In 1836 the Latter-day Saints, driven out of Jackson County and sheltered for a time in Clay, were given a county of their own carved out of northern Ray: Caldwell, with Far West as its seat. Two years later the region was at war. Three county histories by non-Mormon Missourians, for Caldwell (1886), Daviess (1882) and Ray (1881), tell the story alongside Parley P. Pratt's 1839 account, written by a Saint held prisoner. This page sets them side by side and names the people they name.
Written from 4 old histories, all free to read on the Internet Archive: History of Caldwell and Livingston Counties, Missouri (1886); The History of Daviess County, Missouri (1882); History of Ray County, Mo. (1881); History of the Late Persecution Inflicted by the State of Missouri upon the Mormons (1839). Everything below comes from those books, and where they give an opinion, we say so.
A county set apart for the Saints
The 1886 History of Caldwell and Livingston Counties picks up the story after the Saints were driven out of Jackson County. They crossed the Missouri into Clay County, beginning on November 7, amid great discomfort and misery. "But the people of Clay received the new comers kindly," the book says. It thinks the first Mormon families reached what is now Caldwell County perhaps in 1833.
According to the 1886 writer, Mormon leaders and certain prominent non-Mormons agreed that a whole county would be set apart as "a sort of reservation for the Saints." In return the Saints were not to settle in any other county without the consent of two-thirds of the non-Mormon residents of the township. Caldwell County, formed out of the northern part of Ray as the 1881 History of Ray County notes, was organized in December 1836 with its seat at Far West. By the summer of 1838 it held about 5,000 people, 4,900 of them Mormons. Most were poor: many could enter and improve only 40 acres, and nearly all lived in cabins.
John Whitmer and W. W. Phelps chose the site of Far West, and the land was entered on August 8, 1836. By the summer of 1838 the town had 150 houses, 4 dry goods stores, 3 family groceries, half a dozen blacksmith shops and 2 hotels, kept by John Whitmer and Warmsley. Church records at Salt Lake put the laying of the cornerstones of a temple on July 4, 1838. By 1886, the book notes, the town's cemetery was a corn field.
Adam-ondi-Ahman and the Gallatin election
In the spring of 1837 Saints moved into Daviess County, with written permission, the 1886 book says, from the few settlers there. Three miles above Gallatin, on the bluffs of Grand River, they laid out a town the books call Diamon, Adam-on-Diamon or Adam-ondi-Ahman. The 1882 History of Daviess County names settlers: a man named Bosley and a widow named Ives on Lick Fork; Perry Durfey, Roswell Stevens, Henry Belt, the Daleys and John D. Lee; and in Colfax township Levi Taylor, John Freeman, a man named Swartwout, James Bingham, John L. Butler and Charles McGee.
The August 1838 election at Gallatin set things off, and the books disagree on how bad it was. The 1882 history says the Mormons backed John A. Williams for sheriff and the Missourians backed William P. Peniston, and it concedes: "The latter, it must be admitted, began the row." A man named Richard Weldon knocked down a Mormon preacher, a fight followed, and twenty or more were hurt, "but none were killed." The 1886 history agrees the non-Mormons were the aggressors but says two of them were killed. Pratt's 1839 book says the Saints who went to vote were attacked and held the ground, and that an agreement for peace followed.
It did not last. Adam Black, a justice of the peace, swore that Joseph Smith and others made him sign a promise not to molest the Mormons, and Smith and Wight were arrested to answer it. General David R. Atchison came with militia, and the 1886 book says he found 250 or 300 armed non-Mormons threatening the Mormons. Houses, barns and grain stacks were burned by both parties, the 1886 book says. The 1882 history says the Mormons plundered Jacob Stollings's store in Gallatin and burned buildings in Gallatin and Millport. The 1886 book quotes John D. Lee that a company from Adam-on-Diamon burned out his friend McBrier, and says Ira Glaze of Carroll County was captured and made to ride a seized cannon to Diamon. The 1882 writers tell how a Mormon neighbor turned the family of Milford Donaho out into a snowstorm, and Donaho killed him. In Carroll County the 600 Saints at DeWitt, under Hinkle, were driven out, many families walking to Caldwell.
“But the people of Clay received the new comers kindly. They allowed them to remain, rented them houses, furnished them provisions, and gave numbers employment.”
The fight at Crooked River
Captain Samuel Bogart led a Ray County company. The 1886 history says Captain David Patton, whom Pratt calls D. W. Patten, came from Far West with 50 men and found Bogart camped on Crooked River in northwest Ray. The 1881 Ray history has Bogart camping there the afternoon of October 24; the 1886 book puts the attack before dawn on October 25. Another Ray chapter dates the fight to November 1838, which fits neither. The 1886 book gives Bogart 36 men; the Ray book says forty-seven against about 250; Pratt says about 60 against forty to fifty.
