[Lucy Mack Smith] Samuel Smith, eluding armed pursuers, reaches the city just after the mob has dispersed. (1)
[Quorum of the Twelve] Amasa M. Lyman retires from First Presidency. (2)
-- 1844. June 27
(Joseph F. Smith) His father was in the Richmond, Missouri, jail when Joseph F. was born. As a mob ransacked their Far West home looking for papers, a mattress was thrown over the infant and he nearly suffocated. Young Joseph was not seen by his father until several months later, when Hyrum was transferred to Liberty Jail.
1844. June 27: When Joseph F. was five years old, he heard a man knock on his mother's window and announce that his father had been killed. Memories of his grieving mother's moans remained with him throughout his life. (3)
-- Jun 27, 1844
[Apostle Wilford Woodruff Journal] 27th I had an interview with Elder B. Young. Spent the fore part of the day together. He took cars for Salem & I spent the latter part of the day at Elder Ananias McAllister, 296 Washington st.
/We sat together in the depo while Joseph & Hiram were killed. Brother Young was vary sorrowful & pressed in spirit without knowing the cause.
/I went to meeting in the Evening & confirmed Brother John Hardy & 30 other persons, most of which were rebaptized for the remission of sins. I spent the night with Br Jacob Phelps in Orange st. I wrote a letter to Col Peter Van Avery.
I found on my ariveal to Boston puite an excitement through the country concerning affairs in Nauvoo & reagions round about saying that the whole country was rising in arms in mob to exterminate the Saints. Most of the inflamatory speaches and excitement was got up by the warsaw message and St Louis papers. They desire to exterminate the saints from of the earth, but the work is in the hands of God and he will direct all things aright.
/(J S) (H S) At 5 oclock this day the Prophet Joseph & Patriarch Hiram Smith fell. Sealed their testimony with their Blood. + They were murdered to appeas the wrath of a gentile mob as Christ was by a Jewish mob. Peace be to thy ashes, the most glorious resurrection to thy bodies and the American gentile nation answer for thy blood before the bar of God, And the murderers pay the price of the Lords anointed. * 4 oclok 16 m. 23 sec 5 1/2 at Carthage 6 1/2 at Rochester in the evening./ (4)
[Brigham Young] --27-- Spent the day in Boston with Brother Woodruff, who accompanied me to the railway station as I was about to take cars to Salem. In the evening, while sitting in the depot waiting, I felt a heavy depression of spirit, and so melancholy I could not converse with any degree of pleasure. Not knowing anything concerning the tragedy enacting at this time in Carthage Jail, I could not assign my reasons for my peculiar feeling.
--29 and 30-- Attended conference in Boston. (5)
In August, the church members had a vote and elected the Quorum of the Twelve as the interim leaders of the church, but many had already left the area in many different splinter groups. In 1846, a group of the Mormons left Nauvoo and went to Utah the descendents of these people are what
we call the Mormons today.
Approximately 29 other Mormon men were living polygamy when Joseph died. ( Daynes, More Wives Than One, p 32 ) (6)
Section 135, Place: Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois.
Historical Note: Written by President John Taylor, eyewitness of the tragedy, section 135 is an account of the deaths of Joseph and Hyrum Smith on 27 June 1844.
It was the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor, a paper aimed at traducing the character of Joseph Smith, that triggered the events resulting in the Prophet's death in Carthage, Illinois. Mormon apostates in Nauvoo, smarting over the loss of their printing establishment and bent on ridding the country of the Mormon prophet, brought legal complaints against Joseph Smith and others in June 1844. Initially the Prophet was impressed to leave the United States for the West, but accusations of desertion by a few close associates motivated him to stay and stand trial. Opposing forces, conspiring with law-enforcement officers, took advantage of this last arrest. Gathering at Carthage, Illinois, where Joseph Smith had been illegally detained, a mob forced their way into the jail and, at 5:16 P.M., murdered the Prophet and his brother Hyrum.
Publication Note. Section 135 was first published as section 111 in the 1844 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants. (7)
[D and C] Doctrine and Covenants 135: Martyrdom of Joseph Smith the Prophet and his brother, Hyrum Smith the Patriarch, at Carthage, Illinois, June 27, 1844. HC 6: 629-631. This document was written by Elder John Taylor of the Council of the Twelve, who was a witness to the events.
1-2, Joseph and Hyrum martyred in Carthage Jail; 3, Preeminent position of the Prophet acclaimed; 4-7, Their innocent blood testifies of the truth and divinity of the work. (8)
Footnotes:
1 - Anderson, Lavina Fielding, Editor, Lucy's Book: A Critical Edition of Lucy Mack Smith's Family Memoir, 2001, Signature Books, http://bit.ly/lucys-book
2 - Wikipedia, Chronology of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (LDS Church), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_the_Quorum_of_the_Twelve_Apostles_(LDS_Church)
3 - Van Wagoner, Richard and Walker, Steven C., A Book of Mormons, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies
4 - Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies
5 - Manuscript History of Brigham Young, 1801-1844, ed. Elden Jay Watson (Salt Lake City: Smith Secretarial Service, 1968).
6 - Tungate, Mel, Mormon Polygamy, http://www.tungate.com/polygamy.htm
7 - Cook, Lyndon, Revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith: A Historical and Biographical Commentary of the Doctrine and Covenants, http://amzn.to/RevelationsofJosephSmith
8 - Doctrine and Covenants, http://amzn.to/DoctrineandCovenants
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