DE WItt.
Dr. Austin, of Carroll County, who had commanded the mob forces about
Diahman, being compelled to disband his forces, at least part of
them, he esteemed his force insufficient to drive out the brethren
from Diahman; so he conceived the idea of striking a blow in another
quarter. In the south-east part of Carroll County, about fifty miles
south-east of Far West, and near the point where Grand River empties
into the Missouri, is the little settlement called De Witt. Here in the
autumn of 1838, a number of the saints were located, quite a number
of whom had come from Ohio during the summer of 1838, and were still
camped in their wagons and tents. It was to this smaller and weaker
settlement that the gallant(!) Dr. Austin lead the remainder of his mob
forces, after about one hundred of his original number had returned to
their homes in obedience to the orders of General Atchison.
At various times through the summer the mob had threatened the saints
in and around De Witt, but it was not until the 20th of September that
any serious demonstration of mob violence occurred. On that day about
a hundred, perhaps a hundred and fifty men, rode into the settlement
and threatened the people with death if they did not agree at once to
leave the State, but after some deliberation, they gave them until the
1st of October in which to make their departure. The action of the mob
was promptly reported to the governor, and he was asked by the saints
to take such steps as would put a stop to all lawless proceedings. The
petition making this prayer was signed by over fifty of the brethren
living at De Witt, but the governor gave no heed to their prayers for
the suppression of lawlessness.
The saints at De Witt of course paid no attention to the demand of the
mob made on the 20th of September, that they leave the State by the
first of October. So, on the 2nd of that month, early in the morning,
about fifty men rode into De Witt and began firing upon the peaceful
inhabitants of the place. Henry Root made out an affidavit to the
foregoing effect, and at once went to General Parks with it, who was
still in the vicinity of Diahman with his two companies of militia.
Leaving Colonel Thompson in command at Diahman, General Parks at once
ordered two companies of militia under the command of Captains Bogart
and Houston to arm and equip, as the law directed, with six days'
provisions and fifty rounds of powder and ball. With these companies
he marched for De Witt. Just before leaving he sent a messenger to a
Colonel Jones, of Carroll County, to call out three companies of the
militia and join him at Carrollton, the county seat of Carroll County.
This order, however, was ignored.
In his report to General Atchison, General Parks says that when he
arrived at De Witt he found the place surrounded by Dr. Austin's
men, to the number of some three hundred, provided with a piece of
artillery ready to attack the "Mormons" gathered in De Witt. But he
expressed the opinion that the "Mormons" could beat Austin even if he
had five hundred troops. In the meantime his own forces were mutinous,
and refused to act against the mob; hence he had sent word to General
Doniphan to raise companies from Platte, Clay, and Clinton counties, as
he had no faith that troops ordered from Livingston and other counties
would come.
During the time that trouble was threatened at Diahman, which for
the time was happily suppressed by General Atchison, Governor Boggs,
in addition to the militia ordered out under Atchison, Doniphan and
Parks, had directed General S. D. Lucas, of the fourth division of
the Missouri militia, to march with four hundred men to join General
Atchison at Diahman. Orders similar in their nature were issued to
Major-Generals Lewis Bolton, John B. Clark and Thomas D. Grant. But the
success of General Atchison in scattering the mob forces about Diahman
led to the disbanding of the militia under the generals just named.
This apparently was not relished at all by S. D. Lucas, who, it will
be remembered, took an active part in connection with Governor Boggs
against the saints in the Jackson County troubles. Hearing of the
difficulty arising at De Witt, he thought it another opportunity to
strike a blow at the defenseless people he before had assisted in
murdering and driving from their homes. He passed down the Missouri
River, near where De Witt was located, about the time the actual
hostilities began there, and reported the situation to Governor Boggs,
and in concluding his letter he says:
If a fight has actually taken place, of which I have no doubt, it will
create excitement in the whole of upper Missouri, and those base and
degraded beings (the "Mormons") will be exterminated from the face
of the earth. * * * It is an unpleasant state of affairs. The remedy
I do not pretend to suggest to your Excellency. My troops were only
dismissed subject to further orders, and can be called into the field
at an hour's warning.
While Lucas pretended in the above not to suggest a remedy to the
governor, he really does so, and plainly offers to carry out the plan.
General Lucas says: "Those base and degraded beings (the saints) will
be exterminated from the face of the earth," and then follows that
statement up by saying that his troops, amounting to four hundred, had
only been dismissed subject to further orders, and could be called out
at an hour's warning! This act on the part of Lucas was in reality a
suggestion to Governor Boggs to exterminate the saints, and an offer
on his part to do the job, if he only had orders to call out the men
he had but a few days before disbanded. The circumstance is the more
significant since his covert suggestion was subsequently acted upon by
Governor Boggs.
