A Mystery Of The Desert

A MYSTERY OF THE DESERT.

In the early settlement of Iron County, President Brigham Young requested that a party of men be sent from Parowan in search of manganese ore, having been informed that a deposit of it was to be found in Southern Utah. Accordingly, a party of fifteen men, led by David Lewis, a brother of that old veteran Tarleton Lewis, left Parowan, taking with them pack horses to carry the ore, should they be so fortunate as to find the mine from the vague description of its locality given by the Indians.

The outfit of this company of prospectors was very simple; each man carried a gun, a lariat and a canteen, and a single blanket and a sack of crackers, tied on the saddle behind him. After several days' travel in a southerly direction into those vast and dreary deserts, the party one day made a singular discovery. In a level, sandy plain they saw at a distance what seemed a cemetery, with numerous gravestones or monuments; but their surprise at so unexpected a sight was much increased upon a nearer approach, which revealed something entirely different. They saw three circles, one within the other, composed of numerous blocks of cut stone about a foot square, and about two and a half feet long, cut with mathematical accuracy, and which had been originally placed about a foot in the ground and at a uniform distance apart. These three circles were exact in figure, were several yards from each other, and the stones composing them were placed with their flat surfaces facing the centre. In the centre of all stood a small stone cairn, circular in its base, a perfect cone, and about four feet high. The blocks forming the circles, and the stones forming the cone, had been brought a considerable distance, as no rock in place was to be seen anywhere in the vicinity. For a while a silent wonder filled the minds of the lookers on, and many were the surmises as to when this work was done, by whom, and for what purpose; but to all, one thing seemed plain: it must have been made to perpetuate some important event, or the place of deposit of something of great value.

Deciding to investigate, they carefully removed the stones comprising the cairn, and about a foot beneath the surface found the top of a stone box. As this box was almost an exact counterpart to that in which the plates of the Book of Mormon were found by the Prophet Joseph Smith, it merits a particular description. A stone about two feet square and six inches thick formed the bottom; four flat stones standing upon edge formed the sides; and a stone, similar in size and shape to that forming the bottom, was placed upon the top as a cover or lid. All these stones were skillfully cut and finished, with sides, faces and angles, geometrically exact, and, as cut together, each point of junction or seam was perfectly tight. The lid was carefully raised, but no treasure met their expectant eyes—the box was entirely empty. But the under surface of the capstone was a surprise. It was covered with hieroglyphics beautifully cut, which, could they have been interpreted, would doubtless have given the key of explanation to this mystery of the desert. The box had evidently been made to contain something of great value which had been subsequently removed; and as it so closely resembled that from which Joseph Smith took the plates near the summit of Cumorah, may at one time have held a similar treasure, which Mormon may have removed for safety when his people were driven northward by their swarming foes. The only difference between the boxes, it will be noted, was this: that while that upon Cumorah had a lid whose upper surface was in its rough, natural state, this in the desert had been made flat, and its under side was beautifully engraved, which was not the case with that upon Cumorah, so far as the writer understands.

As these rough mountaineers stood silently around this relic of the dim, mysterious past, the pervading spirit of the place filled their souls with a solemn awe. They felt that they stood upon ground that was hallowed indeed, and that they looked upon a receptacle that had once contained something, perchance, of infinite worth, something holy; placed there, and again removed by one of the ancient saints—perhaps by the hand of the great prophet Mormon himself, or by that of his son Moroni.

After some consideration, it was decided to take the lid with them to President Young, and it was loaded upon one of the horses for that purpose; but it was found too heavy and difficult to be transported so great a distance in that manner, and it was determined to leave it. Brother Lewis made as exact a copy of the hieroglyphics as he could with his limited means, upon a sheet of paper, and then the stone was carefully replaced, the stones piled over it as before, and the company departed, feeling that here was evidence strongly confirming the story of Cumorah, as told by the great prophet of the last days. It may be here mentioned that of the squared blocks composing the surrounding circles, some still stood upright, some were leaning, and many had fallen where they had stood.

After an absence of eighteen days, the party returned to Parowan with several hundred pounds of the manganese, which, with the copy of the engraving made by Brother Lewis, was taken to President Young. The writer examined the copied hieroglyphics which, as well as he can remember at this date, resembled very much some of those found in Palengue and Copan, in Yucatan, by Stevens and Catherwood, many years ago.

