This meeting was held on June 16, and a committee from Jackson County presented the following proposition: "That the value of the lands, and the improvements thereon, of the Mormons in Jackson County, be ascertained by three disinterested appraisers, representatives of the Mormons to be allowed freely to point out the lands claimed and the improvements; that the people of Jackson County would agree to pay the Mormons the valuation fixed by the appraisers, WITH ONE HUNDRED PER CENT ADDED, within thirty days of the award; or, the Jackson County citizens would agree to sell out their lands in that county to the Mormons on the same terms." The Mormon leaders agreed to call a meeting of their people to consider this proposition.
The fifteen Jackson County committeemen, it may be mentioned, in crossing the river on their way home, were upset, and seven of them were drowned, including their chairman, J. Campbell, who was reported to have made threats against Smith. The latter thus reports the accident in his autobiography, "The angel of God saw fit to sink the boat about the middle of the river, and seven, out of the twelve that attempted to cross were drowned, thus suddenly and justly went they to their own place by water."
On June 21 the Mormons gave written notice to the Jackson County people that the terms proposed were rejected, and that they were framing "honorable propositions" on their own part, which they would soon submit, adding a denial of a rumor that they intended a hostile invasion. Their objection to the terms proposed was thus stated in an editorial in the Evening and Morning Star of July, 1834, "When it is understood that the mob hold possession of a large quantity of land more than our friends, and that they only offer thirty days for the payment of the same, it will be seen that they are only making a sham to cover their past unlawful conduct." This explanation ignores entirely the offer of the Missourians to buy out the Mormons at a valuation double that fixed by the appraisers, and simply shows that they intended to hold to the idea that their promised Zion was in Jackson County, and that they would not give it up.*
* The idea of returning to a Zion in Jackson County has never
been abandoned by the Mormon church. Bishop Partridge took title to the
Temple lot in Independence in his own name. In 1839, when the Mormons
were expelled from the state, still believing that this was to be
the site of the New Jerusalem, he deeded sixty-three acres of land in
Jackson County, including this lot, to three small children of Oliver
Cowdery. In 1848, seven years after Partridge's death, and when all the
Cowdery grantees were dead, a man named Poole got a deed for this land
from the heirs of the grantees, and subsequent conveyances were made
under Poole's deed. In 1851 a branch of the church, under a title
Church of Christ, known as Hendrickites, from Grandville Hendrick, its
originator, was organized in Illinois, with a basis of belief which
rejects most of the innovations introduced since 1835. Hendrick in 1864
was favored with a "revelation" which ordered the removal of his church
to Jackson County. On arriving there different members quietly bought
parts of the old Temple lot. In 1887 the sole surviving sister and heir
of the Cowdery children executed a quit claim deed of the lot to Bishop
Blakeslee of the Reorganized Church in Iowa, and that church at once
began legal proceedings to establish their title. Judge Philips, of
the United States Circuit Court for the Western Division of Missouri,
decided the case in March, 1894, in favor of the Reorganized Church, but
the United States Court of Appeals reversed this decision on the ground
that the respondents had title through undisputed possession ("United
States Court of Appeals Reports," Vol. XVII, p. 387). The Hendrickites
in this suit were actively aided by the Utah Mormons, President Woodruff
being among their witnesses. This Church of Christ has now a membership
of less than two hundred.
Two Mormon elders, describing their visit to Independence in 1888, said that they went to the Temple lot and prayed as follows: "O Lord, remember thy words, and let not Zion suffer forever. Hasten her redemption, and let thy name be glorified in the victory of truth and righteousness over sin and iniquity. Confound the enemies of the people and let Zion be free:"—"Infancy of the Church," Salt Lake City, 1889.
On June 23 (the date of Smith's last quoted "revelation"), the Mormons presented their counter proposition in writing. It was that a board of six Mormons and six Jackson County non-Mormons should decide on the value of lands in that county belonging to "those men who cannot consent to live with us," and that they should receive this sum within a year, less the amount of damage suffered by the Mormons, the latter to be determined by the same persons. The Jackson County people replied that they would "do nothing like according to their last proposition," and expressed a hope that the Mormons "would cast an eye back of Clinton, to see if that is not a county calculated for them." Clinton was the county next north of Clay.
Governor Dunklin, in his annual message to the legislature that year, expressed the opinion that "conviction for any violence committed against a Mormon cannot be had in Jackson County," and told the lawmakers it was for them to determine what amendments were necessary "to guard against such acts of violence for the future." The Mormons sent a petition in their own behalf to the legislature, which was presented by Corrill, but no action was taken.
CHAPTER V. — IN CLAY, CALDWELL, AND DAVIESS COUNTIES
The counties in which the Mormons settled after leaving Jackson County were thinly populated at that time, Clay County having only 5338 inhabitants, according to the census of 1830, and Caldwell, Carroll, and Daviess counties together having only 6617 inhabitants by the census of 1840. County rivalry is always a characteristic of our newly settled states and territories, and the Clay County people welcomed the Mormons as an addition to their number, notwithstanding the ill favor in which they stood with their southern neighbors. The new-comers at first occupied what vacant cabins they could find in the southern part of the county, until they could erect houses of their own, while the men obtained such employment as was offered, and many of the women sought places as domestic servants and school-teachers. The Jackson County people were not pleased with this friendly spirit, and they not only tried to excite trouble between the new neighbors, but styled the Clay County residents "Jack Mormons," a name applied in later years in other places to non-Mormons who were supposed to have Mormon sympathies.