Dark History Chapter Three: Blood In the Garden of Eden

CHAPTER THREE

BLOOD IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN

And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put  the  man whom he had formed." Genesis 2 verse 8 KJV

Within the first year of founding his church, Joseph Smith promoted Jackson County, Missouri as the place of the original Garden of Eden. It was here according to his revelations that the "New Jerusalem" and the Kingdom of God would be established on earth. Smith further claimed that God decreed that the Saints alone, due to their faithfulness, were the kingdom's rightful heirs "in the land of promise." "Go ye forth into the western countries, call upon the inhabitants to repent, and inasmuch as they do repent, build up churches unto me; and with one heart and with one mind, gather up your riches that ye may purchase an inheritance which shall hereafter be appointed unto you, and it shall be called the New Jerusalem, a land of peace, a city of refuge, a place of safety for the saints of the most high God". (1)

Smith preached to his novice Saints that they, as holders of the holy priesthood, were entitled to receive heavenly guidance, spiritual endowments, and protection as did the priestly class of Israelites of ancient days. He also declared that they were also entitled to the lands on which Smith's Kingdom of God were to be established. In one these "revelations" dated February 9, 1831, Smith represented God as saying, "I will consecrate the riches of the Gentiles unto my
people which are of the house of Israel." (2) To many early Mormon adherents this simply meant that the property of the non-Mormon was theirs for the taking. (3)

According to minutes of the first conference of the Mormon Church in Kirtland, Ohio (Minutes of June 3–6, 1831), Smith had already defined the old settlers of Missouri as his enemies. Before Joseph Smith and his entourage ever left Kirtland for Jackson County, a journey of some nine hundred miles, he was calling the Missourians- the "enemy". "If ye are faithful ye shall assemble yourselves together to rejoice upon the land in Missouri, which is the land of
your inheritance, which is now the land of your enemies." (4)

By the middle of July, the fledgling prophet with a few of his followers reached Jackson County, Missouri and liking the rolling prairie land, Joseph Smith received a revelation, which proclaimed that the region was to be "Zion which should never be moved." Quickly Smith's religious band "solemnly dedicated to the Lord and His Saints," the entire land.

The Latter Day Saints faithfully settled in Jackson County, Missouri as directed by Joseph Smith, believing in his promises that the land was their "inheritance" as God's chosen people. Here in the western grasslands, the Latter Day Saints accepted the Mormon Gospel and worked hard to help establish Smith's vision of Zion.

On August 2, 1831, Joseph Smith received a revelation, which "fixed the site of the Great Temple three hundred yards west of the Court House in Independence." (5) The Saints then laid out a lot on which to build the Mormon temple. It was at this place that Christ would appear at His Second Coming according to the Mormon prophet.

While the locals guffawed at the ceremonial dedication, two days later another large party of Mormons arrived from Kirtland, Ohio and Joseph Smith held a "General Conference" for his church in the "land of Zion. At this conference Smith assured his followers that the whole land of Zion (Jackson County) would be theirs, "by purchase or by the shedding of blood." He guaranteed the Saints that those "who have come up into this land with an eye single to my glory," … "shall
inherit the earth," and "shall receive for their reward the good things of the earth." Smith told the Saints that they should "open their hearts even to purchase the whole region of country as soon as time will permit... lest they receive none inheritance save it be by the shedding of blood." (6)

Whose blood was to be shed was left conveniently ambiguous and just what Smith had in mind by the strange wording of "the revelation," is speculative. Mormons explained the blood reference away as being very innocent, however to the old settlers, it was construed to mean that the Saints would unite with the Indians and drive them out. This interpretation was quite disconcerting to the old settlers of the area who had reasons to view their new religious neighbors with
suspicion, fearing that their land was being coveted.

The rough pioneers of Jackson County Missouri were in the 1830's, on the large part, believers in a populist movement we now call "Jacksonian Democracy." It was during this period of American history that democracy was expanding as states rewrote their constitutions to extend the franchise to all free white males. These pioneer Missourians held similar convictions that America was "a land
of unprecedented opportunity" based on equality according to one's abilities and not according to birth or class.

In contrast with `equality of opportunity' for the common man were the theocratic assertions of Joseph Smith. As a Prophet of God, he was a proponent of "divine rights", and held that his prophetic vocation bestowed a quasi-ecclesiastical royalty upon his family. These views, by their very nature, were anti-democratic and perhaps even despotic. The political and economic authoritarianism of Smith, indeed the entire theocratic nature of the Latter-day Saints Priesthood system, seemed to pioneer Missourians as alien and foreign to America. Living among the Latter Day Saints it became obvious to the old settlers that these new comers’ allegiance was primarily to Mormon leaders rather then to democratic principles. This observation instilled into the Gentile settlers of Missouri a growing mistrust of their new neighbors and their seemingly autocratic religion.

