Autobiography of George Morris

Written in 1890 by George Morris

Transcribed by

Kevin Jenkins, Melissa Mailander, LeAnn Taylor, Gwen Pouillon & Sue Simonich

Compiled and uploaded by Sue Simonich

(June 2006)

The following autobiographical volume is transcribed just as it was written by George Morris.  The spelling and grammar reflect the era and George’s nativity as well as the pioneer history in which he participated.  Many of the pioneer autobiographies previously transcribed have removed spelling errors and grammatical anomalies in order to allow a quick reading of the subject.  This volume is original in all ways, except for the comments made by the transcriber in the underlined titles.  

George Morris apparently made several copies of his history and gave them to his children. Each version is basically the same, but some details were changed from version to version.  Two versions came into my possession. An original handed down from Rozella Newberry Morris Jenkins.  The other was a typescript handed down through another child with all spellings corrected.  The version from Rozella Newberry Morris Jenkins has been donated to the Historian’s office of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I have combined both versions to make his history as complete as possible.  Where possible, the original spelling has been retained. The originals have few sentences and paragraphs, and no subject headings as I have added herein. – Kent Buckner

Autobiography of George Morris

This Scrap Book is an Index to my life and Caracter. As the scraps are arainged in it, so it has been with me.  If I got anything I had to take it as I could catch it running, standing up, Siting, or laying down.

He Names his Grandparents, Aunts, and Uncles

I was born at Hanley, Cheshire, England of Poore parents in a poor country, about two miles from the city of Cheshire on the 23^rd of August 1816. I was the son of Joseph Morris or Morrey.  He was called by both names.  My mother was Elizabeth Vernon.  My father was the son of James Morris and Hannah Ledsom.  My mother was the daughter of George Vernon and Rebecca Goban. My father had two sisters:  The oldest was called Nancy and was married to James Dutton; the youngest was called Kitty and was married to Thomas Davenport.  My mother had one brother named John Vernon.  He was married and had considerable of a family and lived in Mancelsfield, Chesire, England. She had one sister named Mary.  She was married to Robert Wild and lived at Duckenfield.  My father’s sister Nancy, lived at Beeston and Kitty lived at Pecforten.  My father lived in Burwardslay at the time of my earliest remembrance.  These were all small country villages joining each other in Cheshire, England.

About His Father’s Religious Ideas

My father was a very strict Methodist and a class leader running down deep into error and inconsistency.  I have heard him say when describing the Torments of the damned that you might take a cat and pluck out one hair every thousand years and when all the hairs were taken off the cat that their torment had only just begun.  He said that we whare born in sin and shaped in iniquity and that there was infants in hell not a span long.  And to impress it strongly on my mind that Sabbath-breaking was wrong he said that there was a poor old man once who had nothing to make a fire with and he went out on Sunday to pick up some sticks.  And he was coming back with a bundle on his back when the Lord caught him up into the Moon with the sticks on his back to make an example of him that everybody might see.  And he pointed out that the figures on the moon to me and said that he had been there more than a thousand years to punish him for breaking the Sabbath and always would be kept there to the end of the world.  He said if people whould only believe thay could be saved but if not thay would be damned forever.

His Schooling and Picking Berries

My father was a foeman shoemaker and his earnings whare very small in consequence of which he was unable to send me to school.  When I was a small boy I was very fond of books.  I saved every copper that I could get hold of and spent it in buying little books until I had acquired enough to make quite a thick little book and I sewed them all together in one and kept the book for many years and prized it very highly and by that means, more than any other, larned to read.

I whould go to school a week or two ocasionaly but there was nearly allways something that I could do by which I could earn a few coppers.  The comons was covered with low, green bushes which produced a black berry something like a currant but they grew only one in a place, not like currants.  They lasted nearly all through the Sumer and sold readily in the market and my mother and her childran were kept busy picking them all the season while they lasted.   And during harvest time we were kept busy gleaning, and in the fall diging potatoes for the farmers, so that I was kept so busy nearly all the time that I had not chance to go to school.

Work Experiences:  Working in the Fields

As soon as I could well walk (about 7 years of age) I was taken in hand by the Farmers and sent into the grain fields to scare the Birds off the growing grain a mile or two from our House, armed with a pare of Clappers:  3 light, oak board tied together loose with a Strong Bucksin thong: the center piece being onger than the others and made into a handle.  My buiseness was to travil around the fields from Morning till Night ratteling them with all my might and Holloring at the same time.  Some times I whould be armed with an old flintlock shotgun and a little powder, and was told to put half a thimble full into it and was wad of paper and fire it off to Scare the Sparrows, but was charged strictly not to put any rocks into the gun for that should spoil it.  But, Boy like, I thaught that was the very thing I aught to do, for I might kill some of them if I did and that whould stop them from destroying any more grain.  But it seemed only to make fun for the sparrows for thay seemed to laugh at me and the fluf of my gun and the rattle of my Clappers or my Holloring at them, for thay got so that they whould scarsley move out of my way to let me Pass.  And the most that I could do whould be to make them rise and fly about a rod and then light down again.  But thay soon found out that I put rocks in the gun and took it from me and that made me feel very Bad, for it was the Only Thing there was in that Country that seemed to have a little fun in it.

But as time rooled on, slowly I got a little Older and grew a little Bigger and thay raised my wages so that thay gave me my meat and cloths.  Before, I had only my meat for my work.  What was meat by my meat was whatever I got to eat.

Well, when my wages was rased, thay put me to higher Branches of buiseness, such as driveing the cows to Pasture and Back and Driveing a team for the Plowman, 3 or 4 horses hitched up single file.  This was a very perticularer business for the furrows had to be as straight as a line and if any little Crook was made the Lad was blamed.  Consequently, the last Horse had to be kept going all Day with one foot on the land the Other in the furrow, and that without any Lines to guide them by.  It had to be Done by word of mouth and a long switch of a whip.  And if the Horse should happen to make a Miss step very likely I whould be struck with a hard Clod between the Sholders and have the Breath nearly Knocked out of me or be Knocked Down and then be Kicked for falling.  And I got unmercifully beaten and kicked almost every day.  It was a miracle thay did not beat and kick the life clean out of me.  And I had to go through this Kind of an ordail 12 hours a day, from  in the Morning till 6 at Night, loaded Down with Balls of Clay mud on my feet until I could hardly drag one foot after the other in that rainy Country.  And at night I whould frequently tumble Over asleep among the Horses feet while Cleaning the mud off thair leggs; and have often been waked up by thair catching me with thair toes and rooling me over when trying to step over me (Grate Big thick haray Leged Horses, as quiat and Docile as a Lamb, manafasting more Humanaty towards me then Did those curel Tyrants who abused me and called themselves men).

It would get so muddy and raining so often that my feet would stick in the mud so that I was unable to liberate them and the horses would come tearing round through it and step onto my foot and go over me and come near killing me very often, and as I had to stumble through the clods around from 6 o’clock in the morning until 6 in the eavening, I would get so tired that I would scarely be able to get home at night.

4 O’clock in the Morning was the Hour for rising, Winter and summer. I had to spend 2 Hours night and Morning in the Stables feeding and Cleaning the horses.  My Hands whare cracked and rent and Chaped with the dust of the Horses, so that I would hardly Bare to tuch anything in Cold wether, with frozen feet and sore eyes into the Bargan.

Picking Berries

Connected with this there was seasons in the summer time when my Mother whould take me away from the farmers to help her.  There was upon the Hills in that Country in the lower arts of Cheshire, about 10 miles from Chester, a smooth, mouse eared Shrub or Bush that Covered the Ground and bore a black Berry something like a  Currant, but thay did not hang on the Bushes like Currants.  Thay only grew one in a place.  Thay whare very sweet and Deliceous fruit and whent to sell in the Chester Markit for topence or threpence per quart.  In the Beginning of the Seasons thay lasted a good while.  There whould be Blosams, and green ones and ripes ones on the same Bushes.  A Mother and her Childran whould pick 2 or 3 quarts a Day, that is if She could get them to work and not Eat all thay pict, which was rather difficult for her to do.  She whould give us a little tin cup apiece.  She durst not trust us with anything Earthen.  If she did, we whould be sure to fall down and Break it.

“Not,” she whould say, “When you have pickt that twice full I’ll give you some dinner.  And if you Eat them, I won’t give you no Dinner.  No mind that.”  So she whould examin your mouth and if thay whare Black she whould sometimes give us a box on the Ear and send us off without any dinner saying, “Now I told you, didn’t I?”  And sometimes when she wanted to encourage us she would say, “If you will all be good Childran, Good Lads and wenches, and pick lots of Wimberies today, I’ll Buy George a new Hat and a new pare of Trousers, and Meryan a New bonnet and a New frock at Christmas.”

Of Course, there was no Boys and Girls in that Country.  Thay whare all lads and Wenches, Little Lads and Big Lads, Little Wenches and Wenches.  That sounds funny in this Country.  Nearly all the woman and Childran lived on the Hills in that Country during the Wimbery season.

My father used to leave his Shoemakers Bench sometimes and go to get Wimbery.  He could make more at it then he could by making shoes.  But he did not like to be alone among a Host of woman and childran, so He whould get up at Daylight and stike off alone before Other people got out and could generly pick a great miny more Berrys than anybody else in the same time.  And we whould all be vere ancteous to find out whare he had been to find such a good Chance, and we whould allways make for the Place whare he had Been.

Gleaning

There was also another seson when Mother whould take me away from the farmers and that was Dureing the harvist time when she whould take me and the smaller childran and go miles away into the fields to glean, or Tongo as It was called, to pick up the few Eares of wheat that might happin to fall from the Hands of the reapers but thay whare very few.  Yet there whare some and Mother and Her childran whould go Over and Over the ground until it whould do Our Eyes Good to see a Ear of wheat, having pickt up, as it whare, the last ear, and tied it up in handfuls and cut off the long straw and called them Tongoes.  We whould gather from 6 to 10 Tongoes in a Day and carry the Home.  And at the End of the Harvist whould trash the Grain Out with a Club and get several Bushels of Wheat.

Digging Pototoes

Mother whould also take jobs to Dig taters for the farmers at Sixpence a 100d and take me with Her to help her.  And when she could find nothing more to do whare I could help her, I whould have to go Back to the farmers again.

