Joseph Smith, originally Joseph Smith, Jr., (born December 23, 1805, Sharon, Vermont, U.S.—died June 27, 1844, Carthage, Illinois), American prophet and founder … The upper level had two rooms, one equipped with steel bars and the other styled more like a regular bedroom. Our history is full of examples, both ancient and modern, of Christians who chose not to fight back when death for their faith was immanent. Wills, Vorhease, and Gallaher, perhaps conscious that their wounds could prove that they were involved in the mob, fled the county after being indicted and were never brought to trial. “While in this position, the mob, who had come upstairs, and tried to open the door, probably thought it was locked, and fired a ball through the keyhole; at this Dr. Richards and Brother Hyrum leaped back from the door, with their faces towards it; almost instantly another ball passed through the panel of the door, and struck Brother Hyrum on the left side of the nose, entering his face and head.” Hyrum fell back and cried out, ‘I am a dead man! [4], Several of Smith's disaffected associates in Hancock County and the city of Nauvoo, Illinois, where Smith was mayor, joined together to publish a newspaper called the Nauvoo Expositor. A public viewing was held on June 29, 1844, after which empty coffins weighted with sandbags were used at the public burial. I shall die innocent, and it shall yet be said of me. The pistol was a six-shooting revolver, of Allen’s patent; it belonged to me, and was one that I furnished to Brother Wheelock when he talked of going with me to the east, previous to our coming to Carthage” (History of the Church 7:100. Taylor and Richards used a long walking stick in order to deflect the guns as they were thrust inside the room, from behind the door. Townsend, being among those who forced that jail door at Carthage, and was wounded in the arm near the shoulder, from the effects of which he died in about six months.” In that same footnote, Roberts cites some of the information supplied by Oaks and Hill above, including the wounds sustained by Wills, Voras, and Gallaher. !—Can you stand by, and suffer such INFERNAL DEVILS! When I visited the Carthage Jail again in June of 2002, “Sister Thorpe,” after speaking reverently of Joseph Smith, told the crowd that “he sacrificed his blood for us.” Two days earlier, a personal friend of mine visited the jail and was told by his tour guide that Carthage was the Mormon “Calvary.” In 1988, Ted Cannon, then director of the Mormon Visitor Centers at Carthage and Nauvoo, told reporter Doug Schorpp that Carthage “…holds the same significance…as Calvary holds for Christians all over the world” (Journal Star, Peoria, IL, Sunday, June 26, 1988 D3). I have a conscience void of offence towards God, and towards all men. He married Lucy MACK on January 24, 1796, in Tunbridge, Vermont. His death marked a turning point for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and since then, members of the Latter Day Saint movement have generally viewed him and his brother as religious martyrs who were "murdered in cold blood". Van Buren said he could do nothing to help. There is no escaping the fact that he was guilty of being involved with the destruction of the Expositor, and history has shown that many of the accusations made in the paper regarding Smith’s secret involvement with polygamy were accurate. The watch is displayed in the LDS Church History Museum in Salt Lake City, Utah; the watch was broken and was used to help identify the time of the attack. ", The Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research, "Chapter IX: The assault upon the prison - The murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith", List of lynching victims in the United States, William "Froggie" James and Henry Salzner, Thomas Moss, Henry Stewart, Calvin McDowell (TN), Thomas Harold Thurmond and John M. Holmes, Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore, Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching, Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act, The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, National Museum of African American History and Culture, "The United States of Lyncherdom" (Twain), Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Death_of_Joseph_Smith&oldid=990312924, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from June 2012, Articles needing additional references from June 2017, All articles needing additional references, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 24 November 2020, at 00:23. In 1831, they adopted twins, one of which, a boy, died before reaching his first birthday. All five defendants were acquitted by a jury, which was composed exclusively of non-Mormons after the defense counsel convinced the judge to dismiss the initial jury, which did include Mormons. Perhaps not. [5]:v6,p620 Taylor and Richards' accounts both report that as Smith fell from the window, he called out, "Oh Lord, my God!". Taylor and Richards' accounts state that Smith was dead when he hit the ground. [30] The Expositor further reported that eight of Smith's wives had already been married to other men (four were Mormon men in good standing, who in a few cases acted as witnesses in Smith's marriage to his wife) at the time they married Smith. At the age of seven Smith suffered a crippling bone infection and, after receiving surgery, used crutches for three years. Later, others came to believe that Smith's son, Joseph Smith III, was the rightful successor under the doctrine of lineal succession. [35], There have been conflicting reports about injuries to members of the mob during the attack, and whether any died. Six other associates accompanied the Smiths: John P. Greene, Stephen Markham, Dan Jones, John S. Fullmer, Dr. Southwick, and Lorenzo D. Most of his supporters switched with him, adding political tensions to the social suspicions in which the Mormons were held by the local populace. The judge ordered the Smith brothers to be held in jail until they could be tried for treason, which was a capital offense. He cried out, "I am a dead man!" A schism resulted, with each claimant attracting followers. According to the Council's minutes, Smith said he "would rather die tomorrow and have the thing smashed, than live and have it go on, for it was exciting the spirit of mobocracy among the people, and bringing death and destruction upon us.