RLDS Church History Search

Chapter Context

RLDS History Context Results

Source: Church History Vol. 2 Chapter 13 Page: 224 (~1838)

Read Previous Page / Next Page

224 CHAPTER 13.

1838.

IN this chapter we record one of the most cruel deeds of blood known to the history of the age. We would gladly draw the curtain and say nothing regarding this horrible affair, but we have no right to cover up or conceal the facts of history. Nor can we resist the conclusion that this butchery was the direct and legitimate result of the exterminating order of the chief executive of the State of Missouri. By this were these desperate, cruel, and bloodthirsty men impelled to this deed that causes humanity to blush. The horrible consequences of this awful deed must by the faithful historian be laid at the door of Governor Lilburn W. Boggs.

We might compile an account of this from church records, but we prefer to present it to our readers from the pens of men who were not connected with it, and who dispassionately viewed the matter after years had dispelled the intense feeling of the time.

The following is the account as written by Burr Joyce, and published in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat for October 6,1887, and reproduced in the Saints' Herald for October 22,1887:-

"THE HAUN'S MILL MASSACRE.

"AN INCIDENT OF THE 'MORMON WAR' IN MISSOURI

"Special Correspondence of the Globe-Democrat.

"Breckenridge, Missouri, September 27, 1887.

"In the afternoon of Tuesday, October 30, 1838, during the Mormon war in Missouri, there occurred in Caldwell

(page 224)

Read Previous Page / Next Page