Verily were the Saints of the Most High being driven toward their destiny. The "horn" that made war with them and "prevailed against them," was surely pushing them on to final victory. Was it not destiny, too, that they should thus retrace the steps of their great ancestor, who, driven forth from Eden,[A] dwelt in Adam-ondi-Ahman?
[Footnote A: Jackson County, Missouri, from whence the Saints were driven, is reputed to be the ancient site of the Garden of Eden.]
Heber was now with his people at Far West, in "the land where Adam dwelt," ready to perform his part of the labor in preparing the kingdom of the Son of God for the coming of the Ancient of Days.
"Soon after my arrival," says he, "Bishop Partridge gave me a lot and sufficient lumber to build a house. Charles Hubbard made me a present of forty acres of land, and another brother gave me a cow. All the brethren were remarkably kind in contributing to my necessities. About the last of August, after I had spent much labor, and nearly finished my house, I was obliged to abandon it to the mob, who again commenced persecuting the Saints, driving off their cattle and destroying their property."
The origin of this persecution was much the same as that of the Jackson County trouble, five years before. The thrift and enterprise of the Saints, with their growing power and influence, had aroused the jealous fears of their Gentile neighbors, and what the scheming villainy of political demagogues left undone, the malice of sectarian priests accomplished, in kindling the wrath of the ignorant and fanatical against them.
An election riot in Gallatin, Daviess County, on the 6th of August, 1838, where a combined effort was made to prevent the Mormons from voting, and several of the brethren were under the necessity of using force to defend themselves against their bullying assailants, was made the pretext for further outrages against the community to which they belonged. The Saints in that locality being helplessly in the minority, were at the mercy of the mob which now rose against them.
One of the methods employed by the leaders of the lawless banditti to enlist sympathy for their own cause, and arouse the public mind against their victims, was to destroy property belonging to non-Mormons, their own followers in some instances, and then ride through the country advertising it as the work of Mormons, against whom any tale, however false or atrocious, was readily believed. Some of the mob even fired upon a church while its occupants were worshiping on the Sabbath day, and then spread the alarm that the Mormons had "riz" and were destroying property, demolishing churches and interfering with free religious worship.
These atrocious falsehoods, worthy only of fiends incarnate, bore legitimate fruit in deeds equally devilish and appalling. The people rose en masse; the Saints were driven from their homes, their houses plundered and burned, their fields laid waste, and men, women and children fled for their lives in all directions, pursued by their merciless oppressors.
What followed, Heber's record thus relates:
"After hearing of the mobbing, burning and robbing in Gallatin, Daviess Co., and the region round about, the brethren of Caldwell went directly to Adamondi-Ahman, which is on the west fork of Grand River. Thomas B. Marsh, David W. Patten, Brigham Young, myself, Parley P. Pratt and John Taylor amongst the number. When we arrived there we found the Prophet Joseph, Hyrum Smith and Sidney Rigdon, with hundreds of others of the Saints preparing to defend themselves from the mob who were threatening the destruction of our people. Men, women and children were fleeing to that place for safety from every direction; their houses and property were burnt and they had to flee half naked, crying, and frightened nigh unto death, to save their lives.