Lucy Mack Smith described conditions in Far West, around the time the city was under siege:
The brethren were all driven in from the country. There was an acre of ground in front of our house, completely covered with beds, lying in the open sun, where families were compelled to sleep, exposed to all kinds of weather; these were the last who came into the city, and, as the houses were all full, they could not find a shelter. It was enough to make the heart ache to see the children, sick with colds, and crying around their mothers for food, whilst their parents were destitute of the means of making them comfortable...
... Our business in Far West had been trading in corn and wheat, as well as keeping a boarding-house. When the mob came in, we had considerable grain on hand, but very little flour or meal, therefore we sent a man who was living with us to mill with fourteen sacks of grain; but the miller considered it unsafe to allow the brethren to remain about his premises, as the mob was near at hand, and he was afraid they would burn his buildings. Consequently, the young man returned without his grain, and, for breadstuff, we were for a long time obliged to pound corn in a samp-mortar. Many subsisted altogether upon parched corn for some length of time.
[Lucy Mack Smith, Joseph Smith, The Prophet And His Progenitors For Many Generations]
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