Source: Lyman Omer Littlefield, Reminiscences of Latter-day Saints

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Lyman Littlefield Reminiscences (1888), p.128

Joseph started from Dixon on the 26th of June. When about forty-five miles from that place, he began to meet the advance of the company from Nauvoo, when he said: "I am not going to Missouri this time. These are my boys." The joy that was felt by Joseph and his accompanying friends at this meeting was beyond description; but his brutal captors were seized with trembling and declared they would "never go to Nauvoo alive." The sheriff demanded their arms. They remonstrated, but finally delivered them to the sheriff.

Lyman Littlefield Reminiscences (1888), p.128

On the 30th day of June, 1843, Joseph was met by the Nauvoo brass and martial bands, his wife, brother Hyrum and hundreds of citizens, who escorted him in triumph through the streets to his residence, while Hail Columbia was being played. His grounds were thrown open to receive the multitude that assembled to welcome their great leader, who, through God's interposing mercy, had once more triumphed and been permitted to reach his home and the protection of friends.

Lyman Littlefield Reminiscences (1888), p.129

Joseph's table was sumptuously spread with every luxury, and Reynolds and Wilson were seated at the head of it and served with the utmost kindness by Mrs. Smith in person.

Lyman Littlefield Reminiscences (1888), p.129

Once more the Prophet was free, and he, as well as the entire Church over which he presided, felt to thank the God of Israel for his deliverance. As he stepped inside of his enclosure, before washing or brushing away the dust with which his clothing was covered, he sprang quickly upon the fence and obtained a firm footing upon one of the gate posts which had quite a broad top. Then, taking off and swinging his hat, he exclaimed in a loud voice so that all might hear: "Hosannah! Hosannah! Hosannah! to God and the Lamb! I am once more delivered from the hands of the Missourians!"

Lyman Littlefield Reminiscences (1888), p.129

A shout went up from the assembled thousands of his friends, and springing from the fence, he passed into his house to exchange happy greetings with the members of his family.

Lyman Littlefield Reminiscences (1888), p.129

A full hearing of the case was had before the municipal court of Nauvoo, and Joseph was discharged.

Lyman Littlefield Reminiscences (1888), p.129

Soon a general excitement spread through Hancock County and then through the entire state against our people. Reynolds was deeply mortified in being defeated in his expectations of taking back with him to Missouri the Mormon Prophet in chains.

Lyman Littlefield Reminiscences (1888), p.129 - p.130

This was the forty-ninth time Joseph had been in the custody of his enemies to answer to trumped up and malicious charges from which he had in every case been set at liberty, for the reason that as he had violated no law, nothing could be sustained against him. But the fiftieth and last arrest was soon to follow--with a deeper and far more subtle intention of violence than was ever before intended on the part of his enemies. A little more time and the schemes of malicious plotters, aided by an apostate and wicked element, would have reached the acme of merciless villainy, and the papers would be served to place him in prison where "powder and ball" would do the fatal work, for which no protecting shadow of law could be found upon any of the statutes of his country.

Lyman Littlefield Reminiscences (1888), p.130

The circumstances attending his arrest and murder, as well as that of his brother Hyrum, have already been minutely detailed by me in my book, The Martyrs, which is still on sale at the Juvenile Instructor office, and as there is not sufficient room in this volume, we shall speak but briefly of that most melancholy event. Suffice it to say that in the afternoon of the 27th of June, 1844, Joseph and Hyrum Smith fell martyrs for their religion in the jail at Carthage, Hancock County, Illinois, while prisoners under the pledge of the governor of the state for their personal security from mob violence.

Lyman Littlefield Reminiscences (1888), p.130

President John Taylor also was terribly wounded by four of the bullets fired into the jail; his flesh was torn in a shocking manner and the blood flowed freely upon the floor and spattered against the walls of the prison.

Lyman Littlefield Reminiscences (1888), p.130

Apostle Willard Richards who was also in the jail was more fortunate, as he escaped without being hit by a bullet, or in any way receiving injury by violence.

Lyman Littlefield Reminiscences (1888), p.130 - p.131

Some three or four days after this horrible murder was committed, Elder Taylor, though very weak and feeble from the effects of his wounds, was conveyed eighteen miles to Nauvoo, part of the time being drawn upon a sled to which horses were attached, and being carried the remainder of the distance by men upon a hand litter. He was greatly fatigued, but the carefulness and kind attentions of his attendants so husbanded his strength that he was enabled to meet the many hundreds of his friends who went out several miles to greet and escort him to his home.

