The following portion of Margaret Foutz's narrative will also be of interest in this connection. She says:
"I am the daughter of David and Mary Munn, and was born December 11th, 1801, in Franklin county, Pa. I was married to Jacob Foutz, July 22d, 1822. In the year 1827 we emigrated to Richland county, Ohio. After living here a few years, an elder by the name of David Evans came into the neighborhood, preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, commonly called Mormonism. We united ourselves with the church, being baptized by Brother Evans, in the year 1834. Subsequently we took our departure for Missouri, to gather with the saints. We purchased some land, to make a permanent home, on Crooked River, where a small branch of the church was organized, David Evans being the president. We enjoyed ourselves exceedingly well, and everything seemed to prosper; but the spirit of persecution soon began to make itself manifest. Falsehoods were circulated about the Mormon population that were settling about that region, and there soon began to be signs of trouble. The brethren, in order to protect their families, organized themselves together.
"Threats being made by the mob to destroy a mill belonging to Brother Haun, it was considered best to have a few men continually at the mill to protect it. One day Brother Evans went and had an interview with a Mr. Comstock, said to be the head man of the mob. All things were amicably adjusted. Brother Evans then went to inform the brethren (my husband being among them) that all was well. This was about the middle of the afternoon, when Brother Evans returned from Mr. Comstock's. On a sudden, without any warning whatever, sixty or seventy men, with blackened faces, came riding their horses at full speed. The brethren ran, for protection, into an old blacksmith shop, they being without arms. The mob rode up to the shop, and without any explanation or apparent cause, began a wholesale butchery, by firing round after round through the cracks between the logs of the shop. I was at home with my family of five little children, and could hear the firing. In a moment I knew the mob was upon us. Soon a runner came, telling the women and children to hasten into the timber and secrete themselves, which we did, without taking anything to keep us warm; and had we been fleeing from the scalping knife of the Indian we would not have made greater haste. And as we ran from house to house, gathering as we went, we finally numbered about forty or fifty women and children. We ran about three miles into the woods, and there huddled together, spreading what few blankets or shawls we chanced to have on the ground for the children; and here we remained until two o'clock the next morning, before we heard anything of the result of the firing at the mill. Who can imagine our feelings during this dreadful suspense? And when the news did come, oh! what terrible news! Fathers, brothers and sons, inhumanly butchered! We now took up the line of march for home. Alas! what a home! Who would we find there? And now, with our minds full of the most fearful forebodings, we retraced those three long, dreary miles. As we were returning I saw a brother, Myers, who had been shot through his body. In that dreadful state he crawled on his hands and knees, about two miles, to his home.
"After I arrived at my house with my children, I hastily made a fire to warm them, and then started for the mill, about one mile distant. My children would not remain at home, saying, 'If father and mother are going to be killed, we want to be with them.' It was about seven o'clock in the morning when we arrived at the mill. In the first house I came to there were three dead men. One, a Brother McBride, I was told was a survivor of the Revolution. He was a terrible sight to behold, having been cut and chopped, and horribly mangled, with a corn-cutter.
"I hurried on, looking for my husband. I found him in an old house, covered with some rubbish. (The mob had taken the bedding and clothing from all the houses near the mill). My husband had been shot in the thigh. I rendered him all the assistance I could, but it was evening before I could get him home. I saw thirteen more dead bodies at the shop, and witnessed the beginning of the burial, which consisted in throwing the bodies into an old, dry well. So great was the fear of the men that the mob would return and kill what few of them there were left, that they threw the bodies in, head first or feet first, as the case might be. When they had thrown in three, my heart sickened, and I turned fainting away.
"At the moment of the massacre, my husband and another brother drew some of the dead bodies on themselves, and pretended to be dead also, by so doing saving their lives. While in this situation they heard what the ruffians said after the firing was over. Two little boys, who had not been hit, begged for their lives; but with horrible oaths they put the muzzles of their guns to the children's heads, and blew their brains out.
"Oh! what a change one short day had brought! Here were my friends, dead and dying; one in particular asked me to give him relief by taking a hammer and knocking his brains out, so great was his agony. And we knew not what moment our enemies would be upon us again. And all this, not because we had broken any law—on the contrary, it was a part of our religion to keep the laws of the land. In the evening Brother Evans got a team and conveyed my husband to his house, carried him in, and placed him on a bed. I then had to attend him, alone, without any doctor or any one to tell me what to do. Six days afterwards I, with my husband's assistance, extracted the bullet, it being buried deep in the thick part of the thigh, and flattened like a knife. During the first ten days, mobbers, with blackened faces, came every day, cursing and swearing like demons from the pit, and declaring that they would 'kill that d—d old Mormon preacher.' At times like these, when human nature quailed, I felt the power of God upon me to that degree that I could stand before them fearless; and although a woman, and alone, those demons in human shape had to succumb; for there was a power with me that they knew not of. During these days of mobocratic violence I would sometimes hide my husband in the house, and sometimes in the woods, covering him with leaves. And thus was I constantly harassed, until the mob finally left us, with the understanding that we should leave in the spring. About the middle of February we started for Quincy, Ill. Arriving there, we tarried for a short time, and thence moved to Nauvoo."
CHAPTER XVIII.
JOSEPH SMITH'S DARING ANSWER TO THE LORD—WOMAN, THROUGH MORMONISM, RESTORED TO HER TRUE POSITION—THE THEMES OF MORMONISM.
What potent faith had come into the world that a people should thus live and die by it?