Bill of Damages, 4 June 1839
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Source Note
JS, Bill of Damages, , Adams Co., IL, 4 June 1839; handwriting of ; eight pages; JS Collection, CHL. Includes redactions, use marks, docket, and archival marks.Two bifolia measuring 12¼ × 7½ inches (31 × 19 cm). The document was folded for transmission and perhaps for filing. At some point, its leaves were numbered in graphite. In the 1840s or early 1850s, church historian docketed the upper left corner of the first leaf: “Joseph’s Bill of Damages | vs. Missouri June 4 | 1839”. Later, the two bifolia were fastened together with a staple, which was subsequently removed. The document has marked soiling and some separation along the folds. An archival marking—“d 155”—was inscribed in the upper right corner of the first leaf.Following its completion, the bill of damages was temporarily in the possession of and other church scribes, who in June and July 1839 revised and expanded the document for publication. The bill of damages was possibly among the documents a Latter-day Saint delegation carried to in winter 1839–1840. If so, the document was included with the “additional documents” that were in the custody of the Senate Judiciary Committee from 17 February 1840 to circa 24 March 1840, after which the documents were retrieved by the church delegation. The document has probably remained in continuous institutional custody since that time, as indicated by ’s inscription of a copy in JS History, 1838–1856, volume C-1, in 1845 and by the docket and archival marking that were subsequently added to the document.
Footnotes
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1
Richards served as church historian from December 1842 until his death in 1854. (JS, Journal, 21 Dec. 1842; Orson Spencer, “Death of Our Beloved Brother Willard Richards,” Deseret News, 16 Mar. 1854, [2].)
Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.
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2
The scribes may have added the use marks when preparing the document for publication. (See Historical Introduction to “Extract, from the Private Journal of Joseph Smith Jr.,” July 1839.)
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3
Journal of the Senate of the United States, 17 Feb. 1840, 179; 23 Mar. 1840, 259–260; Elias Higbee, Washington DC, to JS, [Commerce, IL?], 24 Mar. 1840, in JS Letterbook 2, p. 105; see also Bushman, Rough Stone Rolling, 391–394.
Journal of the Senate of the United States of America, Being the First Session of the Twenty-Sixth Congress, Begun and Held at the City of Washington, December 2, 1839, and in the Sixty-Fourth Year of the Independence of the Said United States. Washington DC: Blair and Rives, 1839.
Bushman, Richard Lyman. Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling. With the assistance of Jed Woodworth. New York: Knopf, 2005.
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4
Jessee, “Writing of Joseph Smith’s History,” 441; JS History, vol. C-1, 948–952. Bullock may have added the use marks after he finished copying the document in 1845, and Richards may have added the docket around the same time. The archival marking was added in the twentieth century.
Jessee, Dean C. “The Writing of Joseph Smith’s History.” BYU Studies 11 (Summer 1971): 439–473.
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1
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Historical Introduction
On 4 June 1839, JS prepared a bill of damages describing his suffering and losses during the 1838 conflict in and his subsequent imprisonment. This document was one of several hundred that prepared in an effort to seek redress from the federal government for their losses in Missouri. In March 1839, while JS was imprisoned in the in , Missouri, he wrote to the Saints in , instructing them to document “all the facts and suffering and abuses put upon them by the people of this state [Missouri] and also of all the property and amount of damages which they have sustained.” JS explained in a letter to his wife that after documenting the damages, church members should “apply to the Court.” The Saints subsequently altered this strategy, deciding in early May to send to to present Congress with church members’ claims for redress. That month, Latter-day Saints began in earnest to write affidavits, most of which were sworn before local government officials, describing church members’ suffering and detailing the loss of life and property.JS prepared his bill of damages on 4 June 1839 during a visit to church members in , Illinois. JS’s regular scribe, , was not in Quincy at the time, so assisted JS with the document. Thompson had prior experience as a scribe for the church and had recently been assigned to write a history of the church’s persecutions in . This assignment may have contributed to JS’s decision to work with Thompson on the bill of damages. The earliest extant version of the manuscript, featured here, is lengthy and fairly polished, suggesting there was at least one earlier draft.The bill of damages begins with a brief description of JS’s travels from , Ohio, to and his experiences in Missouri during summer 1838. The document then focuses on the October 1838 conflict with anti-Mormons in Missouri, including the expulsion of the Latter-day Saints from Carroll County and the Saints’ aggressive military operations to defend themselves in . In his description of the operations, JS highlighted the participation of state militia leaders—Brigadier Generals and Hiram Parks as well as Colonel of the regiment of the state militia—while deemphasizing the actions of the Latter-day Saints’ “armies of Israel.” The bill also covers the state militia’s occupation of , as well as the incarceration of JS and others during winter 1838–1839, including unfair treatment of the prisoners, their attempts to obtain habeas corpus hearings, and their escape to in April 1839. The document concludes with a list of damages and expenses totaling $100,000. Unlike the vast majority of affidavits that Latter-day Saints made in 1839, JS’s bill of damages was not sworn before a government official.In June and July 1839, penciled in changes to the text of the bill of damages, apparently in preparation for publication. Since these changes were probably made for a purpose distinct from the intention of the original document, these revisions are not reproduced here. Thompson’s changes, as well as other revisions and additions, were included in the bill of damages when it was published as “Extract, from the Private Journal of Joseph Smith, Jr.” in the July 1839 issue of the church periodical Times and Seasons.