In regard to the removal of the former contents of the box, the student of the Book of Mormon will remember the charge of the venerable prophet of the Nephites to Mormon when the latter was a youth; that when a certain time should come he should go to the hill called Shim, and remove thence certain holy records there deposited; and how, some years later, when the Nephites were no longer able to retain possession of their country, and were about to retreat northward before the victorious Lamanites, Mormon went to the hill Shim, as he had been directed by the prophet, took up the records and carried them away in his retreat.

It is not probable that the Nephites made a steady and continuous retreat before their foes. No doubt they at times beat back their enemy, and gained a temporary advantage and respite for one or more years, enabling them to raise a little sustenance for their overmatched and half famished host. Indeed the traditions of the Pah Utes, of Utah, as related to the writer many years ago, freely corroborate this idea. Such a temporary halt, illusive to the hopes of the Nephites, would have given abundant opportunity for the making of such a box for the bestowal of their records, which, when again obliged to flee, they would of course remove and take with them. Who can say to the contrary? Could these silent stones of the desert speak, how eloquent might be their tongues, and how intensely interesting the story they could reveal. But for generations have they stood as to-day they stand, silent, mysterious and unspeakable.

An incident which occurred in the early history of Iron County, may be appropriately mentioned in this connection. Walker, the great Utah chief, halted a few days at Parowan while traveling northward, returning from one of his customary raids in the Colorado River country, undertaken for the purpose of procuring captive Indian children to be sold by him to any who would purchase. He obtained these child prisoners by suddenly attacking a village of some of the river tribes, killing men and women, and saving alive such children as would be marketable. The writer met him one day in Parowan, and as I was personally known to him, he stopped me, united a little sack or pouch at his bosom, and took from it two pieces of metal, one of which was nearly twice as large as the other. He held them in his hand for my inspection. In appearance they closely resembled bronze or copper, but were evidently discolored by age. From their weight there might have been a portion of gold in their composition, and I wished to scrape the surface with my knife so as to expose the true color of the metal, but this the chief would not permit, seeming to hold them in reverence. Each of them had hieroglyphics beautifully cut or stamped upon their surface. Walker asked if they were money, adding that he knew where he could get more, if they were of any value. All endeavor to learn from him the exact locality where he had found them was ineffectual, except to learn that it was near the Colorado River, and as the writer understood from him, in a cave.

The writer fully believed then, and does still, that these were veritable specimens of ancient Nephite coin, their evident age as well as their inscriptions clearly pointing to a remote past Indisputably they were made by none of the present inhabitants of America; and as the Lamanites were so inferior to the Nephites in all the arts and sciences, including metallurgy, there is nothing at all improbable in the idea that some Nephite had once possessed them as part of his earthly treasure. If, as Walker intimated, he had found them in some cave, it is easily to be believed they were taken there by some hunted Nephite who hoped in its dark recesses to escape the bloody hand of a merciless foe, but who never left the cavern alive.

We have the promise that in a coming day the secrets of the past, now so shrouded in the veil of silence and gloom, will be revealed, until then we must wait.

Santiago.

(Contributor, vol. 11 (November 1889-October 1890), Vol. Xi. July, 1890. No. 9. 342.)

The Southern Indian Mission

The SOUTHERN INDIAN Mission

By JUANITA BROOKS

TYPICAL PIUTE HOME OF SOUTHERN UTAH

IN 1854, Great Salt Lake City was, as it had been since its founding and was to remain for many years, the most important center west of the Mississippi River. Less than seven years old at this time, it boasted a population of some 20,000 people, a boast no doubt slightly exaggerated. Yet the progress that had been made in those short seven years was little short of phenomenal. Where had been only desert gray, except for the streak of green made by the willows on the banks of City Creek, was now a thriving city, laid out with uniform square blocks and wide streets, and covering an area of twelve square miles. Though the homes of newcomers might consist of a dugout and a wagon box bedroom, or a small adobe house, there were many large, two-story homes with glass at the windows and picket fences in front. Streams of irrigation water ran at the edge of the sidewalks; the young trees which fringed them had grown thriftily.

