His Final Journal Entry

 

March 3, 1857, Parley P. Pratt recorded his final journal entry. He would eventually be murdered on May 3^rd of this same year. What was the subject of Parley’s final journal entry?

 

a.      The fact that he knew Joseph was a prophet of God

b.      His testimony

c.       That he desired another mission

d.      The Deseret Alphabet

 

Yesterdays answer:

a.      He knew Joseph Smith was a prophet

 

Mrs. Eunice Corinthia Beckwith, formerly Mrs. Lawn (whose father’s name was Joshua Twitchell), was the widow of John Lawn, captain of a company of Illinois Militia, of McDonough County, who guarded Joseph and Hyrum Smith in Carthage Jail until the morning of the day they were martyred, when himself and company were disbanded by order of Governor Ford, and started for home, leaving the prisoners in the hands of the Carthage Greys.

   On taking leave of the prisoners he gave his hand, received Joseph’s blessing, and heard him say most solemnly: “Farewell, Captain Lawn, when you and your men leave me my life guard is gone.” Previous to this, however, Joseph had read to him the fifty-fifth Psalm, and told him to remember that chapter and read it to his friends when he arrived home it being applicable in his case. One of the Carthage Greys also read in reply the sixty-first Psalm.

   Captain Lawn and his troops had marched abut twelve miles towards home when the news reached them of the martyrdom! At this the Captain exclaimed: “O that I had known of this massacre, so soon to transpire! I would have fired the second through the body of the villain who fired it or died in the attempt.”

   A man named Townsend Samson, living in Iowa, near Fort Madison, was one of the mob who assaulted and fired into the jail door. The pistol discharged by Joseph Smith wounded him in the arm, near the shoulder, and it continued to rot without healing until it was taken off, but it still would not heal.

   About six months after he was shot Mrs. Lawn saw his arm and dressed it. He was then gradually rotting and dying with the wound. He stayed overnight with Mrs. Lawn’s father, and groaned through the night without sleep. He asked the old gentleman what he thought of Joseph Smith being a Prophet? He replied that he did not know about his being a prophet, but “I know this that he had as just a right to all the privileges of citizenship as any other man.” “Well,” said Townsend, “I know he was a Prophet of God! And, oh, that I had stayed at home and minded my own business, and then I would not have lost my life and been tormented with a guilty conscience, and with this dreadful wound, which none can heal!” He died two or three months afterwards, having literally rotted alive!

Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, pg. 533-534.

 

Additional interesting information:

 

Wm. T. Head, an officer in Captain Lawn’s company, and tarrying in Carthage, was present when Joseph Smith was killed. He testified that he saw a certain man raise a large knife to strike off the head of Joseph, when, all at once, and in the midst of a clear day, with no cloud in sight, “a terrible clap of thunder rolled heavily, and forked lightenings flashed in the face of the murderers, and perfectly paralyzed a number of them.”

   “The ruffian, who had raised his knife and had sworn with a dreadful oath to take the head off Joseph, stood perfectly paralyzed, his arm uplifted with the knife suspended in air, and could not move a limb. His comrades carried him off, and all fled in terror from the scene.”

   These particulars, and many others, were related to me, P.P. Pratt, by brother Beckwith previous to his death, and afterwards by his widow and father-in-law, and others who were personally conversant with them, and are believed to be generally correct.

Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, pg. 534-535.