Minutes and Testimonies, 12–29 November 1838, Copy and Letter [State of Missouri v. Gates et al. for Treason]
Source Note
Minutes and Testimonies, [, Ray Co., MO], 12–29 Nov. 1838, State of MO v. Gates et al. for Treason (Fifth Judicial Circuit of MO 1838). Copied with letter ca. late 1838–ca. early 1839; unidentified handwriting; fifty-one pages; Mormons Collection, 1813–1970, Missouri History Museum.
prisoners— were turned loose by , & told that he would give us four hours to leave the , and if they caught us after that time we should not live any longer— Before we left, I heard say come boys feed your horses and get your breakfast, we must try and scatter the mob.
After I left I went to my step mothers and made efforts to get out of the .
After the Mormons surrendered at to the militia I went with my step mother to to hunt for her property which had been left at the house when she moved, & which was missing on her return, such as beds, bed clothing, knives & forks, a trunk &c. On examination we found at the house of , & upon his bed stead a feather bed, which I knew to be the one that was left by her at the time she fled from the Mormons. I knew the bed from its appearance, it was the tick was striped and pieced at the end, and the stripes of the piece turned cross-wise Also we found in ’s house a set of knives & forks which I knew were the same left at the house as above stated.
My step-mother left her residence, (in two miles of ), where she left the above articles, on wednesday before I was taken prisoner, which was on the sunday night after— And when at , the night I was a prisoner, I slept on that same bed, as I believed it to be, at one Sloan’s (as I understood his name to be). [p. [17]]