5 Fates of Some Joseph Smith Carthage Mobbers
Murder hung in the Carthage air on June 27, 1844. Joseph and
Hyrum Smith were locked up. Gone were the days of seer stones, angels on command and Joseph himself emitting light. The end was at hand.
John Taylor and Willard Richards were bunked-up too. Outside approximately 200 men were hiding their features with wet, black gunpowder. Their aim was to kill and be home in time for dinner. Here’s a painted picture of the ensuing horror:
John Taylor and Willard Richards were bunked-up too. Outside approximately 200 men were hiding their features with wet, black gunpowder. Their aim was to kill and be home in time for dinner. Here’s a painted picture of the ensuing horror:
“Reaching the top of the stairs and assuming the door
locked, the mobbers fired at the latch, shattering the door’s edge. Inside, the
Prophet, Willard Richards, and John Taylor jumped back to the wall. Almost at
the same time, a ball came through the door and hit Hyrum in the face. From the
outside, a second ball hit him in the back. He fell full length to the floor,
face up. “I am a dead man,” he murmured.
“The Prophet dropped to his brother. “Oh! my poor,
dear brother Hyrum,” he groaned. The deep look of sympathy on Joseph’s face
fastened itself to Elder Taylor’s mind. The Prophet then stood, and with a firm
step he went to the door, pulled the pepperbox from his pocket, and, reaching
around the door casing, fired blindly into the hallway. He snapped all six
shots. Half discharged, striking three men.
“There was much shouting and cursing on the landing.
The smoke from the powder flashes clouded everything and added to the confusion
as those who had shot their round tried to push back to ram in a new load and
those who had yet to fire pushed forward. Those pressing the doorway followed
their bayonets, and Elder Taylor, using the rascal- beater, beat down the arms.
As he did so, he felt his death was imminent: “Streams of fire as thick as my
arm passed by me as these men fired, and it looked like certain death ...
“When Elder Taylor left the door, Elder Richards took
his place and continued beating with the smaller walking cane. The Prophet—in
an attempt to draw the mobbers’ attention away from the room—dropped his pistol
and went quickly to the window and jumped to the ledge. He was hit
simultaneously in the back by two balls fired from the door, and in the chest
by a third ball fired from the outside. Joseph poised momentarily on the sill.
“Oh Lord, my God!” he cried, then fell dead to the yard below.” (https://www.lds.org/ensign/1994/06/martyrdom-at-carthage?lang=eng)
It’s fairly well known how this scene ended for the four
incarcerated men – but what about the face-painted murderers? They disappeared quickly into the well-lit
early evening. Some were eventually tried but none were convicted.
That doesn’t mean none of them suffered consequences. Here
are some tales of awful fates alleged to belong to some of the mobbers – per a
nurse interviewed by Parley P. Pratt:
1) “A man named Townsend ,
living in Iowa, near Port Madison, was one of the mob who assaulted and forced
in the jail door. The pistol discharged by Joseph Smith wounded him in the arm,
near the shoulder, and it continued to rot without healing until it was taken
off, and even then it would not heal. About six months after lie was shot Mrs.
Lawn saw his arm and dressed it. He was then gradually rotting and dying with
the wound. He stayed over night with Mrs. Lawn's father, and groaned through
the night without sleeping. He asked the old gentleman what he thought of
Joseph Smith being a Prophet! H e replied that he did not know. "
Well," said Townsend, " I know he was a Prophet of God! And, oh, that
I had staid at home and minded my own business, and then I would not have lost
my life and been tormented with a guilty conscience, and with this dreadful
wound, which none can heal!" He died two or three months afterwards,
having literally rotted alive!“ (Autobiography
of Parley P. Pratt p. 424)
4) Wm. T. Head, an officer in Captain Lawn's company, and tarrying
in Carthage, testified that he saw a certain man raise a large knife to strike
off the head of Joseph, when, all at once, and in the midst of a clear day,
with no cloud in sight, "a terrible clap of thunder rolled heavily, and
forked lightnings flashed in the face of the murderers, and perfectly paralyzed
a number of them. The ruffian, who had raised his knife and had sworn with a
dreadful oath to take the head off Joseph, stood perfectly paralyzed, his arm
uplifted with the knife suspended in air', and could not move a limb. His
comrades carried him off, and all fled in terror from the scene." (Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt p. 425)
That
last one is interesting because the attempted beheading and divine intervention
show up in another account that is not given to us by P.P. Pratt. It’s not
hearsay or the bloated last pass-along in the telephone game. No - this account
was given to us in the first person! It’s From Mr. William M. Daniels, a member
of the mob - though seemingly more out of curiosity than bloodlust. He lived 18
miles from Carthage and had no particular beef with anyone. For the sake of
introduction, here’s part of his write-up:
“…a company of men were going from that place
to Carthage, for the purpose, as they
said, of assisting the militia to drive