The 1886 history says the Mormons lost Patton, Patrick O'Banion and Gideon Carter killed, and James Holbrook and another man wounded. Bogart's company lost Moses Rowland killed, and Thomas H. Loyd, Edwin Odell, James Lockard, Martin Dunnaway, Samuel Tarwater and Wyatt Craven wounded; the Ray book spells two of them Lloyd and Lockhart. Pratt, who was in the fight, says Gideon Carter was left dead on the ground and about six of their men were badly wounded, and he put the other side's loss at one killed and four wounded. Patton died that night at Far West.
Two men attacked Tarwater with corn knives; the 1886 book says he drew a state pension of $100 a year and lived near Orrick. Wyatt Craven, taken prisoner and released, lived near Crab Orchard. The Ray book says a Mormon in ambush gave him a slight wound as he ran; the 1886 book names Parley P. Pratt as the man who fired.
Haun's Mill, October 30, 1838
On the afternoon of October 30, 1838, about 200 Livingston County men under Colonel William O. Jennings, sheriff of that county, attacked the settlement at Jacob Haun's mill on Shoal Creek in eastern Caldwell. Their companies were led by Nehemiah Comstock, Thomas R. Bryan and William Mann. The 1886 book counts perhaps 20 Mormon families there, with about thirty men under David Evans. At about four o'clock the militia came out of the timber. Women and children ran across the mill dam to the woods, and many men crowded into the blacksmith shop, whose log walls had cracks wide enough to shoot through.
From church records furnished by F. D. Richards, the 1886 history names 17 killed or mortally wounded: Thomas McBride, Alexander Campbell, Hiram Abbott, Levi N. Merrick, George S. Richards, John York, Elias Benner, William Napier, John Lee, Josiah Fuller, Augustine Harmer, John Byers, Benjamin Lewis, Simon Cox, Warren Smith, Sardius Smith, aged 10, and Charles Merrick, aged 9. The wounded were Isaac Laney, William Yokum, Jacob Potts, Nathan K. Knight, Tarlton Lewis, Charles Jimison, Jacob Myers, Jacob Haun, John Walker, George Myers, Jacob Foutz and Alma Smith, aged 7, and Mary Stedwell was shot through the hand. No militiamen were killed; John Renfrow, Allen England and a man named Hart were wounded.
The book says a militiaman named Rogers shot Thomas McBride, an old soldier of the Revolution, with his own gun, and that William Reynolds of Livingston County killed ten-year-old Sardius Smith. Amanda Smith, Warren's widow, counted 15 dead and 10 wounded, 2 dying the next day. Pratt, in prison, heard of eighteen dead; he admits he lacked much information. With too few men to bury them, the dead were put into an unfinished well. Charles R. Ross, who moved onto the place the next February, said a man named Huntsman also died, but the church records do not list him.
“Numerous families set out at once for Illinois, making the entire distance, in midwinter, on foot.”
The Governor's order and the surrender of Far West
After Crooked River, the 1886 history says, Governor Lilburn W. Boggs ordered the Caldwell regiment disarmed, its leaders arrested, and every Mormon man, woman and child expelled from the state. His letter to General Doniphan declared "they must all be driven from the State or exterminated." The 1882 Daviess history and Pratt describe the orders the same way. General Atchison left the militia, and Lucas took command. Ray County sent four companies under Captains Samuel Bogart, Israel R. Hendley, Nehemiah Odell and John Sconce.
On October 31 Colonel George W. Hinkle met Lucas, who demanded, among other terms, the church leaders for trial and the Saints' arms, and named Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Lyman Wight, Parley P. Pratt and George W. Robinson as hostages. The 1886 book says Hinkle told them they were going to confer with Lucas, which the Mormons called "duplicity and treachery." That night, it says, Lucas ordered Doniphan to shoot the prisoners on the Far West square. Doniphan answered, "It is cold-blooded murder. I will not obey your order." Pratt says a council sentenced them to be shot.
On November 1 the regiment gave up its arms, and Hinkle told his men, "Boys, it's all over; it had to be done." Its officers, the 1886 book says, were Hinkle, Lyman Wight and Jefferson Hunt, with captains Amasa Lyman and Seymour Brownson, lieutenant George P. Dykes and ensign Jacob Gates. There was a great deal of plundering. Pratt describes leaving his wife sick with fever, with an infant three months old and a girl of six.
