The Reminiscences of James Holt A Narrative of the Emmett Company

Utah Historical Quarterly

Vol. 23, 1955, Nos. 1-4

THE REMINISCENCES OF JAMES HOLT A NARRATIVE OF THE EMMETT COMPANY

EDITED BY DALE L. MORGAN

INTRODUCTION

FEW INDEED WERE the early Mormons whose lives did not compose a drama. Caught up voluntarily or involuntarily in the sweep of turbulent events, they were actors in some of the

most stirring and striking scenes of the American pioneer experience, and even the simplest chronicle of their lives, written without embellishment or effort at literary grace, becomes a narrative of impelling interest.

James Holt has been practically unknown in Utah historiography. His name ocurrs in none of the standard biographical reference works, and though he and his sons played a prominent part in the early history of several towns and villages in Washington County, in the southwest corner of the state, the striking events in which he participated in the Mississippi Valley before coming to Utah in 1852 have scarcely summoned his name to mind. This will now be changed.

Born in North Carolina in 1804, James Holt moved to Tennessee with his parents when an infant, and grew to manhood there. In 1833, having meanwhile married, he moved with his father-inlaw to Illinois, a point on die Ohio River some 20 miles above its mouth, and took up a farm. Here, apparently in 1839, he was converted by a Mormon missionary and in due course, like so many other Saints, removed to Nauvoo, arriving in the fall of 1841. For two years he did day labor in the Mormon city, chiefly on the public works, but in the spring of 1844 was sent back to Tennessee for the dual purpose of preaching the Gospel and pressing the Presidential candidacy of Joseph Smith. Return^9 *° Nauvoo after the death of the Mormon prophet in June, 1844, he was caught up in the fortunes of the Emmett Company, that singular channel found by one of the many boiling undercurrents of Joseph Smith's last year, and with James Emmett he set out into the Iowa wilderness.

To Emmett and his company we shall return; it is enough to say now that for nearly two years Holt, as a member of that company, underwent the greatest privation and hardship while wandering in northwestern Iowa and southeastern South Dakota. He then descended the Missouri to the Council Bluffs area only to be swept up in new and arresting pioneer experiences as a member of Bishop George Miller's party, the company which of all the main Camp of Israel got farthest West overland in 1846. Widi that company he finally turned back to the Missouri River, wintering at the mouth of the Ponca River.

Coming down the Missouri to Council Bluffs a second time, in the spring of 1847, Holt was too impoverished to go west with the first Mormon companies bound for the Great Salt Lake, and took up land along Waubonsie Creek in Fremont County, Iowa. Here he remained with his family until 1852, when he set out for Salt Lake Valley. On arrival he settled in Weber County. But James Holt had his full share of that restlessness which in the American people has been eloquently summed up by Thomas Wolfe's mother: "Lord God, a race of movers!" In 1862 he volunteered for the Cotton Mission in Utah's Dixie country. First locating at Washington, after two years he moved to Long Valley as one of the earliest settlers on the upper Virgin River. Indian hostilities presently forced him back to the Dixie country, and temporarily he settled at Virgin City. In 1867 he moved again, this time to the Mountain Meadows as a neighbor of Simpson Emmett, son of James Emmett and himself a participant in the well-remembered adventures of 1844-46. The Mountain Meadows had been a celebrated recruiting place on the Spanish Trail, but since the even more celebrated massacre of 1857 overgrazing had begun a grave process of erosion. Foreseeing the consequences of that erosion, Holt moved a last time, a few miles north, down to the mouth of a canyon which has since borne his name. Here he established Holt's Ranch, on which he spent the rest of his days, dying in his ninetieth year, on January 24, 1894.

James Holt's own narrative is the principal source for all these facts. He began to write it apparently in January, 1881; according to his family, it was dictated to his son William. The first-person narrative was broken off when it reached the year 1867 and was never completed, but a granddaughter, Mary Ann C. Miller, has written an account of the later years which is printed at the close of the narrative. The original manuscript of the reminiscences, as set down by William Holt, has disappeared, and what is now printed is a composite of two different typewritten copies. These vary somewhat in spelling and punctuation, and it has seemed best to edit the text in this respect, bringing it into conformance with present usage. The Utah State Historical Society is indebted to the Holt family for permission to print the narrative, and especially to Mrs. Charles B. Petty, Salt Lake City, and Mrs. LaVerna Hyatt, Monroe, Utah, for information and advice. The portrait we reproduce was made available to the Society by Mrs. Petty.

The most striking contribution to history made by James Holt is his account of the Emmett Company. Little of the source material pertaining to that company has been published, and even among the Mormons its story has not been well known or understood. The Holt narrative as now printed has been made a vehicle to record much of the presently available information about the Emmett episode. Before proceeding to the narrative, however, it is desirable to sketch in some of the background.