Footnotes
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1
Letter to Edward Partridge and the Church, ca. 22 Mar. 1839.
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3
Historical Introduction to Letter from Sidney Rigdon, 10 Apr. 1839; Minutes, 4–5 May 1839.
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4
See, for example, James Newberry, Affidavit, Adams Co., IL, 7 May 1839; Joseph Dudley, Affidavit, Adams Co., IL, 11 May 1839; Phebee Simpson Emmett, Affidavit, Adams Co., IL, 14 May 1839, Mormon Redress Petitions, 1839–1845, CHL.
Mormon Redress Petitions, 1839–1845. CHL. MS 2703.
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6
Mulholland was in Commerce, Illinois, during JS’s visit to Quincy in late May and early June 1839. (JS, Journal, 27 May–8 June 1839; Mulholland, Journal, 19 May–8 June 1839.)
Mulholland, James. Journal, Apr.–Oct. 1839. In Joseph Smith, Journal, Sept.–Oct. 1838. Joseph Smith Collection. CHL. MS 155, box 1, fd. 4.
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7
“Extracts of the Minutes of Conferences,” Times and Seasons, Nov. 1839, 1:15; Authorization for Almon Babbitt et al., ca. 4 May 1839; Snow, Journal, 1838–1841, 50–54.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Snow, Erastus. Journals, 1835–1851; 1856–1857. CHL. MS 1329, box 1, fds. 1–3.
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8
For more information on the “armies of Israel,” see Introduction to Part 3: 4 Nov. 1838–16 Apr. 1839.
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9
“Extract, from the Private Journal of Joseph Smith Jr.,” Times and Seasons, July 1839, 1:2–9.
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1
Document Transcript
| Lossess sustained in : including Lands: <Houses> Horses: Harness &c Hogs Cattle Hogs & Books & store Goods) | $100,000 |
| Expences while in Bonds: of moneys paid out Expences of moving out of the & damages sustained by <False imprisonment>) | |
| threatnings: intimidation Exposure &c &c &c &c &c) |
Footnotes
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1
JS departed Kirtland on 12 January 1838 and arrived in Far West on 14 March; the distance was approximately eight hundred miles. (JS, Journal, Mar.–Sept. 1838, p. 16; Letter to the Presidency in Kirtland, 29 Mar. 1838; JS History, vol. B-1, 831.)
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2
By the time JS’s party reached Dublin, a small town near Columbus, Ohio, the group was “destitute of money.” In Dublin a “brother Tomlinson” sold his farm “and readily delivered to [JS] three hundred dollars which supplied [the group’s] wants.” JS later recounted that when his group reached Paris, Illinois, tavern keepers refused to admit the Latter-day Saints, relenting only when the traveling party threatened to obtain lodging through force. (“Incidents of Joseph Smith’s Journal,” ca. 1845, [1], Historian’s Office, JS History Documents, 1839–1860, CHL; JS, Journal, 29 Dec. 1842.)
Historian’s Office. Joseph Smith History Documents, 1839–1860. CHL. CR 100 396.
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3
American colonial governments offered “scalp bounties” as a reward for killing Indians; the practice of scalping opponents continued into the nineteenth century. According to Brigadier General Parks, during the 1838 conflict “Morman scalps” were “much in demand” among anti-Mormons. Grindstone Fork, a small settlement in western Daviess County, served as a headquarters for vigilantes during the conflict. (Axtell and Sturtevant, “Unkindest Cut,” 469–472; Taylor, Civil War of 1812, 192; Hiram Parks, Carroll Co., MO, to David R. Atchison, Booneville, MO, 7 Oct. 1838, copy, Mormon War Papers, MSA; Berrett, Sacred Places, 4:462.)
Axtell, James, and William C. Sturtevant. “The Unkindest Cut; or, Who Invented Scalping?” William and Mary Quarterly 37, no. 3 (July 1980): 451–472.
Taylor, Alan. The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, and Indian Allies. New York: Vintage Books, 2011.
Mormon War Papers, 1838–1841. MSA.
Berrett, LaMar C., ed. Sacred Places: A Comprehensive Guide to Early LDS Historical Sites. 6 vols. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1999–2007.
