History of Caldwell and Livingston counties, Missouri, written and compiled from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of their townships, towns and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri; a reliable and detailed history of Caldwell and Livingston counties--their pioneer record, resources, biographical sketches of prominent citizens; general and local statistics of great value; incidents and reminiscences, Part 15

Author: Pease, Ora Merle Hawk, 1890-
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: St. Louis, National Historical Company
Number of Pages: 1260

USA > Missouri > Livingston County > History of Caldwell and Livingston counties, Missouri, written and compiled from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of their townships, towns and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri; a reliable and detailed history of Caldwell and Livingston counties--their pioneer record, resources, biographical sketches of prominent citizens; general and local statistics of great value; incidents and reminiscences > Part 15
USA > Missouri > Caldwell County > History of Caldwell and Livingston counties, Missouri, written and compiled from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of their townships, towns and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri; a reliable and detailed history of Caldwell and Livingston counties--their pioneer record, resources, biographical sketches of prominent citizens; general and local statistics of great value; incidents and reminiscences > Part 15

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

A few days after his arrival Gen. Clark removed a portion of the restraint he had imposed upon the Mormons, allowing them to go out for wood, provisions, etc. He assembled the multitude on the temple square and delivered to them a written speech, a copy of which is here given. It goes far to prove that Gen. Clark was ordered to "exterminate " the Mormons, not excepting the women and children, and burn their houses and otherwise destroy their property.

Gentlemen: You whose names are not attached to this list of names, will now have the privilege of going to your fields to obtain corn for your families, wood, etc. Those that are now taken will go from thence to prison, be tried, and receive the due demerit of their crimes ; but you are now at liberty, all but such charges as may be hereafter preferred against. It now devolves upon you to fulfill the treaty that you have entered into, the leading items of which I now lay before you. The first of these you have already complied with, which is, that you deliver up your leading men to be tried according to law. Second, that you deliver up your arms - this has been at- tended to. The third is, that you sign over your properties to defray the expenses of the war -this you have also done. Another thing yet remains for you to comply with - that is, that you leave the State forthwith ; and whatever your feelings concerning this affair, whatever your innocence, it is nothing to me. Gen. Lucas, who is equal in authority with me, has made this treaty with you. I am determined to see it executed. The orders of the Governor to me were, that you should be EXTERMINATED, and not allowed to continue in the State ; and had your leaders not been given up, and the treaty complied

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HISTORY OF CALDWELL COUNTY.

with, before this, you and YOUR FAMILIES would have been destroyed, and your houses in ashes.

There is a discretionary power vested in my hands, which I shall try to exercise for a season. I do not say that you shall go now ; but you must not think of staying here another season, or of putting in crops ; for the moment you do, the citizens will be upon you. I am determined to see the Governor's message fulfilled, but shall not come upon you immediately. Do not think that I shall act as I have done any more - but if I have to come again, because the treaty which you have made here shall be broken, you need not expect any mercy, but extermination, for I am determined the Governor's order shall be executed. As for your leaders, do not once think - do not imagine for a moment - do not let it enter your minds - that they will be delivered, or that you will see their faces again ; for their fate is fixed, their die is cast, their doom is sealed.

I am sorry, gentlemen, to see so great a number of apparently intelligent men found in the situation that you are ; and, oh ! that I could invoke the spirit of the unknown God to rest upon you, and deliver you from that awful chain of superstition, and liberate you from those fetters of fanaticism with which you are bound. I would advise you to scatter abroad, and never again organize with bishops, presidents, etc., lest you excite the jealousies of the people, and sub- ject yourselves to the same calamities that have now come down upon you. You have always been the aggressors, you have brought upon yourselves these difficulties by being disaffected, and not being sub- ject to rule - and my advice is, that you become as other citizens, lest by a recurrence of these events, you bring upon yourselves irre- trievable ruin.

