The Missouri Persecutions

by B. H. Roberts

The first thing Joseph did on his arrival was to talk with several gentlemen of respectability and of good standing in the neighborhood, and who were not connected with The Church, but who had witnessed the proceedings of the mob against the saints, and now offered to make affidavits respecting the treatment the saints had received at the hands of the mob forces, and their present perilous situation; and further offered to send a messenger with these papers, and lay the case before the governor. Their proposition was gladly accepted. The affidavits were made out, and a Mr. Caldwell dispatched at once with them to the governor. Instead of sending the people of De Witt any hope of relief, however, the governor said to Mr. Caldwell:

The quarrel is between the "Mormons" and the mob, and they can fight it out.

This was the death blow to all hopes that had been entertained of receiving relief from the governor when the case should be fairly presented to him. Following close upon this answer that was returned from the chief executive, General Parks sent word to the besieged saints, that his troops under Captain Bogart had mutinied, and in order to prevent them joining the mob he was under the necessity of drawing them away. This act of course turned the people of De Witt over to the tender mercy of the mob led by Dr. Austin, Major Ashley, a member of the State legislature, and Sashiel Woods, a Presbyterian minister.

The saints were hopelessly shut up in De Witt. If their stock wandered outside of the immediate settlement it was shot down by the mob; and if the people went to the outskirts in search of food, they too became the targets of their merciless enemies. Provisions were exhausted, and some of the brethren died of exhaustion and starvation, while all were worn out with constantly watching the movements of their enemies. In this extremity the saints were advised by some of the prominent non-"Mormon" citizens in the vicinity of De Witt to leave that county, and they would be paid for all their losses, Henry Root and David Thomas having secured a promise of the mob that if the "Mormons" would leave De Witt, they should not be molested while doing so. The saints were compelled to accept these terms, and a committee was appointed to appraise the property of the "Mormons." The names of two of this committee are all that have been preserved—Judge Erickson and Major Florey. The only property that was appraised, however, was the real estate; the personal property the saints had lost, and the stock that had been shot down by the mob and upon which they had fed, was not taken into account at all.

The saints gathered up what teams and wagons they had left, and placing the sick, the aged and infirm, together with what personal property they could take with them, they left their fields and their homes in the hands of their enemies, and wended their slow way over the prairie in the direction of Far West. Ever and anon as they looked back with mournful glance in the direction of De Witt, they could see the smoke ascending heavenward from some of their burning homes. That was a dreary march to Far West. They were continually harassed by gangs of the mob who followed them, and others that they met in going to the appointed rendezvous in the vicinity of De Witt. Several brethren died on the way, and had to be buried without coffins, under the most sorrowful circumstances. One sister, who had not recovered from child-birth, through the exposure consequent upon being compelled to leave a comfortable home, died and was buried in a grave bordering the banks of a beautiful stream. The company arrived among their awe-stricken brethren and sisters at Far West on the 12th of October.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

MILLPORT.

No sooner had the saints departed from De Witt than the Presbyterian preacher, Woods, called the mob that had infested that settlement together, and in a speech of frenzied hate he suggested that they proceed at once to Daviess County and assist their friends in driving the "Mormons" from their homes in that county, as they had already done in Carroll County. He assured them the civil authorities would not interfere to defend the "Mormons," and they could get possession of their property just as well as not. He reminded them that the land sales would soon come off, and if they could but get rid of the "Mormons" they could secure all the lands they would want. To appreciate the force of this part of the preacher's appeal to the mob, the reader must remember that the whole country was wild on land speculations, and that some of the saints were badly tinctured with it, as explained in a previous chapter. The speech had the desired effect, and forthwith the entire body with their cannon started for Daviess County.

While these events were transpiring in Carroll County, Cornelius Gilliam, who, it will be remembered, called upon Zion's Camp at Fishing River several years before, had been engaged in raising a mob in Platte and Clinton counties to accomplish the same object that Parson Woods and his mob had in view. General Doniphan learned of these movements, both on the part of Gilliam and Woods, and sent word to Joseph Smith that a body of eight hundred men were moving upon the settlement of his people in Daviess County. He gave orders for a company of militia to be raised at Far West and marched at once into Daviess County, to defend those who were threatened, until he could raise the militia in Clay and adjoining counties to put down the insurrection. Accordingly a company of one hundred militia-men were gotten in readiness to march into Daviess County. The command was given to Colonel Hinckle and he started for Diahman.