Schooling

But in all this there was no time for me to go to school to get any Education.  I had, when I was a child, gone to a small school a few weeks now and then, and larned the abc’s and had a great Desire to learn to read and write.  But as time rooled on I Kept getting Older and grew and little Biger until I was about 15 years Old, But had not had much chance to grow anymore.  Then I had to get an Education and Could only be Called a Big Lad whenI got by the side of one a good deil less then me.  But I had a well Developed muscle and was very strong for one of my size.  In fact I was a good Big Lad in a small Compass.

Father’s Tobacco Instead of Food

There was one more thing which happened when I was a small boy which I do feel very delicate about mentioning.  My father was an inveterate smoker, according to his means and circumstances.  He was out of tobacco and there was no bread in the house for the childrens’ breakfast, nor flour to make any, and but one penny to buy anything with.  And a controversy arose between my mother and him wether the penny should go to buy tobacco or bread.  But of course, Father being the strongest party, it had to go for tobacco and it seemed as though my mother’s heart would break with grief.  And it made such an impression on my little mind that I vowed that I would never use tobacco while I lived, and I have kept my vow inviolate to this day.

Working at an Inn

After passing through this kind of ordeal for several years, my father thaught that it whould be beter to teach me the shoemaking buiseness, but when I came to be closely confined and having to lean over my stomach all the time, it was harder on me than the bad usage I had been receiving and I had to leave it and go back to the farmers again.  And I commenced to hire by the year with them and worked for one and another of them until I was about 15 years of age.  I went a good way off from Home and hired with an Inn Keeper for a years as an ostler[47] and waterer at a small country Inn and to tend a Nice garden and Gentlemans horses that called, and a Little Race Horse and 2 or 3 cows, and a small field or two. I was in my 15^th year and I fared prity well there and began to grow some and gather flesh and strength and began to fee as tho I was getting to be a yong Man, and began to feel that I whould not suffer the tyranny and abuse that I had Done without trieng to Defend myself.

Near the end of that year an incident occurred which tested me as to wether I had the necessary grit to carry out my determinations.  The Inn whare I lived was called the “Cock of Barton” and Esquire Leech, who owned the Estate, held his rent Days thare and had his tennents Come thare to pay thair rent.  It is the custom in that country for farmers to pay their rent twice a year and on such occasions, a free dinner I given by the landlord at some public house.  The steward of the Estate attends to receiving the rent and they generally have what is called a jolly time, that is they eat and drink all they can free.  So they had nearly all got threw with that and gone home.

On these occasions his steward, Thomas Spencer, attended to draw the rent:  A large fat Big belleyed man and a very Important Personage that was able to Drink the whole croud drunk before he give out. There was another, a good deil much built man, nearly equile to him for drinking: The Village School Marster named Samual Dutton.  It took longer for them to satisfy their stomachs than it did the rest.  So about midnight they began to talk about going home, so the steward called for  his horse and I bruaght him out immediately and placed him to the step in front whare it was very convenient for him to get on and waited there for some time.

Finally he came staggering along to the front door, the school marster following trying to persuade him to go back and take another glass.  So after staggering around a while, thy concluded to go back and have another talk and take another glass, the night being a very cold one.  And they had been standing there a good while and was feeling prity cold.  I spoke very politely to him and said, “Marster Spencer,shall I put your horse into the stable again until you want him?  If you please, for I am very cold.”  He made me no answer, but stepped forward on the platform and struck me a fearful blow between the eyes over the horse’s neck, as I was holding him for him to get one, which caused the blood to fly from my nose in all directions and he then went off to get another glass as unconcerned as if nothing had happened.  But he had raised my dander to a prity high pitch, and the first thing I did was to let his horse go and give him a kick in the belly and start him off.  I then went to the pump and pumped water on my head for had an hour before I could get the blood stopped.  When it had stoped bleeding I washed my fac e and Composed myself as well as I could and pulled my hat down over my eyes for thay whare Badly swelled.  I then went into the house and watched for a good opportunity to pay him back in his own coin.

Presently he got up on his feet with his face towards me, talking to the school marster.  I bounded from my feet like a tiger and planted him a well-directed blow with all my might right between his eyes about the same place as he had struck me and sent him reeling head-long right for an open doorway that lead into a cellar, and he was only prevented from going down by the landlord’s daughter who was standing by the door.  So when I settled with him, I walked coolly out threw the front dore, passing by his servant man who was standing in the doorway at the time and had seen his marster strike me and had caught the horse when I turned him loose an dhad also seen me strike his marster.

This raised the house like a hornet’s nest.  But his striking me had been taken no notice of.  They said, “Who done that? Whare is he?”  And thay blamed his servent, who stood leaning against the door jam and had seen it all, for not catching me and stoping me from gong away.  He told them he could not catch me and that I had gone around the corner like lightening and up Stetten road, which was directly contrary to the way I had gone.

I ran for the barn and got up into the hayloft and burrowed down into the hay as deep as I could get.  It started a great excitement in the house and they ran in all directions in pursuit of me.  And after searching in all directions for an hour, the landlord (my old boss, Thomas Harrison by name) braught the man who had been assisting me that day (his name was Thomas Hedge) with a lantern to search the hayloft for me with a fork and to run the fork down deep into the hay all over the loft (for he knew I must be up there) and swearing that he would kill me for disgracing his house (if he could find me) and that Mr. Spencer should kill me like a damn dog for what I had done to him for I was not fit to live another hour.

So the thing blew over without my receiving any further abuse but it was a long time before he heard the last of it.  The gentlemen at their hunting suppers would rig him terably about it and the Squire whould tell him that if he not behave himself he whould send for Harrison’s boy and he should give him another drubbing, but it made me lots of friends.  It spread all over the country and everybody I met whould want to know what I had been licking old Tom Spencer for and whould say that I served him right but they did not know how I durst undertake to do it.  Thay whould say that I was a gritty little devil.

And he and I whare the two most Pomanant Caracturas that there was in the country.  The greatest Prize fight that had ever Happened was left all in the shade by that encounter of ours.  As for me, I was almost idolized.  The woman folks, when thay whould meet me in the road, whould stop me and say, “Well, what have you been thrashing old Tom Spencer for?  You aught to be ashamed of yourself for thrashing him, you little gritty fellow, you.  I could kiss you/” and thay whould Pat me on the back and say, “You served him right, the Old Tyrant.”  That’s English.

And after that, all the tavern keepers around the country wanted to hire me for the next year and were willing to almost dubble my wages to what I had been getting.  And Old Mr. Harrison got mad about it and said he had the first clame on me and they ought to wait and see wether he wanted me first.  And Ed, the Whipperin who had charge of the Hounds and 5 of the best horses that the country afforded, came down the Hall to hire me.  He said that I was just the kind of fallow that he wanted and that if money whould get me, he intended to have me; and that he whould see that I was well treated while I was with him.  He wanted me to take care of the hunting horses.  He was a break-neck rider.

But an Inn Keeper from Farn who had a larger Establishement about 2 miles away, came and offerd to dubble my wagers, so I Hired to him and took half a crown to faston the Bargen.  And when Ed, the Whiperin[48], heard of it he aid that he whould go down to him and buy me off again, for he intended to have me himself; and my old boss was mad a boath Him and me.  But he said he could not afford to give such wages as he was giving.

Squire Leech kept two packs of hounds: One for hunting foxes, and the other for Haires and they had two hunts a week during the hunting season.  50 hounds; were a pack and there was a huntsman whose place was at the head to keep the dogs in the scent and the whipperin’s place was behind the dogs to keep them together.  And when one dog got the scent the whole pack kept up the howl and followed the fox across the country through fields of grain, over walls, hedges, or ditches, or through rivers.

All the Nobility, as they were called, wore red coats, white breeches, and top boots.  Rich merchants and others could go in the hung but were not allowed to wear red coats.

I talked with my father about it and he said I was going to destructions; that the way had opened for me to go into High Life and it whould be my ruination.  “Well,”  I said, “What can I do?  I’ve Hired for the next year.  If it was not for that I whould leave that part of the Country and go somewhere else.”  Well, said he if I whould come and sit down and larn the shoemakeing Business (for that was his trade) that he whould get me off, for he said that the law whould release me to go and larn a trade.  I said that I whould do it, but I did not like the business for I had tried it twice before.

Well, I had just entered into my 16^th year and I had merged suddenly from a poor, friendless, obscure boy to be quite a notable character; and a wide opening had been made for me to enter into the high-life, but being a sober, thoughtful boy and religiously inclined, I thought it would lead me in a direction that I did not want to go and I declined to hire with any of them for the next year.

I had never spent a single six pence for liquor during the past year (although I had lived at a tavern) while the young man that lived there the previous year had spent all his wages so that he had nothing to draw at the end of the year.

He Leaves the Inn and Tries Other Trades

When my year was up and Christmas came, I left that part of the country and tried the third time shoemaking again, but as had been the case before, the close confinement and sitting did not agree with me.  And after enduring it as long as I could, I got up and left it and struck off about 50 miles to a busy little manufacturing town called Duckenfield near Ashton about 8 miles from Manchester, where I got work from a rich cotton manufacturer as assistant gardener. I had gained considerable experience at it during the year I lived at the tavern, having had charge of a fancy show garden while there.

He Loses His Hearing at an Early Age

From that I went to steam boiler making and that was more destructive to my health and happiness than anything I had ever done before.  There it was that I lost my hearing through the continual clatter and stunning blows of the big sledge hammers upon the iron plates.  I became so deaf that I could hear nothing, only as people would holler in my ears.

I also met with a sad accident while at the business of getting the thumb of my right hand caught in some machinery, which crushed the bone and all as flat as a copper coin, which disabled me from doing anything for 3 months.

The prospect of ever being able to hear again was very doubtful, so I had to quit that business.  And sometime after I had left the business my hearing began to return to me very slowly, but I never more than partially recovered it.  So, to a certain extent, I had become an old man before I was 20 years of age, being both deaf and crippled.

An Accident in a Coal Mine 

I next went to work in the cole mines.  Here also I continued to be very unfortunate and come very near losing my life a number of times.  At one time I got my ankle split; at another time I got my right knee badly crushed; at another time I had come down out of the drift where I was working to get a wedge and had no sooner gotten far enough away to escape with life when down came the roof like a clap of thunder.

