FAR WEST, CA. 1842
James Williams, Seventy-Five Years On The Border
CHAPTER 55.
In trying to tell how Far West, the old Mormon town looked, the first time I saw it in 1842, I regret that I have no daguerreotype or photograph to assist me in describing its lonely desolation. Its glory had departed with most of its, at one time, 3000 inhabitants.
I think the first time I was in the old town was at a Fourth of July celebration in 1842, the first I was ever at, but I can remember it as well as if it had been yesterday, and how the principal managers looked and acted. The marshal's name was Branch and he wore a black broadcloth coat, which made a great impression on me. I was told that cloth was made in France and mother had been telling me about the Marquis De Lafayette, the great, good Frenchman. I think that was one reason I was so impressed with that black coat. Miles Bragg was his assistant and Volney Bragg, the first lawyer I ever saw, was the speaker, who read the Declaration of Independence very impressively. I don't remember his speech. Of course, it was along patriotic lines.
There was a long ditch and some slick looking niggers roasting the beef, which was very fine, I remember. At the head of the long table, which was a scaffold under a brush arbor, was seated a very old man, whose name was Benjamin Middaugh. I think this old man served in the War of 1812 and was the father or brother of old Timothy Middaugh, who lived many years about two miles east of Cameron and I think was the grandfather of the family of Middaugh brothers near Mirabile. The long table was located a short distance north and, I think, a little east of the old Temple excavation, which at that time, was nearly intact, and the great cornerstone lying in the bottom. I have been told by those who were on the ground that it took 14 yoke of oxen to haul it. I've not seen it for about 40 years, but am told that most of that big rock has been carried away for souvenirs by the faithful Saints.
When I first saw Far West, many of the smaller frame houses had been moved away for farm buildings.A good many of the larger buildings had been torn down and rebuilt after removal, hence, the houses left standing were dilapidated, old looking, unpainted structures, many of them two stories high.
They were nearly all frames with poles flattened on two sides for studding, and split native timber for lathing and weather boarding[.] The boarding was usually 6 feet long, sap taken off, gauged and shaved, which made a good, substantial building. The boarding usually was of big bottom burr oak, the best timber on Shoal and Log Creek. The town was situated on a divide between those two creeks, and had the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railway run up Shoal Creek (as was talked of), Far West today would be the biggest town between St. Joseph and Chillicothe instead of Cameron.
Not only that, there is but little doubt that in place of a desolate waste, the Temple lot would have had a magnificent temple, and Far West would be the “Mecca” of the pilgrim Saints, as Independence is today. The best church building in Independence today is the fine, brown stone [Community of Christ Stone Church on what is today Lexington Ave.] on the high ridge along the Kansas City Electric line. The only Mormon I ever heard preach was in that building a few years since and I am free to admit, I think was about as good a sermon as I ever listened to, with a few exceptions. If people will live up to the exhortations of that good man, I think it will matter little whether they think Smith, Rigdon, Pratt, Whitmer, Cowdry, or anybody else were inspired, or the Book of Mormon a Revelation.
I knew David Whitmer quite well when I'd meet him in Cameron. He was an up-to-date farmer, and purchased the first two horse corn planter ever unloaded off the cars at Cameron. I think I, and some other by-standers, helped him put it in his wagon. I remember the wheels of that planter were wooden drums. Mr. Whitmer moved to Richmond some thirty years ago, and died there. I think the Whitmer family own the old Temple lot, which is now on the old Whitmer farm, as I am told.
I have never seen Oliver Cowdry, but have seen one of his daughters, who was pointed out to me at church many years ago. She was visiting in the vicinity of Far West. It was at old Plumb Creek school house I saw her. She was strikingly handsome. I do not know whether she is yet living. It is not the province of this article to discuss whether Latter Day Saints as a church organization is good or otherwise, but I'll say this, I've been familiar with and a neighbor to them for nearly seventy years, and from what I've seen of those in Missouri, I think they've hardly had a fair treatment, inasmuch as our laws allow every one to worship as he pleases, so long as he is law abiding. -Dec. 21, 1911
[Excerpted from: James Williams, Seventy-Five Years On The Border (Kansas City: Press of Standard Printing Co., 1912), pp. 142-144].
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