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This led him to send down an order to three justices of the peace to convene a meeting, and produce whatever kind of evidence could be procured, either for or against, and report accordingly.
Before this meeting was held we ascertained that these justices, who were our most bitter enemies, had been searching law books for something to lay hold of us with, and had found an old statute, applying to the whole of the province, forbidding all dissenters to hold public religious services without a written license from the governor. But the spirit of their purpose was shown by the fact that they had never put this law in force against the numerous dissenters that had flourished there – in fact, two of these justices were dissenters themselves.
The day of the meeting arrived, and all manner of witnesses that could be raked together were produced – among others a negro's evidence was taken, who had previously been convicted of taking a false oath. But for the purpose of this holy tribunal this testimony was good enough! What mattered? He was not for the defense – upon which side of the question it did not occur to the justices, as a necessary thing, to call for any witnesses whatever.
I quickly discovered that it was high time to stir in the matter, or possibly the next discovery would be that we were inmates of a jail; so, taking the advice of Squire Shelton, a gentleman whom we had baptized, I waited with him on Judge Bardsley, the judge of the county, who had frequently attended our meetings, and I procured a certificate from him that he had done so, and had heard nothing injurious to the people or the government.
With this and a similar certificate from Mr. Shelton, who was also a justice of the peace, Brother Crosby and I went to the governor's residence, and obtained an interview; but we found him most terribly prejudiced against us, and very ignorant of law and gospel.
He broke down, however, before the arguments of his aid-de-camp and counsel, who pleaded on our behalf, after battling with him for about two hours. The result was, that all law proceedings against us were stopped.
This enraged our enemies so much that our lives became endangered, and, to escape their violence, we had to sleep in the woods, and do our baptizing in the night, as their determination was to mob us the first opportunity.
Unfortunately, one of them overheard me promise to visit one of the brethren after I had been preaching one day. This mobber, with a party of about ten others, waylaid me. Some of them held me while the rest beat me about the head with their fists; but not being able to bruise me sufficiently in this manner, one of them took off one of my boots, and belabored me about the head with the heel of it until I was covered with blood, which ran down on to my clothes and the ground.
Some of them then threw me down, and jumped upon me with their knees until they broke several of my ribs. All this while I had been calling out loudly, whenever they did not stop my mouth.
But it suddenly occurred to me that, if I were to pretend to be dead they would leave me, thinking their murderous work accomplished; so I groaned loudly as if dying, and resigned myself into their hands, holding my breath as much as possible. This succeeded, the darkness of the night favoring my purpose, and they left me, and ran off as fast as they could.
Directly they were gone I arose, though with great difficulty, and went into a house not far distant, where I washed the blood off my person, and Elder Crosby, who also came there, laid hands upon me.
The mob, however, by some means discovering that I was not yet dead, and that Elder Crosby was with me, met, and resolved to attack the house that night, and, if possible, get possession of both of us, after which they purposed to cut off Elder Crosby's ears, tar and feather us, carry us out into the middle of St. Johns river, and, after tying stones to our feet, sink us both.
The first intimation that we received of this determination was by a wooden rail being hurled against the window. The rail broke through the window, came in upon the bed where we were sleeping, and awoke us both.
We immediately sprang up, and Elder Crosby rushed to the door where they were hammering to get in. He held it as well as he could, but in another moment they would have succeeded, had not Mrs. Shelton, who had been alarmed by the noise, come upon them unexpectedly with a lighted candle, and surprised them in the act.
This frightened them, and, alarmed lest they should be known, they fled with the rest that had been posted at the other parts of the house.
We were quiet after this for about an hour, and Justice Shelton, at whose house we were stopping, went to alarm the neighbors and his son, who lived some distance off, so that we might have assistance in case of the mob returning.
The mob returned while he was gone, having recruited their spirits with whisky. They made a second attack upon the house, trying another door this time.
