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Appendix 3: Willard Richards, Journal Excerpt, 23–27 June 1844

23 June 1844 • Sunday Page 19 24 June 1844 • Monday Page 20 25 June 1844 • Tuesday Page 21 26 June 1844 • Wednesday Page 28 27 June 1844 • Thursday Page 35

Source Note

, Journal Excerpt, 23–27 June 1844; handwriting of ; nineteen pages; in Willard Richards, Journal, CHL. Portions of some entries were written in pencil before they were overwritten in ink.

Historical Introduction

JS’s journal, kept by , ended with the entry of 22 June 1844, just before JS left , Illinois, in company with Richards, , and . Richards, who remained with JS until the moment of JS’s death on 27 June, evidently left JS’s journal in Nauvoo when the four men departed for , Illinois. Richards, however, recorded in his own journal many of the events of the last five days of JS’s life. These events include JS’s arrival on the bank in on the morning of 23 June and his trip to Carthage, during which JS and Hyrum gave themselves up to authorities on the charge of treason. Richards’s journal also recounts JS’s activities in Carthage during the days preceding his and Hyrum’s deaths. The material Richards recorded in his own journal during this time is in the same format and style as the record he had been keeping for JS. Richards’s hasty, terse notations and precise attention to details—illustrated by his practice of recording the specific times events occurred—indicate that he continuously carried his journal with him and recorded many of the events as he witnessed them, possibly with the intention of using the record to fill in JS’s journal at a later date. Richards’s journal entries for 23–27 June 1844 provide a contemporaneous firsthand account of JS’s activities during the last five days of his life, and they are reproduced here in full. Richards first inscribed portions of these entries in pencil and then rewrote them in ink. In a few cases, while overwriting, he skipped or altered the original penciled text. The transcription here reproduces the final ink version and does not capture the slight variations in the penciled text.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    For additional details on the events leading to the deaths of JS and Hyrum Smith, see Oaks and Hill, Carthage Conspiracy.

    Oaks, Dallin H., and Marvin S. Hill. Carthage Conspiracy: The Trial of the Accused Assassins of Joseph Smith. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1975.

Page [19]

23 June 1844 • Sunday
23 Sunday— 2. A.M.— arrivd on the bank— abo[u]t day— break— walked up to B [blank] about sun rise wrot[e]— [blank] & sent express ab[o]ut noon came. &—— and explid [explained] [’s] Letter [13 lines blank] [p. [19]]
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Page [19]

Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Appendix 3: Willard Richards, Journal Excerpt, 23–27 June 1844
ID #
7059
Total Pages
19
Print Volume Location
JSP, J3:303–330
Handwriting on This Page

    Footnotes

    1. [1]

      According to the compilers of JS’s history, JS, Hyrum Smith, Willard Richards, and Orrin Porter Rockwell left Nauvoo at about two o’clock in the morning and crossed the Mississippi River into Iowa Territory in a boat belonging to Aaron Johnson. Rockwell started back for Nauvoo soon after, while JS, Hyrum, and Richards went to the house of John Killian. Finding Killian away, the three men went to William Jordan’s home. (JS History, vol. F-1, 147.)

    2. [2]

      This was probably the 23 June letter JS wrote to Emma Smith in which he told her of several people who had money of his and gave her permission to sell “the Quincy Property” and other property to support herself, their children, and his mother. Regarding his own plans, JS wrote, “I do not know where I shall go, or what I shall do, but shall if possible endeavor to get to the city of Washington.” JS closed by asking Emma to inform him if she decided to go to Kirtland, Ohio, or Cincinnati and to help Willard Richards’s family if possible. (JS, “Safety,” [Iowa Territory], to Emma Smith, Nauvoo, IL, 23 June 1844, JS Materials, CCLA.)

    3. [3]

      The day before, Illinois governor Thomas Ford sent a letter to JS condemning the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor press and calling for those involved to stand trial before Thomas Morrison at Carthage. JS responded that he and the others were willing to stand trial but that they feared they would be killed if they went to Carthage. Bernhisel, however, left for Carthage on 21 June and spoke with the captain of the posse that Ford had assembled to arrest the accused. The captain gave an “explanation . . . which softened the subject matter” of Ford’s letter and gave JS and Hyrum Smith “greater assurance of protection” if they were to go to Carthage. After hearing Bernhisel’s report, JS and Hyrum proposed in a letter to Ford that he and the posse meet them and their witnesses “at or near the Mound, at or about two oclock tomorrow afternoon” and escort them into Carthage for trial. This mound was located about five miles east of Nauvoo. (Editorial Note following 22 June 1844 entry in JS, Journal; JS, Journal, 21 June 1844; JS and Hyrum Smith, “Bank of the River Mississippi,” IL, to Thomas Ford, Carthage, IL, 23 June 1844, copy, JS Collection, CHL; see also JS, Journal, 14 June 1842.)

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