The temple block was enclosed with a high rock wall, finished nearly two years before, within which were the Hall of Science and a new adobe tabernacle capable of seating between two and three thousand people, to take the place of the willow bowery. Across the street where the Hotel Utah now stands was the tithing office, and adjoining it the long, low building which housed The Deseret News, while across the street to the south the Council House raised its two stories and stood four-square to all the world. One block east, on State Street, the new Social Hall had been completed, the home of the town's best entertainment. Here theatricals were presented, all firearms were checked at the door, produce was accepted for tickets, and the price of a child in arms was listed as ten dollars. Four years earlier the University of Deseret had been founded, with $ 5,000 appropriated annually for its maintenance, and an elaborate course of study outlined.

Perhaps the most striking change had come about along Main Street, for the pole fences of a few years before had been torn down and stores and shops elbowed each other for room, competing loudly with fancy signs, and fitted out with many hitching posts in front and planks along the sidewalks to accommodate the customers.

ON Friday morning, April 14, 1854, six wagons gathered at the home of Parley P. Pratt in Salt Lake City, preparatory to leaving for the Southern Indian Mission. The missionaries had been called at conference the October before and had been given the winter in which to prepare for the mission. Some of them studied Spanish that they might be better interpreters with the traders of the South; all of them tried to arrange their family and business affairs for a long absence. On the Monday preceding, most of them had met and been set apart for this mission. They had also effected an organization with Rufus C. Allen as captain, and David Lewis and Samuel F. Atwood as first and second lieutenants, respectively. Though they had agreed upon this as the time and place for starting, all were not present, but as some lived in the settlements to the south, it was thought best to proceed and pick them up on the way.

The recorder, Thomas D. Brown, wrote that the counsel given was: "In the absence of Capt. Allen that we start under the first lieutenant, behave ourselves as missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, keep a regular and vigilant guard, take care of our teams and other property, and procure our potato seed in the southern settlements and that he—P. P. Pratt—would follow us, and might overtake us, and give us further instructions, setting apart those who had not been with us on the 10th inst."

Garland Hurt, Indian agent for Utah, had written of this group, "They embrace a class of rude and lawless young men, such as might be regarded as a curse to any civilized community." Since from his correspondence it is clear that Agent Hurt found it hard to see anything good in any Mormon, the above comment is not to be wondered at. Certainly the group was composed largely of very young men; certainly they would not fit into his idea of the conventional missionary. But for the work to which they were called, they were well fitted. They were learned in the ways of the frontier; they were resourceful; they had an abiding faith in God and their leaders, and in the value of the work they were sent to do.

THE company pulled out of Salt Lake City in regular order. At Lehi they were joined by two missionaries; at Pleasant Grove by two more, and at Provo Captain Allen and Isaac Riddle came up with them, making the group complete. They now numbered twenty one men, with one boy of fourteen (Preston King) and one of six who were accompanying their fathers. The historian listed all the men, giving their ages, rank in the priesthood, and the quorum to which they belonged. They were, in the order in which he lists them: T. D. Brown, 46; Ira Hatch, 18; Rufus C. Allen, 26; Isaac Riddle, 24; Wm. Henefer, 30; Augustus P. Hardy, 23; Samuel F. Atwood, 29; Robert M. Dickson, 46; Hyrum Burgess, 17; Benjamin Knell, 19; David Lewis, 40; Lorenzo Roundy, 34; Jacob Hamblin, 35; Elnathan Eldridge, 42; Robert Ritchie, 47; Samuel Knights, 21; Thales H. Haskell, 20; Amos G. Thornton, 21; Richard Robison, 23; John Lott, 28; and John Murdock, 27. They included one priest, six elders, twelve seventies, and two high priests.

Their course was to lead them south and west to the very edge of the Mormon settlements. As they pulled out of Provo, they knew that they were facing the frontier and leaving behind them the last town of any size, for Provo was at that time the second largest city in the state. It boasted a flour mill and two hotels, one having eight rooms and the other being forty feet long and two stories high. Here, too, were several select schools, one where French and German were taught, a night school for adults, an historical society, and a singing school. Young men facing at least two years among the Indians could not but reflect upon the advantages of society in the north.