James Emmett was born, it is said, on February 22, 1803, in Boone County, Kentucky. He was one of the earliest Mormon converts, having become a member by 1832. For some years he appears to have lived at Kirtland, Ohio, his presence there being recorded in December, 1835, but early in 1836 he went on to Missouri. He was sufficiently prominent in the Mormon community that on July 1, 1836, he was named one of a committee of twelve to report a preamble and resolutions expressive of Mormon sentiment concerning proposals that they leave Clay County. He is next mentioned in Mormon annals on the occasion of a visit to Kirtland in April, 1837, as the climax to a missionary tour during which he had built up branches of the church in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and Missouri. He returned to Missouri only to run into trouble at the new Mormon headquarters at Far West, Caldwell County; in May, 1837, fellowship was withdrawn from him "for unwise conduct, until he should make satisfaction." This he did on the 22nd of the same month, and was restored to fellowship. He must have participated in all the scenes attendant upon the expulsion of the Mormons from Missouri in 1838-39 and their resettlement at Nauvoo, Illinois, and on the Iowa shore opposite, but the record is silent. Emmett evidently located at first in Iowa, for on April 24, 1841, the High Council of that area selected him as a member in the place of David Pettigrew, who had just been elevated to the position of counselor in the presidency. By 1843 Emmett had moved to Nauvoo. On December 29 of that year Joseph Smith organized a special police force for the city, and Emmett was one of those named to serve in it, with the rank of 1st Corporal.

The winter of 1843-44 was for the Mormons at Nauvoo one both troublous and eventful; in the entire history of tie church there have been few periods quite so yeasty. In January Joseph Smith announced to the Twelve Apostles his intention of running for the Presidency of the United States on an independent electoral ticket; in February he outlined to the Twelve a plan to send a company of 25 men to Oregon, California, and New Mexico to seek out a new location for the Saints; in March proposals were made to move the church instead to a buffer zone between Texas and Mexico where the Saints might establish a republic of their own; and the same month Congress was memorialized to give Smith the privilege of raising 100,000 volunteers to protect American interests in Texas and Oregon. This was by no means all, but it serves to show the temper of the times.

The Emmett Company as such had its immediate origins in the proposal to send out a Western exploring expedition. The day after Joseph Smith broached the idea to the Twelve, on February 21, 1844, he named Emmett as one he would like to see enlisted, and two days later Emmett volunteered for the mission.

One of his fellow volunteers, Moses Smith, is our chief authority with respect to the subsequent evolution of the project, for it soon drops from sight in the publicly available sources of Mormon history. The company of 25 men, we are informed, were "charged with the duty of exploring the country and visiting the Indian tribes west of the Missouri, in the north-west part of Texas, through New Mexico, up the coast of Upper California, and the Columbia River, and back by the South Pass and Council Bluffs. This company were further charged with the duty of commencing a settlement in the Indian country, at a place to be selected by them for that purpose, where a part of them were to remain while the rest should return to pilot out a large company with families, stock, &c, to extend the settlements."

Too many things were going on in Nauvoo at just this time, however, for any of them to be done up to the hilt. It was finally decided that the exploring expedition should be postponed till fall, with a view to wintering in New Mexico or Sonora and returning in the summer of 1845, and that meanwhile its members should be pressed into the service of Joseph Smith's Presidential campaign. Thus, at the same time James Holt was sent to Tennessee, Emmett was dispatched to Ohio, and Moses Smith to Michigan. The murder of the Mormon prophet having collapsed the campaign, Emmett like most of the other missionaries came trailing back to Nauvoo. Unlike them, however, he was a man with a program, for he considered that he had been given a mission by the Prophet which the latter's death made only the more obligatory upon him.

In a sense, he was right, and this explains why Brigham Young, who had just won control of the church at a special conference in Nauvoo on August 8, and who did not like any of the programs previously on foot which would have a momentarily divisive effect—neither the Texas migration of which Lyman Wight was the special champion nor the movement into the Indian country Emmett was urging—nevertheless handled both with kid gloves. It was too early to gainsay programs which had been publicly sanctioned by Joseph Smith, whatever the wisdom of those projects in the light of events, so long as really vital interests, the control and welfare of the church as a whole, were not endangered. Thus it is recorded that on September 9, 1844, "Elder Heber C. Kimball and George A. Smith labored diligently with James Emmett that he might be persuaded to desist from his intended course of taking away a party of misguided saints into the wilderness," but Emmett was not absolutely forbidden tq go, and indeed the Twelve in Nauvoo made excellent capital of Emmett's subsequent misfortunes—a lesson to the Saints that they should listen to counsel.

Having thus limned some of the features of the inception of the Emmett expedition, let us note what some of the participants have written with regard to their involvement in the enterprise. William Kartchner's account is the most interesting and explicit. "An expedition," he writes, "was ordered by Joseph the Prophet prior to his martyrdom for a few families to migrate to the Missouri River and put in crops preparatory to the Church moving from Nauvoo westward under the charge of Bro. James Emmett and John L. Butler, his counsellor. I was called upon to go, being just married, as tbey wanted young men mostly. I was instructed to keep it a secret as all would want to go if word went forth that we were going west. This instruction was given us by Zacariah D. Wilson, the Presiding High Priest of Liberty Branch, situated on the head of Bear Creek, twenty miles below Nauvoo. We were told by Bro. Wilson that he was in the highest court on the earth and were told at his council in Nauvoo to counsel the company to not ask counsel of Brigham Young as he would see our faint-heartedness and would, of course, discourage those asking such advise."

Holt tells a not dissimilar story. Lyman Hinman remarks merely, "We left Nauvoo on the 3 of August [September?] 1844 in company with two or three others expecting to fall in company with others soon going we knew not where we were going but desiring to find a place where we could breathe free and worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience."

