The Mobber’s Confession

Scene at the murder of Joseph Smith, Carthage Jail

Townsend Samson was one of the mob that fired into the door at the Carthage Jail. He was also one of three men to be wounded by the Prophet Joseph when Joseph reached around the door and blindly fired off three shots. On his death bed Townsend made a confession. What was the confession?

a.      He knew Joseph Smith was a prophet of God

b.      He knew Mormonism to be true

c.       He knew he should never have shot into the jail door at Carthage

d.      He knew all involved were wrong in their assessment of the prophet

Yesterday’s answer:

c.   While only a few miles on the trail in Iowa

It was common for the brethren to be called on missions from the trail or from whatever circumstances they might be found. “One that May who was barely getting started on his journey was Lucius Scovil, who had run one of Nauvoo’s bakeries and sent wonderful smells into the neighborhood on winter mornings. He had lost everything when he was driven from Missouri; he arrived in Illinois penniless just in time for his family to be stricken with the bilious fever and malaria and his daughter Sarah to be afflicted with the black canker, which ate a hole through her lip, two teeth, and chin. He had worshiped and suffered with the Saints in Nauvoo, and then, when it was time to go, even as his friends were packing out, his wife had died while giving birth to twins, Mary and Martha. Ten days later, as some of the earliest wagons were making their way down the road to the river, the twins died too.

   “The grief would delay his trip, but it would take him longer than he might ever have imagined to join the main body of the Saints. By May he was ready to travel, but while making final preparation, on the 6^th, he received a mission call to England. It is hard to conceive that in this hour of desperation, with the Church members scattered and homeless, missionaries were still being called, but Lucius was called. He had not gone this far to ignore what the Lord required of him. Thus, he traveled with his remaining family members a few days into the prairie ‘to get their property regulated.’ Having made arrangements for someone to care for them, he blessed them.

   “Then leaving them collapsed in tears, he turned back east to go on a mission six thousand miles away without purse or scrip. ‘This seemed like a painful duty for me to perform,’ said Lucius, ‘to leave my family to go into the wilderness and I to turn and go the other way. It cost all that I had on this earth, . . . [but] I thought it was best to round up my shoulders like a bold soldier of the crop . . . and assist in rolling forth the Kingdom of God.’”

Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, pg. 436-437.