Times and Seasons, 1 March 1842

Among the items printed in the 15 February issue of the Times and Seasons was a notice of marriage between Gilbert Rolfe and Eliza Jane Bates. Following the notice, a newspaper employee included a statement of congratulation laced with printer’s puns and suggestive language. In a letter to JS, typesetter Lyman O. Littlefield assumed responsibility for authoring the notice, stating, “You knew nothing of its existence until that edition had been ‘worked off’ and circulated—the proof sheet not being examined by you.” Robinson also confirmed that the 15 February installment “went to press without his [JS’s] personal inspection.” (Marriage Notice, Times and Seasons, 15 Feb. 1842, 3:701; Letter from Lyman O. Littlefield, 14 Mar. 1842; Ebenezer Robinson, “To the Public,” Times and Seasons, 15 Mar. 1842, 3:729.)  

News Item, New-York Tribune (New York City), 26 Jan. 1842, [2].  

New-York Tribune. New York City. 1841–1842.

The paymaster of the Missouri militia was Major Horner, a veteran of the War of 1812. (Journal of the Senate, of the State of Missouri, 26 Jan. 1843, 258–259; History of Boone County, Missouri, 885; Waller, History of Randolph County Missouri, 387.)  

Journal, of the Senate, of the State of Missouri, at the First Session of the Tenth General Assembly, Begun and Held at the City of Jefferson, On Monday, the Nineteenth Day of November, in the Year of Our Lord, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Eight. Jefferson City, MO: Calvin Gunn, 1839.

History of Boone County, Missouri. Written and Compiled From the Most Authentic Official and Private Sources. . . . St. Louis: Western Historical Co., 1882.

Waller, Alexander H. History of Randolph County, Missouri. Topeka, KS: Historical Publishing Company, 1920.

The expression was “Sabine slope” not “Saline slope.” According to a nineteenth-century dictionary of American expressions, one meaning of the word slope was “to run away.” Contemporary uses of “Sabine slope” suggest that the expression was used to describe the action of absconding from moral or financial obligations. Despite the suspicion the New-York Tribune expressed, there is no evidence that the paymaster, Major Horner, engaged in any financial improprieties. (“Slope,” in Bartlett, Dictionary of Americanisms, 310; “Commercial and Money Matters,” New-York Daily Tribune [New York City], 21 Oct. 1842, [3]; “Daniel Webster,” Weekly Globe [Washington DC], 1 Oct. 1842, 681; “Rail Road Management—the Bank Clique—Anecdote of a Financial Operation,” New York Herald [New York City], 19 Jan. 1842, [2].)  

Bartlett, John Russell. Dictionary of Americanisms: A Glossary of Words and Phrases, Usually Regarded as Peculiar to the United States. New York: Bartlett and Welford, 1848.

New-York Daily Tribune. New York City. 1841–1924.

Weekly Globe. Washington DC. 1830–1843.

New York Herald. New York City. 1835–1924.

In the years after the forced expulsion of the Latter-day Saints from Missouri, church leaders variously estimated the number of members who had lived in the state; the number was likely between eight thousand and ten thousand. (Letter to Isaac Galland, 22 Mar. 1839; Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, ca. 30 Oct. 1839–27 Jan. 1840; Council of Fifty, “Record,” 4 Mar. 1845; Leonard, Nauvoo, 31, 671n33; LeSueur, 1838 Mormon War in Missouri, 35–36.)  

Leonard, Glen M. Nauvoo: A Place of Peace, a People of Promise. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2002.

LeSueur, Stephen C. The 1838 Mormon War in Missouri. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1987.

This is likely a reference to the murder of Sardius Smith by vigilantes near the Hawn’s Mill settlement in Caldwell County, Missouri, on 3 October 1838. According to a firsthand account of the massacre written by Latter-day Saint Joseph Young, one of the attackers killed nine-year-old Sardius with a close-range rifle shot to the head. (Greene, Facts relative to the Expulsion, 23.)  

Greene, John P. Facts Relative to the Expulsion of the Mormons or Latter Day Saints, from the State of Missouri, under the “Exterminating Order.” By John P. Greene, an Authorized Representative of the Mormons. Cincinnati: R. P. Brooks, 1839.

This is likely a reference to the murder of Thomas McBride at the Hawn’s Mill settlement in 1838. One survivor, Amanda Barnes Smith, described McBride as an “old white headed Revalutioner [Revolutioner],” though he was born in 1776. Another survivor later related how vigilantes shot McBride with a gun and mutilated him with a corn cutter. (Baugh, “Rare Account of the Haun’s Mill Massacre,” 166; Amanda Barnes Smith, Statement, 18 Apr. 1839, Historian’s Office, JS History Documents, ca. 1839–1860, CHL.)  

Baugh, Alexander L. “A Rare Account of the Haun’s Mill Massacre: The Reminiscence of Willard Gilbert Smith.” Mormon Historical Studies 8 (2007): 165–171.

Historian’s Office. Joseph Smith History Documents, 1839–1860. CHL. CR 100 396.

A few survivors reported that after the attack at Hawn’s Mill, vigilantes looted houses, wagons, and tents, stealing clothing from both the deceased and survivors. (Greene, Facts relative to the Expulsion, 24; Amanda Barnes Smith, Statement, 18 Apr. 1839, Historian’s Office, JS History Documents, ca. 1839–1860, CHL.)  

