1839-07-13—New York Weekly Whig—The Mormon Persecution

The Mormon Persecution

New York Weekly Whig, July 13, 1839, p. 2

The Mormon Persecution.—A good deal of interest has been excited at Cincinnati in behalf of this persecuted sect, and a public meeting has recently been held, at which one of the number gave a history of the sufferings which they have lately endured in Missouri. In the report of the proceedings of the above meeting, as given in the Cincinnati News, it is stated that they were ruthlessly driven from their homes, their property destroyed, the women and children forced into the woods, without shelter from the inclemency of the weather of January, where they roamed about till their feet became so sore that their enemies tracked them by their foot-prints of blood.

In one case an old man, a soldier of the Revolution, was pursued by a mob, but finding he could not escape, turned and supplicated their mercy. The reply he received was a shot from a rifle, which wounded him, when one of the party picked up a scythe or sickle, and literally hacked him to pieces as he lay on the ground.

On one occasion a mob attacked a smith shop, in which nine of the Mormons and two boys had taken refuge; it being a log house, the mob fired between the logs and killed every individual of the nine men; they think entered and dragged the two boys from under the bellows, who begged for mercy in most piteous tones. One of the miscreants, applying his rifle to the ear of the youngest, (who was but nine years old,) said "My lad, we have no time to quarter you, but we will halve you." and immediately shot away the whole upper portion of his head. The other boy was severely wounded in the hip, but had the presence of mind to fall and remain quiet, and so escaped; he is still living, and is at Quincy, Illinois. Speaking of the massacre, he said, "They had killed my father and brother, and I was afraid if I moved, they would kill me too."