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4
JS was perhaps referring to the legal difficulties stemming from the confrontation between armed Mormon men and Adam Black on 8 August 1838. Latter-day Saint Warner Hoopes recalled that when King issued a warrant to arrest JS and Lyman Wight, “Judge King & others said they ware in hopes that joseph smith jun & Lyman Wight would not be taken & tried acording to law so that they could have the pleasure of taking their scalps.” (See Historical Introduction to Affidavit, 5 Sept. 1838; and Warner Hoopes, Affidavit, Pike Co., IL, 14 Jan. 1840, Record Group 233, Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, National Archives, Washington DC.)
Record Group 233, Records of the U.S. House of Representatives / Petitions and Memorials, Resolutions of State Legislatures, and Related Documents Which Were Referred to the Committee on Judiciary during the 27th Congress. Committee on the Judiciary, Petitions and Memorials, 1813–1968. Record Group 233, Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1789–2015. National Archives, Washington DC. The LDS records cited herein are housed in National Archives boxes 40 and 41 of Library of Congress boxes 139–144 in HR27A-G10.1.
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5
TEXT: Below “knowing,” Robert B. Thompson inserted the following letters: “mormmnes”. The letters, which are in the same ink as the rest of the document and were therefore probably inscribed contemporaneously, apparently do not pertain to the sentence above the insertion.
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6
In June 1838, church leaders purchased nearly half of the lots in De Witt and encouraged church members to settle there. The Latter-day Saint population in the area increased quickly. By late July, a Carroll County committee decided that if the Saints would not leave voluntarily, they would be expelled from the county. Although the acceleration of hostilities in Daviess County in August and September temporarily diverted the attention of anti-Mormons in Carroll County, by late September the seventy to eighty Latter-day Saint families living in De Witt were again threatened with expulsion. Vigilantes gave church members in De Witt until 1 October to leave the county and “threatened if not gone by that time to exterminate them without regard to age or sex and destroy their chattels, by throwing them in the river.” (Murdock, Journal, 23 June 1838, 95; “The Mormons in Carroll County,” Missouri Republican [St. Louis], 18 Aug. 1838, [2]; Citizens of De Witt, MO, to Lilburn W. Boggs, Jefferson City, MO, 22 Sept. 1838, copy, Mormon War Papers, MSA; see also Baugh, “Call to Arms,” 143–163; and Perkins, “Prelude to Expulsion,” 266.)
Murdock, John. Journal, ca. 1830–1859. John Murdock, Journal and Autobiography, ca. 1830–1867. CHL. MS 1194, fd. 2.
Missouri Republican. St. Louis. 1822–1919.
Mormon War Papers, 1838–1841. MSA.
Baugh, Alexander L. “A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri.” PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1996. Also available as A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri, Dissertations in Latter-day Saint History (Provo, UT: Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History; BYU Studies, 2000).
Perkins, Keith W. “De Witt—Prelude to Expulsion.” In Regional Studies in Latter-day Saint Church History: Missouri, edited by Arnold K. Garr and Clark V. Johnson, 261–280. Provo, UT: Department of Church History and Doctrine, Brigham Young University, 1994.
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7
The Saints purchased their De Witt property from land speculators David Thomas and Henry Root with a $500 note endorsed by Bishop Edward Partridge. (See Letter from David Thomas, 31 Mar. 1838; and Murdock, Journal, 23 June 1838, 95.)
Murdock, John. Journal, ca. 1830–1859. John Murdock, Journal and Autobiography, ca. 1830–1867. CHL. MS 1194, fd. 2.
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8
JS departed Far West for De Witt on 5 October 1838 and arrived the following day with thirty to forty men. (JS, Journal, 5 Oct. 1838; Rockwood, Journal, 14 Oct. 1838.)
Rockwood, Albert Perry. Journal Entries, Oct. 1838–Jan. 1839. Photocopy. CHL. MS 2606.
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9
After it became apparent that the Latter-day Saints would not leave De Witt, Missouri, by the appointed day—1 October 1838—as many as three hundred vigilantes from Carroll and other Missouri counties besieged the settlement. Latter-day Saint John Murdock noted that the vigilantes “continued to harrass us day & night by shooting at our people in the woods in cornfields in town & into our camps.” (Hiram Parks, Carroll Co., MO, to David R. Atchison, Booneville, MO, 7 Oct. 1838, copy, Mormon War Papers, MSA; Murdock, Journal, 1 Oct. 1838, 100.)
Mormon War Papers, 1838–1841. MSA.
Murdock, John. Journal, ca. 1830–1859. John Murdock, Journal and Autobiography, ca. 1830–1867. CHL. MS 1194, fd. 2.
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10
See Corrill, Brief History, 36; and Sidney Rigdon, Testimony, Nauvoo, IL, 1 July 1843, p. [3], Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL.