James and Rebecca Nelson (in an account written, however, after they had broken with Emmett and perhaps colored by their desire to show faithful adherence to the Twelve) relate: "We were residing at Bear Creek, Hancock County, Ill, at the time of Joseph's death. Zachariah Wilson presided as presiding elder at this time. Brother Wilson and his two counselors brought word from the church in Nauvoo that they had been in the council with the twelve, and that the council was to break up and remove immediately to the west, without passing through Nauvoo but go direct to Maddison. We did so and removed to Iowa River and organized. The ideas we had gathered were such that we expected one of the twelve as a guide; the excuse was that the twelve had not been able to wind up and arrange their business, so they sent Emet as a substitute. Brother Butler came among us at this time as being sent from Bro. Young, stating that Bro. Brigham had sent his blessings and the blessings of the Lord with word for the brethren to take good care of the women and not suffer them to go barefoot in cold weather. The word was to remove into the wilderness out from the settlements, but not so far but what they could go for grain to subsist on until they could raise it as it was their intention to come on."

There were two divisions of the party, one going by land, the other by flatboat up the Iowa River. Holt, like Hinman, traveled by land. Hinman writes: "The first night we lodged upon the ground about five miles east of Nauvoo in a tent Our clothes in the morning were almost wringing wet from the dew on the following day we bent our course for Fort Madison on the Mississippi River—and crossed it about 2 o P M Camped about 5 miles west of the River the day following we put bows and covering upon our waggon and travel about 8 miles and picthed [sic] our tents at the head of Los a Creek so called at this place we lost 7 head of Oxen and of course among the lost I had One yoke and 2 cows we hunted for them 5 days and then left diem and pursued on our journey fell in company with 3 or 4 other waggons following up not far from the Iowa River crossed it and passed the City of Iowa on the 19th Recrossed the River—and proceeded up said River to the upper trading post on said River where we met and fell in with others amounting to 200 persons at which place we organized ourselves into a company for the purpose of traveling together and remained at said place until the last day of December

James Holt and Wife, Parthenia Overton Holt

Photo, Mrs. Charles B. Petty

Kartchner says that sometime in September he sent his blacksmith tools to Nauvoo to be put aboard a flat boat. "It was manned by Capt. Emmett, his son Simpson, Williams, Gardner, Potter and their families. It was towed by a rope by men on shore until opposite the Iowa River. They crossed and went up the Iowa River to Iowa City where they sold their boat, while those taking wagons and teams crossed at Burlington [some, however, at Fort Madison, as Hinman shows]. They made a rendezvous about ten miles above Iowa City and built small log cabins where they wintered during which time the men worked in the surrounding settlements for provisions. Capt. Emmett gathered from the Sisters at this camp their feather beds and jewelry and sent them below and sold them for grain and other supposed requisites."

These various narratives thus provide a composite picture of the fortunes of the Emmett Company to the close of December, 1844, just prior to their final departure into the Iowa wilderness. Their subsequent adventures will be followed through Holt's narrative, annotated with reference to the other documents.

LIFE OF JAMES HOLTEARLY PIONEER

I, James Holt, was born February 10, 1804, in Halifax County, North Carolina. When I was five or six months old, my father started with a colony of his kindred, and others, and traveled to Tennessee, and settled in Wilson County, near Lebanon. My grandfather, Icona Davis, was also of the colony. My memory, in regard for my relatives at that time, is very imperfect, but I will write a sketch of those I do remember, that perhaps it may help to give a clue for those who are in search of a genealogy of any of those here named.

My Grandfather Davis and my father settled together. Grandfather, James Holt, settled in Montgomery County; Moses Read, my grandmother Holt's father, settled in Dickson County. When I was about twelve years old, my great-grandfather Head got up a dinner for his children and grandchildren. I sat at the head of the table, being the eldest of his great-grandchildren. There were about eighty present of his descendants; the Holts, Reads, Harveys, Silivents, and Davis's were all relatives. My grandfather, James Holt, had two sons: Jesse and Laban, and six daughters: viz., Mary, Sarah, Lydia, Anna, Elizabeth, and Patay. Mary married Burges Wall; Sarah married Balum Bull; Lydia married Levitt Morris; Anna married Ona Harvey; and Elizabeth married Ona Silivents. I never knew of Patay's marriage. Laban went to the West Tennessee, and married but I never learned of his wife's name.

My father, Jesse, married Elizabeth Davis, daughter of Icona Davis. She was the widow of Joshuay Crosland, and had three children by her former husband: namely, Joshuay, Sarah, and Lucretra. By my father, she had six children: James, Nancy, Icom, Jesse Washington, Laban, and Elijah.

After the death of my mother, my father married Lucretra Crosland [his stepdaughter], by whom [omission?]. My Father was of a religious turn of mind, and joined the Baptists witi my mother. He also joined the army, and was in the War of 1812. During that time he had his family move near Grandfather Davis's, about eight miles northwest of Lebanon. After the war he bought a mill site by what was called "Barton's Creek," where he had erected a grist and saw mill. There he resided, doing a flourishing business, until his death, which occurred October 15, 1844.