the Mormons out of the country. Out of curiosity, as I had no particular
way to spend my time, and the creeks having been rendered impassable that night
by heavy rain, I went in company with them to Carthage. On our way there, they
were discussing the best means to be adopted for the expulsion of the Mormon
population. Some were for marching to Nauvoo, and laying the city in ashes, and
t driving the inhabitants from the limits of the State, at the point of the
bayonet; others were for murdering Joseph and Hyrum Smith, while others were in
favor of accomplishing both of these barbarous objects…
“…I heard no person declaring
that the Mormons had ever personally injured them; but they swore that
"Old Joe" was getting too much power and influence in the world, and
he ought to be put out of the way. His career ought to be stopped. They looked
upon him as no less than a second Mahomet, who would soon spring into power;
usurp the reins of government; and establish his religion by the sword. To
prevent such a calamity from befalling the world, they argued that it would be
doing God's service to take his life; supposing that would prove a general and
complete massacre of Mormonism.” (http://famous-trials.com/carthrage/1255-danielsaccount)
Things
escalated quickly from there. A blind rage consumed all. We’ve already
accounted for what happened in the prison up in the top of the article. Daniels
didn’t enter the prison – he stayed outside and saw Joseph Smith fall out the
window. We’ll pick up there:
“President
Smith's exit [fall] from the room had the tendency to cause those who were
firing into the room to abandon it and rush to the outside…
“[A] ruffian…
set him against the well-curb, [then] gathered a bowie knife for the purpose of
severing his head from his bodv. He raised the knife and was in the attitude of
striking when a light, so sudden and powerful, burst from the heavens upon the
bloody scene, (passing its vivid chain between Joseph and his murderers,) that
they were struck with terrified awe and filled with consternation. This light,
in its appearance and potency, baffles all powers of description. The arm of
the ruffian, that held knife, fell powerless; the muskets of the four, who
fired, fell to the ground, and they all stood like marble statues, not having
the power to move a single limb of their bodies.
“By this time
most of the men had fled in great disorder. I never saw so frightened a set of
men before, and I expect it is not possible that I ever shall again. Their
retreat was as hurried and disorderly as it possibly could have been, had the
clashing panoply of Wellington's mighty army been thundering at their heels!
Col. Williams saw the light and was also badly frightened; but he did not
entirely lose the use of his limbs or speech. Seeing the condition of these
men, he hallooed to some who had just commenced a retreat, for God's sake to
come and carry off these men. They came back and carried them by main strength towards
the baggage wagons. They seemed as helpless as if they were dead.” (http://famous-trials.com/carthrage/1255-danielsaccount)
It should be noted that historians disagree with Daniels account in mass.
It’s considered overblown, sensational and just a touch P.T. Barnum-esque. For
instance, he’s the only witness that said Smith was still alive after hitting
the ground. The sheet of light and attempted beheading, although also mentioned
in #4 above, are different from most accounts. Still though, I don’t believe
his presence at the scene is in question.
But this article is about what happened to the mobbers – so what
happened to Daniels?
5) Mr. Daniels, for
some time after the murder, resided in Nauvoo, where he joined the Church. In
justice to him it should be here stated that he evinced the fullest sincerity
while relating the incidents of his narrative. As regards the flash of light
described by him, which is illustrated in our engraving, he averred most
emphatically that it occurred as related. Even before the court, when the murderers
were arraigned for examination as to their complicity in the bloody deed, he
was confronted by the lawyers for the mob party, and there stated that all he
had told was the truth.
As to the correctness of this
strange exhibition of light, the author knows nothing personally; but it is
given as Daniels’ testimony, among the other incidents, and he leaves the
reader to draw such conclusions as may seem reasonable.
The
whereabouts of Mr. Daniels has been unknown to the writer since 1846. It is not
at all unlikely that some of the parties implicated in the tragedy at Carthage
assassinated him for exposing them. They swore they would do so, and were
hunting for him previous to the exodus of the Saints from Nauvoo. On the
steamboat Ocean Wave a party of them tried to get some information, as
to where Daniels might be found, from, and also laid a cunning plan to entrap,
the writer when the boat should land at Warsaw, for the part he took in the
publication—but they failed. (http://famous-trials.com/carthrage/1255-danielsaccount)
The fates of
these mobbers seem a bit urban legend. Still though, Pratt got some of these
histories straight from a treating-nurse. And Daniels was definitely there – it’s
hard to know where his divide of fact and flourish lays, exactly.
None of them ever
went to prison, but if any of these stories are true, perhaps prison would have
been better.
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