Lloyd Newell: “I am going like a lamb to the slaughter but I am calm as a summer’s morning. I have a conscious void of offence toward God and towards all men. I shall die innocent and it shall yet be said of me he was murdered in cold blood” (D&C 135:4).
The prophet Joseph Smith uttered these foretelling words three days before he was assassinated and died as a martyr for his testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ and the restoration of the fullness of his gospel to the earth.
On the afternoon of Thursday, June 27th, 1844, about 5 o’clock, the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, sealed their testimonies of the restoration of the gospel with their blood. When a mob of approximately a hundred-fifty to two hundred men stormed the Carthage Jail and took their lives.1 Carthage Jail is hallowed ground and dedicated as a memorial in remembrance of the two martyrs.2
John Livingstone: Joseph and Hyrum were ordered to report to Carthage, Illinois, to answer to charges from apostates and enemies of the church. But as Nauvoo mayor and city council men, they had illegally directed the destruction of a newspaper press, the Nauvoo Expositor.3
Accompanied by seventeen friends they travelled a half-day on horseback from Nauvoo to Carthage, Monday June 24th, and spent the night at the Hamilton Hotel.4 The next day they surrendered themselves to Constable David Bettisworth and submitted themselves for trial. Enemies of the saints from surrounding areas were also in Carthage with ill intent, “where a lynch mob could meet out popular justice.”5 The next day, before Joseph and other Nauvoo city officials presented themselves for the hearing, about eight in the morning Constable Bettisworth served warrants against Joseph and Hyrum for treason.6 Bail was posted on the original charges for the other city councilmen and most of them returned to Nauvoo.7 Later in the early evening, Joseph and Hyrum were served an arrest warrant on the charge of treason. Subsequently, rather than spend the second night at the hotel, they were moved here to the jail at Carthage for their safety against the rabble that was gathered in the streets and around the door.8 They were placed in Carthage Jail under the promise of protection from Thomas Ford, governor of Illinois. However, Governor Ford, later left for Nauvoo and unexplainably charged their enemies, the Carthage Greys, to guard them.9
Lloyd Newell: Carthage Jail is a stone house 34 by 28 feet and three stories high, with walls two and a half feet thick.10 Carthage Jail was also the home of the jailor, George W. Stigall, his wife and seven children. The jailor and his family lived in two of the main floor rooms, the dining area and this spacious parlor, as well as in the bedroom which is on the second floor immediately above this parlor and a third floor loft area for the children. They housed prisoners that were awaiting trial and prepared meal for them, for which they charged a fee.
When Stigall received his charges on the evening of Tuesday, June 25th, he first took them upstairs to the iron barred, darkened, dungeon room; usually reserved for criminals.11 Later he moved Joseph, Hyrum and eight men that accompanied them, downstairs to this debtors’ cell,12 commonly used to house those awaiting a trial, where the group of ten men slept on the floor or on the benches possibly with some blankets.13
Jailor Stigall took breakfast with the brethren the next morning in this dining area.14 After breakfast, he offered his own upstairs bedroom for their comfort.15
John Livingstone: In this room the group of brethren discussed the upcoming court case after which several left to confer with legal counsel to request a change of venue to Quincy, [Illinois,] and others to request Governor Ford to come to the Jail to meet with them, which he did at about 9:30 that morning. They discussed the particulars of the difficulties and the Prophet Joseph Smith related events that led to the destruction of the press in Nauvoo. Forty-five minutes later Governor Ford left, pledging to protect them from violence.16 He told them “that if the troops marched the next morning to Nauvoo, as he then expected, they should probably be taken along, in order to insure their personal safety…”17
The remainder of the day was spent writing letters and discussing possible divine deliverance from their difficult circumstances, as well as avenues of legal defense. They were taken from the jail by Constable Bettisworth to the courtroom and then returned. They learned that the trial would be deferred until Saturday, June 29th.
