THE MORMONS. -- The Sheriff of Hancock county has arrested Elliott, who had previously been examined on a charge of being concerned in the murder of the Smiths, but escaped from the custody of the officer before being committed. Elliott has made application for a writ of habeas corpus, and it is supposed will be liberated. Two other individuals had been arrested, one for perjury and the other on a requisition from the Governor of Iowa -- both of whom were rescued from the hands of the officers. Those concerned have renewed the former bad feeling against the Mormons, and difficulty appears likely to grow out of it. -- Chicago Journal.


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE  CARTHAGE  GRAYS. -- Political moves. -- We learn from the State Register that this valiant and independent military company have waited on Mr. Backenstos, a member of the Assembly, and for words spoken in debate, have ordered him to leave the county or suffer the consequences -- and also that on a forged order a piece of artillery has been conveyed to said company in whose possession it now is, and that Gov. Ford has sent an agent to take all the State arms in the possession of the Grays. All of this, high-handed as it may appear to many, we view as a mere political maneuver, Now that the patronage of the Government has been either bestowed or is in progress of bestowment, and the Legislative stealings have run dry, the politicians of the Banner State naturally turn their attention to other objects and ply the willing oar of the demagogue for power and place by truckling with questions growing out of the unfortunate Mormon difficulties, as the most certain is bring about the desired result. A trade is on foot for the next Governorship, blended, perhaps, with a place in the U. S. Senate. Experience teaches us how these things work among the unterrified. Previous to each election for the last few years in our State, "the powers that be" have invariably managed to create a new batch of Mormon disturbances and then by a peculiar sleight of hand, the head "Sacham" of Locofocoism gives the word, and Presto! change, the supremacy of the law is left in the lurch, and the entire vote of the church of the Latter-Day Saints is cast for the Democracy. That evil. grievous and alarming, should grow out of the state of affairs is not at all to be wondered at, though the thrift that follows fawning is usually properly applied and covers the political transgression.

In due time we shall be enabled to see what effect the 'Carthage Gray' move will have on the decision of the game. Our opinion is that it will be either a "ten strike" or a "lick back." -- Chicago Journal.


Notes: (forthcoming)

MORMON. -- The Nauvoo charter is not dead yet. No doubt our Representatives in the Legislature, says the Warsaw Signal, thought they have given it a death blow, yet it won't be killed.

About two weeks since, the municipal election came off as usual, and all the officers of the city were duly elected. The whole system of government in the city is enforced as usual.

The leading Mormons say, the Legislature had no power to repeal their charter, and that it is not repealed, nor will they pay any attention to the repeal law; but go on as usual. -- St. Louis Reveille.


Notes: (forthcoming)

Mormon  Trials

The trial of the persons indicted for the murder of the Smiths commenced at Carthage, Ill., on the 21st of May. Their names are, J. C. Davis, senator from that district, T. C. Sharp, editor of the Warsaw Signal, Mark Aldrich, Wm. N. Grover and Col. Levi Williams. There was much difficulty in selecting a jury. The jurors summoned by the mormon sheriff has been objected to by the defendants and discharged. It was supposed the whole of the first week would be consumed in the selection of a jury.


Note: The above news item was repeated in the Telegraph of June 18th.

THE  MORMON  TRIALS.

It is stated that the testimony on the part of the State against the persons indicted for the murder of the Smiths, was very lame and contradictory; and the fact that improper influences had been brought to bear with the witnesses, was so very important, that there was no probability of a conviction. Daniels, and the most important on the part of the State, has been proven to have acknowledged that he was to get $500 from the Mormons and $300 from Gov. Ford, for testifying in the case; and another complained that he was not as well paid as Daniels.

A number of charges for perjury have been preferred against Mormons who were engaged as witnesses in this case; in several instances they had agreed to find bills, but when the Prosecuting Attorney prepared bills they refused to endorse them. -- The jury is composed of two-thirds Mormons, and have been in session during the whole sitting of the court.


Notes: (forthcoming)

ROBBERY IN NAUVOO. -- The last Warsaw (Ill.) Signal has the following:

"Last week a most aggravating robbery was committed in the holy city. David Bryant, a young merchant, whose quiet and amiable disposition would have enabled him to live in peace in any other community than that of Nauvoo, having fallen under the malediction of the saints, was compelled to settle up his business and prepare to leave the city. He accordingly packed all his goods, and deposited them in a warehouse on the landing, to await the arrival of a boat. In the meantime, he visited Fort Madison to settle some business at that place, and while absent, the warehouse containing his goods was broken open, and every article, consisting of his entire stock of goods, stolen."


Notes: (forthcoming)

Temple  at  Nauvoo.