But Elder Crosby held the door with an iron grasp and the resolution of a lion, so they were again unsuccessful. After drinking round they tried a third time, and one of them managed to get his arm through the door opening, but while doing so he was caught round the waist in the arms of Mr. Shelton's son, who, with several others entered the place at the moment. And thus the Lord delivered us out of their hands, for they were not long dispersing themselves after this.
Several of them were recognized by our friends. These Mr. Shelton put under bonds, but they threatened to burn his house and barn if he attempted to prosecute; and fearing that the government, from its dislike to the Saints, would refuse to back him up, he was compelled to let these mobbers go, and we remained without redress.
In the foregoing recital, the reader will perceive how fully the word of the Lord, spoken in tongues by the youth before we left Jefferson County, was fulfilled.
The next day, by the blessing of God, I recovered sufficiently to walk seventeen miles and preach, but my face was discolored, and I could only see with one eye. I took for my text, Paul's words, "thrice have I been beaten with stripes, etc." and, as may be supposed, my personal appearance furnished a very favorable evidence, on behalf of my argument, that the same effects – violence and death, followed the preaching of the gospel in these days, as did anciently.
Notwithstanding our persecutions we did not leave the country, but continued to preach, fearless of opposition, until we had baptized about fifty, and organized two branches. These were also visited abundantly with the signs following, and the Saints rejoiced greatly in the work. The persecution was a failure in Satan's calculation; it only excited curiosity and awakened attention to our principles.
CHAPTER IV
RETURN TO NAUVOO – SENT TO JEFFERSON COUNTY ON A TITHING MISSION – RETURN WITH A THOUSAND DOLLARS – REMOVE WEST WITH THE CHURCH – STAY AT WINTER QUARTERS – ORDAINED BISHOP – SCURVY IN CAMP – HIRE OUT IN MISSOURI – ARRIVE IN SALT LAKE VALLEY – ELDER KIMBALL'S PROPHECY AND ITS FULFILLMENT.
The work in New Brunswick rolled on prosperously, but the time came when we had calculated to be at home. We had heard, too, that our beloved Prophet had been murdered in Carthage jail, and we naturally felt anxious to know how things were with our families and friends at Nauvoo.
Our parting with the Saints in New Brunswick was not very pleasant, as may be supposed. As we were leaving the place, while stopping by some water, waiting to cross by means of the ferry, we were overtaken by two persons, who requested us to baptize them. This we did, and confirmed them on the spot – such was the spirit of the work in that region.
We returned by way of Boston, where I left Brother Crosby.
I arrived at Nauvoo safely, but I had scarcely been there three weeks before I was again sent to Jefferson Co., this time on a tithing mission.
I got back in about four months, carrying with me about a thousand dollars which the Saints had donated towards building the temple of the Lord.
While I was on my mission to New Brunswick, the Church promised the mob to leave Nauvoo by the next grass time – spring, so that when I returned the second time the city was all excitement. All that could were selling out, some were disposing of their things by auction, for whatever could be got, while others would take cart-loads of furniture out into the country, and "swap" it for money or cattle; for, ready or not ready, the mob meant to have the Saints out by the time stated.
My property was rather more pleasantly situated than many others', and I succeeded in getting the munificent sum of $250 for my house and orchard, the nursery to which contained six thousand young grafted fruit trees, and was worth $3,000 at least.
Many of the Saints would have been glad to have got off with no greater sacrifice than myself, but as the time drew near, the prices offered for our property fell in proportion. Some of the Saints did not get half as much as I did, for property equally valuable. Others got nothing at all, but had to leave their houses just as they were, and those living in the outskirts of the city were saved the sacrifice of selling their houses for less than their worth, for the mob burned about three hundred of them down, and destroyed the property of the owners.
The Saints were hard at work all the winter making wagons. The people that came into the city were astonished to see the hundreds and thousands of wagons that were turned out in a few months.
In February, 1846, the authorities took the lead, crossed the river Mississippi with a large camp, and stopped some seven or eight miles from the water on the other side, waiting for the snow to go off, which just then had fallen heavily. In consequence of this they had no food for their cattle, and being at the end of regular settlements, had great difficulty in procuring any food, but as soon as possible they were on the move.