After receiving the "blood" revelation, Joseph Smith returned to Ohio and left a small but strong colony of Latter Day Saints to safe guard the church's inheritance in the "land of Zion." Joseph Smith's stay in the "land of promise" during August of 1831 had induced his followers to remain faithful, despite their poverty and the hardship caused from living on the frontier.

Over the course of time friction between the Mormons and Gentiles increased. The Missouri Gentiles, as non Mormons were called, viewed the religious fanaticism of the Missouri Saints as a display of "haughty arrogance" and the
Latter Day Saints' presence in the county was becoming increasingly
obnoxious to them. Discord between the Latter Day Saints and Gentiles was fueled by a revelation Joseph Smith had, releasing Mormons from debt incurred
while pursuing the aims of building up "Zion". Many of Smith's Missouri followers were poor and impoverished and by trying to build up the kingdom as quickly as possible they had become indebted to Gentile merchants. To counteract this condition, Smith's revelation dated September 11, 1831 decreed:

" Behold, it is said in my laws, or forbidden, to get in debt to thine enemies But behold, it is not said at any time that the Lord should not take when he please, and pay as seemeth him good. Wherefore, as ye are agents, ye are on the Lord's errand; and whatever ye do according to the will of the Lord is the Lord's business. And he hath set you to provide for his saints in these last days, that they may obtain an inheritance in the land of Zion. And behold, I, the Lord, declare unto you, and my words are sure and shall not fail, that they shall obtain it." (7)

This revelation discharged obligations on the part of the Saints to pay for any goods and merchandise acquired from the Missouri Gentiles whom Smith had deemed as his enemies. The merchants of Jackson County, Missouri however disregarded any revelation defrauding them and indeed, they contrarily refused to view themselves as Latter Day Canaanites; to be dislodged and driven from the "promised land of milk and honey", despite Smith's promises.

Many of these Gentile settlers of Jackson County had been in Independence as early as the 1820's and by their toil and steadfastness had established farms, villages, and stores already in the "promise land". Consequently when the Saints settled among them with the intent of taking the land by "purchase or blood" conflict between the two groups became inevitable.

As the Saints' presence in Jackson County increased over the next few years, their astounding claims of the approach of an Armageddon, which would sweep the land clear of non-believers, began to serious worry the original Gentile settlers. It was only a matter of time before an impetuous act would ignite the hostile factions to warfare. The two opposing philosophies of theocracy and democracy eventually would erupt into a deadly clash.

The conflict had smoldered over a multitude of issues not the least being that of property rights and over which group would take control of county government. To the old citizens, who had first settled Independence, the arrival of the Latter Day Saints was a major threat to their security and control of local politics. The Gentiles were fearful of being dominated politically by a people whom they
perceived as slavishly devoted to a charlatan. Whether the basis of Gentile anxiety over being subjugated was valid or not, the perception was real. And beyond this angst, no doubt jealousy and resentment of the cohesiveness of Mormon settlements in Missouri were also a deciding factor in ridding Jackson County of the Latter Day Saints.

The Latter Day Saints maintained that they were "victims who suffered countless, unprovoked persecutions" in Missouri. Conversely they represented the Gentile Missourians as "mobocrats, ignorant ruffians,and a vile pack of scoundrels". The truth of the matter was that both sides were incapable of compromise over joint occupation of Jackson County. However the Gentile Missourians, by their superior numbers, were able to overcome the Saints' inhabitation of the county and forced them to leave.

According to an early Mormon leader, Dr. William McLellin (8), these issues exploded in July 1833 when a series of Mormon sermons were delivered claiming that the "land of promise" was promised to them alone. These sermons denounced the Gentile presence in the county and were the catalyst for a conflagrational county civil war between Mormon and Gentile Missourians.