The building of the Mormon Temple under all the troubles by which those people have been surrounded, seems to be carried on with a religious enthusiasm which reminds us of olden times, by the energy which controls all the movements towards its completion. It occupies the highest and most imposing position in Nauvoo and is built of fine limestone. Has 30 pilasters -- six at each end and nine at each side -- each surmounted by a capital on which is carved a human face with rays around it and two hands holding trumpets. The Temple is 128 feet by 888 feet; from floor to ceiling is 65 feet; and from the ground to the top of the spire is 165 feet. The baptismal fountain is in the basement, to be supported by stone oxen. Each floor is estimated to hold 4,000 people, so that 12,000 persons can be accomodated, being about one-fourth the size of Solomon's Temple. 350 men are zealously at work upon the building, which it is supposed will be finished in a year and a half, probably at a cost of half a million of dollars. The spiritual concerns of the Mormons are governed by a council of 12, composed of the following persons: -- Brigham Young -- the Lion of the Lord. H. C. Kimball -- the Herald of Grace. Parley P. Pratt -- the Archer of Paradise; Orson Hyde -- the Olive Branch of Israel. Willard Richards -- the Keeper of the Roll. John Taylor -- the Champion of Right. William Smith -- the Patriarchal Jacob's Staff. [Wilford] Woodruff -- the Banner of the Gospel; Geo. A. Smith -- the Entablature of Truth. Orson Pratt -- the Gauge of Philosophy. Jno. E. Page -- the Sun Dial. Lyman Wight -- the Wild Ram of the Mountain. The Keeper of the Rolls has charge of the men at work on the Temple. It is supposed that the Mormon inhabitants of this city are fully 20,000 souls, and of the surrounding country, 10,000 more,the only property owned in common is the Temple and the Hotel -- they are industrious -- good farmers -- raise wheat plentifully, and are about to engage in manufactures. The whole community may be considered in their peculiar tenets as singular and remarkable, and in after ages their Temple, like the ruins of Palenque, may strike the beholders with wonder, and history may be unable to explain what race worshiped there. -- N. Y. Sun.


Notes: (forthcoming)

                                 From the Cleveland Herald.
Later from the Mormon War --
Another anti-Mormon killed.

We have another long letter from the Editor in the St. Louis Republican, dated Warsaw, Sept. 18th. Samuel McBratney, one of the incendiaries engaged in burning the Mormons out on Bear Creek, was killed by the Sheriff's posse. He was out with the burners, who fled before the Sheriff and his posse, and was shot from his horse and otherwise mangled by the Mormons. His death added much to the excitement, and the Warsaw Signal calls loudly for revenge.

The editor of the Republican visited Nauvoo as a peace maker from the Anti-Mormons. He met the Council of Twelve, but they refused to alter the terms or language of their communication to their persecutors, No compromise was effected. The Mormons declared that if the law failed to furnish them protection and redress, they had the power to protect themselves, and should do it. During the night the Sheriff sent in a requisition for 600 men, and Mr. Babbitt, a leading Mormon, informed the Editor that 300 artillery and 300 infantry would be sent during Friday. The object of the force was stated to be to visit Warsaw and arrest the mobbers.

On his return to Warsaw and the spread of the intelligence of the force marching to that town, most of the citizens implicated in the outrages crossed the Mississippi to await assistance from the Anti-Mormons of other parts of the county, and from Missouri. During Friday the Sheriff sent a communication to Col. Williams requiring him and other leaders of the mob to come in and submit to the laws. -- He gave them to noon of the next day to answer, and if they failed he promised to put every man to the sword. The letter says:

"No reply, I understood, would be made by Col. Williams to this communication, nor could it be said, when I left Warsaw, about one o'clock in the night of Friday, what course they would pursue. My own belief is, that although the Mormons have now in the field the strongest party, and have excited considerable fears in the ranks of the Anties, that the latter will yet rally, and carry the warfare further than it has yet been carried. They will, if it is renewed, attempt to revenge the deaths of Worrell and McBratney. Symtoms of trouble were manifesting themselves at Keokuk, I. T., when I left.

---

PROCLAMATION NO. 3.

To the Citizens of Hancock County, Illinois, and the surrounding Country.

Whereas the community at large may and do expect at my hands, a fair and impartial statement of the facts...

(under construction)

Notes: (forthcoming)

FROM MORMONDOM. -- St. Louis papers of the 4th, state that every thing is quiet in the Mormon country. Gen. Hardin refuses to take side for or against the Mormons, but has issued a general order expressing determination to have peace kept by all parties. Public meetings continue to be held in the adjacent counties, adverse to suffering the Mormons to remain in the country. It is proposed by the Antis that no Court be held in Hancock county this fall, and that a military force be kept in the county until the Mormons remove.

The Quincy Whig, of Oct. 1st. says, that upon reaching Carthage, Gen. Hardin with his force, immediately surrounded the Coom House, which was in the possession of about 40 Mormons; ordered them to surrender their arms, and gave them ten minutes to leave the place. They stirred instantly, and in much haste; adds the Whig, that it is doubtful whether they are not running yet.


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE MORMONS. -- The Mormon war seems at an end. The Mormons have agreed to migrate, as early as they can sell out, and in that view thay do not propose putting in any more crops upon their present lands. Oregon, or some point west of the Rocky Mountains, is said to be their intended retreat.


Notes: (forthcoming)

FLIGHT OF THE MORMONS FROM ILLINOIS. -- The society of Twelve, or the elders have addressed a letter from Nauvoo, dated 1st of October, to Gen. Hardin and the members of the Anti-Mormon Committee, in which they say they have commenced arrangements to remove from their present position; that they have four companies organized of 100 families each, and six more are organizing of the same number, preparatory to a removal. -- That one thousand families, including the High Council, the trustees, and the general authorities of Church, are fully determined to remove in the spring, independent of the contingency of selling their property, and that this company will comprise five or six thousand souls. The Council state that they have some hundred farms, and some two thousand houses for sale in the city of Nauvoo, and they request all good citizens to assist in disposing of them. They do not expect to find purchasers for their Temple and other public buildings, but are willing to rent them to respectable communities who may hereafter inhabit their city. But they will not sacrifice or give away their property, or suffer it to be illiberally wrested from them. They will not sow any wheat this fall, and they finally add: "If all these testimonies are not sufficient to satisfy any people that we are in earnest, we will soon give them a sign that cannot be mistaken. -- We will leave them."
                                  Plain Dealer.