Nauvoo, IL. Records, 1841–1845. CHL. MS 16800.
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11
Rigdon later noted that the Latter-day Saints in De Witt were “suffering for food and every comfort of life, in consequence of which there was much sickness and many died.” John Murdock recorded that the Saints agreed to leave De Witt on 10 October 1838. (Sidney Rigdon, Testimony, Nauvoo, IL, 1 July 1843, p. [3], Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL; John Murdock, Lima, IL, to Sister Crocker et al., 21 July 1839, CHL; see also Murdock, Journal, Oct. 1838, 102.)
Nauvoo, IL. Records, 1841–1845. CHL. MS 16800.
Murdock, John. Letter, Lima, IL, to Sister Crocker et al., 21 July 1839. CHL.
Murdock, John. Journal, ca. 1830–1859. John Murdock, Journal and Autobiography, ca. 1830–1867. CHL. MS 1194, fd. 2.
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12
The Latter-day Saints in De Witt petitioned King for assistance in early October 1838. Parks apparently learned of the Saints’ plight independently on 3 October; the following day, he led two militia companies, one of which was commanded by Captain Bogart, to De Witt. Parks found the anti-Mormon vigilantes were waiting for additional reinforcements before launching a direct attack on church members. He told church member John Murdock that Parks “could do nothing because of the mob spirit in his men.” (Murdock, Journal, Oct. 1838, 102; David R. Atchison, Booneville, MO, to Lilburn W. Boggs, Jefferson City, MO, 5 Oct. 1838, copy; Hiram Parks, Carroll Co., MO, to David R. Atchison, Booneville, MO, 7 Oct. 1838, copy, Mormon War Papers, MSA; John Murdock, Lima, IL, to Sister Crocker et al., 21 July 1839, CHL.)
Murdock, John. Journal, ca. 1830–1859. John Murdock, Journal and Autobiography, ca. 1830–1867. CHL. MS 1194, fd. 2.
Mormon War Papers, 1838–1841. MSA.
Murdock, John. Letter, Lima, IL, to Sister Crocker et al., 21 July 1839. CHL.
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13
See Murdock, Journal, 13–15 Oct. 1838, 102–103; see also Sidney Rigdon, Testimony, Nauvoo, IL, 1 July 1843, p. [5], Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL.
Murdock, John. Journal, ca. 1830–1859. John Murdock, Journal and Autobiography, ca. 1830–1867. CHL. MS 1194, fd. 2.
Nauvoo, IL. Records, 1841–1845. CHL. MS 16800.
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14
On 13 October 1838, Bogart stated that “the Daviess & Livingston Co people and many from others, are on their way to Daviess County with one field piece, with the determination to prevent there [the Latter-day Saints] settling in that County at all hazards.” The anti-Mormon vigilantes also evidently intended to expel church members already living in Daviess County. JS and other church leaders may have learned of the vigilantes’ plans before the church leaders’ return to Far West on 14 October 1838. Doniphan, who apparently arrived in Far West on 15 October, may have confirmed reports of the vigilantes’ plans or may have informed JS of the size of the force. As John Corrill recalled, it was “believed by all . . . that the next day there would be eight hundred [vigilantes] to commence operations” in Daviess County. (Samuel Bogart, Elkhorn, MO, to Lilburn W. Boggs, 13 Oct. 1838, copy, Mormon War Papers, MSA; Corrill, Brief History, 36–38; Sidney Rigdon, JS, et al., Petition Draft [“To the Publick”], pp. 28[a]–[28b].)
Mormon War Papers, 1838–1841. MSA.
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15
Likely Adam-ondi-Ahman, the principal Latter-day Saint settlement in Daviess County. Doniphan perhaps called the settlement “Whites town” because Lyman Wight was one of the first church members to move there, his home served as the headquarters for surveying and platting the town, and he was considered the town’s leader before Adam-ondi-Ahman was organized as a stake on 28 June 1838. At that time, Wight was appointed a counselor in the presidency of the stake. (JS, Journal, 18 May–1 June 1838; Minutes, 28 June 1838; see also Berrett, Sacred Places, 4:399–402, 416, 438–444.)
Berrett, LaMar C., ed. Sacred Places: A Comprehensive Guide to Early LDS Historical Sites. 6 vols. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1999–2007.
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16
The company was probably composed of Colonel William Dunn’s state militia troops, whom Parks sent to Daviess County. Parks confirmed that Doniphan disbanded Dunn’s men. (Hiram Parks, Richmond, MO, to David R. Atchison, 21 Oct. 1838, copy, Mormon War Papers, MSA.)
Mormon War Papers, 1838–1841. MSA.