Wednesday, June 26th and much of the day of the fateful Thursday, June 27th saw the brethren giving attention to such tasks as that of Dan Jones and Stephen Markham, who used a penknife to whittle a warped door to get it to latch shut.18
“The Prophet, Patriarch, [and their friends] took turns preaching to the guards, several of whom were relieved before their time was out, because they admitted they were convinced of the innocence of the prisoners. They frequently admitted they had been imposed upon, and more than once it was heard, ‘Let us go home, boys, for I will not fight any longer against these men.’”19
Craig Ostler: The afternoon previous to the martyrdom, Constable Bettisworth and the enemies of the Prophet were able to take him from the custody of the jailor under the pretext of Joseph needing again to appear in court. Apparently, Joseph felt that it was all a ruse to get him out of the protection of the jail building, where he could be killed by one of the mob without detection of who was responsible. Those with him reported that upon “seeing the mob gathering and assuming a threatening aspect, [Joseph] concluded it best to go with them then, and putting on his hat, walked boldly into the midst of a hollow square of the Carthage Greys; evidently expecting to be massacred in the streets before arriving at the Court House, [he] politely locked arms with the worst mobocrat he could see, and Hyrum locked arms with Joseph, followed by Dr. Richards, and escorted by a guard… to the court room.”20
After appearing in court Joseph and the other brethren were returned to the jail, where Joseph and Hyrum spent the last night of their mortal lives. During the evening Hyrum read and commented on passages from the Book of Mormon that referred to occasions when God delivered his saints from imprisonments among their enemies.21
Lloyd Newell: That evening, they retired late. Joseph and Hyrum rested on the bed, and their friends lay on mattresses on the floor.22 After hearing a gun fired, Joseph laid on the floor with Dan Jones on his left and John S. Fulmer on his right.23 Joseph laid out his right arm and said to John Fulmer, “Lay your head on my arm for a pillow, Brother John.”24
Craig Ostler: Those in the room recall that Joseph made comments such as “I would like to see my family again.” And “I would to God that I could preach to the saint in Nauvoo once more.” As Joseph lay on the floor next to Dan Jones he whispered to him, “Are you afraid to die?” Dan said, “Has that time come think ye? Engaged in such a cause I do not think that death would have many terrors.” And Joseph replied, “You will yet see Wales and fulfill the appointed mission before you die.”25 As Dan Jones already had a mission call.
John Livingstone: In the morning, Dan Jones inquired of the guard, the cause of the disturbance in the night. Frank Worrell, the officer of the guard, who was one of the Carthage Greys, and a very bitter spirit said, “We have had too much trouble to Old Joe Smith here to ever let him escape alive. And unless you want to die with him you had better leave before sundown. For neither he, nor his brother, nor anyone who will remain with them will see the sunset today.”26
Governor Ford was told of this and other threats to murder Joseph Smith but he would not give any real credence to them and later left Carthage to go to Nauvoo with his troops.27 By afternoon, John S. Fullmer, Steven Marcum and Dan Jones had been sent on errands outside the jail, reducing the group of men that were left in the jail to four—Willard Richards, John Taylor, Joseph Smith and Hyrum, of course.28
Lloyd Newell: The afternoon was sultry as Joseph, Hyrum and their companions, John Taylor and Willard Richards, stayed in the jailor’s personal upstairs bedroom for their comfort. Joseph requested John Taylor to sing one of the prophet’s favorite songs, “A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief.”29 Given the circumstances of the moment, the song is aptly and poignantly meaningful. The song relates the attempts of an individual to help a suffering stranger, who after asking for the ultimate sacrifice, that being if the provider would die in the unjustly condemned strangers place, he revealed himself as the Savior.30
Craig Ostler: About 5:20 pm, Thursday June 27th, an armed mob of men with blackened faces, surrounded the jail, a few rushing inside and up the stairs. The brethren had opened windows and the door to the bedroom for ventilation. They closed the door, pressed against it to keep it closed from the mob. In a matter of moments, those that had rushed up the stairs of the jail forced open the door to the bedroom. As Hyrum retreated from the door, he snapped his pistol, when a ball struck him on the left side of his nose. He fell on his back on the floor saying, “I am a dead man.” He was shot again several times as he lay on the floor. Joseph fell to his side, exclaiming. “Oh, my poor, dear brother Hyrum.”31
About that time John Taylor, who had had been holding the door closed and parrying some of the muskets as they came through, looked toward the window and tried to make an escape out of the window, when he was hit both with balls from inside and possibly others coming through the window that was open. I think that they surmised to begin with that because his watch had stopped at that exact time that a bullet maybe had hit the watch. Others have suggested that it might have come as he fell on the window sill. He then fell back into the room and he found some way to roll or to move underneath the bed in the jailor’s bedroom.32
John Livingstone: Joseph Smith went to the window, and may have been shot both from the outside and from the inside. Joseph falls, literally through the window, exclaiming “Oh Lord, my God!”33
From here you can clearly see the second story window Joseph fell from after he was shot from the jailor’s bedroom. Some reports indicate that they put Joseph’s body, actually set it up against this well, and shot him again.34
Craig Ostler: Willard Richards had been looking down through the window— saw the bodies, saw the men gathering around, even heard and saw the call that the Mormons were coming; and as he was leaving the room, maybe expecting them to come to kill him still, he heard the voice of John Taylor from under the bed, asking him or crying out to him, “take me with you.”35 Leaving for us, then, two witnesses—who seal their testimony with their blood—with the Prophet Joseph and the Patriarch, Hyrum; and two witnesses, who live to tell the world what happened here in truth (see D&C 135:1-3).
Lloyd Newell: The life of one of the greatest of all prophets had come to an end. He lived faithfully to the finish of his mission. The Lord revealed “many have marveled because of his death, but it was needful that he should seal his testimony with his blood. That he might be honored and the wicked might be condemned.” (D&C 136:39).