Soon after Gen. Clark returned home and the Mormons were allowed to remain in the county unmolested for a time, but were ordered to prepare to move as soon as possible. The troops of Gen. Willock's division, many of whom came from Marion, Lewis, Shelby, and other counties in the northeastern portion of the State, were encamped at Keytesville, in Chariton county, ready for a forward movement when ordered. Perhaps the total number of militia called out was 10,000.

In the consummation of the " treaty " with Gen. Lucas, and by the orders of Gov. Boggs, when, as a Mormon poet says : -

The people of Missouri, Like a whirlwind in its fury, And without judge or jury, Drove the saints and spilled their blood, --

there were many distressing scenes. Having been banished from the State they concluded to settle in Illinois, on the Upper Mississippi,

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HISTORY OF CALDWELL COUNTY.

and eventually selected Hancock county, on the Mississippi, opposite the southeastern part of Iowa, as their future home.

In the midst of an inclement winter, in December, 1838, and in January, 1839, many of the Mormon men, women, and children, the sick and the aged, as well as the young and strong, were turned out of their homes in this county and Daviess, into the prairies and forests, without food, or sufficient protection from the weather. In some in- stances in Daviess, their houses were burnt before their eyes and they turned out into the deep snow. Only a few cabins in the southwestern part of Caldwell were burned at this time.

Numerous families set out at once for Illinois, making the entire distance, in midwinter, on foot. A large majority, however, re- mained until spring as under the terms of the treaty they were allowed to remain in the county until that time. All through the winter and · early spring those who remained prepared to leave. They offered their lands for sale at very small figures. In fact many bartered their farms for teams and wagons to get away on. Some traded for any sort of property. Charles Ross, of Black Oak, bought 40 acres of good land, north of Breckinridge, for a blind mare and a clock. Some tracts of good land north of Shoal creek, in Kidder township, brought only fifty cents an acre. Many of the Mormons had not yet secured the patents to their lands, and though they had regularly en- tered them, they could not sell them ; the Gentiles would not buy un- less they could receive the Government's deeds, as well as the grantor's. These kinds of lands were abandoned altogether, in most instances, and afterward settled upon by Gentiles who secured titles by keeping the taxes paid.

Quite a number of Mormon " dissenters" refused to follow off the Prophet to Illinois, and remained in Caldwell and Ray, where they or some of their descendants still remain. Others again abandoned the Mormon religion altogether, and after a time denied that they had ever believed in it, or that they had ever held any affiliation with the Mormon church whatever. But by the 10th of May all the Mor- mons in full fellowship had left Missouri for the new Mormon capital at Nauvoo, Ill. The first of the expatriated Mormons went first to Quincy, Ill., and from thence to Nauvoo.

Not long after the surrender at Far West, the Mormons of Daviess county surrendered to the militia at Adam-ondi-Ahman, upon the same conditions as their brethren had in Caldwell. Lack of space forbids the publication of the details of the campaign here. It may be stated that the conduct of the Mormons in that county was more

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HISTORY OF CALDWELL COUNTY.

reprehensible than that of their brethren in Caldwell, although they claimed to have acted in retaliation for their treatment by the " mobs " of Daviess, who, the Mormons assert, were the aggressors.

What authority Gen. Lucas had to make such a " treaty " and to impose such conditions is not clear. It would seem that he re- garded the 'Mormons as composing a foreign nation, or at least as form- ing an army with belligerent rights, and with proper treaty-contracting powers. The truth was they were and had not ceased to be citizens of Missouri, amenable to and under the jurisdiction of its laws. If they had committed any crime they ought to have been punished, just the same as other criminals. There was no authority for taking their arms from them except that they were proved to be militia in a state of insubordination. There was no sort of authority for requiring them to pay the expenses of the war. There was no sort of authority for requir- ing them to leave the State. It was monstrously illegal and unjust to attempt to punish them for offenses for which they had not been tried and of which they had not been convicted. It would be a reasonable conclusion that in making his so-called " treaty " Gen. Lucas was guilty of illegal extortion, unwarranted assumption of power, usurpa- tion of authority, and flagrant violation of the natural rights of man.

