Show I 1 copyright secured HISTORY OF JOSEPH SMITH DECEMBER 1838 this day elder david H redfield arrived at jefferson city and on monday presented the petition of the brethren to general D R atchison and others who were ver very y anxious to hear from caldwell Oal dwell as there were many reports in circulation such as the mormons cormons kept up the danite system were going to build the lords house and more blood would be spilled before they left the state fec which created a hardness in the minds of the people in the afternoon brother redfield had an interview with governor boggs bog 1 who enquired about our people i and rid pr property perty with as much apparent interest as though his whole soul was engaged for our welfare and said that he had heard eard that the citizens were committing depredations on the mormons cormons Mor mons and driving off their stock 5 ac brother bedfield informed him that armed forces came in tho place and abused men women and children stole horses drove off cattle and plundered houses of everything that pleased pleas ed their fancy fane governor boggs bimms saig said that he would write judge king and n colonel price to go to barvest far Vest west and and put down ever every am ostile hostile appearance E pe ea arance ranee he also stated th that the stipulations a eions entered into by the mormons cormons to leave the state and sign the deed of trust were unconstitutional and not valid brother redfield replied we want the legislature to pass a law to that effect showing that the stipulations and deeds of trust are not valid and are unconstitutional and unless you do pass such a law we shall not consider ourselves safe in the state you say there has been a stain upon the character of the state and now is the time to pass some law to that effect and unless you yon do farewell to the virtue of the state farewell to her honor and good name farewell to her christian virtue until she shall be peopled by a different race of men farewell to every name that binds man to man farewell to a fine soil and a glorious home they are gone they are rent from us by a lawless 11 tuesday mr turner from the joint committee on the mormon investigation submitted a report preamble and resolutions the essential part is as follows they consider the evidence adduced in the examination held at richmond in a great degree ex parte and not of the character which should be desired for the basis of a fair and candid investigation 1st ast because it is no not t authenticated and ad it is confined chiefly to the object of that inquiry namely the investigation of criminal charges against individuals under arrest for these reasons and above all for the reason that it would be a direct interference ter with the administration of justice this document ought not to be published with the sanction of the legislature resolved that it is inexpedient at this time to prosecute further the inquiry into the causes of the late disturbances and the conduct of the military operations in aup suppressing them resolved that it is inexpedient to publish at this time any of the documents accompanying the governors message in relation to tile the late disturbances resolved that it is expedient to appoint committee composed of senators and representatives to investigate the cause of said disturbances and the conduct of the military operations in in suppressing them to meet at such time and to be invested with such powers as may be prescribed by law wednesday mr john carroll presented the petition to the house while it was reading the members were silent as the I 1 house of death af after ter which the debate commenced I 1 and excitement increased till the I 1 I 1 house was in an uproar their faces turned red their eyes flashed fire and their coun I 1 tenancies ten ances spoke volumes mr childs of jackson county said there I 1 was not one word of truth in it so far as he had heard and that it ought never to have been presented to that body not long ago we appropriated two thousand dollars to their relief and now they have petitioned for the pay for their lands which we took daway away from them we got rid of a great evil eril when we drove them from jackson i i county and we have had peace there ever since since and the state will always be in difficulty so long as they suffer them to live in the state and the quicker they get that petition from before that body the better mr air ashley from livingston said the petition was false from beginning to end and that himself and the mormons cormons could not live together for he would always be found fighting against them and one or the other must leave the state he gave a history of the hauns mill massacre and nd saw jack rogers out cut up mcbride with a corn cutter mr carroll corrected mr chilap Chil dp and stated facts in the petition which he was knowing in to and that mr childs ought to know ehg that at there could the first crime established against the mormons cormons while in jackson one member hoped the matter would not be looked over in silence for his constituents required of him to know the cause of the late disturbances mr young of lafayette spoke very bitter against the petition and the mormons cormons Mor mons an aged member from st charles moved a reference of the bill to a select committee and continued