The people of Chariton County were again asked to assist against the
"Mormons," this time to drive them from De Witt; and again the people
of that county held a public meeting on the question, and sent a
committee of two to inquire into the situation and report. As their
report is a complete vindication of the action of the saints in this
instance, I make an extract from it:
We arrived at the place of difficulties on the fourth of October,
and found a large portion of the citizens of Carroll and adjoining
counties assembled near De Witt well armed. We inquired into the
nature of the difficulties. They said there was a large portion of the
people called "Mormons," embodied in De Witt, from different parts
of the world. They are unwilling for them to remain there, which is
the cause of their waging war against them. To use the gentleman's
language, they are waging a war of extermination, or to remove them
from the said county. We also went into De Witt, to see the situation
of the "Mormons." We found them in the act of defense begging for
peace, and wishing for the civil authorities to repair there and
as early as possible settle the difficulties between the parties.
Hostilities have commenced, and will continue until they are stopped
by the civil authorities.
As soon as word was brought to Joseph that the saints were shut up by
mob forces in De Witt, he at once started for the scene of the trouble
to allay, if possible, the excitement among the people. He had some
difficulty in getting there, as the mob had all the roads strongly
guarded, and allowed neither ingress nor egress to the place they were
actually besieging. But by going unfrequented roads and through the
woods, he arrived at the besieged town, and found the saints surrounded
by a host of their enemies, with their provisions nearly exhausted, and
no prospects of obtaining more.
The first thing Joseph did on his arrival was to talk with several
gentlemen of respectability and of good standing in the neighborhood,
and who were not connected with The Church, but who had witnessed the
proceedings of the mob against the saints, and now offered to make
affidavits respecting the treatment the saints had received at the
hands of the mob forces, and their present perilous situation; and
further offered to send a messenger with these papers, and lay the
case before the governor. Their proposition was gladly accepted. The
affidavits were made out, and a Mr. Caldwell dispatched at once with
them to the governor. Instead of sending the people of De Witt any hope
of relief, however, the governor said to Mr. Caldwell:
_The quarrel is between the "Mormons" and the mob, and they can fight
it out._
This was the death blow to all hopes that had been entertained of
receiving relief from the governor when the case should be fairly
presented to him. Following close upon this answer that was returned
from the chief executive, General Parks sent word to the besieged
saints, that his troops under Captain Bogart had mutinied, and in order
to prevent them joining the mob he was under the necessity of drawing
them away. This act of course turned the people of De Witt over to the
tender mercy of the mob led by Dr. Austin, Major Ashley, a member of
the State legislature, and Sashiel Woods, a Presbyterian minister.
The saints were hopelessly shut up in De Witt. If their stock wandered
outside of the immediate settlement it was shot down by the mob; and if
the people went to the outskirts in search of food, they too became the
targets of their merciless enemies. Provisions were exhausted, and some
of the brethren died of exhaustion and starvation, while all were worn
out with constantly watching the movements of their enemies. In this
extremity the saints were advised by some of the prominent non-"Mormon"
citizens in the vicinity of De Witt to leave that county, and they
would be paid for all their losses, Henry Root and David Thomas having
secured a promise of the mob that if the "Mormons" would leave De Witt,
they should not be molested while doing so. The saints were compelled
to accept these terms, and a committee was appointed to appraise the
property of the "Mormons." The names of two of this committee are all
that have been preserved--Judge Erickson and Major Florey. The only
property that was appraised, however, was the real estate; the personal
property the saints had lost, and the stock that had been shot down by
the mob and upon which they had fed, was not taken into account at all.
The saints gathered up what teams and wagons they had left, and placing
the sick, the aged and infirm, together with what personal property
they could take with them, they left their fields and their homes in
the hands of their enemies, and wended their slow way over the prairie
in the direction of Far West. Ever and anon as they looked back with
mournful glance in the direction of De Witt, they could see the smoke
ascending heavenward from some of their burning homes. That was a
dreary march to Far West. They were continually harassed by gangs of
the mob who followed them, and others that they met in going to the
appointed rendezvous in the vicinity of De Witt. Several brethren
died on the way, and had to be buried without coffins, under the
most sorrowful circumstances. One sister, who had not recovered from
child-birth, through the exposure consequent upon being compelled to
leave a comfortable home, died and was buried in a grave bordering
the banks of a beautiful stream. The company arrived among their
awe-stricken brethren and sisters at Far West on the 12th of October.