By an act of the Legislature approved December 11, 1838, the sum of $2,000 was appropriated, " for the purpose of relieving the indigent and suffering families in Caldwell and Daviess counties, and the fol- lowing commissioners were appointed to expend the sum and distrib- ute " food, raiment, and other necessaries " among the deserving : Anderson Martin, Wm. Thornton and John C. Richardson of Ray county ; Elisha Camron, John Thornton, and Eli Casey, of Clay ; Henry McHenry, of Caldwell, and M. T. Green, of Daviess. It is asserted that not a dollar of the appropriation was expended for the benefit of the Mormons, although the act itself did not especially ex- clude them. The Gentiles were the sole beneficiaries.

The same Legislature also prohibited the publication of " the orders, letters, evidences, and other documents relating to the Mormon dis- turbances," and enjoined the Secretary of the State from " furnishing or permitting to be taken copies of the same for any purpose whatso- ever." Two years later, however, this prohibition was rescinded. (See Acts 10th Gen. Assembly, p. 334. ) Why the act was passed in the first place may better be conjectured than positively asserted.

The prisoners taken away from Far West by Gen. Lucas were Joseph Smith (the Prophet ), Hiram Smith (his brother), Gen. Geo. W. Hinkle, Lyman Wight, Sidney Rigdon, Orson Pratt, Parley P.

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HISTORY OF CALDWELL COUNTY.

Pratt, Alex. McRae, Caleb Baldwin, Luman Gibbs (the basket maker ), Maurice Phelps, King Follett, Wm. Osburn, Arthur Morri- son, Elias Higbee, Joshua Worthington, Wm. Voorhees, Jacob Gates, and a few others. They were taken to Richmond, and from thence to Independence. This, it seems, was done by Gen. Lucas for no other reason than to grace his triumph, in imitation of the Roman conquerors, who were wont to carry their captives back to the Eternal City after a foreign conquest and parade them with their other tro- phies in a grand procession through the streets.

The prisoners were exhibited in Independence to make a show and sport for the multitude, but in a few days they were returned to Rich- mond. Here by a court of inquiry, Judge King presiding, they were remanded to Daviess county, to await the action of the grand jury on charge of murder and treason against the State. The Daviess county jail being poor, some were kept at Richmond and Jo. Smith and oth- ers sent to the stone jail at Liberty.

Indictments for various offenses -treason, murder, robbery, re- ceiving stolen goods, arson, resisting legal process, etc., were after- wards found against them, but not one conviction was ever had. Quite a number had their cases dismissed or nolle pros'd. Sidney Rigdon was released on habeas corpus. The others were granted changes of venue and their cases sent to Boone county. On the way to Columbia Joe Smith contrived to escape, by the connivance of his guard, as is supposed. Parley P. Pratt and others knocked down the jailor at Columbia, July 4, 1839, and escaped. Luman Gibbs was tried and acquitted. The cases against the others were dismissed.

CHAPTER IV. THE MASSACRE AT HAUN'S MILL.

Full and Authentic Details of this Terrible Tragedy - Sworn Statements of Some of Those Who Were Present - The Names of All of the Killed and Wounded - Subse- quent Experiences of Some of the Survivors, etc., etc.

In the afternoon of October 30, 1838, the day the militia arrived at Far West, occurred what has since been generally known as " the Haun's Mill Massacre." Following is perhaps the first complete and correct account of this affair ever published.