Lyman Littlefield Reminiscences (1888), p.131

Chapter IX

Lyman Littlefield Reminiscences (1888), p.131 - p.132

The thought of being settled, as we supposed permanently, in the midst of the Saints in a land of peace as it then really was, gave much comfort to myself and family. Our sympathies were enlisted in all that pertained to the happiness of the people who dwelt there, and the prosperity that shed its dawning influence upon our growing city yielded its increase of satisfaction as those blessings were developed from month to month and from year to year. We had hoped with them to build a home where violence and the rage of mobs would no more invade the settlements of an innocent people who had been hunted and pursued from the beginning of their religious identity--though their ideas of gospel truths had their earliest inception in "the land of the free." This desire had also been fondly cherished by our entire community, and it gave strength to the nerve and muscle when heavy toil and persevering diligence were necessarily employed in the development of the country.

Lyman Littlefield Reminiscences (1888), p.132

The Times and Seasons was being published by Don Carlos Smith and Ebenezer Robinson, who were also the editors and proprietors. They gave me employment as a compositor on the paper. I found them courteous and kind men to work for and everything moved along satisfactorily. This was the business of my choice; we were in the midst of the people we loved and had no desire only to remain with them, worship there and share their destiny.

Lyman Littlefield Reminiscences (1888), p.132 - p.133

Not long after the founding of this city, the name of Commerce was discarded and that of Nauvoo substituted. On the 21st of April, 1840, the Postmaster General of Washington changed the name of the post office to that of Nauvoo and appointed George W. Robinson postmaster. On the 27th of that month, Bishop Edward Partridge died there, aged forty-six years. His death was attributable to the exposures he was forced to endure during the troubles in Missouri. On the 27th also of that month, James Allred, Noah Rogers, Alanson Brown and Benjamin Boyce were kidnapped from Hancock County by Missourians and taken to Tulley, Lewis County, Missouri, where they were imprisoned, whipped and ill treated, until nearly dead. Brown and Allred escaped a few days after this treatment, but the others did not succeed in escaping until August 21, during which time they had been put in irons and endured much suffering. Many things of a persecutive character began to be inaugurated against us which tended to open our eyes to the fact that in Illinois there were wicked men enough intermixed with those who were law-abiding citizens to foment strife and enact evil against our people. In the preceding chapter we have seen to what extent this wickedness was carried, culminating in the martyrdom of the Prophet and patriarch of the Church and the serious wounding of a distinguished member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The occurrence of this tragedy brought a dark and gloomy day to the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in all the world.

Lyman Littlefield Reminiscences (1888), p.133

The writer wishes here to refer to certain events in which it became his duty to take an active part:

Lyman Littlefield Reminiscences (1888), p.133

About the 10th of June, 1845, I began to be impressed with a desire to go to St. Louis, Missouri. I tried to throw off this feeling as I had no business to transact there, but my efforts in that direction were entirely futile. The influence increased upon me until it reached a most intense condition. Finally I concluded to follow the promptings and about the middle of that month started for that city.

Lyman Littlefield Reminiscences (1888), p.133 - p.134

As I rapped at my mother's place of abode, my sister Joanna answered at the door. Her noiseless and subdued manner instantly impressed me with the knowledge that sickness was in the habitation. Though she welcomed me with the genial warmth of a kind-hearted sister, she did not fail to communicate the fact that positive silence was necessary to be observed. Notwithstanding our meeting was conducted with that view, my mother's quick ear caught the pronunciation of my name, and in her reduced and enfeebled condition, arose from her bed and attempted to come from her room to see if it really was me. As soon as we saw her advance, we sprang to her with all the quickness possible and caught her reeling form just in time to prevent her fall. We lifted her gently to her bed and as she sank upon it I was encircled by the emaciated arms of my beloved mother. We spoke soothing words and ministered all the little restoratives we thought would quiet her agitation and quiet the nerves. In a reasonable time she became composed and was supremely happy because her son had come before the flickering lamp of life was extinguished.

