"Truth will stand proud and erect, unsullied and uncontaminated by the pestiferous breath of calumniating mortals, and no power can stay its progress." -John Taylor (1850)

Carthage, Illinois

Today, Carthage, Illinois is a small, rural city located about 24 miles southeast of Nauvoo. The drive along the Mississippi River is picturesque and a visit to the room where Joseph and Hyrum were slain leaves a powerful impression.

Joseph, Hyrum, and sixteen others hugged their families goodbye and rode to Carthage on June 24, 1844. City Council members, including the Prophet, were traveling to the county seat to face charges that had been brought against them. Some of the charges concerned the destruction of the printing press of the Nauvoo Expositor, an anti-Mormon paper that had published accusations against Church leaders. The Governor of Illinois, Thomas Ford, had promised the Prophet protection and an impartial trial. Concerned about the Saints' welfare if he did not appear, Joseph consented. He knew he was seeing his beloved Nauvoo for the last time. As he passed the temple and looked out over the city, he called it "the loveliest place and the best people under the heavens." He further remarked, "I am going like a lamb to the slaughter, but I am calm as a summer's morning."

The group spent the first night at the Hamilton House Hotel, and on the following morning they were released on bail. Soon after, Joseph and Hyrum were re-arrested and falsely charged with treason. Though they were the only two charged, others chose to stay with them that night in the Carthage Jail. The governor's promised protection came in the form of the state troops called the "Carthage Greys," some of whom had privately stated that Joseph would never leave Carthage alive.

On the evening of June 26, only Hyrum, Willard Richards, John Fullmer, Stephen Markham, John Taylor, and Dan Jones remained in the jail with the Prophet. After the others had fallen asleep, the Prophet asked Brother Jones if he was afraid to die, to which Dan replied that "engaged in such a cause I do not think that death would have many terrors." To this, Joseph replied, "You will yet see Wales, and fulfill the mission appointed you before you die."

The following morning, June 27, 1844, Joseph asked Dan Jones to go to Governor Ford to ask for the promised protection. John Fullmer returned to Nauvoo also on assignment to Joseph, and Stephen Markham was sent to get medicine for Willard Richard's upset stomach. As Brother Markham was returning to the jail, the Carthage Greys forced him onto a horse and out of town at the point of a bayonet. Dan Jones was also not allowed to re-enter the jail. (His life was thus spared, and as the Prophet had promised, he later served a very successful mission in Wales and was instrumental in bringing thousands of new converts into the Church."

During the day, Joseph wrote a letter to his wife: "Dear Emma, I am very much resigned to my lot, knowing I am justified, and have done the best that could be done. Give my love to the children and all my friend...". A few hours later, Joseph dictated an additional postscript to Emma: "I just learn(ed) that the Governor is about to disband his troops, all but a guard to protect us and the peace..."

By mid-afternoon, the weather was hot and humid, and the four remaining prisoners confined in the jail's upper bedroom were uncomfortable. Around 3 o'clock, John Taylor began to sing "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief." When he had finished singing, Joseph asked him to sing it again.

Around 5 o'clock, a mob of over one hundred armed men with blackened faces converged on the jail. "The mob encircled the building, and some of them rushed by the guard up the flight of stairs, burst open the door, and began the work of death, while others fired in through the open windows." The four men tried to hold the door against the force of the mob. A bullet fired through the door struck Hyrum and he fell mortally wounded to the floor. As he fell to the floor he exclaimed, "I am a dead man!" Joseph saw his beloved brother fall and exclaimed, "Oh dear, brother Hyrum!"

John Taylor tried to jump out of the window and was hit by a bullet in his left thigh. He fell onto the windowsill when another bullet hit his pocket watch, stopping the time at 5:16. The force of the bullet threw him back into the room. He was hit several more times, with one of the bullets entering just below his left knee, and another hitting his left wrist. After crawling under the bed for protection, he was struck in the left hip.

