| 649 About this time occurred the death of Judge Elias Higbee, who had been quite prominent in the councils of the church, especially in his work at Washington in presenting the grievances of the saints before Congress. He was an honorable and faithful man.
A General Conference of the English mission was held at Manchester, June 4. This was said to have been the largest gathering ever witnessed in England under the supervision of the saints. There was, however, no business of especial historic importance done.
June 23, 1843, Joseph Smith was again arrested by Harmon T. Wilson, a constable of Hancock County, and turned over to Joseph H. Reynolds, of Jackson County, Missouri, who had been appointed, by Governor Thomas Reynolds of Missouri, agent to receive Joseph Smith.
Of this arrest, his trial before the Municipal Court of Nauvoo, and his final acquittal, we write more fully in a subsequent chapter.
Conferences were held in various parts of the United States, including Kirtland, Ohio, during the summer months, reports to which showed substantial progress.
The building committees of the temple and Nauvoo House purchased mills in Wisconsin Territory, at a cost of twelve thousand dollars, and an expedition, under Lyman Wight, of the Twelve, and Bishop George Miller, was sent there to manufacture lumber for these two buildings and to ship the same to Nauvoo. This expedition left Nauvoo on July 22, and arrived at its destination August 4, 1843. 10
10 Lyman Wight in his journal states: "I was busily engaged in my domestic concerns, and also making preparations to move my family to the lumber country in Wisconsin Territory, on Black River, distance from this place about five hundred miles. . . . I accordingly started on the 22d of July, with my family, and about one hundred and fifty persons besides, consisting of men, women, and children, with no other purpose in view only to procure lumber to build the temple, the Nauvoo House, and to assist in the building up the City of Nauvoo.
"The building committees of those two houses are now the proprietors of mills, and a lumbering establishment in that place. We passed up
(page 649) |
