USA > Illinois > Hancock County > History of Hancock County, Illinois, together with an outline history of the State, and a digest of State laws > Part 30
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There was a rumor that a lot of Mormons and Indians were encamped near town, and this rumor occasioned considerable uneasiness. Orders were issued to investi- gate. The facts turned out to be that a number of Mormons had come down from Nauvoo to attend Court, and had gone into camp to save expense. As to the Indians, it was ascertained that a company of them had gone through the county,
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on their way to Iowa, for some purpose not known; but the two facts had no con- nection with each other.
On Tuesday the Grand Jury began their work, and on Saturday about noon, they brought into Court two bills of indictment against nine individuals; one for the murder of Joseph Smith, and the other for the murder of his brother Hyrum. The persons indicted were as follows: Levi Williams, Jacob C. Davis, Mark Aldrich, Thos. C. Sharp, William Voras, John Wills, Wm. N. Grover, - Gallaher and - - Allen.
Murray McConnell, Esq., of Jacksonville, by special appointment of the Governor, was present, assisting Mr. Elliott in the prosecution. Messrs. Bushnell and Johnson of Quincy and Calvin A. Warren, and perhaps others, appeared for defendants.
Immediately on announcement of the indictments, most of the defendants appeared, and asked for an immediate trial. This Mr. McConnell objected to on the ground of not being ready. His witnesses before the Grand Jury had departed without being recognized, and besides, Mr. Elliott had gone. It was finally agreed that the causes be postponed until next term, and that no capias should issue from the Clerk in the interim, if the defendants would pledge tliem- selves to appear at the time agreed on-a compact which was afterward violated by the prosecution.
Subpænas were asked for by the prosecution for between thirty and forty witnesses, among whom were Wm. M. Daniels and Brackenberry, the two miracle men, and John Taylor, Mrs. Emma Smith, and Governor Ford.
On May 19, 1845, Court again met in special term at Carthage -- present, Richard M. Young, Judge; James H. Ralston, Prosecuting Attorney; David E. Head, Clerk; and M. R. Deming, Sheriff. The cause of The People vs. Williams et al. coming up, Messrs. Williams, Davis, Aldrich, Sharp and Grover appeared, and were admitted to bail on personal recognizance in the sum of $5,000 jointly and severally. Josiah Lamborn, of Jacksonville, as Assist- ant Prosecutor; and Wm. A. Richardson, O. H. Browning, Calvin A. Warren, Archibald Williams, O. C. Skinner and Thos. Morri- son for defendants. Motion of defendants to quash the array of jurors for first week, on account of supposed prejudice of County Commissioners, who selected them, and of the Sheriff and deputies, was sustained. Also, motion for the appointment of elisors for the same cause, and absence of Coroner from the county. The array was set aside, and Thomas H. Owen and Win. D. Abernethy appointed elisors for the case. These gentlemen had a thankless and arduous duty to perform. Usually it is not hard to find men willing to sit on juries; in this case but few were willing to try the experiment of going to Court, with the almost certainty of being rejected by one or the other party; and the position was not an enviable one, if taken. Ninety-six men were summoned and brought into Court before the requisite panel of twelve was full. The following are the names of the jurors chosen:
Jesse Griffitts, Joseph Jones, Wm. Robertson, Wm. Smith,
Joseph Massey,
Silas Griffitts,
Jonathan Foy, Solomon J. Hill, James Gittings, F. M. Walton, Jabez A. Beebe, Gilmore Callison.
The trial lasted till the 30th, when the jury was instructed by the Court, and, after a deliberation of several hours, returned a verdict of Not Guilty.
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Instructions to the jury had been asked by both parties. The following, among a list of nine asked by defendants' counsel, were given, and probably had most influence on the verdict:
That where the evidence is circumstantial, admitting all to be proven which the evidence tends to prove, if then the jury can make any supposition consistent with the facts, by which the murder might have been committed without the agency of the defendants, it will be their duty to make that supposition, and find defendants not guilty.
That in making up their verdict, they will exclude from their consideration all that was said by Daniels, Brackenberry, and Miss Graham. [Witnesses. ]
That whenever the probability is of a definite and limited nature, whether in the proportion of 100 to 1 or of 1,000 to 1, or any ratio, is immaterial, it cannot be safely made the ground of conviction; for to act upon it in any case would be to decide that for the sake of convicting many criminals, the life of one innocent man might be sacrificed .- [STARKIE, 508.