It began at a church meeting held in Independence, where Dr. McLellin was called upon to preach. The doctor "expounded from the scriptures, that the Gentile world was in bad straits; that a general wind-up was at hand, and that the result would be blood and destruction to the unbelievers and a glorious triumph for the Saints."(9) Dr. McLellin adamantly stated that he did not "specify how this would be brought about, or to set any time." However another Latter Day Saint
exhorter, who followed him, "prophesied that before five years all unbelievers in Jackson County would be destroyed." (10)

The Mormon predictions of the destruction of the Gentiles of Jackson County enraged and incensed Russel Hicks, a lawyer, Samuel C. Owens, (11) the county clerk, and other Gentiles who were in the "outskirts of the crowd." Hicks, Owens and the others sounded an alarm to their neighbors regarding this latest prophecy that the Gentiles of Jackson County would be destroyed. The foremost  Gentile men of Independence then called for a rally to be held in the public square where the Mormon sermons were heatedly discussed. The angry mood of the crowd intensified as opinions were stated of "how the Mormons were planning to destroy the Gentiles". Hicks and Owens opined that the Mormons would destroy the Gentiles by inciting a slave insurrection within the county. While there was no actual basis for this argument, in the July 1833 issue of The Evening and the Morning Star, edited by W. W. Phelps, an article titled "Free
People of Color," quoting the laws of Missouri by which free people of color could come to the state, was published. This article inflamed the Southerners of Jackson County and to placate them Phelps had printed an Extra edition of the Mormon paper on the 16th, quoting paragraphs now that free blacks were not to immigrate to Missouri nor were they to be accepted as members of the church.

However the Gentiles, who were weary of the constant ravings of the Saints that the land was the Mormons' inheritance, latched on to this specious assertion. The old settlers at the mass meeting were also reminded by "Bible scholars" that Joshua slaughtered the Canaanites at the command of God so that the Israelites could receive their inheritance in the Promise Land. Knowing how the Latter Day Saints maintained that they were modern Israel this proposition was alarming indeed to the Missourians who feared that religious fanatics within the Mormon
community might also feel that God would enact the same decree in the Latter Days. Actually at this point the angry and fearful Gentile populaces were willing to accept any excuse that could be used to justify driving the religious zealots from the county.

Following the mass meeting of Jackson County, three hundred armed Missourians were pledged to rid the county of Smith's disciples. Many of these men were lawyers, justices, and leading citizens who felt driven to desperation by the Mormon amalgamation of Jackson County. The men first went and destroyed the voice of the Mormon community; the office and press of The Evening and the Morning Star.(12) Then they tarred and feathered the Mormon Bishop of Independence, and committed other outrages against their Mormon fellow citizens. The Gentiles put the Saints on notice that they had enough of their prophecies of doom and would not tolerate them any longer and that they were to leave the county or they would be the ones destroyed not them.

The Gentile vigilantes swore to systematically purge the influence of Mormonism from Jackson County.(13) However because many of the old citizens were prominent men they felt the need to justify their extreme actions and wrote a declaration to account for the need to rid the county of their Mormon neighbors.

"The citizens of Jackson County fear the effect upon society of a pretended religious sect, fanatics or knaves, settling among them, and mean to rid of them at any hazard, and for the following reasons: They blasphemously pretend to personal intercourse with the deity, to revelations, miracles, healing the sick, casting out devils, and other delusions; they are the dregs of society, held together by the acts of designing leaders, and are idle and vicious. They are poor. They tamper with the slaves and free Negroes. They declare the Indian
region to be theirs by heavenly inheritance."(14)

Within the next few days, hundreds of armed Jackson county citizenry
entered the village of Independence and joined with the old settlers in "threatening death and destruction" to the Latter Day Saints if they did not leave. Understandably reluctant to abandon their homes, farms, and the temple lot, Mormon leaders met with the Jackson county citizens' committee and even
offered themselves as a ransom for the church saying they were "willing to be scourged or die, if that would appease their anger toward the church."

The old citizens listening to the pleas of Mormon leaders agreed to stop the violence against the Latter Day Saints if half the Mormon population would agree to leave the county by January 1 with the remainder leaving the county by April 1, 1834. (15) The Latter Day Saints Missouri leaders agreed having little recourse.

When Joseph Smith received news of the maltreatment of the Saints in Independence, he uttered a revelation on August 6, 1833 to justify a renewed militancy against the old settlers of Jackson County.

