I hope, sir, you will duly appreciate the motive which prompts me to address this letter to you, and will aid me with all your influence with your brethren in the prosecution of an object so much to be desired by all good men and citizens.
Yours very respectfully,
John F Ryland.
Departure of Camp from Salt River.
June 12.—We left Salt River and traveled about fourteen miles. The inhabitants of Salt River manifested a great respect for us, and many of them accompanied us some distance on our journey. I instructed the camp in the morning that if a gun was fired it would be considered an alarm; but in the course of the day, while I was a little ahead, I shot a squirrel for Brother Foster, when several of the brethren came running up to see what was the matter. I told them Brother Foster was sick; "I want you to pray for him."6
Reproof of Williams and Orton.
Friday 13.—Elder Kimball's horses, through the negligence of the guards, got loose and went back ten miles with others. He pursued them and returned with them to camp. Frederick G. Williams and Roger Orton received a very severe chastisement for neglect of orders in not taking care of the teams when in charge of the guard. The reproof given to Roger Orton was more particularly for suffering Elder Kimball to go back after the horses, and he was one of my life guards, and it belonged to Orton to see that the team was attended to. But as the team was Kimball's, and he had taken the care of it all through, Orton still threw the care on him. The Silver Grey company, numbering fourteen, were attached to my mess, making it twenty-eight in number.7
Enemies Eluded.
Saturday 14.—Brother Joseph Hancock and another of the brethren were chased a considerable portion of the day by four suspicious fellows on horseback, armed with guns, whom they eluded by traveling in the brush and thickets where horsemen could not ride. It was late when they returned to the camp.
At night we encamped in an unsafe and unpleasant situation in a ravine, the only place we could get water for some miles. The country was a wild and uncultivated region.
In answer to Judge Ryland, the Elders wrote as follows:
Near Liberty, June 14, 1834.
Hon. J. F. Ryland:
Dear Sir—Your communication of the 9th instant from Richmond was duly received, and at a public meeting of our society this day its contents were made known. Our brethren unanimously tender their thanks for the laudable disposition manifested on your part to effect peace between our society and the inhabitants of Jackson county; and as many as conveniently can will be present on Monday next. Entertaining some fears that your honor, in your zeal for peace, might unwarily recommend a sale of our lands in Jackson county, we have thought it expedient to give you reasonable notice, that no such proposition could possibly be acceded to by our society.
We have not heard that it was the intention of your honor to urge any such measure, but our enemies in Jackson county have long been trying to effect this object. In a letter from the governor to us, he says: "I have been requested to advise the Mormons to sell out and move away; but believing that it would have no good effect, I have withheld my advice." We give this quotation from the governor's letter to disprove the statement made in the Upper Missouri Enquirer of last Wednesday, and conclude by adding that "home is home," and that we want possession of our homes—from which we have been wickedly expelled—and those rights which belong to us as native free-born citizens of the United States.
Very respectfully, your friends and servants,
JOHN CORRILL, Chairman.
A. S. GILBERT, Secretary.
The foregoing was enclosed in the following letter to their lawyers:
GENTLEMEN—Will you be so good as to read the enclosed, then seal and hand it to the judge? We have given him an early hint, fearing that he might be induced by the solicitations of our enemies to propose a sale of our lands, which you well know would be like selling our children into slavery; and the urging of such a measure would avail nothing unless to produce an excitement against us in this county. As requested last Thursday, we hope you will be present on Monday.8
Your friends and servants,
JOHN CORRILL,
A. S. GILBERT.
To Messrs. Doniphan and Atchison.
Footnotes
1. A note in the "Addenda" of the manuscript History to the "We resumed our journey"—etc., adds: "The men who had previously followed us passed us several times during the day, and were in search of us this evening. The guard heard them say, 'They have turned aside, damn 'em, we can't find 'em.' Elders Seth Johnson and Almon W. Babbitt, who had been sent to the Bowling Green branch to gather recruits, returned to the camp on the morning of the 7th with a small company, two wagons and several horses."
2. A note in the "Addenda" to the manuscript History adds this statement, under the events of the 7th: "one of the camp walked on ahead to procure some milk. A number of men armed with guns met him and said: 'Here's one damn Mormon alone—let's kill him.' But at the same instant they discovered a number of others just coming over the hill, when they immediately rode off in great haste. In the evening encamped in a grove near a spring, in Monroe county. A branch of the Church, known as the Salt River branch, but frequently called the Allred settlement, was located here. We remained at this place several days, washing our clothes, and preparing to pursue our journey."
3. The following is given in the "Addenda" of the manuscript History as a fuller account of the events under the date of the 8th: "Sunday, 8th, we were joined by my brother Hyrum Smith and Lyman Wight, with another company, who started from Pontiac, Michigan Territory, May 5th, the same day we started from Kirtland having passed through Ann Arbor, Jacksonsburgh, Spring Arbor, Constantine, Elkhart, crossed the Illinois river one mile below Ottawa, Pleasant Grove, Pekin, Quincy and Palmyra. Elijah Fordham was their historian; Lyman Wight, steward; Hyrum Smith and Samuel Bent, moderators. We had agreed to meet at this point, and the first company that arrived was to wait for the other. Soon after the arrival of Brother Hyrum and his company, I dispatched Brother Luke Johnson and Almon W. Babbitt with messages to the brethren in Clay county, fearing that the letter which I sent from Springfield had miscarried. James Allred, Sen., and ten others of this branch joined our camp, which now numbered two hundred and five men, all armed and equipped as the law directs. It was delightful to see the company, for they were all young men, except one company whom we called the Silver Greys, and who ate at my table. We were all in good spirits, and were taught the sword practice by Brother William Cherry (who was a native of Ireland), an expert drill master who had been in the British dragoon service for upwards of twenty years, and deserves much credit for his unwearied exertions in imparting all he knew to the brethren. This was our first attempt at learning the sword exercise. Brothers Hiram Stratton and Nelson Tubbs procured a shop of Myres Mobley and repaired every firelock that was out of order, and David Elliott shod our horses. Here Brother James Foster was taken sick. I proposed to him to remain behind. He said, 'Brother Joseph, let me go with you if I die on the road.' I told him in the name of the Lord, that if that was his faith, to go on his bed in the wagon, and he should get better every day until he recovered, which was literally fulfilled."
4. Joseph Smith, however, was the commander-in-chief. The following occurs in the "Addenda" to the manuscript History: "We organized the camp. I was acknowledged commander-in-chief and Lyman Wight general."
5. This paragraph is a note in the "Addenda"