When the general emigration of the main body of the Church came on, it was pretty much all at once. On the Nauvoo side of the river two or three hundred wagons were waiting at one time for the ferry. In these wagons the Saints had to sleep, cooking their food on the beach.
Although all the boats and ferries that could be had were employed, this state of things continued for upwards of a month.
All the opposite shore was covered with wagons in which the Saints were living, but multitudes were without any protection from the weather, except tents made with blankets, under one of which a whole family had to live.
A scene of human suffering and endurance for the gospel's sake, on so large a scale, has seldom if ever before been seen on the earth. The sufferings of the Saints during their expulsion from Missouri, and their entrance to Nauvoo, were perhaps more intense, but not so many Saints endured them.
Picture, dear reader, to yourself, the case of thousands – they had been mobbed and plundered in Missouri, had escaped only as fugitives, and had arrived at a new location, Nauvoo, only to see their families die off around them by the fever and ague of that place.
After surviving these troubles, cheering up, beginning life afresh, and seeing this abode of death converted, by incessant toil, into a garden of health and prosperity, fancy to yourself the feelings of the Saints when called upon to resign these blessings, made doubly valuable by being so dearly paid for, and to exchange them for a barren wilderness, a prospect of a thousand miles' journey across untracked plains and mountains, and the probability of death on the journey, or of starvation afterwards.
Will the annals of history present a similar case? The exodus of Moses and his bands was not equal to it, for he had a goodly land to promise his hosts – a land flowing with milk and honey, to cheer their spirits up. They only had to enter upon the already cultivated land of their enemies. But here were twenty thousand people starting to locate a thousand miles beyond the borders of civilized life, over what had always been considered impassable mountains.
Reports had arrived of Colonel Fremont's exploration, and the hardships he had suffered, but here were not only men, but thousands of women and children, starting on the same hazardous journey, not only temporarily to endure these difficulties, but proposing to make a settled home in those dreary wilds, and live where they were told not a spear of wheat could be raised.
Notwithstanding all these things, the recollection of past hardships, and the prospect of those in the future, the Saints were not dispirited, but from their abodes ascended the sound of joy and of rejoicing, to think that they had at last a prospect of getting beyond the power of their enemies.
Shortly the first camp moved on, and the rest of the Saints came up to it in succession, but not until the first camp had crossed the Missouri river.
Here the command was, "Stop and raise grain to go on with next year," for we had a thousand miles' journey ahead, and not a settlement on the road; besides, unless we wished to starve, we must have grain to sow our lands when we got there. So, at the word, a spot was selected and, before many weeks had passed, lands in all directions were fenced in, and a city composed of roughly-built houses and wagons, and called Winter Quarters, sprang into existence.
As the winter was, however, just coming on, of course we could not put in any grain until the spring. We began, then, more than ever, to feel the destitution of our position, for want of vegetables had brought on the scurvy, the provisions of many became exhausted, and our prospects of a fresh supply seemed rather distant.
The city was laid out in wards, over each of which a Bishop was appointed. One of these wards was committed to me, and this, of course, entailed upon me the care of the poor – no trifling matter under such circumstances.
It would take no small space to describe all the expedients to which I was often driven in fulfillment of this duty, for the little stock I had of my own was soon gone, and still the poor had not done eating.
What was to be done? I went to President Young, and very pathetically told him that all my grain was gone, and I had not the first shilling in my possession with which to get any more. All the consolation I got from him was some instruction to "feed them well, and take care they have enough to eat," and it would not do for a Saint to say he could not. So I had to scheme. I borrowed ten dollars from a sister who possessed a small store. I then crossed the Missouri river, and laid the money out in meal and meat. But when this was gone I had to borrow of some one else to pay her, and then of some one else to pay him.