At Jacob Haun's mill, on the north bank of Shoal creek, in the eastern part of the county, in what is now Fairview township (nw. 1/4 ne. 1/4, section 17-56-26 ), were, besides the mill, a blacksmith shop and half a dozen or more houses, and perhaps 20 Mormon families. Some of these families were living in tents and covered wagons, having recently come into the country, or having lived elsewhere in the county had become alarmed at the aspect of affairs, and had come to the mill for safety. News that the militia of the State had been ordered to expel them had reached the Mormons, and following these tidings word was brought that a considerable number of men living in Liv- ingston county, together with some from Daviess, had organized near Spring Hill, in Livingston county, and were preparing to attack them. A company of about thirty men, indifferently armed with shot guns and squirrel rifles, was organized, and David Evans, a Danite, was chosen captain. It was determined to defend the place.

Learning that the force organizing against them numbered some hundreds, some of the older men among the Mormons urged that no re- sistance should be made, but that all should retreat to Far West.1 It

1 John D. Lee says that the morning after the fight on Crooked river, Haun himself came to Far West to consult with the Prophet concerning the removal of the Mormons on Lower Shoal creek to Far West. The Prophet said, " Move in, by all means, if you wish to save your lives." Haun replied that if the settlers left their homes all of their property would be lost and the Gentiles would burn their houses and other buildings. Jo. Smith said, " You had better lose your property than your lives, but there is no danger of losing either if you will do as you are commanded." Haun thought he and his neighbors could protect and defend themselves, and Smith finally gave them per- mission to remain, saying they would consider him a tyrant if he forced them to leave and abandon their property and come to Far West.

(145)

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HISTORY OF CALDWELL COUNTY.

seems that the Prophet had advised this, but nevertheless had given them permission to remain if they thought they could protect them- selves.

Others opposed retreating and the abandonment of their property to the " mob of Gentiles," and when an old man named Myers re- minded them how few they were, and how many the Gentiles num- bered, they declared that the Lord would send his angels to help them when the day of battle should come. Some of the women, too, urged the men to stand firm, and offered to mold bullets and prepare patch- ing for the rifles if necessary.

North of Haun's mill, a short distance, was a body of timber and brush, and north of this, towards where Breckinridge now stands, was a stretch of prairie for miles. For a day or two Capt. Evans kept a picket post in the northern edge of the timber, but having entered into a truce with Capt. Nehemiah Comstock, commanding one of the Livingston county companies, and no other enemy appearing, this post was withdrawn.

This truce was effected by means of a messenger, who rode between Comstock and Evans, and its terms were that the Gentiles were to let the Mormons alone as long as they were peaceable, and vice versa. The Mormons agreed also to disband their military organization if the Gentiles would disband theirs, and this it is claimed was agreed to. But the Mormons heard that over in Livingston, directly east of them, another company of Gentiles, under Capt. Wm. Mann, was menacing them ; and so they did not disband, for while they confided in Com- stock's company, they had no confidence in Mann's, which for some time had been operating at and near Whitney's mill, on Shoal creek ( where Dawn now is), stopping Mormons on their way to Caldwell from the East, turning them back in some instances, taking their arms from them in others, etc.

The Gentile force in Livingston county numbered about 200 men, and was under the command of Col. Wm. O. Jennings,1 then the sheriff of that county. Three companies composed it, led by Capt. Nehemiah Comstock, Thos. R. Bryan and William Mann. It took the field in earnest about the 25th of October, and for a few days prior to the 30th was encamped about three miles northeast of Breck- enridge, at least Comstock's company was. Perhaps Mann's was employed in the southern portion of the county until the 29th.

1 Col. Jennings was assassinated in Chillicothe In 1861. (See History of Livingston County.)

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HISTORY OF CALDWELL COUNTY.

Learning that the Mormons at Haun's mill had not disbanded, and yielding to the almost universal desire of his men, who were eager to seize upon any pretext for a fight, Col. Jennings set out from his camp last mentioned, after noon of the 30th of October, intending to attack and capture Haun's mill, and encamp there that night. The route lay via where Mooresville now stands, or between Mooresville and Breckinridge, and on across the prairie, and the march was made swiftly and without interruption.