But the worst accident that I met with in the mines occurred some time after this.  While I was sitting upon a low rock cleaning out the spout of an oil can, a long slip of rock fell out of the roof of the mine, about 5 feet and a foot square, catching me right across my shoulders and dubbled my face and feet together, and broke in two pieces.  One slid over my head and the other down my back, tearing the hair off my head and the skin off my back in a fearful manner, and to all aperances, had crushed the life out of my body.

There were several men there who lifted me up and said that my back was broken.  When I began to come to, I saw the glimmer of three candles like a flash and then all whould be dark again.  My sight continued to come and go in this way for some time before I began to realize my condition, then I began to ascertain wether my back was broken or not by drawing up my legs and then stretching them out again.  I soon realized that it was not broken and felt very thankful indeed.  They put me into a cole wagon and one of the men took me to the shaft.  The distance to the shaft was 8 hunrad yards and the distance from the bottom to the surface was 3 hundrad yards perpendicular.

In about 2 weeks I had so far recovered as to be able to walk about a little but it has trubbled me more or less all through my life, and for many years I was hardly able to get through a whole year without being laid up a spell with my back.  And I think by this time I was about ready to join the ranks of the old men.

He Did Not Indulge in Vices

I left the cole mine and went to making shoes again (4^th), this time on my own hook.  I was about 21 years of age and had always been religiously inclined and a great lover of books; and had kept myself pretty clear from most of the vices to which youth is subject; and had lived a pretty good moral life. I never acquired the habit of drinking liquor, smoking or chewing tobacco nor taking snuff.  I spent my leisure time in reading and study.  I never learned to play cards, dice, or dominoes; I never engaged in gambling or betting in my life.

There was a firmness and decision of character that accompanied me through my youthful days that was really exhibited by the yong men of my acquaintance when I lived at the tavern during my 15^th year.  I never spent as much of my wages as whould buy one pint of ale, while the other yong men spent all their wages in drink.

Another circumstance was that when I worked with the boiler makers and coal miners, they had a custom of paying us our wages on a Saturday night at some public house where they had to spend some time for the good of the house.  I would pay my share of the money; and would not drink; then leave, saying that I had some important business to attend to, for I could not endure their obscene language and ribald songs their cursing; tobacco fumes.  I could not endure it when I could avoid it.  Of course, they would curse and abuse me and tell me that I thought myself too good for their company but that did not make me like them any better.

I had in some degree the charge of my mother’s family for a year or two, she having moved where I was; my father being absent nearly all the time.

His Mother’s Death

About this time my mother was taken sick and in about two weeks after, she died.  It was October 1839.  She was aged 45 years.  She was interred in hte burial ground at the Providance Chappal, Duckenfield, Cheshire, England.  My father then came and lived there and took charge of the family himself.

His First Marriage and the Death of his Wife and Daughter

After a while I thaught that I must do as good many other yong man have done: Get married.  So I picked out a girl and married her. On the 6^th of January 140 I married Jane Higginbotham, an orphan girl about 19 years of age, at the Parrish Church at Ashton, Under-lime.  She had a baby on January 23 1841 and did not recover and died April 17, aged 20 years and 3 months, and was interred by the side of my mother at the Providance Chappal.

The baby was a girl and was named Jane after her mother, and she died October 9^th 1841 and was interred with her mother.

More About His Family

About six months before I was married, my half-brother, James Silverthorn, married my wife’s older sister.  They had two children.  The younger was called Martha, and the older called Elizabeth.  Their mother’s name was Mercy and she was the daughter of Matthew and Nancy Higginbotham.  And they had two uncles:  Matthew and James.

About this time my brother Joseph got severely burned in the coal mines by an explosion of fire damp.[49]  It was in the year 1840, and he was visionary and flighty in his mind ever after.

His Search for Truth

These bereavements caused me to feel sorrowful and to reflect much about religion, and to read the Scriptures and to pray for light that I might understand the principles of salvation.

I had always been earnestly engaged seeking after the truth.  I had made a practice of attending as many of the meetings of the different sects and parties as I could get to; and identified myself with several of them and enjoyed myself pretty well for a short time with each of them, but could not rest sattisfied long with any of them. I learned in a very short time about all thay professed to know about religion and it came far short of sattisfying me.

I had visited all the sects and parties around the country within reach and had concluded to stand aloof from them all for I considered that they were all lacking the true principles of religion.

Conversations with Ministers

I was very conscientious in all my dealing and strict in keeping my promises.  I will mention a little incident which will verify this fact.  I was coming from the market one Saturday night and there was an old man on the side of the raod selling some books. There was one that I wanted but I lacked a halfpenny of having enough to pay for it.  “Well, you can it,” said the old man.. “You are an honest boy.  You will pay me sometime.”

“Well,” I said, “If you will allow me to take it, I will pay you the halfpenny next Saturday night.”  When Saturday night came I walked 2 miles expressly to take the half penny to him, having no other business to call me that way.  When I handed it to him he said, “Oh, I knew you were an honest boy.  I whould not be afraid to trust you with a sovereign, and the Lord will bless you all your life.”

His Conversion Story

I now come to the time when I first heard the sound of the everlasting gospel.  It was in the Month of March, 1841.  Some of the Elders had just made their aperance in the small town where I lived called Duckenfield in Cheshire, England.

The way it came to me was as follows:  I was sitting in my shop making shoes.  The door was open and some little childran stoped before the door to play.  My attention was aristed by hearing them talking about people they called “dippers.”  Thay said that thay dipped people over head in water and talked “Gibberage” in thare meetings.  And one little fellow undertook to show what Giberage was and he imitated speaking in toughs first rate.

I asked them where thay held their meetings and thay said in an old house up at Half Moon (A simme circle in the street) and pointed it out to me.  So I made them a visit the nest week, and heard something at the first meeting that suited me better than anything that I had ever heard from any of the sectarians.

He Receives a Testimony of the Book of Mormon and Prophets

I was not very hasty in joining the Church, and was very cautious about receivieing the Mormon Doctrain, thinking parahaps it is a more cunningly devised scame than any of the rest, and whould avail myself of every opportunity that I could get to talk to the Elders. I took time to investigate the principles of the Gospel prity thoroughly and attended all the meetings that I could get to, and borrowed a Book of Mormon from one of the Elders and commenced reading it very earnestly and prayerfully.  I had not read far before the Spirit of the Lord bore testimony to me that it was the Truth of Heaven.  I continued reading until I had read it threw and got testimony after testimony concerning the truth of the work and divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon, and concerning a Prophat, Seer and Revelator having been raised up in these lst days with all the power authority, and priesthood necessary to build up the Church of Chirst upon the earth. I received testimony that the Elders preached the Truth from heaven and that the organization of the Church was according to the mind and will of heaven, and concerning the gifts of the Spirit, and the gathering.  But I did not identify myself with the Church for more then 3 months after.

Before I was baptized I walked 8 miles to attend a fast meeting held by the Saints in the carpenters hall in Manchester and fasted.  And at 4 o’clock they had what they called a tea party but there was no tea there.  They had hot water with plenty of good cream and sugar and plenty of something good to eat.  I partook with them as though I had been one of them and felt in my hearts that it was the richest fest in my life, and the best company that I had ever enjoyed.

The gift of tongues and the interpretation of tongues and the sprit of prophesy was poured out richly upon the Saints.  And they sang the sweet songs of Zion and such a Heavenly influence rested down on the assembly that it was in very deed a rich foretaste of Heaven.

Joy in the Opportunity for Baptism

About a week before I was baptized I took a walk one Sunday afternoon up by a beautiful riverside into a retired place for the purpose of meditation and reflecting undisturbed upon the plan of salvation which had occupied my mind very forcibly for some time, and praying to my Heavenly Father in secret and confessing my sins.  I had one of the most refreshing seasons that I ever experienced in my life, for my soul was truly humble before the Lord: my sins were made manifest to my mind; my ignorance and my imperfections were shown to me and I felt my weakness so keenly that I wept again and again over my condition as I lay prostrate on the ground.  I poured out my soul in prayer before my Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ, confessing my sins and asking forgiveness from the lord.  And I covenanted with the Lord that I would forsake all my sins and begin from that very hour to lead a new life and serve him the remainder of my life to the best of my abilities if I could but obtain his Holy Spirit to assist me, for I felt that I could not do it in my own strength.  And He heard my prayers and poured out his Holy Spirit upon me mightily, which caused me to weep for joy and through my checkered life, and my heart was made as light as a feather that very hour, for a change had taken place which caused me to feel like I was in a new world.  The rippling river was like sweet music in my ear and the birds sang sweeter than I had ever heard them before and I looked forward with joy to the time when I should be baptized and enter through the door into the Kingdom of God, for I had seen it and had a foretaste of its joys which to me were sweeter than honey from the honeycomb.

His Baptism  June 28, 1841 – Aronic Priesthood - ordained September 5,  1841

I made up my mind to be baptized the following Sabbath morning, and the week that intervened seemed like an age, almost.  I felt so much afraid lest something might intervene to prevent it.  But when Sunday morning arrived I arose at a very early hour (it was about 4 o’clock) and called upon the Elder that I had selected to baptize me.  And we resorted to the place where I had spent the previous Sunday afternoon and he baptized me. His name was John Albiston, Jr.  And in my ignorance and simplicity I requested him to baptize me a second time, considering that once was hardly sufficient in my case, but the Elder said that it was all sufficient and to do anything more would be going beyond the order of Heaven and would not be acceptable, so I was satisfied.  And O ! it was a season of joy and rejoicing such as seldom falls to the lot of poor, fallen humanity while traveling through this wilderness of sin and sorrow.

It was about the dawn of day, on a beautiful midsummer’s morning.  The scenery was enchanting; the birds commenced to sing their sweetest  morning songs and all creation seemed to rejoice with me, for it was a very important crisis in my life, crippled as it was with circumstances of the greatest moment to me.  It was the time when I was born a child of God and entered in through the door into His Kingdom and put off the old man with all his deeds, and put on the new man, Jesus Christ.  And it was the time when I stepped forward to become the Pioneer of my father’s family, for I was the first one to receive the principles of the Gospel.

The date of my baptism was June 28, 141 in the suburbs of Staily Bridge, Lankenshire, England.  On the 5^th of September 1841 I was ordained to the Aronick Priesthood and preached the Gospel some little in the small branches around and baptized six persons.

