[ Full-text transcription of: Witness Reed Peck, a Mormon dissenter ]
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Reed Peck a witness, produced, sworn, and ex
-amined on behalf of the State, deposeth and saith
A short time after Cowdery & the Whitmers left Far
West (sometime in June) Geo. W. Robinson and Philo
Dibble invited me to a Danite meeting.
I went,
the only speaker was Dr Avard who explained
the object of the meeting and said that its object was,
that [“they” crossed out] we might be perfectly organized, to defend
[“ourselves their” crossed out] ourselves against mobs, that we were
[“to” crossed out]
all to be governed by the presidency and do what
-ever they required, and uphold them:
that we were
not to judge for ourselves whether it were right or
wrong. that God had raised us [“up” crossed out] a prophet who
would judge for us. and that it was proper we
Should stand by each other in all cases. and he gave
us an example:- if we found one of the Danites in
a difficulty, in Ray or Clay for instance, we
should rescue him, if we had to do with his ad-
-versary, as Moses did with the Egyptian-put him
in the sand; It made no difference whether the
daniete was to blame or not, they would track to
Far West, and there be taken care of- The ques
-tion was asked whether it would extend to a legal
process.- Avard answered not.
The Danite oath
was administered to about 30 or 40 persons at this meet
-ing.- Philo Dibble told me who
the head
officers of the Danite [“members” crossed out] were: that George
W. Robinson, was Colonel, that he Dibble, was Lieut
Colonel, and Seymore Brunson Major, and that
I was chosen Adjutant. After
that I had a talk
with Geo. W. Robinson & Philo Dibble together, in
which I was informed who the officers were as
above, and further, that Jared Carter was Cap
-tain General of the band, Cornelius P Lott Maj
Genl. and Sampson Avard Brig General this is
as I now recollect it. Dr Avard
in speaking
to the society remarked that it would be impossi
-ble for the presidency to explain the object of
the society, to every member, but that the pres-
-idency would explain their views or wishes, to
the head officers, and they to the members of
the society- I was present at one meet
-ing where the officers of the society were
presented & introduced to the presidency , each
office receiving a blessing from them- Avard
stated that he had procured the presidency
to come there to show the Society, that what he
was doing was according to their direction or
will- And while there the presidency approved
of Avards course in the society.
Dr Avard how
-ever did not explain to the presidency what
his teachings had been in the Society_
I heard Avard, on one occasion
say that the Dan
-ites were to consecrate their surplus property, and
to come in by tens to do so. and if they lied about
it,- he said Peter Killed Ananias and Sapphira, and
that would be an example for us-
When
appointed adjutant of the Danite band, as refered
to above, I did not think proper to object openly,
tho’ I determined within myself not to act, &
the lists, and other papers brought to me for
recording, I threw aside & made no record of-
On the day before the last
expedition to
Daviess I heard Joseph Smith Jr, in a speach
say, in refference to stealing, that in a general
way he did not approve of it, but that on one
occasion, our Saviour and His disciples, stole
corn in passing through the corn fields for the
reason that they could not otherwise procure any
thing to eat. He told an
anecdote of a
dutchmans potatoes, and said in Substance that
a colonel or captain was quartered near a
Dutchmans from whom he wished to purchase
some potatoes, who refused to sell them, the of
-ficer then charged his men not to be caught
stealing the Dutchman’s potatoes, but next morn
ing he found his potatoes all dug-
I think this
was in refference to the expedition to Daviess, and
that they had been compeled to go out there so
often, that the people there ought to bear the expense
Such men as would oppose things
undertaken
as being unlawful, & such as they feared was a vio
-lation of the law. I have heard Smith & Rigdon in
their publick addresses denominate “O don’t men”
these I understood to be those who were denominated also
dissenteres; and in refference to [“such” crossed out] men who were
hanging
hanging back, & did not wish to engage in their
expeditions, they were called traitors, and refer
ing to such, as I understood, Mr Rigdon proposed
that blood should first begin to flow in the streets
of
The proposition was then made, and carried unan
-imously that those who thus hung back, should
be pitched upon their horses [“with” crossed out] and made to go,
and placed in front of the [“battle” crossed out] army. All the
above occurred in
last expedition to Daviess-The following of
the Defendants were in the last expedition to
Pratt. Lyman Wight. Amazy Lyman I am certain was not
there, Geo. W. Robinson, Cabel Baldwin
Alanson
Ribley were there, John Buckhannon was
not there, Geo W. Harris, Geo Grant & Dar
-win Chase were out. Isaac
Worley was
not about. Alex.a McRay was
there, Ebenezer
Robinson was there, John S Higby I think,
James M Henderson was there, Edward Part
-ridge was there, Francis Oligby I think was
there, Geo Kimble was there, Amaso Younger
was there. James W Rawlins Maurice Phelps
were there. When the troops
arrived at
Diahmon they were divided into companies of 20
40, 50& just as they might be called for, those
companies were sent out in different parts of
the county, as I saw them thus occasionally going
out & coming in. I saw a
company of
about 50 called a fur company come once
some had one thing, & some another, one I saw
with a feather bed, another had some spun
yarn_ I understood from some of those who
were bringing property, that they were to take it,
to the Bishops store & deposit it, and if they
failed to do so, it would be considered stealing.