Lyman Littlefield Reminiscences (1888), p.134

O, that I could wield a pen skilled to relate the emotions and remembrances that crowded into those fleeting moments! Full well then I knew the Supreme motive that directed thither my footsteps. I was there to see my dear mother in the last hours of her mortal life, to receive her dying benedictions and tender, though feeble, caresses. I was present to gratify the anxious yearnings of an affectionate heart and mollify the pangs that must be attendant upon the last hours when mortality is to part with the dear ones of earth and launch out from the shores of time and cross over to the eternal realms forgotten by us in our mortal incarnation. I was sent there by a divine impulse, to receive the last instructions and listen to the wishes of a parent at the close of a weary life, to lull the tempest of a troubled existence and offer consolations to a bosom rent and torn by the disappointments and sorrows of her earthly stay. There she lay, pale and weak, my mother. Her form emaciated and thin, but with all the functions of intellect endowed with strength and vigor to enunciate sentiments of tender recognition.

Lyman Littlefield Reminiscences (1888), p.134 - p.135

Kind reader, have you stood by a mother's death bed and watched life's taper as it paled in the increasing shadow of death? Have you made note of the failing pulse which quickened into life your own existence? Did you watch when the eye's sparkling rays that were wont to fire your bosom with thrilling transport were being obscured in the gathering mists that render dreary the portals of the tomb? Have you bent downward for the ear to listen when the trembling voice gradually lost its power of utterance? If you have your knowledge will qualify you to imagine the emotional tumult that crowded and filled my being as I watched by that bedside until all that was mortal of my mother's remains were rendered inactive in the oblivious shadows of death.

Lyman Littlefield Reminiscences (1888), p.135 - p.136

Does manhood lose its dignity of bearing while bending meekly beneath the weightiness of such a blow, that the eye sheds tears of weeping, or the faltering tongue utters tender regrets at the final parting? No, proud man looks noble and exalts his being while thus lowly bowed in the solitude and awe that invests a shrine so hallowed by those sacred memories that appeal to reason for the sanctifying incense that nature's God has fixed to blaze within the deep recesses of the human heart. The proudest monarch that ever wore a crown, or the most illustrious commander whose fortune it has been to subjugate empires, are melted into contrition when she who nursed the incipient fires of his mortal existence is passing from earth to be hidden from his gaze through the appointed seasons of revolving time. Even the obdurate and depraved turn to her with reverence, and though crime may have placed his feet upon the scaffold where his offense is to be expiated, yet even there the obdurate heart melts into contrition as regretful recollections crowd his bosom that his life had not been molded by the plastic hand of a mother's watchfulness and the words of gentle admonition that fell from her lips. We reverence father for his protection and justice, for sheltering abodes that have secured us from the pelting storms, for his continued kindness as we grow from infancy to manhood, for his wise counsels and expenditure of means, perhaps to polish and refine us with educational science, but through all these bestowments the mother's vigilance has been co-equal, and through all she has ministered as the guardian angel of our existence. Her gentle hand is remembered in every circumstance and condition that has intervened. In health she has spoken kindly congratulations and in sickness has patiently watched through the midnight vigils to bathe the burning brow and still the raging pulse with grateful emollients. She moves in a sphere where unselfish affection holds dominion and wins its votaries by the charms of gentleness and grace, which draw upon the most enduring sensibilities evolved in the bosom of mortals. The adoration that may be revealed in the responsive blushes that glow upon a maiden's cheek, may be more impulsive and brilliant, but cannot be more lasting or conducive to the perpetuity of more substantial benefits. The holy flame of a mother's devotion will burn on undiminished in its brightness, while that of the trusted bride and bridegroom may wane and be extinguished upon the bleak shores swept by the unwelcome winds of adversity.

Lyman Littlefield Reminiscences (1888), p.136 - p.137

My mother lingered for four or five days after my arrival. In the warmest terms she expressed her thankfulness to her Heavenly Father that I had come to be with her through her sickness. I conversed with her freely concerning the doctrines and principles of the Church, in relation to all of which she expressed her firm belief, and spoke of her great desire to get well that she might renew her covenant by being rebaptized. She felt that this would be a great satisfaction inasmuch as she had been absent from the Church for several years. She said this had been her desire for a long time, but she had put it off from time to time. "But now," she said, "if the Lord permits me to get well, I will attend to it, and nothing shall hinder me."