He Baptizes his Brother and sister and the Journey to America

But the principle of the gathering had begun to be preached and I caught the spirit of it and from that time forth I never parted with a sixpence unnecessarily until I had accumulated sufficient means to emigrate to Nauvoo.  And on the 1^st of February 1842 I started from Duckenfielld on my way for Liverpool.  And one of my brothers (named William) and my sister Mary Ann, accompanied me on my way until we came to a river and went down to the water and I baptized them and they returned home and I went on my way rejoicing, arrived in Liverpool on the 4^th and set sail on the 8^th of February 1842 upon the good ship ‘Hope.”

The Captain’s name was Saul: the cargo was Saints bound for Zion: 270 in number.  So with all these favorable coincidences it might reasonably be expected that we would have a prosperous voyage.

We had been 9 weeks and 3 days when we landed in New Orleans and had one death on the way.  We steamed up the Mississippi on a steamboat called “Louisa” and landed in Nauvoo on the 13^th of April 1842 and went to work 3 days after landing on the Nauvoo Brickyard to make brick for the Nauvoo House and worked at it two summers.

An Illness and a Visit by the Spirit of his Dead Wife

And I worked very late in the Fall the first season when weather had become quite cold and caught a fearful cold and lay sick and over 3 months did not know any more of it than I whould of a night’s sleep. And while I was in that condition I whould keep talking and preaching and whould tell the people such strange stories; about going on missions among the heathen and savages and when they would try to kill me I whould work such strange miracles among them that the could get no power over me at all.  I thaught they set me as a target to shoot at with their bows and their arrows and a dozen or 15 of them would be shooting at me at once and I whould be armed with a shapelay[50] and could turn off them and the arrows as they would shoot at me.  And on one occasion when the people who were taking care of me had notice to leave the house that they were living in and were feeling very bad about it, having no place to go to I told them not to feel bad for I had a better house than that and they could have it as long as they wanted it rent free. And I described it and the street it was on and the houses adjoining it so minutely that the lady who was taking care of me believed all I had said, and said she would go and look at it.  So she fixed herself up and walked a mile and a half to look for it, but after looking and inquiring all over the neighborhood, she failed to find any such a place as I had described and returned quite disappointed and told me that I had deceived her and she was quite vexed at me.  And I asked her if she thought that I was that kind of a man to lie to her like that, and I told her that she had not found the right place and described it to her again.  And the next day she actually fixed herself up again and went in search of it a second time but returned with the same results.  Then they suspected my mind was out of balance and her husband and her quizzed me so close that they detected me, and strange as it may appear, they had never mistrusted me before in all the strange stories I had been telling them.

And thus it was that the struggle between life and death had been going on within me, and death had well nigh gained the victory.  And the lady had called in some of the neighboring sisters to come and stay with her one night to see me die.  And they were talking about me and expressing regret that a young man like me should be taken away in the prime of life, not thinking that I could hear anything they said, when a stream of consciousness came to me and I spoke to them and said that they must not talk about me dying for I was not going to die.

That same night when Sister Smith[51] was fixing me as comfortable as she could in bed, and tucking the clothes around me, I said to her, “Sister Smith, cover up Jane,” and she said, “What do you mean, George?” And then turning to the other sisters, she said, “He is rambling in his head.  He is thinking of his dead wife.  He is nearly gone.  He cannot live till morning.”

I spoke to her again and said, “Cover Jane up, same as you have me.  She is laying in the bed on the other side of me.”  Then she said, “There is nobody but you in bed.  You feel very sick, don’t you?  Do you want anything else?”  Then she left me.

I was just about to pop through the veil and the spirit of my dead wife [Jane Higginbotham] was hovering around me.  I saw her as plain as I ever did in my life and talked to her and said, “Jane, how is it that you are permitted to visit me?”  And she said, “Because you have been baptized for me in the Temple.” [52]

His Second  Marriage

Sometime after I had recovered I took a Notion to get Maried again.  On the 23^rd of August 1843 I married my second wife[53] in Nauvoo, Hancock Co. Illinois.  She was an Amaracan girl and the daughter of James Newberry and Mary Smith.  She was aged 20 years, 4 months, 10 days and I was 26 years old on the day we were married.

A Narrow Escape from Drowning

In the Fall of ’43 I had a very narrow escape from being drowned in the Mississippi River. I had been up to Burlington Island, and with 3 others, went to get a raft of firewood, and we were trying to land it at Nauvoo. We had swung the hind end as near to shore as we could get it and thinking the water was shallow, I jumped in to carry a rope to shore.  But in place of being shallow, it proved to be over 10 feet deep where I jumped in.  And a perpendicular rock there and being a very windy day, the waves dashed on the short an then fell back again with a great force driving me further into the water.

After struggling for my life for a short time to get to shore, I found I could not make it and having let go of the rope in the struggle I turned and made for the raft again thinking that by the aid of the waves I might be able to gain it, but having on a  heavey blanket coat and big boots, they soon loaded me with water and not knowing how to swim, I went down like a lump of lead, striking upon the bottom on my feet; and not having lost my presence of mind, I had closed my mouth and kept the water out of me and remembered the rope.  It was a heavy cable about 50 feet long, and I remembered the direction the raft was in when I went down.  So I raised my hands up and groped for the rope, stepping one way and ten the other on the bottom of the river, in the directions that I thought the rope would be in, and miraculously as it may appear, I caught the rope when it was within two feet of the end, and commenced hauling it in hand over hand until I began to think there was something wrong (it seemed to long) when I popped up with great force about 4 feet behind the logs.  If I had struck them with my head it would surely have killed me.

I crawled out onto the raft and stretched myself out perfectly exhausted and let Considerable water Out of me, and the raft floated down the river about 4 miles to near where Joseph Smith lived before we landed it.  Now how I came to catch that rope in my hand and how I was able to hold my breath as long as I did I cannot account for unless my guardian angel who has charge over me was there to direct me in such a manner.

The Murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith

In the summer of 1844 I made brick in William Law’s brickyard. While engaged at work on the 28 of June, word came into the yard that Joseph and Hyrum had been murdered the day before in Carthage Jail by a mob and their dead bodies would be braught into the city that afternoon.

A procession was formed on Mulholland Street to receive them and escort them through the city to the Mansion House, Joseph’s residence.  Many thousands of people assembled and such a time of Mourning I never witnessed, neither before nor since.  Some expressed their Sorrow by Weeping and some by Praying for Vengence on their murderers and some could neither shed tears nor speak and a good many wanted to go and take vengeance on thair enemies and murderers by laying Carthage in ashes.  But through the influence of Parley P. Pratt, Willard Richards, and other influential brethren, the people were calmed down.  And the corpses were taken to the Mansion House to be prepared for the Saints and friends to take a last sad view of these they loved so well.

George was Among the Mourners

On the 29^th not less than ten thousand people assembled at the mansion House to view the remains of the martyred Prophat and Patriarch for the last time, and a heart rendering scene it was.  I was among the crowd who went to see him.

The following lines were written in Nauvoo shortly after the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, the Prophat and Patriarch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and express some of my feelings and sentiments which I entertained at that time.

Martyrdom Poem

Ye Saints and friends, attention give to the words which I shall say,

While I speak of the Cruil and wicked deed that was performed in our day.

Though the feble language I posess will not make it half appear

As it is engraven upon heart in native colours there.

It was the 27^th day of June eighteen hundred and forty four

At 5 o’clock PM thy lay bleeding on the flore

Of Carthage’s human slaughter house in blood Illinoes.

Brother Hyrum as a lifeless corpse and Brother Taylor lay wounded by.

But Joseph from the window fell down among the save crew

Who waiting there for to devour him like tigers it is true.

They took and sat him against the frame that was around the well

And there they shot him thru and thru.  O, Horred for to tell.

He looked with pity on the four who whare called out his life to take

And slightly chringed when each ball struck, then bowed his head and died.

Not a sigh nor a groan nor a single word did from his lips escape,

But like a lamp of innocense he calmly fell asleep.

The forward sprang a ruffian just like a beast of prey,

Whose horrid black intention was to take his head away

With beak-nife in his hand, his arms and legs all bare,

With no hat upon his head as he appered there.

But hold! Be Still! Your chains run out, no further can you go.

His spirit it now soars on high, his bod ye have laid low.

Just then a light so dazeling bright did from the Heavens burst

With shock savere it struck them, thare power of motion lost.

The mob hurried then with a feaful rush from the scenes of cruelty

“But for God’s sake,” cried their captain, “Stop and take these men away.”

A few returned with trembling limbs and took them up like logs

And bore them to a waggon where they laid them like dead hoggs.

Then away they marched towards hell, which is in Warsaw, Illonois.

Tom Shurp, h e acted as devil there, edited the signal and gave the lies

From whence they spread the blood news to their fellow fiends around,

Who grinned and showed their teeth for joy to hear the welcome sound.

But it was not so with the Saints of God who resided in Nauvoo,

For they mourned the loss of their dearest friends in sorrow it is true.

The mothers’ hearts were rent in twain, the fathers’ souls were vexed

And all in turn by the deep fetched sigh their heartfelt grief expressed.

Yong men and maids and children, too, and those of tender age

Their wonded feelings did display in many and varied ways,

But the most prominent feature I believe and also felt the same

Was to avenge the noble Blood shed in that tradgic game.

‘But now be still,’ the wise men said who stood as leaders at our head,

‘Show your patiance now lie Saints of God’ and many such words they said,

‘For vengeance to our God belong. In his word he has said I will repay.

‘This we believe with all our hearts in his own time and his own way.

We harkened to their counsel and did also obay the same

And governed ourselves so perfectly that it gave to us a name

Which caused the world to wonder and also stand amaised

To see the Christian Sperit posessed by the Saints of the Latter days.

The guilty did their houses leave and to the woods they flew

Crying ‘The Mormons are upon us’ when no one did pursue.

‘They will lay our city in ashes before the morning light.

‘We cannot stand before them, so dreadfully will they fight.’

‘For we have slain their dearest friends and that without a cause’

While in jail they were confined by false write and wicked laws.

They tried it o’er again to shed their innocent blood

Because they were good and Holy men and Prophats sent of God.

In it they have succeeded now.  God permited it to be so,

Yet the princaples they died for will onward, onward go.