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17
Rigdon recalled that Doniphan advised church leaders in Caldwell County to go to Daviess County “in very small parties, without arms, so that no legal advantage could be taken of them.” Rigdon explained that “no considerable number of men armed can pass out of one county into or through another county” without authorization from the civil authorities of the other county. (Sidney Rigdon, Testimony, Nauvoo, IL, 1 July 1843, pp. [8], [9], Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL.)
Nauvoo, IL. Records, 1841–1845. CHL. MS 16800.
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18
On 16 October 1838, approximately 300 men from Caldwell County, including JS, arrived in Daviess County. Although George M. Hinkle was colonel of the Caldwell County regiment of the state militia and a respected military leader among the Saints, it is unclear what role he played in the Mormons’ October military operations in Daviess County, as Latter-day Saints David Patten, Lyman Wight, and Seymour Brunson were the principal field commanders during the targeted strikes on Gallatin, Millport, and Grindstone Fork. In the November 1838 hearing, following Hinkle’s disaffection from the church, he claimed that he “went down [to Daviess County] without being attached to any company, or without having any command,” and that he openly opposed the burning of buildings and the confiscation of non-Mormon goods. Despite subsequently claiming that he opposed these tactics, Hinkle reportedly accepted the position of commander of infantry in the Caldwell County division of the “armies of Israel” on 24 October in Far West. (John Smith, Journal, 16 Oct. 1838; Foote, Autobiography, 21 Oct. 1838, 30; George M. Hinkle, Testimony, Richmond, MO, Nov. 1838, pp. [40]–[41]; Sampson Avard, Testimony, Richmond, MO, Nov. 1838, [6]; George Walters, Testimony, Richmond, MO, Nov. 1838, pp. [37]–[38], State of Missouri v. JS et al. for Treason and Other Crimes [Mo. 5th Jud. Cir. 1838], in State of Missouri, “Evidence”; for more information on the Latter-day Saint raids in Daviess County in October 1838, see the Introduction to Part 3: 4 Nov. 1838–16 Apr. 1839.)
Smith, John (1781-1854). Journal, 1833–1841. John Smith, Papers, 1833-1854. CHL. MS 1326, box 1, fd. 1.
Foote, Warren. Autobiography, not before 1903. Warren Foote, Papers, 1837–1941. CHL. MS 1123, fd. 1.
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19
TEXT: Possibly “prospects”.
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20
A church-sponsored land survey in May 1838 allocated JS 320 acres in Adam-ondi-Ahman, as well as other land in Daviess County, in anticipation of obtaining legal title through preemption. According to William Swartzell, who was then living in Adam-ondi-Ahman, on 26 July 1838 Latter-day Saint men were “employed in getting out logs for brother Joseph Smith’s house.” (JS, Journal, 19 and 21 May 1838; “Record Book A,” in Sherwood, Record Book, CHL; Berrett, Sacred Places, 4:456–458; Walker, “Mormon Land Rights,” 14–20, 29–31; Swartzell, Mormonism Exposed, 25.)
Sherwood, Henry G. Record Book, ca. 1838–1844. CHL.
Berrett, LaMar C., ed. Sacred Places: A Comprehensive Guide to Early LDS Historical Sites. 6 vols. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1999–2007.
Walker, Jeffrey N. “Mormon Land Rights in Caldwell and Daviess Counties and the Mormon Conflict of 1838: New Findings and New Understandings.” BYU Studies 47, no. 1 (2008): 4–55.
Swartzell, William. Mormonism Exposed, Being a Journal of a Residence in Missouri from the 28th of May to the 20th of August, 1838, Together with an Appendix, Containing the Revelation concerning the Golden Bible, with Numerous Extracts from the ‘Book of Covenants,’ &c., &c. Pekin, OH: By the author, 1840.
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21
See Elisha H. Groves, Affidavit, Columbus, IL, 6 May 1839; Solomon Chamberlin, Statement, no date; Urban Stewart, Affidavit, Montrose, Iowa Territory, 7 Jan. 1840, Mormon Redress Petitions, 1839–1845, CHL; and Hyrum Smith, Testimony, Nauvoo, IL, 1 July 1843, p. 6, Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL.
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22
About six inches of snow fell on 17 October 1838. (Foote, Autobiography, 21 Oct. 1838, 30.)
Foote, Warren. Autobiography, not before 1903. Warren Foote, Papers, 1837–1941. CHL. MS 1123, fd. 1.
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23
According to Parks’s account, he arrived on 18 October 1838, after the Latter-day Saints’ military operations commenced. (Hiram Parks, Richmond, MO, to David R. Atchison, 21 Oct. 1838, copy, Mormon War Papers, MSA.)
Mormon War Papers, 1838–1841. MSA.
