By this uniting, immediate conflict seemed to be averted, and the Jackson County committee returned home by way of the ferry, where is now the Wayne City landing. The boat was taken over to them and ten or twelve men and as many horses went aboard the boat. When about the middle of the Missouri the boat filled with water and sank; men, horses and all went down together. George Bradbury, David Lynch and James Campbell were drowned. S. V. Nolan could not swim, but catching hold of his horse's tail was hauled safely to the Jackson County shore. Samuel C. Owens and Thomas Harrington clung to the wreck of the boat and floated down a mile, and when the boat reached a sandbar Mr. Owens divested himself of all his clothes except his shirt, left the wreck and swam safely to the shore. He found a cow path which he followed to the main road. While traveling the path he found himself terribly annoyed by the sting of the nettle, but he walked to Independence, a distance of some four miles. Mr. Harrington hung to the boat and was drowned. William Everett swam to the Jackson shore and was washed against a drift and was found there ten days afterwards, one hand fast hold of a projecting snag. The other men swam back to the Clay County shore, where they all made it safe except Small-wood Nolan, who clung to a "sawyer" only a short distance from the shore. The men who made the shore built a fire and encouraged Nolan to "cling on" till they could rescue him. He did cling on with the grip of death. When daylight came and the men went in to take him off his scanty support, they found that the water was only waist deep and he could have waded to the shore with ease if he had known it. It was rumored that the "Mormons" had secretly bored holes in the boat above the customary water mark, but when loaded would sink to the holes and then fill with water. But the most reasonable idea was that the boat did not generally carry such heavy loads, hence the timbers had become dry and the corking loose, and when the water pressed against it gave way and the boat filled. Joseph Smith and his party passed through Richmond, Clay County, June 19th, and encamped between two branches of Fishing River, not far from their junction. Here they were met by five armed men, who informed them that sixty men from Ray and seventy from Clay counties were to meet others from different places and prevent their further progress. They also learned that two hundred from Jackson County were to cross the Missouri River at Williams' Ferry, there to meet the forces from Ray and Clay Counties, at Fishing River ford, and thence to attack and disperse or destroy them. Their designs, if entertained, were prevented, for on the night following a severe storm of wind and rain occurred, which raised the streams, flooded the country and prevented any hostile movements being made by either party.