarked from t he Missouri territory had achieved statehood. small town of Saint Louis on their historic journey Just prior to this, during the summer of 183 6, families westward to find the headwaters of a great river, they began pouring into north central Ray County, settling traveled deep into the namesake territory of Missouri along Shoal Creek's fertile northern bottom lands and before entering a land where farming was unknown and south facing uplands, hopeful that a legally separate few whites had ever been. space, cz res'ervczfz.o7], might be set aside for them. But by the late 1820's western Missouri (at that time the frontier's land of promise) was booming and Jackson They hadn't long to wait. The new county would be County was becoming settled, mostly by hard scrabble birthed in December,1836 with the able assistance of a farming folk of Anglo-Saxon stock who were emigrating MISSOURI MORMON FRONTIER FOUNDATION Number 34 Ma t 2004 Pa

from the backwoods of Indiana, Kentucky and Termessee. newcomers wished eventually to acquire everything (and In the main these were not sophisticated people, so probably they did, albeit by purchase), leaving little for modem ideas of inclusion or political correctness would those who, having arrived first, believed absolutely in the never have occurred to them. They could be profiled as need to maintain a plurality. Because indeed far worse an independent, self sufficient hard working type who than a question of land ownership was the fear that should would fight at the drop of a hat either with outsiders or, political majority be achieved by the Brethren fAe}J wow/c7 not having that available, among themselves. Those who then erforce a theocratic influence on the gore;[nanee on could read and write were drawn mostly to the professions the county. Notwithstanding that the concerns were of preaching, law and politics. And the profile lasted for probably warranted, I might add as footnote the doubt that decades. My matemal grandfather, Clark Wells Suter anyone much bothered to inquire of the precedent (1870-1962)referredtomanyofthecountrypeopleofhis indigenous Osage, Ottawa and Kansa peoples their boyhood and before as "mean as polecats". opinion of such fine talking points on the rights and Thus the arrival in Jackson County of the Mormons in responsibilities of earned stewardship. 1831 was viewed with suspicion by settled homesteaders So a state of increasing tension and insult soon who saw them indeed as a mos/ pecz//I.czr peep/e. LDS developed. But as tipping point, in July,1833, a firestorm founder and charismatic leader, twenty six year old was ignited in Jackson County when an editorial "Free Joseph Smith Jr., though for the time staying in Ohio, had Peep/c o/ C'o/oJ~" appeared in the local Mormon directed them to western Missouri. Smith believed that cz newspaper. The article apparently concerned an gczfAerj.#g o/ Sczz.#/s' there would eventually usher in the invitation for freed slaves in the state to accept the Gospel second coming of Christ who would then rule a just and of the Saints, but was interpreted as more than that by peaceable kingdom on earth. So come they did, from the outsiders. Soon tempers flared and mob violence erupted. north eastern U. S., but from Canada and the British Isles The printing press was destroyed along with the building as well. Within less than a year they represented twenty that housed it, and Mormon Bishop Edward Partridge was five percent of the county population of 5000. But their publicly stripped, beaten, tarred and feathered. A few numbers, their beliefs and their lifestyle quickly proved of days later the mob returned to inform the Saints that half concern t o their e stablished n eighbors. F or o ne thing, of them must leave by year's end and the remainder by local clergyjudged the religion apocryphal at best. It was the following April. At this the Momons appealed to said they arranged their affairs both public and private Governor Daniel Dunklin who though not having warm around divine revelation given the PrapAef in their midst. feelings toward them, did recognize their plight and And the Mormon belief system with its tenant of wondered a t their p ersecution. He suggested they s eek unquestioning obedience to doctrine and the confidence redress in the courts. that the church was at all times led by a fz.vz.ng Prapfee/, was soon to be castigated from local mainstream pulpits as downright heretical and therefore dangerous. Then too, Enter now attorneys A. W. Doniphan, David Rice whispers of a considered practice of plural marriage along Atchison (later, U. S. Senator) and Amos Rees. At the with a communal way of life (tried seriously only in the time, these young and talented lawyers were achieving 1831 -1834 period) was disturbing to their neighbors for notable success and a broadening client base in northwest reasons both political and economic. Importantly, the Missouri. They certainly had empathy for the plight of Brethren and the Church (though ironically at the time the Mormons and agreed to represent them, albeit racist by doctrine) were believed to be of an abolitionist demanding a high retainer for fear that such representation conscience which in slaveholding Missouri lent an might itself ruin their established trade. However, once incendiary ingredient. And although they certainly contracted they worked hard for their new clients and proselytized, it is probable that it was their very success brought before the courts complaints concerning the with pooled resources, their industry, their work ethic and destruction of property along with an action by Bishop the mostly minding of their own business that brought Partridge against his attackers, one of whom was a man by about an irreconcilable rift. It was said their Prophet and the name of Samuel Lucas. h the assault case all Founder had dreamt an eschatological vision for Jackson assailants pled self defense and all were acquitted. Other County as the new Zion; but if so, he must have complaints ended with similar result; so although the misinterpreted a nightmare, because the faithful were Brethren at the time appreciated the efforts of Doniphan walking straight into Hell. and Co., little was then obtained to their satisfaction. Soon, rumors (outlandish and otherwise) about the intent of the smug and clannish Mormons began to spread, and the Missourians became suspicious that the e6 Number34 Ma t 2004 MISSOURI MORMON FRONTIER FOUNDATION

