USA > Utah > History of Utah > Part 12
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The Kirtland "boom"-as it would now be styled-began in the summer or fall of 1836, and during the following winter and spring went rushing and roaring on toward the whirlpool of financial ruin that soon swallowed it. The all-prevailing desire to amass wealth did not confine itself to mercantile pursuits, real estate dealings, and other branches of business of a legitimate if much inflated character, but was productive of "wild-cat" schemes of every description, enterprises in every respect fraudulent, designed as traps for the unwary.
An effort was made by the Prophet, who foresaw the inevitable disaster that awaited, to stem the tide of recklessness and cor- ruption now threatening to sweep everything before it. For this purpose the Kirtland Safety Society was organized, the main object of which was to control the prevailing sentiment and direct it in legiti- mate channels. The Prophet and some of his staunchest supporters became officers and members of this association.
The career of the Kirtland Bank was very brief. Unable to col- lect its loans, victimized by counterfeiters, and robbed by some of its own officials-subordinates having charge of the funds-it soon col- lapsed. A heroic effort was made to save it. Well-to-do members of the Church beggared themselves to buy up the bank's floating paper and preserve its credit .* But in vain. In common with many other banks and business houses throughout the country,-for it was a
* Isaac Decker, a prosperous farmer, was one of these.
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year of general financial disaster,-it went down in the ruinous crash of 1837.
Another opportunity was thus given to heap censure upon the Prophet; an opportunity of which his enemies, in and out of the Church, quickly availed themselves. As a matter of fact Joseph had withdrawn from the Society some time before, not being satisfied with the way events were shaping. It mattered not. Someone had done wrong, and someone must be blamed. As usual the most promi- nent target was the one fired at. Before this, however, so intense had become the feeling against the Prophet at Kirtland, that it was almost as much as one's life was worth to defend him against his accusers. Affairs with Mormonism had reached a culminating point, where it was evident-to use the Prophet's own words-that "some- thing new must be done for the salvation of the Church."
Joseph Smith believed,-as all men must, into whose ideas the philosophy of the divine Nazarene enters,-that the spiritual must save the temporal; that life alone can redeem from death. Conse- quently, he knew that in the crisis now reached,-a stagnation of the spiritual life-blood of the Church,-a strong reactionary movement was essential to its resuscitation. Too much care for the temporal, with a corresponding neglect of the spiritual, had nearly proved the ruin of Mormonism. The supremacy of the spiritual over the tem- poral,-the basic and crowning principle of the salvation offered by Jesus Christ,-must needs be emphasized and reasserted. At this period, therefore, the Prophet planned and executed a project as a measure of rescue from the ruin which seemed impending. It was to send his Apostles across the sea and plant the standard of Mor- monism upon the shores of Europe.
Hitherto the labors of the Elders had been confined to various parts of the United States and Upper Canada. Into that province such men as Brigham and Joseph Young, Orson Pratt, Parley P. Pratt and even the Prophet himself had penetrated and made many converts. Parley P. Pratt's missions to Canada had been especially productive. Among his converts in the city of Toronto, in the
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spring or summer of 1836, was John Taylor, afterwards an Apostle, and the third President of the Church. But as yet no foreign mission had been attempted. Indeed, at that time, when the age of steamships and railways was in its infancy, and months instead of days were consumed in crossing the Atlantic, the idea of a voyage over the ocean was to ordinary minds little less awe-inspiring and miraculous than a projected flight to the moon. To send the Elders to Great Britain, however, and "open the door of salvation to that nation," was the plan conceived by the Prophet early in the summer of 1837.
The Apostle chosen to stand at the head of this important mission was Heber C. Kimball, a staunch friend of Joseph's, a man unlettered, but possessed of much native ability and mental and physical force. His companion Apostle was Orson Hyde, better educated and considerable of an orator. Orson was a native of Oxford, New Haven County, Connecticut, where he was born on the 8th of January, 1805. Another of the party was Elder Willard Richards, a cousin to Brigham Young, late of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, who had but recently joined the Church. Willard was the pioneer of the numerous and distinguished Richards family in Mormonism.
The other members of the mission were Joseph Fielding, a Canadian convert, Isaac Russell, John Goodson and John Snider. The last three were now in Canada.
Apostle Kimball and the others left Kirtland on the 13th of June. Being joined by the Canadian party in New York, they sailed from that port July 1st, on board the packet Garrick bound for Liverpool.