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24
Wight was commissioned as a colonel of the Caldwell County regiment of the state militia when he resided in the county in 1837. Wight’s commission did not give him authority in the Daviess County regiment of the state militia, which was commanded by Colonel William Peniston, an antagonist of the Latter-day Saints. (Lyman Wight, Mountain Valley, TX, to Wilford Woodruff, [Salt Lake City], 24 Aug. 1857, p. 5, Historian’s Office, Histories of the Twelve, 1856–1858, 1861, CHL; William Peniston, Daviess Co., MO, to Lilburn W. Boggs, 21 Oct. 1838, copy, Mormon War Papers, MSA; Baugh, “Call to Arms,” 385.)
Historian’s Office. Histories of the Twelve, 1856–1858, 1861. CHL. CR 100 93.
Mormon War Papers, 1838–1841. MSA.
Baugh, Alexander L. “A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri.” PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1996. Also available as A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri, Dissertations in Latter-day Saint History (Provo, UT: Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History; BYU Studies, 2000).
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25
Scholars of the 1838 conflict estimate that between twenty-five and fifty Daviess County buildings were burned, mostly by Latter-day Saint vigilantes. Warren Foote, a sympathetic non-Mormon who later joined the church, recounted that in response to the Saints’ military operations in Daviess County, some Missourians “set their own houses afire, and ran into the adjoining counties, and declared that the ‘Mormons’ had driven them out, and burned their houses &c. This they done to excite the people against the Mormons, in order to get them to join them in their persecutions.” (Baugh, “Call to Arms,” 215; LeSueur, 1838 Mormon War in Missouri, 124; Foote, Autobiography, 21 Oct. 1838, 30–31; see also Hyrum Smith, Testimony, Nauvoo, IL, 1 July 1843, p. 7, Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL; Corrill, Brief History, 38; and Pulsipher, “Zerah Pu[l]siphers History,” 8.)
Baugh, Alexander L. “A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri.” PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1996. Also available as A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri, Dissertations in Latter-day Saint History (Provo, UT: Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History; BYU Studies, 2000).
LeSueur, Stephen C. The 1838 Mormon War in Missouri. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1987.
Foote, Warren. Autobiography, not before 1903. Warren Foote, Papers, 1837–1941. CHL. MS 1123, fd. 1.
Nauvoo, IL. Records, 1841–1845. CHL. MS 16800.
Pulsipher, Zerah. “Zerah Pu[l]siphers History,” no date. In Zerah Pulsipher, Record Book, ca. 1858–1878. Zerah Pulsipher, Papers, ca. 1848–1878. CHL. MS 753, fd. 1.
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26
On 21 October 1838, Daviess County sheriff William Morgan and Colonel William Peniston wrote descriptions of the recent Latter-day Saint military operations. The following day, other Daviess County residents dictated affidavits to Justice of the Peace Adam Black, who forwarded the statements to Governor Lilburn W. Boggs. (William Morgan, Affidavit, Daviess Co., MO, 21 Oct. 1838, copy; William Peniston, Daviess Co., MO, to Lilburn W. Boggs, 21 Oct. 1838, copy; Thomas Martin, Affidavit, 22 Oct. 1838, copy; James Stone, Affidavit, 22 Oct. 1838, copy; Samuel Venable, Affidavit, 22 Oct. 1838, copy; Jonathan J. Dryden, Affidavit, 22 Oct. 1838, copy, Mormon War Papers, MSA.)
Mormon War Papers, 1838–1841. MSA.
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27
On 23 October 1838, Ray County militia commander Captain Bogart received authorization to “range the line” between Ray County and Caldwell County. Bogart evidently exceeded his authorization by entering Caldwell County, harassing Latter-day Saints, and taking Mormon prisoners. According to Parley P. Pratt and Rigdon, Hinkle was not present when news of Bogart’s actions reached Far West. Hinkle claimed that he was at his home at the time and was unaware of these developments until the following morning. Pratt recounted that Captain John Killian, who commanded the Far West men in Hinkle’s absence, ordered Patten and his men to go to Crooked River. Apparently Patten also led the company at Crooked River in his capacity as a cavalry commander in the church’s “war department.” (See Introduction to Part 3: 4 Nov. 1838–16 Apr. 1839; Pratt, History of the Late Persecution, 33; Sidney Rigdon, Testimony, Nauvoo, IL, 1 July 1843, pp. [12]–[13], Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL; and George M. Hinkle, Testimony, Richmond, MO, Nov. 1838, pp. [40]–[41], in State of Missouri, “Evidence.”)
Nauvoo, IL. Records, 1841–1845. CHL. MS 16800.
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28
TEXT: The line of text identifying Parks’s office, brigade, and division was apparently inserted before the line of text identifying Doniphan’s office, brigade, and division; the ditto marks refer to the text below.
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29
Latter-day Saint Morris Phelps reported that JS “went to the wounded and pronounced a blessing on them & prayed for them to be healed & saved.” (Morris Phelps, Testimony, Richmond, MO, Nov. 1838, p. [28]; Sampson Avard, Testimony, Richmond, MO, Nov. 1838, pp. [21]–[22], in State of Missouri, “Evidence.”)