-As the property was brought in there
was a general shout of hurrah, and wav
-ing of hats by those in camp- I heard
Demick Huntingdon, one of the troops, tell in
Camp, that the mob had burned the store
-house in
hauled off the goods. And also
that the mob were
burning some Mormon houses. I
looked at him
as though I did not believe it.
and he stooped
down to me, being on his horse, and whispered to
me, that it was Capt Brunson who had gone
with 20 men to the grindstone Fork who was
burning those houses. The goods
taken
in
to have been deposited with the bishop as con
-secrated property- When the Companies
would return from their expedition, they would
make their reports to the presidency who were
there- As this company above
refered to
as the fur company, passed with their plun
-der, I heard Mahlon Johnson, who lived in
the lower part of
Jr, if these proceedings would not endanger
the families living in that [“lower” crossed out] part of Cald
-well, and insite the people to come on them, and Smith asked him what
he was talk
-ing about, that this was the first step they
had ever taken to quell the mob.
I heard Perry Keepes Kiso, one who was engaged in
the depredations in Daviess, say that Joseph
Smith Jr. remarked in his presence, that it
was his intention, after they got through in Da
-viess, to go down and take the store in Carrol
-ton; this remark Smith made
while in
Daviess. After the mormon
troops re
-turned to Diahmon
of the captains of tens, who had been in that exe
-pedition, making out a list of their men, for
the purpose, as they said, of being handed in that
they might receive their portion of the spoils-
-I heard Darwin Chase say that he was in the
expedition against Bogart.
Several days before the Militia came
to Far- West I learned through Mr Arthur of Clay
County, that they were raising the Militia,
On monday before the militia arrived I went
out toward
them. I met a young man who
informed me that
Genl Donephan was on
militia. I returned to
Mr
Mr Rigdon & Jos
Smith Jr, as well as giving
general information
of the fact. I proposed to
Mr Smith to go next
morning and try to find them
to which he
assented, I was disappointed in my
effort & returned
late in the evening to
Just as I arrived I
saw the militia & I went
down to them with a
flag. I met with Genl
Donephan who recd.
me , & told me there were
about 1300 in
number & that they were militia.
On my return to
town I met with Jos Smith Jr.
& informed him,
that the troops were militia
under Genl.
Donephan’s command. (as I then sup
-posed was the
case) Mr Smith asked me their
number & when I
told him, he replied- keep
up good courage we
can whip that number
if they make an
attack upon us. Some other
person came up at
the time and enquired of
me their number.
and Mr Smith answered,
that Mr Phelps, who
was a judge of numbers
having seen troops
before, said that there is
about 250. as he
would suppose. Mr Geo
W. Robinson then
whispered to me not to tell
the men the number
of the militia, that it
would frighten
them, or damp their courage
[“and further this
deponent saith not,
Reed Peck” crossed out]
At this Stage of
the examination of Reed Peck the fol-
lowing named
defendants [ ] King Follet Samuel Bent
J Ebeny Brown William Whitman and Jonathan Dunham
were brought to the
bar of the court and put upon this
trial for the
offences alleged against the other defendts
and time being
allowed them to employ counsel they retired
and again returned
to the bar appearing by their counsel
Mess Rees &
Donephant the examination of Reed Peck
was then
continued Reed Peck deposeth and further
saith
that Jonathan
Dunham was in the last expedition to Daviess
and was Captain of a
company of 50 which I have spoke of as
called the Fur
Company. He went under the fictitious
name
of Capt
Blackhawk. when the men were paraded,
they
were called out as
all belonging to Capt Blackhawks
company my
impression is that King Follet was
not in that
expetition, but he was captain of 12 men
in far West under
the Daniet order as I understood as he was
neither an Officer
or private of militia and was Known and
called under the
fictitious name of Capt Bull and by Com
=pany was called
the regulators, I saw William Whitman
on the Expedition
to Daviess and seemed to be one of the
troops engaged with
others, some time previous to the
difficulties in
Daviess the first time when the militia went out
there for the
purpose of keeping the peace, I heard Jo. smith Jr
in a public address
say that he had a reverance for the con
=stitution of the
laws of this State
he did not intend to regard them nor care any
thing about them,
as they were made by lawyers and blacklegs
the above things
said some time in last July or August.