The situation remained volatile and (for reasons lost immediate removal. But also in attendance was attorney to history), on October 31,1833, the old settlers again Will Doniphan, who as a persuasive speaker, calmed the attacked the Saints at a settlement called Whitmer Branch crowd and promised to work toward a compromise near Independence. Mobs whipped, pillaged and suitable to all. generally t errorized t he p lace f or s everal d ays u ntil, i n A short time later he helped draft a recommendation early November, Lyman Wight, a senior Mormon official, to t he M ormons t hat t hey 1 Cave v oluntarily b ecause o f arrived with help from a few miles west (indeed from an beliefllife styles incompatible with that of their neighbors. upland prairie just south of the Missouri River that would But Doniphan also assured them of his support in finding later become the site of a great city). At this juncture the a land where they might live in peace. Thereafter, Militia Colonel responsible for that area called out a force negotiations with the Mormons, represented by the to subdue the violence and quickly arranged for a intelligent and practical John Corrill, led to agreement on negotiated truce between the parties. However, as soon as upper Ray County as that place. Doniphan then promptly the Momons surrendered their arms, the troops j oined the led the effort in the State Capital at Jefferson City to mob in terrorizing the now defenseless Brethren. Some confirm just such an outcome which before year end nonparticipant locals may have approved of the outrage, resulted in the creation of Caldwell County. He was but others were shocked at the barbarism of it. As for the nonetheless disappointed and uncomfortable with the Saints it had now became clear that neither local authority solution because, rather than effecting a result wherein nor the State of Missouri could be counted on for Caldwell's northern border would extend to Iowa, protectionunderthelaw.Thusinthewinterof1833/1834, political compromise reduced the plan for the new most Mormons, fearing for their lives, left their lands and county's land area by two thirds, while creating Daviess other property and fled Jackson County to the north where County in the process. That decision by the state would they crossed the great Missouri into adjacent Clay prove disastrous but a short time later. County. This Diaspora was no doubt encouraged by most However, all went well for awhile. Non-Mormons of their neighbors and certainly by Jackson County were not precluded from owning the land, but as the resident and Missouri Lieutenant Governor, forty one year Saints moved quickly to take possession of Caldwell, old Lilbum Boggs. Boggs, who had earlier been the first most of the few old settlers already there sold and moved clerk of Jackson County, had on. And with this new apparently himself had migration, peace seemed as last to settle on the affairs of the disagreements with the Brethren Sidney Rigdon in his fiery and defiant over issues involving property. remarks at Far West on the 4th of July Saints. So once again a massive stated that They moved quickly to lay relocation of the Saints was ... /.n fhaf coLmfry the Saints would out a new city which they called underway. But soon, their Clay brook no intrusion from outsiders and Far West. This location which County neighbors, welcoming at would` indeed defend to the death their became the county seat was first, began to worry at the sheer right to be there. situated on a beautiful upland numbers of Mormons in their plateaujust south of Shoal creek midst. By this time there were and approximately sixteen miles perhaps 5,000 of them scattered throughout north due west of Haun's Mill. The Centrum was about four Missouri, which though not significant in a state with a miles inside Caldwell's western border with Clinton total population at the time of some 250,000, was viewed County... as was Haun's Mill equally distant from the with downright alarm in any county where their streaming eastern border with Livingston. And although the entirety arrival very quickly caused the locals to fear becoming the of Caldwell was meant to be theirs, that stretch of Shoal minority. And so once again, trouble waited but a short Creek and its environs, centered as it was in the county, time to visit tongues and ears. seemed most to quantify the sense of community and By the spring of 1836, unrest in Clay County identity t he a rriving S aints h ad o f t hemselves. 8 y in id demanded attention. The locals became convinced that a 1838, in Far West, broad streets were laid out, a temple Saints invasion would soon ovemm everyone and site located and perhaps as many as three thousand people everything in the county, after which they would conduct had settled into newly built log homes, workshops, places affairs as they pleased. In mid-June several hundred of trade and farms. It was by any standard a remarkable people met in Liberty to discuss options. The crowd was achievement. But for the Saints, as with earlier experience first stirred up by a Jackson County resident who, having this idyllic state would not remain. had earlier experience with the Mormons, castigated the The temple's four giant comer stones (taken from sect and recommended that his neighbors force their Shoal Creek) were laid on July 1,1838 and on the fourth MISSOUF3I MOF3MON FRONTIER FOUNDATION Number34 Ma t 2004 Pa of that month a great celebration took place at Far West. At about this same time the Brethren began an There were many events that day but the most talked aggressive settlement policy o#ts!.c7e Ccz/cJwe// Cow#fy. about was a speech made by Sidney Rigdon, a staunch This was seen by the Missourians (including Will defender of all things Mormon and Joseph Smith in Doniphan) as an ominous violation of an earlier particular. His fiery and defiant remarks were apparently understanding that they resist migrating to areas outside meant as an LDS position statement in support of a policy the zone set aside for them, and certainly not without that j.# /foczf cow#/ry the Saints would brook no intrusion approval of a substantial majority of the existing settlers. from outsiders and would indeed defend to the death their Nonetheless, there were as least two motivations driving right to be there. His comments were widely circulated in the policy. In the first place, Smith, on arriving in area newspapers and for the Missourians, reaction was Missouri, immediately proclaimed that saints from generally one of concern. Rigdon's statements were everywhere should 7!ow gczffeer /foere. This was not a viewed as unnecessarily provocative, especially given that suggestion but rather a command...a command to be most non-Mormons believed pandemic anger to have discounted on risk of excommunication. So what had been abated and agreeable assimilation to be underway. Then a trickle of immigration now became a torrent. Secondly, too, throughout earlier conflict the press had been and s omewhat derivative of the first, land values were generally sympathetic to the plight of the Saints, falling because some Missouri settlers (in an early version especially concerning constitutional rights. But now of twentieth century w¢z.je /I.g¢f), began practically to newspaper editors seemed to draw a deep breath and stand in line to sell, for fear of being the last to do so. So openly question this new appearance of hostility and in the surrmer of 1838, the Mormons laid out the town militancy. site of Adam-ondi-Ahman (also called Diahman) in Corrmensurate with those odd remarks of July 4, was Daviess County to the north. It very quickly attained a an undercurrent of discomfort which had been evident in population exceeding that of nearby Gallatin, the county the Saints community for some time. The arrival of seat. Also, in July they purchased half the city lots Joseph S mith Jr. in F ar W est the previous S pring h ad available in the new town of Dewitt in Carroll County to brought into confluence several elements as recipe for the southeast. This was a significant strategic move trouble. To begin with, all followers of the prophet because the t own b oasted a fine landing s ite for b oats accepted the book of Mormon as inspired revelation and plying the Missouri River. Further, it was near the most, therefore, also accorded him carte blanche in all confluence of the Missouri and Grand Rivers, therein things temporal. Others, however, could intellectually providing water access to Diahman situated some sixty and emotionally separate the messenger from the miles upstream on the Grand. And finally, small groups of message. The dissenters were of course of this persuasion Mormon famers began quietly settling in every and were most critical when judging Smith to have contiguous county around and beyond Caldwell. Thus it strayed from his own teachings. Thus, when because of soon became apparent to all that the Saints would very dissent within his church in Ohio, the (perhaps by now quickly become a dominant regional political force. And paranoid) prophet hastened to Far West, his arrival very the elections scheduled for August in Gallatin would quickly led to harsh treatment of dissenters, real and provide a precedent for future expectation. suspect. A number of church officials were Daviess County's first ever election promised to test excommunicated and forced to leave the county...some the civility of the process. The candidate slate included fearing for their lives. This was done under the justifying no Mormons, but all knew that the Saints' habit of voting notion that the majority spirit of the community should so e# a/oc could swing the election. Thus, regardless of rule...a concept I shall touch on later. But the purge gave personal opinions about the Brethren, those rurming for pause t o s ome of t he P rophet' s e arliest and s taunchest office openly courted that vote. But on election moming supporters. the liberal distribution of whisky exacerbated a jealously To carry out these dictates of church leadership, an already extant among the candidates, and it was enforcement alliance called f¢e Dcz#z./es came about. determined that no Mormon should be allowed the Some chroniclers claim the group to have evolved as a franchise. This may seem absurd to us but in Jacksonian subset of the larger openly altruistic organization by the Missouri it would have been considered a perfectly same name; albeit agreeing that the adjunct quickly reasonable way to avoid what was viewed as potential molphed into a semi-secret paramilitary organization unfairness in the political selection process. Well, as the capable of terrorizing dissenters and non-Mormon Momons arrived to vote, a donnybrook ensued of course. neighbors alike. And the man most linked to this new A few dozen men proceeded to break as many of each Danite militancy was a recent Mormon convert and other's heads as possible with fists, clubs and crockery; surgeon by the name of Dr. Sampson Avard. but fortunately none were fatally injured. And after e8 Number34 Ma t 2004 MISSOURI MORMON FF`ONTIER FOUNDATION exhaustion the Missourians repaired to their saloon to co#fde#ce that z.# Ccz/dwe//, convicting Smith was continue strategy while the Saints hurried to the safety of impossible, regardless the crime. So the concern of the Diahman, fearing reprisal against their farms and families. Missourians escalated in fear that the Saints would become a scourge by retreating to Caldwell on any occasion where they might have broken the law Of the influences contributing to the tumultuous elsewhere. Then too, outlandish rumors began to spread events yet to come, one surely overshadowed all others that thousands of Mormons were preparing for siege and combined; and it is this. From the time of the Prophet's battle; that they had induced the Indian tribes to join in; arrival in Missouri in March,1838, rumor was issued as and that they had murdered numerous emissaries who had common currency and inflation ruled the day. Thereafter, entered Caldwell to determine the truth of intentions a resultant pandemic of fear, there. distrust and hatred would To make matters worse, forecast an irreversible From the time of the Prophet's arrival Mormon dissenters were behavioral shift for all in Missouri in March,1838, rumorwas providing gossipy affldavits concerned. issued as common currency and which fueled the nonsense. It is For example, word soon inflation ruled the day. appropriate here to note that in reached Far West that several regard to these times, the Saints had been brutally interested reader fmds with murdered in the election-day melee and that the surprising frequency references to the signing of affidavits Missourians were prohibiting their burial. So in a context sworn ostensibly to support genuine matters of fact. But later to be played out in countless B-Western Movies more often than not the statements would represent either enter now Joseph Smith and a hundred or so armed men an egregious and self serving stretching of the truth, or riding to investigate. 0 n arrival in Gallatin ( about 2 0 indeed, claims so outrageous as to qualify as whoppers by miles north of Far West) Smith was surprised and relieved any standard. Yet at the time such would have been to discover a different truth. Nonetheless, he went to the widely accepted with little question. Likewise surprising trouble of having local Justice of the Peace Adam Black is the number of treaties or other memoranda of sign an affidavit committing to uphold the law in agreementwhichdevelopedbetweentheopposingparties. ministering the peace. Within days Black would be in These documents would likely as not have been breached Richmond Gay County Seat) complaining to Circuit before the ink dried, but they were undertaken anyway. Court Judge (later, Governor) Austin King of intimidation It's as if in the very exercising of such ritual, there was by five hundred armed Mormons. Joseph Smith later appreciated by all involved, the solemnity of the moment claimed that Black's signing was entirely voluntary, and and a keen desire to leave for posterity a written record probably it was. Although as Judge Black pointed out in cornmonorzwing that ``we were here then, and this is effect, to "volunteer" signing was a decision easily made what happened" . when surrounded by a horde of restless horsemen poised But Smith and the rest of the accused finally agreed to with guns laid across saddles. attend a preliminary hearing in Daviess County on the However, before leaving Daviess County Mormon condition that an outside j.udge preside. The hearing was leaders and responsible settler citizens met and agreed to held within half a mile of the Caldwell County line where obey the laws all round; so a cordial spirit seemed to the Prophet's men waited in readiness should they be accompany Smith and his men as they departed for home. needed. Representing the Saints were attorneys Atchison Unknown to them at the time was that Judge Black, along and D oniphan. T he p rosecution b rought b efore J udge with the local sheriff and others, were then on their way Austin King's court only Judge Black as withess, while to Richmond to obtain writs of complaint against them. Atchison presented several Saints and friends to support The Daviess County Sheriff returned with warrants of Smith's contention of non-belligerent intent. hterested arrest for Joseph Smith and others. The principal charge observers from surrounding counties believed that a was that of crossing a county line to incite riot. But a strong case was made on behalf of the Momons, and standoff developed. Smith refused to be tried in Daviess communicated such to friends and area newspapers alike. County and for good reason. . .the probability of a fair trial Nonetheless Judge King held the case over for was nonexistent. He did however agree to be tried in consideration by a grand jury. This was seen by the Caldwell, to which of course the Daviess people objected. outsiders in attendance as King's politically sawy desire Daviess County authorities understood the difficulty of to temporarily placate the mob, while to the Saints it extraditing any Mormon from a county in which they held furthered a conviction that justice would forever be majority; but there would also have been czbs'o/w/e impossible in Missouri. Then too, immediately after the MISSOURI MORMON FRONTIER FOUNDATION Number34 Ma t2004 Pa hearing, Daviess citizens began sending information to frightened settlers to sell out, often at huge discounts to area newspapers (which often printed the claims) that earlier value. By October 1, the vigilantes acted by hordes of armed Momons were in open rebellion. And attacking the now fortified town where the Mormons were matters certainly weren't helped by Sheriff William preparing for siege. Skirmishes continued for several Morgan' s contention that other Saints continued to resist days while both sides awaited reinforcements. Because of arrest for alleged crimes relating to the Judge Black affair. continuing rumors of Mormon lawlessness, several On hearing of these things, vigilante groups in hundred armed men from adjacent counties soon joined neighboring counties began to gather and combine for the vigilantes. But others, observers who traveled to the action. scene to get at the truth, found the Saints entirely in a A short time later, in early September, the Mormons defensive position, begging for peace and praying for detained three men at Far West after capturing a wagon deliverance by state militia. A few days later, a few load of armament which the drivers were attempting to Mormon reinforcements entered the now desperate town deliver from Richmond to Daviess (and carroll) vigilantes and General Parks arrived with troops from Ray County. while passing unnoticed through Caldwell County. He also ordered a subordinate officer to muster state Mormon leaders wrote to Judge King of the detention, and militia from Carroll County. But few menj oined that in return received a letter ordering that the men be effort and those who did, soon defected with their released. But by this time King was also receiving (from commander to the vigilantes. Parks wrote to General all sides) so many petitions for restoration of order in Doniphan requesting reinforcements from Clay citing that Daviess that he asked General David Atchison to call out he had become suspect of the sentiments of his own the militia. Atchison decided to form two companies troops. He also requested of the Governor his immediate under the commands of Generals Will Doniphan and presence hoping that it might help. At the same time the Hiram Parks. Doniphan left immediately for Far West to Mormons sent an emissary to Jefferson City with a similar effect release of the three Waggoners, which was plea. The observers now acted as intermediaries to attempt accomplished without incident. He then proceeded to compromise and avoid bloodshed. It was suggested that Daviess County with orders to disperse armed camps of the Mormons sell their properties to the Missourians at ten Missourians and Saints who now faced each other percent over original cost, plus moving expense out of the apparently ready for battle. After talking separately with county, in return for the promise never to return. The leaders of each camp, the General bivouacked between Saints resisted until discovering on the return of their man them so as to prevent immediate hostilities. The next day from the Capital that the governor had responded with General Atchison arrived with enough troops to quiet comments to the effect that the fight was between the tempers all round. It was then worked out that those Mormons and the mob and that they must settle it as best Mormons not earlier included with Joseph Smith in the they could. This position by Boggs can be seen as equally Judge Black hearing would immediately appear before a uncaring and calculating. After all fee wczs cz po/i./I.cz.o# court of inquiry. This resulted in several men being held and knew that any action taken in obvious support of the over for the next convening of a grand jury, after which plight of the Mormons would lose many votes in western the crowds dispersed. Atchison wrote to Governor Missouri. Then too, the situation for the Saints had been Lilbum Boggs (elected to that office in 1836) that the further compromised by General Parks' removal of his situation was, for the moment, under control. But the troops to Richmond because o f i ncreasing incidents of General, a keen observer of men and their intentions, and their open rebellion. understanding clearly the power and mystique of the So by October 12, the now beaten and broken spirited State's highest office, pleaded with the Governor to Saints sold out and trudged off to what they hoped would personally intervene lest a full scale war break out on the be safety in Daviess and Caldwell Counties. But Carroll slightest provocation from either side. The Governor County vigilantes, feeling flush with victory, then decided declined. that a wise course would be to run them out of Daviess and possibly Caldwell as well. Time was of the essence for such action because of the pending transfer of title But soon, true to Atchison' s fears, the Carroll County from the Government to homesteaders beginning vigilantes on returning home from Daviess immediately November 12. David Atchison was away on business so accosted the Momons in Dewitt and gave them but days once again Generals Parks and Doniphan began mustering to leave the county. The terrified Saints petitioned the troops for the march to Daviess. And General Atchison Governor pleading that they had been threatened with once more implored the Governor to personally intervene, extemination ...all of them. Nonetheless, immigrants although by now he had probably given up on any continued streaming into the area, causing many possibility of help from the feckless Boggs. el0 Number34 Ma t 2004 MISSOURI MOF{MON FRONTIEF} FOUNDATION

h Far West, when in mid October it was heard that a to known enemies, but especially sad was the mob from Carroll intended marching on Daviess, the indiscriminate lawlessness practiced as well against the Mormons prepared for battle with Joseph Smith now property of Missourians who had made every effort t o personally (for the first time) in command. It was said befriend them. that he intended to take the Governor at his word and Retaliation was soon in coming. Raiding parties of would deal with the vigilantes once and for all. Missourians quickly began to chase outlying Mormon In calling his men to him, Smith struck a tone of farm families from their homes and into the snow, burning exasperation and rage. He denounced all Missourians everything behind them. Indeed, the stom had halted (including militia, the General Parks' intention to generals and the governor) as march a significant number part of the mob. He requested Commencing on the 17th of October, the of troops to Daviess. He that all Saints join in the weather turned very cold and eighteen decided to visit there alone, effort to destroy the vigilantes inches of snow fell which halted the and on arriving in Diahman, and proclaimed that those intentions of all, including the movement was stunned to encounter who didn't should have their of vigilantes from Carroll. And because of such large numbers of armed property seized in support of the storm the locals were well forewarned, Mormons and to note that a those willing to fight. 4#d he so the town of Ga]latin was nearly state of civil war existed. He instructed his warriors to live deserted when, a couple of days later,150 then returned to Richmond to off the land once in Daviess armed Mormons raided the place taking await orders from Doniphan County...to take whatever every foodstuff and property not nailed after advising the General of they needed from the down, and burning the rest. his total loss as to what to do. Missourians there. Smith's After several days the impassioned plea encouraged overwhelming force of the the devious Sampson Avard to separately instruct the men Momons had effectively seized control of all of Daviess to lay waste everything, whether needed or not. On the County and Smith returned to Far West with his night the Mormons were to leave, a very concerned triumphant troops. Some Mormons though, in particular General Doniphan arrived in Far West on his way to John Corrill, had become increasingly concerned with Daviess. In light of the volatility of the situation his Mormon militancy. Corrill was a man neither awed nor company was small and, he feared, probably mutinous. intimidated by Joseph Smith and was always quick to However, because of his concern for the growing alam in openly criticize what he felt to be waywardness either in Daviess County, he instructed the Mormons to proceed to church policy or action. And now he pointed out to the Diahman in small unamed groups and await further Prophet his grave concern about what might be brought instructions. General Parks was at this time gathering upon them because of their actions in Daviess County. troops in Richmond for a march to Daviess where he was Smith in response was unperturbed. to meet Doniphan. But by the time for leaving Far West, Soon rumors of the depredations in Daviess County General Doniphan realized his troops to be entirely (elevated probably with each telling) spread prairie fire unreliable, so the disgusted commander marched them fashion throughout the region, and alarmed citizens began instead back to Clay County. Anyway, the Mormons to gather from all quarters. Raiding parties, often ignored the General's instructions and traveled to including rogue remnants of state militia, began to prey on Diahman with hundreds of armed men to be joined there known Mormons in counties surrounding Caldwell. by enough more to make five hundred total. Then oddly, General Doniphan, commander of all militia troops in a most unseasonable stomi occured. Commencing on the Northwest Missouri, deplored these unauthorized and 17th of october, the weather tuned very cold and eighteen extralegal actions, and from Liberty complained of it to inches of snow fell which halted the intentions of all, the Governor. But the Governor was at the same time including the movement of vigilantes from Carroll. And receiving a steady stream of petitions describing in detail because of the storm the locals were well forewarned, so the horrors of Daviess County. And to make matters the town of Gallatin was nearly deserted when, a couple worse, by now Generals Parks, Atchison and Doniphan of days later, 150 armed Mormons raided the place taking were men caught in the middle of suspicious distrust from every foodstuff and property not nailed down, and all sides. The Saints thought the militia's efforts to have burning the rest. Thereafter, the raiding and pillaging was been too little, too late and of little effect in protecting continued by men, who having suffered years of pent-up them;whilemanyMissouriansthoughttheGeneralsmuch frustration, now seemed to enjoy participating in the most to cozy with the Mormons and their cause. Concurrently, egregious acts. They obviously delighted in bringing pain incendiary panic developed on knowledge that affidavits MISSOURI MOF3MON FRONTIER FOUNDATION Number34 Ma t 2004 Pa