It is not our purpose in these pages to give a detailed account of the rise and progress of the British Mission,-the first and so far greatest foreign mission established by the Latter-day Saints,- nor of the various missions which radiated from and grew out of it. Such a work would necessarily fill volumes. Only the main incidents of that wonderfully successful missionary movement,-which was destined to bring into the Church and emigrate to America, from
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Great Britain alone, between fifty and seventy-five thousand souls,- can here be touched upon.
Landing at Liverpool on July 20th, 1837, the day that Queen Victoria ascended the throne, Apostle Kimball and his confreres tarried two days in that city, and then repaired by coach to Preston, thirty miles distant. There Joseph Fielding had a brother, the pastor of a church, who had previously been informed by letter from Joseph and other relatives in Canada, of the rise and spread of Mor- monism in America. He opened his church-Vauxhall Chapel-to the Elders, who, the day after their arrival at Preston, it being the Sabbath, preached from his pulpit the first sermons delivered by Mormon Elders on the eastern hemisphere.
Baptisms soon followed, then the usual opposition,-though of a much less violent character than had been experienced in some parts of America. The Reverend James Fielding, the first to wel- come the Elders and extend to them ministerial courtesy, was also the first to withdraw from them the hand of friendship. Learning that some of his flock had been converted by their preaching, and had applied to them for baptism, he quickly closed his pulpit against the Elders and was thenceforth their bitter opponent. Later, the Reverend Robert Aitken, a famous minister of that period, entered the lists against them. Nothing daunted, for they were inured to such treatment, the Elders betook themselves to the streets and public squares, preaching in the open air to vast crowds-tradesmen, laborers, factory hands, farmers, etc.,-that thronged from all sides to hear them. They also addressed audiences in private houses, that were opened for their accommodation. More opposition ensued, and greater success followed.
From Preston, having there gained a foothold, the missionaries, separating, passed into other counties. Richards and Goodson went to the city of Bedford, Russell and Snider to Alston, in Cumberland, while the two Apostles with Joseph Fielding remained to spread the work in Preston and introduce it into other towns and villages of Lancashire.
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Everywhere success attended them,-success nothing short of marvelous. Whole villages were converted at a sweep, and fresh friends flocked round them almost daily. The people as a rule were very poor, and the Elders, themselves penniless, preaching "without purse or scrip," and most of the time laboring arduously, suffered many privations. But there was no dearth of warm hearts and willing hands, and though the fare was often less than frugal, the shelter never so scant, the guests whom these poor people delighted to honor were ever welcome to the best and most of it.
Sunday, July 30th, 1837-the tenth day of the Elders on British soil-witnessed their first baptisms, nine in number, in the river Ribble, which runs through Preston. Sunday, April 8th, 1838, a little over eight months afterward, at a conference held there prior to the return of the Apostles to America, their total following in that land was reported at about two thousand souls. Three-fourths of these had been converted by one man,-the unlettered but magnetic Apostle, Heber C. Kimball. Twenty-six branches of the Church were represented. Thus was laid the foundation of the British Mission.
Apostles Kimball and Hyde with Elder Russell on the 20th of April sailed from Liverpool aboard the Garrick, homeward bound. Joseph Fielding was left to preside over the British Mission, with Willard Richards and William Clayton as his counselors. Clayton was an English convert. Goodson and Snider-the former being disaffected-had returned to America some months before.
On the 12th of May the returning Apostles landed at New York. There they met Orson Pratt, who, with his brother Parley, had suc- ceeded after much labor in raising up a branch of the Church in that city. Parley's celebrated work, the Voice of Warning, which was destined to convert thousands to Mormonism, had been pub- lished there the year before. Two days after landing, the Kimball party proceeded on to Kirtland, arriving there on the 22nd of May.
Returning now to the summer of 1837. While Mormonism had been prospering abroad, what had been its fortunes in America ? The tidal wave of disaffection still swept over Kirtland. The Mor-
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mon leader was denounced as "a fallen prophet " by men who had been his trusted friends and associates. A plot was formed to depose him from the Presidency and put another in his stead. Concerned in this conspiracy were several of the Apostles and some of the witnesses to the Book of Mormon. Their choice for Joseph's successor was David Whitmer, one of the Three Witnesses.
Heber C. Kimball, when appointed to his foreign mission, had asked the Prophet if Brigham Young might go with him. The answer was: "No; I want him to stay with me. I have something else for him to do."