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30
Hyrum Smith testified in court proceedings in 1843 that anti-Mormon vigilantes under Cornelius Gilliam harassed Latter-day Saints in Caldwell County throughout September and October 1838. In addition, Smith stated that militia troops under the command of Major General Samuel D. Lucas entered the county in late October and physically assaulted several Latter-day Saints. (Hyrum Smith, Testimony, Nauvoo, IL, 1 July 1843, pp. 9–10, Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL.)
Nauvoo, IL. Records, 1841–1845. CHL. MS 16800.
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31
For more information on Governor Boggs’s expulsion order issued on 27 October 1838 and Major General Lucas’s negotiations with Hinkle, see Introduction to Part 3: 4 Nov. 1838–16 Apr. 1839.
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32
“This proved to be a dismal night on account of the rain,” Wight recalled. “The hideous screeches and screaming of this wretched, murderous band would have made a perfect dead silence with the damned in hell.” (Lyman Wight, Journal, in History of the Reorganized Church, 2:260.)
The History of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 8 vols. Independence, MO: Herald Publishing House, 1896–1976.
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33
For more information on the court-martial, see Introduction to Part 3: 4 Nov. 1838–16 Apr. 1839.
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34
For more information on the Missouri militia’s occupation of Far West and the treatment of the Smith family and property, see Introduction to Part 3: 4 Nov. 1838–16 Apr. 1839; Historical Introduction to Declaration to the Clay County Circuit Court, ca. 6 Mar. 1839.
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35
Most Latter-day Saints, including JS, supported the Democratic Party in the 1838 election. Wight stated that Wilson was a Democrat. (JS, Journal, 10 May 1838; Lyman Wight, Quincy, IL, 30 May 1839, Letter to the Editors, Quincy [IL] Whig, 1 June 1839, [2]; see also LeSueur, “Mixing Politics with Religion,” 184–208.)
Quincy Whig. Quincy, IL. 1838–1856.
LeSueur, Stephen C. “Mixing Politics with Religion: A Closer Look at Electioneering and Voting in Caldwell and Daviess Counties in 1838.” John Whitmer Historical Association Journal 33, no. 1 (Spring/Summer 2013): 184–208.
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36
Lucy Mack Smith, JS’s mother, recalled that after JS was arrested, she and Joseph Smith Sr. heard several gunshots and concluded that JS had been murdered. (Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1844–1845, bk. 16, [2].)
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37
Joseph Smith III remembered that when JS “was brought to the house by an armed guard I ran out of the gate to greet him, but was roughly pushed away from his side by a sword in the hand of the guard and not allowed to go near him. My mother, also, was not permitted to approach him and had to receive his farewell by word of lip only.” (“The Memoirs of President Joseph Smith,” Saints’ Herald, 6 Nov. 1934, 1414; see also Letter to Edward Partridge and the Church, ca. 22 Mar. 1839.)
Saints’ Herald. Independence, MO. 1860–.
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38
In early November 1838, Wilson transported the Latter-day Saint prisoners from Far West to Lucas’s militia headquarters in Independence, Missouri, where the prisoners stayed from 4 to 8 November 1838, first in a large house and then in a hotel. Wight later said that the prisoners were required to “pay the most extravagant price” for their stay in the hotel. (Introduction to Part 3: 4 Nov. 1838–16 Apr. 1839; Receipt from William Collins, 8 Feb. 1839; Lyman Wight, Testimony, Nauvoo, IL, 1 July 1843, p. 27, Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL.)
Nauvoo, IL. Records, 1841–1845. CHL. MS 16800.
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39
Major General Lucas initially ignored Clark’s 3 November 1838 order to transport the prisoners from Independence to Richmond, the location of Clark’s headquarters. After Lucas received confirmation on 6 November that Governor Boggs had placed Clark in command of the entire militia operation, Lucas arranged for the prisoners to be moved to Richmond, where a preliminary hearing was held to evaluate charges against the prisoners for crimes allegedly committed in the 1838 conflict. (See Introduction to Part 3: 4 Nov. 1838–16 Apr. 1839.)
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40
When the prisoners arrived in Richmond, Missouri, on 9 November 1838, they were placed in a room in “an old log house.” They were bound together the following day “with three trace chains and seven padlocks . . . until [they] were all chained together about two feet apart.” For the remainder of the month, they remained chained together and slept on the floor. (Lyman Wight, Journal, in History of the Reorganized Church, 2:296–297; Pratt, History of the Late Persecution, 52.)
The History of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 8 vols. Independence, MO: Herald Publishing House, 1896–1976.
