John and Rozilla Huffaker Pulsipiher
John Pulsipher
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Rozilla Huffaker
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John
Pulsipher, 1827-1891
Autobiography (1827-1891)
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN PULSIPHER
I, John Pulsipher, was born in the town of Spafford, Onondago County, state of New York, North America, on the 17th of July, 1827, this being the year that Joseph Smith got the plates which contain the Book of Mormon. When I was four years old, said book was published and one copy came into our town. Father got it and read it. He, with the neighbors, Elijah Cheney, S. Roundy and others, would sit and read and talk day and night 'till they read it thru and thru. They believed it was brought forth by the power of God, to prepare the way for the second coming of the Son of Man. It was just what they were looking for. The church of Jesus Christ was organized on the 6th of April, 1830, in the state of New York. After the angels of the Lord restored the priesthood to men on the earth, elders were ordained and sent to preach the Gospel to the world. The first elder that came into our town--viz., Jared Carter--baptized father and mother and the children that were old enough, and a number of the neighbors organized a branch of the Church, ordained father an elder and left him to preside over it. This was in January, 1832.
Father sold his farm to prepare to gather with the Saints. We moved twice in two years and in March, 1835, we moved to Kirtland, Ohio. This was the longest journey that I had ever traveled--it was 330 miles. In ten days we arrived safe, to the Stake of Zion, saw the Prophet Joseph, the commencement of a city, and foundation of a temple. Father got some land and built a house about one mile from the temple, so that we could be at the meetings and hear the instruction that was given by the Prophet and apostles. I was baptized when eight years old on Sunday, between meetings, by Elder A. W. Babbitt, in the presence of crowds of witnesses. We worked at farming, shingle making and helped build up the city and finish the temple.
All seemed to go smoothly, without much trouble till after most of the authorities of the church got their endowments, when the devil set his forces to work to see what they could do. Mobs gathered on all sides. The first elders of the church had to get away the best way they could to save their lives. They sent for their families and went to the church in Missouri. In the winter--November, December, and January of 1837--father went on a mission to Canada. I was a little over ten years old. Instead of calling on the bishop to get firewood for us, I, with the help of Charles, my younger brother who was nearly eight years old, got firewood and kept a good fire all that cold winter; and when father came home we had nearly three cords of wood piled by the house, which we had cut and hauled on a hand sled that we made. The church in Kirtland was now broken up and the poorest of the poor were left, because they could not get away. Only about ten teams were all that was in the possession of the whole of them between five and six hundred persons, but they all [Kirtland Camp] covenanted that they would go together or stay together.
This was in the spring of 1838. The presidents of the Seventy took the lead of business. They advised every man that could work to go into the country and work a few months, for horses, cattle, wagons, harnesses, money, store pay, etc., which they did. They worked and prayed and the Lord worked with them. Signs and wonders were seen and heard which caused the Saints to rejoice. One pleasant day in March, while I was at work in the woods, about one mile from the Temple, with father, Elias Pulsipher and Jesse Baker, there was a steamboat past over Kirtland in the air! It was a clear, sunshine day. When we first heard the distant noise, we all stopped work. We listened and wondered what it could be. As it drew nearer, we heard the puffing of a steamboat, intermingled with the sound of many wagons rattling over a rough stony road. We all listened with wonder but could not see what it was. It seemed to pass right over our heads; we all heard the sound of a steamboat as plain as we ever did in our lives. It passed right along and soon went out of our hearing. When it got down to the city it was seen by a number of persons. It was a large fine and beautiful boat, painted in the finest style. It was filled with people. All seemed full of joy. Old Elder Beamon, who had died a few months before was seen standing in the bow of the boat swinging his hat and singing a well known hymn. The boat went steady along over the city, passed right over the Temple and went out of sight to the west! This wonderful sight encouraged the Saints because they knew the Lord had not forgotten them. The people of Kirtland who saw the steamboat in the air said as it arrived over the Temple a part of it broke off and turned black and went north and was soon out of sight, while the boat, all in perfect shape, went to the west more beautiful and pure than before.
The power of the Lord was manifested in various ways. Angels were seen in meetings who spoke comforting words, that inasmuch as we would be faithful the Lord would help us and we should be delivered from our enemies.
In June the company met, brought in their property which had been earned and behold they had means sufficient to move all the Saints from Kirtland. The company was organized with James Foster, Zerah Pulsipher, Joseph Young, Henry Harriman, Josiah Butterfield, Benjamin Willer and Elias Smith at the head as counselors, to lead the camp.
On the 6th of July at noon the camp started all in order. The company consisted of 515 souls--249 males, 266 females, 27 tents, 59 wagons, 97 horses, 22 oxen, 69 cows and one bull. Jonathan Dunham was the Engineer and Jonathan H. Hale was the commissary. The business of the engineer was to go thru the rich settlements and towns where he could buy provisions cheap and bring a wagon load to the camp each night. The rations were given out once a day to the several families according to their number; he that gave in money and he that had none to give, all fared alike. There was a regular order in starting; the bugle was sounded for all to rise in the morning at the same time; also to tend prayers and eat breakfast at a certain time and all started together and every wagon kept in its place.
Our enemies had threatened never to let us go out of Kirtland two wagons together, but when we got ready to start, the largest company of Saints that had ever traveled together in this generation started out in good order without an enemy to oppose us. We traveled along in fine order and after a few hundred miles we got out of money and stopped and worked about a month at Dayton, Ohio, and got means to pay our way thru to Missouri. While at Dayton the devil entered our camp and got possession of one of the sisters. She was in awful pain and talked all the time and some of the time in rhyme. The Elders administered to her. The evil spirits left her and entered another person and on being rebuked again would enter another and so continued a good part of the night. But when the devil was commanded in the name of Jesus Christ to leave the camp, he went and was very mad. He went thru the whole camp, made a roaring noise, knocked over chairs, broke table legs and made awful work.
We again pursued our journey, sometimes the weather was good and sometimes bad. Sometimes our tents would blow over in the rain storms in the night when all within--beds, people and all--would get as wet as drowned mice, but we could sleep in wet beds and not get sick by it. The people in the towns, cities and country thru which we passed looked and gazed at us as we passed along. Sometimes they tried to stop us. Once they threw eggs at us just because we were Mormons. At one certain city in Missouri the people tried to stop us. They really had the artillery placed in the street. As we came up they were determined to fire the cannon right at our company, but father talked to them till finally they gave up the notion and let us pass unmolested, except a few of our head men whom they took and cast in prison but the Lord delivered them and they came on and overtook the company the next night.
We traveled in fine order, for we would have order. If people would not obey the rules and keep good order they were labored with and if they would not repent and reform they were turned out of the company.
When we got within five miles form Far West, we were met by Joseph, Hyrum and Sidney. A happy meeting it was. They were very glad to see us because they needed help. For the enemies of the Saints had never been at rest since they drove the church from their homes at Independence in 1833. It seemed that the devil was in almost every man in Missouri. They would all declare--from the governor in his chair down to the meanest man there who would stand up and swear with a bottle of whiskey in one hand and a knife in the other, that Mormons should not stay there. Joseph directed us to camp at night around the Temple cellar in Far West and then go thirty miles north to strengthen a small settlement at Adam-ondi-Ahmon. We found the handsomest country I ever saw. We bought land and went to work building houses and mills. The mobs raged all over the country, stealing cattle and horses, burning houses and driving people from their own homes, sometimes killing men and abusing women to an extent unknown even among savages.
One man was not safe out alone for if a dozen of the mob could kill one Mormon they thought it would immortalize their names. So we had to work in companies and keep our guns with us. Every man and boy that could carry a gun went into the ranks to defend the women and children. We not only took our guns to our work but slept with them at night so as to be ready to jump at any minute, when the enemy should come. We had spent about five weeks in this way when an express came from Far West stating that a great company of mob had arrived there with the exterminating orders of Governor Boggs. Joseph and Hyrum and the twelve were prisoners and Far West was in the hands of the mob. Joseph's order to us was to give up without making resistance and all will be right.
The company who called themselves militia soon came, took us prisoners, took all our arms which was our own individual property. Soon another company came and commenced firing at the unarmed prisoners. The balls whistled all around but thank God not one of us was hurt. Our orders were: we must "leave Davis County within ten days, and leave the state before seedtime in the spring" and if one of us were found there after that time the life of a Mormon would be considered no more than that of a wolf. The mob company stayed to see that the orders were executed and while they stayed they lived on our grain, pork, beef. They would shoot down poor widows' cows right by the door, burn up fences and do all the damage they could. They would even shoot a cow and cut a rope out of the hide before she was dead, to tie a horse with. We thought this a curious land of liberty and equal rights. But there was no time to be lost, for most of the Saints had no teams; they had sold them for land and now must go and leave it. Maybe you can imagine how the few teams that were there were kept going night and day till the saints were moved from Diahmon over into Caldwell County. Now we had to leave the Valley of Adam-ondi-Ahmon and the altar upon which old Father Adam stood and gave his last blessings to his children as they were assembled in the Valley to see a father bowed down with age and hear his voice as he blessed his posterity and told what would take place down to the latest generations. It was with curious feelings that I viewed this ground and the remains of this old altar as I was driving the cows by it for the last time. We had one span of small horses to draw the goods of four families. Women and children had to walk because they could not ride for want of teams. This was a terrible sight--men, women, and children driven from their homes, to travel over the cold prairies covered with snow. After traveling all day in the cold rain and snow till our clothes were wet thru we camped at night on the bleak prairie but still we were not discouraged.