signed at Richmond by two Mormon dissenters claimed If you can increase your force, you are authorized to do that the Saints planned to invade Ray County and so, to any extent you may think necessary''. Those forty thereafter the entire State...indeed that Joseph Smith had seven words would become an undying embarrassment designs on the entire nation. Most damming of all was the for the state of Missouri, and would earn for Boggs assertion that Smith held himself, his followers and his (correctly I think) the title of Absolutely Worst Governor vision to be above the law of the land. Hysteria soon of Record. His action had set a table for the open-season, reigned as everyone discussed the necessity of first murderous participation of every troublemaker, bigot and protectingtheborderbetweenRayandCaldwellCounties. malcontent who had grievances, real or imagined, against Samuel Bogart volunteered to lead a company for the the hapless Mormons. Immediately a reign of mob terror intelligence task and received immediate whtten authority was set loose on Momon residents outside Far West and from General Atchison to do so. Mormons lived on both three days later the murder of eighteen defenseless people sides of the county line so Atchison was careful to (with an additional number wounded) took place at the authorize o#fy the prevention of any armed Caldwell hamlet of Haun's Mill on Shoal Creek, possibly a direct Mormons attempting breach of the boundary with Ray. result of the order, and worse, dy cr rogwe mz./I.f!.cz oc/f o/ Bogart was a Ray County settler and Methodist Preacher £z.vz.#grfo# Cow#fy. And surely more was planned. who had served as a militia captain under General Parks Among the dead were an elderly veteran of the American in the Carroll County incident. He was also known to be Revolution and two boys not yet in their teens. One of a fervent Mormon hater and prone to insubordination as these children was dispatched with the gun put to his head well...just the right man, of course, to deal with as he pleaded for life while sitting next to his dead father! heightened tensions between frightened people living in After the attack and in haste, returning terrified residents that zone. Quickly, and absolutely without authorization, interred the frozen bodies in an abandoned well and fled he began disarming Mormon settlers on both sides of the the area. county line and driving them from their homes. Then on And but a couple of days later events would discovering two Mormon spies at one farm, he threatened crescendo with confrontation at Far West, but in a very to execute them, and took them to his camp along with the real sense the Haun's Mill massacre represented a settlers' son. The family was ordered to be gone by the shocking climax to the story. After that loss of innocent next moming or be shot. Late that evening word of life, clear heads on both sides of the conflict began to Bogart's action reached Far West and by midnight fifty worry about how it would all play out. So again as tipping men were mustered to immediately ride toward rescue of point, it was a moment when Joseph Smith himself surely the three men. Before dawn the Saints approached understood the futility of his cause in Missouri. And a Bogart's camp on Crooked River just inside Ray County century later it would become the stuff of nightmares for and near the southwest comer of Caldwell. Soon a small boy who lived near that place. Indeed to this day thereafter a fierce battle erupted on the creek's banks I cannot think of those scenes without experiencing an which resulted in the wounding of perhaps twenty men uneasy sadness. And for postscript there was the and the deaths of four. But the speed and ferocity of the following s trange addendum. I n June,1976, M issouri action led participants on both sides to later estimate the Governor (now U.S . Senator) Kit Bond, in a proclamation number of casualties to be several times the actual. One of healing and regret (and 138 years of embarrassment of those killed was David Patten, Mormon Apostle and perhaps), would rescind Boggs's order. leader of his troops. When the firing was over the Missourians had retreated across the creek and the Saints returned to Far West. Whether the Mormons knew they As for Boggs, Governor Lilbum Boggs...what on had attacked state authorized troops is a point argued to earth was he thinking? The intent of the order left no this day. room for finesse. hdeed the very word Exfe777„.#czfj.o# Throughout October, 1838, rumors were escalating calls forth images of the eradication of vemin, not human and affidavits true (and otherwise) were being sworn beings. It was certainly known that he was no ffiend of which claimed various colorful atrocities and outrages the Mormons and that his frustration had reached a point committed by the Mormons. On the 27th of that Month of exasperation. But regardless ofpersonal feeling, what Missouri G ovemor L ilbum 8 oggs issued h is i nfamous a disgrace that the chief executive of a state should issue executive order to Major General John 8. Clark, the head such an unchallenged missive toward a people most of of the Howard County Militia. It read in part, "772e whom were, after all, citizens of the United States of Mormons must be treated as enemies and must be America. . .people supposedly in command of all the rights exterminated or driwenfrom the state, if necessary for the attendant that status, as guaranteed by the constitution. public good. Their outrages are beyond all description. And he did so based on what? What were these outrages el2 Number34 Ma t 2004 MISSOURI MORMON FRONTIER FOUNDATION beyond all description? The answer is, of course, that agreement to a subordinate position given his strength of whatever the level of violence and lawlessness, its personality and prior militia experience. exaggerated promotion to the Governor would seem to Nonetheless, by October 31, approximately 2500 some to perhapsf inally demand his personal and involved militia troops were positioned just to the south of Far assessment before proceeding. And while determining if West. Joseph Smith, fearful of the potential for a slaughter the czsswmecJ insurrection could (or should) be dealt with of Saints, sent Messrs. John Corrill and George Hinkle (a in the criminal courts, Boggs surely had other options, Caldwell County Militia Captain) to negotiate, with declaration of martial law for example. That he was authority to accept any terns short of battle. General playing politics with rumor had been ascertained by more Lucas insisted on speaking for the State and quickly than one cool-headed source. But that he proceeded as he brought the S aints ' representatives to understand that only did, ignoring all but unsubstantiated inflammatory claims immediate and unconditional surrender would be is, I think, a searing indictment of Boggs' fitness for the available, with terms c7z.c/cz/ed dy fez.in . . . forget negotiation. office. Then too, the Govemor's trigger happy In which regard, it was demanded that church leaders be management style wasn't just limited to a method for handed over for trial...that those who had taken up arms dealing with the Mormon situation. A year later he would have their property confiscated...and that all others must again call out the militia and threaten war with the Iowa surrender all ams and leave the State immediately. Lucas Territory over cz d!.spw/ec7 bow#dczry! ! One may ask why agreed to a request that a Mormon response be deferred the federal government was not then available to counter until the next moming on the condition that Smith and such actions, but there were at least two reasons. In that four others be quickly produced as hostages pending the antebellum period (and as Joseph Smith would leam later decision. A short time later, Hinkle returned with the in personal e ntreaties w ith t he P resident o f the U nited Prophet and others as demanded. But rather than the States), States' rights reigned supreme and no politician respect Smith expected, he found that Lucas refused to of national stature would flirt with the contrary. . .as indeed speak with him. And as taunts of menacing troops we argue to this day the efficacy of such intrusions. But enclosed about them, the Mormons were left in the open on the other side as well, it is unlikely that Boggs would during a night of miserable weather. Also during the have seriously considered a request that federal assistance night, many of the Mormons involved in the Crooked be sought to restore order. To ha`ve done so would surely River incident and others as well (some 70 total) slipped have been political suicide in Jacksonian Era Missouri, quietly from Far West and escaped to the Iowa territory. while making the Governor appear an impotent laughing The next moming Smith sent word to Far West to stock in the bargain. But let us now return to event surrender after being informed by General Lucas that the sequence. altemative was extermination...a threat which could have The concerns which had led to the Govemor's been easily carried out given that the militia outnumbered draconian measure had also prompted assembly of more the Saints forces three to one. Smith by this time that 2000 militia for a march on Far West to deal with the suspected betrayal by everyone including his own men. anticipated Mormon breakout. Troops of Generals And the later disaffection of Hinkle and Corrill and their Atchison and Doniphan were joined by those of General testimony against him in preliminary hearings, confimed Samuel Lucas of Jackson County. But it was leamed at it for him. However, the intractable position of General this time that Boggs would place Ma].or General John 8. Lucas from the very beginning left no hope for any Clark of Howard County in overall charge of the outcome other than that which transpired, so Smith's campaign while at the same time relieving Atchison of anger seems wasted. Later that moming, hundreds of field command, which General Lucas then assumed. stunned and saddened Mormon troops marched into the Doniphan, knowing of Lucas' previous dealings with the center of a square formed by militia and laid down their Saints, apparently contemplated leaving in disgust with ams. It was over. David Atchison, but was talked into staying in hope that That night of November 1,1838, Lucas held a court his might be a voice of reason in what was anticipated by martial for several members of the Momon leadership. all to spin into major conflict. These transactions are of This was of course illegal because the leaders were curiosity to me for a couple of reasons. I find no civilians, and martial law had not been declared by the reference in the record of Lucas' previous command of Governor. Little is known of the actual proceeding but troops anywhere, for any reason. And oddly, his rank of perhaps as many as twenty militia officers were in Brigadier was not superior to that of Doniphan. Too, attendance. It I.s known that General Doniphan spoke Governor Boggs claimed later that he neither placed forcefully on behalf of the Saints, as did George Hinkle, Lucas in charge, nor did he issue orders to attack Far but conviction was confimed by a majority vote. And West. Finally the mystery is deepened by Doniphan's what followed then was perhaps the strangest transaction MISSOURI MORMON FRONTIEF3 FOUNDATION Number34 Ma t 2004 Pa of the entire episode. be lost on the reader because Avard is the man most The trial concluded about 11:00 p.in. whereupon linked to promoting and leading the renegade Danite band General Lucas sent orders to General Doniphan that on in lawless acts in Daviess County and elsewhere... some the following moming, he was to escort the seven of which was without the knowledge or approval of prisoners to the town square of Far West at 8:00 a.in. and Joseph Smith. The Mormons were represented by Will execute them by firing squad. At this, Doniphan returned Doniphan and by his effort a third of them were released a strongly worded written response, in which he refused for lack of evidence and most of the rest were released on to have anything to do with it, citing the illegality of the bail. This occasioned an opportunity for most of those trial and his conviction that such action was nothing but charged to quickly leave the state for Illinois. However, cold blooded murder. He also swore before God that he five men charged with murder in the Crooked River would see justice done to Lucas should he have others incident were to be held in Richmond without bail while carry out the sentence. At this, General Lucas backed Joseph Smith, along with his brother Hyrum, Sidney down. Now, Doniphan was a subordinate officer to Lucas Rigdon and three others were charged with treason and in this campaign so the question is begged as to this sent to Liberty, also without bail. The leaders later egregious insubordination and Lucas' acquiescence to it. complained of Doniphan's incompetence, but in truth he In all likelihood there was politics in the mix. probably held back key witnesses for the recz/ fr!.cz/ to As pointed out by Doniphan's biographer Roger follow. He was an accomplished criminal defense lawyer Launius, by trial's end Lucas may have understood the and certainly wouldn't have wished to show his hand for impropriety of the entire undertaking and was searching a legal argument strategy at a preliminary hearing. for a way to extricate himself from the criticism sure to Smith's trial was to await the convening of the next follow. The thinking goes like this: If Doniphan (known circuit court in March, 1839. The expected delay friend of the Saints) carried out the order, then acceptance troubled Will Doniphan, so by late January, 1839, he of its propriety may be more easily won. But should he obtained a wit of habeas corpus (show of cause for refuse, then Lucas could at least report to the Governor retention) hearing in Liberty. Doniphan defended all that he (Lucas) had done his best. Whether this was the except Sidney Rigdon, but was unable to secure the scenario is problematic but certainly General Doniphan release of any of his clients. However, for the occasion, was never called to task for insubordination, and General an apparently very ill Rigdon, representing himself, was Lucas later denied in a report to the Governor that a thal brought i nto the c ourtroom on his b ed. F eebly I ifting even took place. Thus with business finished, Lucas, himself a s b est h e c ould, he s poke p assionately o f t he Doniphan and their troops left Far West on November 2. great suffering in his service for mankind, for the Saints And in a twist of farce, two days later General Clark, the and for God. So convincing was he that at the conclusion assigned campaign leader, showed up with his 1500 of the oration there was scarcely a dry eye in the court and troops. History does not record if the General then he was released immediately. And Will Doniphan, inquired as to where everyone had gone. himself no slouch as a jury bending orator, later claimed However, before leaving for Independence with seven it to be the finest courtroom performance he'd ever had Mormon leaders as prisoners, General Lucas demanded the pleasure to witness. Very soon thereafter, Rigdon that all the Saints sign over their properties to the state recovered sufficiently to hastily remove himself to along with signed affidavits that they were cJoj.#g so Illinois, and it is assumed that on his crossing of the great vo/w#/¢rz./)/. This action (later detemined to be illegal) Mississippi the miracle of good health was soon restored. was not readily accepted by some who were then knocked senseless by irate militia troops. But much to the surprise of the church leadership they were treated well while in The story now wound down with a series of events Jackson County. Two weeks later they were taken to that seemed to underscore a desire on the part of both Richmond in Ray County to appear in pretrial before settler citizens and Missouri politicians to quietly release Judge Austin King. Many other Saints were also the problem and its memory. In which regard, subpoenaed for this hearing which created something of immediately after the capitulation at Far West many area a circus atmosphere with hundreds of locals in attendance newspapers demanded (and the Missouri senate agreed to) to see firsthand if the seventy or so celebrated Mormons a thorough investigation of Boggs' order and the events it had homs. At the hearing the most damaging evidence inspired. Both Congressmen Atchison and Corrill came from Sampson Avard who had turned States' addressed the Missouri house of a similar need. But the evidence in return for immunity from prosecution. Govemor's executive order remained in force, so the Indeed, were it not for his testimony, the state may have Saints moved throughout the winter of 1839 toward the had difficulty indicting anyone. The irony of this cannot Mississippi River and into Illinois. It was a trek of nearly el4 Number34 Ma t 2004 MISSOURI MOF}MON FRONTIER FOUNDATION