"Now, I speak unto you concerning your families-if men will smite you, or your families, once, and ye bear it patiently and revile not against them, neither seek revenge, ye shall be rewarded; But if ye bear it not patiently, it shall be accounted unto you as being meted out as a just measure unto you…" (16)

Joseph Smith, not one to turn the other cheek to his enemies nor give up property without a struggle, wrote W.W. Phelps on August 18, 1833 "… it is the will of the Lord that the Store shou[ld] be kept and that (not) one foot of (land) perchased (sic)should be given to the enimies (sic) of god or sold to them but if any is sold let it be sold to the church we cannot git (sic) the consent of the Lord that we shall give the ground to the enemies … we wait the Comand (sic) of God to do whatever he plese (sic)and if (he) shall say go up to Zion and defend thy Brotheren (sic) by (the sword) we fly …"(17)

The pacifist Mormon leaders in Missouri on the other hand appealed to Governor Daniel Dunkling for redress and the governor assured them of the state's protection and that they should resort to the courts for damages. The church authorities, taking the governor's counsel broke their coerced pledge to leave the county, decreed that church members should not leave Independence and hired four lawyers to take the church members' claims to court. Once the old settlers learned of the Mormon's intention to challenge in court the legality of their expulsion from Jackson County, civility broke down between the two communities, and "the whole country rose in arms and made war upon the Mormons." At the end of October 1833 discord and dissonance ruled the county.

On October 31, 1833 armed Gentiles attacked LDS Church settlements west of Independence, destroying twelve Mormon homes and beating Mormon men senseless. The following day Latter Day Saints in Independence were attacked and the anti-Mormon faction destroyed the Mormon storehouse, scattering its contents in the street. The Latter Day Saints fled and church authorities went to the Justice of Peace of Lexington who advised them, "You better fight it out and kill the outlaws if they come upon you."

The Latter Day Saints on November 4, 1833 in compliance with Joseph Smith's August revelation, engaged in their first war-like confrontation at the "Battle of Blue River". The Mormons had regrouped on the Big Blue River to the north of Independence. Here they formulated a plan to retaliate against the Gentile forces and to reclaim their property by attacking the town. Informants warned the Gentile citizenry of Independence of the Mormon plan to attack the town and the townspeople armed themselves.

Under a flag of truce, the old settlers sent a small scouting party to "parley" with the Latter Day Saints, and to try again to convince them to leave the county peacefully. The aggrieved Mormons were in no mood to receive the Gentile ambassadors and "Book of Mormon Witness" David Whitmer encouraged the Latter Day Saints to fire upon the scouting party. A gun battle ensued and two of Jackson County's old citizens, Mr. Brezeal and Mr. Linville were killed along with a Mormon by the name of Andrew Barber.

The death of Brezeal and Linville outraged the old settlers who maintained that because the dead Gentiles were "the first blood shed" in the conflict, the
Gentiles were now justified to drive the Mormons out by any means. The killing of the ambassadors, "settled [the Saints'] fate in Jackson County" and justified the expulsion of them from Jackson County en masse in mid-November of 1833.

On the 5th of November, Governor Dunkling ordered the state militia to keep the peace in Jackson County. Lieutenant Governor Lilburn Boggs accused the Latter Day Saints of being insurrectionists and ordered the Mormons to give up their arms and, "yet more violent attacks were made; hope was abandoned; the now defenseless saints were forced to fly in every direction, some into the open prairie, some up and down the river" (18) About "1,500 Saints were expelled
from Jackson County by the end of 1833 with about three hundred of their houses burned." (19)

Considering the ill will and animosity on both sides, the death toll in the Jackson County conflict was minimal. The Daily Missouri Republican stated, "All our accounts, we are happy to say, concur in one thing, that the original statement as to the number killed, was much exaggerated. The most authentic and latest accounts which has reached us, puts down the number at six -- two of the citizens, and four of the Mormonites -- and a good many wounded. This statement was brought by the Steamboat Dove, from Independence, the seat of justice of Jackson County. Many reports prevailed even in that quarter as to
the extent of the loss of life; and the first rumors may have well gained circulation without any sinister motives in those who gave credence and publicity to them." (20)

After the Saints were expelled from Jackson County, most of them relocated in Clay and Ray Counties in Missouri where they waited for their lawsuits and property entitlements to be adjudicated. In the summer of 1834 a committee of old settlers attempted to secure legal title to the vacated Mormon lands by proposing to buy out the Mormons' claims. One such mission became an opportunity for vengeance on the part of the Latter Day Saints.