The historian, Thomas D. Brown, kept a careful record of all the doings of the journey, and it is through his eyes that we see most of the details. His journal, written in black ink in a strong Spencerian hand with hair-fine lines up and heavy shadings down, especially on the titles, is a volume of two hundred forty-three pages, and shows his keen power of observation and his independence of thought. His Latin phrases and his quotations from Shakespeare and other English authors mark him as a man with some educational background. He gives details of each day's travel, discussing the roads, the feed and the weather, as well as the towns they passed on the way. He had listed their outfits as:

10 wagons, 23 horses and mules, 6 cattle, 7 cows, 4,420 pounds of flour, 20 wheat, 10 corn, 18 axes, 1 saw, 20 guns, 3 pistols, 2 swords, 5 ploughs, with full ammunition and many "fixings."

They passed through Springville, and paused at Spanish Fork, where the bishop gave them some pork, then progressed to Payson or Petetneti. At Nephi they stopped to have some wheat ground. At Fillmore, Porter Rockwell and other Indian interpreters passed the company on the way to Chief Walker's camp. Under date of April 25, T. D. Brown wrote:

A fine morning after leaving camp up to Corn Creek, very wet and heavy driving. About 20 Indians of Walker's band came and surrounded our wagons and finally crossed the road and stood ahead of them. After many strange gestures and much loud speaking by the eldest of them, a blanket was thrown down. We all understood this to be a demand for toll for passing over their land; we all contributed some bread and flour and tobacco. They sat down and seemed to enjoy the bread. We passed on and soon some more came down the creek; they, too, had to be satisfied.

The next day they passed a small train of goods and droves of horses owned by a Mr. Watters, a mountain trader, and the historian commented on the fact that they had sugar for sale at 75c a pound and tea for $ 2.00. Chief Walker was traveling with the train, and had given Watters an Indian boy in exchange for a horse and about three hundred dollars worth of goods. Porter Rockwell and his group were also returning with this company, trying to persuade Walker to go in to Salt Lake for an interview with President Young. "The Hawk of the Mountains," as Chief Walker called himself, was by far the most powerful chief of the southern part of the state, and felt his own importance, so the Mormons courted his friendship. It might be that the meeting with the train was responsible for this comment:

I shall here mention that this company have attended to prayers morning and evening all the way, to keeping good guards out by night, and have been united, and kept their powder dry.

AT Parowan the missionaries stayed over Saturday and Sunday. This town, often spoken of as "Little Salt Lake" was now only three years old, but if one were to judge by the reports that were sent to The Deseret News, it had made substantial improvements. Some adobe homes had been built, a tabernacle was being completed. Their waterwheel was used to grind flour by night and to run a sawmill by day. A new threshing machine had been freighted across the desert from California, while E. E. Elmer's cabinet shop, C. C. Pendleton's machine shop, and William H. Dame's tannery represented the sum of local industry, aside from farming. Many homes had spinning wheels and a few had looms, and the sound of industry could be heard when one walked about the town. At the conference held there on the September 11, preceding, there had been reported 455 people in the settlement at Parowan, and of the town T. D. Brown comments:

In Parowan I have witnessed the most peace, union, order, good feeling, cleanliness, &c., I have anywhere on the road.

Certainly the Saints of this little town were most liberal in their donations to the missionaries, giving butter, eggs, corn, wheat, potatoes, and fresh vegetables, all of which were carefully listed by the historian.

Beyond Parowan, a day's travel, was Cedar City, the center of the coal and iron industry, where the "Deseret Iron Company" was then working to produce iron. At this town was gathered one of the most heterogeneous groups of the state, for the 795 people reported at their conference the fall before, there were many from England, Wales, Scotland, and the coal mining districts of Pennsylvania. So confident were they that it would be only a matter of months before they would be producing large quantities of pig iron, that some of the Saints had taken the tires from their wagons to be melted down and used to build the machinery. Now they were without the use of their wagons, and were beginning to realize that they must not depend entirely upon the mines for a living, but must produce their own food.

THE missionaries did not stop here long, but went on to their destination, Harmony, the last settlement toward the south, where they arrived on May 2. Their first business was to assure themselves food for the next season, so they selected a site, surveyed it, and divided it into two-acre plots, one for each missionary. These were assigned by drawing lots, each plot being numbered and corresponding numbers being placed in a hat.

The group set to work clearing the land and digging a ditch. After two weeks of work, the historian reported that they had cleared sixty-four acres and, with the help of fifteen friendly Indians, had begun to work on a canal "eight miles long, six feet wide, and three feet deep." Such entries as the following give some idea of what this labor meant, especially to a man unaccustomed to it.