200 miles for perhaps 12,000 people: And a leader (and irony that none of these men were taken to task for leaner) for this great undertaking was a man whose name decisions which led to so much hostility and suffering. would later become synonymous with migration and h a sense, parallel crisis events provided book ends Mormonism, 38 year old Brigham Young. for the brief sojourn of the LDS people in the American Then too, for the Saints, no altemative presented itself frontier of 1831-1846. Because of extemal dissent, the because the Missouri House of Representatives had voted destruction of a Mormon printing press in Jackson to table the motion until the f ollowing July .... which as County, Missouri in 1833, foretold the end of a possible everyone knew would be after the bulk of the Mormons life for the Brethren in Missouri. And because of intemal had left the state. So no such inquiry was ever made. dissent, the destruction of a Momon printing press in Also, in April,1839, Joseph Smith, Jr. and his fellow Nauvoo, Illinois in 1844 foretold the end of life for Joseph prisoners escaped while being transported to central Smith Jr. and his dream. Thereafter the movement was Missouri on a change of venue.„ escaped to Illinois when splintered with most Saints eventually proceeding west to their guards fell asleep in a drunken stupor. Certainly, settle in a far away land about which no one else cared. given such celebrated prisoners and the previous years of And in ost o f the few who remained would later c ome brouhaha, it is revealing that Missouri authorities never together to evolve into something quite different than was attempted extradition. After this, the Saints began the envisioned by the founder. arduous and lengthy legal process to recover their Missouri property...a frustration that generally went nowhere. And it was during this time, too, that the It is my personal view that history was better served timbers of Far West were lost to other use, Haun's Mill by having the bulk of the Brethren eventually remove was lost to flood, and Mormon cemeteries were lost to the themselves to the far off utah Territory, notwithstanding plow. Indeed, it's as that the attendant isolation though destiny had decreed would provide demonizing that all memorial trace of ln reviewing events of the LDS grist for a mill of popular dime- the LDS people, fAz.a movement's infancy there is little novel fiction for at least the peculiar people, stl"xprty question that there were things about next century. Because in disappear into the wind and these people, these strange people, that Tea.1rty the early church was soil of Caldwell County. eventually upset nearly every outsider JosepA Smz.ffo Jr. with all the However, once again with whom they came in contact; baggage and lightning rod the Saints had started anew because Missouri was not alone in its sentiment that entailed. Thus, in Illinois, creating a place summary treatment of the early even before the Illinois called Nauvoo on a Mormons. experiment, even had they promontory jutting into found safety and a substantive east bank of the Mississippi peace at Far West...even had just across from uppermost northeast Missouri. Here they they remained strictly within the confines of Caldwell built brick houses and a beautiful west-facing temple on County... it would have been temporary at best. At the the highest ground. But, as before, it was not to be. h time, Mormonism was surely a growth industry (indeed 1844, because of dissent, there was destruction of still is), and in Missouri, their numbers were increasing property which led to the jailing of Joseph Smith and his much faster than was that of the general population. More brother Hyrum in nearby Carthage. They were murdered space would soon have been needed which, with an that same day by a mob and with that matyrdom began overarching political ascendancy, could have quickened the final chapter for the Saints in the new country. a combustible mix of distrust and hatred just volatile Prior to October,1838, one crisis event after another enough to boil over from Caldwell County and directly had created confrontation between the Saints and their into the embrace of regional, or even statewide civil war. neighbors. But thereafter, and in quick succession, So, too, I think it best that most of those who remained or tipping points which tuned confrontation into disaster returned to Missouri were of the Reorganized Church of began as signature events in which the leaders involved Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the RLDS). This sect, were later said to have acted without proper authority. led for more than half a century by Smith's son Joseph Such were the actions of Samuel Bogart prior to the battle Smith 3rd, rejected outright many of the more arcane of Crooked River... the plundering in Daviess County by beliefs and practices of their brothers in Utah. And Mormon Danites led by Sampson Avard. . .and the military importantly the RLDS made no effort to grzffeer in confrontation and resulting actions taken at Far West by concentrated numbers. Indeed, in the ensuing century and General Samuel Lucas. And if true, it is then of supreme a halfthis group (now called Community of christ) has by MISSOURI MORMON FRONTIER FOUNDATION Number 34 Ma t 2004 Pa all accounts integrated quietly into the societal view the wky I.f A c[ppe#ed. Although I reviewed few mainstream. original sources, inquiry as basis for this monograph led In reviewing events of the LDS movement's infancy to materials as diverse as family oral history, internet there is little question that there were things about these commentaries, biographies of principals and scholarly people, these strange people, that eventually upset nearly works of ancillary assessment. Perhaps all serious studies every outsider with whom they came in contact; because of the events can be (and have been) criticized for the Missouri was not alone in its summary treatment of the choice of weight given differing meticulously gathered early Mormons. In New York, in Ohio and in Illinois the matters of fact. 8 ut I think this somewhat misses the story,thoughperhapsnotasegregious,wasverymuchthe point because the story is, after all, very complex. In any same. They were clannish, and though palpably case, I prefer treatments such as that evidenced by the Christian, were thought to display that they, as apeccj/I.czr thoughtful and comprehensive work of Stephen Lesueur cz#c7 cftose# peop/e, had a superior contract with their titled appropriately, 772e /638 A4:or77!o# wczr I.# Mis'so#rz.. Christian God. At any rate I think (indeed know by way Many of the story-fact details of this essay come from that of family oral history) that many of their neighbors source; the thoroughness of which I suspect will remain dismissed them as fanatics and/or feared them as a the standard for years to come. Too, I was attracted to the religious cult led by a delusional Prophet. Then too, on work because of its compelling thematic argument that it the frontier of that time, infomation flow was constrained was the combustible mix of fundamentally incompatible at best. So perhaps all it would take in any settlement was socio/political, religious and economic ingredients, the harangue of a single bigot, whether from pulpit, stump happening in frontier Missouri at ffecz/ /z."e, that produced or backyard fence, to metastasize a hateful venom a stew determined to simmer toward eruption. throughout the community. Because everywhere they For example, that startling document, the U. S. attempted settlement, their very presence seemed to bring Constitution had been ratified but a few decades before, out the worst in their neighbors. And if that weren't so the United States of the 1830's was a nation still very enough, a half century after the Missouri experience (and much in the throes of its first self-definition. And, too, it as part of an effort to eliminate altogether the practice of is for a reason that the period Zez./gej.j'f is labeled polygamy in the Utah territory), the Congress passed laws /clcdso#j.cl# after the views and practices of a famous which, among other things, revoked the charter of the President. One tenant of this was Andrew Jackson's Mormon Church, authorized seizure of church property treatment and removal of Native American Peoples. And and abrogated various rights of any LDS member failing incorporated in such measures was a widespread sense to swear allegiance to the United States and it's laws .../Ac that the will of the maj.ority should supercede the confines Congress Of the United States Of America! Now that of any messy legal stricture. hdeed, the early Momons wasn't just scratching at a fundamental underpinning of used the same argument within their own community. our Constitution, it was taking a meat axe to it. And And it's a notion still promoted throughout society from worse, the whole nonsense was upheld by the highest time to time. That is to say, when frontier populations court i n the land! 0 ne c an b ut i magine the g hosts o f found themselves offended by circumstance, whether by Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton and Madison commiserating group or individual, they were often unwilling to await (or in disbelief. trust for that matter) the deliberations of law enforcement, Notwithstanding that the Founders (Jeiferson surely) the courts or the State legislature. Add to this the may have found attraction to Joseph Smith's message inability of Missouri's newly minted state government to strange,aberranteven...wellwithintheframeworkoftheir respond promptly and forcefully to conditions of general thinking would have been space for such a belief system unrest, and one had a recipe for mobocracy in times of to flourish with minimum interference. indeed I think crisis. Jefferson and his fellow geniuses would have clearly Thus when a strange cz#dpecz//j.¢r people...a people understood the necessity for pemitting the creative whose beliefs differed markedly from their neighbors, destruction of transforming time to make all final congregated into areas where they were neither decisions concerning the movement. understood nor wanted...all Hell was bound to break Then, too, nearly a century has passed since any loose. And who was guilty? Well, both sides of course. living person either witnessed or participated in the events Local persecutions of the Saints (in Missouri and before) of 1838 in Northwest Missouri. Thus although a myriad finally pushed them to respond in violent and unlawful of materials exists concerning the trouble, the record will ways, with the attack on legitimate State troops, the of necessity remain incomplete concerning the whcl/ general terrorizing of their neighbors and the theft and Aczjzpe#ed. But in some ways I think the kaleidoscope of destruction of property in Daviess County. But this had seventeen decades provides a better lens through which to resulted from years of being pushed, taunted, assaulted el6 Number34 Ma t 2004 MISSOURI MORMON FRONTIER FOUNDATION and forcibly removed from lands and properties ingredients of distaste and prurient superstition about the legitimately theirs. In any event, they had surely suffered ways of the early Mormons. . .but seasoned also perhaps immeasurably more from that which was put upon them by embarrassment for how they were treated. Then too, than was dealt their tormentors in return. And in truth, of for some post 1839 settlers, latent concern for clouded course, only the Mormons were brought to judgment for land deeds may have entered the mix as well. their c riminal a ctivity. T hat n o vigilante member w as In any case, it is as though for more than a hundred ever indicted for murder or other crimes is a clear marker and fifty years silence and denial had conspired to for where the majority of Missourians stood on the issue. perpetuate as valid, only that remembered as negative toward Caldwell's Founding Momons. And to this day, those still of that mind will likely view as betrayal any fJz.a/ory, as so succinctly observed by Napoleon, I.a inquiry resulting in a contrary assessment of 77!crf rniffe so wrz./fe# dy /Ae wz.##ers. But for this story there would be carefully nurtured over generations. And true to human no winners. Regarding the nature, quickest to judge will Mormons' sol.oum in be those disavowed of Missouri, any telling of the I can recall not a single occasion when interest either for facts of tale seems always to lean an older neighbor, acquaintance, or history or of Mormon belief. toward one rendering of a local citizen of Caldwell County When that's the case, no tripartite script; i.e., one responded to questions about the contra argument will suffice, either for the pros, for the Mormon legacy with but an irritable and so be it. cons, or for perhaps the most desire to change the subject. Nonetheless, for my elusive of all, the hand-me- children and grand children down memories of Caldwell (and theirs yet to follow), County families. Certainly, for my family and others as should they hear the tale, cz#d sfoow/d z.f be ffacr/ wfoz.ch J well, there would be but one version, that of the Saints as Aeord, I can but hope that before they swallow it whole, a strange and fanatical cult whose beliefs and actions were they reach for a shaker of salt and go in search of a entirely responsible for upsetting everything in early version wAz.cfe i.a czs /7"e as they need find it true. I can Missouri. It is a view that would dance across the expect nothing more. decades, and it is from personal experience that I can confirm a disdainful cloud would overhang Shoal Creek for generations. For summary, let us here fantasize a bit about On my patemal side the Spidles had famed in arranging to meet with three principals of the drama. Daviess and Caldwell from the late 19th century. And my Were time travel available I'd enjoy an aftermath after- father S amuel ( 1897-1971 )„. a in an g enerally g iven t o dinner conversation in frontier Missouri with Messrs careful judgment in all things and especially in matters Joseph Smith Jr., Alexander William Doniphan and John about which he was not thoroughly appraised, found Corrill. And in full recognition of the difficulty for loathsome anything relating to Mormons or Momonism. twentieth century sensibilities to attempt any valid Once while still a teenager I inquired as to his knowledge assessment of nineteenth century men and their motives, of their history in Daviess County, and for response was I'd nonetheless wish to ascertain the following. treated to an irrational outburst. I never knew why, and I For Smith, to what degree would that personality didn't ask again. Even my grandfather, a kind and reflect a visionary grasp for new religious understanding, generous man if ever there was one, would in o ld age with the attendant heartfelt desire that his people be chuckle with approval on telling of the incident at Haun's nourished by it and left in peace; and altematively, what mill, a place near where he was born but three decades might I see that would display the marmer of a man who after. And finally, for me, from the time of first memory increasingly wished to control the lives of those who until the age of twenty five, when life's adventure would followed him. From Doniphan, I'd want to know of his take me from Missouri forever, I can recall not a single broader view of the Mormon question in Jacksonian era occasion when an older neighbor, acquaintance, or local Missouri. For example, how might he reconcile a strong citizen of Caldwell County responded to questions about desire to fight for and defend the constitutional rights of the Momon legacy with but an irritable desire to change the Saints, while understanding clearly the difficulty the subject. At the time, I thought those reactions a bit inherent in assimilating concentrations of a population strange. And after years of thinking about it I'm but left defined by an unconventional theocracy. And from to consider such residual emotion the product of a Corrill, that wry and affable first-elected Caldwell complex s tew p repared w ith i l1-defined h and-me-down representative, I'd wish to learn what attracted him to MISSOURI MORMON FRONTIER FOUNDATION Number34 Ma t 2004 Pa