Let our foes do what they will, The Mormons will be cheerful still.
We soon got out of Davis County. We went and stayed the remainder of the winter with my oldest sister and her kind husband--Horace Burgess, four miles southwest of the city of Far West. My grandmother, Elizabeth Pulsipher--who lived with us, died on the 2nd of December, being persecuted to death in a "land of liberty."
Father went up in the Platt Country some sixty miles off and worked for money to help us out of the state of Missouri. Charles and I stayed at home and got fire wood and took care of the folks the best that we could. I can't give an account here of the sufferings of our brethren who were in prison and of the many murders that were committed, the houses that were burned, the property which was destroyed and the thousands of people that were robbed of all they possessed. This is written in the church history--some of it at least. The Saints were moving all winter to the State of Illinois. The teams kept going till all the Saints were out of Missouri. Father got means to help his own family to move which consisted of nine persons. In the month of March, 1839, we started towards Illinois in company with Horace Burgess and some of our neighbors. After traveling 200 miles, we crossed the great Mississippi River and got out of Missouri and found ourselves among a people that have some humanity. We stopped to look for a home but all the houses were full.
We heard of a large tract of vacant land in the north part of Adams County and we went to it, in a company, with Horace and his father, William Burgess, senior; we made a road into the woods, called the Bear Creek timber, and stopped three miles east of Lima and twenty miles north of Quincy.
We arrived here about the middle of April. All the team the three families had was one horse, but all used the horse and all worked together and when one killed a deer it was divided among the whole. And in fact we all seemed like one family. In about one month we had three good log houses built, 12 acres of land fenced and most of it planted to corn. We caught fish, killed game, picked greens, etc. We worked and bought some corn of the old farmers who lived at a distance around us. We made roads through the woods. One way it was seven miles to a neighbor and four to another. East and west we had neighbors within three miles. Our brethren came on and settled west of us. We had neighbors within one mile. Two miles was a larger settlement made where Isaac Morley presided. There we had good meetings and much of the spirit of the Lord. We all enjoyed ourselves first rate. This place seemed more like home than any place I ever before saw. There were no mobs to disturb. We could lie down and sleep in peace. The Lord blessed the land for us and blessed us in all our labors. We came here with one animal and in two years we had twelve head of cattle, raised plenty of grain and were well clothed--all earned by our own labor. Farming and shingle making was our principal employment.
The Saints got out of Missouri and scattered about thru Illinois and the adjoining states. The Lord delivered the prophets and elders from the prisons in Missouri, for they were innocent of any crime and the Lord would not let them be killed at that time.
When Joseph Smith got out of prison, he looked for a gathering place for the Saints. He found a place, a site for a city on the east bank of the Mississippi River. He bought the land, laid out a city which he called Nauvoo. Nauvoo was appointed by revelation a gathering place and headquarters for the Saints. The people gathered in very fast, great numbers died on account of their exposure thru the persecution of Missouri.
1840: The Lord gave a commandment that a Temple [Nauvoo] should be built to His name. It seemed almost impossible for so poor a people to build such a temple in their poverty but the Lord never requires more of men than they can perform if they will go to with their might and trust in Him. Father bought a large piece of land on the prairie one mile east of the corporation of Nauvoo and in the winter he and I went and fenced land and built a small house and prepared a place to live.
1841: In February we moved to our new home, where we had plenty of hard work to make improvements on a new farm and support a large family. At the conference on the 6th of April, I witnessed the laying of the corner stones of the temple which was done according to the order of the priesthood. An immense crowd of people was present on that occasion--all filled with joy and rejoicing. The Nauvoo legion was organized with Joseph Smith at head (which was the military force of the Church), and it was a portion of the militia of the State of Illinois. I volunteered when I was 15 years old into the 4th Company of the 5th Regiment, 2nd Cohort of the Nauvoo Legion. I attended every training and tried to learn the ways of war that I might help to defend ourselves and protect the helpless from the fury of our enemies.
1842: The temple progressed with the saints that could work at it steady. The Prophet Joseph worked with his own hands, quarrying the stone for its wells when his enemies were not pursuing him. No man knows what he suffered thru persecution. Nothing of importance transpired with me, only that I had a good father who never failed to keep plenty of work laid out to keep boys busy, or as he said, "to keep boys out of mischief." I sometimes thought he was rather hard with the children but when I became older, I was thankful that he never let me go as some of our neighbors boys did, who lived without steady work, for they were soon taken to a steady home--the State's prison.
The Saints gathered in from the states and some from England and built up the city; bought land in the country till most of Hancock County was owned by the Saints and Nauvoo was the largest city in all this upper country. But the time for peace and prosperity for Mormons had not yet come but sorrow and weeping were mixed with our joy.
1844: At 5 o'clock on the 27th of June our beloved Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum the Patriarch were shot and killed at Carthage Jail by a band of about 200 painted ruffians from Missouri and Illinois. Joseph, because of the accusation of his enemies was there waiting for his trial under the pledge of the Governor Tom Ford who pledged the fate of the state for his safety. Hyrum was merely there for company.
They were both innocent of any crime and were killed without the least form of trial. John Taylor who was a visitor there, was also shot with four balls but recovered. The enemies of the Prophet knew that he was innocent. They had tried him nearly 40 times and he had proved himself clear of all their charges and all their accusations were false. They were heard to say "the law will not touch Joe Smith but powder and ball will." Thus two of the best men that ever lived were killed and the whole nation is accessory to their death, because the murderers have boasted thru the states of their heroic deeds and the first one of them has never been punished for committing that murder and what is still more strange, is that no man has ever been punished in the United States for killing a Mormon. But I believe it has been so in all ages of the world. We have no account of a man being punished for killing a prophet of the Lord.
Some of the great men of our nation thought that if they could kill the Prophet it would stop Mormonism. They knew that unless they could stop the spread of the Gospel it would turn the world upside down and Joseph Smith would be at the top, at the head of the nation, because he had proposed a policy of government which would be for the general good of the whole nation and his views united the people and they were about to elect Joseph Smith the president of the United States. Now these great men who were in office knew if he was elected they would have to work for a living and not get $25,000.00 a year for being president and not doing anything for the good of the people. But they have missed their figure this time. By killing him, they have sealed their own damnation and not hindered the work of the Lord in the least but it goes faster than ever. Joseph Smith did more for the salvation of the human family in the short time that he lived than any other man that ever lived in the world, Jesus Christ excepted. He lived to be 39 years old and endured a continued scene of persecution and oppression from the time that the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, until the time of his death. He bore testimony to the work of the Lord thru life and sealed his testimony with his own blood.
I have been with the Prophet Joseph and heard his instruction weekly and sometimes daily. The last time I heard him speak in public he spoke to the Legion. After telling over what he had passed thru and what he had suffered from men because he preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ, he says: from my boyhood up to the present time I have been hunted like a roe upon the mountains. I have never been allowed to live like other men. I have been driven, chased, stoned, whipped, robbed, mobbed, imprisoned, persecuted, accused falsely of everything bad. I have suffered till the Lord knows I have suffered enough.
After the death of the Prophet Joseph, Sidney Rigdon came and sought to place himself at the head of the Church. By his flatteries he deceived many. Just before he called a vote of the public congregation, Brigham Young, the President of the Twelve, arrived from his mission. This was a joyful meeting. The faithful knew not that Joseph had ordained Brother Brigham and the Twelve to lead the Church but they knew that the Twelve were the next quorum in authority. They that served the Lord faithful were not deceived. I went to meeting where the church met in the grove east of the Temple where President Young arose and spoke and behold he spoke with the voice of Joseph. The very moment I heard him speak (August 8th) I thought of Joseph and from that time on his voice sounded like Joseph's and from that time the Church generally were satisfied that the mantle of Joseph was on Brigham. Notwithstanding all this, Sidney Rigdon, James J. Strang, Lyman Wight, James Emmet and others led away many people from the Church.
The teaching of the Twelve was to build the Temple and finish the work that Joseph had begun. The people were obedient to counsel and exerted themselves to do all they could to accomplish the work.
On February the 9th, 1845, I was ordained to the office of a Seventy at the Seventies Hall in Nauvoo. I was placed in the Second Quorum and attended the meeting regularly and got much good instruction.
