Letter to the Citizens of Jackson County, 5 November 1838

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Letter to the Citizens of Jackson County, 5 November 1838
Source Note

JS,
Hyrum Smith
9 Feb. 1800–27 June 1844. Farmer, cooper. Born at Tunbridge, Orange Co., Vermont. Son of Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack. Moved to Randolph, Orange Co., 1802; back to Tunbridge, before May 1803; to Royalton, Windsor Co., Vermont, 1804; to Sharon, Windsor Co...
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,
Parley P. Pratt
12 Apr. 1807–13 May 1857. Farmer, editor, publisher, teacher, school administrator, legislator, explorer, author. Born at Burlington, Otsego Co., New York. Son of Jared Pratt and Charity Dickinson. Traveled west with brother William to acquire land, 1823....
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,
Amasa Lyman
30 Mar. 1813–4 Feb. 1877. Boatman, gunsmith, farmer. Born at Lyman, Grafton Co., New Hampshire. Son of Roswell Lyman and Martha Mason. Baptized into Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Lyman E. Johnson, 27 Apr. 1832. Moved to Hiram, Portage Co....
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,
George W. Robinson
14 May 1814–10 Feb. 1878. Clerk, postmaster, merchant, clothier, banker. Born at Pawlet, Rutland Co., Vermont. Baptized into Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and moved to Kirtland, Geauga Co., Ohio, by 1836. Clerk and recorder for Kirtland high...
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,
Lyman Wight
9 May 1796–31 Mar. 1858. Farmer. Born at Fairfield, Herkimer Co., New York. Son of Levi Wight Jr. and Sarah Corbin. Served in War of 1812. Married Harriet Benton, 5 Jan. 1823, at Henrietta, Monroe Co., New York. Moved to Warrensville, Cuyahoga Co., Ohio, ...
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, and
Sidney Rigdon
19 Feb. 1793–14 July 1876. Tanner, farmer, minister. Born at St. Clair, Allegheny Co., Pennsylvania. Son of William Rigdon and Nancy Gallaher. Joined United Baptists, ca. 1818. Preached at Warren, Trumbull Co., Ohio, and vicinity, 1819–1821. Married Phebe...
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, Letter,
Independence
Located twelve miles from western Missouri border. Permanently settled, platted, and designated county seat, 1827. Hub for steamboat travel on Missouri River. Point of departure for Santa Fe Trail. Population in 1831 about 300. Latter-day Saint population...
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, Jackson Co., MO, to the “citizens of
Jackson County
Settled at Fort Osage, 1808. County created, 16 Feb. 1825; organized 1826. Named after U.S. president Andrew Jackson. Featured fertile lands along Missouri River and was Santa Fe Trail departure point, which attracted immigrants to area. Area of county reduced...
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,” MO, 5 Nov. 1838. Featured version published in Daily Commercial Bulletin (St. Louis), 19 Nov. 1838, p. [2].

Issue containing four pages, with six printed columns per page. This issue was photographed on microfilm on 14 April 1976 by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. The microfilm copy, which is the version featured in this volume, has remained in institutional custody.
Historical Introduction
On 5 November 1838, JS and his fellow prisoners—
Sidney Rigdon
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,
Hyrum Smith
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,
Lyman Wight
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,
George W. Robinson
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,
Parley P. Pratt
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, and
Amasa Lyman
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—wrote a letter to the citizens of
Jackson County
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, Missouri, expressing gratitude for the treatment the prisoners received from the citizens and the state militia’s Fourth Division. On 2 November 1838, the prisoners, Brigadier General
Moses Wilson
1795–ca. 1868. Farmer, merchant, land developer, postmaster. Born in Virginia. Moved to Greene Co., Tennessee, by Dec. 1818. Married first Margaret Guin, 23 Dec. 1829, in Greene Co. Moved to Pike Co., Illinois, by Apr. 1832. Served in Black Hawk War, 1832...
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, and three hundred militiamen departed
Far West
Originally called Shoal Creek. Located fifty-five miles northeast of Independence. Surveyed 1823; first settled by whites, 1831. Site purchased, 8 Aug. 1836, before Caldwell Co. was organized for Latter-day Saints in Missouri. William W. Phelps and John Whitmer...
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, Caldwell County, Missouri, for
Independence
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, Jackson County, the headquarters of Wilson’s superior, Major General
Samuel D. Lucas
19 July 1799–23 Feb. 1868. Store owner, recorder of deeds. Born at Washington Co., Kentucky. Son of Samuel Lucas Sr. Married Theresa Bartlett Allen, ca. Nov. 1823, in Harrison Co., Kentucky. Member of Presbyterian church. Lived at Independence, Jackson Co...
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. The prisoners likely did not expect a positive experience in Jackson County, given the violent expulsion of the Saints from the county in 1833, church leaders’ arrest in late October 1838, the threat of execution, and the militia’s occupation of Far West.
1
Introduction to Part 3: 4 Nov. 1838–16 Apr. 1839.