Notes: (forthcoming)

MORMON AFFAIRS. -- Late dates from Hancock county represent no little excitement existing. A Mormon named Durfee, living about 10 miles from Warsaw, was murdered on the 15th. A stack of straw near the house of a Mormon was set on fire, the inmates ran out to extinguish the flames, and were fired upon and Durfee killed. On the night of the 12th the house of a mormon named Rice was entered by the anties, who took him out, set fire to the premises and consumed everything. Rice was suspected of having murdered an anti-Mormon. The Warsaw Signal states that the Mormons have disposed of nearly all their lands in the south part of Hancock co.

---

MORMONS IN VIRGINIA. We learn from the Rockingham Register, says the Alexandria Gazette, that above five hundred of the inhabitants of the county of Tazewell, are attached to the Mormon faith.


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE PURCHASE OF NAUVOO. -- The Warsaw Signal says: "Two Catholic priests passed through this place on Monday last, on their way to Nauvoo. Their object was to ascertain the particular nature and amount of property which the Mormons wish to dispose of to their Church, and on what terms it can be bought."


Notes: (forthcoming)

SPIRITUAL WIFERY.  Much as we have heard of this doctrine of the "Latter Day Saints," we had no idea that our Second Adventist saints had progressed so far as was developed in a trial in this place last Monday, before Esq. Converse.

Some months since, a man named Almon Dwight left his family in Auburn, N. Y., and joined a woman, who refuses to give any name but Martha, who deserted her husband at the same time in Hamburgh, Erie co., N. Y., and as a spiritual pair they have since lived in Toronto, Canada, removing thence back to N. Y., from there to Cleveland, and on the 17th inst. they came to the residence of Rev. Mr. Pickands, who, knowing all this, kept them till their arrest.

On the trial, Mr. Pickands refused to be sworn as a witness, but at length agreed to tell the story, (the above in substance,) under the penalties for perjury.

Pickands and Kidder (another of the Adventists) justified the conduct of the defendants on the ground that it was consistent with their doctrine, which would permit a spiritual matrimony without sexual connexion. Justice Converse, however, differed from them in opinion, and ordered the defendants to [find] bail in the sum of $200 each, on the charge of adultery.

They are in safe keeping.

Mr. Clapp (who owns and lives in the house with Pickands) declined testifying, and paid a fine of five dollars, but Wm. J. Hart refused to testify or pay the fine, and was committed to jail. -- Akron Democrat.

The editor of the Cleveland Herald well remarks, that the good people of Akron could do no better service to the deluded followers of Pickands, than to place that Rev. gentleman under the charge of Dr. Awl, at Columbus, until restored from his lunacy. Lunatic or knave he certainly is, worse than all, his monstrous teachings are making dupes and lunatics of scores of otherwise sane men and women in this section of the State.


Notes: (forthcoming)

By the Nauvoo Citizen we learn that Mrs. Emma Smith, widow of the late Mormon Prophet, Joe Smith, has returned to the city of Nauvoo, and has taken the hotel known as the Mansion House.

Notes: (forthcoming)

A party of sixty Mormons, who emigrated last year from Mississippi to California, suffered great hardships on the route, having lost all their work cattle on the Salt Plains. The survivors subsisted for some days previous to their arrival at Yarba Buena on the bodies of some of their companions who had perished from hunger and fatigue.

---

STARTLING RUMOR -- MORMON MURDERS. A gentleman from Burlington, Iowa, brings news of the return of two men who left that place some time since with a company of Oregon emigrants, who report that they were forced to return by a band of Mormons who left Nauvoo last fall. They report that one of the emigrants being sick, was forced to stop at Council Bluffs, that a number of his friends, including the two that have returned, remained with him, designing, as soon as he should recover, to hasten forward and overtake their companions. After resuming the march, and being far behind the white settlements, they were attacked by the Mormons, robbed, and all murdered except the two who bring the sad intelligence, and who barely escaped with their lives. Nothing is known of the fate of those in advance. Several of the persons murdered were taking out considerable sums of money, which was made known to the Mormons by a brace of worthies, now under guard at Burlington, who have acted as runners for the Mormons during the past winter.   St. Louis Reveille.


Note: The first short notice evidently mixes several different news reports into one thoroughly misleading statement. It was the Donner party who were the cannibals; it was the Brooklyn party who went to Yerba Buena (San Francisco); and the main party of overland Mormons were at this point destined for the Great Salt Lake.

THE MORMON TEMPLE. -- This celebrated ediface has been sold to a committee of the Catholic church for $75,000. This community have also purchased other property at Nauvoo. The building is to be appropriated to educational purposes, connected with the church into whose hands it has passed. The contract requires only the sanction of the Bishop to complete it. The last of the Mormons in Nauvoo, consisting of thirty or forty families under charge of Daniel H. Wells, have left Nauvoo, to join the California expedition. Babbit & Co. still remain at Nauvoo, to close up the affairs of the Mormons. -- These facts are stated in the Warsaw Signal.   St. Louis Rep.


Notes: (forthcoming)

TTHE MORMONS. -- A passenger in the Lake of the Woods, from Upper Missouri, informs us that the Mormons are in a flourishing condition, in their new location on the fine lands of the Pottawotomie purchase, on both sides of the river, above Council Bluffs. They have planted immense fields of corn -- to the extent, it is estimated, of 30,000 acres -- and other grain, and produce. They have built, also, a town, called "Winter Quarters," which already contains a population of some seven thousand souls. This town is entirely picketed in. It is represented, that the Mormons are on friendly terms with the Indians, and rarely molest them, although they are accused of occasionally stealing cattle.