he as the gentleman that thai just spoke and other gentlemen want the petition ruled out of the house for fear their evil doings will be brought to light and this goes to prove to me and others that the petition is true mr redman of howard made a long s E speech bech in favor of a speedy investigation of the whole matter said he hea the governors order has zone gone forth and tb the e mormons cormons are leaving P 1 hundreds are waikim waiting i P to cross the mississippi river and by and bye they are gone and our state is blasted her character is gone we gave them no chance for a fair investigation the state demands of us that we give them a speedy investigation 11 mr gyer from st louis agreed with the gentleman from howard that the committee should have power to call witnesses from any part of the state and defend them and unless the governors order was rescinded he be for one would leave the state other gentlemen made similar remarks the testimony presented the committee of I 1 investigation before referred to was the I 1 G governors av er nors orders general clarks report the report of the ex parte trial at richmond and a lot of papers signed by nobody given to nobody and directed to nobody containing anything al our enemies were disposed to wr write ace the high council of zion met in far west wednesday dec 1838 the counsil was organized as follows ebenezer robinson no 1 jared carter no 2 thomas grover 3 reynolds cahoon 4 theodore turley 5 solomon hancock 6 1 john badger 7 john jan murdock 8 barlow redfield 9 george W wharris harris 10 david dort 11 samuel bent 12 the council was opened by prayer by president Brig brigham 1 hain young soung g who presided horlow harlow redfield gave a statement of his feelings he said his faith was as good as it if ever was notwithstanding he did not feel to fellowship all the proceedings of the brethren in davis davia county he thought they did not act as wisely ag as they might have done ac voted by the council that john E page and john taylor be ordained to the apostleship to fill vacancies in the quorum of the twelve when they came forward and received their ordination under the hands of brigham young and heber 0 kimball voted that we send a petition to the gen government and send it by mail voted that edward partridge and john taylor be a committee to draft the above mentioned tion also it is their privilege to choose another person to assist them council adjourned until next wednesday at 1 at same place ei ROBINSON clerk the following is a brief synopsis of the ibe journal of elder john E page as given by bj himself the subscriber was wag born of ebenezer and rachael page their first child feb AD 1799 my father was of pure english extraction my mother of english irish and welsh extraction my place of birth was trenton township oneida county state of new york I 1 embraced he e faith of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints and was baptized august the 1833 by the hands of elder emer harris hairris own brother to martin harris one of the three first witnesses to the dicinit divinity y of the book of mormon I 1 was ordained an elder under the hands bands of elders nelson higgins ebenezer ejr and others my aly baptism took place in brownheim brownhelm Brown helm belm lorain county ohio my ordination in florence huron county of the same state on the of sept 1833 I 1 moved to kirtland geauga geaugh county Ohio in the fall of 1835 on the day of may 1836 1 started on a mission to canada west leeds county I 1 wits was gone from my famil family 7 seven months and twenty days on the day of feb 1837 1 again left kirtland with my family of wife and rid two small children taking with me all the earthly goods I 1 poa hessed which consisted of one bed and oui our wearing apparel of the plainest kind to continue my mission mission in the same region of country as before in july following the commandment came fo forth rth for me to occupy a place in the quorum of the Ti twelve velve on the day of may 1838 1 started with a company of saints made up of men women and their children for the state of missouri where we landed with a company occupying thirty wagon sin sinthe the first week of Octo berat a place lace there called de witt some six miles ave above the outlet of grand river on the north side of the missouri river where we were attacked by an armed mob and by them barbarously treated for near two weeks we then went to far west vest caldwell Oal dwell co where we united with the general body of the church and with them participated in all the grievous persecutions practised practiced on the church by means of a furious mob by which means I 1 buried one wife and two children as martyrs I 1 I 1 I 1 to ova our holy religion who died through extreme suffer suffering ing for the want of the common comforts of life which I 1 was not allowed to provide even with my money on the of dec 1838 at far west elder john taylor and myself were ordained as apostles under the hands bands of elders B 1 young and H 0 in the quorum of the twelve to fill some vacancies in the quorum which had happened by having baptized in two years time upwards of of six hundred persons and traveled more than five thousand miles principally on foot and under the most extreme poverty 1 relative to earthly means being al alone one