"Joseph, seeing there was no safety in the room, and no doubt thinking that it would save the lives of his brethren in the room if he could get out, turned calmly from the door, dropped his pistol on the floor, and sprang into the window when two balls pierced him from the door, and one entered his right breast from without, and he fell outward into the hands of his murderers, exclaiming, "O Lord, my God!"

As Brother Richards rushed to the door, he heard John Taylor call out, "Take me." Willard took the seriously wounded John Taylor into the cell next door and hid him under bedding, fearing that the mob would come upstairs to finish their work. But hearing shouts that the Mormons were coming, the mob quickly fled.

John Taylor survived the ordeal and would later become the third President of the Church. His words recorded in D&C 135 reflect the greatness of the beloved Prophet: "Joseph Smith, the Prophet and seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it."

Members of the mob also attacked Samuel Smith, the younger brother of Hyrum and Joseph, as he hurried to Carthage to help his brothers. He arrived shortly after the tragedy and helped take his brothers' bodies back to Nauvoo on the following day. Soon after, Samuel became very ill partly because of physical exhaustion from his lengthy ride while being chased by the attackers, and partly because of the emotional stress from the martyrdom. Lucy Smith recorded, "In a short time Samuel, who continued unwell, was confined to his bed, and lingering until the thirtieth of July, his spirit forsook its earthly tabernacle and went to join his brothers, and the ancient martyrs, in the Paradise of God." Lucy Smith had now lost three sons within a month's time.

Carthage Jail - Statements on Plaques

Sources
Joseph Smith History 1: 3, 11, 14, 16, 17, 25
History of the Church, Vol. 6, p. 213
History of the Church, Vol. 6, p. 427
Lectures on Faith, Lecture 6, Verse 7
Doctrine and Covenants 76:22-24

No. 1

"I was born in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and five on the twenty-third day of December...so great were the confusion and strife among the different denominations (in my fifteenth year), that it was impossible for a person young as I was...to come to any certain conclusion who was right and who was wrong...

"While I was laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by the contests of these parties of religionists, I was one day reading the epistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse, which reads: If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and unbraideth not: and it shall be given him...

"I at length came to the determination to 'ask of God...I retired to the woods to make the attempt. It was on the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty...I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God...I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me"

--Joseph Smith, Jr. (1838)

No. 2

"When the light rested upon me I saw two personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other--This is my beloved Son. hear him...

'I had beheld a vision...I had actually seen a light, and in the midst of that light I saw two personages, and they did in reality speak to me; and though I was hated and persecuted for saying that I had seen a vision, yet it was true.. .for I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it."

--Joseph Smith, Jr. (1838)

No. 3

"I never feel to force my doctrine upon any person; I rejoice to see prejudice give way to truth, and the traditions of men dispersed by the pure principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ."

--Joseph Smith, Jr. (1844)

No. 4

"Patience is heavenly, obedience is noble, forgiveness is merciful, and exaltation is godly; and he that holds out faithful to the end shall in no wise lose his reward. A good man will endure all things to honor Christ, and even dispose of the whole world, and all in it, to save his soul."

--Joseph Smith, Jr., and Hyrum Smith (1844)

No. 5

"When a man has offered in sacrifice all that he has for the truths sake, not even withholding his life, and believing before God that he has been called to make this sacrifice because he seeks to do his will, he does know, most assuredly, that God does and will accept his sacrifice and offering, and that he has not, nor will not seek his face in vain."

--Joseph Smith, Jr. (1835)

No. 6

"And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him (Jesus Christ), this the testimony, of all, which we give of him: that He lives!

"For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is Only Begotten of the Father--

"That by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God."

--Joseph Smith, Jr. (1832)

Two Minutes in Jail

as told by Willard Richards Times and Seasons, from the Nauvoo Neighbor

Possibly the following events, occupied near three minutes, but I think only about two, and have penned them for the gratification of many friends

Carthage, June 27th, 1844

A shower of musket balls were thrown up the stair way against the door of the prison in the second story, followed by many rapid footsteps. While Generals Joseph and Hyrum Smith, Mr. Taylor, and myself, who were in the front chamber, closed the door of our room against the entry at the head of the stairs, and placed ourselves against it, there being no lock on the door and no ketch that was useable.

