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Source: Church History Vol. 1 Chapter 18 Page: 498 (~1834)

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498 tempest of an immediate conflict seemed to be checked, and the Jackson mob to the number of about fifteen, with Samuel C. Owens and James Campbell at their head, started for Independence, Jackson County, to raise an army sufficient to meet me, before I could get into Clay County. Campbell swore, as he adjusted his pistols in his holsters, 'The eagles and turkey buzzards shall eat my flesh if I do not fix Joe Smith and his army so that their skins will not hold shucks, before two days are passed.'

"They went to the ferry and undertook to cross the Missouri River, after dusk, and the angel of God saw fit to sink the boat, about the middle of the river, and seven out of twelve that attempted to cross were drowned. Thus suddenly, and justly, went they to their own place by water. Campbell was among the missing. He floated down the river some four or five miles, and lodged upon a pile of driftwood, where the eagles, buzzards, ravens, crows, and wild animals ate his flesh from his bones, to fulfill his own words, and left him a horrible looking skeleton of God's vengeance; which was discovered about three weeks after, by one Mr. Purtle.

"Owens saved his life only, after floating four miles down the stream, where he lodged upon an island, 'swam off naked about daylight, borrowed a mantle to hide his shame, and slipped home rather shy of the vengeance of God.'"-Times and Seasons, vol. 6, pp. 1089-1091.

On Saturday, June 21, in accordance with agreement, a letter was written to the Jackson County Committee, as follows:-

Clay County, 21st June, 1834.

"Gentlemen:-Your propositions of Monday last have been generally made known to our people, and we are instructed to inform you that they cannot be acceded to.

"Honorable propositions to you are now making on our part, and we think we shall be enabled to deliver the same to you the early part of next week. We are happy to have it in our power to give you assurances that our brethren here, together with those who have arrived from the East, are unanimously disposed to make

(page 498)

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