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Show Newly cataloged affidavits should interest history buff children assaulted and many lives taken. Mary K. Miles wrote in her petition peti-tion dated Jan. 8, 1840, "General Clarks troops came to Mr. Yale's house and stopt their for about two Days and destroyed considerable property, they tore up both the floors of the House, destroyed their poultry, and hogs and set fir to the Hay stack..." The Haun's Mill massacre, Oct 30, 1938, was described by Alma Smith in his affidavit dated Jan. 3, 1940. He wrote, "Without warning, the mob stormed a Mormon community com-munity on the banks of Shol Creek killing 18 Mormons and brutally wounding many others. "I was in the tent when the company com-pany rode up... I run into a blacksmith shop where my father was. I crept under the bellows as also did my brother and another boy by the name of Charles Merrick. I was wounded on the hip, my brother had his brains blown out, and the other boy received three wounds and has since died of uVm. I saw some of our enemies pull off my fathers boots before he was dead." Another affidavit cataloged and ready for use by the public was written by Bishop Edward Partridge describing the time he was tarred and feathered in Independence, Mo. The handwritten account describes the emotional and physical suffering suffer-ing Partridge experienced." Simmonds encourages anyone interested in-terested in seeing the documents or who has questions about them to come to the Special Collections Department of the USU Merrill Library, The department is located on the main floor at the south end of the building. Affidavits handwritten by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the mid-1 800s are available for patron use in the Utah State University Archives. Ar-chives. The documents urge the federal government to redress the violence committed against Mormons Mor-mons in Missouri. USU archivist A.J. Simmonds obtained photocopies of more that 200 affidavits recently discovered by the Institute of Mormon Studies at the National Archives in Washington, Wash-ington, D.C. The documents are cataloged and ready for use in the Merrill Library Special Collections. ' 'These affidavits provide us with an exciting and priceless look at the history of our ancestors," Simmonds said, adding that he discovered one affidavit written by his great-grandfather, Charles Hulet. "I believe a large number of people in Cache Valley, as well as neighboring areas, may have ancestral linkage to the authors of these affidavits." Most of the accounts of persecution persecu-tion were written shortly after Mormons were forced to flee their homes in Missouri in 1839. The reports were collected by Joseph Smith who, in turn, submitted them to the Congress. Smith hoped the government would help the Mormons Mor-mons get back on their feet after having homes burned or torn down, businesses ruined, women and |