Mormon History
Anniversary of Joe's Death - 1894
The Salt Lake Tribune
June 26, 1894
ANNIVERSARY OF CARTHAGE.
The Assassination of Joseph and Hyrum Smith.
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IT WAS FIFTY YEARS AGO.
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Conditions Under Which the People Then Lived -- Nauvoo's Promise of
Becoming a Great Metropolis -- Talks With Catherine Salisbury, Sister
of Joseph and Hyrum -- Lucy Smith's "History of Joseph Smith."
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Correspondence Tribune.
Carthage, Ill., June 22, 1894.
On the 27th of this month, next Wednesday, occurs the fiftieth anniversary of
the massacre of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, the Mormon prophets, at the old stone
jail in this city. The old jail still stands, but has been greatly beautified
both externally and internally by its present owners and occupants, Mr. and Mrs.
James M. Browning. However, this anniversary will hardly be celebrated here,
unless a few curious visitors beg admission to the residence to view the dark
stains upon the oaken floor and bullet marks in the casements and windows of the
upper hallway and room where Joseph and Hyrum Smith were shot to death, and
where John Taylor, late president of the Mormon Church was wounded.
The story of the massacre is familiar to all who have made any sort of a study
of the history of Illinois. Mrs. Browning, who is so gracious to all visitors,
says that it is surprising how many different versions of the story of the
tragedy are rife. She has heard the story told in more than a dozen different
ways, and by some Mormons themselves who it is thought, should be better posted.
It is not infrequently the case that small delegations from Salt Lake visit the
old jail. Not long since a band of Mormons came to the Browning home and begged
that they might see the interior of the historic pile. All reputable people are
admitted to the building if they ask the permission. This little band of Mormons
moved about the sacred old building, and, as they gazed upon the dark, rusty
stains where the life blood of Joseph, the martyr, poured out, their tears
streamed softly down their cheeks. Some came to beg a leaf or a flower and get a
handful of earth from the place where stands the old jail. It is a historic
shrine -- the shrine of the martyred prophet.
The Mormons came to Illinois from Missouri in about 1839. They selected a site
-- the present location of Nauvoo -- on the banks of the Mississippi river, and
here began the erection of buildings for homes, workshops, tithing-houses and,
greatest of all, a magnificent temple that cost a million of dollars in money
and labor. Nauvoo bade fair to become the leading city of the West. In 1844 she
was a city of nearly 30,000 inhabitants. Joseph Smith had issued an edict that
all Mormons from all parts of the world, should come to Nauvoo, making this spot
the last place -- the new Zion -- where the work of the last days should begin.
In answer to this call the faithful began to stream into the city. The Gentiles,
so-called, the general populace of Hancock county, became alarmed at the growing
religious and political strength of the Mormons, and, as the Mormons charge,
became intensely jealous of the material, political and religious progress of
the Saints. There can be no doubt that the Illinois Legislature, of which
William Smith, a brother of the prophet, was a member by suffrage of Mormon
votes, granted unconstitutional charter to the Mormons. Under these special acts
it is claimed that Smith and his leaders did a great many illegal things. The
culmination of all the trouble, however, was the destruction of the Nauvoo
Expositor office by order of Mayor Joseph Smith, at Nauvoo, some time about the
middle of June, 1844. This led to Smith's arrest. Francis and Joseph Higbee and
others had renounced Smith and started the Expositor. But one copy was issued,
but it bristled with assaults upon Smith and the Mormons. Its publication was
ordered to be suppressed by the City Council of Nauvoo, and the press and type
were broken and thrown into the river. It is said that the press has since been
on exhibition in Chicago, but it is doubtful whether the parts were ever rescued
from the bosom of the father of waters." Joseph and Hyrum Smith, John Taylor and
a Mr. Richards were arrested and taken to the jail in Carthage. They were
treated with considerable condescension by Jailer Walker Stigall, and were
placed in a large suite in the upper story, known as the debtors' room. Smith
had prophesied his death, and evidently he expected trouble, for when the mob
did come, about 4 o'clock on the afternoon of June 27th, 1844, he fired into
them several times with an old-fashioned "pepper-box" revolver, wounding two or
three of the assailants. The mob was composed of men who wore disguises and who
did their work quickly. A detail of local military organization called the
"Carthage Grays" were stationed about the jail, but they "stood in" with the
mob. Their guns were loaded with only powder and wadding. After discharging
their rifles the "guards" ran away and joined the other citizens in leaving the
town deserted. Old Artois Hamilton and a few other brave souls remained.
Hamilton cared for the dead, and also saw that John Taylor's wounds were
dressed. He took the bodies of the Smiths to Nauvoo the following day, where in
a short address, he turned them over to the sorrowing people.
Few witnesses to that tragedy now survive. The recent death of Judge Thomas Coke
Sharpe, editor of the Carthage Gazette, removed one of the defendants charged
with the killing. He and all indicted by the grand jury for the murder were
acquited on trial. There lives near Fountain Green, in this county, Mrs.