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41
Pratt described one night when the prisoners “listened for hours to the obscene jests, the horrid oaths, the dreadful blasphemies and filthy language of guards” as they “recounted to each other their deeds of rapine, murder, robbery, etc.” committed against the Latter-day Saints in Caldwell County. (Pratt, History of the Late Persecution, 52; Pratt, Autobiography, 228, 229.)
Pratt, Parley P. The Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt, One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Embracing His Life, Ministry and Travels, with Extracts, in Prose and Verse, from His Miscellaneous Writings. Edited by Parley P. Pratt Jr. New York: Russell Brothers, 1874.
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42
Hyrum Smith recalled that the prisoners submitted the names of sixty potential defense witnesses; only seven ultimately testified. Several Latter-day Saints recounted that officers of the court harassed and abused the defense witnesses.
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43
For more information on the January 1839 habeas corpus hearing, see Introduction to Part 3: 4 Nov. 1838–16 Apr. 1839.
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44
TEXT: The line running through “with the same success” may not signify a cancellation; instead, the line may be intended to separate the insertion from the main text.
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45
On 9 March 1839, Hyrum Smith wrote a petition for a writ of habeas corpus; though directed to King, it apparently was never submitted. In mid-March, JS and the other prisoners wrote separate petitions directed to the Missouri Supreme Court, but the requests were denied. (Hyrum Smith, Petition, Liberty, MO, 9 Mar. 1839, CHL; Historical Introduction to Petition to George Tompkins, between 9 and 15 Mar. 1839.)
Smith, Hyrum. Petition, Liberty, MO, 9 Mar. 1839. CHL.
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46
Wight recalled that the prisoners were fed “with a scanty allowance, on the dregs of coffee and Tea from the [jailer’s] own Table and fetching the provisions in a basket in which the chickens had roosted the night before without being cleaned.” (Lyman Wight, Testimony, Nauvoo, IL, 1 July 1843, p. 30, Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL.)
Nauvoo, IL. Records, 1841–1845. CHL. MS 16800.
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47
From 6 to 8 April 1839, Clay County sheriff and jailer Samuel Hadley, deputy jailer Samuel Tillery, and several other men escorted the prisoners from Liberty to Gallatin for a session of the Daviess County Circuit Court. (Hyrum Smith, Diary, 6–8 Apr. 1839.)
Smith, Hyrum. Diary, Mar.–Apr. 1839, Oct. 1840. CHL. MS 2945.
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48
The men were indicted around 10 April 1839 for treason against the state of Missouri. (Daviess Co., MO, Circuit Court Record, Apr. 1839, bk. A, 58, Daviess County Courthouse, Gallatin, MO; Indictment, [Honey Creek Township, MO], ca. 10 Apr. 1839, State of Missouri v. Gates et al. for Treason [Daviess Co. Cir. Ct. 1839], Historical Department, Nineteenth-Century Legal Documents Collection, CHL; see also Baugh, “We Took Our Change of Venue,” 61–65.)
Daviess County, Missouri. Circuit Court Record, vol. A, July 1837–Oct. 1843. Daviess County Courthouse, Gallatin, MO.
Baugh, Alexander L. “‘We Took Our Change of Venue to the State of Illinois’: The Gallatin Hearing and the Escape of Joseph Smith and the Mormon Prisoners from Missouri, April 1839.” Mormon Historical Studies 2, no. 1 (2001): 59–82.
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49
The defendants obtained a change of venue from Daviess County to Boone County because Judge Thomas Burch served as prosecuting attorney during the November 1838 court of inquiry. Under Missouri law, defendants were permitted a change of venue if the judge previously served as a lawyer in the case. (See Historical Introduction to Promissory Note to John Brassfield, 16 Apr. 1839.)
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50
The prisoners and their guards departed Gallatin on 12 April 1839. On 16 April, the party stopped for the night, likely near Yellow Creek in Chariton County, where the prisoners escaped, evidently with the complicity of the guards. (See Historical Introduction to Promissory Note to John Brassfield, 16 Apr. 1839.)
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51
JS and his fellow prisoners arrived in Quincy on 22 April 1839. (JS, Journal, 22–23 Apr. 1839.)
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52
JS was apparently unaware that in early June 1839, Missouri officials began the process of extraditing the escaped Latter-day Saint prisoners. (Austin A. King, Richmond, MO, to Lilburn W. Boggs, Jefferson City, MO, 7 June 1839, copy, Mormon War Papers, MSA; Thomas C. Burch, Keytesville, MO, to James L. Minor, Jefferson City, MO, 24 June 1839, Mormon Collection, Missouri History Museum Archives, St. Louis.)
Mormon War Papers, 1838–1841. MSA.
Burch, Thomas C. Letter, Keytesville, MO, to James L. Minor, Jefferson City, MO, 24 June 1839. Mormons Collection. Missouri History Museum Archives, St. Louis.