Our enemies were not satisfied with what they had done, so they continued their depredations. In the small settlements in the country the mobs collected, drove our brethren from their homes, burned their houses and grain and killed some who could not get out of the way. In the fall, the mob collected in the south part of the county and in about two weeks they burned 200 houses to ashes. The inhabitants had to flee to Nauvoo to save their lives. A great amount of grain and property was destroyed, cattle and hogs were stolen and killed almost without number. Old father Durfee was shot and killed by the mob while he was trying to save his property from the flames. Many others died from exposure after being robbed and driven into the wood. Their sufferings were so great that they could not endure it.
The Saints gathered into Nauvoo, labored and toiled to finish the temple. Our enemies at the same time were planning to drive us from our city and from the United States. In the fall the temple was dedicated to the Lord, thus far completed. Prayer pronounced by President B. Young. The building was finished with the exception of a little inside work which was done during the winter.
Seeing that the church could have no peace in the United States just because we were saints, our enemies were allowed to rob, mob, plunder and drive us from the pleasant homes that we have worked so hard to make; not satisfied with that they would kill without cause and without fear. All seemed combined from the head of government down. There was no peace for Mormons and no man punished for murdering them. Seeing this, President Young and the Twelve gave orders for the saints to prepare and in the spring start into the wilderness, to a place where we can hide up among the mountains till the Lord shall execute judgment among the wicked. This was joyful news to all Saints. They started with one accord to prepare to start. The winter was spent in building wagons and buying teams.
Most of the Saints, men and women, had the privilege of receiving their endowments, learning the order of the Priesthood, the fall and redemption of man, in the temple in the city of Joseph. Nauvoo was called by that name after the death of Joseph. I think it was in the month of January that I and my brother Charles received our endowments. The building was filled up in the nicest style. It was built according to the pattern that the Lord gave to Joseph. It was accepted of the Lord and His holy angels have ministered unto many therein and now because of persecution we must leave it and in leaving it we leave a monument of our industry which was reared in our poverty. It was the finest building in all the western country.
At the west and about 100 (?) feet from the ground was the following inscription in large gold letters:
THE HOUSE OF THE LORD
BUILT BY THE CHURCH OF
JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS
Commenced April 6th, 1841
Holiness to the Lord
At the east end of the House, inside, was arched the following sentence:
THE LORD HAS BEHELD OUR SACRIFICE, COME AFTER US
President Young, learning that our enemies were planning to come and drive us, considered it best to start before they came that they might see that we were going. He invited men to come forward with teams and provisions and go as a pioneer company, to make roads and prepare the way for the Church to follow.
On the 2nd of February, father and Charles, my brother younger than I, started having fitted out a four-horse team, with father and Wm. Burgess, and loaded it with provision and seeds. They crossed the Mississippi River with the first of the pioneer company. They were out with Pres. Young and the Twelve the remainder of that cold stormy winter, working their way westward. When their provisions were gone, they went down to the nearest settlements in Missouri and worked for more. They made a road west thru the wilderness of what afterwards became the state of Iowa. Father left me at home with the instructions to sell the property, get teams and bring the family along. On account of the people all wanting to sell so they could go and as our enemies would not give much for our possessions because they thought we would leave them and they could get them without paying, we were obliged to sell for just what we could get. About $2,000 worth of property I had to sell for $300, because I could do no better. We got teams enough so as to let Horace and William Burgess, Jr.--my brothers-in-law--have a yoke of oxen each and helped Elias Pulsipher my cousin, to some team and took the family of Wm. Burgess, senior, into one of our wagons. All things being made ready, we left our home about the 20th of May and started in pursuit of the camp of Israel, with light hearts full of joy.
After traveling five days with our light teams and heavy loads, to our great joy we met father, Charles and father Burgess coming back to get us. They supposed that we had not started and they feared that our enemies would be upon us. They had given their load to the company and returned to help us. A happy meeting it was!
We traveled till we came to a settlement on the Des Moines River and then stopped and worked about two months and got some more provisions and clothing, traded horses for oxen and on the 10th of August we started again on our journey in company with Wm. Burgess, senior, Wm. Burgess, Jr., Horace Burgess and others of our neighbors. After traveling 21 days, we passed by Garden Gove and Mr. Pisgah, resting places, where poor Saints had stopped to raise crops so they could pursue their journey. We arrived at the headquarters of the Camp of Israel on the west side of the Missouri River. This was the 1st of September. The Saints were scattered from Nauvoo to this place and many had not started because they could get no teams.
Just before our arrival at this place the government officers had been to the camp with orders for 500 men to go across the deserts and mountains to help the United States fight the Mexicans. This was a scheme instituted at the head of government to destroy us while we were fleeing from persecution! They thought the men would not leave their wives and children to perish on the prairie and go across the entire continent to fight the battle of a nation who had sought their destruction all the day long. So thinking that we would refuse to obey such an unreasonable order, thereby they would have a pretence to come upon us and kill us for rebelling against the government. Pres. Young seeing thru the whole plan, soon raised the required number of men who left their families and friends among savages without houses and with but few days rations. Under these circumstances these men bid farewell to the camp of the saints and started, under Gentile officers, traveled on foot, lived on less than half rations, worked their way across trackless deserts and stony mountains without shoes, suffered hunger thirst and fatigue, yet they murmured not. The Lord was with them and gave them strength in time of need.
Had I arrived soon enough I expect I should have been with that company but I was at work at another place and they were gone before I heard of it. This was rather a trying time to have 500 of our best men taken, leaving their helpless families as well as the widows, the sick and lame that were on our hands before. The able bodied men that were in camp were few compared with the invalids and widows that looked to those few men for their support. Seeing that it was impossible to cross the Rocky Mountains with such an unwieldy company this fall, Pres. Young selected a place to stay thru the winter. We selected a site on the flat of the Missouri River twelve miles below Old Council Bluffs. We moved to the spot and after cutting an enormous sight of hay, all hands enjoyed in building houses and digging caves and dens to winter in. Eight hundred log houses were built in a few weeks. My father in his old age, myself and brother Charles helped to build many of them. William, my youngest brother, herded the cattle. (He was 8 years old.)
Just as we had moved to this location which we call Winter Quarters, Daniel H. Wells and Wm. Cutler arrived from Nauvoo--said that a Battle had been fought in Nauvoo. Before the Saints all got started, not being able to sell their property so they could make a fitout, the mobs continued to howl around like hungry wolves for the spoil, raised an army from Illinois and Missouri and other places to the number of 12 or 1500 men. I said MEN, but I think the right name is Devils, in human shape. Well, this host of ruffians came commanded by the notorious anti-Mormons, or in other words--savage Christians, who were notorious for their zeal in seeking the destruction of Joseph and the Church that he led and laid down his life for. They supposed it would be an easy job to immortalize their name, by coming at this time when the Legion was gone and only about 100 of the poor crippled Saints left, who were mostly old and unable to run.
As I said before, this mob force knowing there was no organized force in Nauvoo, and knowing also the Mormons had given up their arms to the State by order of Gov. Ford, they thought there would be no danger, so they did actually come to put an end to the Mormons that could be found there.
Here the Lord showed forth his power in the deliverance of his Saints he inspired them with the Spirit of Fight, they were themselves as well as possible. Every man got something that he could knock the life out of them with. For cannon they got down old steamboat shafts and bored holes in, which, by the blessing of the Lord did well.
So when the enemy came they were warmly received--a hard battle ensued but they were beat back and could not get possession of the City although they tried for 3 days and could gain no power, were loosing their men by hundreds. They had sense enough to see that such a curse would not pay so they began to sue for peace, and thus ended the famous battle, being 3 of the Saints killed, who were not strictly obedient to counsel, and from 150 to 200 of the other party were left for Dung on the Land. By the officers of the State interfering the Saints were required to again give up their arms and then to move across the Mississippi River into the Territory of Iowa.
This move caused much suffering and many deaths; some hundreds of families mostly women and children with the sick turned out to the scorching heat of the sun and the storms in that sickly season--but the Lord was merciful to them and when they were about to suffer with hunger, countless numbers of quails were sent into the camp and so tame that the people could catch them with their hands and cook and satisfy hunger.
I can see some good has been done by the mob's coming and driving the remainder of the Saints from Nauvoo for some thought so much of their fine homes that they could not have them and go with the Church till they were driven and when they had lost all they could--the Lord. (sic.) They scattered out through Iowa, went to work and soon earned means to gather with the Church and soon apostatized, as common in all general moves.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN PULSIPHER
I, John Pulsipher, was born in the town of Spafford, Onondago County, state of New York, North America, on the 17th of July, 1827, this being the year that Joseph Smith got the plates which contain the Book of Mormon. When I was four years old, said book was published and one copy came into our town. Father got it and read it. He, with the neighbors, Elijah Cheney, S. Roundy and others, would sit and read and talk day and night 'till they read it thru and thru. They believed it was brought forth by the power of God, to prepare the way for the second coming of the Son of Man. It was just what they were looking for. The church of Jesus Christ was organized on the 6th of April, 1830, in the state of New York. After the angels of the Lord restored the priesthood to men on the earth, elders were ordained and sent to preach the Gospel to the world. The first elder that came into our town--viz., Jared Carter--baptized father and mother and the children that were old enough, and a number of the neighbors organized a branch of the Church, ordained father an elder and left him to preside over it. This was in January, 1832.