But Oh! How solemn was the time the scene I shall never forget

When thousands of the Saints at the Nauvoo Mansion met.

To view the last remains of the friends and brother, two,

As there in death they lay; they in life were ever true.

Thair murderers: How black they look and died in crimson blood

And branded on their foreheads as enemies of God.

Their hell has now commenced and hotter still will grow

Untill they have drank the bitter cup of misery and woo.

May their lives be lengthened out and the world by this them know

That they, their wives, and children lose and all comforts from them go.

May worms their flesh devour while yet they are alive

And death from them depart while hard for it they strive,

And it be god’s will (I hope it may be so)

That through the earth like vagabonds they wandering may go.

And it it be God’s will (I hope) I say agin

That all the friends of Joseph and Saints will say “Amen.”

-end-

His Infant Daughter is Near Death and Blessed to Live

My first daughter, Lavina was born about a month after Joseph was killed in August 1845.  She was taken very sick and by her appearance was likely to die.  I called in a cupple of the Elders to administer to Her but thay Did not want to do it when thay saw Her.  Thay said that it was no use to Administer to a Dead Child, for she was good as Dead now.  “Well,” I said, “I have called you in to administer to her and if you have no faith, I have.  I tell you she will not Die.”

“Well,” thay said, “If that Child lives you may say that you have seen One raised from the Dead anyhow.”  But she did live to be a woman.[54]

Another Narrow Escape from Drowning

In the winter of 1844 I had another narrow escape from being drowned in the same river.  Myself and my Brother in law[55] had been over into Ioway digging a well about 5 miles from the river and had finished it about Noon and started to Come home that night, and when we got to the river it was dark. The river was frozen over so as to bear teams up hauling wood, and they had made a track on the ice.  But the sun had been pretty warm that day and had melted some snow so that the water had flowed over the track and obscured it so that it was not plain, and there being no moon we lost our way while crossing; and having no object to steer by, we had to guess at it.  And the man that was with me was pretty badly scared.  I had to go before him some distance before he would venture to follow me.

So I came to a place where the ice was tender and knowing what not way to take to get off of it, I thought it would be the best way to step lightly and go quick.

So I stepped of in a light, springy gait and had not gone more than a rod, when I plunged headlong into an air hole (one of those places that remain open in all large rivers and do not freeze in the winter).  The place was about a rod wide and a rod and a half long down stream.  I had a long barreled shot gun in my right hand at the time, which I held on to.  I was always remarkable for presence of mind in danger, so I closed my mouth and kept the water out of me, and although I had no knowlege of swimming, a natural instinct led me.  One whould have thaught that I whould have taken Some Pains to larn to Swim after passing threw such Ordails as I had been Doing.  But I didn’t. I thaught the Best way whould be to keep Out of it in the future, but I had not got out yet.

I soon found myself in the best position for catching on the ice, when the current carried me down to it.  I was floating as near the surface of the water as the weight of the shot gun held up out of the water in my right hand would permit me, when I struck on the ice with the gun but it broke.  In an instant I struck again and it broke but the fourth time it didn’t break and I was enabled to raise my head out of the water and take in a breath and rest for a moment.  I then raised my left hand and examined the thickness of the ice.  The thin edge had broken off until it was nearly 2 inches thick but that was not sufficient for me to attempt to get out.  So I placed the gun as far over on the ice as I could and raised my other arm out and hung upon the edge of the ice by my armholes, and the current ripping by and pining me up against the under surface of the ice as closed as it was possible for me to be.

I then looked around for the man that was with me and saw him standing about 4 rods distant from me, struck perfectly motionless like a statue.  I called to him.  He was my brother-in-law and he said, “George, art thou there?”  “Yes,” I said, “There is hope yet. Go down about 4 rods below me,” for I could see then where the ice was strong (as my face lay flat on the ice), “and run to the shore as fast as you possibly can and see if you can find a rail or a long pole and hurry back with it, and I will try to hang on till you come back.” sSo he felw off like a cloud and was gone what I thought to be about 20 minutes.  (Whether that was correct or not I cannot say, but it seemed like an awful long time.)  As soon as he sat foot on shore, right before him lay a great long Poll about 20 feet long and not very Heavy.  He put it on to his sholder.

Presently I heard his voice calling to me and I answered it and he kept calling and I answering until he got to me with a long round pole on his shoulder and he said, “I’ve got a pole Where will thou have it, George?”  So I directed him to go 2 or 3 rods below me and lay the pole toward me, bearing his weight on it about 6 feet from the end, until I could reach it in the same position.

He done so and I reached over and placed my hands upon it and with a superhuman spring (which no human being could make without Divine aid) I landed right out of the water on the weak ice as light as a feather.  And I pushed and he pulled, bearing our weight upon the pole as much as we could until we got on the safe ice (for we had to go some distance before we reached it), our weight causing the weak ice to sway so that the water blowed over it several inches deep.

O dear, it makes me hold my breath while I am writing it.  But we got onto safe ice and made our way off it as soon as we could Now if there was anything in the other case seeming to make a great miracle of it, there is not in this one.  I had over two miles to walk before I got home and a bitter cold frosty night it was.  And the pain and torture that I endured from the cold cannot be described.  My clothes froze stiff upon my body and every step I took had to break the ice to do it; crack, crack, crack was the sound I made every step, and it seemed that every joint of my body was being torn out my main force.  My sholders wanted to drop out of their sockets and I had to hold onto the collar of my coat to prevent my arms from falling out.  My body seemed to be entirely separated into two parts at my loins, and it was with the greatest difficulty imaginable hat I could make any use of my legs. But by the assistance of my brother-in-law I succeeded in getting home after a tremendous struggle.  And my wife mad a good hot fire and plenty of good hot pepper tea, and I went to bed and she piled all the clothing there was in the house onto me and I fell asleep and thawed out and my joints got back into their places and the pain left me.

When I waked up I was not much worse for wear.  Now, how anything more marvelous could happen to a human being and yet he be able to survive it, I am at a loss to imagine.  I have never heard or read of a parallel case to it in my life.  Now the Reader can ask Himself the question, By what Power was I delivered?  I Know that it was not by my own Smartness.  I have no desire to take any credit to myself for my own smartness in extracting myself from those difficulties but feel to give God the glory and the honor of my salvation and acknowledge his hand in all things.  Amen.

George Helps Guard the Temple and Nauvoo from Mobs

One would think that when our enemies had succeeded in taking the lives of the Prophat and Patriarch that they would have been satisfied for a time, at least.  But no, they continued to clamor for blood; and we were harassed continually and threatened with having our homes laid in ashes and the rest of our leaders slain.  Hence, we were under the necessity of keeping strong guards on duty day and night.

Those were time to try men’s  souls.  I have been on guard night after night with my brethren on the preyeries between Nauvoo and Carthage to prevent the mob from coming in  unaware and setting fire to the city and murdering more of our friends.  I have lain in the Temple night after night upon the hard wooden benches with my rifle by my side expecting an attack every minute.  I have lain on my bed with my clothes on and my gun leaning against my pillow where I could lay my hand upon it at any hour of the night; and jumped from my bed at all hours of the night at the sound of the Big Drum and ringing of the Temple bell, which was a signal for us to gather.  And I had been armed and equipped at the place of randavouze inside of 5 minutes.  I can further that I believe that I have lived as poor and worked as hard at the same time as any other man, and can say from experience that time that the thoughts of the thing was always worse than the thing itself; and I suppose it was the case with death, for a dying person never weeps.

George Witnesses the Transfiguration of Brigham Young

About a month after Joseph’s death, Sidney Rigdon set up his claim as Guardian of the church, saying that it was not of age to do business for itself, being only about 14 years old; and as he was next in atheraty to Joseph it was his duty to act as Guardian until the Church was 21.

On the 5^th of August 1844 a special meeting was appointed for the Church to come together to hear what he had to say on the subject.  He did not occupy the stand where Brigham and some of his supporters the 12 were, but he stood in a wagon with some of his supporters in another part of the congregation and Ocupied the time in the forenoon.  He ordinarily was a very eloquent and pleasing speaker, but at that time he made a very feeble effort in the afternoon.

Presedent Young replied to what had been said; and when he arose to speak (I was sitting holding down my head reflecting upon what had been said by Rigdon) when I was startled by hearing Joseph’s voice.  He had a way of clearing his throat before he began to speak by a peculiar Effort of his own, like “Ah, hem” but it had a different sound from him to anyone else.

I raised my head sudinly and the first thing I saw was Joseph as plain as I ever saw him in my life.  He was dressed in a light linen suit with a light leghorn hat, [56] such as he used to wear in the warm weather.  And the first words he said whare, “Right here is the Athoraty to Lead this Church,” at the same time Strikeing his hand on his Bosam, and went on to utter several sentences in Joseph’s voice as clear and distinct as I ever heard Joseph speak.  And his gestures and appearance were perfect.  This was testimony sufficient for me where the Athoraty rested.

George Becomes a Seventy

On the 8^th of October 1844 at the reorganization of the seventies, I was organized into the 12^th quorum, Hyrum Daytin, Sr., President.

He Builds a House in Nauvoo

On the month of October 1844, I put me up a nice little brick house, 16 by 22 feet on a lot that I owned, about a quarter of a mile north-east of the Temple.  I had also another lot situated upon Young Street, about one mile East of the Temple.

Mob Activity

The mob continued organizing and gathering apostates into their ranks and threatening to exterminate the Mormons.  And on the 10^th of September 1845 they set fire to Morley’s settlement and Green Plain and burned all the houses, barns, and shops in the settlements and drove the sheriff [57] of Hancock Co. from his home and tried to him, when Porter Rockwell, in defending him, killed a man by the name of Warrul [Worrell] [58] who was a leader in the mob and took an active part in killing the Prophet and Patriarch.

The persecution continued to rage and the people left the small settlements and went to Nauvoo for protections.  And business was paralyzed and we were kept on guard nearly all the time.  And many poor men were entirely destitute of anything to eat at times.  I was among that number.  When inquiry was made over night who was in that condition, the next morning there would be several fat cattle to butcher and deal out.