Mormonism in the first place, given his later outspoken one might gaze in all directions to visual delight, but opposition of Joseph Smith and the Church...and his especially to the north ...north down to an ornery and enlightenment-era comments concerning both, before the temperamental creek...a creek just waiting perhaps for Missouri House. But these questions, as with much make-over as a tamed and beautiful garden. And could ephemera surrounding the story, must of necessity go such a place have rivaled that later to flourish in a radiant unanswered. The same may have been asked by others of valley beyond the Wasatch? The question begs an course, but I've not heard of it and thus assume such answer not forthcoming, and we're left but to muse that if flotsam but committed to the dustbin of history. ever the dream were dreamt, it was not to be. True enough, in recent times the temple site is coaxed from slumber and enshrined... its comerstones reflect And so in Missouri they came and went, these theirnewfound status, under glass. But in the surrounding thousands of Mormons who at the personal level left little elsewhere all is quiet where the grass and the silt and the for the public record. Their tenure had been sandwiched vines of 165 years have reclaimed places once called Far between the census years of 1830 and 1840, so no scribe West and Haun's Mill. And in that country, on Shoal would have called to make note of birthplaces in far away Creek, the cicada, the whippoorwill and the bullfrog sing Ohio, New York, Canada or England; of occupation; of their song and go about life' s rhythm as they always have, the number of children in the family, or perhaps of undisturbed by words or ghosts or thoughts of haunted biblical names such as Sharon or Ruth for little girls, or memory. And when you come right down to it, maybe Joseph for the boys. Thus in the archives of the Counties that's the main difference between folks and the wild of Jackson and Clay, Daviess and Carroll the testament is creatures; they can exult their place in the sun whether for incomplete... silent even. the moment or the season; while for us, be it thinking And for Caldwell County, silent too is a record that about a long ago drama at a place called Shoal Creek, or might have spoken of a shining city on a hill; of life's perhaps some other diversion, we are forever looking bustle radiating ever outward from the sacred centexpiece away. I think it has always been so. temple... a high-ground, west-facing temple from where

Visiting Historian Richard Holzapfel

Richard Holzapfel really needs no introduction to Record that he especially likes include the following. "Men are that we might have joy." "Seek riches to do most of us. He is a Brigham Young University Professor, renowned historian, researcher, lecturer and good." ``Clothe the naked." "Liberate the captives." "Engage in a good cause." "Power is in us." "Truth is author of several books including histories of Independence, K irtland, N auvoo a nd P almyra; s everal knowledge, true yesterday, today and tomorrow." "The books on the prophets; 7yome7t o/IV¢wvoo and the classic Glory of God is intelligence." volume of photo history entitled Cfewrch frz.a/ory I.H B/clch cz#d 77'7H./e. The Independence Mormon Visitors' Center When asked about how many books he has authored, and Missouri Momon Frontier Foundation co-sponsored he really did not know but said about thirty. He has three his presentation on Friday evening, July 23, 2004 at 7 books which are almost done. One concerns women's p.in at the Visitors' Center. diaries. Another is about the experiences of Momons in prison. The third is a collection of Joseph F. Smith's He began by telling a little of his family's religious letters from 1854 to 1917, mainly with his brothers and persuasions and about what he likes about the LDS his sisters. Watch for their publication. Church. Some of the adages he finds in the Sacred

17 el8 Number34 Ma t 2004 MISSOUF}l MORMON FRONTIER FOUNDATION

OLD NEWS FROM 1838 NEWSPAPERS

Did You Know? rope near by, and drew the bolt of a pump in another rfee OAi.a J{eposi.fory, Canton, Ohio, Thursday, June well. An attempt to fire the Temple was also made the 28,1838. same night, by means of straw and shavings thrust into Fire - /#ce77cJ!.crrz.es ~ The Methodist church in the building through a window, but the brand of fire tied Kirtland, was burned on the night of the 22 ult. The with them, went out before a flame waskindled. A House was situated near the Mormon Temple, and it is reward of $400 is offered by the citizens of Kirtland for supposed was fired for the purpose of destroying the the discovery and alTest of the incendiary. Temple. The stillness of the night saved the latter. The Clev. Gaz. incendiary, to make his work of villainy sure, cut the well [Copied from the C/eve/cz;7c7 Gczzef/e newspaper]

The following is a sampling of articles about the Mormon trouble, or Mormon War, in Missouri in 1838. News was picked up from other newspapers as well as their own reporters so the articles first printed in the west may be found in Ohio and Pennsylvania newspapers as well, giving us better odds for survival of the story. Keep in mind that even contemporary newspaper accounts are never completely accurate. However, they do reflect the then-current knowledge of the facts and rumor of facts, both of which contribute to the actions of the people involved which may be as important to understanding history as the truth of the matter. These ideas, after all, are the emotions most likely to be acted upon and handed down form generation to generation. Conflict under local initiative was not unique to the Mormon War. News of the Florida Warwas also being reported at this time, as well as a armed border dispute with Canada. -AWC

.4d¢"s Se#fl.HCJ, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Monday, respecting the movements of both parties since the first July 30,1838, page 4, column 5, bottom. difficulty took place. At the election in Daviess county, a citizen objected 77!e A4ormo#s-The Mormons to the number of to a mormon's voting, which brought about angrywords, about 500, with 57 wagons, filled with furniture, cattle, the Mormon was struck with a club, and in return used the &c. have left Geauga county, Ohio, on their way to the same weapon himself and before the affair terminated, "promisedland" inMissouri. Theypitchtheirtents inthe several on both sides were engaged, and knives freely open fields at night, after the manner of ancient Israelites. used. No person was killed, but some cut and bruised. The excitement did not terminate with the fight. -... = ...- Shortly afterwards, Joe smith, Lyman wight, and other Mormon leaders, collected a large force in Caldwell, and Hwro# Rc/ccfor, Tuesday, October 16,1838, page 1, went into Daviess countyto protect the Mormons residing columns 5-6. there. They went armed and equipped for war, but they From /Aesf. £ow!.sRepwb/I.ca#. say their intentions were peace, and if what we hear is Mormon Difflculties. true, respecting the paper which they presented to Adam We have nothing later from Daviess county than the Black, a Justice of the Peace, for his signature, a very 14th. At that time the militia from Clay, Saline, Jackson different face has been placed upon the transactions to and some other counties were collecting in Daviess and what 8. has sworn to. -The paper Smith presented to Carroll, but no decisive steps had been taken on either Black was to the effect, that insomuch as it was side. We copy below, an article from the Western Star, anticipated that difficulties would grow out of the fight at (published at Liberty, in clay county.) of the 14th, Which the election, between the Mormons and [1ine lost by shows the origin and progress of the difflculty. We have crease in paper] a Justice of the Peace, pledged himself heard anumber ofverbalreports, butnothingthatcanbe that he would take lawful notice of any unlawful relied on, so we prefer waiting for more positive proceedings of either party, Smith representing to Black, intelligence. The remarks of the star are as follows: that if he would show it to his own people and to others, `We derive in the statement we are about to make, to it would have an effect to prevent difficulties.

give a true narrative of the causes which have Produced We understand that the facts elicited at the trial of the difficulty between the Momons and the Citizens of Smith and Wight (who have given themselves up, and Daviess county as well as to give all that has occurred

18 MISSOURI MORMON FRONTIER FOUNDATION Number34 Ma t2004 Pa were heard before the Judge of our circuit Court last men from Ray county were captured by the Mormons, and week) completely stamped the certificate of Black, some 50 guns taken. The men are in confinement (or Comstock, and others, with falsehood. After the trial of rather, are guarded and kept) in the town of Far West; and Smith, it was believed that difficulties had ceased, but not it is said the people of Daviess have captured on Mormon. so. The people of Daviess county had sent letters and Gen. Doniphan, in some remarks made to the messengers to other counties, in order to raise men to company which went out from this county siad, that the drive all the Mormons out of Daviess, and many from men and arms captured by the Mormons, would be other counties, had gone to their aid. The Mormons demanded, as also the M ormon captives in Daviess.- seeing this, made preparations also. When, seeing the Should the Mormons refuse to give up the men and arms, crisis at which things were arriving, the Judge of our the worst consequences must follow. circuit, Hon. Austin A. King, directed Gen. D. R. We hope and believe they will not be so blinded as to Atchison to raise 1000 men in his Division, and forthwith refuse; but if they should, we can tell them that `war to the march them into Daviess, to keep the peace, and prevent knife,' will be waged against them, and they will no bloodshed. longer be suffered to remain in the State. We rely greatly Two hundred men from Clay, under the command of upon the standing and influence of Generals Atchison and Brigadier General Doniphan, Major Lightbume, and Doniphan, as well as the other gentlemen who have gone Captains Moss, Whittington, and Price, marched out on out, to bring this matter to a peaceable termination. yesterday and the day before. We are not apprehensive that any thing serious will •..=... take place, though both parties have become much excited. Both sides are to blame, but our opinion is that HwroH Re/ecfor, Norwalk, Ohio, Tuesday, October 30, the Mormons are the aggressors. Until the 4th of July, 1838, page 2, columns 4-5. we heard of no threats being made against them, in any quarter. The people had all become reconciled to let them FurtherfromtheMormons.-Welea;mbrythf3Pira;he, remain where they are, and indeed were disposed to lend which arrived at noon to day, that, on Tuesday night the them a helping hand. But one Sidney Rigdon, in order to Anti-Mormons were still in force, near Dewit. The Pirate show himself a great man, collected them together in the lay at Greenville, seven miles above Dewit, on Tuesday town of Far West, on the 4th of July, and there delivered night. At that time information had come in, that the a speech containing the essence of, if not treason itself. Anti-Mormons had given their opponents notice that they This speech was not only published in the newspapers, must take up their line of march next moming, at 8 but, handbills were struck for distribution in Caldwell and o'clock. This, the Mormons refused to do. It was Daviess counties. We have not the speech now before us, reported also, that the Anti-Mormons had sent word to the but we recollect among other threats, that the author said: Mormons, that if they would collect their women and `We will not suffer any vexatious law suits with our children in one house-that house should not be fired at. people, nor will we suffer any person to come into our As the Pirate passed down on Wednesday moming, by streets and abuse them. ' Dewit, a flag was seen flying over one of the largest Now, if this is not a manifestation of a disposition to houses there. From all appearances there is reason to prevent the force of law, we do not know what is. It is believe that a conflict took place on Wednesday. i/. also true, that when the Momons left this county, they Louts Republican. agreed to settle in, and confine themselves to a district of country, which has since been fomed into the county of •..B... Caldwell; but they have violated that agreement, and are spreading over Daviess, Clinton, Livingston and Carroll. Such a number had settled in Daviess, that the old A letter, whtten from Richmond, Ray County, Missouri inhabitants were apprehensive they would be governed two days before Haun' s Mill, was published in the Hwro# soon, by the Revelations of the Prophet, Joe Smith, and jRc/7ecfor, Norwalk, Ohio, on 6 November 1838 and hence their anxiety to rid themselves of such an incubus. reprinted from the St. Louis Republican of November 5, No many reports are in circulation relative to battles 1838 under the heading Mormon War. John S. Ryland fought and men on both sides being killed and captured, was the Recorder at the Land Office in Lexington, that it is hard to get at the truth. We are certain, however, Missouri. that up to yesterday, no person had been killed. Three

19 e20 Number34 Ma t 2004 MISSOURI MOF{MON FRONTIEF2 FOUNDATION

Richmond, Ray Co., Mo. resolutely bent on putting it beyond the power of the Oc/. 29,1838. Mormons to again disturb the peace of the citizens, and Editors of the Missouri Republican: more especially their plunderings and bumings. It was Gentlemen-I whte you from the [illeg] Richmond, rumored that the Momons were to bum Richmond on last in Ray county, [illeg] to give you some information Thursday night, and the women and children all fled relative to the unprecented [sic] excitement now existing across the river to Lexington. I saw on the bank of the in the upper Missouri, against this most deluded, river in the night a large number of women and children, wretched, and misguided people, the A4lormo#s'. without a shelter or food, who had fled early on Thursday The band of fanatics commenced on the 18th inst. to before I heard of the alarm of the women of Ray, and I bum and ravage the plantations, houses, &c. of the people immediately hastened to Lexington, and then to the river, in Davies county. They have laid waste the whole to offer shelter, protection and food to these suffering country; burning store houses, farm houses, destroying the people. No man without seeing the objects, can properly property of citizens, driving off the hogs and cattle of the estimate my feelings on that night. inhabitants of that county, taking the plunder of the You may expect to hear in three or four days more Mormon hold, Far West, leaving the county of Davies one news of the most fatal character. wide, extended ruin. To-day, I saw and conversed with I am your most ob't serv't. Maj. Morin, the Senator elect from Ray, Caldwell, and JOIIN S RYLAND. Davies, and he informed me that the people of Davies were literally ruined. Bands of Mormons would go out, •..=... followed by wagons, and would take livestock and property, sweeping every thing before them, and haul the £4d¢ms ScHfl.#eJ, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Monday, spoils into Far West. They (the Mormons) have burnt the November 19,1838, page 3, column 2-3. town of Gallatin, the county seat of Davies. On last Wednesday night, a body of some hundred and fifty or From the Baltimore American. two hundred Mormons attacked a small body of the MORMON TROUBLES -A slip from the Missouri militia of Ray county, some fifteen miles north of Watchman, of the 29th October, contains the proceedings Richmond, under Bogard; some two or three of Bogard's of a meeting of the citizens of Ray county, convened for men were killed and several wounded. Some four or five the purpose of considering the difficulties existing Mormons were killed and many wounded. Ray men between the people of Missouri and the Mormons. At the retreated. [Battle of crooked River] The alarm has meeting a report was made by three persons, who had spread through the whole upper counties, and the militia visited certain places in Davies County where the have been called out forthwith. Mormons were reported to have committed excesses. Last night I was in thee camp of the militia from They found numerous ruins of dwellings, stores, mills, Lafayette, Jackson and Ray. There was about the number &c. which were laid in ashes, and were informed that their of seven hundred men, and as the people were flocking in contents had previously been pillaged by the Mormons from all quarters, I suppose this moming the number and carried off. It was also stated to them that the exceeded 8 hundred.- Major Generals Atchison and Mormons had driven away large numbers of cattle.- Lucas and Brig. Generals Graham and Nelson were They were represented to be about 600 strong. These present. The encampment was about one and a half miles persons were deterred from prosecuting their inquiries from Richmond, on the road leading to Far West. further, from the fact of their meeting families removing This moming, at 8 o'clock, the amy moved off for into Ray County for safety, who stated that the country on that point, and will to night encamp within a short the north side of Grand River was devastated and entirely distance of Far West. Brig. General Doniphan, with some deserted, except by the Mormons. three hundred men, was to encamp last night near A letter was also read to the meeting from Judge Bogard's battleground. Col. Comelius Gillam, with the Kind, of much the same tenor as the above report, and forces from Clinton county, some three hundred strong, or stating in addition that the Mormons are hauling may be more, was encamped near Far West, say about provisionsfromthesurroundingcountryandpreparingfor eight miles off. a seige by building block houses, &c. as they expect that From the exasperated feeling manifested plainly by an armed force will be shortly sent against them. The the forces last night, I apprehend the most serious opinion is expressed that the civil authority is entirely too consequences. Everybody is excited; the public mind weak to control the lawless band.