When I was about eight years old, there was quite an exciting time in religion. Father used to take me to church on horseback behind him, and as young as I was, my mind was greatly impressed in regards to religious matters. About this time I had a very remarkable dream: I dreamed that my father sent me, in company with one of my brothers, to a neighbor's place, about three miles distant, on some errand. It appeared, that in going, we had to travel through a dark and gloomy cave where there was neither light of the sun, moon, nor stars. It appeared that all people traveled through this gloomy cave. After we had traveled in this awful gloom for some length of time, we emerged in the light of day, and great was the contrast. Upon the left I beheld a large building, and when we came opposite this building, I saw a man coming to the door, whom I thought was the keeper. He called to me, saying, "James Holt, you must come in here and be tried for your faith." There were two or three steps to the building and I thought he took hold of my hand and led me up into the building, where I beheld the hook, somewhat similar to a stilyards [steelyard] suspended to a beam overhead. He said I was to be hanged upon that hook, and if I had enough faith in God, I would jnot fall. But if I did not have faith in God, I would fall down in that dismal "Hell," pointing to a trap door in a floor, where there was weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. I looked where he had pointed and I beheld a deep, dark pit, and as far around as I could see, I beheld people in the greatest confusion; some groaning, some shouting, and all was in a great turmoil. One person stood up in their midst, saying, "All is well with us; we need no more revelation. The canon of Scripture is full, and we will all be saved. We need not fear." After I beheld this, the keeper took me and hung me on the hook by the back of my vest. It soon began to rip, but I began to call upon the Lord to strengthen me and increase my faith. Suddenly my vest ceased to tear, and I hung only by the seam of my collar. The keeper now took me down, saying, "Well done, you have got just faith enough to save you, and that is all any man will have, no matter how great they may be. They will only have faith enough to be saved, so you can go on your way rejoicing."

When I was about sixteen years old, I had a heavy spell of sickness, which laid me up for about five months. I was brought nigh unto death, but the Lord preserved my life for a wise purpose in him. My fever caused all my hair to fall out, and when it again grew, it was mixed with gray.

I continued to labor with my father, helping him on the farm, helping him in the mills, and occasionally chopping and boating cord wood logs and lumber. Nothing further worthy of note occurred until I was about twenty-six years old, in the year 1829. I became acquainted with a young woman by the name of Mary Pain, the daughter of John and Elizabeth Pain, and on the 22nd of January, 1830, we were married. She was born July 16, 1814. John and Elizabeth Pain had six children, viz.: Mary, Nancy, Susan, John, Elizabeth, and William. Nancy married Andrew A. Simmens [elsewhere given as Temmons]; Susan married one Hogges.

In the year 1831 I moved to Sumner County and took charge of my brother-in-law's farm and business. His name was Theodrick-Amannel Patten, my sister Nancy's husband. I managed all his affairs and raised him a crop, and moved back to Wilson County in 1832. In this same year I went in partnership with my father-in-law, and built a boat, expecting to go down the Mississippi River to the Azoo County [Yazoo country?] to live. In 1833, in the spring, we loaded up our boat with our families, provisions, and furniture. My brother-in-law was still carrying in a few sacks of corn meal and stowing them away; the table was spread, and everything was about ready for us to sit down to supper, preparatory to starting on our voyage, when the alarm was raised that we were sinking. The gang planks were not yet removed, and we got out [our] families all safe, but the boat sank with everything else on board. There had been a check in one of the gunnel boards, but we had not anticipated its being laden heavy enough for the water to come above, but before we knew it, the water was pouring through this check, which was the cause of its sinking. However, we procured help the next day and succeeded in raising our boat. We repaired it by putting in a new gunnel. We saved some of our lading, but a great deal was damaged. However, we launched forth in a few days, and floated down the [Cumberland] river as far as the Ohio, where we encountered a great storm of wind, which continued to rage for several days, and caused our women and children to become seasick. We could gono farther.

We landed about twenty miles above the mouth of the Ohio River to [at] a strip of country called the "Grand Chain," when we landed on the Illinois side of the river in Johnson County. There we took up farms and went to work building and improving them. We stopped here for several years, but the place was very unhealthy; here, I lost two children.

In the month of October [1839?] there came a man to our section of the country, to preach, who claimed to belong to a church called "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," a new sect lately sprung up. This man's name was Jackeriah [Zachariah] Wilson. Previous to this, I had never believed in any denomination, for I could not see where they got their authority; they all preached about a God, whom no one could comprehend; they believed not in revelation, nor the gift of healing by the laying on of hands according to the scriptures. Now, I looked for a church that was built upon the foundation that was laid down in the scriptures, with Prophets and Apostles to lead, and I had talked a great deal with my brother-in-law, Andrew A. Temmons, who believed as I did. I had tried to persuade him to preach, for he was a well educated man, but he said if he was to attempt to preach as he believed, the people would kill him.

Now this "Mormon" Elder (as this new sect were called by all the world) preached in our place, and I went to hear him. He preached the gospel according to the scriptures; faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ, and baptism for the remission of sins; the laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost by those who were called of God; also, the administering to the sick, by the laying on of hands, and a great many other things which he proved by the Scripture. He then went on to show how the Lord appeared to the boy, Joseph Smith; how he was instructed of Angels from time to time, and at last when he had grown to manhood, how he had been led by the same heavenly messengers to obtain the sacred plates; how he had been inspired to give the translation thereof; and how he had been ordained to be a Prophet, Seer, and Revelator in this last dispensation; also, how he had been led by God to organize the Church of Jesus Christ, with Apostles, and all the appendages of the Holy Priesthood; with all the gifts following those who believed and were baptized according to the promises given in the scriptures.

