| JOHNSON COUNTY IAGenWeb Project |
|
Worries of Mormon Criminality In the spring of 1845 the inhabitants of the county were disturbed by a report that the Mormons were doing many criminal acts where they had been camped just west of the site of Marshalltown, during the preceding winter. The year before the Mormons had been driven from their town in Illinois and in companied had to make their way to Kanesville on the Missouri river and one company being overtaken by winter was compelled to make a winter camp at the point mentioned. There in houses of logs and brush with little or no food and no feed for their animals, they passed a winter of great suffering from cold and hunger. To charge them with crime was enough to raise the anti-Mormon feeling to fever heat. The sheriff of this county quickly raised a company and proceeded with it to the Mormon camp. As that was the first time the settlers of the county had been confronted with the prospects of war, the names of the company will be given:
This army left Iowa City on April 5, 1845, and by forced marches reached the Mormon camp in four days. They found about 300 starving men, women and children. The sheriff held warrants for twenty men but contented himself by putting four or five under arrest and ordered his forces to retire at once. They marched back five miles and camped. The sheriff told the Mormons that if any of them wished to leave their camp they would be protected in doing so. About a dozen men and women accepted the offer and joined the gentiles in their journey to the city. The old April rain fell constantly and the march was a very severe one. Children were born in the weltering storm. Having reached the camp of Powesheik near Marengo, the women and children were left there and the prisoners were marched to the city. Prisoners Discharged They were taken before Justice John Hawkins and no one appearing against them, they were at once discharged and their property returned to them and they made their way back to their comrades, having been supplied with aid by the citizens. Some days later Orvile G. Babcock came in with the women and children in his ox-wagon. He said he had kept them until they had eaten up all his provisions and were still hungry. The citizens soon made the poor refugees comfortable with food and clothing and they became contented members of the community. The question of paying the expenses of the expedition vexed the county board for several years and finally on January 5, 1849, Major William Ashby Henry presented a petition to the board asking that the board compensate those persons who rendered meritorious service under the command of M. P. McCallister, sheriff of the county, against the Mormons in April, 1845, and in response to the petition the boards allowed each man in the expedition two dollars per day. The total cost the war was $634.90. The Mormon war was only the attempt of some low-minded men to get the aid of officers in persecuting the Mormons and the participants not boast of much glory. Source: Iowa City Press-Citizen, Iowa City, IA, 27 Sept 1903, Pg 3; Written by Gil. R. Irish, Article XLI |