Doubtless it was well for Joseph and for Mormonism in general that he decided to keep by him at that time the lion heart and intrepid soul of Brigham Young. Firm as a rock in his fealty to his chief, he combined sound judgment, keen perception, with courage unfaltering and sublime. Like lightning were his intuitions, his decisions between right and wrong; like thunder his denuncia- tions of what his soul conceived was error. A man for emergencies, far-sighted and inspirational ; a master spirit and natural leader of men.
Well might Joseph,-brave almost to rashness,-whose genius, though lofty and general in its scope, was pre-eminently spiritual, while Brigham's was pronouncedly practical, wish to have near him at such a time, just such a man. In that dark hour,-the darkest perhaps that Mormonism has seen,-when its very foundations seemed crumbling, when men supposed to be its pillars were weaken- ing and falling away, joining hands secretly or openly with its enemies, the man Brigham never faltered, never failed in his allegiance to his leader, never ceased defending him against his accusers, and as boldly denouncing them betimes for falsehood. selfishness and treachery. His life was imperilled by his boldness. He heeded not, but steadily held on his way, an example of valor and fidelity, a faithful friend, sans peur et sans reproche.
Among others who stood loyal to the Prophet was John Taylor, 10-VOL. 1.
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the future Apostle and President, who arrived at Kirtland from his home in Canada in the latter part of 1837. It was in Toronto, dur- ing August of that year, that Joseph Smith and John Taylor had first met. Seven years later they stood side by side in an Illinois dungeon, facing an infuriate mob, together receiving the bullets,- fatal to Joseph, well-nigh fatal to John,-which reddened with their mingled life-blood the floor of Carthage jail.
Soon after the Prophet's return from Canada, a return rendered barely possible by mobs lying in wait to attack him, a conference was held at Kirtland and steps taken to purge the disaffected element from the various councils of the Priesthood. It was Sunday, September 3rd, 1837. On that day the Church voted with uplifted hands to sustain in office the following named Elders: Joseph Smith, junior, as President of the Church; Sidney Rigdon as his first counselor; Oliver Cowdery, Joseph Smith, senior, Hyrum Smith and John Smith, as assistant counselors; Thomas B. Marsh, David W. Patten, Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde, Parley P. Pratt, Orson Pratt, William Smith and William E. McLellin as members of the council of the Apostles; John Gaylord, James Foster, Salmon Gee, Daniel S. Miles, Joseph Young, Josiah Butter- field and Levi Hancock, as Presidents of Seventies, and Newel K. Whitney as Bishop of Kirtland, with Reynolds Cahoon and Jared Carter as his counselors.
Frederick G. Williams, one of the First Presidency ; Luke S. and Lyman E. Johnson and John F. Boynton, three of the Apostles, and John Gould, one of the Presidents of Seventies, were rejected. Five members of the High Council were also objected to by the people, and new ones appointed in their stead.
Affairs of a similar nature, with other business pertaining to the settlement of the Saints in their new gathering place, now sum- moned the Prophet to Missouri. In company with Elder Rigdon and others he left Kirtland on September 27th, and reached Far West about the 1st of November. On the 7th of that month a conference was held there, at which the general and local Church authorities
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were presented, as usual, to the congregation. Frederick G. Williams, being rejected as one of the First Presidency, Hyrum Smith, the Prophet's brother, was chosen in his stead. The local presidency, David Whitmer, John Whitmer and William W. Phelps, after some consideration were retained in office, as were also the members of the High Council. Bishop Edward Partridge and his counselors, Isaac Morley and Titus Billings, were likewise sustained. It was decided, during the Prophet's stay, to enlarge the plat of Far West to two miles square. About the 10th of November he started back to Kirtland, arriving there a month later.
During his absence Warren Parrish, John F. Boynton, Joseph Coe and others had dissented from the Church, and aided and abetted by prominent Elders in Missouri, were now conspiring for its overthrow. In every way possible they sought to induce others to join them. Brigham Young's only reply was to denounce them. Wilford Woodruff, likewise approached, remained immovable. John Taylor stood staunchly by Joseph. As for Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde and Willard Richards, they had given their answer in June, when they accepted a call to cross the Atlantic and herald on Europe's shores the advent of a restored Gospel, and a latter-day Prophet in the person of Joseph Smith. The Pratt brothers, Bishop Whitney and many more threw in their lot with the Prophet, while others equally prominent forsook him.