Wilford Woodruff reflected, “I used to have peculiar feelings about his death, and the way in which his life was taken. I felt that if, with the consent and good feelings of the brethren that waited on him after he crossed the river to leave Nauvoo, Joseph could have had his desire, he would have pioneered the way to the Rocky Mountains. But since then I have been fully reconciled to the fact that it was according to the programme, that it was required of him, as the head of this dispensation, that he should seal his testimony with his blood, and go hence to the spirit world, holding the keys of this dispensation, to open up the mission that is now being performed by way of preaching the gospel to the ‘spirits in prison.’”36
These are for copying so that you don’t need to change all the numbers.
1 See D&C 135:1-4.
2Ensign, September 1989; https://www.lds.org/ensign/1989/09/news-of-the-church/renovated-carthage-jail-dedicated?lang=eng
3Joseph Smith Papers: Journals, Volume 3, May 1843-June 1844, vol. eds. Andrew H. Hedges, Alex D. smith, and Brent M. Rogers, (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2015), 301
4Ibid. 305-307, notes 5 and 10.
5Glen M. Leonard, Nauvoo a Place of Peace, a People of Promise, (Salt Lake City: Desert Book Company; and Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 2002), 381.
6Joseph Smith Papers: Journals, 3:307.
7Joseph Smith Papers: Journals, 3:313.
8Ibid.
9Ibid., 3:318
10https://history.lds.org/media/historic-sites-carthage-jail?lang=eng#1
11Ibid., 3:314.
12Ibid.; also see Dan Jones, The Martyrdom and of Joseph Smith and his Brother Hyrum!, translation from the original Welsh into English, BYU Studies, 24:1:88.
13They were “Willard Richards, John Taylor, John P. Green, Stephen Markham, Dan Jones, John S. Fullmer, Dr. Southwick, and Lorenzo Wasson.” Joseph Smith Papers, Journals 3:313; also see, History of the Church, 6:574.
14 Ibid. 3:314.
15History of the Church, 6:575; Dan Jones, “Martyrdom,” 24:1:88.
16Joseph Smith Papers, Journals, 3:315-318.
17History of the Church, 6:586; also see JSP Journals, 3:318.
18Dan Jones, “Martyrdom,” 24:1:88; also see History of the Church, 6:592.
19History of the Church 6:592; Dan Jones, “Martyrdom,” 24:1:88;
20History of the Church, 6:595; also see JSP Journals, 3:320; Dan Jones, “Martyrdom,” 24:1:88, 100.
21Dan Jones, “Martyrdom,” 24:1:101; History of the Church, 6:600.
22Dan Jones, “Martyrdom,” 24:1:89;
23Ibid.
24http://winmillfamily.org/john_s_fullmer.htm; also see History of the Church 6:600-601.
25History of the Church, 6:601; Dan Jones, “Martyrdom,” 24:1:101.
26History of the Church, 6:602; Dan Jones, “Martyrdom,” 24:1:90, 102.
27H. T. Reid, “Statement of Facts,” Times and Seasons, Vol 5, No. 12 July 1, 1844], 562; [ Dan Jones, “Martyrdom,” 24:1:90, 102;
28Joseph Smith Papers, Journals 3:325-327.
29Joseph Smith Papers, Journals 3:326; History of the Church, 6:614-15.
30“A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief,” Hymns of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1985), hymn 29.
31Willard Richards, “Two Minutes in Jail,” Times and Seasons, Vol. 5, No. 14 [August 1, 1844], 598.
32Ibid., 598-599.
33Ibid., 599.
34“Minutes of Trail of Members of Mob Who Helped Kill Joseph Smith the Prophet,” 60; cited in Dallin H. Oaks and Marvin S. Hill, Carthage Conspiracy, (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1975), 21; Glen M. Leonard, Nauvoo, 397. Leonard notes disagreement on whether Joseph was shot after he fell from the window, “Hamilton confirmed that shots from both inside and outside struck Joseph in the window (Driggs, “Visits to Carthage,” 321). He and others said no shots or wounds were inflicted after the Prophet hit the ground… Some believed that Joseph jumped from the window unharmed, was stunned by the fall, and was propped up against the well and then shot” (Leonard, 725, note 50). John Taylor believed that “they [Joseph and Hyrum] were both shot after they were dead, in a brutal manner, and both received four balls” (D&C 135:1). Another less reliable account went even further to declare that Joseph was propped against the well and shot execution style [William M. Daniels, A Correct Account of the Murder of Generals Joseph and Hyrum Smith, at Carthage on the 27th Day of June, 1844 (Nauvoo, Ill.: John Taylor) http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/carthage/danielsaccount.html].
35Richards, “Two Minutes in Jail,” 599.
36Wilford Woodruff, Journal of Discourses, 24:54, (January 27, 1883).
