Excerpt from Alan Stout Journal
On the 5th of July, 1837,
father and I set out for Caldwell County, Missouri, in company with Anna and
Jones family, and what was called the Rich branch of the Church. C.[Charles] C.
Rich was our leader. Hosea, Benjamin and Lydia stayed behind to finish some jobs
and settle some business, and then came on by water. We crossed the Mississippi
at Quincy and traveled through Palmyra, Huntsville, Keetsville, and Carlton. We
got to our journey's end about the 6th of August. My business on the road was to
drive sheep and help Anna about the camping business. When we stopped, Ben's
boys and I tried to cut hay, but they were too small and I was so sick and
weakly that I could not do any good at it. The weather was very rainy and we had
no house to shelter in, but I tried to borrow rails from one John Cooper to make
a pen to shelter in, but he refused, and afterwards let them lay and rot. I was
now out of money and in a strange place. But on getting out of tobacco and
coffee, I went to George M. Hinkle's store and tried to get trusted until Hosea
came on, but he would not credit me although he had agreed to do so. This made
me mad, and if I had had money enough, I should have returned to the south, but
fortunate for me, my money was gone. Hosea and Ben soon came on and Hosea had a
good bag of cash, so he entered 200 acres of good land, and we went to work and
built a house on it, and Lydia kept house for us. Father stayed sometimes at
Hosea's and sometimes at Jones'.
This fall and winter I was afflicted with a breast
complaint--fever sores and a breaking out on my body so I was unable to work at
all. My mind was also greatly troubled, for I had become satisfied of the truth
of the gospel and wished to embrace it, but still lingered back and had not
courage to go forward and be baptized until on the 22nd day of April, 1838, I
and Thomas Rich were baptized by the hand of Charles C. Rich.
It seemed to me that I could almost walk and not touch the
ground. I was baptized in Lost Creek, five miles south of Far West. Soon after
that I had the elders to anoint me and I was healed of both my breast complaint
and fever sores, after the bone had been naked all winter on my leg, etc. I had
breaking out on my body in consequence of change of climate and water, which was
also healed. Hosea [Stout] and I then rented 15 acres of ground and planted it
in corn,
pumpkins, melons, etc. Hosea had some of his own land in cultivation. We spent
this summer in tending to our business until crops were laid by, but about that
time the Johnson's, Whitmer's, and some other apostates began to go off and
swear everything they could against Joseph Smith, and all the heads of the
Church. They swore to some lies and some truths which were calculated to excite
the Gentiles against us insomuch that mobs began to rise and commit depredations
until we were forced to resort to arms in order to save ourselves and property.
The Church was organized under captains tens, fifties, one
hundreds, and one thousands. This made the inhabitants mad to see us making
ready to defend ourselves. They called our organization the Danite band. I
belonged to the third fifty led by Reynolds Cahoon.
On the 4th of July [1838], Sidney
Rigdon delivered his declaration of independence, which enraged the mob worse
than ever, so that by fall the whole country was under arms. Benjamin Jones took
a job of building a warehouse for Mr. Pomeroy, and I went and cooked for his
hands one month, but the excitement got so high that some of the inhabitants of
Richmond came down to where we were at work to whip us. There came eight men
down to whip three of us, and when they came, I was off from our camp on
business, and old man Knapp got drunk as soon as they came, so Brother Jones was
all alone, and as soon as they made their business known, Jones pulled up a
stake out of the ground and bid them come on, but none of them dared to touch
him. As soon as I came, Jones told me what had happened. Now, we had our wagon
loaded up ready to go home, but we stayed until near night just to let them see
that we were not afraid of them. In the afternoon, as we went home, one of them
waylaid us to shoot us, but the sheriff found it out and made him come away
before we came on.
We went into Richmond and I went to a store to get a wedding
dress for my sister Lydia, and the mob was there threatening me on every side,
but I did not notice them. We then went on two miles and stayed all night. The
next morning we set out for home and got there about three o'clock p.m. and that
night there was a call made for men to go and retake some prisoners from Captain
Bogart, so Jones and Hosea went, but I had no arms nor saddle, so I could not
go, but next morning I heard that the brethren had had a fight with Bogart and
retook the prisoners, but David W. Patten, Gideon Carter, and Patterson [Patrick
?] O'Banion were slain in the fight. I helped to tend on Patten while he was
dying.
The Church in that settlement all went into Far West that day
because Sampson Avard told them that the mob would be upon them by night and
kill them, but the mob fled as fast the other way, and one John Estes, went to
Richmond and swore that the Mormons had fallen on Captain Bogart and killed all
of his men, but him, and that they were ravaging the country, upon which
testimony the governor issued his extermination orders.
