34

Lewis County, Robison headed south on foot on Wednesday, August 13. He stayed the night in Gillem, where he reported overhearing the locals opining that the had only gotten what they deserved. The next morning he boarded a train for Centerville in

Hickman County. Well aware of the rumors about Mormons’ strange underwear, Robison decided to remove his garments in case any suspicious people stopped and searched him.32 He then set out for Lewis County along a railroad track. After several harrowing encounters with locals and picking his way along paths in the dark, Robison finally arrived at Cane Creek and the Condor farm. After finally convincing the family of who he was, he was allowed in and learned the complete story of what had happened from James and Malinda Conder. His report later helped the Mormons piece together what had occurred there on August 10.33

Once they learned the facts of what had happened, the Latter-day Saints faced the task of deciding what to do about the bodies of the slain elders. The Church decided that they should be given martyrs’ funerals in Utah, and B. H. Roberts had the task of retrieving the bodies from vigilante-protected Cane Creek. But first, he and Jones and

Kimball decided to seek help in obtaining safe passage to remove the bodies of the elders from Lewis County. Travelling to Nashville, they sought an audience with the governor,

William Bate, to try to gain his support. While waiting to meet the governor, B.H.

32 Many anti-Mormons mockingly called them “magic underwear.” Modern Latter-day Saints still wear these simple white under their outer at all times once they have been through the ceremony, which allows them to enter the Church temples. The temple garment and its markings serve as a reminder of the covenants of the ceremony and a commitment to the tenets of the Church.

33 Willis E. Robison, “An Unpublished Letter on the Tennessee Massacre,” , 1898.