The Story of the Mormons, from the Date of Their Origin to the Year 1901Linn, William Alexander
History
The Story of the Mormons, from the Date of Their Origin to the Year 1901
Linn, William Alexander
Latter Day Saints -- History; Utah -- History
This evident repudiation by the Mormons of their part of their agreement
with the committee incensed the Jackson County people, and hostilities
were resumed. On the night of October 31, a mob attacked a Mormon
settlement called Big Blue, some ten miles west of Independence, damaged
a number of houses, whipped some of the men, and frightened women
and children so badly that they fled to the outlying country for
hiding-places. On the night of November 1, Mormon houses were stoned
in Independence, and the church store was broken into and its goods
scattered in the street. The Mormons thereupon showed the governor's
letter to a justice of the peace, and asked him for a warrant, but their
accounts say that he refused one. When they took before the same officer
a man whom they caught in the act of destroying their property, the
justice not only refused to hold him, but granted a warrant in his
behalf against Gilbert, Corrill, and two other Mormons for false
imprisonment, and they were locked up.* Thrown on their own resources
for defence, the Mormons now armed themselves as well as they could, and
established a night picket service throughout their part of the county.
On Saturday night, November 2, a second attack was made by the mob on
Big Blue and, the Mormons resisting, the first "battle" of this campaign
took place. A sick woman received a pistolshot wound in the head, and
one of the Mormons a wound in the thigh. Parley P. Pratt and others were
then sent to Lexington to procure a warrant from Circuit Judge Ryland,
but, according to Pratt, he refused to grant one, and "advised us to
fight and kill the outlaws whenever they came upon us."**
* Corrill's letter, Evening and Morning Star, January, 1834.
** Pratt's "Autobiography," p. 105.
On Monday evening, November 4, a body of Missourians who had been
visiting some of the Mormon settlements came in contact with a company
of Mormons who had assembled for defence, and an exchange of shots
ensued, by which a number on both sides were wounded, one of the Mormons
dying the next day.
These conflicts increased the excitement, and the Mormons, knowing how
they were outnumbered, now realized that they could not stay in Jackson
County any longer, and they arranged to move. At first they decided to
make their new settlement only fifty miles south of Independence, in Van
Buren County, but to this the Jackson County people would not consent.
They therefore agreed to move north into Clay County, between which and
Jackson County the Missouri River, which there runs east, formed
the boundary. Most of them went to Clay County, but others scattered
throughout the other nearby counties, whose inhabitants soon let them
know that their presence was not agreeable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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