George is Chased by and Angry Man

The early part of the summer of 1845 I engaged to dig a well for Father Bent [59] on his farm a short distance north-east of the city [Nauvoo] and while I was engaged in doing it he sold the farm to a mobacrat by the name of Flinn and arrangements were made that I should go on and finish it and Flinn was to pay me for doing all the work.  So I continued on and when I had gone down about 40 feet I struck water and came out to speak to the man about it, who was plowing in the field a short distance off.  And I asked him for some of the pay, when he got mad and began to curse and swear; and there was a pronged root of a yong tree which he had plowed up lying on the ground nearby, so he ran and grabbed it by a prong and made for me with it.  but I dodged out of his way when he sent it whizzing at my head but I ducked down and it missed me.  Then he put his fingers into his mouth and whistled 3 times, when 3 or 4 men came running across the field towards us, so I thought it best to be getting away from there.  So I took to my heels in good earnest and ran down by the well and took my brother-in-law who was helping me, and we made for the woods which were not far off and got into the thick Brush and thought ourselves pretty fortunate to get away with our lives after having dug the well for nothing.  There whare a lot of Irish Mobacrats settled together round there and the man we had Dug the well for was one of them.

George Helps Arrest Members of the Mob

Later in the summer the mob took Phinius [Phineas] Young [60] and his son, Brigham, prisoners while returning from the McQueens Mills with a load of flour; and passing through the town of Pontusac [Pontusuc]  and appropriated the team and flour to themselves, and dragged them back and forth through the woods from county to county so that their friends could not find them.

So William Anderson (who was afterwards killed together with his son Agustas in the Nauvoo battle) was appointed to deputy sheriff to raise a posse of 50 men to go in search of them.  I was one of the number.  We traveled through the night and got into Pontusac [Pontusuc] about day-break in the morning.

About a mile out of town we aristed a Picket Guard.  He was all most scared to death and gave us all the information that he was in posesion of. He said that there was a large company of men in the brush just out of town and they were all armed and intended to have a fight.  So we scoured the brush on both sides of the road and presently came upon them.  Many of them had their rifles cocked and were in the act of taking aim.  They were led by the notorious Frank and Chancy Higby, who had taken such an active part in bringing about the murder of Joseph and Hiram.

And the guard said that the mob numbered 3 hundred men so when we came near enough to them to be heard, Captain Anderson called his men around him and spoke to the mob in a loud voice and said, “O yes, we know you are there and we know how many you number and if there were 5 times as many there we should not be afraid of you.  There are only 50 of us here but there are 5 hundred a little way back.  We have the Athoraty and hold the Papers to search the town for our Brethran and if any one of you snaps a cap, we will lay your town in ashes.  We command you in the name of Sheriff Beckenstoes, whose servants we are to come out of the brush and lay down your arms.”

So they came out buy were unwilling to give up their arms.  So Captain Anderson said to his men, “Now my men, each of you disarm his man.”  It fell my lot to disarm the notorious Chancy Higby. He was unwilling to give up his rifle, so I took hold of it and twisted it out of his hands as though his arms were no more than straws.  So we disarmed all of them and took 7 of the leading men prisoners; two were the Higbys (They were the sons of Elias Hibgy who was one of the Temple Committee.)

We searched the Town for our Brethran but could not find them.  We then started on our way back takeing those prisoners with us and left word in the town that if anything Bad happened to our friends they need not expect to see the faces of their friends again Alive.  So in 3 or 4 days after that our Brethran were set at Liberty and came home, but wather the team and flour were ever returned I cannot say, but I think not.

Another Encounter with a Mobcrat and George is Shot At

A short time after that accorrance, 5 of us were going up the Mississippi River to get a raft of fire wood from Burlington Island and when we whare passing through the town of Oquaka [Illinois] two were rowing the skiff up the river and 3 were walking on shore.  One of us called into a store on the riverside to buy some matches.  There was 3 or 4 mobacrats sitting in the store at the time.  One of them said to us, “You are some of them Damned Mormons, ain’t you?”  We answered, “We are Mormons, but not Damned Mormons yet.” [They said] “We will make it hot for you when you go down again on your raft.”

And when we were leaving the store and going down the bank to the river, one of them stepped into the door and fired a shot after us, which mowed the brush down close to our right hands as we were going down the narrow path, one after the other, close together.  But when we went down again, we kept prity well over the other side of the river and went down in the night.

In September 1845 the authorities of the Church made a proposition to the mob that if they would cease their persecutions and assist the people in disposing of their property, they would leave the state of Illinois the following spring.  And in October a Dilegation of leading men were sent in from Carthage to confer with the athoraties of the Church about the Mormons leaving and it was agreed to that the mob should cease to molest us and assist us in Disposeing of our property.

The First Meeting in the Nauvoo Temple

On the 5^th of October 1845 the first meeting was held in the Temple and it was crowded very full, and the flore settled and caused quite a panic and several broke the glass and jumped out the windows.[61]  It was expected that the flore would settle a little but the people wre not apprised of it.

General Conference was held in the Nauvoo Temple

October 6^th General Conference was held in the Temple; there had been none for 3 years.  William Smith, the Prophat’s Brother was cut-off from the Church.  He had made great threats that he whould expose the twelve and their awfull doings and said that there was nobody that durst undertake to cut him off the Church.  He was a boastful, bullying individual.  And when Presedent Young steped forward to present his case before the people he said that William Smith had made a great many threats about what he whould do but if he undertook to treat them as he had his brother Joseph he whould find out that he had got the wrong man to Deil with for once.  And he further said that he carried a little toothpick along with him for his own protection at the same time drawing a long, thin dagger out of a walking cane and presenting it before the congregation, and said it would not be healthy for any man to lay violent hands on him.  If any did, he whould run that through them, so help him God, if he had the Power to do it.

The Saints are offered Inferior Things for their Property

I will now say a few words about how the mob carried out thair part of the Treaty in helping us to dispose of our property.  O my sou, what trash they Brought along to Offer to us for our comfortable homes, good brick homes, and Excelant Farms.  It seemed as tho thay had scowered the country for hundreds of miles around for all the Old blakey, swaybacked, hit shot, blind-eyed Ringboned and Spavined things which they called Horses; and all the worthless breechy, hault,lame and blind on oxon, and also all the broken-horned, 3-legged, one-Teated, kicking old cows that whould suck themselves into the Bargan.[62]

Waggons they whould bring along composed of an old wheel pickt up here and Another there; One of one size and another of another size with broken clinch pins to hold on the wheels; old host guns and rifles with neither lock, stock nor baril.  I mean things that whare perfectly useless, which thay, from their standpoint, considered suitable equipment for us to travel in the wilderness with, and therefore they thaught that we would be very ege to trade away our home to them for such things.

Now this may be thaught by some to be an Exageration but I will try to describe a fit-out that was offered to me.  Two men owned it in partnership. (That is, I supposed thay whare men. Thay looked like men, and I suppose thay thaught thay whare very smart Allicks). They said thay wanted to buy city property with it.  They repreented it as being a very good team.  The near horse was the worst looking thing that I ever saw in my life.  His Back was Curved downwards nearly to a half Circle.  It was blind of one eye and boath knees lame.  The other had one stiff hind leg with the hip running up sharp point away above the other, with some kind of white-looking eyes.  I could not tell whether he could see at all or not, and boath so poor they could hardly walk.

The wagon was composed of four old wheels of differiant sizes.  One axle had been broken off about one third of its length and one end made for it with an axe and pinned on with wooden pins; wooden cinch pins to hold on two of the wheels; and an Old schooner bed placed upon them.  I could scarcely see over the top of it when I got in to see them move around but they did not believe in mooveing much.  They went along a few rods one way but when thay undertook to turn them around to go back they turned about half around and that was as far thay whould go, and no amount of persuading could get them to go any further.  So I concluded that thay would hardly suit me.  If I was in the Wilderness with that fitout I should wish myself somewhere Else.  So I got Out and left them Thay may be there yet for all I Know.

Now, strange and incredulous as it may seem, that is as true a picture as could be drawn of that fit-out.  As will be readily perceived, we were not much benefited by the treaty that the mob made with us, so there had to be something else done to help fit us out for traviling thru the wilderness to the Promised Land.  So there was a general co-operative waggon making shop established and almost everybody turned waggon makers.

How Wagons were Made

And the way waggons were made in Nauvoo thru the winter of 1845 and ’46 was a Caution.  The Process was as follows:  Some went to the woods to cut the timber; others hauled it to the tamporary  shops which were erected of boards, with boiler furnaces and ovens to season the timber.  Some were engaged in splitting and sawing the timber; some resting and boiling the brine and other processes to destroy the sap out of the green timber.  Others were engaged in hewing and shaving and dressing the timbers.  And all those who could handle tools were set to mortising, fitting up and putting waggons together, and in many instances waggons were set up in from 3 to 4 weeks from the time the timber was growing in the woods.  A great many waggons were built in this manner and they done good service in crossing the plains.  I have forgotten the number, but they run up into the hundreds.  (I had one and crossed the plaines with it and used it several years after I got in the vally.)

Mob Persecution Continues

The fury of the mob continued unabated and they continued to persecute the Saints.  One man was killed at Green Plains and another was prisoned in Carthage.  The people living in small settlements around Nauvoo who belonged to the Church flocked into the city for protection.  One hundred and thirty-five wagons with teams were sent out to bring in the burned out families and what grain they could get from Green Plains.

Presedent Young had to hide away a good deal to escape being arrested by the mob officials.  I was working on the Temple at the time they arrested William Miller and thought they had got him.  They wre both in the upper rooms of the Temple at the time, when an officer appered at the door with papers to serve on brigham Young, with authority to arist him and take him to Carthage.  Someone told Presedent Young they put two officers at the door waiting to arrest him.  When he spoke to Bro. Miller and said. “Bro. Miller, put my cloke and Hat on and go down to the door and see what they want.”

Bro. Miller done so and when the door was opened they arrested him and took him to Carthage, feeling sure that they had got Presedent Young.  And they never found out their mistake until they reached Carthage and took him into a taver.  And the news began to spred that they had got Brigham Young and the mobbers whould keep flocking in to look at him, when an old apostate who Knew Brigham prity well spoke up and said, “Gentlemen, if you thnk that that is Brigham Young you are most damnable mistaken.  I know Brigham Young too well to be fooled in any such way as that.”