20 MISSOURI MORMON FRONTIER FOUNDATION Number34 Ma t 2004 Pa

Another letter was read to the meeting stating that Generals Atchison, Doniphan, and Parks were there, that informationhadbeenreceivedthattheMormonsdesigned mob boasted that they lived on Mormon beef and an attack on the town of Richmond on the night of the Momon com. The mob amounted to four or five 25th October, and that the women and children were hundred; and you mayjudge of the destruction that must flying in the utmost consternation, while the men were have been made of the property ofa poor people who had, preparing to defend the town. but a short time before come into the country. It was the Resolutions were then passed requesting the Governor cause of much suffering and distress among the Mormons. immediately to order out an armed force to quell the When the mobbers were dispersed at Daviess, they insurrection, to protect the persons and property of the went directly to Carroll county and commenced an attack citizens of Missouri, and to drive from the State this on the Momons there, where they obtained a cannon for powerful band of robbers. It was also resolved to raise the purpose. Abody of70 families was closely invested; three companies of soldiers to guard the northern consisted of men, women and children; living in wagons boundary of Ray county and prevent the intrusion of the and tents, not having had time to build houses. A great Mormons. many sickened and died for want of attention. In this In consequence of these proceedings, the Governor wretched situation they were driven from Dewitt. The ordered a force of three thousand men to be raised, and same evening, a lady who was sick, died in consequence proceed immediately to the relief of the suffering ofmovingher, and was buriedbythe wayside, without a inhabitants ofDaviess county. coffin; thus was a family of children left without a The Missourian, published atFayette, nearthe seat of mother. A multitude of children died, because their Government, states thatthe Govemorhad received a letter parents could not take proper care of them. Application from Gen. Clark, informing him that he had so far was made to the Governor for assistance, but he utterly anticipated the orders as to order out 600 mounted men, refused to give the least aid. and directed them to march that moming, the 20th. The Deluded fanatics, or whatever name the Buffalo authorityconfered on Gen. Clark, to close the warfare, is Commercial may be pleased to give them, we are very full and there is little doubt, from the spirit astonished that such outrages should be suffered to go manifested among the people, that the difficulties will unpunished in the land of equal rights, and religious soon be teminated. privileges. •..=...... g...

FrccmaH ,4"dMessc#gcr, Lodi, New York, Thursday, Ori!.a Rcposz.fory, Canton, Ohio, Thursday, November February 14,1839. 22,1838.

THE MORMONS.-A letter from s. Rigdon, one of the „ORMOIV W:HR. Mormon chiefs confined in the jail at Liberty, Missouri, MORMON TROUBLES IN MISSOURI. gives the following affecting picture of the persecutions An arrival at St. Louis, from above, confirms the of this deluded class of fanatics:-BWJ7jj: CforoH. reports which were previously current, of the burning of The sufferings, the calamities, the woe and Daviess court house, post office, and a store by the wretchedness of the Mormons is, at this time unknown to Momons. It is stated that the Governor had ordered out the public generally, and not only since the Govemor's 4,000 militia; and that volunteer companies were rapidly order, but before. For a length of time before the being organized to march to the scene of action. The Govemor's order, the Mormons had been scourged by a Mormons are said to be daily receiving accessions to their company ofmobbers, who were constantly wasting their numbers by emigrants from canada. property ; gathering together and threatening them and ADDITloNAL PARTICULARS.-The Missourian of the their property with destruction and extermination. The 27th ultima, printed at Fayette, gives the following mob which collected in Daviess, immediately subsequent additional information. A company was to be organized to the election, commenced in general destruction of in Fayette on the moming of the 27th. Mormon property, and destroyed, before the authorities SNowDEN'S, October 25,1838. could disperse it; or, rather, before they did disperse it, SR: News has just reached here that the Mormons one hundred head of cattle; and, of this number, was the have attacked and cut to pieces Capt. Bogart's company last cow that some poor families possessed. And, while of50 men, except three or four who have escaped. They

21 e22 Number34 Ma t 2004 MISSOURI MORMON FRONTIER FOUNDATION say the Mormon forces is 3 or 400. Richmond is county, at which the most energetic resolutions were threatened to night. If you can spare them, I wish you to taken. detail two or three companies of troops and repair to A report was read at the meeting, by which it appears Richmond with all speed. Yours in haste, that Millport, in Daviess county had been burnt, and that GEO. WOODWARD. the county was deserted, and sacked. Aid to General Parks. Judge King whting to the Governor, from Richmond, Colonel Jones. Ray County, October 24th, says: ``At this time there is not a citizen in Daviess, except CARROLLTON, Oct. 25,1838. GENTLEMEN: News of an appalling nature has just Mormons. Many have been driven without waning; reached us. Captain Bogard who was ordered with his others have been allowed a few hours to start. The stock company to guard the frontier of Ray county, was of the citizens have been seized upon, killed up, and salted attacked and cut to pieces by immense numbers. They by hundreds; from from 50 to 100 wagons are now were overpowered by 3 or 400 Mormons while they were employed in hauling i n t he c om from the s urrounding guarding their own frontier. But five minutes ago, three country. They look for a force against them, and are reports of a cannon was heard in the direction of consequently preparing for a siege, building block houses, Richmond. Firing has been heard in various directions, &c. They have lately organized themselves into a band of and there is no doubt that these infatuated villains have what they call `Danites, ' and sworn to put to instant death attacked Richmond. those who will betray them. There is another band call The news of their burning and pillage has already the `Destructives,' whose duty it is to avenge themselves reached you. They have undoubtedly captured the for supposed wrongs by privately burning houses, cannon,andtakenmanyprisoners-probablykilledmany. property, and laying in ashes, towns, &c. Daviess county is a scene of desolation. Ray is probably "A bloody battle has no doubt been fought, near so ere this time; and their next movement will be at this Richmond; and a war of extermination will ensue." place. It is already threatened. E. M. Ryald, whting from Lexington (Lafayette Be up and doing. Bring all the men you can, and let county) evening 25th, says: us check them in their course of destruction and "M. Morehead brought news that the Mormons had devastation. They are moving on with giant strides to the attacked Captain Bryant this moming at day light. Since climax of anarchy, civil war, and desolation. Wolf and Mr. M. left Richmond, one of the company (Bogart) had Baker will explain all. I have just received orders. by come in and reported ten of his comrades killed, and the express, from Brig. Gen. Parks to raise 150 mounted men. remainder (forty) taken prisoners, many severely Many have volunteered, and the remainder I will obtain in wounded. He stated that Richmond would be sacked and a day or two. burned by the Mormon banditti tonight. Nothing can Stir up the people in Howard and Chariton. Send all exceed the consternation which the news gave rise to. the brczves you can with Wolf, and we can meet and check The women and children are flying from Richmond in them in their mad course. Yours, in haste, every direction. We have sent from this county since two ". C. JONES. o'clock this evening, about 100 well armed and daring To CCINGRjAVB, ]ALCKSON , and others. men. The St. Louis Republican of the lst instant, after publishing the foregoing article added: "We have •..=... conversed with a gentleman who says that he had held a conversation, in person with Joe Smith, a few days ago, rfee j4//o" rc/cgrapfe, Alton, Illinois, November 10, and Smith stated that his people were prepared to die in 1838. defense of what they thought to be their rights; that, although the Governor might raise and send against them THE MORMON WAR. the power of the State, yet he, and all the men he could We republish in another column, from the St. Louis bring, would not drive them from their present homes." Eve#z.#g Gczze/fe, a somewhat detailed account of the From the St. Louis Gazette-November 2. termination of the recent crucade against the Mormons, FURTHER PARTICULARS . which, if substantially correct, indicates that in the We, at a late hour, received an extra from the proceedings to which those unfortunate people have been Missouri Watchman, Jefferson city, of the 29th. subjected, every principle of law, justice, and humanity, A very numerous meeting has been held in Ray has been grossly outraged - Although it may be difficult

22 t 2004 Pa MISSOURI MORMON FRONTIER FOUNDATION Number 34 Ma to decide who is to blame in this matter, it is evident to all After that event, it is stated that several-some accounts that a fearful responsibility rests somewhere, and that say 40 of the Mormons-were put to death. One version those who commenced the work of destruction have much of the statement is, that the Mormons killed, at this time, to answer for. The State of Missouri owes it to her own were such as had not come into Far West. [rumors about honor t o i nsitute a r igid inquiry i nto t he c auses which Huan's Mill] We need, however, more certain and have led to results so much to be deplored; and as her authentic infomation, than we now have, on this hand. Legislature meet on Monday next, it be hoped that this Gen. Clark with the remainder of the troops, collected body will promptly adopt such measures as may be from the counties below [to last column on page] necessary to the elucidation of the whole truth, and Caldwell, was, on the Friday after the surrender, bringing the offenders, if any, to the bar of justice. encamped in Ray county, and had not reached Far West. It is stated that about the time of the surrender, a company of men-200 in number-fell on a body of the AFFARS OF CANADA. Mormons, in Splawn's [Haun's] settlement, on Shoal Creek, about 20 miles from Far West. The Momons, it The late New York papers state that a report is in is said, were 30 in number, and the story runs that all but circulation that Lord D has recently received a letter four were put to death. Some of the names of the killed, from P`dr. Van Buren, in which he is appraised that a plot as r eported t o u s w ere D avid E vans from 0 hio, J acob to revolutionize Canada has been organized on this side of FoutzfromPennsylvania,ThomasM'Brideandhisfather, the frontier ... Mr. Daly, M. Merrill and his son-in-law, M. White, all from Ohio. The facts about Bogard' s fight are that two of his men From the St. Louis Daily Evening Gazette. were killedutne outright and one died of his wounds. THE MORMON WAR ENDED. At the same time, four Momons fell-among them the The Mormon war has been terminated by a surrender Captain of their band. Bogard's company were stationed of the Mormon leaders to the troops under Gen. Atchison. on the line of Ray county, to intercept the communication This happened on Sunday October 28th [sic, 31st]. On between Ray and Caldwell. They had captured four that day about fAree ffoowsc!#d men, being part of the any Mormons; and to rescue these the attack was made upon of 5,000, ordered out under Gen. Clark, comprising Gen. them by the Momons. Bogard's Company is said to Atchison's division, made their appearance before the have been 40 in number, and the Mormons 70. town of Far West, the county seat of Caldwell county, As to the Mormon ravages in Daviess county, the where the Mormons were entrenched. Upon their plundering and burning of which so much has been approach the Momons had hoisted a white flag, which said-we are informed that, before those hostile was s hot d own b y C apt. 8 ogard, b ut w as i mmediately operations, the Mormons held a consultation, at which the replaced. Gen. Atchison then sent a message with a view propriety of the steps afterwards taken, was debated at to leam their wishes and intentions, when six of their large. Some of their number were averse to the plan, and leaders avowed their willingness to surrender, in the nearly one third dissented from it. The reasons assigned expectation that the Mormons should be unharmed. The for these measures, were alleged outrages by their surrender was accepted, and the individuals put under enemies in Carroll and Daviess counties. According to guard. Their names were Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, the Mormon statement, their houses and buildings, near George Hewitt, Lyman Wight, Parley P. Pratt, and Mr. Dewitt, in Carroll county, had been destroyed by their Knight. The Mormons, assembled at Far West, enemies, and they themselves expelled from the county comprised 700 men under ams. Of this number, a small and afterwards pursued, on their retreat into Daviess. It body of 150 retreated and pursued their way to the was, therefore, as they allege, in retaliation for previous northern Frontier. unprovoked outrages, that they executed their system of The reports vary as to what happened after the violence and terror in the county of Daviess. Evidently, surrender. In fact, our intelligence does not come down they could not have adopted a more suicidal clearly to a period, later than the day of the capitulation. policy-allowing their own statements to be wholly true. On the day after, Gen Atchison received the orders of We have no time now-and it would take more space the Governor which have already been mentioned in this than we can spare for it*ven with a knowledge of all the paper, as directing the expw/sz.o# or exfermi.#a/I.o# of the facts, to enter into a history of the origin and progress of Mormons. It is said that, shocked and disgusted with the this difficulty. But there is a statement in this connection, severity of the command, he retired and went home.