Now I believed and rejoiced to hear the Gospel again preached on earth as it was in the days of Christ. I sent for my brother-in-law to come and hear a man who preached according to our mind. He came to hear him, and after the preacher got through, he gave anyone present the privilege to ask any question which was fair, and he would try to answer it. My brother-inlaw asked him if he had a foundation for what he preached. He said yes. My brother-in-law then said that that was all he wished to know at present. After meeting, I invited the preacher home with me. He said that if anyone would open their doors to him, he would preach again to them. One man said he could have his house to preach in, and I told him he was welcome to preach again to them. One man said he was welcome to preach in his house, so he did, on Thursday. When he got through, a Methodist preacher asked permission to say a few words, and being granted the privilege, he arose and said, "There are no need of any more revelations; the canon of Scripture is as full, and we needed no more additions to the Bible because it was perfect, and he could prove it by that bucket." (He pointed to an old bucket close by which had but one ear and no bail.) Said he, "That is a perfect bucket, is it not? Yes, it is well, or that bucket is perfect; so is the Bible. I told you I could prove it." I failed to see the point of his proof, but perhaps it satisfied him. He further went on and said the very words that the man said in die pit, which I saw in my dream. I had not thought anything about my dream for some time until now, when it flashed to my mind with great force.

The next Sunday Elder Wilson held a meeting at my house, at which time I was baptized and ordained to the office of a Teacher. My brother-in-law did not join the Church at that time; he said I was like the sow that jumped at the swill as soon as it was put in the pen. He joined the Church on the following spring, and went on to Nauvoo, where I heard he apostatised through some false doctrine, introduced by a few individuals who belonged to the Church, but did not understand the doctrine aright. In about three weeks from my baptism, my wife was baptized. As soon as I was baptized, persecution began, all manner of being reviling of those who belonged to the Church, but it only increased my faith; for so persecuted they, the Church, in the days of our Savior. Soon after I was baptized, I went and preached to my brother-in-law, Hogges, and his family, in quoting a passage in the Bible. His mother said it was not there. I told her it was surely there. She denied it, so I had her get her Bible, and her son read it to her. She still denied it, saying it was a made-up thing between us. I preached to her every chance I got, and she was so afraid she would believe and join, that she sent quite a distance for a Baptist minister to come and baptize her. My father-in-law would never hear a Mormon preacher.

I now wished to sell my place, and gather with the saints, but I could get scarcely anything for it. I finally sold it to a man for one hundred and seventy-five dollars, although the same man had offered me one thousand for it before I joined the Church. I gave Elder Wilson the most of it to help him home and for his family, as they had been driven and persecuted a great deal since he belonged to the Church.

In the spring of 1840 I started with my family to Nauvoo, "The City of the Saints." I got as far as Pleasant Vale Stake, in Pike County, where one of my horses died. I was now left without a team, only having two horses and a light wagon to start with. Here I stopped the next winter and summer. I rented a farm and raised a crop. The following fall [1841] I hired a horse to put by the side of mine, and started again for Nauvoo, where arrived all right. After I had been there a short time, I turned over my wagon to the Committee of the Nauvoo House, and took a share in the same.

Soon after my arrival in Nauvoo, my only horse took sick, and hearing of a horse doctor close by, I went to see him. He said if I would give him half of what the horse was worth, after he was cured, and if I would get the medicine he would undertake to cure him. I asked him how much medicine it would take. He said it would take about ten dollars' worth. I asked how much he would give me for the horse, now, as he was. He said he would not give me one dollar. "Well," said I, "I would surely be a fool to spend ten dollars for the horse that is not worth one dollar." The next night I asked the Lord to cure the horse and if he would do so, I would sell it and give half the proceeds to the Church for the building up of His Zion on the earth. Next morning my horse was well, and I went forth and sold him for two hundred bushels of corn and I gave one hundred bushels to the Church. I now went to work on the quarry, getting out rock for the Temple and the Nauvoo House. I also boated a great deal of rock from the quarry and rafted lumber. I continued in this employment pretty much all the time until the spring of 1844.

At the April [1844] Conference of the Church, I was ordained to the Office of the Seventy, and set apart to take a mission to Tennessee, in company with Jackson Smith, to preach the Gospel, and also with a copy of Joseph's views on politics, to have more printed and distributed throughout our travels. We traveled as the people of old—without purse or script. It was a very wet spring, and we had to travel many days through mud and slush, shoe-top deep, and wade through much tribulation, but we put ourselves in the hands of God and ceased not to call on his name. When we got to the Ohio River, the ferry man refused to set us over because we had no money to pay him. We went below four miles to another ferry, and told the ferry man our situation. He was very kind and kept us over night and set us across in the morning, telling us we could recompense him more by speaking a good word for his ferry.

We had not gone far beyond the forks of the road when we met a large train of wagons. The captain asked us about the ferry, and we recommended to him the one we had taken as the most accommodating, and he took the road leading to it. We traveled on, and came to a town that was peopled with Methodists. We tried there to get lodgings, but we were refused on account of our religion.

We traveled on, and late in the night we spied a light that issued from a house in the field on one side of the road. We were led by the Spirit to the house. When we knocked at the door and it was opened, we apologized to the man for disturbing them so late at night, but we told them we were preachers of the Gospel as revealed to Joseph Smith, and had been refused admittance

Mormons on their Jackson County lands. Later other quorums of Seventy were organized. "The Seventies," Joseph Smith explained, 'are to constitute traveling quorums, to go unto all the earth, whithersoever the Twelve Apostles shall call them." Thus they have since constituted what has been termed "the foreign ministry of the Church." Not all elders were Seventies, but all Seventies were elders. 3 *In furtherance of his Presidential campaign, Joseph Smith wrote out his back at the town on account of our belief. "Well, well," said he, "come in. We would not turn away even a dog in such weather as this." They gave us food and lodgings and treated us well. The next morning, after asking God to bless them we bade them good day, and proceeded on our way.