They then put the queston to him. “Is your Name Brigham Young?” “No, Ser.” “What is it then?” He said, “My name is William Miller.”  “Why in Hell didn’t you tell us so before the?”  “You might have found that out sooner if you had been smart.”  Of course, while this was going on, Presdent Young was looking after his part of the business pretty sharply; and the officer were badly sold and poor William was left to take care of himself.  It was in December 1845 when this occurred.

The Nauvoo Whittling and Whistling Brigade

An incident has just occurred to my mind which had a little fun in it, I think.  I think it was in the latter part of July, a special meeting of the Brethran was called; a political meeting of some kind I think, with reference parahap to making an apeil to the presedent of the United States and the Governers of the Several States of the Union in regard to our present condition and treatment which we had received from the states of Masurie and Illonois.  It was hel in a hollow, a little southeast of the Temple.  A very obnocteous Carictur by the Name of Docter Charls, one of the Mob, appered there with Book and pencil and stood takeing Notes Dureing the Meeting to bring more trouble upon us if possible.

When the meeting was dismist, a company of yong fellows Gathered around Him armed with a stick inone hand and a knife in the other and struck up a lively tune in wistleing, motioning time by whittleing the sticks and slashing out the knives as near to him as thay could without tuching him; and if there was ever a thoroughly scared man, I saw one there.  He looked on every side with a tarible anxious, uneasy look for a chance to break away, but thay whare so very close around him, and had such awfull looking knives (everything from a common jack knife up through all the different grades of butcher knives to the largest kind of carving knife) so he was obliged to wait until they got thru with him.  I did not join the crowd, but I enjoyed the fun as much as any of them.

When he got away, he went and made complaints to Presedent Young and other athorities and said it was perfectly Outrageous that a Gentleman and a Strainger in the  community should be treated in such a manner as that in a free country.  The Presedent said in reply that he supposed that the boys considered themselves to be living in a free country and that there was no law that he knew of against wistleing and wittleing and that he simpathised with him very much in his trubbles; his cause was just but he could do nothing for him.  This was meant as an offset to the reply that Presdent Polk made when appealed to by the Saints in the Misuri trouble.  Presedent Young could enjoy a good joke as well as any man and so could the rest of the Brethren.

In June 3, 1845 the legislature of Illinois repealed the City Charter of Nauvoo and at the following conference, its name was changed to the City of Joseph.

The Destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor

Another item occurred to my mind which I should have noted before in the forepart of the same moth in which Joseph and Hiram whare murdered. The first number of a paper called the Nauvoo Expositer [63]was published (A paper of the Salt Lake Tribune stamp.) [64] Joseph said that Nauvoo was not large enough to hold him and that office at the same time and that he would rather die than have that paper go on.  So be being the Mayor of the city called the city council together to deliberate on the paper and thay unanimously declared it a nusance and passed an ordinance to abate it.  And three days later the city marshall with the police broke up the press and threw it out and scattered the type all over the ground about the office.  That caused a great comotion in camp and all hell was stirred up and the Warsaw Signal (or Stinknall, more property speaking) [65] howled and the apostates and mobacrats joined their forces together and said that if law could not reach Jo Smith powder and ball should.

So on the 27^th of the same month the secret combination was permitted to carry out the hellish purpose.  The Warsaw Stinknal seemed to be the paper to give the signal when to strike the fatal blow that sealed the doom of the state of Illinois; it is seems also that wherever the headquarters of Beelzebub is established also, for that paper was a true representative of the dark legions of sheola [66] and its editor was a true representative of his father, Beliall. So it is today with the Salt Lake Tribune and its whiskey scribblers.

The last 3 years of the history of the Church in Nauvoo (namely 1844-46) was the crowning point of the power of apostasy and mobocracy and the shedding of innocent blood.  They murdered Joseph and Hyrum, William Anderson and his son Agustas, and a number of others.  Joseph’s two counselors (Sidney Rigden [Rigdon} and William Law) apostatized; three of the twelve (William Smith, Jon E. Page and Lyman White [Wight]); and Nohn C. Bennit [Bennett], mayor of the city and Major General of the Nauvoo legion; also William Marks, Presedent of the Nauvoo Stake of the Church; Alfies [Alpheus] Cutler, one of the Temple Committee; Francis M. Higby and Chancy S. Higby, sons of Elias Higby; Wilson Law; Dr. Robert Forster [Foster] and his brother Charles; all leading men and men of influence apostatized and a great many other who only hung on by a very slender thread fell off afterwards; and James J. Strang set himself up as a prophet, seer and revelator to lead the church to the Devil if thay would follow him.

And it seemed to be a prity hard struggle at the time for the church to keep life in it.  So the woman had to flee into the wilderness with the man child, where a place was prepared for her where she could be nourished for a time, times and a half a time.  And there was given her two wings of a great eagle that she might get out of the way of the dragon.  And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.  And the dragon was wroth with the woman and went to make war with the remnant of her seed which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.  This is what John the Revelator said about it 1800 years ago and who can say what it does not apply unto us in our day.  Certainly the Church had to flee into the wilderness and take the priesthood with her and the earth helped her escape from the dragon of apostasy and mobocracy to a place of safety by placing a distance of over a thousand miles between us and our enemies, which also fulfilled a prophecy uttered by Joseph Smith about three months before he was killed:  That in five years the Saints would be out of the power of their enemies, where they of the world John specified the time that the woman should be nourished in the place that was prepared for her before the dragon should make war on the remnant of her seed who, when keeping the commandments of God and had the testimony of Jesus Christ by saying it would be fore a time, times, and half a time but I do  not know what that means.  But I do know that we had a good peace for over 33 years before the Edmonds Law was passed.

George was in Nauvoo Legion and Heard Joseph’s Last Address

I will now go back and relate an incident that came under my observation on the evening of the 18^th of June, 9 days before Joseph was killed.

The legion had been called out to parade and marshall law had been proclaimed by the Mayor.  Joseph had addrast the legion that day, the last public address that he ever gave.  After they were dismist, they seemed inclined to linger and gather in groups to discuss the signes of the times and the doings of the mob. There were probably about 50 of us in the group.  I was standing on the outside and looking westward, when I saw a man on horseback cantering along the banks of the river, going north about ¾ of a mile from where we stood.

I called the attention of some of the brethren to him saying, “That Can’t Posable be Joseph out yonder Alone at this time in the Eavning and under Existing Circumstances while the Mob are thirsting for His Blood as thay Now are. It looks very like Him and it is very like the gait of his horse that he calls ‘Joe Dunkin.’”  One said, “It looks like him” and another said, “It is Him.”  Whatever can He meane Exposeing Himself like that?” And there was quite a Comotion started among us when about that time he halted, being about due west of us, and turned his horse’s head towards us and cantered right up to us.

When within about two rode os us he reined up his horse and stood back in the sterups and in the most cheerfull manner spoke to us and said, “Good Eavning, my boys.  I call you my Boys because you are my boys in the Gospel.”  Said he, “The wolves ar on my track and I don’t know but that they will hunt me down this time.  They have got another writt out for me and they want to drag me out to Carthage.  Will you let me go?”  When all in one voice cried “No” he then repeated again, “Will you let your General go?”  When all in one voice rung out still louder “No”.  “No,” said he, “I knew you would not.  God bless you, my boys.  Good night.”  He then reigned up his horse and stood in his stirrups again for a minute or so and the horse dances and capered in beautiful style as tho he was vary proud of his noble rider, then turned and cantered away towards home.

We lingered a short time and then Dispersed, feeling Douncast and have very gloomy Forebodeings and in 9 Days from that time He was Numbered with the Marters.

He See a Halo on Joseph

While the horse was dancing and capering I was looking very earnestly into Joseph’s face and I beheld a halo of glory surrounding his countenance like the dazzling rays of the sun.  Whether anyone else saw this or not, I cannot say.  I have never seen anything about it in print or ever heard anyone speak of it since.

He made some very important remarks that day while addressing the legion, but my memory had entirely failed to retain many of them.  A few of his sentiments, however, I have retained.  At one time he straightened himself up in a very erect and bold position and drew his sword out of its scabbard and presenting it before him said the sword is unsheathed and shall never return to its sheath again until all those who reject the truth and fight against the Kingdom of God are swept from the face of the earth by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, and the judgements of the Almighty which he will pour out from time to time until the earth is cleansed from wickedness and made fit to be inherited by the Saints later.

Joseph and Hyrum Cross the River and Return

4 days after the incedent which I have related, Joseph having been warned of the Lord to flee to the West to save his life, him and his brother, Hirum, an Willard Richards and his trusted servant Porter Rockwell, crossed the Mississippi River late In the Eavning but his wife Emma, and others threw themselves into way of his making his escape by sending a couple of faint hearted individuals to upbraid him of being like a shepherd fleeing from his sheep in the hour of dainger.

Joseph could not stand to be upbraided of cowardise and turned round to them saying, “Do you want my blood?  If you do, you shall have it. If my life is of no value to you, it is not of much value to me.” and turned and went back with them the next day.  Thus like his Royal Master before him, he willingly laid down his life for his sheep.  And Presedent Young, while making some remarks about it on one occasion in the Old Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, said, that it was Glory and Honor to him but misery to her and to them who were the means of bringing it about.

I have heard it asserted that on one occasion Joseph remarked to some of the bretheren that he expected to ride that favorite horse of his; that he set so much store of in eternity.  That whould be pretty strong doctrine for the sectarian world.

They Receive their Endowment and George is Proposed to by Harriet

In February of 1846 while I was working on the Temple, myself and wife received our first endowments.  And about this time my wife’s sister Harriet, who was several years younger than her, came to me privately and asked if I was willing to take her along with us to Salt Lake and make a wife of her when we got there.  I asked if she was willing and she said, well she did not know but that she whould as soon have me for a husband as anybody that she knew.  So with that understanding she came and commenced to live with us and stayed with us while we resided in Nauvoo, and started with us when we started to go west.  I will leave of here and take it up again in its proper place.

George Receives a Temple Recommend

I continued to work on the Temple for several months longer but I have forgotten the date when work ceased on it.  But on the 29 ^th of April 1846 I received the following certificate, the original of which is pasted in my scrap book:  “This may certify that George Morris is enetitled to the privilege of the baptismal fond, having paid his property and labor tithing in full to April 12^th 1846.  City of Joseph.  April 29^th 1846.  William Clayton, Recorded by James Whitehead, Clerk.”

