| 881 to you to bring all the suits you may want brought, and attend to them jointly throughout, for the sum of two hundred and fifty dollars each, making for all four of us the sum of one thousand dollars.
This may seem to be a large sum for a fee for lawyers in this country, but the circumstances here involved make it necessary . This matter must be attended to in the first place, and then such advice, for the present, as may seem to be dictated by wisdom, and be necessary, we will give you; and in the proper time we will bring the suits. If this proposal suits, you will please execute notes, and send them to us: and if not agreed to apprise us by letter immediately, for we can be engaged on the opposite side in all probability. We prefer to bring your suits, as we have been threatened by the mob, we wish to show them we disregard their empty bravadoes.
Signed WOOD,
REESE,
DONIPHAN, & ATCHISON.
As a dernier resort, the brethren accepted the foregoing proposition, and Brothers Phelps and Partridge gave their note, of one thousand dollars, endorsed by Gilbert and Whitney. No sooner had the news spread among the mob, than they began to congregate and prepare for battle.
Friday, November 1st 1833, left Buffalo, New York, at eight o'clock A. M., and arrived at my house in Kirtland on Monday the 4th ten A. M., and found my family well according to the promise of the Lord in the revelation of Oct. 12th, for which I felt to thank my heavenly Father.
Thursday night the 31st of October gave the Saints in Zion abundant proof, that no pledge, written or verbal, was longer to be regarded; for on that night, between forty and fifty in number, many of whom were armed with guns, proceeded against a branch of the church west of Big-Blue, and unroofed, and partly demolished, ten dwelling houses; and in the midst of the shrieks and screams of women and children, whipped and beat in a savage and brutal manner, several of the men; and with their horrid threats, frightened women and children into the wilderness. Such of the men as could iescape [escape], fled for their lives; for very few of them had arms, neither were they embodied; and they were threatened with death if they made any resistance; such therefore as could not escape by flight, received a pelting by rocks, and a beating with guns, sticks, &c.
On Friday the 1st of November, women and children sallied forth from their gloomy retreat, to contemplate with heart rending anguish, the ravages of a ruthless mob, in the mangled bodies of their husbands, and in the destruction of their houses, and some of their furniture.-Houseless and unprotected by the arm of the civil law in Jackson County, the dreary month of November staring them in the face, and loudly proclaiming an inclement season, at hand; the continual threats of the mob, that they would drive out every Mormon from the county; and the inability of many to remove, because of their poverty, caused an anguish of heart indescribable.
On Friday night, the 1st of November, a party of the mob, proceeded to attack a branch of the church at the prairie, about twelve or fourteen miles from the village. Two of their numbers were sent in advance, as spies, viz. Robert Johnson, and one Harris, armed with two guns, and three pistols. They were discovered by some of the Saints, and without the least injury being done to them, said (mob) Johnson, struck Parley P. Pratt with the breech of his gun, over the head; after which they were taken and detained till morning; which it was believed, prevented a general attack of the mob that night. In the morning, they were liberated without receiving the least injury.
The same night (Friday,) another party in Independence, commenced stoning houses, breaking down doors and windows, destroying furniture, &c. This night, the brick part, attached to the dwelling house of A. S. Gilbert, was partly pulled down, and the windows of his dwelling broken in with brick-bats, and rocks; while a gentleman stranger lay sick with a fever in his house.
The same night, three doors of the store of Messrs. Gilbert and Whitney, were split open: and after midnight, the goods lay scattered in the streets, such as calicoes, handkerchiefs, shawls, cambricks, &c. An express came from the village after midnight to a party of their men, who had embodied about half a mile from the village, for the safety of their lives; stating that the mob were tearing down houses and scattering the goods of the store in the streets. The main body of the mob fled, at the approach of this company. One Richard McCarty was caught in the act of throwing rocks and brick-bats into the doors, while the goods lay strung around him in the streets and was immediately taken before Samuel Weston Esq.; and a complaint was then made to said Weston, and a warrant requested, that said McCarty might be secured; but said Weston refused to do any thing in the case at that time. Said McCarty was then liberated.
The same night, some of their houses in the village, had long poles thrust through the shutters and sash into the rooms of defenceless [defenseless] women
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