Within two miles of the mill Col. Jennings left his wagons and two Mormon prisoners, captured some days before, in charge of a squad of men, of whom James Trosper, now of Breckinridge, was one, and pressed rapidly on. Entering the timber north of the town, Jen- ning's men passed through it unobserved right up to the borders of the hamlet. Capt. Nehemiah Comstock's company had the advance.

The Mormon leader, David Evans, had become apprehensive of an attack, and was abont sending out scouts and pickets. It was ar- ranged to use the blacksmith shop as a fort or block-house. This struc- ture was of logs, with wide cracks between them, and had a large door. The greater portion of the Mormons were unsuspicious of imminent danger, and the women and children were scattered about. Nearly every house contained two or more families. There were two or three small houses on the south bank of the creek thus occupied. It was now about four o'clock in the afternoon of a warm and beauti- ful Indian summer day.

Suddenly from out of the timber north of the mill the Livingston militia burst upon the hamlet. In a few seconds the air was filled with wild shouts and shots, and the fight was on. It can scarcely be called a fight. The Mormons were thrown into confusion, and many of them ran wildly and aimlessly about. The women and children cried and screamed in excitement and terror, and the greater number, directed by the men, ran across the mill dam to the south bank and sought shelter in the woods south of the creek. Perhaps half of the men, Evans among them, ran with their guns to the blacksmith shop and began to return the fire. Some were shot down in an effort to reach the shop or as they were trying to escape.

The fire of the Mormons was for the most part wild and ineffective ; that of the militia was accurate and deadly. The cracks between the logs of the shop were so large that it was easy to shoot through them, and so thickly were the Mormoms huddled together on the inside that nearly every bullet that entered the shop killed or wounded a man.

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HISTORY OF CALDWELL COUNTY.

Firing was kept up all the while on the fleeing fugitives, many of whom were shot down.1

Seeing that he was placed at a decided disadvantage, Capt. Evans gave orders to retreat, ordering every man to take care of himself. The door of the shop was thrown open, and all the able-bodied sur- vivors ran out, endeavoring to reach the wood. Some were shot be- fore they got to shelter. Capt. Evans was somewhat excited, and, as he afterwards related, ran all the way to Mud creek with his gun loaded, not having fired it during the fight. The militia fired at the fugitives until they were out of range, but did not pursue them, as the few who escaped scattered in almost every direction.

After the engagement was over, and all the able-bodied male Mor- mons had been killed, wounded or driven away, some of the militia- men began to " loot" the houses and stables at the mill. A great deal of property was taken, much of it consisting of household arti- cles and personal effects, but just how much can not now be stated. The Mormons claim there was a general pillage, and that in two or three instances the bodies of the slain were robbed. Some of the militia or their friends say only two or three wagons were taken, one to haul off the three wounded, and sufficient bedding to make their ride comfortable ; but on the other hand two of those who were in a position to know say that the Mormon hamlet was pretty thoroughly rifled. One man carried away an empty 10 gallon keg, which he carried before him on his saddle and beat as a drum. Another had a woman's bonnet, which he said was for his sweetheart. Perhaps a dozen horses were taken.

Col. Jennings did not remain at Haun's mill, in all, more than an hour, or an hour and a half. Twilight approaching, he set out on his return to his former camp, for one reason fearing a rally and return of the Mormons with a large re-enforcement, and doubtless desiring to reflect leisurely on his course of future operations.

Reaching his camp near Woolsey's, northeast of Breckinridge, Col. Jennings halted his battalion and prepared to pass the night. But a few hours later he imagined he heard cannon and a great

1 Some years after the fight Mr. Chas. R. Ross tore down the old blacksmith shop, and cut down a number of trees in the grove to the west from which direction the militia advanced to the attack. He says that the logs of the shop contained many bul- lets, as did the trees which he felled. The most of the balls found in the latter were at a distance of 30 or 40 feet from the ground, showing how far above their ene- mies' heads the Mormons uniformly fired.