Many engaged this day ploughing and sowing. I and Ira Hatch engaged grubbing land for our wheat, much grease wood upon it. I wrought with my axe until my hands were blistered, broke and bled....

On May 17 a horseman came to tell them that President Young was on his way to visit them, and asked them to gather with the people at Harmony. That meant a buzz of preparation, baths to be taken, beards trimmed, clothes washed and mended. Fort Harmony had only fifteen men old enough to bear arms, besides the twenty-one missionaries, while the president's party consisted of "82 men, 14 women, and 5 children, traveling in 34 carriages and with 95 horses." Truly the visit was an occasion for the people on the frontier.

At early candlelight they all gathered for a meeting in the center of the fort, where a bonfire of cedar was lighted. The people sat in a circle on logs or planks, the visitors, the settlers, the missionaries, and the friendly Indians, self-conscious in their unaccustomed shirts. The visiting brethren spoke of the importance of this mission, exhorting the people to do their duty and promising them that the day would come when the southern part of the state would be the head and not the tail. Parley P. Pratt was explicit in his counsel:

Give them shirts, pants, and petticoats. Say not only "be ye fed and clothed." Language neither feeds their stomachs nor covers their nakedness, nor can words convince them of your friendship. Feed, clothe, and instruct them, and in a year they will more than repay you for your outlay.... Teach them habits of cleanliness and industry "and many generations shall not pass away until they shall become a white and delightsome people." Win their hearts, their affections; teach them, baptize them, wash, cleanse, and clothe them. I should always have clean garments ready and clothe every one I should baptize. ... This wrestling, jumping and gamboling in their presence sets them a bad example, of idleness. Get their good will by manifesting yours....

President Young followed the same theme in his talk, reported in some detail in the Journal. A brief excerpt will serve to show its general tone.

You are sent not to farm, to build nice houses and fence fine fields, not to help white men, but to save red ones. Learn their language, and this you can do more effectively by living among them as well as by writing out a list of words. Go with them where they go. Live with them, and when they rest, let them live with you; feed them, clothe them, and teach them as you can, and being thus with them all the time, you will soon be able to teach them in their own language. They are our brethren; we must seek after them, commit their language, get their understanding and when they go off in parties you go with them.

The president helped the group to lay out a new fort, and gave full instructions for its erection. After he had gone, the missionaries set about preparing to visit the Indian tribes to the south. They must first complete their ditch and get their crops planted, both of which were difficult, for the new ditch had sandy banks that washed away, too steep a grade in some places, and a gravelly, porous bed that lost all the water in others. They appointed a watermaster to keep constant vigilance on the ditch and finally made arrangements to go on what they considered their real mission—a visit to the tribes who had never seen missionaries before.

(The Southern Indian Mission by Juanita Brooks, Improvement Era, 1945, Vol. Xlviii. April, 1945. No. 4. .)

Early Settlement of Utah's Dixie

Utah's Dixie

The Early Settlement of Southern Utah

At the October, 1853 conference in Salt Lake City, a group of fifty families and missionaries under the leadership of Rufus C. Allen (who had been trained in missionary work under Parley P. Pratt in South America) were "called" to strengthen the southern Utah Mission and labor among the Indians. The settlers left immediately but the missionaries delayed until the next spring.

In the meantime, the additional settlers had strengthened Harmony and an Indian school had been established. When the missionaries arrived, May 16, 1854, they found ten Indians in the school.35 Brigham Young visited Harmony on May 19 and while there inquired if a wagon road could be built to the Virgin River. He was given a discouraging reply.

A few days later, a number of the missionaries under Allen, pushed on to the south among the Virgin River Indians.36 On June 5, they descended Ash Creek and encountered a group of Indians near the present site of Toquerville. They made friends with the Indian Chief Toquer (meaning black, probably from the lava rocks) and bargained with him to send a runner to the neighboring Indians to arrange for a meeting with them. They moved on next day and met the other Indians at the present site of the old Washington Fields on the south side of the river.

These Indians were in a surly mood and had hidden their squaws and papooses; hence the Mormons were doubtful of their reception. However, one of them hunted up a hidden papoose and gave him a small pocket mirror which the child showed to the squaws. The trinket so pleased them that they all came out of hiding and quickly made friends with the whites.