Father sold his farm to prepare to gather with the Saints. We moved twice in two years and in March, 1835, we moved to Kirtland, Ohio. This was the longest journey that I had ever traveled--it was 330 miles. In ten days we arrived safe, to the Stake of Zion, saw the Prophet Joseph, the commencement of a city, and foundation of a temple. Father got some land and built a house about one mile from the temple, so that we could be at the meetings and hear the instruction that was given by the Prophet and apostles. I was baptized when eight years old on Sunday, between meetings, by Elder A. W. Babbitt, in the presence of crowds of witnesses. We worked at farming, shingle making and helped build up the city and finish the temple.
All seemed to go smoothly, without much trouble till after most of the authorities of the church got their endowments, when the devil set his forces to work to see what they could do. Mobs gathered on all sides. The first elders of the church had to get away the best way they could to save their lives. They sent for their families and went to the church in Missouri. In the winter--November, December, and January of 1837--father went on a mission to Canada. I was a little over ten years old. Instead of calling on the bishop to get firewood for us, I, with the help of Charles, my younger brother who was nearly eight years old, got firewood and kept a good fire all that cold winter; and when father came home we had nearly three cords of wood piled by the house, which we had cut and hauled on a hand sled that we made. The church in Kirtland was now broken up and the poorest of the poor were left, because they could not get away. Only about ten teams were all that was in the possession of the whole of them between five and six hundred persons, but they all [Kirtland Camp] covenanted that they would go together or stay together.
This was in the spring of 1838. The presidents of the Seventy took the lead of business. They advised every man that could work to go into the country and work a few months, for horses, cattle, wagons, harnesses, money, store pay, etc., which they did. They worked and prayed and the Lord worked with them. Signs and wonders were seen and heard which caused the Saints to rejoice. One pleasant day in March, while I was at work in the woods, about one mile from the Temple, with father, Elias Pulsipher and Jesse Baker, there was a steamboat past over Kirtland in the air! It was a clear, sunshine day. When we first heard the distant noise, we all stopped work. We listened and wondered what it could be. As it drew nearer, we heard the puffing of a steamboat, intermingled with the sound of many wagons rattling over a rough stony road. We all listened with wonder but could not see what it was. It seemed to pass right over our heads; we all heard the sound of a steamboat as plain as we ever did in our lives. It passed right along and soon went out of our hearing. When it got down to the city it was seen by a number of persons. It was a large fine and beautiful boat, painted in the finest style. It was filled with people. All seemed full of joy. Old Elder Beamon, who had died a few months before was seen standing in the bow of the boat swinging his hat and singing a well known hymn. The boat went steady along over the city, passed right over the Temple and went out of sight to the west! This wonderful sight encouraged the Saints because they knew the Lord had not forgotten them. The people of Kirtland who saw the steamboat in the air said as it arrived over the Temple a part of it broke off and turned black and went north and was soon out of sight, while the boat, all in perfect shape, went to the west more beautiful and pure than before.
The power of the Lord was manifested in various ways. Angels were seen in meetings who spoke comforting words, that inasmuch as we would be faithful the Lord would help us and we should be delivered from our enemies.
In June the company met, brought in their property which had been earned and behold they had means sufficient to move all the Saints from Kirtland. The company was organized with James Foster, Zerah Pulsipher, Joseph Young, Henry Harriman, Josiah Butterfield, Benjamin Willer and Elias Smith at the head as counselors, to lead the camp.
On the 6th of July at noon the camp started all in order. The company consisted of 515 souls--249 males, 266 females, 27 tents, 59 wagons, 97 horses, 22 oxen, 69 cows and one bull. Jonathan Dunham was the Engineer and Jonathan H. Hale was the commissary. The business of the engineer was to go thru the rich settlements and towns where he could buy provisions cheap and bring a wagon load to the camp each night. The rations were given out once a day to the several families according to their number; he that gave in money and he that had none to give, all fared alike. There was a regular order in starting; the bugle was sounded for all to rise in the morning at the same time; also to tend prayers and eat breakfast at a certain time and all started together and every wagon kept in its place.
Our enemies had threatened never to let us go out of Kirtland two wagons together, but when we got ready to start, the largest company of Saints that had ever traveled together in this generation started out in good order without an enemy to oppose us. We traveled along in fine order and after a few hundred miles we got out of money and stopped and worked about a month at Dayton, Ohio, and got means to pay our way thru to Missouri. While at Dayton the devil entered our camp and got possession of one of the sisters. She was in awful pain and talked all the time and some of the time in rhyme. The Elders administered to her. The evil spirits left her and entered another person and on being rebuked again would enter another and so continued a good part of the night. But when the devil was commanded in the name of Jesus Christ to leave the camp, he went and was very mad. He went thru the whole camp, made a roaring noise, knocked over chairs, broke table legs and made awful work.
We again pursued our journey, sometimes the weather was good and sometimes bad. Sometimes our tents would blow over in the rain storms in the night when all within--beds, people and all--would get as wet as drowned mice, but we could sleep in wet beds and not get sick by it. The people in the towns, cities and country thru which we passed looked and gazed at us as we passed along. Sometimes they tried to stop us. Once they threw eggs at us just because we were Mormons. At one certain city in Missouri the people tried to stop us. They really had the artillery placed in the street. As we came up they were determined to fire the cannon right at our company, but father talked to them till finally they gave up the notion and let us pass unmolested, except a few of our head men whom they took and cast in prison but the Lord delivered them and they came on and overtook the company the next night.
We traveled in fine order, for we would have order. If people would not obey the rules and keep good order they were labored with and if they would not repent and reform they were turned out of the company.
When we got within five miles form Far West, we were met by Joseph, Hyrum and Sidney. A happy meeting it was. They were very glad to see us because they needed help. For the enemies of the Saints had never been at rest since they drove the church from their homes at Independence in 1833. It seemed that the devil was in almost every man in Missouri. They would all declare--from the governor in his chair down to the meanest man there who would stand up and swear with a bottle of whiskey in one hand and a knife in the other, that Mormons should not stay there. Joseph directed us to camp at night around the Temple cellar in Far West and then go thirty miles north to strengthen a small settlement at Adam-ondi-Ahmon. We found the handsomest country I ever saw. We bought land and went to work building houses and mills. The mobs raged all over the country, stealing cattle and horses, burning houses and driving people from their own homes, sometimes killing men and abusing women to an extent unknown even among savages.
One man was not safe out alone for if a dozen of the mob could kill one Mormon they thought it would immortalize their names. So we had to work in companies and keep our guns with us. Every man and boy that could carry a gun went into the ranks to defend the women and children. We not only took our guns to our work but slept with them at night so as to be ready to jump at any minute, when the enemy should come. We had spent about five weeks in this way when an express came from Far West stating that a great company of mob had arrived there with the exterminating orders of Governor Boggs. Joseph and Hyrum and the twelve were prisoners and Far West was in the hands of the mob. Joseph's order to us was to give up without making resistance and all will be right.
The company who called themselves militia soon came, took us prisoners, took all our arms which was our own individual property. Soon another company came and commenced firing at the unarmed prisoners. The balls whistled all around but thank God not one of us was hurt. Our orders were: we must "leave Davis County within ten days, and leave the state before seedtime in the spring" and if one of us were found there after that time the life of a Mormon would be considered no more than that of a wolf. The mob company stayed to see that the orders were executed and while they stayed they lived on our grain, pork, beef. They would shoot down poor widows' cows right by the door, burn up fences and do all the damage they could. They would even shoot a cow and cut a rope out of the hide before she was dead, to tie a horse with. We thought this a curious land of liberty and equal rights. But there was no time to be lost, for most of the Saints had no teams; they had sold them for land and now must go and leave it. Maybe you can imagine how the few teams that were there were kept going night and day till the saints were moved from Diahmon over into Caldwell County. Now we had to leave the Valley of Adam-ondi-Ahmon and the altar upon which old Father Adam stood and gave his last blessings to his children as they were assembled in the Valley to see a father bowed down with age and hear his voice as he blessed his posterity and told what would take place down to the latest generations. It was with curious feelings that I viewed this ground and the remains of this old altar as I was driving the cows by it for the last time. We had one span of small horses to draw the goods of four families. Women and children had to walk because they could not ride for want of teams. This was a terrible sight--men, women, and children driven from their homes, to travel over the cold prairies covered with snow. After traveling all day in the cold rain and snow till our clothes were wet thru we camped at night on the bleak prairie but still we were not discouraged.
Let our foes do what they will, The Mormons will be cheerful still.
We soon got out of Davis County. We went and stayed the remainder of the winter with my oldest sister and her kind husband--Horace Burgess, four miles southwest of the city of Far West. My grandmother, Elizabeth Pulsipher--who lived with us, died on the 2nd of December, being persecuted to death in a "land of liberty."
Father went up in the Platt Country some sixty miles off and worked for money to help us out of the state of Missouri. Charles and I stayed at home and got fire wood and took care of the folks the best that we could. I can't give an account here of the sufferings of our brethren who were in prison and of the many murders that were committed, the houses that were burned, the property which was destroyed and the thousands of people that were robbed of all they possessed. This is written in the church history--some of it at least. The Saints were moving all winter to the State of Illinois. The teams kept going till all the Saints were out of Missouri. Father got means to help his own family to move which consisted of nine persons. In the month of March, 1839, we started towards Illinois in company with Horace Burgess and some of our neighbors. After traveling 200 miles, we crossed the great Mississippi River and got out of Missouri and found ourselves among a people that have some humanity. We stopped to look for a home but all the houses were full.
We heard of a large tract of vacant land in the north part of Adams County and we went to it, in a company, with Horace and his father, William Burgess, senior; we made a road into the woods, called the Bear Creek timber, and stopped three miles east of Lima and twenty miles north of Quincy.
We arrived here about the middle of April. All the team the three families had was one horse, but all used the horse and all worked together and when one killed a deer it was divided among the whole. And in fact we all seemed like one family. In about one month we had three good log houses built, 12 acres of land fenced and most of it planted to corn. We caught fish, killed game, picked greens, etc. We worked and bought some corn of the old farmers who lived at a distance around us. We made roads through the woods. One way it was seven miles to a neighbor and four to another. East and west we had neighbors within three miles. Our brethren came on and settled west of us. We had neighbors within one mile. Two miles was a larger settlement made where Isaac Morley presided. There we had good meetings and much of the spirit of the Lord. We all enjoyed ourselves first rate. This place seemed more like home than any place I ever before saw. There were no mobs to disturb. We could lie down and sleep in peace. The Lord blessed the land for us and blessed us in all our labors. We came here with one animal and in two years we had twelve head of cattle, raised plenty of grain and were well clothed--all earned by our own labor. Farming and shingle making was our principal employment.
The Saints got out of Missouri and scattered about thru Illinois and the adjoining states. The Lord delivered the prophets and elders from the prisons in Missouri, for they were innocent of any crime and the Lord would not let them be killed at that time.
When Joseph Smith got out of prison, he looked for a gathering place for the Saints. He found a place, a site for a city on the east bank of the Mississippi River. He bought the land, laid out a city which he called Nauvoo. Nauvoo was appointed by revelation a gathering place and headquarters for the Saints. The people gathered in very fast, great numbers died on account of their exposure thru the persecution of Missouri.
1840: The Lord gave a commandment that a Temple [Nauvoo] should be built to His name. It seemed almost impossible for so poor a people to build such a temple in their poverty but the Lord never requires more of men than they can perform if they will go to with their might and trust in Him. Father bought a large piece of land on the prairie one mile east of the corporation of Nauvoo and in the winter he and I went and fenced land and built a small house and prepared a place to live.
1841: In February we moved to our new home, where we had plenty of hard work to make improvements on a new farm and support a large family. At the conference on the 6th of April, I witnessed the laying of the corner stones of the temple which was done according to the order of the priesthood. An immense crowd of people was present on that occasion--all filled with joy and rejoicing. The Nauvoo legion was organized with Joseph Smith at head (which was the military force of the Church), and it was a portion of the militia of the State of Illinois. I volunteered when I was 15 years old into the 4th Company of the 5th Regiment, 2nd Cohort of the Nauvoo Legion. I attended every training and tried to learn the ways of war that I might help to defend ourselves and protect the helpless from the fury of our enemies.
1842: The temple progressed with the saints that could work at it steady. The Prophet Joseph worked with his own hands, quarrying the stone for its wells when his enemies were not pursuing him. No man knows what he suffered thru persecution. Nothing of importance transpired with me, only that I had a good father who never failed to keep plenty of work laid out to keep boys busy, or as he said, "to keep boys out of mischief." I sometimes thought he was rather hard with the children but when I became older, I was thankful that he never let me go as some of our neighbors boys did, who lived without steady work, for they were soon taken to a steady home--the State's prison.
The Saints gathered in from the states and some from England and built up the city; bought land in the country till most of Hancock County was owned by the Saints and Nauvoo was the largest city in all this upper country. But the time for peace and prosperity for Mormons had not yet come but sorrow and weeping were mixed with our joy.
1844: At 5 o'clock on the 27th of June our beloved Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum the Patriarch were shot and killed at Carthage Jail by a band of about 200 painted ruffians from Missouri and Illinois. Joseph, because of the accusation of his enemies was there waiting for his trial under the pledge of the Governor Tom Ford who pledged the fate of the state for his safety. Hyrum was merely there for company.
They were both innocent of any crime and were killed without the least form of trial. John Taylor who was a visitor there, was also shot with four balls but recovered. The enemies of the Prophet knew that he was innocent. They had tried him nearly 40 times and he had proved himself clear of all their charges and all their accusations were false. They were heard to say "the law will not touch Joe Smith but powder and ball will." Thus two of the best men that ever lived were killed and the whole nation is accessory to their death, because the murderers have boasted thru the states of their heroic deeds and the first one of them has never been punished for committing that murder and what is still more strange, is that no man has ever been punished in the United States for killing a Mormon. But I believe it has been so in all ages of the world. We have no account of a man being punished for killing a prophet of the Lord.
Some of the great men of our nation thought that if they could kill the Prophet it would stop Mormonism. They knew that unless they could stop the spread of the Gospel it would turn the world upside down and Joseph Smith would be at the top, at the head of the nation, because he had proposed a policy of government which would be for the general good of the whole nation and his views united the people and they were about to elect Joseph Smith the president of the United States. Now these great men who were in office knew if he was elected they would have to work for a living and not get $25,000.00 a year for being president and not doing anything for the good of the people. But they have missed their figure this time. By killing him, they have sealed their own damnation and not hindered the work of the Lord in the least but it goes faster than ever. Joseph Smith did more for the salvation of the human family in the short time that he lived than any other man that ever lived in the world, Jesus Christ excepted. He lived to be 39 years old and endured a continued scene of persecution and oppression from the time that the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, until the time of his death. He bore testimony to the work of the Lord thru life and sealed his testimony with his own blood.
I have been with the Prophet Joseph and heard his instruction weekly and sometimes daily. The last time I heard him speak in public he spoke to the Legion. After telling over what he had passed thru and what he had suffered from men because he preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ, he says: from my boyhood up to the present time I have been hunted like a roe upon the mountains. I have never been allowed to live like other men. I have been driven, chased, stoned, whipped, robbed, mobbed, imprisoned, persecuted, accused falsely of everything bad. I have suffered till the Lord knows I have suffered enough.
After the death of the Prophet Joseph, Sidney Rigdon came and sought to place himself at the head of the Church. By his flatteries he deceived many. Just before he called a vote of the public congregation, Brigham Young, the President of the Twelve, arrived from his mission. This was a joyful meeting. The faithful knew not that Joseph had ordained Brother Brigham and the Twelve to lead the Church but they knew that the Twelve were the next quorum in authority. They that served the Lord faithful were not deceived. I went to meeting where the church met in the grove east of the Temple where President Young arose and spoke and behold he spoke with the voice of Joseph. The very moment I heard him speak (August 8th) I thought of Joseph and from that time on his voice sounded like Joseph's and from that time the Church generally were satisfied that the mantle of Joseph was on Brigham. Notwithstanding all this, Sidney Rigdon, James J. Strang, Lyman Wight, James Emmet and others led away many people from the Church.
The teaching of the Twelve was to build the Temple and finish the work that Joseph had begun. The people were obedient to counsel and exerted themselves to do all they could to accomplish the work.
On February the 9th, 1845, I was ordained to the office of a Seventy at the Seventies Hall in Nauvoo. I was placed in the Second Quorum and attended the meeting regularly and got much good instruction.
Our enemies were not satisfied with what they had done, so they continued their depredations. In the small settlements in the country the mobs collected, drove our brethren from their homes, burned their houses and grain and killed some who could not get out of the way. In the fall, the mob collected in the south part of the county and in about two weeks they burned 200 houses to ashes. The inhabitants had to flee to Nauvoo to save their lives. A great amount of grain and property was destroyed, cattle and hogs were stolen and killed almost without number. Old father Durfee was shot and killed by the mob while he was trying to save his property from the flames. Many others died from exposure after being robbed and driven into the wood. Their sufferings were so great that they could not endure it.
The Saints gathered into Nauvoo, labored and toiled to finish the temple. Our enemies at the same time were planning to drive us from our city and from the United States. In the fall the temple was dedicated to the Lord, thus far completed. Prayer pronounced by President B. Young. The building was finished with the exception of a little inside work which was done during the winter.
Seeing that the church could have no peace in the United States just because we were saints, our enemies were allowed to rob, mob, plunder and drive us from the pleasant homes that we have worked so hard to make; not satisfied with that they would kill without cause and without fear. All seemed combined from the head of government down. There was no peace for Mormons and no man punished for murdering them. Seeing this, President Young and the Twelve gave orders for the saints to prepare and in the spring start into the wilderness, to a place where we can hide up among the mountains till the Lord shall execute judgment among the wicked. This was joyful news to all Saints. They started with one accord to prepare to start. The winter was spent in building wagons and buying teams.
