RLDS Church History Context

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Source: Church History Vol. 1 Chapter 12 Page: 334 (~1833)

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334 burned, and my apple trees, rails, and improvements destroyed or plundered. In short, every member of the society was driven from the county, and fields of corn were plundered and destroyed. Stacks of wheat were burned, household goods plundered, and improvements and every kind of property lost; and at length no less than TWO HUNDRED AND THREE HOUSES BURNED, according to the estimate of their own people in Jackson.

"The saints who fled took refuge in the neighboring counties-mostly in Clay County, which received them with some degree of kindness. Those who fled to the county of Van Buren were again driven, and compelled to flee; and those who fled to Lafayette County were soon expelled, or the most part of them, and had to move wherever they could find protection.

"When the news of these outrages reached the Governor of the State, courts of inquiry, both civil and military, were ordered by him; but nothing effectual was ever done to restore our rights, or to protect us in the least. It is true the Attorney General, with a military escort and our witnesses, went to Jackson County and demanded indictments, but the court and jurors refused to do anything in the case, and the military and witnesses were mobbed out of the county, and thus that matter ended. The Governor also ordered them to restore our arms which they had taken from us, but they never were restored; and even our lands in that county were robbed of their timber, and either occupied by our enemies for years, or left desolate."

Lyman Wight, one of the men especially mentioned in the agreement, who was to leave by January 1, records the following in his private journal:-

"The mob continued to commit depredations and outrages upon us until the 13th of November, 1833, such as tearing down a printing office, destroying books, unroofing houses, and thrusting rails into the windows, and whipping many of our friends in a horrible manner, and shooting others; on which day they finished the work of driving every Mormon, numbering about twelve hundred persons, from the country. Our crops became free booty to their horses, hogs, and

(page 334)

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