Same defendants, for murder of Hyrum Smith, were required to enter into recognizance of $5,000 each (with 14 sureties) to the June term, 1845. At said term case was called, and Elliott and Lamborn not answering, the cause was dismissed for want of pros- ecntion, and defendants discharged.
It has been the custom for sensational writers to treat this trial and verdict as farcical and an outrage. One of these writers, Col. John Hay, now of the State Department at Washington, though then a mere boy, was yet raised in the county, and had within his reach correct sources of information. In the Atlantic Monthly for Dec., 1869, he has a lengthy article, abounding in extravagant and sensational statements and surmises, among which we quote only the following:
" The case was closed. There was not a man on the jury, in the Court, in the county, that did not know the defendants had done the murder. But it was not proven, and the verdict of Not Guilty was right in law."
Here is a fling at the jury, the Judge, and people; and we ven- ture to characterize it as extremely unjust. We know the writer intended to perpetrate no wrong. He was too intimately con- nected with some of the accused-indeed, with all concerned-to desire them wrong; but he aimed to produce a readable story for the Atlantic, which he did, though at the expense of candor and justice. Another fling at the jury was equally unjust:
" The elisors presented ninety-six men before twelve were found ignorant enough and indifferent enough to act as jurors."
Some of those men we knew-not all; and we know that they, instead of being "ignorant and indifferent," were men of intelli- gence, probity and worth.
There were some circumstances connected with those cases, not generally known, that tend to show how difficult it was to find out the guilty ones. The Mormons had had one John C. Elliott arrested and bound over, charged with the offense; they had also · had writs for the Laws, and Fosters, and Higbees, at Rock Island, under the same charge. And when the Grand Jury was in session,
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
the names of some sixty individuals were presented by the prose- cution for indictment. One of those sixty has informed us that he since learned that he narrowly escaped indictment, although, being one of the Warsaw men, he returned immediately home after dis- bandment, and had no knowledge of the affair till after it was over. It has since transpired that the Grand Jury voted on the whole sixty together at the first, and failing of an indictment, struck off ten and voted again, and so on until the last nine were reached, when the indictment carried. It has also been ascertained that the Grand Jury found bills against the nine, some as principals and some as accessories solely on the testimony of the three witnesses whose testimony on the trial the Court instructed the petit jury to disregard.
From all these facts it is very easy to say .that a murder had been committed; that somebody had done the deed. But to say that among the Elliotts, Laws, and Fosters, and Higbees, and long list of men charged, those five or six who were on trial had done it, and the jury, and Court, and everybody else knew it, is SAYING A GREAT DEAL.
STRUGGLE FOR THE SUCCESSION.
If anything were needed to convince one of the folly and wieked- ness of Mormonism, it is to be found in the quarrels and conten- tions of the leaders. During the prophet's lifetime he was contin- ually at variance with one or more of his former followers and trusted associates; denouncing and excommunicating them one . month, and the next taking them back to his embrace and confi- dence. Cowdery, Harris, Whitmer, Rigdon, Phelps, Williams, and many others, had been sent by his maledictions to " buffet with Satan for a thousand years;" and long before their time was ont, taken back again and the malediction removed.
So, after his death, a great struggle began for the possession of the mantle that had fallen from his shoulders. The grief at his death was genuine on the part of the main body; but on the part of the few, its bitterness was assuaged by the hope of assuming his place and honors. Rigdon, who had the best right-having furnished the principal brain supply for the concern at its origin -was soon sent back to Pittsburg with a flea in his ear. He had made the inexcusable and unlucky mistake of moving to carry the delusion back to the East. Young, wiser and more discerning, adopted the idea of following the setting sun; and he succeeded in overcoming all opposition.
Absent when the prophet was killed, he hastened home, and quietly but firmly began to gather the reins of government about him-one by one securing the co-operation of his associates-till, before they knew it, he was supreme dictator, and they the pliant tools of his will.