Soon after his return from Missouri, the dissenters at Kirtland boldly came out, proclaiming themselves the Church of Christ, "the old standard," and denouncing Joseph and his followers as heretics. Then came the climax. Threatened with assassination, their lives in imminent jeopardy, the Church leaders were finally compelled to flee. Brigham Young, to escape the fury of a mob which had sworn to kill him, left Kirtland on the 22nd of December. He directed his course toward Missouri. Less than three weeks later the Prophet and Elder Rigdon fled also. Their flight being discov- ered, they were pursued by armed men a distance of two hundred miles, narrowly escaping capture. The Prophet and his party,
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including Brigham Young and others who had joined him, reached Far West about the middle of March, 1838.
Several weeks before, a general assembly of the Saints had con- vened there for the purpose of setting in order the Church in Mis- souri. David Whitmer, John Whitmer and William W. Phelps, the local presidency, whose conduct for some time had not been satisfac- tory to the people, were now suspended from office. Subsequently they were severed from the Church. William W. Phelps soon returned, but the Whitmer brothers were never again connected with the cause.
The Prophet having arrived, the work of "setting in order" con- tinued. Evidently a clean sweep had been determined on. The Church, so nearly brought to ruin by apostates in Ohio, insomuch that a general exodus of the Saints from that state was now neces- sary, could no longer afford to harbor within its fold the disaffected element, indifferent to or bent upon its destruction. The tree, in order to live, must be pruned of its dead branches.
Doubtless this end was in view when, at the April conference of 1838, Thomas B. Marsh, Brigham Young and David W. Patten were chosen to preside over the Church in Missouri. Under their admin- istration the work of pruning went vigorously on. Neither high nor low were spared, except they speedily brought forth "fruits of repent- ance." The excommunicating axe even lopped some of the loftiest limbs. Oliver Cowdery. David Whitmer, Martin Harris, Luke S. and Lyman E. Johnson, John F. Boynton and William E. MeLellin were all deprived of membership in the Church during this period. Luke Johnson afterwards returned, and became one of the Utah pioneers of 1847. Oliver Cowdery and Martin Harris also rejoined the Church many years later. but the others were never again identified with Mormonism. The vacancies in the council of the Twelve caused by the excommunication of Elders Boynton, McLellin and the Johnson brothers, were filled by the calling of John Taylor, John E. Page, Wilford Woodruff and Willard Richards to the Apostleship.
The departure of the Church leaders from Kirtland had been the signal for a general migration of the Mormons from Ohio to
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Missouri. Far West was now their gathering place,-not their Zion, but only a stake of Zion, as Kirtland had been before. All during the spring and summer of 1838 the exodus continued, until the Saints remaining at Kirtland were very few. Apostles Kimball and Hyde, arriving there from Europe in May, tarried only long enough to arrange their affairs and make suitable preparations for their jour- ney to Missouri. About the 1st of July the two Apostles, accompan- ied by Erastus Snow, Winslow Farr and others, with their families, set out for Far West. Among those remaining at Kirtland were Bishop N. K. Whitney and Oliver Granger, who had charge of the Church property in Ohio.
At Far West, on the 8th of July, the law of tithing was insti- tuted as a standing law of the Church. Hitherto it had been prac- ticed only by individuals. Its observance was now obligatory upon all, officers as well as members.
This event signalized the discontinuance of the United Order, which had practically been dissolved some time before. According to that system, which, as has been shown, the Saints yet hope to estab- lish, the members of the community consecrated their all, and each, being given a stewardship, with his or her support, labored unitedly for the common weal. The law of tithing, which bears about the same relation to the Order of Enoch as the Mosaic law to the gospel of Christ, required of them as individual possessors, (1) all their sur- plus property, to be placed in the hands of the Bishop and by him cared and accounted for; (2) one tenth of all their interest annually.
The fund thus created was for the support of the Priesthood,- such as devoted their whole time to the service of the Church,-the building of temples and for public purposes in general. From the first, however, much of the tithing fund, together with special offer- ings for that purpose, was expended to support the helpless poor. Such was and is the law of tithing, instituted in July, 1838, and observed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to this day.
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CHAPTER X. 1838-1839.