In June 1834, an envoy of a twelve men from Jackson County crossed the Blue River into Clay County to negotiate a settlement. Mormon leaders rebuffed the old settlers desire to buy out the Latter Day Saints property claims in the hopes that Joseph Smith, who was leading a paramilitary army to Missouri, would "redeem" the land of Zion. On June 15, 1834, the Jackson County negotiators departed Clay County, and boarded a ferry to take them back across the Missouri River to Independence. However in the middle of the river tragedy
struck as the ferry sprang a leak and sank, drowning seven of the Jackson County committee members. When Joseph Smith heard of the disaster, he boasted, "The angel of God saw fit to sink the boat…"(21) Mary M. Austin, a Mormon who had been driven out of Jackson County, however, claimed that the Latter Day Saints "took off a plank and bore several places in the bottom of the boat and placed the plank back as before" while the Missourians were in negotiations. (22)

Within a week of the ferry disaster, Smith's own army was stricken by cholera after having bragged that his expedition would be successful because of his "diligence, faithfulness, and prayers." Later to rationalize why fourteen of his followers died, Joseph Smith lamented, "The Lord was trying the faith of His flock." (23) It is never mentioned in LDS chronicles that more Latter Day Saints died of cholera on the way to redeem Zion then had died at the hands of the
old settlers of Jackson County.

When all is said and done Joseph Smith's scheme to establish a political entity, accountable solely to himself, was as much responsible for the misery inflicted on the Latter Day Saints of Jackson County as was the reprehensible action of some Missourians. By all accounts Smith encouraged and even promoted the notion that the Advent of Jesus Christ was immediate which notion misled his more fanatical millennialists into reckless condemnation of non-believers. The provocative anti-Gentile rhetoric espoused by the Missouri Saints' was fueled by Smith's revelations that the Saints alone would possess the "land of promise". These inflammatory proclamations, which the Latter Day Saints understood as God's promises, had a most important bearing on Mormon vilification by Gentile Missourians who opposed Joseph Smith's plan for building a kingdom on the Missouri frontier. The  Jackson County response to the  disparagement of non-Mormons was at first distrust and disdain but eventually led to  a driving away of their Mormon neighbors.

The misfortunes of the Latter Day Saints in the first few years of Mormon history created a decidedly militaristic bent within the LDS  Church, which was manifested for much of the nineteenth century east and west of the Mississippi River. Governor Thomas Ford of Illinois remarked on this development by
writing that while most new Christian sects were "persecuted" at one time or another, most noticeably the Quakers and Methodists, Joseph Smith's penchant for belligerency towards those who opposed him set Mormonism apart from other churches.

This is evident from the two different reactions towards the Missouri conflict. The leaders of the Missouri church were willing to be held ransomed and even offered
their lives in exchange for the safety of the Latter Day Saints in Jackson county, while Joseph Smith, on the other hand, received revelations to justify a continuing confrontational engagement against his enemies. Smith even went as far as to devise an ecclesiastical paramilitary unit to take back the land of promise and "defend... by the sword, " evidently forgetting an earlier Scriptural admonition that stated "for all that take the sword shall perish with the sword." (24)

FOOTNOTES
1.Book of Commandments 48:59

2.IBID 44:32 "For it shall come to pass, that which I spake by the mouths of my prophets shall be fulfilled; for I will consecrate the riches of the Gentiles, unto my people which are of the house of Israel."

3.John D. Lee wrote that Smith taught, "that the Mormons, if faithful, obedient and true followers of the advice of their leaders, would soon enjoy all the wealth of the earth; that God would consecrate the riches of the Gentiles to the Saints. This and much more he said to induce the people to obey the will of the
priesthood." Confessions of John D. Lee, Chapter V;

• THE MORMON WAR IN MISSOURI Early Mormon Historian John Whitmer supported Lee's position writing "Now, as I said before, the Lord began to prosper them in Nauvoo and as soon as they began to prosper they began to be lifted up in pride, and behaved vilely towards the people in Hancock County, Illinois, in which county Nauvoo is situated, as also to the people in the counties round about, so that the people began to
  threaten them again and raised mobs to drive the Saints, (as far as they called themselves) from their homes. The Mormons at the same time would steal from them many things; and indeed the Mormons would
  justify themselves in this wicked way saying, "We are the Lord's. And
  the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; therefore these things are ours." Also, "God has said by the mouths of the Prophets that he would consecrate the riches of the Gentiles to the house of Israel, and we are the house of Israel, etc. etc." "Now" say they, "when these things are placed before our eyes, go, and God is not intending to give it himself, but you are agents, and these things are before you, go and help yourselves," etc...
• The LDS Church has altered the original revelation found in the Book of
  Commandments from "I will consecrate the riches of the Gentiles unto my people" to "I will consecrate of the riches of those who embrace my gospel among the Gentiles unto the poor of my people and they by distorting the initial passage's intended meaning. (D&C 42:39).
• LaMar Petersen, The Creation of the Book of Mormon: A Historical Inquiry (Salt Lake City: Freethinker Press, 1998),

4. D&C Section 52. 42

5.6 October 1875 Salt Lake City Daily Tribune: "Jackson County –The Early History of the Saints and Their Enemies by J.H. Beadle

6.D&C Section 58.54-53) For, behold, verily I say unto you, the Lord willeth that the disciples and the children of men should open their hearts, even to purchase this whole region of country, as soon as time will permit. Behold, here is wisdom. Let them do this lest they receive none inheritance, save it be by the shedding of blood.

