Show A BATTALION BOY SCIPIO march thinking a account ot of my travels with the latte rd salute saints might be welcome to the readers of your four interesting paper I 1 submit the following and hope you will think it worthy of publication my fathers name was jono john B S martin my mothers matilda bigler daughter of mark bigler who was the father of jacob 0 bigler of I 1 was born on the alth day of aprily april 1825 in harrison county state of virginia it is now called west virginia the first gospel sermon I 1 heard preached by an elder of the church of jesus christ of latter jay jainle was in may 1837 the elders name was lorenzo D barnes he was preaching in the woods near the banks of the west fork of the monongahela river I 1 received a testimony that day that joseph was a true prophet of ef gods god and that testimony has bas remained withee with me rm that day to thi my father emigrated to caldwell county missouri in 1838 and arrived near far west home time in september dep dop I 1 think soon boon after our arrival in the county david patten led a company of the caldwell militia against a mob led by bogaro brother patten fell wounded lu in that battle and was brought to stephen winchesters Win chesters where he died about lo li at light I 1 was standing by his bed bad when be died thelast the last words I 1 remember hearing him say were lord jesus receive my soul I 1 did not see joseph smith in missouri he was betrayed by colonel hinkle into the hands of tue mob and carried away before I 1 saw him I 1 being a boy about 12 years old my mother kept me hid bid in the thick brush to keep me out of the hands ol of the mob woo were carrying boys oft off to make them tell where their fathers were hidden I 1 left the state of missouri the following march my father took a poor family to the mississippi river before he took his own family the first time I 1 saw the prophet joseph joeph was at a conference near quincy illinois when he arose to speak there was a halo of light around bis bia bead I 1 know knew then that be was the prophet after joseph joseoh moved to nauvoo I 1 visited him at his bis house to see the records of abraham he took much pains to show me the records the jan time I 1 saw J joaeph alive was a short time before be went to carthage he reviewed the legion riding his lav favorite horse the next time I 1 saw him was in his bis house bouse at nauvoo after his bis assassination at carthage I 1 left jett nauvoo on the ath of february 1846 driving one of george A smiths smith III teams went to the camp of the saints at sugar creek I 1 was traveling during the winter and spring through snow and mud with the rest suffering much with cold and wet at length arriving at the banks of the missouri river where 1 I with five hundred ot of the camp of israel enlisted to fight the mexicans the most moat of us were marche 1 to lower california and on the of july 1847 we were mustered ered out of service at los loa angeles then we traveled north to buttera port fort some home forty of us stopped and worked for butter and while building a saw mill in the mountains the gold was discovered we worked in the minea washing gold for a short time quite a company came to salt gait lake valley in september 1848 president young had a feast prepared for us on the ath of october 1848 it was a happy time for us ue after the hardships of our travels from the missouri Mie river to the pacific ocean and back to 10 salt lake valley JESSE B MARTIN |