William, the patriarch (all the Smiths, we believe, had been patriarchs), the only male member left of the family, also hurried to Nauvoo, to advance his claims. But he was vacillating and
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
weak, and sadly lacking in the traits requisite for a leader; and he fell into the meshes of the others, and quietly settled down into the business of dispensing "patriarchal blessings " for pay; and the organ urged the brethren and sisters to patronize him. But the pay being insufficient, or for some other cause, he again became troublesome-flew off at a tangent-quarrelled with and denounced the Twelve-and finally went and joined James Y. Strang in Wisconsin. But after the leaders had left for the West, thinking there might be a chance again, he came back to Nauvoo, and tried to prevent the remnant from following Young into the wilderness. Failing again, he, Rigdon and Strang organized a trinity which drew off a great many of the faithful. Whether Strang had ever been with them at Nauvoo, we do not know. The first we hear of him is at a place he called Voree, in Wisconsin, where he tried the old game of finding plates, claimed the prophet's mantle by will from the prophet himself, got up revelations, issued a small monthly paper, and for a time made some noise in the Mor- mon world. The following illustrates his method of plate finding:
STRANG'S FOUR WITNESSES.
On the 13th day of September, 1845, we, Aaron Smith, Jirah B. Wheelan, James M. Van Nostrand, and Edward Whitcomb, assembled at the call of James J. Strang, who is by us and many others approved as a prophet and seer of God. He proceeded to inform us that it had been revealed to him in a vision that an account of an ancient people was buried in a hill south of White river bridge, near the east line of Walworth county, and leading us to an oak tree about one foot in diameter, told us that we would find it enclosed in a case of rude earthen- ware under that tree at a depth of about three feet; requested us to dig it up, and charged us to examine the ground, that we should know we were not imposed upon, and that it had not been buried since the tree grew. The tree was sur- rounded by a sward of deeply rooted grass, such as is usually found in the open- ings, and upon the most critical examination we could not discover any indication that it had ever been cut through or disturbed.
We then dug up the tree, and continued to dig to the depth of about three feet, where we found a case of slightly baked clay containing three plates of brass. On one side of one is a landscape view of the south end of Gardner's prairie, and the range of hills where they were dug. On another, is a man with a crown on his head and a scepter in his hand; above is an eye before an upright line; below the sun and moon surrounded by twelve stars; at the bottom are twelve large stars from three of which pillars arise, and closely interspersed with them are seven very small stars. The other four sides are very closely covered with what appear to be alphabetic characters, but in a language of which we have no knowledge.
The case was found imbedded in indurated clay so closely fitting that it broke in taking out, and the earth below the soil was so hard as to be dug with difficulty, even with a pick-ax. Over the case was found a flat stone about one foot wide each way and three inches thick, which appeared to have undergone the action of fire, and fell in pieces after a few minutes' exposure to the air. The digging extended in the clay about eighteen inches, there being two kinds of earth of different color and appearance above it.
We examined as we dug all the way with the utmost care, and we say, with utmost confidence, that no part of the earth through which we dug exhibited any sign or indication that it had been moved or disturbed at any time previous. The roots of the tree stuck down very closely on every side, extending below the case, and closely interwoven with roots from other trees. None of them had been broken or cut away. No clay is found in the country like that of which this case is made.
In fine, we found an alphabetic and pictorial record, carefully cased up, buried deep in the earth, covered with a flat stone, with an oak tree one foot in diameter
4
Samuel Bude
WILCOX Tp.
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IIISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
growing over it, with every evidence that the sense can give that it has lain as long as that tree has been growing. Strang took no part in the digging, but kept entirely away from before the first blow was struck till after the plates were taken out of the case; and the sole inducement to our digging was our faith in his statement as a prophet of the Lord, that a record would thus and there be found AARON SMITH, JIRAH B. WHEELAN, I. M. VAN NOSTRAND, EDWARD WHITCOMB.
Now, if living, stand forth, Messrs. Smith, Wheelan, Van Nos- trand, and Whitcomb, and answer: When you made that public statement thirty five years ago, did you not utter an absolute and infamous falsehood ?
Why the discovery of these plates did not form the basis of a new revelation and a new creed, we can not say; nor even whether Strang ever attempted a translation of them. It may be that lie came to the yery erroneous conclusion that the fools were nearly all dead-and so gave it up.