I borrowed until I made my debt up to fifty dollars, and no more chance of payment appeared than at first. Who would not have been a Bishop then? Fortunately, just at this juncture, the lost cattle of one who had died in my ward came into my hands, and I sold them for fifty dollars. I paid my debt, and was ready to commence borrowing again with a clear conscience.
The Pioneers started for the mountains to seek out a resting place for the Saints, and the body of those that remained began to raise corn. I and many others left our families, went down into Missouri, and hired ourselves out to obtain means to buy teams, clothes, flour, etc., so that we might follow the Pioneers' camp.
When the time arrived the Saints moved out promiscuously, and, after crossing the Elk Horn river, they were organized into two large divisions called Brigham's and Heber's companies. These were subdivided into smaller companies of hundreds, fifties and tens, and in this way the Saints proceeded across the plains.
In September, 1847, we found that the Pioneers and others of the Saints that had gone into the Valley shortly after them, had been hard at work sowing all the winter, for every wagon had taken about two bushels of grain, consequently, most of the wheat that the crickets had not harvested on their own account, the inhabitants had, and they had raised a considerable quantity of vegetables also. And, as it is well known, after we had been in the Valley about a fortnight, they prepared a splendid feast, composed mostly of the fruits of their labor, to which feast all the Saints and strangers in the valley were invited.
Such numbers, however, had arrived in the Valley, that the vegetables raised by our brethren went but a little way, and after the feast at their expense, it was a rarity to get any vegetables until the following June, fourteen months from the time we left Winter Quarters, when we partook of vegetables raised by ourselves.
Our bread also became very scarce before the wheat put in by the Saints generally was ready to harvest. Some persons lived for three months on their cattle, which they had to kill for food, and on roots which they dug up. Of course, after a time, our clothes and farming implements began to wear out, and we had the delightful prospect of wearing sheep skins, etc.
Our wagons were becoming scarce, many having been broken in the canyons, and we had no timber suitable for making more, and if there had been, from where were we to get the iron work necessary for making them, or for making plows, shovels, etc., for cultivating the ground, without which, of course, food would cease and starvation ensue? In fact, naturally speaking, things looked alarming, and just calculated to dry up our hopes and fill us with fears.
Matters were at this crisis, when one day Elder Heber C. Kimball stood up in the congregation of the Saints, and prophesied that "in a short time" we should be able to buy articles of clothing and utensils cheaper in the Valley than we could purchase them in the States.
I was present on the occasion, and with others there, only hoped the case might be so, for many of the Saints felt like the man spoken of in the scriptures, who heard Elisha prophesy at the time of a hard famine in Samaria, "that before to-morrow, a measure of fine flour should be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel." We thought that "if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be," but without an absolute miracle there seemed no human probability of its fulfillment.
However, Elder Kimball's prophecy was fulfilled in a few months. Information of the great discovery of gold in California had reached the States, and large companies were formed for the purpose of supplying the gold diggers with food and clothing, and implements of every kind for digging, etc. Numbers of substantial wagons were prepared, stored with wholesale quantities of clothing of every kind, spades, picks, shovels, chests of carpenters' tools, tea, coffee, sugar, flour, fruits, etc.
When these companies arrived within a short distance of Salt Lake City, news reached them that ships had been dispatched from many parts of the world, fitted out with goods for California. This threatened to flood the market. So these companies brought their goods into the Valley, and disposed of them for just what could be got – provisions, wagons, clothes, tools, almost for the taking away, at least at half the price for which the goods could have been purchased in the States.
Many disposed of their wagons because the teams gave out, and could not get on any farther. Some sold almost all they had to purchase a mule or a horse to pack through with.
Thus were the Saints amply provided, even to overflowing, with every one of the necessaries and many of the luxuries of which they had been so destitute, and thus was the prediction of the servant of the Lord fulfilled.
This was a miraculous Providence, but not more so than those which it has been my lot to see the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints experience ever since my connection with it.
In this short history of some of the testimonies I have witnessed and received, the reader may see that I have had much to establish me in the belief of the truths of "Mormonism."