23 e24 Number34 Ma t 2004 MISSOURI MOFRMON FRONTIEF{ FOUNDATION which we have heard but recently, and which we sincerely •..=... hope is not true. That statement is as follows. About the 9th or loth of last month, when about 80 Republican Compiler, Gettysburg, Pennayivim±i\, Mormon families had been expelled from Carroll county, Tuesday, November 20,1938, page 4, column 3. and driven into Daviess, a message was sent by them to the State Executive, praying for his interposition in their From the St. Louis Republican, Nov. 1. behalf. The reply to that message was, that already the ALARMING STATE OF AFFAIRS. State had been put to a great deal of expense on account The following letter, from a highly respectable of these difficulties, and that he could see no cause to individual, has been privately furnished us by a friend, for interpose, thus leaving the parties to fight it out! publication. The statements are confirmed by many The disposition of the captured Mormons presents a varied experts from in the city. We have lately case of great difficulty. They are generally poor-at least communicated with several intelligent individuals from they have but little houses and few means besides their the vicinity of the Momon disturbance, and, whilst we stock and crops to preserve them from starvation. As it have found it difficult to arrive with any certainty at the is, we suspect, these means are very much abridged. The truth concerning many things, we are well assured that the presence of several thousand troops in their vicinity must y is more deeply seated than has generally been have reduced them greatly. The proposition-so it is supposed, and we feel assured that bloodshed and given out-is to remove them from the State. Who will devastation only will t erminate the struggle, unless the advance the funds, wherewith to consummate to such a Mormons remove from the county. Every account from measure? And where shall they be sent? Their numbers that quarter shows an existing state of agitation on the exceed¢ve /Ao#scz#d, men, women and children! Are public mind truly alarming. Every stranger is watched these 5,000 people-without any means and literally with ].ealousy, and every man compelled to take sides for beggars-to be thrust upon the charities of Illinois, Iowa, or against the Momons.- In truth, there appears to be or Wisconsin? but little division, on the part of the citizens, in their It is said that the leaders are to be put to trial. We opposition. We are told that two men who laid out the hope there may be a trial, and that the trial will extend to town of De Witt, and, and as a matter of speculation a most thorough, rigid, and impartial examination into the invited the Mormons to buy lots in it, have been given origin and progress of this extraordinary commotion. We leave to pass through the county /Aree times, after which hope that a searching operation will be applied to the they are infomed that a return there will be dangerous. guilty on all sides. I t is only in such a way that the They have already moved their goods into another county. government and people of this State can place themselves So deep and all pervading is the opposition to the on a just and dignified attitude before their sister Mormons, and so many respectable men have engaged in governments and fellow citizens of the Union. the attempt to expel them, we feel satisfied the public are not truly informed of the objections which exist against the Mormons or the circumstances which render them so FURTHER FROM THE MORMONS.-The account of a obnoxious. We hope shortly to be able to develope bloody butchery of /fej.rty-n^;o Mormons, on Splawn's something more of this unhappy state of affairs then lets creek [rumor about Haun's Mill on Shoal Creek], is fully yet come to the knowledge of the public. confirmed. Two cfez./c7re7c were killed, we presume, by ON BOARD THE STEAMSHIP ASTORIA, accident. Considerable plunder-such as beds, hats, &c., Below Jefferson city, 28th Oct. were taken from the slaughtered. Not one of the Dear Major.-I hasten to communicate intelligence assailants was killed or hurt. which received a few minutes since (from an About the time of the surrender, several Mormon unquestionable source) at Jefferson city, viz. - Col. houses were burnt in Chariton; and one Mormon who Reese, of Richmond, Ray county has arrived with an refused to leave, killed. express to the Governor, to call out the militia to march in At Far West, after the surrender, a Mormon had his defense of Ray and Richmond. The Mormons had brains dashed out, by a man who accused the Momons of devastated Daviess county, burning the county seat and burning his house in Daviess. most of the houses in the county, and were then marching On Monday next, commence the sale of public lands, on Richmond to bum and destroy it. Rencountres had in Daviess county. taken place with loss of lives[?]. Col. Reese had, but a few hours before we landed, returned, and orders were

24 MISSOURI MORMON FRONTIER FOUNDATION Number 34 Ma t 2004 Pa promptly issued by Governor Boggs, for 4000 mounted another, resting on the faith of treaties and the good faith men to report to the scene of war. The troops below are of favorable sovereignties. to rendezvous at Fayette, and march immediately. The Mormons have for many days hauling in com and •..=... other supplies to their great depot Far West. They have t>een reinforced by many hundreds lately from Ohio and j4d¢ms ScHfl.HeJ, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Monday, the Canada,-refugees and Mormons. Do not believe January 7,1839. that these disturbances are "humbugs." There are serious and dangerous difficulties[?] now pending. ~ A4issowrz. £egz.s'/cz/wre - The Governor has made a The whter of this has every opportunity to know these statement of the expenses of the Mormon war, which he facts, as he was an eyewitness in Caldwell, having been estimates at 70 or 80,000 dollars; and suggests that ffae out with the troops. Mormonism, emancipation & also United States are liable for it. [?]ism mws/ be drz.ve# from our State. The Govemor's position is, that the Mormon We, the exposed frontier men, have enough to movement was an insurrection and that the IVczf!.o#cz/ contend with _o [?]etant shamefully exposed I _r, Government is bound to suppress insurrections. But, without having to combat with the seys of the eastern with the St. Louis Gazette, we conceive that, before the degraded and _?_ rable thrown with the "poor General Government pays for beating the poker, it will J7]dz.cz#s," on our border. Forbearance no longer can be best inquire whether there was an insurrection by the exercised. If the Government will not protect us, we will Mormons; and next, whether that insurrection was do it ocjrse/vex. directed against the laws and authorities of the Union. 4d¢ms Sc#fz."cJ, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Monday, The Gazette says: -We opine that the Governor will find November 26,1838, page 4, column 1-2. [This article it no easy matter to answer either of these questions will give the reader a small taste of other conflicts going affirmatively." And we opine, moreover, that the State of on in 1838. The "Mormon War" was not unique.] Missouri will gain nothing, any way, by carrying its Mormon story into the National Legislature.-rrcz#scrz27/. From the United States Gazette. ...=... Co#czd¢ ,4jrczz.rs.-By reference to another column it will be seen that the affairs of Canada are again Republican Compiler, Gettysburg, Pennsyivania, embroiled; that another invasion has been made, and we Tuesday, December 31,1839, page 3, col. 2. suppose, of course, made from the territory of the U. States, with men gathered on our soil, and with weapons The Mormons having been driven from Missouri, from our armories. We refer to extracts for particulars of have settled in Illinois on a tract of land which they the warfare, and proceed to say a word upon the position purchased at the head of the Des Moines rapids of the in which our nation is being placed by the existing state of Mississippi. They have laid out a town which they call affairs. Not only do hostile troops gather within our Nauvoo. A deputation of three persons of their fraternity country, and take refuge there when repulsed from the has been despatched to the City of washington, to petition invaded territory, but we have in our Atlantic cities open Congress for relief on account of losses experienced by and avowed efforts to enlist the feelings and services of the Missouri troubles. Persecution in their case has had menagainstanationwithwhomourGovemmentisatthis its usual effect in strengthening those who are its victims. moment at peace, and in constant political and The Mormon sect has increased largely, and it is said that commercial intercourse. Nay, in this quiet city we saw on many families of respectability and influence in the Saturday, the comers of our streets placarded with adjoining counties have united themselves with this new invitations to attend a meeting where plans were to be denomination, adopted for aiding the rebellion in Canada. Is this right? Baltimore American. Is this seconding to the usages of neutral nations? It is consistent with our treaties with Great Britain? If it is, we are certainly ignorant of what is due from one nation to

25 e26 Number34 Ma t 2004 MISSOURI MORMON FRONTIER FOUNDATION

Henry K. Inouye, Jr.

Many MMFF members will remember Henry Inouye A published author, Henry wrote jto}; CAevz.//e.. as a board member and artist for MhffF publications. Explorer Of Spiritual Frontiers (Independence, Mo... The following was printed in memory of Henry K. Herald Publishing House, 1986), as well as essays in Inouye and we share it here with you. Restoration Studies V, VI, and IX, Restoration Witness A4lczg¢zz.#e and 77!eo/og)/ Co//oqw};. He was an Elder and Heny K. Inouye, member of the Community of Christ Comerstone 75, of Independence, congregation. Missouri, passed Henry was a member of the Mormon History away at his home Association, John Whitmer Historical Association, and early Sunday, May the Missouri Mormon Frontier Foundation. He 23, 2004. Mr. Inouye combined extensive research with a unique artistic style was born in to create historical illustrations and narrative of events Independence, the which occurred throughout local church history. He also son of Heny and painted a series of portraits that are featured at the Emily (DeTray) Kirtland Temple Historic Center. His illustrations were Inouye and graduated used as the design for the plaques of the Mormon from William Walking Tour in Independence. Chrisman High Very active in his community, he served as President School in 1946. He of the Santa Fe Trail Neighborhood Community immediately enlisted Development corporation (SFTNCDC). Together with in the Navy and a team of other committed residents, he accomplished served during the latter part of world War 11. many projects dedicated to the revitalization of this older Henry married Helen Amundson in 1949 and later area of Independence. Crime prevention, youth moved t o H awaii, where h e and his w ife r aised three programs, home rehabilitation, and a planned senior daughters. He owned and managed an advertising and housing project are the focus of the ongoing efforts of the public relations agency in Honolulu, as well as three SFINCDC. early childhood centers, prior to moving back to Missouri Henry expressed his appreciation of the beauty of in 1980. God' s creation through his artistic landscape gardening, Henry successfully combined a career in art with twice earning a City of Independence Beautification religious studies. He studied at Graceland College in Award for his home in the Santa Fe Trail neighborhood. Lamoni, Iowa, and received a bachelor's degree in art Henry is survived by his wife, Helen, three daughters history and fine arts form the University of Hawaii. He (Patti Franks of wailuku, Hawaii, Cindy Mendelsohn of also majored in fine art at the Kansas City Art Institute Independence, Missouri and Lori Shem of Belton, and commercial art at the Art Center in Los Angeles. Missouri), fifteen grandchildren, a sister, Nadine Later he earned a master's degree in religion from the Harbottle of Kanoehe, Hawaii and a brother Donald Claremont School of Theology in Califomia, and Inouye of Hilo, Hawaii. pursued postgraduate studies at Park College.

26 t 2004 Pa MISSOUF2I MORMON FRONTIEF{ FOUNDATION Nunber34 Ma

THE MISSOURI MORMON FRONTIER FOUNDATION P.O. Box 3186, Independence MO 64055

Date

• I would liketojoin MMFF forthe 2005 CalendarYear H New I Renewal

=Fi8dueL:trs$8L.:.o°°(fuLLtlm=:%m£L¥oSL:e°;:°toageD25S)ustaLn]ngs:5i°a°trons=5So?83S°rs±°£i:e°SLooo.oo

• I would like to make an additional contribution in the amount of: I Marker Fund S I Rich Log House Fund S I Un-designated S

Name

Address

Home & Bus. Phone

Make checks payable to Missouri Mormon Frontier Foundation and mail to: Missouri Mormon Frontier Foundation P.O. Box 3186 Independence MO 64055

A Gift for a Friend

Date

• Iwould liketojoin "FF forthe 2005 CalendarYear I New I Renewal

=Fi8dueL:trs$8].:.o°°(fuiitLm=E:in;1:osi:e°;:°toageE25S)ustamm8S:5i°a°trons=5SoP:BS°rs±°£;:e°SLooo.oo

• I would like to make an additional contribution in the amount of: I Marker Fund S I Rich Log House Fund S I Un-designated S

Name

Address

Home & Bus. Phone Make checks payable to Missouri Mormon Frontier Foundation and mail to: Missouri Mormon Frontier Foundation P.O. Box 3186 Independence MO 64055

27 e28 Number34 Ma t 2004 MISSOURI MOFIMON FRONTIER FOUNDATION

Publications Order Foml THE MISSOURI MORMON FRONTIER FOUNDATION P.O. Box 3186, Independence MO 64055

4 Sfeor/ f7z.sfory o/Ccz/cJwe// Cow#ty by Bertha Booth,1936, reprinted with new index 1998. 65 pages, index,paperback, 5 i/2x 8 I/2 ISBN: 0-9720011-0-7 Price$5.00

Eczr/}; J7!c7epe#cJe7!ce, Mz.s'sowrz. "A4lormo# " ro#r Gwz.de by Ronald E. Romig, illustrated by Henry Inouye, revised 2003. 45 pages. Paperback, 9.5 x 11" ISBN 0-9720011-6-6 Price $6.00

An Index to Early Caldwell County, Missouri, Land Records edited by Clalkv . Iohason and R+onald E. Romig, 2002. Revision of 19941imited edition by Clark V. Johnson. xxiv, 242 pages,12 township plats, maps ofFar West, current road map. Spiral, 8.5 x 11" (2fld printing) ISBN: 0-9720011-5-8 Price $20.00

Jczcdro# Cozt#ty, Mj.Jsowrz. A4lormo# fJz.s/orz.c Sz.res by William J. Curtis, 2002. Heavily illustrated with photographs, 59 pages, paperback, 5.5 x 8.5" ISBN 0-9720011-5-8 Price $5.00

1836 Clay County, Missouri State Tax List: All Taxpayers and Land C^^lners Are Identified, Including A4lormo#s, cz#d /fee /83J rtzjr fczw. Transcribed, annotated and indexed by Annette W. Curtis, 2003. xx,125 pages, softcover, 8.5 x ll" ISBNO-9720011-7-4 Price$15.00 rvEW