Immense herds of Buffalo were seen on the plains, and crossing the Missouri, at the mouth of a stream called Stillwater.   St. Louis Republican.


Notes: (forthcoming)

The Mormons are said to be in a flourishing condition in their new location on the fine lands of the Pottawattamie Purchase, above Council Bluffs. They have planted immense fields of corn -- to the extent, it is estimated, of 30,000 acres -- and other grain, and produce. They have built a town called "Winter Quarters," which already contains a population of more than 7,000 souls. -- This town is entirely picketed in.


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE  MORMON  COLONY

Whatever has reference to the movements of this strange and infatuated people seems to be sought for with curiosity, at least if from no better motive. Driven from the home which they had selected in Illinois, they have been wandering in several directions, but the heads of the church have turned their faces towards California, seeking there some immunity from the persecution which attended their career in the United States; but even there, we fear, there is no good will towards them. In California, certainly, they are already looked upon with suspicion, and this suspicion may soon take the shape of bitter persecution, if those who oppose them should obtain the mastery in that country. But our purpose now, is to give information of the progress of the colony which is to be located at the "Great Salt Lake City."

We had a conversation, yesterday, with Mr. Little, who has just arrived from the place we have named. The gentleman left our borders in March last, proceded to the Great Salt Lake, and is now on his return, having left the future home of the Mormons, late in August. We learb from him, that the country selected for the habitation of the Mormons, is about twenty miles east from the Great Salt Lake. In company with others, he explored the valley, and he represents that they found a range of some eighty miles in length, and perhaps ten to twenty miles in width. The preparations for the reception of the advancing copany of Mormons, were not, we should infer, very extensive. A field of about one hundred acres of ground had been planted with corn, potatoes, turnips, and other edibles, but as the rain seldom fell there, they had to resort to the uncertain and laborious process of irrigation. They had engaged in the erection of a stockade, to protect the colony from the attacks of the Indians, covering some ten acres of ground, within which from a hundred and sixty to two hundred dwellings were to be erected. How this is to be done, is at best very uncertain. There is very little woodland in or near the Valley, and this is the greatest difficulty which the colonists have to encounter, both as a means of erecting their houses and for fuel. In time, seeds may be planted and forests grown, but this is a very uncertain dependence. Some parts of the valley have a very fertile appearance, but others, again, are exceedingly poor, and cannot be made to produce any thing. About forty miles from the place selected for the Mormon city, is the homestead of a farmer, whose name we have foregotten, who has peach trees growing, and a garden producing a good many of the vegetables common to this country; with a fine stock of goats, horses, and cattle; but, save this habitation, none other is to be found in that quarter.

On his return route, Mr. Little, who holds, we believe, some high office in the Mormon Church, met the Mormon emigrants in detached parties. He does not speak of their condition very flatteringly, though, with sanguine hopes, they were still moving on to their destination. Many of the heads of the families there, it will be remembered, [were] taken up to fill the California Battalion and are still in California, and the women and children left to get along as they best could. In many cases, little boys were found driving the teams, barefoot, and the advanced parties were reduced to some extremity for the want of food. Two hundred of the oxen used in their teams had died after leaving Independence Rock, from eating some poisonous substance and exhaustion, and they were compelled to get along by using cows in their stead. All were, it is feared, stinted for provisions, and even after their arrival, unless game could be procured by their hunters, there is room to apprehend suffering from starvation -- Mr. Little representing at the same time, that in and around the Salt Lake Valley, very little game was to be found. On the whole, we are fearful that most distressing accounts will be received from this people, by the first arrivals next spring.

Mr. Little met with a good many adventures with the Indians, involving much risk, but as he escaped unharmed, it is hardly necessary to detail them. He has no grear love for any portion of California which he has visited, or of which, in his wanderings, he has had accounts from others; and it is the tenor of his advice to all persons not to set their faces in the direction of California.
                                 St. Louis Republican.


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE LATEST INTELLIGENCE. -- The New York Sun, which Prentice says seems to be in league with all the revolutions and blood-thirsty enterprises of the present day, has the following:

The California Mormons, according to a startling communication to us from one of their number who has recently seceded and has returned to this city, are in league and forming secret plans with different tribes of Indians for a great and terrible descent upon Missouri, as soon as they are sufficiently strong in numbers.


Notes: (forthcoming)

A Mormon Settlement has been made in Texas, leading to the erection already of several saw mills and houses, and the cultivation of some 5000 acres of land.

Note: This was Apostle Lyman Wight's colony in Texas -- see the history of his Zodiac settlement there. See also the Oct. 11, 1848 issue of this paper.

MORMON   SETTLEMENT,  TEXAS. -- The Mormons have lately been negotiating for the purchase of a large tract of land on the Pierdenalos, above Fredericksburg, and intend to form a new settlement there. The anxiety they manifest to purchase this land has excited some suspicions that they have discovered mines upon it. They have also probably discovered that the soil of the Pierdenalos valley is admirably adapted to the culture of wheat and other grains, which they had been accustomed to raise in Missouri and Illinois, and will afford them all the facilities they desire for a new and extensive settlement. They have also a pretended prophecy that the new Jerusalem of their great prophet, is to be found in Texas. This opinion has long been prevalent among them, and we have been informed by an English gentleman that the presiding elder of the Mormon society in London has often said that the Mormons will, ultimately, all congregate in Texas. We should be sorry to learn that they have located the New Jerusalem on the Pierdenalos, or the San Saba, for our frontier settlement will soon be pushed beyond these streams, and then wars might arise between "the saints" and new settlers. If the Mormons, however, should find the New Jerusalem on the Puerea, many years would probably elapse before the frontier settlements would reach them, and they might build up their city, and fortify it with seven walls, if they desired, long before the advancing limits of the frontier settlements would be pushed even to the sources of the Colorado.
                                  Houston (Texas) Tel., Sept. 3.