Most of the Saints, men and women, had the privilege of receiving their endowments, learning the order of the Priesthood, the fall and redemption of man, in the temple in the city of Joseph. Nauvoo was called by that name after the death of Joseph. I think it was in the month of January that I and my brother Charles received our endowments. The building was filled up in the nicest style. It was built according to the pattern that the Lord gave to Joseph. It was accepted of the Lord and His holy angels have ministered unto many therein and now because of persecution we must leave it and in leaving it we leave a monument of our industry which was reared in our poverty. It was the finest building in all the western country.
At the west and about 100 (?) feet from the ground was the following inscription in large gold letters:
THE HOUSE OF THE LORD
BUILT BY THE CHURCH OF
JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS
Commenced April 6th, 1841
Holiness to the Lord
At the east end of the House, inside, was arched the following sentence:
THE LORD HAS BEHELD OUR SACRIFICE, COME AFTER US
President Young, learning that our enemies were planning to come and drive us, considered it best to start before they came that they might see that we were going. He invited men to come forward with teams and provisions and go as a pioneer company, to make roads and prepare the way for the Church to follow.
On the 2nd of February, father and Charles, my brother younger than I, started having fitted out a four-horse team, with father and Wm. Burgess, and loaded it with provision and seeds. They crossed the Mississippi River with the first of the pioneer company. They were out with Pres. Young and the Twelve the remainder of that cold stormy winter, working their way westward. When their provisions were gone, they went down to the nearest settlements in Missouri and worked for more. They made a road west thru the wilderness of what afterwards became the state of Iowa. Father left me at home with the instructions to sell the property, get teams and bring the family along. On account of the people all wanting to sell so they could go and as our enemies would not give much for our possessions because they thought we would leave them and they could get them without paying, we were obliged to sell for just what we could get. About $2,000 worth of property I had to sell for $300, because I could do no better. We got teams enough so as to let Horace and William Burgess, Jr.--my brothers-in-law--have a yoke of oxen each and helped Elias Pulsipher my cousin, to some team and took the family of Wm. Burgess, senior, into one of our wagons. All things being made ready, we left our home about the 20th of May and started in pursuit of the camp of Israel, with light hearts full of joy.
After traveling five days with our light teams and heavy loads, to our great joy we met father, Charles and father Burgess coming back to get us. They supposed that we had not started and they feared that our enemies would be upon us. They had given their load to the company and returned to help us. A happy meeting it was!
We traveled till we came to a settlement on the Des Moines River and then stopped and worked about two months and got some more provisions and clothing, traded horses for oxen and on the 10th of August we started again on our journey in company with Wm. Burgess, senior, Wm. Burgess, Jr., Horace Burgess and others of our neighbors. After traveling 21 days, we passed by Garden Gove and Mr. Pisgah, resting places, where poor Saints had stopped to raise crops so they could pursue their journey. We arrived at the headquarters of the Camp of Israel on the west side of the Missouri River. This was the 1st of September. The Saints were scattered from Nauvoo to this place and many had not started because they could get no teams.
Just before our arrival at this place the government officers had been to the camp with orders for 500 men to go across the deserts and mountains to help the United States fight the Mexicans. This was a scheme instituted at the head of government to destroy us while we were fleeing from persecution! They thought the men would not leave their wives and children to perish on the prairie and go across the entire continent to fight the battle of a nation who had sought their destruction all the day long. So thinking that we would refuse to obey such an unreasonable order, thereby they would have a pretence to come upon us and kill us for rebelling against the government. Pres. Young seeing thru the whole plan, soon raised the required number of men who left their families and friends among savages without houses and with but few days rations. Under these circumstances these men bid farewell to the camp of the saints and started, under Gentile officers, traveled on foot, lived on less than half rations, worked their way across trackless deserts and stony mountains without shoes, suffered hunger thirst and fatigue, yet they murmured not. The Lord was with them and gave them strength in time of need.
Had I arrived soon enough I expect I should have been with that company but I was at work at another place and they were gone before I heard of it. This was rather a trying time to have 500 of our best men taken, leaving their helpless families as well as the widows, the sick and lame that were on our hands before. The able bodied men that were in camp were few compared with the invalids and widows that looked to those few men for their support. Seeing that it was impossible to cross the Rocky Mountains with such an unwieldy company this fall, Pres. Young selected a place to stay thru the winter. We selected a site on the flat of the Missouri River twelve miles below Old Council Bluffs. We moved to the spot and after cutting an enormous sight of hay, all hands enjoyed in building houses and digging caves and dens to winter in. Eight hundred log houses were built in a few weeks. My father in his old age, myself and brother Charles helped to build many of them. William, my youngest brother, herded the cattle. (He was 8 years old.)
Just as we had moved to this location which we call Winter Quarters, Daniel H. Wells and Wm. Cutler arrived from Nauvoo--said that a Battle had been fought in Nauvoo. Before the Saints all got started, not being able to sell their property so they could make a fitout, the mobs continued to howl around like hungry wolves for the spoil, raised an army from Illinois and Missouri and other places to the number of 12 or 1500 men. I said MEN, but I think the right name is Devils, in human shape. Well, this host of ruffians came commanded by the notorious anti-Mormons, or in other words--savage Christians, who were notorious for their zeal in seeking the destruction of Joseph and the Church that he led and laid down his life for. They supposed it would be an easy job to immortalize their name, by coming at this time when the Legion was gone and only about 100 of the poor crippled Saints left, who were mostly old and unable to run.
As I said before, this mob force knowing there was no organized force in Nauvoo, and knowing also the Mormons had given up their arms to the State by order of Gov. Ford, they thought there would be no danger, so they did actually come to put an end to the Mormons that could be found there.
Here the Lord showed forth his power in the deliverance of his Saints he inspired them with the Spirit of Fight, they were themselves as well as possible. Every man got something that he could knock the life out of them with. For cannon they got down old steamboat shafts and bored holes in, which, by the blessing of the Lord did well.
So when the enemy came they were warmly received--a hard battle ensued but they were beat back and could not get possession of the City although they tried for 3 days and could gain no power, were loosing their men by hundreds. They had sense enough to see that such a curse would not pay so they began to sue for peace, and thus ended the famous battle, being 3 of the Saints killed, who were not strictly obedient to counsel, and from 150 to 200 of the other party were left for Dung on the Land. By the officers of the State interfering the Saints were required to again give up their arms and then to move across the Mississippi River into the Territory of Iowa.
This move caused much suffering and many deaths; some hundreds of families mostly women and children with the sick turned out to the scorching heat of the sun and the storms in that sickly season--but the Lord was merciful to them and when they were about to suffer with hunger, countless numbers of quails were sent into the camp and so tame that the people could catch them with their hands and cook and satisfy hunger.
I can see some good has been done by the mob's coming and driving the remainder of the Saints from Nauvoo for some thought so much of their fine homes that they could not have them and go with the Church till they were driven and when they had lost all they could--the Lord. (sic.) They scattered out through Iowa, went to work and soon earned means to gather with the Church and soon apostatized, as common in all general moves.
Rozilla Huffaker Pulsipher
1837 - 1871
A SHORT SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF ROZILLA HUFFAKER WRITTEN BY HERSELF
I, Rozilla Huffaker Pulsipher, daughter of Simpson D. and Susan G Huffaker, was born in Bureau County, Illinois, January 24, 1837. My father came from Kentucky and he worked and made a farm here in the country when it was new. He was living here when he first heard the gospel preached. He was baptized by, William Anderson the year of 1842. In the year 1845 we moved to Nauvoo. Here my mother died Sept. 20, 1845 with measles, persecutions and hardships, giving her life for the sake of the Gospel. A baby girl died and was buried in the same grave. I was the oldest child, nine years of age, in a family of five children. My father married again to Elizabeth Melvina Richardson--and a good mother she was)
We lived hereto witness the finishing of the temple and the destruction of our property. We were driven across the Mississippi River and had to flee for safety. Then we moved to Iowa to stay through the winter. This was in 1846 and in the spring of 1847 we started to cross over to the Rocky Mountains. We traveled until we came to the Great Salt Lake Valley, arriving on the 6th day of October, 1847, where we built log houses and made a fort to keep the Indians from killing us. We lived in a fort two years then we moved out seven or eight miles from the city. Helped to make the first settlement here and helped to kill the crickets. Made a home among the Rocky Mountains where we hoped to be out of reach of mobs.
December 19, 1850 my sister Sarah Malinda died of a sickness of two weeks. The disease was inflammation of the lungs.
I will write a few lines that I have penned on her death:
Twas’ on a dark and cloudy night
The moon and stars could give no light
I saw a light spot on the wall
I ran and told the news to all.
The family run along with me
In the other room the spot to see
The light they saw at the next breath
They said it was a sign of death.
My dear sister Sarah said,
“I have a hard pain my head
It’s me that is going to die.”