THE MORMONS IN MISSOURI-FAR WEST, DIAHMAN AND DEWITT-A SLUMBERING VOLCANO- CELEBRATING THE NATION'S BIRTHDAY-THE STATE ELECTION-ATTEMPT TO PREVENT MORMONS FROM VOTING-THE GALLATIN RIOT-THE VOLCANO AWAKES-DAVIESS COUNTY IN ARMS-JOSEPH SMITH AND LYMAN WIGHT ARRESTED-THE MOB ARMV THREATENS DIAHMAN-THE MORMONS ARM IN SELF-DEFENSE-GENERALS ATCHISON. PARKS AND DONI- PHAN-THE SAINTS EXONERATED-SIEGE AND BOMBARDMENT OF DEWITT-GOVERNOR BOGGS APPEALED TO-HE DECLINES TO INTERFERE-DEWITT EVACUATED AND DIAHMAX AGAIN THREATENED-GILLIAM'S GUERILLAS-THE MORMON MILITIA MAKE WAR UPON THE MOB- THE DANITES-BATTLE OF CROOKED RIVER-DEATH OF DAVID W. PATTEN-GOVERNOR BOGGS ESPOUSES THE CAUSE OF THE MOBOCRATS-THE MORMONS TO BE "EXTERMINATED OR DRIVEN FROM THE STATE" -THE HAUN'S MILL MASSACRE-FALL OF FAR WEST-THE MORMON LEADERS IN CHAINS-LIBERTY JAIL-THE EXODUS TO ILLINOIS.
HE Mormons in Missouri in the summer of 1838 numbered in the neighborhood of twelve thousand souls. All were not located in Caldwell County. Lands had been purchased or pre-empted by them in other places as well. In two of the counties contiguous to Caldwell, namely : Daviess on the north, and Carroll on the east, in parts previously unoccupied or but thinly peopled, they had founded flourishing settlements. In Daviess County, as in Caldwell, a stake of Zion was organized.
Their chief settlement in Daviess County was Adam-ondi-Ahman,* -abbreviated to Diahman; the one in Carroll County, Dewitt. Good order, sobriety and industry prevailed, and peace and prosperity were everywhere manifest. "Heaven smiles upon the Saints in Caldwell," wrote the Prophet at the time, and even in parts where they were
* So named, said the Prophet, because Adam, who dwelt there after being driven from Eden, would there sit, as Ancient of Days, fulfilling the vision of Daniel. The Garden of Eden, Joseph Smith declared, was in Jackson County, Missouri.
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not, as there, politically dominant, they were thriving and dwelling in amity with their neighbors.
But all this must soon change. The old fires were but smoul- dering. The volcano only slept. Beneath the fair frail crust of out- side seeming lurked the burning lava streams,-the pitiless torrent of human hate,-about to be belched forth in whelming ruin upon the hapless Saints. Missouri, in spite of every promise and fair pros- pect,-whatever the far future might develop,-was not yet to be their permanent abiding place. Inexorable fate with iron finger pointed elsewhere. Destiny, for these sons and daughters of the Pilgrims, had other fortunes in store. History,-the history of religion in quest of liberty, wading in its search through rivers of blood and tears,-for the hundredth time was preparing to repeat itself.
July 4th, that day of days, in the year 1838 was celebrated at Far West with great rejoicings. Thousands of the Saints assembled from the surrounding districts to witness and participate in the pro- ceedings in honor of the nation's birthday. Yes, these "disloyal" Mormons,-for disloyal even then they were deemed,-many of whom might trace their life-stream back to its parent lake in the bosom of patriots of the Revolution, came together, erected a liberty- pole, unfurled the stars and stripes, sacred emblem of the success and sufferings of their heroic ancestors, and worshiped gratefully beneath its glorious folds the God of truth and freedom.
True, it was but their custom so to do, as it has continued their custom ever since. But such had been their past experience, deprived as many of them had been of that liberty for which their forefathers contended, and such was their present situation, as to render the occasion one of peculiar interest. Robbed of their rights, despoiled and trampled on, for daring to believe as conscience dictated, and exercise as American freemen the privileges guaran- teed by a Constitution which they believed to be God-inspired, instituted for their especial protection, small wonder that some of the sentiments uttered that day, a day on which patriotism is prone to
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take unusual and oft-times extravagant flights, did not smack entirely of saintly meekness.
"We take God to witness," cried Sidney Rigdon, in a burst of heated eloquence, "and the holy angels to witness THIS DAY, that we warn all men in the name of Jesus Christ to come on us no more for- ever. The man or the set of men who attempt it do it at the expense of their lives; and the mob that comes on us to disturb us, there shall be between us and them a war of extermination, for we will follow them till the last drop of their blood is spilled, or else they will have to exterminate us."
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