On
the eve of the last
expetition to Daviess I heard Joseph Smith Jr. say
that they meaning
the heads of the church had appealed to the Govt
for protection and
he had sent us back word that we must fight
our own battles, he
further stated that the law was unequally ad
=ministered, all
against us and none for us and spoke of the prosecu
=tions set on foot
in Daviess as an instance and He then said we must take
our own cause in
our own hands and defend ouselves__that he did not
calculate to regard
the laws any longer, I think & was in the last of
June or first of
July last that I heard Dr Avard say that he had Just
returned from a
Council with the presidency in which council Jared
Carter was broken
of his Office of Capt Genl of the Danite band
for having spoken
against Sydney Rigdon one of the presiden
=cy, it being a
regulation of that society that no one should speak
against them- or
hear any one else do it with impunity In that council
Avard said an
arrangement was made to dispose of the dissenters
vozt, that all the
head offices, of the Daniet band should have a list of
the dissenters both
here and in Kirtland and said he I will tell you how I will
do with them when I
meet one damning the presidency I can damn
them as well as he,
and if he wanted to drink he would get a bowl
of brandy & get
them half drunk and taking him by the arm he would
take him to the
woods or brush and said” he (would) be into their
guts in a minute
and put them under the sod” he gave this a
an example of the
way they should be disposed of the only mo
-tives for getting
rid of the dissenters in this way as far as I ever learn
=ed was this if
they remained among the mormons they would
introduce a class
there that would ultimately endanger their lives &
destroy the church
and if they were suffered to go out from
among them they
would be telling lies on them in the surrounding
country, these
reasons I gathered from Mr. Rigdons Salt Sermon
and Mr Rigdon said
in the Same Sermon that he would assist to
erect a gallows on
the Square and hang them all. Jos Smith Jr
was present and
followed Mr Rigdon after he also made the
above declaration
and said he did not wish to do any thing un
=lawful. he then
spoke of the fate of Judas & said that Peter had
hung him (Judas)
& said that he approved of Mr Rigdons
Sermon & called
it a good sermon and further this de
=ponent saith
not Reed
Peck
James C Owens a witness who was produced on a
former day and [ ]
been called back to the bar again
further deposeth
and Saith. He does not think Wil
=liam Whitman was
in the Danit expedition to Daviess, I think
he was left at far
west as Captain of the town guard though
he may have been in
Daviess for aught I Know and further
this deponent saith
not James C Owens
William
Splaun a witness produced
sworn and
examined on behalf
the State deposeth and saith I was
at Eli Bagleys in
Daviess county when an armed company
of men about 1000/2
in numbers James H Raulins and
Jesse D Hunter two
of the defendants were of the company
they came to
Bagleys they enquired who I was and if I was a
mob character and
learning I was not they let me alone
they inquired for
John Raglin and Said they heard he was a mob
character and had
gone for men to fight them and if they got
their eyes on him
they would take his life & that he had better
keep out of the way
to be positive that Hunter was of the
company I will not
but I have little or no doubt of it from his ap
-perance this was on
Saturday after I learned that
was burned the
Thursday before and during the time the mormon
troops were in
Daviess county and further this deponent saith not
William Splaion
Thomas M Odell a witness produced sworn and
examined
on behalf the State
deposeth and Saith, that on the Saturday after
Raglins house in
=red for John
Raglin I told them where he had gone, they said
their object was to
drive the mob from the county and said that
I must go. I
replied I could not. that I had no way to get off
and that my family
in is bare footed they replied that made
no difference I
must go, and said if I was not gone by next
morning by sunrise
they would take my life, they told
Mrs Raglin she must
[ ] that there she could not stay
and that Raglin had
better never show himself there that they
would take his life
if ever they set their eyes on him next