Catherine Salisbury, a sister of the prophet Joseph Smith. She resides with her
son Fred Salisbury, who is a farmer of that section. Mother Salisbury, as she is
known, is now 82 years old, and has a remarkable memory. She resembles her noted
brother very little save in stature. Her chief resemblance is to her brother's
son, the present Joseph Smith, president of the Mormon Church at Lamoni, Ia.
A visit to this country home recently found the good lady at leisure, and as
ever, in a kindly mood to welcome visitors. She said: "Some of the newspaper men
have not always treated us right in their stories of Mormon times. And then
there have been historians who have misquoted facts, whether by accident or
design I know not, but the facts were sadly at variance. All we aks is justice.
We are not ashamed of our church, its teachings or its history. We have nothing
to conceal."
Mother Salisbury says she came to Illinois in 1838, a short time prior to the
general hegira of Mormons from Missouri into Illinois. Joseph was in bondage in
Missouri, and the Mormons first came to Quincy. As soon as Joseph was liberated
the people settled at Nauvoo. Mrs. Salisbury says their family, however, located
near the present site of Macomb. She was married to Wilkins J. Salisbury June 8,
1831, and moved with him to this State, afterwards locating at Plymouth, in this
county. She frequently visited Nauvoo during the Mormon ascendency. Her brothers
were very good to her, and every time there was a grand fete or a religious
gathering of unusual importance, they sent for Sister Catherine. "I was in
Nauvoo a few days before my brothers were brought to Carthage, where they met
their death. I shall never forget that Saturday, June 23, 1844, when I last saw
my brothers alive. Joseph had preached a sermon to the largest crowd I have ever
seen. It was his last sermon. I might say that it was more in the nature of a
prophecy than a sermon, for he said, turning on the platform where he stood and
facing some of the high priests and Elders sitting there: 'There are those among
you who will betray me soon; in fact, you have plotted to deliver me up to the
enemy to be slain.' The truth of this prophecy is of history. He was betrayed,
and by his own alleged best friends. These same fellows attempted to assume the
reigns of the church at his death. They not only attempted this, but they
attempted to introduce obnoxious teachings into the church. My nephew, the
present Joseph Smith, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints at Lamoni, Ia., is the true and only successor of Joseph Smith, the
martyr.
"I returned to my home that Saturday evening and I shall never forget the
parting with Joseph and Hyrum. That picture you hold in your hand shows how
Joseph and Hyrum were dressed as they bade me good-bye. Joseph took my hands
tenderly in his, saying: 'Good-bye, Sister Catherine. When this trouble blows
over I will come down to Plymouth and make you a visit.' Hyrum said 'Good-bye,'
simply, but with a deeper feeling than I had ever known him to entertain. It was
my farewell to them on this earth."
Mother Salisbury says that the bodies of Joseph and Hyrum Smith lie buried in
the old family burying lot near the Mansion house in Nauvoo. "There was a price
set on Joseph's head, and we concealed the bodies for a day and a night. Then we
buried them near the old home. There was no secrecy about their resting place.
When 'Aunt Emma' Smith, who later was Mrs. Major C. L. [sic. - L. C.?] Bidamon
died, her six nephews buried her near the brick vault where rest the bodies of
Joseph and Hyrum. The story that the bodies were taken to Salt Lake is without
foundation."
Mother Salisbury very kindly exhibited a number of photographs of her family to
the visitor, and loaned him a book, "The History of Joseph Smith," written by
the Prophet's mother, Lucy Smith. It gives a detailed account of the origin of
the families on both sides, and the genealogy of the families is arranged in a
methodical order. She pays a high tribute to Joseph, whom she gives a most
excellent and Christian character. She refers to his fortitude in withstanding
pain under the surgeon's knife. That she believed her son to be inspired of God,
and that his religion and all his acts were authorized from on high, appears
upon the very face of the book. She indulges in scathing criticism of the civil
authorities of Illinois and Missouri in their alleged failure to hear the
appeals of a persecuted and downtridden people. Her story of the murder of her
two sons is pathetic in the extreme.
Outside of Nauvoo few landmarks of Mormonism remain in this county. At Webster
and Fountain Green, in the vicinity of Mother Salisbury's home, there are yet
evidences of the Mormon settlements established there when those people first
came to Illinois. The old jail at Carthage and a little old brick house near by
are about the only landmarks left of the Mormon era, so far as Carthage is
concerned.
Despite the fact that the tragedy occurred fifty years ago, public interest in
the story has not grown old, nor will it ever grow old. It is like "Uncle Tom's
Cabin," in that the ever rising generation will want to hear the story, and, if
possible, visit Nauvoo and the old jail at Carthage.
There are few if any Mormons of the old school in this county. The
representatives of the Lamoni Church, however, are very numerous, and they have
several meeting-houses. These people are among the best citizens of the county.
GAY DAVIDSON
Note: For record of other interviews with Catherine Smith Salisbury, see the Lamoni, Iowa Saints' Herald of May 6, 1993, The Carthage Republican of May 16, 1894, and the The Kansas City Times of Apr. 11, 1895. The May 16, 1894 interview record is very similar to the June 24, 1894 Tribune text, but does not include Catherine's allegation that her brothers were murdered according to the secret plans of "his own alleged best friends," who can only be those members of the Council of the Twelve who remained loyal to Brigham Young.