We continued on our journey without much more of importance transpiring until we arrived at my father's in Wilson County, Tennessee. After shaking hands with him, I gave him an introduction to my traveling companion, Brother Smith, but he refused to shake hands with him. He said he had heard enough about the Smiths, and he did not want to see any of them, although this Smith was no kin to the Prophet, Joseph. The name seemed to displease him, for there had been a great deal of false reports circulated about the Smith family which my father believed. I told my father that I had always been obedient to him when I was living at home with him, but if he could not entertain my fellow-traveler and treat him as a gentleman, I should be under the necessity of going somewhere else for accommodations, and turned my back on my father's house. This cut my father to the quick and with tears in his eyes he said, "James, take your friend in and make yourselves welcome."

As it had been several years since I had seen my relatives, I spent several days visiting with them, and teaching them the principles of the Gospel, when they gave me an opportunity. My brother, Jesse Washington, being class leader of the Baptist Church in this place, gave us the privilege to preach in the meeting house. The first meeting we held attracted very few, but after that the meeting house was always filled.

A few days after we arrived here, I went to Lebanon (it being six miles), with the copy of Gospel [i.e., Joseph Smith's] Views of Politics, to have some printed. I found an editor and made a contract to have five hundred copies printed. He agreed to have them done on the 27th of June. I then returned and spent the time with my relatives, and the people of their neighborhood.

When the day arrived, I left Brother Smith at my brother's, Jesse Washington, and started again to Lebanon to see about the printing. When I got there the editor told me that so many had borrowed the copy to read it that he had lost track of it and could not find, consequently he had not been able to print it. When the people found I was there, several ministers of different denominations gathered around me and wanted to hear me preach. I told them that I was sent here to preach the Gospel and if they would get me a place to preach in, I would accommodate them to the best of my ability. They procured me the Courthouse and had the bell rung. It was soon crowded to overflowing, for the word had flown throughout the town that a "Mormon," who was reared in that neighborhood, was going to preach a sermon. They all felt curious to hear him. There were also a great number of ministers who were acquainted with me, and also knew that my education was limited, thinking of having sport at my expense, [who] came to hear me.

I arose to my feet, on the 27th day of June, 1844, about two hours by sun, to address this large congregation. The Spirit of the Lord was upon me. I began by preaching the first principles of the Gospel; faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ; repentance and baptism, for the remission of sins; the laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost; showed them how the primitive church had fallen away, and the world had lain in sin and darkness for many ages, and people had been led by self-appointed ministers, who preached for hire. I portrayed to them the calling of Joseph Smith; how the Lord had revealed to him the plan of salvation, and endowed him with the Holy Priesthood, with power to ordain men to the ministry, and send them forth to preach, without purse or script, depending upon the Lord to help them with his spirit. I also told them how he had been maligned by his enemies; had been driven, and persecuted in a Christian country, a land of freedom, for the Gospel's sake! In quoting the scriptures, I was guided by the Spirit, and I always opened at once to the passage I quoted. In winding up my sermon, I had the spirit of revelation come upon me and I told them that the enemies of the Church had taken the Prophet of God this day and put him to death, as they had all the prophets of God in all dispensations of the world. "Now," said I, "you may have this for a testimony of the Gospel, for that is true Mormonism." After I had said this, I looked through the window, and the sun was just setting. I told them I had spoken to them longer than I had anticipated, but if anyone wished to ask any questions, I would answer them if they were fair. No one had anything to say, but all seemed struck with amazement, and their eyes were filled with tears.

After I dismissed and went to the door a man stepped up to me and said he would like to hear more of my doctrine, and wished me to make an appointment in his place. I asked him where he lived, and he said he lived near Jackson School House, about twenty or thirty miles from here. I told him to give out an appointment for Saturday at four in the afternoon and eleven on Sunday morning, and I would be there and fill them.

Next day I went back to father's and I told him that the Prophet was slain, and the Church was in difficulty, and that I was going home. He said he did not believe anyone could know anything for a certainty at such a distance. I told him that the spirit of God could reveal anything to man that was going on in any part of the world, and I knew that God had revealed the truth to me, and that I should start for home right away. I went to my brother's to see Brother Smith, and told him what the Lord had revealed to me; but he could not believe me. He said that my brother was believing, and he wished to stop and baptize him. But my brother wished to see the Prophet before he joined the Church and was thinking of going shortly to Nauvoo, and Brother Smith thought he would stop and go with him. So I bade them all farewell and started home. This was the last time I ever saw my father and have never seen any of the others down to the present time, which is in the first month of 1881.

