out of town, Brother Hendrix felt bad on the subject inasmuch as the young man had boarded with him & he knew nothing derogatory to his character. He (the ) rode up to the this morning and saw the young man. being present told the man he could prove that he fled from for stealing and that he had said several times since he came to that he came to seduce some of the Morman women and he swore he would do it,— and “he could not tarry here”. The man dare not deny that this was the fact. He (the ) then went to brother Hendrix’ and stated to him what he had learned & what he was able to prove, and also what had passed this morning. Brother Hendrix expressed his satisfaction at the course [p. [269]]
Probably James Hendrix (also spelled Hendricks), who lived on block 5, lot 3, of the Wells Addition to Nauvoo. James Hendrix’s wife, Drusilla, later stated that they kept boarders in Nauvoo from 1842 to 1846. (Book of Assessment, 1843, Second Ward, pp. 9–10, Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL; Allen, Henry Hendricks Genealogy, 24–25.)
Allen, Marguerite H., comp. Henry Hendricks Genealogy (1730 . . .): A Record of the Ancestry and Descendants of Henry and Sarah (Thompson) Hendricks of Monmouth Co., New Jersey. . . . Salt Lake City: Hendricks Family Organization, 1963.
Heber C. Kimball recorded in his journal on this day, “Last Eve the Boys Whisel a man out of the city.” An anonymous letter to the editor of the Nauvoo Neighbor dated 12 April likely refers to this incident. The letter stated that a man with a “dandy cut & important air” had been “soliciting the hand of the ladies” in Nauvoo. “Prosperity appeared to crown his efforts with success” until “the boys assembled and held a council, the decision was to rid Nauvoo of the freebooter as they had every reason to believe he was, and reques[t]ed him to leave, but being prolix; to whistling they went, and with knives in one hand and a stick in the other, whistled the sandy haired dandy to the Stone House on the banks of the river.” According to the letter, once the man had been chased out of the city he was accosted by a shopkeeper from Dubuque, Iowa Territory (just up the Mississippi River from Galena, Illinois), who discovered over fifty dollars’ worth of stolen goods in the man’s possession. Two days following this council meeting, Young may have referred to this incident when he described a man who had been whistled out who “was here pretending to enquire into the work, & several of the brethren thought he was going soon to be baptised— but his business was to pass counterfeit money & abuse the Mormon Girls.” Church leaders such as George Miller saw the protection of Mormon women from “whiskered scoundrels, that come here to seduce our females” as one of the purposes of Nauvoo’s extralegal police force. On one occasion Miller even suggested that “six women be added to the police” to help with this problem. (Kimball, Journal, 11 Apr. 1845; Quincy, IL, 12 Apr. 1845, Letter to the Editor, Nauvoo Neighbor, 23 Apr. 1845, [3]; High Priests Quorum Record, 13 Apr. 1845; 2 Feb. 1845; 30 Mar. 1845.)
Kimball, Heber C. Journal, Sept. 1842; May 1844–May 1845. Heber C. Kimball, Papers, 1837–1866. CHL. MS 627, box. 3, fd. 4.