Early Jackson County Missouri.. The ``Mormon" Settlement on the Big Blue River.. A Guided Tour 77zrowgfe rz.me by Ronald E. Romig., illustrated by Henry K. Inouye, Jr. 1996. vii, 34 pages; comb binding, 8/5xl 1" ISBN 0-9720011-2-2 Price $9.00 2nd printing forthcoming

A4:h4FF Ivews'/e//era / -23, / 993-/ 888 w./% J#dex, cumulation of back issues bound for handy reference, about270pages. Paperback, 8.5 x 11" ISBNO-9720011-3-1 Price$20.00

To complete the set of our periodical publication, back issues of A4issowrz. A4lormo# Fro#£z.er are available, Issues 24 through 32. $3 per issue postpaid or $10 for the complete set, please add postage. Available as print-on-demand : Archaeological Reconnaissance Of a Caldwell County, Missouri, Log House. (FhohLogHouse) 8.5 x \1" papehoa,ck, combbinding. $10.00 ZOO/ Dz.g Jzepo7~/ o# Ce7"e/Cry Sow/fe, Fczr Wee/, A4rssowrz. by Paul DeBarthe, Tovia Cohen and Tehau DeBarthe, 2002. 34 pages, ill., some color. 8.5xl 1" paperback, comb binding. $10.00

(Quantity purchases for re-sale are discounted and welcomed.) Please add postage and packaging. Total Amount enclosed: S

Name

Address

Publications may also be purchased online at www.FarwestHistorv.com

28 MISSOURI MORMON FRONTIER FOUNDATION Number34 Ma t 2004 Pa Log House Benefit Dinner / Auction

The weather here in western Missouri during the last MCBride who is in her 90s. Photos by Bill Curtis such part of August was often stormy. Thursday August 26, as "Far West Temple Site, 1962 with cows" and ``Zion's 2004 was hot and muggy in hdependence but cool, with Camp Fishing River Storm Site." Grandma's Lye Soap. a light breeze in Caldwell County that evening. It was a Hand-made Native American Indian belt buckles. A beautiful evening to spend at the 1837 C. C. Rich Log lead crystal Tulip Vase. A set of four Henry Inouye House. While the Dutch Oven Dirmer flnished cooking color pictures and a set of 8 Church History booklets by a group of Missouri Mormon Foundation members and Heny Inouye. . fiends gathered for an auction to raise funds to cover the In spite of the fact that the threatening weather log house. Dave MCEwen acted as auctioneer and reduced attendance the event was a success. Between the Annette Curtis clerked the sale. proceeds from the dinner and the auction over $ 1000 was Among the items auctioned were: a first edition of raised. A few more fund-raisers like that could save the The Relationship Of Mormonism and Freemasonry bry logs from the weather! If you missed this opportunity Anthony W. Ivins with a signed insert on LDS First to contribute to this worthy cause, you may contribute to Presidency Letterhead dated September 21, 1935 by the log house preservation fund by sending a check to Heber J. Grant, J. Reuban Clark and David 0. MCKay. MMFF for that purpose. A pottery piece donated by Marvin Crozier who was the popular artist many will remember from their trips to Browse the shelves of the online store at Nauvoo in the 1970s and 1980s. (Check out the Wash www.FarwestHistory.com to find good stuff not House Gift Shop for his pottery.) A signed First Edition available elsewhere and at the same time help the hard bound copy of Stephen C. Lesueur's classic 7lfee preservation effort. A new book for sale only there is /848 A4lormo# Jyczr I.# A4lz.ssowrj.. A piece of the original Northeast Of Eden: A Historical Atlas Of Missouri's Nauvoo Temple stone retrieved from the site. Two quilt A4lormo# Cow#fy by John Hamer. Artwork by Henry hangings by Alta Short - "Love in Plaid" and "Star Inouye is also available there exclusively. Bright." Hand made washable mats made by Fern

FVI Book Notes Although these books are not available through Missouri Mormon Frontier Foundation, our members may be interested to know about them. See the MMFF order page for MMFF publications.

Joseph and Emma's JULIA by S. FLeed M:uldock profits from the sale of this edition are being donated by has recently been published in hard cover by EBom the author to help preserve the Log House. 193 pages Books, Valley Fair Mall, Suite 8120, 3600 Constitution including index, paperback, $25 plus S&H. It is a Ave., West Valley City UT 84119. portion of a broader project to map Mormon history. For www.ebombcoks.com 801-965-9410 more information visit www.MormonAtlas.com. An index ofn ames with the land descriptions is included Also new on your bookstore's shelves is: S¢crcd with the maps. Visit www.FarwestHistorv.com online Places, Missouri: A Comprehensive Guide to Early LDS store to order. John Hamer is an independent researcher Historical Sites (Voharme 4 in thf3 Sacred Places series) and a professional map maker. He is a great, great, great, by I,aMar C. Berrett and Max H. Parkin. Salt I.ake City: great, grandson of Stephen and Nancy Winchester, early Deseret Book Company, 2004. ISBN 1-57008-939no Latterrday Saints who owned 120 acres of famland in 652 pages, softcover, $29.95. Caldwell County just east of the present-day town of Mirable. The maps contain three layers: the terrain and Northeast of Eden: A Historical Atlas of modem road information; the surveyed section lines, and A4:issowr[.'s jt4ormo# CowHfy by John Hamer is newly the name of the property owner and date the sale was available through the Far West Cultural Center. All entered, i.e. the date the land was paid for at the Federal

29 e30 Number34 Ma t 2004 MISSOURI MORMON FRONTIER FOUNDATION

Land Office in Lexington, Missouri. This work deals photographs, many never before published, along with a with the Mormon period ( 1830s) in Caldwell County and portion of his knowledge about them and the people who does not include the later land sales. This filters out later passed through this neighborhood through time, much information and lets the user concentrate on the Mormon also never before in print. Besides buildings and people, land ownership in Caldwell County. churches and schools in the neighborhood are covered. Mccoy Neighborhood #15 is bounded by Noland Road The Truman Neighborhood, From Elegant to River Blvd. and US 24 Highway to Truman Road. Mansions to the Neck, In dependence, Missouri: The Now going into the 2nd Edition after the first printing Mccoy Neighborhood in Story and PhotographsbyBm sold out in less than two months. About 182 pages, Curtis, 2004. Published with a grant from the Kansas including index. $20 plus shipping (and tax if City Neighborhood Alliance, the proceeds benefit the applicable). They are available at Scandinavia Place, 209 Mccoy Neighborhood council organization. This book N. Main, Independence, MO 64050 and The Little Dixie draws from the massive photograph collection of our Bookshop, 204 N. Liberty, Independence, Missouri own Bill Curtis. The book contains over 580 images and 64050 or by calling Barb Wiley 816-836-3248.

Books of Special Interest from Missouri Mormon Frontier Foundation

1836 Clay County, Missouri State Tax List: All Taxpayers and Land Owners Are Identified, J#c/wdz.#g A4:ormoHs.. ¢#d 7lfee J835 rtz]c fflw was transcribed, annotated and indexed by Amette W. Curtis, 2003. It is 125 pages plus 20 pages of front matter (introduction and the 1835 tax law), soft cover, 8 I/2 by 11 inches, spiral bound for easy use. ISBN 0-9720011-7-4. Price $15.00

This 1836 tax list fills a gap as a census of taxpayers listed by value. Tan yards, distilleries and mills were between the 1830 and 1840 censuses. The year is business operations that are included in the tax list. Mills especially significant for those doing research on are always of special interest as an important service and Mormons who were refugees there from Jackson County the values give an idea of their relative size. after 1833. The year 1836 is just before the great migration of Mormons to that part of Ray County which MMFF Books Back in Stock became Caldwell County. After a delegation of influential Clay County AshortHistoryofcaldwellcountyTM:issouir] residents told the Mormons it was time for them to move written by Bertha E. Booth in 1936 has been on, legislation was initiated at the State level to create a reprinted again. We printed 1000 copies, which are place for them to inhabit. W . W . Phelps and Bishop Edward Partridge went northeast into northern Ray on hand to fill orders, both retail and wholesale. County, the future Caldwell County, to investigate the This objective history was enhanced (1998) with an area. They picked out the location of Far West for a index by Annette Curtis. Price is $5.00 plus future Momon town. (fJz.szory o//foe Cfewrch, Volume 2, shipping. Chapter XXXI, especially pages 449-452) By 1836 some people were already living in what was to become h just one year we have sold out the first Caldwell County and a few Momons including John and printing of 100 of our reprint of £4# JHdeic fo E¢rty Rhoda Cooper had already gone north. Family Caldwell county, Missouri Land Records edhedby researchers with people in Clay County in 1836 will find Clark V. Johnson and Ronald E. Romig, 2002. This information in this not found elsewhere. book includes all original Federal land sales Historians will also find it helpful. Slave owners listed the number and value of their slaves. Essentials to including later non-Momon sales. The new price is survival like horses, mules and cattle were taxed. $20 plus shipping. Carriages, watches and clocks were also taxed and so

30 MISSOURI MORMON FRONTIEF3 FOUNDATION Number34 Ma t 2004 Pa

Current News MISSOURI MORMON FRONTIER FOUNDATION Our President Alta Davis Short and her husband is a duly organized Kenneth Short celebrated their 50th wedding amiversary GENERAL NOT FOR PROFIT at the Farview Restoration Branch hall on Sunday 12 CORPORATION Sept.ember 2004. The room was decorated with their under the Laws of Missouri wedding pictures and her wedding dress was displayed. Congratulations Ken and Alta. The Missouri Mormon Frontier Foundation is a nonsectarian organization dedicated to collecting and Spring Banquet preserving information related to the Mormon The MhffF Christmas dinner that we have tried to experience in western Missouri during the 1830's. hold in January the past few years became the MMFF Spring Banquet this year in deference to Missouri's The purposes of MMFF are stated in the By- temperamental winter weather. It was held on April 28th Laws as follows: 1. To promote the research, documentation, 2004 at the Red Rooster Inn in Polo, Missouri. The Red verification, renovation and restoration of events Rooster has added a new patio seating area and continues and sites associated with the Missouri Mormon to serve excellent food. Frontier. The welcome was given by Diane Forsythe. Elder 2. To preserve documents, photographs, artifacts, MCKay gave the opening prayer. Diane made sites and other historical memorabilia associated introductions and read her historian's report for the with that period. previous year. We enjoyed singing folk songs with Celeste 3. To facilitate the gathering and preservation of Didericksen playing the guitar and leading the singing. genealogical information from the affected Drawings were made for door prizes and good fellowship geographical area. and fun was had by all. The closing prayer was given by President -Alta Short Don Stacker. Vice President -Ronald E. Romig Corresponding Secretary -William J. Curtis Ongoing Projects Recording Secretary -Nancy Harlacher Still on the board agenda are: Treasurer - • Wording fora Haun'sMillmonumentledbyRon Historian -Mary Diane Forsythe Romig. Board Members - • Discussion and reports on progress on the peter and Ida Mae Burkhardt, Annette Curtis, John Whitmer burial site on the Michael Arthur fami Larry Harlacher, Dave MCEwen, Ron Putz, Kenneth Short, Don Stacker prior to designing a marker for that site and the Ex-Offico Board Members - Michael Arthur farm. Ron Putz is working on this. • Markers in Richmond, Missouri for the jail and for Barrie Gunn MCKay, Elaine MCKay, Elder & Sister Rees Jensen, Hugh Barlow, Diane Barlow, David Smith's home. Lawrence Oliphant is heading Robert Parker, Dave Aamodt, Alex Baugh, this one. Susan Easton Black, Clark Johnson, John Mark Lambertson, Roland Sarratt, Mark Scherer Visiting Historians Richard Holzpfel -see page 16. All meetings, including Board meetings, are open. Gracia Jones - "A Celebration at the Center" on 22 Sept You are invited to come and bring other interested 2004 at the hdependence Visitors' Center was people to any of our meetings. enjoyed by several MITF members. Gracia has NEWSLETTER written on Emma and Joseph Smith and is a please send news and articles for the newsletter to descendant of Alexander Smith. Annette Curtis at 714 North Main, Independence MO 64050-2828 or mail to MMFF at P.O. Box 3186, 64055. Treasurer Our treasurer, Max Parkin moved to northern Home e-mail address: lobal.net Missouri. Shirley Gallup filled in for him briefly. She and Publications editor: Annette w. Curtis her husband are moving so the position is open.

31 e32 Number34 Ma t 2004 MISSOURI MOF]MON FRONTIER FOUNDATION

Membership INSIDE In That Country . 1-16 Keep the newsletter coming to you. Memberships are Old News 1838 . . 17-20 for the calendar year. New memberships are welcomed Henylnouye . . . ..22 anytime. 2005 memberships welcome now. Membership forms ..23 Book order form ..24 Log House ...... 25 Interested people are invited to attend MMFF Book Notes .... .25 functions. Call Alta Short at (816) 257-5588 or Ron Romig at (816) 229-7981 or (816) 833-1000 for more CONING information. Becky and Greg Smith - Friday 22 October 2004 at the Independence Visitors' Center. Becky Cardon Smith is the author of 77!c £DS Fczmz./y rrcrve/ MMFF meetings are the 2 nd T uesday e vening a t the Guide, Independence to Naavoo and The LDS Independence Mormon Visitors' Center Family Travel Guide, Sharon, Palinyra and Kirtland. MhffF - NW Chapter meetings will be quarterly. For dates and events contact Diane Forsythe.

If the first line in your address label does not end in 04, 05 or life, it is time to Renew your Membership.

Missouri Mormon Frontier Foundation P.O. Box 3186 Independence MO 64055

First Class

32