I now went on to Jackson School House, which was on my road home and filled my two appointments, and at Nashville I took a steamer for Smithland [Kentucky] at the mouth of the Cumberland River. When I got there, there was no boat going [down the Ohio and] up the Mississippi River to Nauvoo. I crossed the river on a ferry boat, thinking of going to my former home about twenty miles below, where I heard the Gospel. After I crossed the river, and had gone a few hundred yards, I saw a house off to the left, and a man sat on the steps reading. The house was a few yards from the gate, and I felt impressed by the Spirit to enter. I did so, asking for a drink of water for an excuse. The man told me there was a cup and bucket; to help myself. He never took his eyes off from his paper he was reading. After I had drank a few swallows of water, I spoke to him, saying, "You seem to be quite interested in what you are reading. Is it anything very special?" He said he did not know, it was concerning the death of the Mormon Prophets. I asked him where the Mormon Prophets lived. He said they lived at Nauvoo, and were taken to Carthage and killed. I asked him if there was any truth in the report. He said it must be true, for the Governor's signature was to it. This confirmed my impression of the expression I had by the Spirit at Lebanon, and I now had no cause to doubt if I had felt so dispaired [disposed?], but I had not doubted since it was first revealed to me. But instead of it weakening my faith, it only strengthened it, for I knew that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God.

Now I went to the Grand Chain and there I got on board the steamboat for Nauvoo, and arrived safely home. There I found the church in a great uproar. The Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were slain by a merciless mob, and there was great mourning and lamentations among the Saints. The Church was divided in fragments; some were following one, and some another, thinking they were following the right one. It seemed difficult to determine which was the right one until Brigham Young, the president of the Twelve, came and took his place at the head of the Church, the Twelve being next in authority to the first presidency. Mr. Lyman Wight declared that he was the right one to lead the Church, and led a small portion of it. Then came Sidney Rigdon, who had been counselor to Joseph, but had been dropped from the Quorum. He came and professed to be the one to lead the Church until the son of Joseph was old enough to take the lead. Several other men led a portion of the Church, but the main part of them adhered to the Council of the Twelve.

James Emmett came after me to go with him. He said he had been appointed before Joseph's death to choose a few families and travel among the Indians; to go on to the Rocky Mountains; to preach to the Indians along the way, and prepare them to receive the Saints in the Valleys of the Mountains.

Brother Miller, then bishop, testified to me that Emmett had been appointed by Joseph, and said that he had the privilege of choosing whom he pleased to accompany him. So I decided to go with him. He also chose John Butler to go. He wished us not to reveal it to anyone, not even to our wives, where we were going, for everything was in such an uproar that he was afraid a great many would follow, and it would cause suffering.

John Butler had a friend by the name of Edwards whom he told, and this Edwards told others. Emmett was to go by boat and I was to travel by land and meet him at a certain place up the Iowa River, but before we met, it got rumored around to such an extent, that a whole settlement on Bear Creek joined us. We traveled on up the Iowa River, and all met five miles above Kitchens Settlement, which was the largest settlement at that time on the Iowa River. There, my wife died, in October [1844], and was buried. The doctors gave her a dose of lobelia, when her stomach was too weak to take it, and it caused her death; and I must say that I have ever since been opposed to anyone administering drugs. My wife left a child about two months old, which William Coachner's [Kartchner's] wife took to nurse. I soon learned that they had the "itch" and had given it to the child. I then took it and put it in the care of a Miss Parthenia Overton, who kept it about two months, and as she had to go into another family, she had to give up the child. I then put it in the care of James Nelson's wife, with which family we messed, and she starved it to death. It died on the 10th of February, 1845. I lost another child at this camp, above Kitchens Settlement, where my wife died. It was my eldest son, Leander. He died about a month after my wife, in the month of November. I must here state that I cannot give dates and particulars as I would wish, for in my moves I lost my journal and have to tax my memory to a great extent to remember even one hundredth part of all which I would like to relate.

We here organized the company which had increased to upward of twenty-five or thirty families. Emmett was appointed trustee-in-trust for the company, and I was appointed bishop, with Brothers Henry Heneyman [Herriman?] and Jackson Steward as my two counselors, and we all came under a covenant to divide up everything equal. We sold everything which we did not need, and bought corn and teams, and everything was divided out equal. The provisions were rationed out daily and each person received only half a pint of corn a day.

On the first of January, 1845, we started again, and still traveling up the Iowa River, we went somewhere between fifty and one hundred miles, where we stopped to rest awhile. Here we made a good deal of sorghum [maple sugar]. It was also a good place for our cattle to browse and rest. Here we also had a visit from Brother Fuller [i.e., Amasa] Lyman, who was sent by Brigham Young to stop us from going any farther at present, and to have us come back, as he thought there were too many following us, which would bring great suffering. Emmett agreed to go back and consult with the Twelve when he got his company in a place where he was certain they would be safe, as he didn't feel they were safe here traveling in an Indian country.

I here married Parthenia Overton, on the 11th of February, 1845. We had been messing with the before [mentioned] merciless Nelson family and his wife, who nearly starved my children to death. As I before stated my youngest child died in her care through neglect and a proper allowance of food. As I had to be away most of the time hunting and digging roots to live upon, I could not properly guard the welfare of my children as I could wish, and this woman took advantage of my absence and to glut herself; they nearly starved to death before I found out what was the matter. But after I married Parthenia Overton, my children fared much better.

Great was the suffering of all the camp. The men hunted as much as possible and when they killed anything, it was divided among them, even a squirrel. When an ox died with fatigue or starvation, it was divided out to the people. They were as greedy for it as if it was the best of beef. No one can have any idea of the suffering of this company, except those who experienced the same. Women and children suffered great starvation and fear, not knowing when they would be massacred by savages or unprincipled whites.

