Mormon History
Typical Mormon Thief - 1845
Alton Telegraph & Democratic Review – June 21, 1845
More Mormon Outrages.
One day last week, the iron on a portion of the
railroad between Jacksonville and Meredasia was stripped from the rails and
stolen. The Governor immediately issued handbills, offering a reward of two
hundred and fifty dollars for the detection and conviction of the perpetrators.
Mr. Hunt, the jailor at Jacksonville, had, however, previously started in
pursuit of the thief. He succeeded in finding him beyond Carthage, in Hancock
county, with his wagon standing before his door loaded with a portion of the
iron that had been stripped from the railroad. The person implicated is Charles
Chrisman, a Mormon Elder, and formerly a resident of Morgan county. He had taken
altogether three
loads, weighing in the aggregate about 4,500 pounds. Chrisman sold it
to a blacksmith in his neighborhood, at four cents per pound. He was
brought back to Morgan county, where the theft was committed, and
safely lodged in jail for trial, which it was expected would take place
sometime this week. Chrisman is of a respectable family, and is said to
be a man of property. He deserves to be punished to the very extent of
the law.
The Mormons have forwarded a
petition, which was presented to the Legislature of Connecticuit, on the 31st
ultimo, asking for an Asylum in Connecticut, or for aid in obtaining one
elsewhere. We certainly do not desire that any other state should be scouraged
by the location of this wickedly depraved set among them, but we at the same
time most fervently hope that they may take up their line of march from Illinois
as speedily as possible. A greater clan of imposition and rascality never were
herded together before in any part of the civilized world.