The missionaries proceeded thence to the Santa Clara River by way of a trail north of the present site of St. George. Here they made friends with the Indians and laid the foundation for the establishment of a mission. The remainder returned to headquarters at Harmony, but Jacob Hamblin and William Henefer remained for some time on the Santa Clara working with the Indians and visiting others farther upstream. They did not reach Harmony until July.

[p.145] On June 21, 1854, a party of six under the leadership of David Lewis went west from Harmony to Mountain Meadows, down the Santa Clara and thence back over the mountains. On the trip, they preached to the Indians and baptized one hundred and nineteen into the Mormon Church, advising them thereafter not to steal or fight, but to learn Mormon ways of living. Two Indians were sent as messengers to the Muddy River Indians in Nevada, "To tell them we would come among them if they wanted us."37

The settlers at Harmony found a better location a few miles farther upstream on Ash Creek and during the summer of 1854 moved thither, calling it New Harmony. They built a fort there that fall. The missionaries in the Virgin and Santa Clara valleys found their remoteness inconvenient, accordingly a settlement was made on the Santa Clara where they could live among the Indians, and on December 1, Jacob Hamblin, Thales Haskell, Ira Hatch, Samuel Knight and A. P. Hardy established the nucleus of a permanent colony. Two weeks later Rufus Allen and Hyrum Burgess left Harmony for Tonaquint on the Santa Clara near its junction with the Virgin River where they built three log cabins. The missionaries helped the Indians construct substantial dams and ditches for diverting irrigation water. The first dam across the Santa Clara Creek, built in 1855, was a feat which aroused much enthusiasm among the Indians, five hundred of whom gathered to watch its completion. When the dam (100 feet long and 14 feet high) was finished and the water began to rise and run out, half on one side for the Indians and half on the other for the whites, a great shout of exultation went up from the dusky spectators.

The hard labor and poor nourishment which Jacob Hamblin had endured brought on a spell of sickness. To procure medicines and proper food for him, Gus Hardy went to Parowan. While there, Mrs. Nancy Anderson, a southerner, asked him about the mission of the Santa Clara and learned of the long, warm growing season. Believing that the climate might be suitable for cotton, she gave him a quart of cotton seed which she had brought with her from her old home. The missionaries planted the seed on the Santa Clara and raised a crop during the summer of 1855. This cotton was carded, spun, and woven into cloth by the women at the mission. Some of this cloth was sent to Salt Lake City and aroused no little interest there. Samples of the cloth even found their way into England and were said to compare favorably with cotton grown elsewhere. This was the beginning of cotton culture there, which finally led to the fuller settlement of the "Utah Dixie" along the Virgin River, [p.146] much as the iron industry had led to the development of Iron County, Moreover, like the iron industry, it answered a temporary need by supplying clothing when it was impracticable to import cotton.38

David Lewis Deposition

A first-hand account by David Lewis of the incidents involved in the Haun’s Mill Massacre, October 30, 1838. This is a sworn deposition, which was later presented to the State of Missouri for redress of grievances. (Note: The spelling is left in its original context.)

[Sworn to before H. Kimball, J.P. Hancock Co., IL, 11 Mar 1840.]

LEWIS, David JSC fn

Settled with the rest we felt to rejoice we had neither Spyes nor guards out nor was aprehending danger, when about three hundred mounted men came in atack and fell upon us without Showing us any mercy what ever we never saw them until they was as near as one hundred & fifty yards of us we then amediately ran into ablacksmith Shop, they began fyering on us without asking us to Surrender without giving us the chance to Surrender when we called up on them to Spare our lives when men ran out & held up there handkerchiefs & hats for peace they Shot them down when they attempted to run they was Shot down & when they Stood Still they Shot them down threw the cracks in the Shop there was also a window in the end & another in the Side of the Shop, the Shop was neither chinked nor daubed So they had all chances to make a Speedy Slaughter of us, we Saw that they would Show us no murcy we then begun fyering at them but in this time our number was but few and the enemy mostly behind trees & logs So that there was but few of them killed or wounded.