Rigdon, as heretofore stated, endeavored by all the means in his power to gain the place left vacant in the Church. The Twelve how- ever decided quite unanimously that they would have no prophet, seer and revelator any more, but that the Twelve should be the supreme authority as a body. The breach widened, and finally they brought the contumacions old man to trial before the conference. This trial is reported at length in the Times and Seasons, and deserves a conspicuous place in the history of ecclesiastical tribunals. The charge against him was-a little of everything bad; but the offense for which he was tried and condemned, was really that he wished to be President of the Church. The trial was a long one, and finally the vote was put, offered by W. W. Phelps, " that Elder Sidney Rigdon be cut off from the Church, and delivered over to the buffetings of Satan until he repents."
The vote, says the report, "was unanimous, excepting about ten." A motion was then made to cut off the ten. This failed, and they were taken singly, on separate and different charges, and cut off by unanimous votes. Elder Marks was one of them, having made a speech defending Rigdon; but the conference had hopes of him, and he was not expelled. In the next Times and Seasons he issued a card, stating that after candid consideration he had become con- vinced that Sidney Rigdon's claims to the Presidency were not founded in truth. The conference closed after Elder Young had delivered Sidney over to the buffetings of Satan, in the name of the Lord, " and all the people said Amen !"
Mr. Saulsbury, a brother-in-law to the Smiths, though we believe never a leader among them, about this time came out, and through a letter to the Warsaw Signal denounced the Twelve and made the same or similar charges against them that William Smith and Rigdon had made. He died in this county.
21
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
MORE VIOLENCE AND BLOODSHED.
If the year 1844 was one of blood, that of 1845 was more bloody still. Excitement and violence prevailed during a great part of the year.
We have seen that Gen. Minor R. Deming was elected Sheriff of the county in August, 1844, and Jacob B. Backenstos and Almon W. Babbitt members of the Legislature, by Mormon votes. More objectionable men to the Anti-Mormon citizens could scarcely have been found in the county. Gen. Deming was an officer of militia, and a citizen previously in no way identified with the Mormon fraternity. He had resided on a farm some miles out of Carthage; was well educated and capable, and we think he was conscientious in his endeavors to do right. But he was extremely conservative in his respect for law and order. He was also conceited and self- willed, and had "an itehing palm " for office, and the best way to obtain this was to ingratiate himself with the Mormon leaders.
Mr. Backenstos was a new-comer into the county, imported, it was said, by Judge Douglas from Sangamon, to take the office of Circuit Clerk, which he had held for some time previous to his election to the Legislature. Babbitt was a Mormon lawyer. He was expected to obey the behests of the Mormon leaders, of course. As the others obtained favor with the Mormons, they incurred the hatred and distrust of the other citizens of the county.
As before stated, the agreement entered into that no arrests should be made of the parties indicted for killing the Smiths, was violated on the part of the prosecution, and frequent attempts were made by the Sheriff and his deputies to arrest some of them, during the winter. J. C. Davis, one of them, was State Senator. At the opening of the Legislative session he took his seat in that body. During the winter he was arrested at Springfield by an officer from Hancock county, but was ordered released by resolution of the Senate.
During the session a move was made to repcal the Nauvoo char- ters, and after discussion in the House was passed, January 21, 1845, by a vote of 76 to 36. It subsequently passed the Senate. Messrs. Backenstos and Babbitt both made speeches against the repeal, the former taking occasion to violently denounce the old citizens of the county. For this speech, and his otherwise vindic- tive and objectionable course, a demonstration was made in the spring after his return, to drive him from the county. He soon afterward obtained an appointment through Congressman Hoge, to an office in the lead mines, and subsequently was made a Captain in the forces sent to the Mexican war.
During the winter and spring, as a result of the unsettled state of affairs in Nauvoo, and the consequent hard times, there was an unusual amount of stealing done, not only in the city, but in other parts of the county. It extended to Adams, Henderson, and other adjoining counties. In Adams, where arrests could be made, there
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
were as many as eight Mormons in jail at one time. In the city, the two parties, Twelveites and Rigdonites, stole from each other; while in the country the Gentiles were the chief sufferers. This became so insupportable that public meetings were held at many points to devise means of protection and redress. Township com- mittees were appointed to collect statistics of these thefts, which was done, and many of them published, footing up hundreds of dollars in various townships. Some of these reports were no doubt exaggerated; but as many must have been omitted, it is safe to say that the totals fell short of the truth. Of course, it was not proven that all these depredations were committed by Mormons, and proba- bly were not. The charge has often been made that stealing was done on Mormon credit, which is in itself an admission against them; but that a vast percentage of it was done by them alone, all circumstances go to show. And events which transpired this year, show that they had among them some who did not hesitate at robbery and murder, as well as theft and burglary.