Greene, John P. Facts Relative to the Expulsion of the Mormons or Latter Day Saints, from the State of Missouri, under the “Exterminating Order.” By John P. Greene, an Authorized Representative of the Mormons. Cincinnati: R. P. Brooks, 1839.

Historian’s Office. Joseph Smith History Documents, 1839–1860. CHL. CR 100 396.

In an 1839 petition to the Missouri legislature, church members asserted that after they had surrendered to militiamen in Far West, Missouri, the soldiers proceeded to plunder and burn building materials and steal or kill cattle, sheep, and hogs. (Greene, Facts relative to the Expulsion, 13–14.)  

Greene, John P. Facts Relative to the Expulsion of the Mormons or Latter Day Saints, from the State of Missouri, under the “Exterminating Order.” By John P. Greene, an Authorized Representative of the Mormons. Cincinnati: R. P. Brooks, 1839.

The Latter-day Saints were forced to leave the state during the winter. (Hartley, “Almost Too Intolerable a Burthen,” 6–40.)  

Hartley, William G. “‘Almost Too Intolerable a Burthen’: The Winter Exodus from Missouri, 1838–39.” Journal of Mormon History 18 (Fall 1992): 6–40.

Over six thousand militiamen were deployed during the 1838 Mormon War. In February of the following year, the Missouri legislature began the process of appropriating as much as $200,000 for “paying the expenses of the troops called out to drive the mormons from the State.” (Gentry and Compton, Fire and Sword, 496; An Act to Authorise the Procurement of a Loan of Money to the State of Missouri, for the Purpose of Paying the Volunteers and Militia That Have Been Engaged in the Service of the State, and for Other Purposes [9 Feb. 1839], Laws of the State of Missouri [1838–1839], pp. 79–80, sec. 1; John Smith, St. Louis, to Lilburn W. Boggs, Jefferson City, MO, 4 Mar. 1839, in Journal of the House of Representatives, of the State of Missouri, 610–611; Pratt, History of the Late Persecution, 70, emphasis in original.)  

Gentry, Leland Homer, and Todd M. Compton. Fire and Sword: A History of the Latter-day Saints in Northern Missouri, 1836–39. Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2011.

Laws of the State of Missouri, Passed at the First Session of the Tenth General Assembly, Begun and Held at the City of Jefferson, on Monday, the Nineteenth Day of November, in the Year of Our Lord, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Eight. Jefferson, MO: Calvin Gunn, 1838.

Journal, of the House of Representatives, of the State of Missouri, at the First Session of the Tenth General Assembly, Begun and Held at the City of Jefferson, on Monday, the Nineteenth Day of November, in the Year of Our Lord, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Eight. Jefferson City, MO: Calvin Gunn, 1839.

See Psalm 137:1–2.  

In a memorial submitted to the United States Senate in January 1840, church leaders estimated losses of nearly two million dollars from stealing and vandalism committed by vigilantes and militiamen in Missouri. A circa 1843 register of affidavits, created by Thomas Bullock and containing bills of damages related to the loss of property in Missouri, estimated the figure to be $1,381,084.51½ (though Bullock’s register apparently omitted several affidavits). (Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, ca. 30 Oct. 1839–27 Jan. 1840; Thomas Bullock, “Bills,” in Mormon Redress Petitions, 1839–1845, CHL.)  

Mormon Redress Petitions, 1839–1845. CHL. MS 2703.

Following the expulsion of church members from Daviess and Caldwell counties, many refugees lacked adequate food, clothing, and shelter. On 11 December 1838 Missouri governor Lilburn W. Boggs signed a bill that appropriated $2,000 “for the relief of sundry persons in Caldwell and Daviess counties.” (An Act for the Relief of Sundry Persons in Caldwell and Daviess Counties [11 Dec. 1838], Laws of the State of Missouri [1838], pp. 314–315.)  

Laws of the State of Missouri, Passed at the First Session of the Tenth General Assembly, Begun and Held at the City of Jefferson, on Monday, the Nineteenth Day of November, in the Year of Our Lord, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Eight. Jefferson, MO: Calvin Gunn, 1838.

Among those appointed to distribute necessities to the destitute were Henry McHenry and Elisha Cameron, the two men most often identified by name in Latter-day Saint accounts of these events. (“Theodore Turley’s Memorandums,” ca. 1845, [3], Historian’s Office, JS History Documents, ca. 1839–1860, CHL; History of Caldwell and Livingston Counties, Missouri, 143.)  

Historian’s Office. Joseph Smith History Documents, 1839–1860. CHL. CR 100 396.

History of Caldwell and Livingston Counties, Missouri, Written and Compiled from the Most Authentic Official and Private Sources. . . . St. Louis: National Historical Co., 1886.

In a circa 1845 memorandum, Theodore Turley recalled that Elisha Cameron drove pigs owned by the Daviess County Saints down into Caldwell County; there they were slaughtered (though not properly bled per tradition) and sold by Henry McHenry to destitute members of the church for four to five cents per pound. (“Theodore Turley’s Memorandums,” ca. 1845, [3], Historian’s Office, JS History Documents, ca. 1839–1860, CHL.)  

Historian’s Office. Joseph Smith History Documents, 1839–1860. CHL. CR 100 396.

See Proverbs 12:10.