I think that I could venture to Say that neither ancient or modern times have ever witnessed Sutch a cenery of things as was thare witnessed, there was a few men women & children in consequence of threts & the abuse that they had received had guethered themselves toguether in defence of there own lives & there property when they was fell upon by a lawless band, without being Shown the least murcy without Spareing men women or children there was one woman Shot threw the hand othe[rs] had holes Shot threw there clothes, they continued there bloody works until 17 was killed and 15 wounded I must here remark that this woman that was wounded was not in the Shop but was in a tent & when they commenced fyering at hur She run & hid hurself behind a long & it is Said that there was 12 or 14 bullets Shot in the log that She was behind, the other women that was Shot threw there clothes ran out of the houses that was near the shop knowing that there husbands was in the Shop & Screamed for murcy but instead of haveing murcy Shown to there husbands & friend they had to make a quick retreat to Save there own lives, there was one Small boys branes was Shot out, there was too other little boys during the fray consealed themselves under the Bellas & those cruel harted retches after killing both of there fathers came & Stuck there guns threw a crack of the Shop & Shot them both One dyed & the other recovered, they then came in to the Shop among those that was dyining & struggleing in there blood & them all that they could perceive life in they blown there branes out curseing them as loud as Screams could yell, there was too men that laid among the Slain that passed for dead men that escaped being Shot again one of them was wounded & the other was not.

And after these cruel retches had found out that these men had escaped there notice I heard them Sware that if they ever got in another engagement that they would enspect more closer by Sticking there k[n]ife in there toes, this barberous work commenced on TueSday evening about an hour by Sun, they kep on Shootin as long as they could find any to Shoot untill Sun down, it would be miraculous to tell how them escaped that did escape & also to tell how Some was Shot that did recover, how painful it is, when I think upon it my heart is filled & my eyes is ready to drip with tears to See my friend & near neighbors a falling around me, groaning & dying Struggleing in there blood, & to See the widows tears & to hear the orphants cry, to See the helpless babes a weeping Standing by, there was Thomas Mc bride a verry old man & justice of the [——] after he had gave up his gun & Surrendered himself a prisner he was Shot dow & after laying a little while he attempted to rise he was hewn down with an oald peace of a Sythe blade after a while he attempted to rise again he then was hacked down and hacked into peaces this was done by Jacob Roggers.

I had one brother killed & an other wounded I escaped myself but had Several holes Shot threw my clothes, the dead was thrown into a well about 8 or ten feet deep, because there was no one left that was able to burry them, this was too days before the Surrender at Far West, and the Second day after the masacre took place a large company of them came back and fyered there guns & blowed there bugle & frightened the neighbourhood, but did not kill any more, I had forgot to mention there Stealing & robing the houses on the day after the masacre, there was Several that was on there way to Far West from the east that in consequence of the way being guarded by the mob Stoped at the mill five of them was killed & after they was done Shooting the wounded over they then went into the houses & tents & robed the widows of there beds & clothing & left them to perish with the cold they als[o] took off those movers waggons & teams in order to hall off the goods that they had taken they took Several valuable horses they robed the women of there mantles & the men of there clothes, they Striped the boots off of the dead & Sold them, Steaven Runels boasted of Shooting the too little boys, Some of them thou[ght] it was not right others said a littl Sprout would be a big tree afte the mob had left the ground & it began to get dark I crep from my hideing place & went down near the mill & found my brother which was ga[s]peing & groaning in his blood I brought him to my house which was in a few hundred yards of the Shop he lived a few hours & dyed & while he was dying his wife loaned a young man his noble gildon to go to Far West to get assistance to burry the dead, the young man Started in haste & got in too or three miles of Far West & thare he met a company of men they ast him where he was from & where he was going he told them they then ast him where the militia was, he told them he did not know of any. they then told him to turnabout & go with them & they would Show him where they was, for they Said that there was 5 or 6 thosand out here a little piece, they then took him to ray county to Samuel McCristens & Stay all night. they thare robed him of a fine fur cap & threatened to take his over coat telling him that it was too fine for a mormon they thereatened to Shoot him & disputed among themselves who Should have the horse, in the morning Sashel Woods the Same that took his cap & threttened to take his coat & Shoot him Saddled up his horse & rode him round the lot & then Stoped & couneled with his company & then put his Saddle on an other horse and Samuel McCriStin Saddled up the horse & rode him off the young man told them that the horse belonged to a woman that hur husband was dying, this company then took the young man to Richmon & kep him a prisner this companys, names was as follows Sashel Woods Joseph Ewen Jacob Snordan Wiley Brewer John Hille and four more there names not recollected,