sustained by the power of godana not of man or the wisdom of the world JOHN E PAGE tuesday my brother don carlo S and cousin george A smith returned having I 1 i traveled fifteen hundred miles nine I 1 huldred hundred on foot and the remainder by steam I 1 boat and otherwise they visited several branches and would have accomplished the object of their mission had it not been for the troubles at par far west I 1 when nearly home they were known and 1 pursued b by y the mob which com compelled pAled them 1 to travel miles in two days and nights the ground at the time was very slip perv and nd a severe north west wind was blowing in in their faces they had bad but little to blowing eat an and narrowly escaped ed freezing 0 both nights wednesday david H red redfield field having returned to far west made report when the high council voted that they were satisfied with wa his proceedings ZD thursday anson call went to pay bay county near elk horn to sell some property and was taken by ten of the mob and one old ne negro gro the names of some of the mob were two of judge dickeys sons a mr adams and a constable they then ordered him to disarm himself he told them he had no arms about his person they ordered him to turn his pockets wrong side outwards they then said they would peel off his naked back before morning with a hickory gad they beat him with their naked hands bands times without number they struck bi him in I 1 in his face with a bowie knife and hurt him much a number of times after tantalizing zing him about four hours saying he was a damned mormon and they would serve him as they had others tie him with a hickory withe and gad him and keep kee P him till m morning 0 anin they then started land and came to a hazle hazlee g grove r ove while consul consulting tino together what course to pursue with hii him he leaped into the bush when they pursued him but he made his escape and returned to far west af after ter much legislation disputation controversy tro versy and angry speechifying speechify ing as the papers of missouri published at t the time abundantly testify the petition and memorial were laid on the table until the july following thus utterly refusing to grant the memoria lists their request thereby refusing refusing 0 to investigate the subject after we were cast into prison we heard nothing but that if any judge or jury or court of any kind should clear any of us that we should never get out of the state alive the state appropriated two thousand dollars to be distributed among the people of daviess and caldwell Oal dwell the mormons cormons of oaid well not excepted the people of daviess thought they could live on mormon property and did not want their thousand consequently it was pretended to be given to those of caldwell Oal dwell judge cameron McHenry Mr and others attended to the distribution judge cameron would drive in the breth reng rens hogs many of which were identified and shoot them down in the streets and without further farther bleeding and half dressing they were cut up and distributed by whenry mchenry to the poor at a charge of four and five cents per pound which together wi with th a few pieces of cef refuse use goods such as calicoes cali coes at double and treble price soon consumed the two thousand dollars doing the brethren very little good or in reality none as the property destroyed by them was equal to what wha I 1 they gave the saints the proceedings of the legislature were warmly opposed by a minority of the house among whom were D R atchison Atchi aon of clay county and all the members from st louis and rollins and gordon from boon and by various other members from other counties but the mob majority carried the day for the guilty wretches f fearing ear ing C an investigation knowing that it would endanger their lives and liberties some time during this session the legislature appropriated two hundred thousand dollars to 0 pay the troops for driving the paints saints out of the state many of the state journals tried to hide the iniquity of the stateny Sta teby throwing wing a covering of lies over her atrocious deeds deed but can they hide the governors cruel order for banishment or extermination can they conceal the facts of the disgraceful treaty of the generals with their own officers and men at the city of far west can they conceal the fact that twelve or fiat fifteen een thousand men women and children have been banished from the state without trial or condemnation and this at an expense of two hundred thousand dollars and this I 1 sum appropriated by the state legislature in order to pay the troops for ta this s act of iw lawless w bess outrage can they conceal the fact th t t we have been imprisoned imprisoned d f for or many months while our families a mili es friends and witnesses have been driven away can they conceal the blood of the murdered husbands and fathers or stifle the cries of the widow and the fatherless nay may the and mountains may cover them in unknown depths the awful abyss of the fathomless deep may swallow them up and still their horrid deeds will stand forth in the broad light of day for the wondering gaze of an gels M and of men they cannone cannot be hid some time in december heber 0 kirn kim ball and alanson ripley were appointed by the brethren in far west to visit |