In the month of March we again started on our journey and went to the Vermillion, which was a French trading post, but before we arrived at this place, we were spied by the French and Indians, who came out to meet us and find out our intentions. After they found out, they escorted us to the fort, where we arrived the 7th day of June. The next day Emmett went about fifteen miles to see the Indian chiefs who were drying buffalo meat for their winter provisions. They were of the Sioux Nation. When he told them his business, being able to converse with them in their own tongue, he returned being accompanied by seven of their chiefs. Now there was one of their chiefs, by the name of Henry, who had been to Petersburg to college, and had got quite a good education, and had settled down in this place. Emmett and those seven chiefs went to Henry's house to hold council but I must here state that the chiefs brought us several bales of dried buffalo meat for a present, which was very acceptable.

We made a feast for them, giving them the best we had. Emmett handed the chief Henry the Book of Mormon to read, and after he had read the preface and explained it to his comrades, they all gave a great shout for joy. They danced, sang, shouted, and had a joyful time. Emmett asked them why they were so happy. They told him that their great chief, who had died twenty years ago, had told them that the whites would bring them in this very year, the record of their forefathers. They had almost forgotten it until he had presented him with this book. They felt to rejoice, because the words of their Prophet had come to pass. Emmett told them that he was traveling through their country to preach them the Gospel that was found in that book, and that his intentions were to travel on to the Rocky Mountains where his people wished to go and settle. They told him that it was a long way to the mountains; that he would have great waters to cross, and great plains where there was no water and when he got to the Rocky Mountains, he would find no buffalo; and that his women and children would starve. They wished him and his people to stop with them and learn them to farm; anyway, he must not go any farther this season, for it was late and he was perfectly welcome to take his men and hunt, and kill all of the buffalo around here they wished. They could help him and they should not be molested in any manner. We went out in a few days and killed two or three loads of buffalo which greatly helped us in our provisions. After Emmett had been promised protection by the Indians, he took John Butler and went back to Nauvoo, to have a council with the Twelve, as he had promised.

We had peace while he was gone; the Indians treated us very kind. When he returned, he told me that he had made everything right with the Twelve; that he had been baptized again, and Brigham had blessed him with all the blessings that had before been conferred upon him, and had also conferred upon him greater blessings than he had hitherto held. There were a couple of brethren came back with him-Brother Sherwood and another brother. They both confirmed his words and were were all re-baptized by them. John Butler did not come back at this time, but came the following spring.

The brethren that came back with Emmett concluded to go back by water if we would fit them up a boat and they could sell their horses, which belonged to the Church. There was no one to buy their horses but a Frenchman who kept a station nearby for a fur company. He offered them $30 for the one and $35 for the other, but Emmett thought the sum too small and he concluded to buy them for the Company, giving $50 for one, and $60 for the other, taking the means to pay for them out of the company treasure. He told the brethren, when he met the Church, that it could have the horses back if it so wished, by returning the same amount to him. After these two brethren had gone, the Frenchman who wished to get the horses, got very much offended, because we had bought the horses and he couldn't get them. So he got the Indians together and got them drunk and hired them to come against us and kill us all off (by giving them ammunition and a few trinkets). The Station, where they gathered, was about a half mile from our camp. The Indians started toward us to put in execution the bloody orders of the Frenchman, but the head chief came on ahead to have a council with the chief Henry at his cabin. They asked him if it was right to kill us. "Yes," said Henry, "go and kill them who brought us the record of our forefathers; kill all the women and little children who have never done us any harm, and get a big name." Said they, "Are you making fun of us?" "Yes," said he, "go and stop your warriors and don't let them hurt a hair of the whites, at your peril." This sobered the chiefs, and they in company with Henry came on a run to intercept the Indians and met them at our camp in the act of raising their guns to shoot us down. The chiefs ran in among them knocking their guns right and left, and shouted to them to stop. They nearly had a war between themselves before the chiefs were able to stop them, for the Indians were so drunk that they were hard to control. By their own chiefs, however, they were brought under subjection, before they shed any of our blood, but our people were greatly frightened, especially our women and children, who cried and screamed, thinking we were all going to be massacred. But die hand of God seemed to be over us. And we escaped by almost a miracle, for during the skirmish between chiefs and Indians, there were a great many guns discharged and die bullets whistled among our wagons, some over and some under, and several in close contact to the inmates of our camp.

The Indians now all swore vengeance on the Frenchman, whom they now called a murderer, and went to kill him, but he kept forted up, and dared not go without the walls, for fear of them for some time. But they got a chance by fall to shoot him. They only wounded, and he was taken by his friends down to the chiefs [Bluffs?] to a doctor, where he recovered. He then started to return and when he got to the little Sion [i.e.. Little Sioux River?], he was again shot by them, and this time killed. So he fell into the trap that he had set for us.

When spring opened, we put in garden seeds and were preparing to put in corn to raise a crop, but John Butler now returned from Nauvoo, with James Cumming, bringing word from the Twelve for us to meet the Church at the Bluffs, so we broke up camp and met the Church at that place. We went about twenty-five or thirty miles beyond and camped on Keg Creek, and we of the brethren who were able went down the Missouri and worked around to obtain corn for our families to eat. We got a load or two and were about ready to start with it to our families, when word came for us to hurry up and join George Miller's company, which was waiting for us, ready to proceed to the Rocky Mountains.

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