Leading to his Conversion

Ephraim Knowlton Hanks

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What was the deciding factor in Eph Hanks joining the LDS church?

a.                  The Book of Mormon

b.                  A miraculous healing

c.                   Friendship with Porter Rockwell

d.                  Ministers bad mouthing Joseph Smith

Yesterday’s answer:

C.   The Judge threatened to chain them to the floor

From the life of Caleb Baldwin:   Becoming a convert to “Mormonism” he was baptized Nov. 14, 1830, by Parley P. Pratt. Soon afterwards he gathered with the early saint to Jackson County, Mo., and took part in the so-called battle on the Big Blue. In 1833 he was driven out of Jackson County with the rest of the saints, and subsequently settled in Caldwell County, Mo. In the fall of 1838 he was arrested on a trumped up charge and shared a prison cell with the Prophet Joseph Smith and others at Liberty, Clay Co., Mo., during the winter of 1838-39. When the prisoners were detected in trying to make their escape by cutting a hole through the wall of the goal, and Judge Tillery was about to have them ironed and chained to the floor of their cells, Bro. Baldwin said to the Judge: “Judge Tillery! If you put these chains on me, I will kill you, so help me God.” The judge left without putting on the chains. Bro. Baldwin emigrated to Great Salt Lake Valley in the year 1848 and died in Salt Lake City June 11, 1849.

Jenson, Andrew, LDS Biographical Encyclopedia (Salt Lake City: Andrew Jensen History Company, 1914), 2: 589-590.