Notes: (forthcoming)

Elder Orson Hyde, one of the Twelve Apostles of the Mormon Church, left here yesterday for Council Bluffs, on board the steamer Martha. We learn that he carries up printing materials and that upon his arrival it is his intention to commence the publication of a newspaper on the frontier, devoted to the support and propagation of the Mormon faithand doctrines.
                                  St. Louis Republican, Oct. 4.


Note: The paper here referred to was Orson Hyde's Frontier Guardian which he commenced publishing at Kanesville (Council Bluffs), Iowa in mid-1849.

THE MORMONS. This singular people appear to be rapidly increasing in England. The London Globe says there is a large bofy in that country preparing to emigrate to California. They have chartered four or five vessels, and intend to leave early in the spring. The Mormons have already obtained a firm footing in California, and will probably soon by in a flourishing condition. These secessions from England will add to their numbers and strength. It is stated that in some of the recent letters from California that they are preparing to build a massive temple near Salt Lake. It is to occupy the centre of a plain seventeen miles long and twelve broad, and to be surrounded by four cities located in different parts of the plain.


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE  MORMON  TEMPLE

By a letter received from our brother, P. W. Cook, who was one that left Council Bluff last spring for the Salt Lake, dated August 2d, written while encamped on the Sweet Water River, at the South Pass -- in sight of Fremont's Peak -- we gather some information which may not be uninteresting to our readers.

The new Mormon Temple at the Salt Lake is to be a splendid building. They enclose a lot 17 miles long and 12 wide, with a mud wall 8 feet high and four feet thick. There are to be cities inside. -- They have discovered mountain rock that resembles Cornelian stone, which the writer says is beautiful for temples and pillars. The size of the temple is not stated, but its highest point is to be 600 feet, and can be seen eighteen miles either way. The party that went out last season lost many of their oxen -- having died with what they called the "swell head." Many of the streams which they crossed were so strongly impregnated with alkali that they dare not let their cattle drink. On the shore of many of the lakes a crust is formed an inch and a half thick. They break up this crust, scrape off the dirt on the bottom and top, and find it pure saleratus. Strange as this may seem, it is nevertheless true, and the writer collected in a short time 75 pounds. A mountain of pure rock salt has been discovered near the Mormon settlement. The Mormons have discovered a rich gold mine 150 miles southwest from the Salt Lake. The last end of the journey to the Salt Lake, say 200 miles, is attended with little fatigue. Nearly all the way the roads are as good as on any prairie in Michigan. The writer was living on the meat of bears, and antelope and buffaloes -- animals very numerous on the route. He recommends mule trains instead of oxen, and that cows be driven along for their milk, and for beef if necessary.   Niles Reg.


Notes: (forthcoming)

==> The Mormons it is stated, had a large quantity of unsigned bills of the old Kirtland Bank. These they have now signed and issued. They are redeemable at Salt Lake, where sufficient uncoined gold has been deposited for that purpose.

Notes: (forthcoming)

MORMON STATE OF DESERET.

The Frontier Guardian, September 29, says:

In regard to the Wilmont Proviso, Slavery, &c. we wish you to distinctly understand that our desire is to leave that question to the operation of time, circumstance, and the common law; that we wish not to meddle with this subject, but leave these to their natural course. Political parties that a breath creates and a breath destroys, cannot effect us, particularly when we are so far from the scenes of strife. It cannot be expected that we, in this distant region, should as fully participate in mere local divisions as you, however much our interest may be effected.


Notes: (forthcoming)

The Girl I Left Behind Me. Of the two thousand letters brought to California by Orson Hyde's last overland express, one thousand five hundred were directed to females.     Boston Chronicle.

Notes: (forthcoming)

The Mormons of Salt Lake.
_______

A correspondent of the New Orleans Crescent, of the 18th inst. writing from Salt Lake, and speaking of the people, says:

"They are from every State in the Union -- healthy, though pale and poor about the face, cheek bones apparent. They are industrious and temperate in the use of ardent spirits. Probably one reason is the high price of it (as one-half of the selling price of liquor sold here has to go to the city.) They claim no allegiance to the United States, but call themselves Mormons and many think they are in a Mormon country. They are generally ignorant, and seldom think for themselves, except it is in driving a bargain, but appear enthusiastic as regards their faith. There is a great number of settlers from Alabama and Mississippi, who have come to this place with their negroes, and hold them here the same as they did formerly. The successor to Joe Smith -- Brigham Young, is about forty-five years old.

He has the largest number of wives of any one in the settlement -- only twenty-six. This is not a large number, considering he had to take all the wives of Joe Smith that could not get other husbands. -- Some that have come under my observation have had eleven, five, three, two and one. -- These are facts, beyond cavil; and the only tie that binds these people together is bigamy. The spectacle is revolting, and in the course of a few years there will be a dozen children, all of the same age, having the same father, but different mothers. To what part of the world can they go and be respected? -- nowhere. To be a Mormon is to be all that is base and vile. All the ties that bind the opposite sexes together in mutual confidence and affection are trampled under foot by designing men, to gratify their own lustful passions, and the ignorant think they cannot be doing right without following the example of their high-priest, Young, and their twelve apostles.

The Mormons have to give one-tenth of the products of their farms or other business to the church, and also the tenth working day the whole year, making twenty per cent, -- a pretty heavy tax most people would think.

The object is to get as much money into the treasury as possible, so as to be able to carry out their plan, which is to have a line of settlements to the Pacific from this place, having its terminus in the southern part of Upper California, hoping to be able to diseminate their religion in the newly acquired territory.


Note: It is interesting to see that the top Mormons' polygamy was being openly reported in the public press at almost exactly the same time that prominent LDS missionaries operating in the eastern US and in England (like Apostle John Taylor), were denying the existence of any such thing among the Saints..

The  Salt  Lake.

The New Haven Journal and Courier publishes a letter from that country, from which we take the following description of the Lake itself:

It is one of the most wonderful and remarkable places you ever saw. On one side of the Lake rise lofty peaks of mountains, and within its waters are numbers of small islands. At a short distance from the shore the water has the appearance of a deep blue color, yet close, and the bottom in some places is of white sand; the depth of the water appearing shallow, and varied by sand-bars.

---

The  Mormon  Gold  Coins.

The Philadelphia Ledger says:

Last week, Clark & Co., of this city, deposited at the Mint for re-coining what purported to be $3000 in Mormon double eagles, each piece stamped as worth $20. In melting the aggregate value was found to be $2, 583.63, or about $17.22 1.2 each piece. The fineness was found to be to 597 thousandths -- silver parting 93 thousandths. -- The public will have to be on the look out, for if this assay at the Mint be a fair test of the value of the whole of the Great Salt Lake manufacture of coin, as we presume it is, the Mormons seem to know what they are about, and to be determined to make the most of their gold mines.


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE  MORMONS.

On the 14th inst., Mr. Underwood presented to the Senate of the United States, a petition from Isaac Sheen, who represents himself as "First Counsellor to the Prophet Wm. Smith, and President of the Aaronic Priesthood of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints," together with two apostles and some 12 high priests, setting forth that --

Council Bluffs is principally settled by Salt Lake Mormons, who are governed in political as well as spiritual affairs by the secret lodge of fifty men that also rules the Salt Lake territory, and by Brigham Young, their governor, president, prophet, seer, revelator, and inquisatorial chief. -- They assert that these people obstruct the receipt of religious newspapers called "Melchisedek and Aaronic Herald," and letters to their friends and relations in that quarter, and implore the protection of Congress from the tyranny, injustice, and insists that the treasonable acts and designs of the Salt Lake combinations are sufficient not only to show the impropriety of admitting Deseret into the Union, but also to convince Governments that no Salt Lake Mormon should be allowed to hold any office either at the Salt Lake Valley or Council Bluffs. They charge them also with having commenced a warfare against the liberty of speech and of the press, and against the religious rights of American citizens who do not acknowledge their supremacy.

The memorial was referred to the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads.


Note 1: Dr. John M Bernhisel's 1849 mission to Washington, D. C., on behalf of the Mormon leadership's desire to establish the "State of Deseret," was more than a little impeded by Elder William Smith's communications with Congressional leaders and with President Zachary Taylor. In writing to Taylor, William alleged that Brigham Young and his cronies (the secret LDS "Council of Fifty") were seeking "to create a theocracy" in the west, wherein the Mormon Church would control the civil government.

Note 2: According to H. H. Bancroft, "On Dec. 31st [1849], Joseph R. Underwood of Kentucky presented a memorial [to Congress] from William Smith and Isaac Sheen -- the former a brother of the prophet -- representing themselves to be the legitimate presidents of the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints, and from twelve members of that church. It is there set forth that, prior to the migration from Nauvoo, 1,500 of the Mormons had taken the following oath: 'You do solemnly swear, in the presence of almighty God, his holy angels, and these witnesses, that you will avenge the blood of Joseph Smith upon this nation, and so teach your children; and that you will from this day henceforth and forever begin and carry out hostility against this nation, and keep the same a profound secret now and ever. So help yea God.' The memorial was referred to the committee on territories.... A second memorial from the same parties was presented to Mr Underwood on March 14, 1850, preferring grievous complaints against the people of Deseret, and stating that the Mormons around Council Bluffs controlled the post-office in that district and obstructed the free circulation of newspapers...."

MARCH OF MORMONISM.-- Recent accounts from St. Louis inform us of the arrival there of about four hundred English Mormons, who are preparing to journey westward, into the country of the singular people whose peculiar religion and habits they have endorsed. Some persons may wonder that English people supply recruits to the Mormon number; but when it is remembered [that the] northern and central parts of Breat Britain, and portions of Wales, have always contributed largely to swell the number of converts to any new religious enthusiasm, and that the Mormon elders, from this country, are continually visiting England in search of proslytes, all surprise will abate.


Notes: (forthcoming)

                                 St. Louis, June 3.

Recent advices from Council Bluffs state that the California emigrants at St. Joseph, Kanesville, and other points, had, with few exceptions, left for the Plains. The first Mormon train, consisting of 100 wagons and between 600 and 800 persons, would leave Kanesville for Salt Lake about the 1st inst. Alarming reports, relative to small pox and cholera, almost daily reached the frontier and the small towns, from emigants on the Plains. These reports were mostly brought in by emigrants who were returning discouraged, and were not generally believed. A party of six emigrants, recently returned, report that Sullivan's company from Brunswick, with the exception of three, had fallen victims to the cholera. The California caravan extended between 200 and 260 miles, and always in sight of each other. Grass and water were quite abundant.


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE MORMON SETTLEMENT ON BEAVER ISLAND, LAKE MICHIGAN.-- The Racine Commercial Advertiser gives the following particulars of the last Mormon Advent:

The schooner John C. Spencer left our port last evening for Beaver Island, with seventy passengers and nearly a full cargo for the Mormon colony at that place. -- Among the freight was a good printing press and the materials for a weekly paper, which, we understand, will make its appearance about the first of July, at that place.

Mr. Strang, the leader of the Mormons, (or as they call themselves, "Latter Day Saints,") has charge of this company, and we learn from him that the colony there already numbers about 1,000 persons, and is rapidly increasing. They have built a small schooner, the "Maid of the Mist," for trade between the several islands, and have now possessed themselves of the Spencer, for the purpose of trade at various ports on the Lake. The extensive fisheries among the islands, and the facilities for trade generally, justify these movements, and with the emigration now tending that way, will doubtless give them constant employment.

We learn also that the "Saints" expect to make an extensive farming settlement in the interior of Big Beaver Island, which they represent to be of superior quality for agricultural purposes. This is 7 miles in width, by 13 in length, and contains in its interior six small lakes, giving uncommon beauty and interest to its scenery.

The Saints, with their characteristic love of temples, are putting up a wooden building 60 by 109 feet, for a place of worship, where they expect to have a great conference the first week in July.


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE MORMONS.-- The Presidency of the Mormons, composed of Young, Kimball and Richards, have written as follows, to Elder Hyde, their associate on this side of the plains. "Push the Saints to Zion and persuade all good brethren to come, who have a wheelbarrow, and faith enough to roll it over the mountains."


Note: The above news item evidently came from Orson Hyde's Council Bluffs Frontier Guardian.

THE GREAT BASIN.-- It is stated that the Mormons have recently discovered whirlpools in the Salt Lake, which may possibly lead to the discovery of some [outlet] for the waters of the Great Basin, in which the Mormons have established their home. -- This basin [is over five] hundred miles in diameter every way, between four and five thousand feet above the level of the sea, shut in all around by mountains, with its own system of lakes and rivers, and having no known connection whatever with the sea.


Notes: (forthcoming)

DR. D. HULBURT,

Professor of the Eclectic Theory and Practice of Medicine,

Would respectfully inform the public that he has located at Kirtland, for the purpose of practicing his profession. He has for a long period enjoyed the benefit of a large practice, and has bestowed much attention upon chronic and nervous maladies, and for the last seven years has been laboring zealously in the field of Medical Reform. He has become satisfied from experience that the Eclectic plan of Medication (with the organic remedies) has many and great advantages over all other systems. He invites all who are sufferers from any disease that has resisted the ordinary means, to try his rational and scientific method of treating the sick.

He is prepared to attend to all calls at a distance. Patients wishing to remain with him can be accomodated with board and treatment on the most reasonable terms. The best of reference given.
  Kirtland, Sept. 4, 1854.


Note: Though the identity of the above advertised person has yet to be firmly established, there is reason to assume that he was D. P. Hurlbut (1809-1883) the infamous anti-Mormon statement-collector of 1833. See notes for the Oct. 18th issue of the Painesville Telegraph for a further discussion of this subject.

Note 2: For an earlier advertisement in a New York newspaper, which may have been placed by the same botanical physican, see the Auburn Free Press of Feb. 23, 1831.

MARRIED

On the 15th at Kirtland, by mutual consent, PHILETUS S. BLACKMON, of Painesville, and Miss JULIA HULBURT, of the former place.

---

==> The result of the election has sadly disgusted the editor of the Plain Dealer with politics. He offers to give away his Rooster, and in his paper of the 12th favors his readers with a column and a half of argument in favor of the Mormon doctrine of Plurality of Wives...


Note 1: The 1854 union between Mr. Philetus S. Blackmon and Miss Julia Hurlbut was given more detailed publicity in a contemporary article (probably reprinted from a late Oct. Cleveland paper) published in the Nov. 1, 1854 issue of the Rochester Daily American:  "SPIRITUAL MARRIAGE. -- A man by the name of P. S. Blackman, of Painesville, and a young lady by the name of Julia Hurlburt, daughter of Dr. Hurlburt, of Kirtland, were spiritually married at the latter place on Sunday, Oct. 15. The ceremony consisted of matrimonial declarations made by themselves in the presence of friends, about fifty being present. The services consisted of the following poetical announcement: -- 'Have you seen the morning kiss the opening blossom? Thus did our spirits meet and at the first interview; and as the inevitable elements of nature unite and blend in one harmonious impulse; so are our spirits [affinitized] into one accordant living force. Whoever are thus united by the eternal laws of affinity, naught has authority to separate. We thus introduce ourselves unto you in the relation of husband and wife.'"

Note 2: The "Dr. Hurlburt" (or "Hulburt") referred to in the Rochester news item was the same person who advertised his newly established Kirtland botanical medical practice in the Telegraph of Oct. 11th. It appears likely that he was D. Philastus Hurlbut, the infamous anti-Mormon researcher who contributed so much source material to E. D. Howe's 1834 Mormonism Unvailed. D. P. Hurlbut married Maria Woodbury in 1834 and they eventually settled at Gibsonburg, Sandusky Co., Ohio. The couple's family appears on the 1850 Federal Census report for that place. However, the 1860 census shows D. P. Hurlbut living at Gibsonburg with another lady named "Diana" and with several children who were not products of his marriage with Maria Woodbury. It appears that Hurlbut temporarily left Sandusky Co. and returned to his old haunts around Kirtland, in 1853-54, after he was ejected from his position as a minister in the Sandusky Conference of the United Brethren church. Whether his new consort was from Gibsonburg or had all the time been living in Kirtland remains unclear, but it is likely that she was an early Ohio convert to Spiritualism and that the "fifty present" at her daughter's "wedding" were residents of Geauga and Lake counties -- perhaps mostly Diana's old friends. Julia may have been Diana's child by a previous association, or she may have been D. P. Hurlbut's actual daughter, born prior to his union with Maria Woodbury. A "Julia Hurlbut" married George Hall near Kirtland on Oct. 22, 1845. If Hurlbut's daughter Julia was already married, that small fact would not have prevented her from entering into extra-legal "spiritual wifery" with Mr. Philetus Swift Blackmon, late of Farmersville, Cattaraugus Co., New York. Although the union produced at least three children, it was evidently never recorded at the Lake County court house, an indication that it was not licensed, as would have been the case for a regular Spiritualist or Swedenborgian wedding