I Shall next proceede to give an account of the treatment that we had to endure after our friends was Slain, capt. Nehemiah Cumstock with 40, or 50 men came to the mills & located themselves for too or three weeks & took possession of the mille, dureing this time they lived on the best that the neighbourhood could afford, the industry of the mormons had procured to them Selves a plenty of that which was palatable & good, the capt & his company went from house to hous & plundered & Stold & burnt Some books they robed Some houses of every thing that belonged thare to, they, killed our hogs robe[d] beegams they ground the wheat that was in the mill & mad[e] use of it ther was ten widows in the neighbourhood, whoos husband they had killed & many helpless orphants whoo was dependent on gooing to these wicked retches for there meal & flower there was many exposed to the cold that was left destitute of meanes to Subsist on, there was many laying wounded & no one Scarcely to attend to there wants & there lives was day threattened, it was dreadfull to tell the awfullness of our Situation.

And this abuse we received from men of our own coular & of our own nation & we now not but our four fathers have fought Side and Side for our liberty, they told all manner of lyes & falsehoods against us in order to justify the evil conduct that they done, if we had done any crime we never refused to have the law put in force against us but they new that we had not violated the law & new that takeing us to the law would not accomplish the object that they had in view, for they had not forgot the Spoil that they had gained by driveing the mormons from jackson county, it was our farmes & our Stock & our property that they wanted, I Stand in defyance of the State of Misourie to proove one acusation against us that they So cruely treated that was worthy of the notice of the law for there was many of us in consequence of Sickness had bin confined dureing all of the difficultys & there was five that was killed that had jus came to the country too days before they was killed. Now those wicked retches went from house to house on Search of gunes & other other things that they wanted I was at the house of Jacob Foutz who was laying wounded when capt comstock with a company came in with there faces painted black with a half moon painted under each eye they begun to question Mr. Foutz if he knew where Sutch & Sutch of his neighbours was he told them that he did not.

I then got up & Started out I was ammediately followed out by Some of his company they told me to not go away until the capt Seen me they then went in and Saw the capt & he came out & told me that I must begaune or on the act of Starting by Tuesday evening this was on Sunday evening or denounce mormonism or go to richmond & Stand a trial I ast him what it was I must deny, he Said I must deny Jo Smyths being a prophet, I told him as for going to richman & Standing a triel I did not regard Standing a trial according to law for any thing that I had done, but to be tried by a mob law I did not like it for they heaped the mormons all in a lump & what they had against one they had against all, & as for moveing I thought it quite a Short notice for aman to have to move in when the weather was So cold & had neither waggon or team I told him that my wife was Sick & I did not know how I Should go So Soon I told him that the road was Said to be guarded that none was allowed to pass must I be drove off by one company and another to kill me as I went I told him that I thought the conditions of the treaty was that we might Stay untill Spring, he said that, that was the first conclusion but that he just had received new orders from the General & that was that all mormons Should be driven out forthwith, I then ast him if the way was not guarded So I could not go Safely he Said that he would give me a ticket that would take me Safely I then went my way & we parted, on the next day I hapened at the mill where the capt & his company was he the[n] rote a pass & gave it to me which reads as follows, November the 13th 1838 this is to certify that David Lewis a mormon is permitted to leave and pass through the State of Misourie in an Eastward direction unmolested during good behaviour Nehemiah Comstock, Capt Militia

on the next day after I got my pass Hiram comstock the capts brother came with too or three others men to my house & brought with them a prisoner, they told me that they had a prisner they ast me if I new him I told them that I had Saw him but did not know his name, they after asking Several questions, told me to go with them to there c[a]mp, I went down with them they told me that the prisner Said that he was well acquainted with me they then told me that I might considder my Self a prisner they then gave me plenty to eat & drink but kep me until next day & Set me at liberty

-- David Lewis

I was born Aprile the 10th 1814 in the State of Kentucky Simpson County & remained in the Same Stat & County untill Aprile the 22th 1837 I then went to the State of Missouri I there witnessed thos horred Senes of which I have Spoken, & my real losses, besides my difficulty troubles & vexations is not les than, 400 dollars all accasioned by those difficultys & those difficultys was accasioned by mobs

this March the 14th, 1839 David Lewis

(Clark V. Johnson, ed., The Mormon Redress Petitions: Documents of the 1833-1838 Missouri Conflict [Provo: BYU Religious Studies Center, 1992], 276 - 278.)