These words she said we knew not why.
We did not believe one word she said
And as happy as ever we went to bed.
But ere two weeks had past away
Our sister in her grave did lay.
And as she on her death bed lay
“Let me go, Let me go,” she did say
And when in the grave her body lay
We thought of what we’d heard her say.
Her body’s laid away to rest
Her spirit dwells with the blest
Where all the faithful spirits go
When they’re freed from this world of woe.
The time is near when we shall meet
Then all our faithful friends we’ll greet
When pain and sorrow all is over
And death will trouble us no more.
In the year 1851 I went to school a part of the time. In September 1852 my half-sister, Harriet Relief, died. On the 28th day of September my father took him another wife whose name was Elizabeth Brady. In June 1853 I went to the city to live and I hired out to work for one Elizabeth Foster. There got acquainted with one John Pulsipher, a young man who had left the state of New York and came to Utah with the exodus of Saints in 1848. On the 4th of November, 1853 we were married at my father’s house--this being the first wedding in the family. A large crowd of relatives and friends were there to witness the ceremony and partake of the big feast that followed. Our marriage covenant was sealed according to the Celestial order of Heaven by President Heber C, Kimball, March 20, 1854 when I received my endowments at the Endowment house built on the Temple block. Then I moved to the city.
On November 6th, 1854 our eldest daughter Elzina was born. On the 6th of April, 1855, at conference my husband was called to take a mission among - the Shoshone Indians at Fort Supply. He arranged his business affairs, then moved me and his child in a room with his mother. He left on the 17th of May. He composed the following lines of poetry on the day he left, which I will write in my history:
Adieu, adieu, my friend adieu,
The time has come to part with you
I leave my home and friends so dear,
And I to other parts will steer.
‘Tis not for gold or wealth I go,
Or any riches here below- I go because it’s my Master’s will,
I go my calling to fulfill.
Farewell my kind and faithful friend
Keep these few lines that I have penned;
Be sure and ne’er forget to pray,
And do your duty day by day.
I leave our first dear child with you,
And hope you’ll teach her how to do.
No more at present can I tell--
So friends and neighbors all farewell.
----John Pulsipher--
I assisted in doing outside chores, such as milking cows, etc. I made
a large number of buckskin gloves for which I had ready sale for them in the stores in the city, or exchange for necessities for the home. Some were made very simple, these were cheaper and only came to the wrist. Others were more expensive, these had more embroidery work and a large gauntlet, some of which would bring a price of $25.00 a pair.
I received letters from my husband once or twice a month. He was on this mission six months, raised a crop there that season and in November he came home to visit with his family and to stay the winter.
In the spring of 1856 the Brethren of that mission were called to take their families there too. So we started on April 16 on our journey. His father gave him a pair of two-year old steers that were not broke and a cow. My father gave me a cow. We yoked them all together and a pair of steers belonging to Brother A. G. Green. This made a very lively team hitched to a little wagon and traveled over mountains, snow banks and rivers, Weber and Bear. I was the first white woman in the fort, others followed later. We were nine days going. It was a cold stormy time, snowed six inches the night we got there. Then we commenced farming. We made a garden the first thing and put in something to live on during the coming winter.
He went to work getting house logs for a small one-room house. In one week he had it ready to move into. I hoed garden, picked wild berries, and did housework. On the 16 and 17 of July we had some very cold weather. Water froze one-fourth inch thick. Killed some of our crops and garden.
This fall, 1856, father, mother and Brother-in-law came by Fort Bridger on their way to the states. Fort Bridger was about twelve miles from our fort, so we traveled on and camped with them twelve miles farther on. We had a very good visit. They are going for property and visit with their relatives. I felt sorry to see them on their way to the States and feared the Indians would kill them, as they had killed some before. We gathered our crops, but could not get it completed as the winter commenced Sept. 6th with the first snow. Everything was killed that could be by frost--corn, green beans, peas and other tender plants.
On the 2nd of December had a daughter born dead. I got along first- rate and enjoyed myself very well. In about a week we received a letter from my husband mother stating that my sister, Sidnah, and two little brothers were dead. They died with the small-pox. This grieved me very much, as it was an only sister and I could not see her. Father and mother were gone from home. About this time the hand-cart companies came along here, almost starving and a great many of them nearly frozen to death; and some of their feet almost frozen off. It was thought best to call some teams from Fort Supply to help them into the valley. Some of them stopped with us at our Fort and also some wagon companies that could not get into the valley. We had a happy time during the winter together. There were theaters a part of this winter, a dancing school, Indian schools and meetings so it was a short winter. We received letters from our friends in the valley. We got letter from my brother-in-law, Charles Pulsipher, stating that our brother William was suffering from Brain Fever and had been for three or four weeks. We fasted and prayed for him, and presently he got well and is healthy.
Jan. 1, 1857 we attended a New Year’s party. It went off first-rate. There was a hand-cart girl who had lost her parents that lived with us a part of the winter. In the spring she was married to John Long and went to Fort Bridger to live.
In the month of April we took a journey of seven days to the valley for
a visit and to get some necessities. We found our friends all well. We made a visit of one week and then started home again for fear of high water, as it was rising when we left. We had two rivers to cross--the bear and the Weber.
When we got home we found all right. Our President had gotten there. He had been to the valley to get married and had taken him two wives. We finished our planting as soon as we could and farmed and ran a saw mill thus passed away the summer. This fall we began to harvest wheat, potatoes and other vegetables. President Young sent a letter to our President for us all to move to the valley as the United States Troops were on their way to the valley and would pass our Fort. We expected they were for war.
About this time my father and mother came along from the States. They came up to our Fort to see us. It was twelve miles South-East from Bridger. They brought us some presents. They went to the valley and we tarried for a while, then we moved too. All our houses were burned-crops hidden, etc, so the enemy could receive no benefit from it. We started and on the first day journey we broke our wagon got it fixed to go on. A false report reached us that the troops were hard after us to get in the main road ahead of us, so we traveled all night to get ahead of them. If there was any fighting to be done we wanted to be ahead of them. They camped and we kept ahead. We got in the valley on October 5th and found our friends all well.
In a few days my husband volunteered as a guard and slept at a guard house to be ready to meet our enemy if necessary in the night-time, for we were not going to let them come into the valley this winter. He started to Echo Canyon on November 1st. He stayed five weeks then returned again to his family and tarried a season at home.
On January 14, 1858, our daughter, Emily Sariah, was born. My oldest daughter was very sick for several weeks. She was a healthy child in a short time. We moved on the farm about three miles from the city in the spring.
Council was given for Saints to journey to the south. John was in Echo canyon at the time. We were fixing to move and he came home to help to move us away. All the men were called home from the Canyon. The enemies had given up all ideas of coming into the valley.
John’s father and mother went first to the South, and his sister’s boy who had been with them, returned with the teams for us. Brother John Alger drove one team and brother Charles Pulsipher drove the loose stock. We moved to Springville, about fifty miles south of the city, arriving about April 25. John was appointed to remain at the city to guard and raise the crops. A few men stayed for that purpose. All the women and children were moved away.
There was a continual trail, or living stream of travelers on all roads leading to the South. The Saints are leaving their much loved homes, garden shade and fruit trees and go joyfully to the hardships and trials of camp life.
In July Colonel Thomas L. Kane, an old friend of this people, seeing the situation of this people, came in haste from Washington D. C. to this place and then to the army. He finally got Governor Cummins to leave the army and come to Salt Lake City. They made a treaty with President Young. Then Pres. Young sent word to all the Saints that wished could return to their homes in peace and safety. We, like many others, had to live out in the open air and many times have been wet through in our beds in severe rain storms, but the Lord gave strength according to our work. My husband brought the word to move back home. This was something new in our history to return to our homes that we had been deprived of by our enemies. Words cannot express the joy felt by the people when the time arrived for them to return to their comfort able homes seeing our husbands and father so soon and having the privilege of returning to our home. We arrived home on July 9th.
The U.S. Army were permitted to come into the valley before our return. Instead of doing as they boasted they would do with the Mormon women, they passed through the deserted city, and camped outside of the city. My husband went over to the camp and sold them a treat of garden vegetables, butter and cheese. It sold as fast as he could hand it out. He got nearly $100.00 and was home at night. This proved a blessing.
The following winter no meetings were held, although we had comfortable times. We found plenty to read, study, and meditate on. The spring of 1859 came. We put in our crops as usual, and my husband took a herd of cattle an sheep. He hired a boy to herd them and I made butter and cheese. I helped shear the sheep, wash and cord the wool and spin it into yarn and thread. I made my own dye, gathering the yellow of golden-rod flowers along the hills to make the yellow dye. Raised madder in my garden to make the red dye. We could buy the indigo and by mixing colors made many other shades. The heavier cloth that I wove was made into men’s clothing, the finer pieces were made into dresses and underwear. I spun and did other work that was necessary for the house-wife to perform.