Lyman Littlefield Reminiscences (1888), p.137

She would have me by her bedside as much as possible except when she thought I was weary, and then she would beg me to lie down in the other room where I would not be disturbed, and get some sleep and rest. I was troubled, at that time, with inflamed eyes, and the day before she died she would insist on bathing them with some eyewater, notwithstanding she was so very feeble. She said no one could do for her "darling boy" (for so she often called me), "like his own poor mother." She dreamed the night before her death of purchasing some fine book muslins, a cap, etc., and when the cap was brought with her burial clothes, I found it precisely answered the description of the one she dreamed of purchasing.

Lyman Littlefield Reminiscences (1888), p.137 - p.138

She expressed much concern about her children. She was entirely resigned to her fate and I am thankful that I can say truthfully that I never saw a person die more perfectly happy. About 3 o'clock a.m. of the 23rd of June, 1845, I was startled by the rattles in her throat. I was quickly by her side where I found my ever-faithful sister Joanna watching over her. Then I knew all hope was lost. The fond dreams of future days of comfort and happiness with that affectionate parent, that previously occupied my mind, had not flown forever. There lay my beloved mother, struggling for a few more breaths to prolong her earthly existence! O, God! what feelings chilled my frame! I knew a few minutes were all she had to stay, and with an effort, I summoned all my fortitude to put on at least an external appearance of tranquility. Placing my lips to her ear, I whispered low: "Mother, if you should not live would you like for me to have someone rebaptized for you and see that all things possible are done for your benefit hereafter?" O, what joy beamed in her countenance as she faintly replied: "O, yes, my dear son, to be sure; by all means, by all means." Again I inquired: "Would you like for me to take you to Nauvoo and have you buried with the Saints?" Then her countenance glowed with satisfaction, as she but poorly articulated: "O, yes, to be sure, my kind, dear son!" And again I whispered: "Mother, you will see my little children." She made an effort to raise her head, as if she expected they were present, and eagerly asked: "Where?" To correct her understanding, I answered: "In the spirit world." She then sank back upon her pillow as if satisfied, and said: "O, yes, yes." These were her last words, and she soon fell asleep in death.

Lyman Littlefield Reminiscences (1888), p.138 - p.139

As soon as it was light, I started to see Mr. Benjamin L. Shaw and met him on his way to inquire as to my mother's condition. This gentleman was a relative, himself and my mother being first cousins, in consequence of which and being a man of great wealth, he had extended to the family much financial assistance. He asked if my mother had made any request before her death. I told him of her desire to be buried at Nauvoo. He said that her wishes must be complied with. We went together to the undertaker and he ordered a coffin, and a suitable strong box in which the casket containing her remains were to be placed. Some ladies came and she was suitably made ready for burial. The habiliments with which she was to be clothed were made and her body was invested with the robes for her final rest. She was placed in the coffin and then O, how peaceful and pleasant seemed her rest! Then, my mother, your troubles were ended. The storms of life were passed and your spirit could soar to a world of peace and joy. No more shall you endure the tempests of mortal suffering or the winds of malevolence roar around your pathway, nor the clouds of adversity shut out the genial sunlight of connubial joys. Your career of sorrow now is over. Well and patiently you have endured the reverses attendant upon the mortal existence. You have accepted of God's revealed and redeeming truth, and the celestial consolations of the future life will heal the wounds inflicted along the dreary shores of this life.

Lyman Littlefield Reminiscences (1888), p.139

The coffin containing her remains was placed into a strong box which was nailed up securely and conveyed on board a steamboat. My two sisters--Joanna and Almira Harriet--and myself took passage. We had a reasonably pleasant trip and arrived at Nauvoo about 10 o'clock a.m. of June 25th. I engaged the sexton--William Huntington--to dig the grave. A few friends rode out to the cemetery and about 4 o'clock p.m., my mother's inanimate form was consigned to her final resting place where she, with the Saints who sleep around her, will rest until the trump of God shall call forth the pale nations of the dead from the sleep of death. Until then, my mother, we must be separated.

Lyman Littlefield Reminiscences (1888), p.139

My sisters, after visiting at my home for a few days returned to St. Louis.

Lyman Littlefield Reminiscences (1888), p.139 - p.140

It will be a little out of place in the order of dates perhaps, but I wish here to insert the obituary notices of two of my sisters. The St. Louis, Missouri, Evening Gazette, dated Tuesday, January 20, 1846, contained the following: