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Show The Old Mormon fort. If you w ill look at an ordinary wall map of Missouri, j ou will notice about sixty miles east of St. Joseph, a little vllliage mark, bearing tho name of "Tho Old Mormon Fort". If jou would visit the spot now you w ould not find any signs of a fort, and but very few evidences that any town or vlllago had cvor occupied the site; Yet there was a tlmo when theeountiy "Swarmed" with people. Several bundled houses dotted the plain and on every side could be heard "the lrinn of hulustrj" In tho hands of a numerous people, busy In all the labois that character le an enterprising progiesslvo commonwealth. com-monwealth. The place was Far West. The time 1837. The people the Moimons. They had been foiclbly expelled fiom Jackson, Jack-son, and the counties futhcr south and had come up into tho unsettled pait of tho State wheie they would have no neighbors and hoped to be premltted to llvo in peace. Far Wcstbecause a city of several thousand inhabitants and lfir wlinlo pmintrv for tulip utnuiirl was coveied with cultivated llclds and homes of a happy people. But this condition of things seemed to In Itatc thclazy, Indolent, less prosperous Inhabitant In-habitant of tlicadJornliigcountlcs,aiid tho same old hate that had resulted In the persecution and expulsion fiom Jackson county was revived In Bay, Clay, and other counties. Then commenced com-menced the aggltatlon that culminated culminat-ed In the famous extermination order of Governor Boggs, as follows. "The Moimons must be Heated as enlmles, and must be exterminated or driven fiom the State, If necessaiy for the public good. Theie outiages arc bevond all description." Tho English have been condemned during two or tlnce gcneiatlons for tho enforced iemov.il or tho Arcadians and In all time the following gcneiatlons gcneia-tlons have condemned acts of cruelty and oppression of their fathcis. Incoming years Gov. Boggs will bcac credited his proper place In history. As, long as history last ills name like Nero's will be coupled witli persecution, persecu-tion, murder and laplue. When the balmy brcases of returning return-ing spring readied Far West in 4830, they fotmd the placo practically deserted. desert-ed. Boggs order had been executef'. Without food, without proper clothing the inhabitants had been forced to abandon their homes, and amidst blinding snow storms and fieezlng gales had sought refuge beyond the Mississippi. The story of that exodus can never bo written. The suffering of those 15,000 souls will never be known. But when the great Judge shall sit the sufferers suf-ferers and the dead will be there to testify. Boggs Is dead and forgotten In his own State. Many of his cruel subordinates subor-dinates have met the fate of outlaws. out-laws. Far West lias been clTaccd from the map. The present inhabitant has forgotten its name. But as you pass through the country on a train ho will point off across the plains towards Shoal Creek and say: "Over there eight miles Is the Old Mormon Fort." |