Upon the prisoners’ arrival in
Independence
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on 4 November, rather than being confined in the county jail, they were lodged in a large log house situated on the north side of the public square. Their militia guards provided good food, prepared comfortable sleeping quarters, and permitted guests to visit the prisoners. According to
Wight
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, the day after their arrival the
Latter-day Saint
The Book of Mormon related that when Christ set up his church in the Americas, “they which were baptized in the name of Jesus, were called the church of Christ.” The first name used to denote the church JS organized on 6 April 1830 was “the Church of Christ...
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prisoners “were at liberty to go where we pleased about through the town,” including to the place church leaders had designated for a
temple
JS revelation, dated 20 July 1831, directed temple to be built short distance west of courthouse on hill just outside of Independence, Missouri. JS directed dedication of temple site by Sidney Rigdon, 3 Aug. 1831. On same date, church claimed site for eventual...
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in 1831.
2
Letter to Emma Smith, 4 Nov. 1838; Lyman Wight, Journal, in History of the Reorganized Church, 2:295–296; Revelation, 20 July 1831 [D&C 57:3].
Comprehensive Works Cited
The History of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 8 vols. Independence, MO: Herald Publishing House, 1896–1976.
As
Parley P. Pratt
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wrote to his wife,
Mary Ann Frost Pratt
14 Jan. 1809–24 Aug. 1891. Midwife. Born in Groton, Caledonia Co., Vermont. Daughter of Aaron Frost and Susanna Gray Bennett. Moved to Bethel, Oxford Co., Maine, by 1820. Married first Nathan Stearns, ca. Feb. 1832, in Bethel. Husband died, 25 Aug. 1833. ...
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, “Were it not for the abscence of Our families we Should allmost forget that we were Prisoners.”
3
Parley P. Pratt, Independence, MO, to Mary Ann Frost Pratt, Far West, MO, 4 Nov. 1838, Parley P. Pratt, Letters, CHL; see also Pratt, History of the Late Persecution, 46–47.
Pratt, Parley P. Letters, 1838–1839. CHL. MS 5828.

In the prisoners’ 5 November 1838 letter, they expressed their “unfeigned gratitude” to
Jackson County
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’s citizens, to
Lucas
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and
Wilson
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, and to the militia for the unexpected kindness and civility. The prisoners may have believed that the letter would cultivate favor among the county’s residents and encourage the good treatment to continue.