Prison and the winter of 1838 to 1839
Judge Austin A. King examined the prisoners at Richmond in November 1838, and Joseph Smith, Lyman Wight, Hiram Smith, Alexander McRae and Caleb Baldwin were sent to the Clay County jail. The 1886 book says not one conviction was ever had. Pratt and others knocked down the jailor at Columbia on July 4, 1839, and escaped.
In December 1838 and January 1839, the 1886 history says, families were turned out of their homes in Caldwell and Daviess, and numerous families walked to Illinois in midwinter. Land sold for almost nothing: Charles Ross of Black Oak bought 40 acres north of Breckinridge for a blind mare and a clock. By the 10th of May all Mormons in full fellowship had gone to Nauvoo, though some dissenters stayed in Caldwell and Ray. The 1886 writer judged Lucas's terms "monstrously illegal and unjust." The 1882 Daviess book says some twelve thousand were driven out, with an official toll of forty Mormons and one citizen killed.
Names to look for in these books
For Haun's Mill, start with the 1886 Caldwell history: the 17 killed and 12 wounded from church records, the militia wounded, and Amanda Smith's statement, which names the Livingston County men who had stopped her family on the way in, Thomas R. Brien, Jefferson Brien and James Austin among them. It also lists the Crooked River casualties, the regiment's officers, the Far West prisoners, and the relief commissioners of December 1838: Anderson Martin, William Thornton and John C. Richardson of Ray; Elisha Camron, John Thornton and Eli Casey of Clay; Henry McHenry of Caldwell; and M. T. Green of Daviess.
The 1882 Daviess history places Mormon families of 1837 and 1838 by creek and township and names later owners of their land, such as Benny Rowell, John Castor and Robert Castor. The 1881 Ray history has biographies of men who served against the Mormons: Thomas Linvill, born in Campbell County, Tennessee, on September 9, 1805, one of the party that captured Joseph Smith; Thomas A. Brown, born in Rutherford County, Tennessee, on April 28, 1815; F. Brock; and Samuel Tarwater. Pratt's 1839 book gives the Saints' side in his own words.
People from this history in our records
These Caldwell, Daviess and Ray Counties residents have biographies on our site from the county histories, and each one mentions the Mormon troubles of 1838. Their sketches name parents, spouses, and where the family came from.
- M. B. Craven (b. 1850)
- Nathaniel Davis (b. 1807)
- S. C. Davis (b. 1836)
- Thomas A. Brown (b. 1815)
The counties in this history
Where to look next on this site for families from Caldwell, Daviess and Ray Counties.
- Caldwell County: Biographies from the county histories
- Daviess County: Biographies from the county histories
- Ray County: Biographies from the county histories · People in the county history
Finding your ancestor in Caldwell, Daviess and Ray Counties
- Census records (free through 1950) list each person's occupation and town, so a work family shows up decade by decade.
- Death records: search our Missouri database by surname.
- The county histories themselves: the biographical sections of History of Caldwell and Livingston Counties, Missouri and The History of Daviess County, Missouri hold hundreds of family sketches.
- Newspapers on the Library of Congress's Chronicling America carried obituaries, accidents, and local news.
Tell us one grandparent's name. We'll take a free first look at the records and email you back.
Ask about my family →Frequently asked questions
Who was killed at Haun's Mill in 1838?
The 1886 History of Caldwell and Livingston Counties, from church records, lists 17: Thomas McBride, Alexander Campbell, Hiram Abbott, Levi N. Merrick, George S. Richards, John York, Elias Benner, William Napier, John Lee, Josiah Fuller, Augustine Harmer, John Byers, Benjamin Lewis, Simon Cox, Warren Smith, and the boys Sardius Smith, 10, and Charles Merrick, 9. Parley Pratt heard of eighteen dead.
Who died in the Crooked River fight?
The 1886 Caldwell history says the Mormons lost Captain David Patton, Patrick O'Banion and Gideon Carter, and Captain Samuel Bogart's Ray County company lost Moses Rowland. Thomas H. Loyd, Edwin Odell, James Lockard, Martin Dunnaway, Samuel Tarwater and Wyatt Craven of Bogart's company were wounded.
What did Governor Boggs order in 1838?
According to the 1886 Caldwell history, Governor Lilburn W. Boggs ordered the Mormon militia regiment in Caldwell County disarmed, its leaders arrested, and every Mormon man, woman and child expelled from Missouri. His letter to General Doniphan said they must all be driven from the state or exterminated.
Where did the Latter-day Saints go after leaving Missouri?
The 1886 Caldwell history says families were turned out of their homes in December 1838 and January 1839, and many walked to Illinois in midwinter. By the 10th of May all Mormons in full fellowship had gone to Nauvoo, the first of them by way of Quincy. Some dissenters stayed in Caldwell and Ray.