On Saturday night, May 10, 1845, a horrible murder was com- mitted near the town of Franklin, in Lee Co., Iowa, on the persons of John Miller, a Menonite German minister from Pennsylvania, and his son-in-law, Leiza. The latter was not killed, but died of his wounds afterward. The locality is about ten or twelve miles from Nauvoo, and the murderers, three in number, were traced to that city. Their names were William Hodge, Stephen Hodge, and Thomas Brown. The Hodges were arrested on the 13th and conveyed to the Iowa penitentiary at Fort Madison, for safe keep- ing. On the 15th they were indicted by the Grand Jury at West Point, and on the 21st were arraigned for trial. They asked for a change of venue, and the cause was certified to DesMoines county. On the 21st of June they were put upon their trial at Burlington. They were defended by two eminent Burlington attorneys, J. C. Hall and F. D. Mills, assisted by George Edmunds, of Nauvoo. The trial lasted about a week. Mason, District Judge, then sen- tenced them to be hung on the 15th of July. They were so executed.
A peculiar cap worn by one of the murderers, and which he lost at the house of the murder, led to their arrest. They were traced to Nauvoo, and found at the house of their brother, Amos Hodge, in the suburbs. They were taken before Aaron Johnson, a Justice of the Peace, for examination, where they were defended by Almon W. Babbitt. Babbitt himself was afterward murdered mysteriously in Utah, while U. S. District Attorney.
On the night of the 23d of June, Irvin Hodge, brother to the accused, was assassinated in Nauvoo, while on his way home from a visit to them at Burlington. He had, it is said, endeavored to induce Brigham Young to send and have his brothers rescued from jail, and failing, was free in denouncing him for the neglect. But little notice was taken of this last murder in Nauvoo. The father of the Hodges was allowed to visit them before their execution,
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
from his confinement in the Alton penitentiary, where he was under sentence for larceny.
The patriarch Wm. Smith, in a letter to the Sangamo Journal, dated Sept. 24, 1846, says of the Hodges: "Irvin Hodge was mur- dered within twelve feet of Brigham Young's door. Amos Hodge was murdered, it is said, between Montrose and Nashville, Iowa, by Brigham Young's guard, who pretended to escort him out of Nauvoo for his safety, under cover of women's clothes, who then pretended that he had run away." And again: "If Mr. Amos Hodge, the father of the young Hodges, will call and see me, I can tell him the names of persons that will put him on the track of the men who murdered his sons."
In an affidavit for witnesses to prove an alibi, the Hodges claimed to rely on the testimony of six or eight named witnesses residing in Nauvoo, and upon John Long, Aaron Long, and Judge Fox, who they said resided in St. Louis. These names will long be remembered in the annals of crime in the West, as the parties who perpetrated
THE MURDER OF COL. DAVENPORT,
at his home on Rock Island, on the 4th of July, just after the con- viction of the Hodges. This murder was perpetrated in broad daylight, while all the family but the old Colonel were absent at a celebration on the main land. He was an aged and quite infirm man, and was quietly sitting at his house reading a paper, when he was attacked by the robbers. Rising to approach the door, at which he heard a noise, it was pushed open, and three men entered, one of whom at once discharged a pistol at him, the ball entering his thigh. He was then dragged through a hall, and up the stairs, to a closet containing his safe, which they compelled him to open. After obtaining the contents, and money from his bureau drawers, they left him, still tied upon his bed, in which condition he was afterward found by persons passing. Surgical aid was procured, and he was revived sufficiently to describe the assassins and the circumstances, but he died about ten o'clock that night.
Fifteen hundred dollars reward for the murderer was offered by George L. Davenport, his son; and John Long, Aaron Long and Granville Young were finally arrested and hung for the offense; Judge Fox was arrested and allowed to escape, while one Birch, a daring desperado, said to have been connected with the Danite Band, was implicated and arrested, but escaped by turning State's evidence. About the same time numerous acts of robbery and burglary were committed in Lee county, opposite, and along the river, traceable in almost all cases, to a gang that had their head- quarters in Nauvoo.
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