Account of Trial, [], Hancock Co., IL, 24–28 May 1845, State of IL v. Williams et al. (Hancock Co., IL, Circuit Court 1845). Published [ca. 30 July 1845] in Trial of the Persons Indicted in the Hancock Circuit Court for the Murder of Joseph Smith at the Carthage Jail, on the 27th Day of June, 1844, Warsaw, IL: Warsaw Signal, 1845.
went to on Friday night, and I went with her. Mr. Reynolds went to the boat (the Die Vernon) with us. We went because aunt was afraid; came back on the next Tuesday. The troops came up on Friday afternoon on the steamboat Boreas. The Boreas and Die Vernon were both up that day. While at we boarded at Mrs. Dixon’s. I said there that I did not know anything about killing the Smiths. I told my father about two weeks after in , all I knew of it. Adeline and I both denied it in , because Charles Garout[t]e intimated that we would be called as witnesses. I denied to Mrs. Fleming any knowledge of the act, but did not say to and Reynolds, or in their presence, that I knew nothing about it. was boarding at Dixon’s. I never talked of it in their presence. I told no person in but my father. I did not tell it to be called as a witness, nor because I was afraid of being called as a witness. I never had a chance to deny it in . I never mentioned the names of and Grover but to one particular friend, beside my father; suppose that friend told it. There was no fire to make the stove hot, when the men came; Mr. Genung made the fire. We were about an hour getting supper. I had been living there almost a year. I went to about 6 weeks afterwards, and have been living there ever since. I am a member of the Mormon church, and have been about five years. Am not married. I do not know what sort of horses drove. Gregg did not come into the house. I told what Grover and had said to Susan Ware [Wann]. I never knew till last Wednesday that I was to be a witness, and never had any conversation about being one. Have conversed with , but with no one before until last Wednesday. I have not had a great many conversations about this matter. Never saw [William] Daniels till last Wednesday. My father resides in . I told my father in , what I heard Grover and say, and told him not to tell it; and I told Susan Ware about six weeks ago. The subject is not much talked of in . I do not know where Genung lives now; he and I never had any particular talk about it, and had no talk with him about Grover and . I think no other families went down with us. I did not notice whether ’s horses were tired or sweaty. It was still dark when I went to bed. I got up first at daylight. I suppose I had been in bed about two hours—may be more, may be less, and did not sleep any. I have no personal acquaintance with , , , or ; but know and by sight; am not personally acquainted with any of the “Twelve,” or the Mrs. Smiths.
sworn. I was coming on the road between and , on the day the Smiths were killed. I had left that morning near 9 o’clock with the troops, understood they were going to . I drove a baggage wagon [p. 21]