wife had been watching at the bedside of the twins, who were dangerously ill, and weary and worn from loss of sleep he had thrown himself down and was slumbering heavily. Suddenly the door was burst open, and in rushed a mob of ten or a dozen men, who, surrounding the sleeper, seized him and attempted to drag him from the house. His wife's screams aroused him, and he struggled desperately with his assailants. His hands being held, he felled one man to the floor with a vigorous kick. Enraged at his resistance, they threatened to kill him if he did not desist, and suiting the action to the word seized him by the throat and choked him until he was insensible. Father Johnson, whom the mob had locked in a room prior to attacking his guest, regaining his liberty, pursued them, club in hand. Encountering another party who had captured Elder Rigdon, he knocked one of them down, and was about to fell another when the crowd turned upon him and held him at bay. Joseph, recovering consciousness, found himself lying upon the ground surrounded by his captors, about a mile from the house where his weeping and half frantic wife still watched beside the sick babes, one of whom was now death-stricken. Near him lay the motionless form of Elder Rigdon, whom the mob had dragged by his heels over the hard frozen earth until life was almost extinct. Joseph supposed him dead. He himself was now hurried into a meadow, a mile farther away, where the mob stripped off his clothes, cursing and beating him meanwhile, and coated his naked form with tar. They forced a tar paddle into his mouth, and a phial containing aqua fortis between his lips. The phial broke against his tightly clenched teeth, and the deadly acid was spilled. One of the mob then fell upon him like a wild-cat, tearing his flesh and shrieking in his ear: "That's the way the Holy Ghost falls on folks." Having sated their fury, they departed, leaving their bleeding victim to find his way, as best he might, through the cold and darkness back to Father Johnson's. At sight of his lacerated form, covered with tar, his wife screamed and fainted, supposing him to have been horribly mangled. He spent the rest of the night cleansing the tar from his bruised and bleeding body. Next day was the Sabbath, and the Saints in that vicinity assembled for their usual worship. Methodists, Baptists, Campbellites and Mormon apostates came also. Some of them had helped compose the mob party of the previous night. Scarred and wounded. the Prophet appeared before them, bore a ringing testimony to the truth of his mission, and that day baptized three more into the Church. But the mobocratic spirit was now rampant, not only at Hiram, where fresh plots were at once formed against the Mormon leader, but also at Kirtland, and throughout the surrounding region. Elder Rigdon, after recovering from the effects of the ill-treatment he had received, fled with his family from Hiram to escape further outrage. Joseph and Emma remained another week, during which one of the sick twins died. He then sent his wife to Kirtland, and set out upon his second visit to Missouri. He was accompanied by Sidney Rigdon, Bishop Whitney and others, who joined him at different points along the way. A circuitous route was taken, to evade mobocratic ambush and pursuit. The party reached Independence late in April. The affairs of the Church in Missouri were found to be prospering, though some prejudice had been created against the Saints by certain persons who had misinterpreted their motives in settling there. A series of petty persecutions had resulted. Stones and brick-bats were thrown through their windows, and they were otherwise insulted and annoyed. It was the beginning of sorrows, the precursor of the coming storm, the first, faint sparks of a furious conflagration, destined ere many months to burst forth as a besom of fire, sweeping before it into exile the whipped and plundered Saints of Jackson County. Early in May the Prophet started back to Kirtland, Elder Rigdon and Bishop Whitney accompanying him. Near Greenville, Indiana, the Bishop had his leg broken, while jumping from a run away stage-coach. This delayed him and the Prophet for a month at a public house in Greenville, Elder Rigdon meanwhile proceeding on to Kirtland. During the stay at Greenville an attempt was made to murder the Prophet by mixing poison with his food at dinner. He narrowly escaped death. Next morning he and his friend departed from the dangerous neighborhood, and sometime in June arrived at Kirtland. The birth of the Prophet's son Joseph, the present leader of the sect known as Josephites, or, as they call themselves, the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, occurred on November 3rd of this year, just prior to the return of his father and Bishop Whitney from a hasty trip to the east. On Christmas Day, 1832, was recorded the following "revelation and prophecy on war:"* Verily, thus saith the Lord, concerning the wars that will shortly come to pass, beginning at the rebellion of South Carolina, which will eventually terminate in the death and misery of many souls. The days will come that war will be poured out upon all nations, beginning at that place; For behold, the Southern States shall be divided against the Northern States, and the Southern States will call on other nations, even the nation of Great Britain, as it is called, and they shall also call upon other nations, in order to defend themselves against other nations; and thus war shall be poured out upon all nations. And it shall come to pass, after many days, slaves shall rise up against their masters, who shall be marshalled and disciplined for war: And it shall come to pass also, that the remnants who are left of the land will marshal themselves, and shall become exceeding angry, and shall vex the Gentiles with a sore vexation; And thus, with the sword, and by bloodshed, the inhabitants of the earth shall mourn; and with famine, and plague, and earthquakes, and the thunder of heaven, and the fierce and vivid lightning also, shall the inhabitants of the earth be made to feel the wrath, the indignation and chastening hand of an Almighty God, until the consumption decreed hath made a full end of all nations. The Saints claim that this prediction began to be fulfilled on April 12th, 1861, when the Confederate batteries at Charleston, South Carolina, opened fire on Fort Sumter. * Doctrine and Covenants, Section 87. During the winter of 1832-3, the Mormon leader organized at Kirtland the School of the Prophets, designed for the instruction of the Elders in the "things of the Kingdom." He also completed his revision of the scriptures. On the 18th of March, 1833, was organized the First Presidency, the highest depository of authority in the Church. This council consists of three High Priests after the order of Melchisedek, chosen and sustained by the whole body, over which they preside. The personnel of the Presidency at this first organization was as follows: Joseph Smith, junior, President; Sidney Rigdon, First Counselor; Frederick G. Williams, Second Counselor. It was now decided to purchase lands in and around Kirtland, surnamed "the land of Shinehah," and build up and beautify the city while awaiting further developments in Missouri, "the land of Zion." Farms were accordingly purchased, work-shops and mills erected, and various industries established. During the early part of 1833 a temple at Kirtland was projected. CHAPTER VII. 1833. CAUSES-MOBOCRATIC THE JACKSON COUNTY EXPULSION AND ITS RECEIVES THE REFUGEES JACKSON COUNTY, MISSOURI, STILL "THE LAND OF ZION." WELVE to fifteen hundred Latter-day Saints now inhabited Jackson County, Missouri. They had purchased lands and improved them, built houses-mostly log cabins-and were occupying them, sowed their farms and and fields and reaped repeated harvests. A store had been established by them at Independence, a printing press and type had been procured from the east, and a periodical called the Evening and Morning Star, edited by William W. Phelps, was being issued. A school of Elders, numberPratt as its president and ing sixty members, with Parley P. preceptor, had been instituted, and preaching to the Missourians was continued with success. Plans for the city and temple of Zion had been forwarded by the Prophet from Kirtland, but so far little had been done toward the building of the New Jerusalem. The Book of Commandments, or revelations, had also been sent from Ohio to be published in Missouri. The United Order, though still in its incipiency, was being established as fast as circumstances would allow. The Saints, as a rule, were poor, but were sober, moral, honest |