| Show A MORMON EATERS TESTIMONY farmington utah march 26 1886 A IV musser esq calt lake city A few weeks ago I 1 saw inthe in abe NEWS a letter from sister ili iner of her marriage to and being the plural wife of tire the martyred marty red patriarch byrum smith in reading this letter I 1 was reminded of the testimony of an old timer that lived and belonged to the church in the days of nauvoo by reference to my journal I 1 find it was on the day of october 1881 while I 1 and brother C of paris idaho were performing a mission to the united states that we called upon mr james HOU houghton atod I 1 should judge his residence then was about 1 Y miles northwest of Daven davenport iowa it had been ramma for a week past and was very muddy and we called upon him late in th the afternoon we met mr houghton in his door yard and introduced ourselves to him as elders from utah who had called upon him to have a friendly chat but the moment mr H heard we were Elders from utah his rage knew no botIn bounds ds for he denounced us and all of our brethren and sisters and the followers of young joseph also as and im impostors posters but said lie he one thing I 1 know and will testify to and that is that joseph and hyrum smith both had more than one wife prior to 1844 11 his wife also td testified stifled to the same saidie thing saying that she lived in the faill of alarum smith at Nauvoo and ilof she knew new that hyrum married his cifes sister as the women had bad told her so themselves mr Hough tons testimony made quite an impression on my mind because it was the first time in my life that I 1 had ever evier heard that hyrum had two wives at the same time and I 1 marveled that two persons so fitter to our cause should be the witnesses of it I 1 was satisfied then and am today to day that this testimony was true mr ff abused us unmercifully threatening to shoot us and ordering us to leave his premises and then as ad we would start to t go go saying a something to hold us while he could vent more abuse upon us then we would try to reason with him and show how him that we had done nothing to 10 merit such treatment but in a moment he would roar out upon us that we must leave calling his logs dogs setting them upon us etc we left him aim after r bearing our testimony to him of t the he truth of the work we were engaged in and waded through the mud and darkness back to davenport for the ri night glit with the satisfaction a that we hail bad done our duty and they were in the hands of god it this should be of auy worth in advancing the spread of truth it will greatly please your brother and fellow laborer THOMAS J STEED |