On the 20th of November I had another daughter and called her Mary Elizabeth, after John’s mother and my step-mother. We raised good crops of corn and other things. Wintered on the old farm of Father Pulsipher’s, then in the spring we moved on a place of our own, not far from the old farm. Planted a garden and set out fruit trees. The water failed, so we did not raise any garden, but had a good crop of wheat in the field below.
A PROMISE
I hereby promise never to complain of my living if I can only have plenty of good white flour. (This winter we had to grind wheat in a coffee mill.)
Rozilla Huffaker----Fort Supply----January, 1857.
At an evening meeting in the city my husband was informed that he was selected for a missionary to the south, which was known as the Cotton Mission. This was very unexpected to us. Volunteers had been called but he didn’t think it meant him for we had a good home and was well satisfied and had plenty to do, but when Apostle George A. Smith told him that he was selected to go we saw the importance of the mission to sustain Israel in the mountains. We had need of possession in a warmer climate and thought it might as well be us as any one else. Then the spirit of the mission came upon us and I felt to thank the Lord that we were worthy to go. My husband offered to leave me and my children with his mother until spring and he would do all he could to make a home to bring me to. But I wanted to go with him, was willing to leave my parents and would prefer to go and help to make a home in this far south. We had just got the farm into cultivation so we could raise produce enough in one year to last the few years, probably a dozen.
There were about two hundred or our friends and relatives mostly old and worthy members of the church, which made a very good company. Brother Brigham wished us to go over the rim of the Great Basin south and down until we came to the mild climate along the Rio Virgin River where we could raise cotton, cane, and fruits which were needed. He blessed us and wished us to go and live the religion of Jesus Christ and we would yet see the importance of this mission. Those who had loose stock formed a company, traveled along comfortable with our flocks and slow teams through the mud, rain, and snow and some cold wintry weather before we got over the rim of the Basin. Worked the road and arrived at the site where St. George was to be built.
December 24, 1861: A few wagons were here before us but the city was not surveyed. Three days after we arrived here our first son and fifth child was born in a covered wagon on the morning of December 28, a strong healthy child and I got along as well as when we were in a house. The Lord is able to give us strength according to our works and is willing to help such that have been strong in faith. People gathered in last and we soon had a big camp and so much stock that brother Snow wished some of us would find a herd ground and take the spare stock out of the way where there is feed for them. My husband and brothers concluded that they would go into that business. They found a place twenty miles north and made a start with the herd of sheep and cattle.
June 1, 1862: We built a log house, hired some help and turned our whole attention to the business. A hard winter this was---rain, rain, rain for a month. Streams rose higher than before, over-flowing in the low lands. More room for the cattle was needed, so we moved over the rim of the basin north and west about fifty miles from St. George. Found a band of Piute Indians, made a treaty with them. This range was watered by numerous small streams, some of them run to a channel and form Shoal Creek, where we arrived safe and joyful on April 27th. Nine big Indians came twelve miles to meet us and were as happy as we were. We were blest in our new home and had no trouble with the natives, although we were but few. We built a dairy house with a spring in it as soon as we settled here. So if the Indians should make war on us we could use it for a fort and they could not keep us from the water.
My sister-in-law and I worked hard with very little help. We made about 3,000 lbs. of butter and cheese. My husband was a cooper, or barrel maker and carpenter, and arranged things for our conveniences. The spring was higher than the dairy house and ran through. A water wheel was used for power to churn the dasher was fastened to the pitman in such a way it worked up and down. While we were working one churn full of butter another one would be churned. We would rub salt in the barrel to fill all the cracks and then pack butter in them. This was kept cool in this dairy house until a trip to the city was made where we had ready sale for all we had. My husband made a large cheese tub; also a machine to knead dough and I made cookies and crackers for own use and market. The girls could help a lot with this work.
In the latter part of September a large number of Indians were gathering and camping around us. They were very friendly and hungry. We must feed them or they suffer. We gave them two beef cattle and considerable other provisions. They cannot demand it, but pity their suffering condition. It is cheaper to feed them than to fight them but this is a heavy tax on us, few as we are. Many are the times that we have been out of bread before we could get another supply.
A PROMISE December 9, l866-. Shoal Creek
Having lived so long among Indians and on the frontiers of civilization in small houses, sometimes but one room, sometimes none, I declare that I will be satisfied if I can ever have a house. The best room of which shall be as good as my mothers kitchen in Salt Lake City.---Rozilla H. Pulsipher.
Shoal Creek is where Enterprise now is. I will record an incident that happened while living at this place:
“At one time, while sitting at my loom weaving, my daughter Emily, age five, standing on a stool behind the loom picking the rods back for me. The door was pushed open and four large Indians walked in, and came right up to me and said in their language, “Where is your Indian?” (meaning my Husband) I put my finger to my lips, as a sign of silence and told them very quietly to be still. I pointed to a door and said, “He is in there asleep.”
The Indian said, “You lie, he is gone, we saw him go over the hill.” They had been watching him as he left the house and after he got out of sight they came to the house. They told me in commanding voice to get them food quickly. I slid off my stool and pushed the Indian out of my way, rushed to the door, reached up over it and took down a gun, turned on them as I cocked it and told them to get out or I would shoot. They looked at me and knew I meant it. They turned and started, I followed them out in the yard ordering them to go fast, which they did. I watched them to be sure they did not turn back until my oldest daughter, Elzina, aged nine came home. Then I helped her up onto the roof of the house and gave her a coat to cover up in as it was cold. She lay there watching them until they were out of sight around the mountain. Rozilla H. Pulsipher
This is as far as the history of Rozilla Pulsipher goes, written in her own words. I will finish the rest in the words of her husband.
My wife’s health has been poor the last year perhaps a visit to her parents will do her good.
1870---The sickness of my wife still continues. It seems impossible to get faith or medicine sufficient to cure her. She is getting weaker all the time, yet she appears resigned and willing to go to be with the sanctified ones that have gone before. A consumptive cough has set in which we cannot stop. She begged of me to let her go. Said she had no fear of death. After a lingering sickness of three and a half years she died at two O’clock, Thursday February 9th, 1871. Her age was 34 years and 16 days. She has been too weak to turn herself in bed for the last four or five months, while she begged of me to let her go for it appeared best for her sake to do so.
In the midst of her family and friends she breathed her last as quietly as going to sleep. The funeral and burial was attended to by nearly the entire population of our town on Friday 10. Appropriate remarks were made by, Dudley Leavitt, Thomas S. Terry, Zerah Pulsipher, and Bishop Crosby.
She was a brave, strong-minded woman. She was very healthy until the last sickness. Always willing to accompany her husband on his Indian Missions On the frontiers of civilization, where few but the bravest dare die, her first son was born three days after we arrived in camp where St. George was to be built. She had the privilege of staying at Salt Lake with relatives in a comfortable house this winter, but chose to be with her husband and the first of the Dixie Mission.
Her second son was the first white child born in this Shoal Creek. As the mothers previous had chose to be transported to some older settlement where more experienced help could be obtained. She said she would prefer to stay at home and thereby prove the fact that white children can be born here as well as in older cities. She wished my sister, Eliza Jane Pulsipher Terry, an inexperienced but brave young woman, to commence the practice of midwifery. She has since become quite proficient in the business after haying splendid success with her first attempt.
My youngest son, William Lewis, five years old died April, 1871 after three months sickness of dropsy brought on from measles.
John Pulsipher
A blessing pronounced by John Pulsipher before starting on his mission among Lamanites (Indians) upon the head of his wife Rozilla, May l6, l855.
Rozilla; I lay my hands upon your head and by the authority of the Holy Priesthood vested in me I confer upon you a blessing. I promise you in the name of the Lord that you shall have health and strength--wisdom and knowledge to enable you to perform the duties necessary for you to attend to in my absence. Call upon the name of the Lord and He will give you his Holy Spirit which will comfort your heart in the trials that you may have to pass through. I enlighten your mind that you may be able to understand the principles of His kingdom, that you may teach the little infant that has been entrusted to our care, in the way that will be pleasing in the sight of our Heavenly Father. You shall live long upon the earth and enjoy the blessings thereof. You shall also be blessed with kind friends in times of need. I seal these with all other blessings you may need upon your head in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
A blessing by father Zerah Pulsipher upon the head of Rozilla Pulsipher daughter of Simpson D and Susan Green Huffaker and wife of John Pulsipher; born January 24, 1837.
Rozilla, by the authority of the Holy Priesthood I lay my hands upon your head and confer upon you a father’s blessing. I bless you in the name of the Lord. You shall be blessed with health, strength valor and understanding; and wisdom, even that wisdom which is necessary for your sex. You shall be blessed with numerous posterity and in connection with your companion you shall have all the blessings which will be necessary for you in the kingdom of God. You are a daughter and of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Joseph, and the blessings of heaven will rest upon you. Your children will rise up and call you blessed and shall stand on Mount Zion and behold the glory of God. Behold the kingdom God built upon the earth and witnesses the waste places of Zion established. You shall be on this earth and see of the coming of the Son of Man and even the glory of his kingdom. I seal upon you all these blessings in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.