Note 3: If the 1854 Kirtland "Doctor" was indeed D. P. Hurlbut, he did not remain for very long in the Kirtland area. In their 1908 History of Kane County, Ill., R. Wait Joslyn and Frank W. Joslyn give passing mention to "Drs. D. Hurlbut and P. S. Blackman" having "settled in Aurora in the fall of 1858, for a stay of several months..." (vol. I p. 527). This information was likely derived from an 1858 newspaper advertisement for the two "doctors'" practice in northeastern Illinois. By 1860 D. P. Hurlbut again living at Gibsonburg, maintaining a household with Diana and their several little ones. The couple were then Spiritualists, along with at least one of D. P. Hurlbut's older children. In 1867 his daughter Phoebe married Leander Franklin and went to live on his farm near the hamlet of Rollersville, which lies about four miles southwest of Gibsonburg. Later that same year, D. P. Hurlbut was chosen as Rollersville's delegate to Ohio's first annual Spiritualist convention. Mr. Hurlbut's old associate, Eber D. Howe, attended as the Spiritualist delegate from Painesville.

Note 4: D. P. Hurlbut's reported early life in Penn-Yan, New York may receive some support from the fact that the Rochester Daily American's news item, on his daughter's marriage, was picked up and printed in abbreviated form by the Penn-Yan Yates County Whig. This reprint appeared on Nov. 9, 1854. For an earlier advertisement in a Penn-Yan area newspaper, which may have been placed by this same botanical physican, see the Auburn Free Press of Feb. 23, 1831.

MELANCHOLY. -- Mr. Joseph Coe, of Kirtland, was killed on Tuesday of last week, in the following shocking manner. He went into his field in the afternoon for the purpose of catching his Bull, which he had frequently done, and being absent unusually long, search was made for him, when his body was found mangled in a shocking manner. It appeared that the animal had thrown Mr. Coe to the ground and jumped upon his breast, which doubtless caused his death almost instantly. His clothes were nearly stripped from his body, and his flesh, in many places, torn off.

Mr. C was in the 70th years of his age. He leaves a wife and four children.


Note 1: This same notice also appeared in a late Oct. issue of the Willoughby Independent.

Note 2: Joseph Coe (1784-1854) was an 1830 New York convert to Mormonism. He was a member of the 1831 Mormon expedition to Jackson Co., Missouri, to dedicate the new "Zion." In Kirtland Coe became a member of first Mormon High Council and was one of the elders who helped lay the cornerstones of the Temple. After joining the dissenting party of Latter Day Saints, he was excommunicated by Joseph Smith loyalists at the end of 1837 (see also, the William R. Coe collection of Mormon documents in the Beinecke Library of Yale University).

Elder Martin Harris, of the Latter Day Saints, on Friday last, baptized a happy convert in the river, near the Geauga Mills.

Note 1: According to H. Michael Marquardt, in his 2002 Dialogue article, "Martin Harris: The Kirtland Years, "In October 1855, Stephen Post... in Kirtland... recorded in his journal: 'Br. Martin Harris had published a proclamation... through a Miss Sexton a Spirit medium of Cleveland. Wm. Smith got a revelation given through the same medium...' At this time William Smith gave fictitious names to different elders who were to assist him in this work... on 7 October, a conference met in the Kirtland Temple. Harris was chosen president... At this time, travelers to Kirtland also reported the activity of Martin Harris and William Smith... 'Martin Harris reorganized the Church... with 6 members. Appointed Wm. Smith their leader... [but] Harris drove Wm. Smith out.'"

Note 2: William Smith did not remain for very long at Kirtland during the fall of 1855, but in the time that he spent there he perhaps met the widow Eliza Elsie Sanborn Brain. William returned to the midwest, and on July 13, 1856 he wrote Brigham Young a bitter latter, from Turkey River, Clayton Co., Iowa. At some point in time not very long after that date, William Smith returned to the Kirtland area and there married Mrs. Brain on Nov. 12, 1857. The couple's first child, William Enoch Smith, was born July 24, 1858 in neighboring Erie Co., Pennsylvania.

Note 3: William's nephew, Joseph Smith III, recalled in his later years that his Uncle William had once preached for the Baptists in New York or Pennsylvania. It is possible that Eliza Elsie Sanborn's family were members of the Baptist Church and that William joined that religious group for awhile. He says in his 1857 letter to the New York Tribune, "I am not a Mormon," and that must have been the confession which William shared with his non-LDS friends, c. 1856-59, in northeastern Pennsylvania. Erie Co., Pennsylvania and Chautauqua Co., New York are adjoining counties, so the "Rev. William Smith" might easily have preached in both localities before eventually falling into disfavor there, for "teaching heretical doctrine." At about the same time as the War between the States began, William Smith moved his family back to Clayton Co., Iowa.