Nothing but an excavation one hundred and ten feet by eighty, enclosed in an old field, with a large rough, unhewn stone in each corner, now marks the spot that was once the pretentious public square of Far West. This excavation was made on the 3rd of July, 1837, and was intended for the basement of the temple the saints expected to erect there. There are several very interesting circumstances connected with this old excavation and the rough corner stones, that will be related as the circumstances of which I am writing, shall bring them due.
Standing on this consecrated ground and viewing the few relics that are left to remind us that the saints once lived here, one naturally falls into a sad reverie. It is true we are not surrounded by the fallen columns of ruined temples; or the ruins of splendid palaces, or massive walls, such as one would meet with at Babylon, Jerusalem, Rome or Athens. It is not the ruins of an antique or celebrated civilization that inspires one's sadness over Far West. But there one sits in the midst of the ruined prospects and blighted hopes of the saints of God, instead of in the midst of broken columns, ponderous arches, and crumbling walls.
The chief interest about Far West, of course, is the fact that it was the theatre where was enacted those stirring scenes which add another black page to the history of Missouri.
"If that strange people," says Crosby Jackson in his history of Caldwell County, "who built Nauvoo and Salt Lake, who uncomplainingly toiled across the American desert, and made the wilderness of Utah to bloom like a garden, had been permitted to remain and perfect the work which they had begun here, how different would have been the history of Far West! Instead of being a farm with scarcely sufficient ruins to mark the spot where once it stood, there would have been a rich, populous city, along the streets of which would be pouring the wealth of the world; and instead of an old dilapidated farmhouse, there would have been magnificent temples to which the devout saints from the further corners of the world would have made their yearly pilgrimage. But the bigotry and intolerance of the saints towards the gentiles, and especially toward dissenters from the new revelations of Joe Smith, rendered such a consummation impossible!"
It now becomes my duty to relate those circumstances which prevented the saints from building up Far West, and which at last drove them as exiles from the State of Missouri; and we shall, in the course of our narrative, see whether it was the "bigotry and intolerance of the saints towards the gentiles and dissenters," that brought about the fate of Far West, or whether it was the brutal savagery of pretended "Christians" incited to deeds of cruelty by jealous sectarian ministers, and unscrupulous demagogues fearful of the growing political power of the "Mormons."
The first settlement in the vicinity of Far West was made in October, 1836; by July following, about one hundred buildings had been erected, eight of which were stores. This same month the school section of land was sold at auction, and although entirely a prairie it sold, on a year's credit, for seven dollars and ninety cents per acre, making the settlers' school fund about five thousand dollars. Some non-members of The Church expressed a desire to establish saloons in the growing town, and endeavored to induce some of the brethren to sell intoxicants on commission for them, but the High Council resolved not to sustain any persons as members of The Church, who would become retailers of spirituous liquors, and the liquor business was dropped.
In September, 1837, The Church at Kirtland appointed Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon to seek out new places for the gathering of the saints and lay off other stakes of Zion, than those of Far West and Kirtland. On this mission Joseph and Sidney arrived at Far West in the latter part of October. A council of the Priesthood was called at which it was decided that there was sufficient room in the vicinity of Far West for the gathering of the saints from abroad; and hence it was decided that it was not necessary for the present to select other places.
At a general conference convened in October, 1837, the several quorums of the Priesthood were set in order. Men and measures were thoroughly discussed. Difficulties were adjusted and covenants of brotherly love renewed. Twenty-three Elders were started out to preach the gospel. It was voted to enlarge the town plat of Far West so that it would contain four sections—two miles square. The conference also voted not to support any stores or shops selling spirituous liquors, tea, coffee or tobacco.