7.D& C Section 64: 27-31 Behold, it is said in my laws, or forbidden, to get in debt to thine enemies But behold, it is not said at any time that the Lord should not take when he please, and pay as seemeth him good. Wherefore, as ye are agents, ye are on the Lord's errand; and whatever ye do according to the will of the Lord is the Lord's business. And he hath set you to provide for his saints in these last days, that they may obtain an inheritance in the land of Zion. And
behold, I, the Lord, declare unto you, and my words are sure and shall not fail, that they shall obtain it.

8.William E. McLellin, born 18 Jan 1806 in Bagdad, Smith County, Tennesse. He died 24 April 1883 Independence, Jackson, Mo. Dr. McLellin had a checkered reputation. He came to Independence, Missouri in 1831 from Paris, Illinois, and after reading the Book of Mormon was baptized into the Mormon Church the same year. His "keen intelligence and complete faith in the authenticity of The Book of Mormon" soon brought him to the attention of Joseph Smith. McLellin
became a Mormon missionary and upon his returned in 1833, he returned
to his home in Jackson County. "While on his mission in 1832, the newly remarried McLellin "came to a house of a certain harlot [and] concluded to tarry many days," for which he was excommunicated in December 1832. He was rebaptised in 1833, and later become a member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles in 1835. He apostatized after the Mormon War of 1836

9. 6 October 1875 SLC Daily Tribune: "Jackson County-Beadle

10. IBID

11.IBID "Samuel C. Owens, who made the first speech here against the Saints and led the mob, was shot dead in the Mexican war, while leading an assault. I hardly know whether to credit this to the "curse" or not; but on second thoughts have concluded its only fair to do so. True, a great many men were killed in that war who had nothing to do with the persecution; but the "Lord's" bookkeeping may differ from ours, and it is best to be on the safe side. So credit Owens to prophecy. Russel Hicks, then Owens' deputy, is now an old lawyer at Kansas City. He is a rough, gruff old sinner, but hale and tolerably prosperous. But if he don't go a little slower on his "bitters," I think the "curse" will eventually catch him.)

12.1990 JWHA Journal 10 Ronald E. and John H. Siebert, The First Impressions: The Independence, Missouri, Printing Operation, 1832-33."The church might have experienced greater success in Jackson County, had Phelps been a more temperate editor. Exertions to put church beliefs into print did not make a good impression with the colony's Jackson County neighbors, but rather provided a focus for intense animosity. It is significant the mob chose to first move upon
the press. Its destruction was the culmination of nonmember dissatisfactions with church activities in Jackson County." William Wines Phelps, February 17, 1792, in Hanover, Morris county, New Jersey.died March 7, 1872 in Salt Lake City, was president of the Mormon Church in Missouri but later left the church and testified
against it during the Missouri persecutions. Reconciling with Joseph Smith's actions, Phelps later wrote to Smith, expressing great sorrow with his course, asking to be reinstated as a member.

13.6 October 1875 Salt Lake City Daily Tribune: "Jackson County –The Early History of the Saints and Their Enemies by J.H. Beadle)

14. Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of Utah. San Francisco, Ca. 1890 Pg. 98

15. Parley P. Pratt, Late Persecution, NY 1840 p 30

16. Joseph Smith, History of the Church 1:403-6. Kirtland, Ohio, August 6, 1833

17. Personal Writings of Joseph Smith, compiled and edited by Dean C. Jessee (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company), 1984; 2nd ed., 2004. p. 311

18. Bancroft. History of Utah p 102

19. 30 June 1869 Deseret News

20.22 November 1833 Daily Missouri Republican St. Louis Mo. Vol, 12 No. 644

21.Smith. History of the Church Vol. II pp 99-100

22.Mary M. Austin. Life Among the Mormons. p 82. See also History of
Jackson County pp. 262-263.

23. Harold Schlinder. Orrin Porter Rockwell: Man of God / Son of Thunder. 1993 University of Utah Press pg. 25

24. The Gospel According to Saint Matthew 26:52 KJV