The door is a common panel, and as soon as we heard the feet at the stairs head, a ball was sent through the door, which passed between us, and showed that our enemies were desperadoes, and we must change our position.

Gen. Joseph Smith, Mr. Taylor, and myself sprang back to the front part of the room, and Gen. Hyrum Smith retreated two thirds across the chamber directly in front of and facing the door.

A ball was sent through the door which hit Hyrum on the side of his nose when he fell backwards extended at length without moving his feet. From the holes in his vest, (the day was warm and no one had their coats on but myself,) pantaloons, drawers and shirt, it appears evident that a ball must have been thrown from without, through the window, which entered his back on the right side and passing through lodged against his watch, which was in his right vest pocket completely pulverizing the crystal and face, tearing off the hands and mashing the whole body of the watch, at the same instant the ball from the door entered his nose.

As he struck the floor he exclaimed emphatically; "I'm a dead man." Joseph looked towards him and responded, "O dear! Brother Hyrum!" and opening the door two or three inches with his left hand, discharged one barrel of a six shooter (pistol) at random in the entry from whence a ball grazed Hyrum's breast, and entering his throat passed into his head, while other muskets were aimed at him, and some balls hit him.

Joseph continued snapping his revolver, round the casing of the door into the space as before, three barrels of which missed fire, while Mr. Taylor with a walking stick stood by his side and knocked down the bayonets and muskets, which were constantly discharging through the door way, while I stood by him, ready to lend any assistance, with another stick, but could not come within striking distance, without going directly before the muzzle of the guns.

When the revolver failed, we had no more fire arms, and expecting an immediate rush of the mob, and the door way full of muskets half way in the room, and no hope but instant death from within: Mr. Taylor rushed into the window, which is some fifteen or twenty feet from the ground.

When his body was nearly on a balance, a ball from the door within entered his leg, and a ball from without struck his watch, a patent lever, in his vest pocket, near the left breast, and smashed it in "pie," leaving the hands standing at 5 o'clock, 16 minutes, and 26 seconds -- the force of which ball threw him back on the floor, and he rolled under the bed which stood by his side, where he lay motionless, the mob from the door continuing to fire upon him, cutting away a piece of flesh from his left hip as large as a man's hand, and were hindered only by my knocking down their muzzles with a stick; while they continued to reach their guns into the room, probably left handed, and aimed their discharge so far around as almost to reach us in the corner of the room to where we retreated and dodged, and then I re-commenced the attack with my stick again.

Joseph attempted as the last resort, to leap the same window from whence Mr. Taylor fell, when two balls pierced him from the door, and one entered his right breast from without, and he fell outward exclaiming, "O Lord my God!"

As his feet went out of the window my head went in, the balls whistling all around. He fell on his left side a dead man. At this instant the cry was raised, "He's leaped the window," and the mob on the stairs and in the entry ran out.

I withdrew from the window, thinking it of no use to leap out on a hundred bayonets, then around Gen. Smith's body. Not satisfied with this I again reached my head out of the window and watched some seconds, to see if there were any signs of life, regardless of my own, determined to see the end of him I loved; being fully satisfied, that he was dead, with a hundred men near the body and more coming round the corner of the jail, and expecting a return to our room I rushed towards the prison door, at the head of the stairs, and through the entry from whence the firing had proceeded, to learn if the doors into the prison were open.

-- When near the entry, Mr. Taylor called out, "take me" I pressed my way till I found all doors unbarred, returning instantly caught Mr. Taylor under my arm, and rushed by the stairs into the dungeon, or inner prison, stretched him on the floor and covered him with a bed in such a manner, as not likely to be perceived, expecting an immediate return of the mob.

I said to Mr. Taylor, this is a hard case to lay you on the floor, but if your wounds are not fatal I want you to live to tell the story. I expected to be shot the next moment, and stood before the door awaiting the onset.

WILLARD RICHARDS.

Carthage, Illinois

Carthage Jail - Statements on Plaques

Two Minutes in Jail

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