Because the original letter is apparently not extant, it is unknown which of the prisoners penned the letter. Upon its completion, JS and the other men signed it. Addressed to the “citizens of
Jackson County
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,” the letter may have been intended for publication, perhaps as a broadside or in a local newspaper. However, it is unclear whether the letter circulated in Jackson County—either in manuscript form or in print—after it was completed. The earliest known publication of the letter was on 10 November 1838 in the Boon’s Lick Democrat, a newspaper published in Fayette, Howard County, Missouri, more than one hundred miles east of
Independence
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. As published, the letter was titled “a card”; it is unknown whether this title was editorially supplied or if it was original to the letter. The editors of the Boon’s Lick Democrat stated in an introductory note that the letter “furnishes a refutation of the reports which have reached here from various sources and that some of
General Lucas
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’s command, after their arrival at
Far West
Originally called Shoal Creek. Located fifty-five miles northeast of Independence. Surveyed 1823; first settled by whites, 1831. Site purchased, 8 Aug. 1836, before Caldwell Co. was organized for Latter-day Saints in Missouri. William W. Phelps and John Whitmer...
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, had been guilty of many flagrant and nameless outrages upon the persons of some of their Mormon prisoners.”
4
Notice, Daily Commercial Bulletin (St. Louis), 19 Nov. 1838, [2]. Major General John B. Clark later reported, “Hearing at Richmond that some of the guard left by Genl Lucas at Far West were killing prisoners and commiting other excesses I left my troops and went in advance riding all night in order to check such things.” Although Clark concluded that such reports were exaggerated, he was unwilling to “vouch for the troops before [his] arrival” on 4 November. Pratt echoed several Latter-day Saints who claimed that after Lucas’s troops disarmed the Saints, “the brutal mob were now turned loose to ravage, steel, plunder and murder without restraint. Houses were rifled, and women ravished, and goods taken as they pleased.” (John B. Clark, Jefferson City, MO, to Lilburn W. Boggs, 29 Nov. 1838, copy, Mormon War Papers, MSA; Pratt, History of the Late Persecution, 42; see also Historical Introduction to Declaration to the Clay County Circuit Court, ca. 6 Mar. 1839; and Hyrum Smith, Commerce, IL, to “the Saints Scattered Abroad,” Dec. 1839, in Times and Seasons, Dec. 1839, 1:22–23.)
Daily Commercial Bulletin. St. Louis, MO. 1835–1841.
Mormon War Papers, 1838–1841. MSA.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Although this issue of the Boon’s Lick Democrat has not been located, the letter and introductory note were reprinted in the 19 November 1838 issue of the St. Louis Daily Commercial Bulletin; that version of the letter is featured here.
Footnotes
[1]
Introduction to Part 3: 4 Nov. 1838–16 Apr. 1839.
[2]
Letter to Emma Smith, 4 Nov. 1838; Lyman Wight, Journal, in History of the Reorganized Church, 2:295–296; Revelation, 20 July 1831 [D&C 57:3].
The History of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 8 vols. Independence, MO: Herald Publishing House, 1896–1976.
[3]
Parley P. Pratt, Independence, MO, to Mary Ann Frost Pratt, Far West, MO, 4 Nov. 1838, Parley P. Pratt, Letters, CHL; see also Pratt, History of the Late Persecution, 46–47.
Pratt, Parley P. Letters, 1838–1839. CHL. MS 5828.
[4]
Notice, Daily Commercial Bulletin (St. Louis), 19 Nov. 1838, [2]. Major General John B. Clark later reported, “Hearing at Richmond that some of the guard left by Genl Lucas at Far West were killing prisoners and commiting other excesses I left my troops and went in advance riding all night in order to check such things.” Although Clark concluded that such reports were exaggerated, he was unwilling to “vouch for the troops before [his] arrival” on 4 November. Pratt echoed several Latter-day Saints who claimed that after Lucas’s troops disarmed the Saints, “the brutal mob were now turned loose to ravage, steel, plunder and murder without restraint. Houses were rifled, and women ravished, and goods taken as they pleased.” (John B. Clark, Jefferson City, MO, to Lilburn W. Boggs, 29 Nov. 1838, copy, Mormon War Papers, MSA; Pratt, History of the Late Persecution, 42; see also Historical Introduction to Declaration to the Clay County Circuit Court, ca. 6 Mar. 1839; and Hyrum Smith, Commerce, IL, to “the Saints Scattered Abroad,” Dec. 1839, in Times and Seasons, Dec. 1839, 1:22–23.)
Daily Commercial Bulletin. St. Louis, MO. 1835–1841.
Mormon War Papers, 1838–1841. MSA.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Page [2]
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A CARD.

To the citizens of
Jackson County
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:

It is with feelings of no ordinary kind that the undersigned take this method of tendering their most unfeigned gratitude to you for the kind treatment and great attention they have received at your hands since they were committed to your charge as prisoners: having received every degree of kindness that could be expected at the hands of a magnanimous and honourable people. This, gentlemen, is not designed as flattery, but a debt that they feel they owe to you. We hope that Generals
[Samuel D.] Lucas
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and
[Moses] Wilson
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, and all the officers and privates under their command, will receive this expression of our feelings, as due to them from us, in return for the kind treatment received at their hands. Gentlemen, we found you friends at a time when we most needed them; and since the time arrived at this
village
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, we have not received the first insult from any individual. Gentlemen, we are prisoners in your hands, and such has been your magnanimity, that while we remain prisoners, we shall desire to continue in your care.

For your prosperity in this life, and rest eternal in that which is to come, you have the sincere desire and devout prayer of your prisoners in tribulation.

JOSEPH SMITH, Jr.

HYRAM [Hyrum] SMITH
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,

P[arley] P. PRATT
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,

AMASA LYMAN
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,

GEORGE W. ROBINSON
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,

LYMAN WIGHT
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,

SIDNEY RIGDON
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.

Independence
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, Nov. 5th, 1838. [p. [2]]
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