Affidavit from Cyrus Canfield and Gilbert Belnap, 18 June 1844
Source Note
and , Affidavit, before , , Hancock Co., IL, 18 June 1844; handwriting of ; notation in unidentified handwriting; docket in handwriting of ; one page; JS Office Papers, CHL.
Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation.
Affidavit from Cyrus Canfield and Gilbert Belnap, 18 June 1844
Personally appeared before me a Justice of the Peace and of and benig duly sworn depose and say, that on yesterday June 17th. 1844 at , certain persons to wit, Dr. [blank] Barnes and having entered into conversation with your deponents among other things declared, that the of was as big a scoundrel as Joseph Smith— and that he is the d——dst scoundrel that was ever suffered to live— that they did not care for the , and had rather that the would side with Smith— that they (the mob) were coming to with a sufficienct force to <take> Smith, and if the people endeavored to prevent them, that they should kill the people— and that if Smith had left , they had determined to destroy the and other buildings— And your deponents further say that one John Eller declared that he had lived in and was at the the Massacre of the Mormons at <that he had killed one Mormon and> that he had left on purpose <to fight the Mormons,> and would hunt a Mormon as he would a Deer— and your Deponents further say that <they heard that> about one hundred persons had already arrived from , and were expecting a many more from that , and your Deponents further say that they heard in that they had already received a number of Guns and Ammunition and Provisions from in order to prosecute their attack upon — And further your Deponents say not—
Sworn and subscribed to before me this Eighteenth day of June 1844