| 36 the men were mostly gone from home that day; making arrangements for getting away. The mob that day stripped some of the saints of their arms, even to penknives; some they whipped; they shot at some and others they hunted after; as they said to kill them.
Mobs. well lined with whiskey, as these were, looking and acting worse than savages, were well calculated to frighten women and children; which they effectually did in some cases.-One settlement were so frightened, that a party of from 130 to 150, women and children, with only six men to protect them, not waiting the return of their husbands and fathers, left their homes forthwith on foot, without taking any of their things, and wandered off south, upon the prairie a number of days under the broad canopy of heaven, not knowing which way the church was intending to go. The stubs of the newly burnt grass, and weeds, were so hard that they cut the feet of the children, who had no shoes, so that many of them became very sore, and bled profusely. Other companies fled towards the Missouri river; and in a short time the most of the church, were under way for Clay county; some few went east, and others south. After some of the head men had left, and the saints were generally getting under way, the mob in a measure ceased to harrass [harass] them. The people of Clay county received the saints, with as much hospitality as could be expected. The loses and sacrifices of the saints, were very great in the destruction of crops, furniture, clothing, &c. and also in the loss of stock. Grain and many other things, would hardly bear transportation across the river; consequently much was left behind, that otherwise might have been got away.
After it was thought that the mob spirit had died away, some few families moved back from Van Buren county to their former homes in Jackson; where what they had for the sustainance [sustenance] of themselves, and their stock was.
They had not long been back, before a mob party visited them in the night; and took some of the men and beat them with chairs and clubs till life was nearly extinct, and then left them for dead; one by the name of Leonard, was a long time recovering; indeed he has never fully recovered from that beating.
There were four aged families in Jackson, who had not left their homes, whose age, infirmities and penury seemed to say, you may tarry until the spring opens; but neither age nor infirmities, would protect a saint in Jackson county. These veterans, the youngest of the four being 94 years of age, were assailed by a mob party, who broke in their doors and windows, hurling large stones into their houses, whereby, some of their lives were greatly endangered; and thus they were driven from their homes, in the winter season. Some of these men have toiled and bled, in the defence [defense] of their country; one of them (Mr. Jones,) served as life guard to General Washington in the revolutionary war.
COMMUNICATIONS.
Messrs, Editors, of the Times and Seasons, For the benefit of the church, and the public in general, please give the following an insertion in your valuable periodical.
In consequence of being deeply involved with others of my brethren, in establishing and locating a place for the saints, I have not availed myself of the opportunity of laying before the public, the principal cause of the calamities which bursted upon the saints in Far West. I shall not attempt at this time to give a history of the sufferings of the saints for it would require a volume. But as the inquiry is often made, and the cause of the imprisonment of the leaders of the church frequently called for; it becomes my duty as a member of the church, to state to the public, that not only traitorism, but treachery, cowardice, and perjury, G. M. Hinkle and other apostates together with a predetermined resolution of the mob, and land pirates of the upper Missouri, are the leading items, and most prominent features of all the calamities which bursted upon the saints in Far West, and also the cause of the imprisonment of the leaders of the church.
In the first place, I will endeavor to exhibit to the understanding of the
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