SCENES ON THE BANKS OF THE MISSOURI--EXILED.
Other parties during the two days mentioned flocked to the Missouri
River, and crossed at the ferries into Clay County. One of the
companies of distressed women and children were kindly lodged by a Mr.
Bennett for the night in his house. We speak of this because acts of
benevolence toward the saints were so rare that whenever they occur
they should be chronicled.
In one of the companies that went to Clay County was a woman named Ann
Higbee who had been sick for many months with chills and fever,--she
was carried across the river, apparently a corpse. Another woman named
Keziah Higbee, in the most delicate condition, lay on the banks of
the river all night, while the rain descended in torrents, and under
these circumstances was delivered of a male child; but the mother
died a premature death through the exposure. All the pity the parties
received from their relentless persecutors was this brutal expression,
"G---d d--n you, do you believe in Joe Smith now?" The scene that was
witnessed on the banks of the Missouri on the seventh of November is
so graphically described in the Prophet Joseph's history that I cannot
forbear inserting it here:
The shores began to be lined on both sides of the ferry with men,
women and children, goods, wagons, boxes, chests, provisions, etc.;
while the ferrymen were busily employed in crossing them over; and
when night again closed upon the saints, the wilderness had much the
appearance of a camp-meeting. Hundreds of people were seen in every
direction; some in tents, and some in the open air, around their
fires, while the rain descended in torrents. Husbands were inquiring
for their wives, and women for their husbands; parents for children,
and children for parents. Some had the good fortune to escape with
their family household goods, and some provisions; while others knew
not of the fate of their friends, and had lost all their goods. The
scene was indescribable, and would have melted the hearts of any
people upon earth, except the blind oppressor and prejudiced and
ignorant bigot. Next day the company increased, and they were chiefly
engaged in felling small cottonwood trees and erecting them into
temporary cabins, so that when night came on, they had the appearance
of a village of wigwams, and the night being clear, the occupants
began to enjoy some degree of comfort.[A]
[Footnote A: Millennial Star, Vol. 14, p. 582.]
On the night of the thirteenth of November, while large bodies of the
saints were still encamped on the Missouri bottoms, exiled from their
homes for the gospel's sake, one of the most wonderful meteoric showers
occurred that was ever witnessed. The whole heavens and the earth were
made brilliant by the streams of light which marked the course of
the falling aerolites. The whole upper deep was one vast display of
heaven's fireworks. The long trains of light left in the heavens by
the meteors would twist into the most fantastic shapes, like writhing
serpents. The grandeur of the display was far beyond the power of words
to describe. I mention it because of the effect it had upon the minds
of the suffering saints. The scriptures teach that one of the signs of
the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ shall be the falling of stars
from the heaven, as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is
shaken of a mighty wind; and the shaking of the powers of heaven.[B]
[Footnote B: Mark 13:25, 26; also Revelation 6:13-17.]
It is needless to say that this sign in the heavens encouraged the
exiles; that it revived their hopes; that it calmed their fears; that
it seemed to herald the coming of their Deliverer, the Son of God.
Nor need I say that it awed the mob, and made a pause in their cruel
proceedings for a season. That pause, however, was brief; for on
the twenty-third of November the mob held a meeting and appointed a
committee to warn away any of the saints who might possibly be found
within the borders of the county. Accordingly what few families were
scattered here and there through the county were threatened and abused
until they were finally forced from their homes. On the twenty-fourth
of December four aged families were assaulted at Independence. The mob
tore down their chimneys, broke open their doors and threw large stones
into their houses.
A brother by the name of Miller, sixty-five years of age, and the
youngest of the men in the four families, narrowly escaped fatal
injuries. A brother Jones, who was also subjected to like inhuman
treatment, served as a life-guard to General Washington in the
Revolution, and had fought for the establishment of the sacred
principles of liberty guaranteed in the Constitution of his country,
the free exercise of which was now denied him by a gang of heartless
wretches, who had conspired against the liberties of worthy citizens.
Some time later in the winter, an old man of about seventy years of
age was driven from his house, after which it was thrown down. His
household goods, corn, etc., were piled together and set on fire; but,
fortunately, after the mob left, his son extinguished the flames. About
the same time Lyman Leonard had two chairs broken to splinters over his
head and body, and was dragged out of doors, where he was beaten with
clubs until he was supposed to be dead. The same day Josiah Sumner and
Barnet Cole received the same kind of treatment.[C]
[Footnote C: Evening and Morning Star, p. 277.]
Early in the spring the mob burned the remainder of the houses
belonging to the saints. According to the testimony of Lyman Wight, two
hundred and three dwelling-houses and one grist mill were so destroyed
[D]--destroyed in the hope, perhaps, of discouraging the return of the
exiles.
[Footnote D: Lyman Wight's affidavit, Times and Seasons, 1843, p. 264.]