How he was Paid for Workingon the Nauvoo Temple

Soon after this the Temple hand were called together by Orson Hyde to see if they  whould be willing to consecrate 2 therds of the wages that was oweing to them if he could succeed in raising enough money to pay them the balance, which we all readily consented to do.  So he with the assistance of others he succeeded in raising the money and paid u s accordingly.  I received 3 gold sovereigns, which made me feel like I was prity rich as I had never before; all put together, received five dollars cash for my labours in the 4 months I lived in Nauvoo.  I continued to work steadily on the temple for the last 6 or 7 months before work Ceased on it.  The last work I Done was Peter Ofines and myself laid the flight of stone steps that led up to the Doors in front of the Temple.

George Gets Married

The question might be asked, “Then how did I live?  Why I received flour, cornmeal, bacon, firewood, lumber and brick; now and then a little molasses.  I got a little sugar a few times from Charles Allen for digging and tending his gardening nights and mornings after working all day on the brickyard.  I bought my clothes in from England with me that I wore during that time with the exception of a few articles which my father sent me afterwards.

Under thease Peculier Circumstances I had the audasaty to get married (which required no small degree of Courage to undertake it.)  And after we got married we had to start housekeeping.  Well how did I manage to do that?  Well I had braught a bed and some bedding with me from England for my accommodation while crossing the sea which acomadated me and 2 other young men with sleeping room.  I made a Bedstaid of ruff lumber to put it on and with what Bedding I had together with the Addition of two quits which my wife had, fixt us up prity well in that respect.  And I also Braught some dishes with me that I had while housekeeping in Englad; and with the addition of a Pot, teakettle and a Skillit (which we managed to raise somehow) we whare fixt up for cooking but we dident have much veriaty to cook:   Cormeal, Salt Port, Salt fish, and Potatoes, and Once in a while a little molassas, was our Princaple diat.  And I had money enough left to buy 5 hundred feet of poor Knotty lumber, and I got the privilege to lean a shanty against the house that Bro. William Anderson lived in (who was afterwards killed by the mob) but I was not able to get shingles to cover it with, so I had to cover it with boards.  And the roof being rather falt, and the boards being pretty knotty, when it rained it was a little worse than being out of doors, but then we got along pretty well with that by rolling the bed up in as small a compass as we could; and putting it in as dry a place as we could find and throwing something over it to keep it dry, and then put it out of doors to Dry.  But we managed to get along one way and another.  WE had got married and we had to make the Best we could of it.

The Morris’ Sell their brick house for $80

But after while we got to be a little richer and we built a nice little brick house 16 x 22 feet and we did not have to roll the bed up then to keep it dry.

We were able to appreciate the difference between the two ways  by experience but we had no sooner began to appreciate the difference between the old shanty and our nice littly brick house than we were compelled by the mob to dispose of it for anything that we couldget for it.  So when an old Dutch widow lady came along and said, “I give 80 dollars for dat plaze,” I said, “You can have it notwithstanding it had cost me between 3 an 4 hundred dollars.”  Rejoiceing at the Prospect of being able to get away after the Church.  She paid me the money and I took it and gave 40 dollars of it for a Nauvoo-made wagon, and the other 40 to the Nauvoo Committee (Almon W. Babbit, David Fullmen [Fullmer] and Joseph L. Haywood) who had been appointed by the twelve to dispose of Nauvoo property, for a large yoke of oxon.

The Leave Nauvoo

And on the 12^th day July 1846 crossed the Mississippi River on our way West, and Harriet, my wife’s sister started with us.  But having nothing in my wagon provided for our use while traviling, I had to work for my fit-out after we started, so I drove out about 12 miles west from the river into Iowa contry and stopped ina nabourhood where two of my wife’s brothers lived; Abram and James were their names.

We stopped our wagon there a day or two and I went to hunt for work and made arrangements with a man to sink a well. I also engaged and old cabin that had been used as a stable situated about a mile distant rm where Abram lived and fixed it up so that we could live in it.  And I sunk 3 wells in succession and had got what I thaught would answer for a fitout and was rejoicing over the prospect of being able (in a few days ) to resume our jorney. But while I was engaged in finishing the wall at the top of the tird well, I was taken violently sick in consequence of over-angsiety of Mind and overworking myself at that hard, unhealthy business, and the result was that I lay sick of the fever and agur [67] for four months and 5 days.

And soon after I was take sick, my wife was confined of our second daughter.  We named her Julia Ann, and she didn’t do very well after her confinement.  She was afflicated with jaundice very bad and when she began to get better from that, inflematory Rhumatism settled in her Knee and she was scarcely able to walk at all; and soon after a very large abcess broke out under her arm pit which deprived her of the use of her right arm for some time, and I was almost helpless myself.

On Being Ill with Auge

I have seen many people with the ague but I never say anyone as badly afflicted with it as I was.  I whould shake to the extent that the old cabin would shake too and the dishes on the shelf would rattle, and I would turn Black in the face and come near suffacateing often for want of breath.

And while in this condition, one of my wife’s Oldest sisters [68] (who was married and living some distance away at a place called Galana[69]) Came to visit her brothers.  She came down to see us. And she and her brother together bantered and tantalized Harriet so much about being my spiritual wife and calling her Mrs. Morris No. 2 that she left us before we were able to wait on ourselves, and went with her sister.

I had my oxen on a piece of prairie land in front of the cabin tied head to foot so that they might not run away, and where we could see them and keep watch on them.  But soon after I was taken sick.  I had one of them Stolan and in a short time after, the others strayed away and I never heard anything of them again; so I was left without a team. And during my sickness my fit-out that I had made was nearly used up.

When I began to recover a little, my angsiety was such that I went to work again before I was able.  And the man that owned the cabin that we lived in was not willing that we should live in it any longer.  We had lived in the old stable about 7 months, so we moved away early in the Spring of 1847 into another cabin which was a little more comfortable than the stable we had left.  But it was more comfortable and stood alone in the woods a great way from any other house.  And I was away from Home all the time, and my wife was alone with Her two little children.

They Were not Safe

And I larned that there was a foul plot brewing in the hearts of several base Wretches to play a foul game upon us, and that it was not safe for my wife to be there alone, so we moved again some distance from that place into another miserable Old Cabbin; but it stood near another house where there was a family living by the name of Doteys[70] who professed to be Mormons but thair Mormonism had prity much all leeked out.  However my wife felt a little more secure from being assaulted by any of the base wretches that infested the coutry.  For there were a great many apostates and some robbers all through the Ioway Contry.

Difficulty Having Enough Water to Drink

The place we moved to this time was a very bad place for water and by digging a hole about 6 ft. deep in the head of a hollow in the woods nearby, I found a little seep of water that furnished us with just about enough for house use.   But in consequence of the dryness of the sumer it failed and there was no water that we could get nearer than a mile away, and that was a stagnant hole out on the prairie and that had to be gotten by making a sled out of a forked limb of a tree and placing a barrel upon it and hauling it with oxen.  And when we got a barrel it had to be strained to take the wigglers out of it; and then boiled before we could use it.  And as I stated before, thru angsiety I had to make a fitout and get started again on my jorney west.

I commenced to work again before I was able at that hard, unhealthy work (Well digging) because I Could make more at it then I could at anything Else, for I Could not think of ever making a fit out by working for the farmars at 50 cents a Day.  But by main force and will power I kept up untill I had dug several more wells and began to get something more around us towards a fit out when I was taken down sick again and lay sick again for 3 more months.

I spoke of the difficulties we had to get water and I had no team of my own to haul it with so we had to be beholden to somebody to haul us several barrels.  There was 2 families living a short distance away on each side of us.  One of them hauled us two and the other one barril each and when it rained my wife would set out every dish and Cup we had in the house under the eaves of the old cabin to catch every drop of water she could (If it could be called water, for it was more like mud; thick with the dust and soot that lodges on the old clapboards).  But we were thankfull for it and strained and boiled it before we used it, but it tasted rather strong after all.

I remember we got into a very tite pinch at one time for water and were actually suffering for it, when I had to crawl out of the cabin and, hand upon the fence, and wait for a wagon that we heard coming at a distance.  And when it Came up I waved my Hat for I could not speak loud enough to make him Ear and begged of the driver to haul me a barril of water from the hole on the prairie.  I told him but he didn’t want to for a while, saying he was going to market to Keock[71]And he was in a big hurry, and that the water was so far away that he could not posably spare time to go.  But I pleaded with him so hard and he saw how hopeless I was, so he took his team and got it for us.

Oh how thankful I was for it.  And now it has just occurred to my mind that it was done so on two occasions.  Another strainger got some water for us.  May the Lord bless those two men for what they done for us in a time of need.  My wife went 3 weeks at one time and Could not wash a single article of Clothing for want of water.

Harriet Married Someone Else

In the meantime, Harriet, my wife’s sister that started with us from Nauvoo and was with us part of the time thru our first spell of sickness, got married and did not live very happy, and died soon after.  May the Lord bless her for the good she has done us in the time of our great sickness, and may my blessings extend into Eternaty for her. 

They Move to Another Cabin and the Owners are Kind

 When I began to recover so as to be able to get around a little we mooved away from that place about a Mile South onto the edge of what was Called Sand Prearie into another Old Cabbin that had neither fireplace, chimney, or window in it.  It belonged to an old Widdow lady.  She said if I could fix it so that we could live in it I could have it, and I might give her what I had a mind for the use of.  So I built a fireplace and a chimny and made a window in it and we got along better in it than we had in either of the others.  And the old lady whose name was Billips was quite reasonable.  She said that she did not want to poison anybody because they were Mormons.  And she had two sons, yong men in their teens, and they had a good deil of kindness in their nature.

So when we got fixt up I continued to sink wells and made considerable means and got 2 nice cows, a large yoke of oxen and a yoke of 3 year old steers.  And I dug the old lady a good well, and she was greatly pleased with it, for they were in a bad place for water too.  And I got corn and corn fodder for my cattle through the winter and store pay for other things that we needed from Her in pament for it.  And boath her and her two boys whare very kind to us and they would like to have had us stay there.

An Experiment Digging a Well

While I was there I made a very dareing experiment in digging a well.  It was on what was called Sand Prearie, about 12 miles from Keokuck.  The Earth was composed of fine red sand and nothing else as far down as ever anyone had gone down.  And no one had ever succeeded in getting water, so I engaged to dig a w