Docket Entry, 1–circa 6 July 1843 [Extradition of JS for Treason]
Source Note
Docket Entry, [, Hancock Co., IL, 1–ca. 6 July 1843], Extradition of JS for Treason (Nauvoo, IL, Municipal Court 1843); Nauvoo Municipal Court Docket Book, 55–87, 116–150; handwriting of and ; CHL.
money was given to him for that purpose, he got on the boat & went off, & that was the last we heard of the man or the money. This was a man who had been frequently in , during the siege, & professed great friendship. In this time of extremity a man who had a short time before moved into , bringing with him a fine yoke of cattle, started out to hunt his cattle, in order to butcher them to keep to keep them citizens from actual starvation, but before he got but a little way from the town, he was fired upon by the mob & narrowly escaped with his life & had to return or at least, such was his report when he returned. Being now completity inclosed on every side, we could plainly see many men on the opposite side of the , & it was supposed that they were there to prevent the citizens from crossing & indeed a small craft crossed from them with three men it, who said that, that was the object for which they had assembled.
At this critical moment, with death staring us in the face in its worst form, cut off from all communcation with the surrounding country, & all provisions exhausted, we were sustained as the children of Israel in the, only by different animals. They by quails, & us by cattle & hogs, which came walking into the camp, for such it truly was— as the people were living in tents & wagons, not being priviledged with building houses. what was to be done in this extremity? why, recourse was had to the only means of subsistence left, & that was to butcher the cattle & hogs which came into the place without asking who was the owner, or without knowing, & what to me is remarkable, is, that a sufficient number of animals came into the camp to sustain to sustain life, during the time in which the citizens, were thus besieged by the mob. This indeed was but coarse living, but such as it was it sustained life.
From this circumstance, the cry went out that the citizens of were thieves & plunderers & were stealing cattle & hogs. During this time the mob of Carroll county said that all they wanted, was that the citizens of , should leave Carroll county & go to & counties. The citizens finding that they must leave , or eventually starve, finally agreed to leave, & accordingly preparations were made & was vacated. The first morning after we left, we put up for the night in a grove of timber. Soon after our arrival in the grove, a female who a short time before had given birth to a child, in consequence of the exposure died. A grave was dug in the grove, & the next morning, & the next morning the body was deposited in it without a coffin, & the company proceeded on their journey; part of them going to & part into : This was in the month of Octr 1838
In a short time after their arrival in & counties, messengers [p. 135]