Essentials in Church History: A History of the Church from the Birth of Joseph Smith to the Present Time (1922), with Introductory Chapters on the Antiquity of the Gospel and the "Falling Away"Smith, Joseph Fielding
History
Essentials in Church History: A History of the Church from the Birth of Joseph Smith to the Present Time (1922), with Introductory Chapters on the Antiquity of the Gospel and the "Falling Away"
Smith, Joseph Fielding
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- History
With all three members of the First Presidency in prison, the burden
of removing the Saints from Missouri was placed on the shoulders of
President Brigham Young, of the council of the apostles. A public
meeting was held at Far West, January 26, 1839, and a committee
composed of the following brethren was selected to draft resolutions
and consider means for the removal of the Saints from Missouri: Brigham
Young, Heber C. Kimball, John Taylor, Alanson Ripley, Theodore Turley,
John Smith and Don Carlos Smith. This committee went to work gathering
such means as could be obtained, and devising plans for the removal of
the poor. Later a committee on removal was appointed with the following
members: William Huntington, chairman; Charles Bird, Alanson Ripley,
Theodore Turley, Daniel Shearer, Shadrack Roundy and Jonathan H. Hale.
During the winter months the exodus began, and many of the Saints
gathered at Quincy, Illinois, where they received a kindly welcome. Due
to their extreme poverty--for they had been robbed and plundered--many
of the members of the Church were unable to get away before the spring
of 1839. April arrived, and the vicious mobocrats met in council on the
6th, and determined that all the "Mormons" should be out of Caldwell
County by the 12th of that month. All available teams were secured, and
help was solicited from the members of the Church who were already in
Illinois, and the remaining Saints at Far West began their journey from
Missouri. Thirty families were removed into Tenney's Grove, twenty-five
miles from Far West, by the 14th of April, on their way to Quincy. Most
of the committee remained at Far West until the last. President Brigham
Young was forced to leave about the middle of February, to save his
life from the angry Missourians who sought it. From the Illinois side
he directed the location of the Saints.
Thursday, April 18, 1839, Elder Heber C. Kimball notified the members
of the committee on removal to wind up their affairs at once, and be
off, for their lives were in grave danger. An armed force went to the
home of Theodore Turley to shoot him; similar action was taken against
other members of the committee, and a number of mobbers tried to kill
Heber C. Kimball in the streets of Far West. The members of the Church
had now departed; many went by way of Richmond and the Missouri River
to Quincy. The members of the committee who still remained, were given
one hour to get out of the place. Hurriedly gathering up such articles
as they could take with them, they departed. The mobbers then commenced
to loot the homes, which had not already been looted of all they
contained.
Governor Boggs and his aids had gained a great victory; the Latter-day
Saints had either been exterminated, or driven from the borders
of Missouri, according to his order. Only those remained who were
incarcerated, and the day of their deliverance was near at hand.
Fulfilment of Prophecy
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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