HISTORY OF CALDWELL COUNTY. 149

tumult in the direction of Haun's mill, betokening the presence of a large Mormon force, and rousing up his men he broke camp, and moving rapidly eastward, never halted until he had put the West fork of Grand river between him and his imaginary pursuers !

From the records of the Mormon Church it seems that 17 men of the Mormons were either killed outright or mortally wounded. Their names, as kindly furnished for this history by Rev. F. D. Richards, assistant historian and custodian of the church records at Salt Lake, are :

Thos. McBride, Alex. Campbell, Hiram Abbott,

Levi N. Merrick,

Gco. S. Richards, John York,

Elias Benner,

Wm. Napier, John Lee,

Josiah Fuller,

Augustine Harmer, John Byers,

Benj. Lewis,

Simon Cox, Warren Smith,

Sardins Smith, aged 10, and Chas. Merrick, aged 9.

Esq. Thos. McBride was an old soldier of the Revolution. He was lying wounded and helpless, his gun by his side. A militiaman named Rogers1 came up to him and demanded it. "Take it," said McBride. Rogers picked up the weapon, and finding that it was loaded, deliberately discharged . it into the old man's breast. He then cut and hacked the old veteran's body with a rude sword, or " corn-knife," until it was frightfully mangled. Wm. Reynolds, a Livingston county man,2 killed the little boy Sardius Smith, 10 years of age. The lad had run into the blacksmith shop and crawled under the bellows for safety. Upon entering the shop the cruel militiaman discovered the cowering, trembling little fellow, and without even demanding his surrender fired upon and killed him, and afterwards boasted of the atrocious deed to Chas. R. Ross and others. He described, with fiendish glee, how the poor boy struggled in his dying agony, and justified his savage and inhuman conduet in killing a'mere child by saying, " Nits will make lice, and if he had lived he would have become a Mormon."

Charlie Merrick, another little Mormon boy, was mortally wounded by another militiaman. He too was hiding under the bellows.

1 Either a brother of a man who kept a ferry across Grand river, near Gallatin, or else the ferryman himself.

2 Joseph Young states that it was a Carroll county man named Glaze, but this is a mistake. Reynolds was undoubtedly the man.

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HISTORY OF CALDWELL COUNTY.

The Mormons wounded, according to the Mormon records, num- bered 12, as follows : -

Isaac Laney,

Win. Yokum,

Jacob Potts,

Nathan K. Knight,

Tarlton Lewis,

Chas. Jimison,

Jacob Myers,

Jacob Haun,1

John Walker,

George Myers,

Jacob Foutz,

Alma Smith, aged 7 ..

A young Mormon woman, Miss Mary Stedwell, was shot through the hand, as she was running to the woods. Doubtless this shooting was accidental.

The militia, or Jennings' men, had but three men wounded, and none killed. John Renfrow, now living in Ray county, had a thumb shot off. Allen England, a Daviess county man, was severely wounded in the thigh, and the other wounded man was named Hart.

Dies irc! What a woeful day this had been to Haun's Mill ! What a pitiful scene was there when the militia rode away upon the conclu- sion of their bloody work ! The wounded men had been given no at- tention, and the bodies of the slain were left to fester and putrify in the Indian summer temperature, warm and mellowing. The widows and orphans of the dead came timidly and warily forth from their hiding places as soon as the troops left, and as they recognized one a husband, another a father, another a son, another a brother among the bloody corpses, the wailings of grief and terror that went up were pitiful and agonizing. All that night they were alone with their dead. A return visit of Jennings' men to complete the work of " extermina- tion " had been threatened and was expected. Verily, the experience of the poor survivors of the Haun's Mill affair was terrible ; no won- der that they long remembered it.

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Author: Pease, Ora Merle Hawk, 1890- Publication date: 1886 Publisher: St. Louis, National Historical Company Number of Pages: 1260

Author: Pease, Ora Merle Hawk, 1890-
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: St. Louis, National Historical Company
Number of Pages: 1260