Jenson and Stevenson Letter 8, The Town of Gallatin, Daviess Co.
Daviess Co. Missouri, Sept. 17, 1888.
President Franklin D. Richards:
Dear Brother:- Agreeable to a desire expressed by you on the day we were set apart for our mission that we would remember you when standing upon the Adam-ondi-Ahman, we now comply with your request by writing you a few lines on the very spot you mentioned. So far our journey has been successful in every respect…
We arrived in Gallatin, Daviess County, last night and put up at a hotel. In the evening one of our number called on Major McGee, an old resident of Gallatin, who took part in the troubles with the Saints in 1838, and was taken prisoner by the "Mormons" at that time. He have us some valuable information in regard to the past, and pointed out to us the identical spot where the house stood in which the election was held Aug. 6, 1838, and also where the fight took place between the mob and our brethren who on tat memorable day wished to cast their votes as free American citizens. He said the town of Gallatin at that time contained only about four houses; now there is quite a respectable town of 1,5000 inhabitants. The Major also showed us where Jacob Stollings' old store stood before it was burned during the difficulties in October, 1838, and, upon inquiry, said the "Mormons," while keeping him (McGee) and a companion prisoners, treated them well. He said Joseph Smith was a fine man, physically and socially, and related quite an amusing incident about how a certain man who considered himself the champion of Daviess County was thrown by the Prophet three times in a wrestling match. We asked him what in his opinion (looking back at this late day upon the scenes of fifty years ago) was the cause of the troubles between the Missourians and the "Mormons." He replied that he thought some of the Saints were to blame for teasing the other inhabitants with the doctrine that they (the Saints) were the rightful heirs to the whole country, because they were Saints of the Most High; but he knew of no horse-stealing or any kind of lawlessness being perpetrated by the "Mormons" prior to the time of the troubles of 1838. During the fracas, however, he said they burned nearly all the houses in the country belonging to the Missourians.
Altogether the Major manifested a sprit of fairness, but of course leaned to the side of the Missourians, trying to justify them as much as possible in what they had done. Both Millport, three miles east, and Adam-ondi-Ahman, five miles northwest of Gallatin, are extinct, and the new settlers or the younger part of the population are entirely ignorant of such towns ever having existed, which we experienced by inquiring for the roads leading to them. Until we saw the Major nobody could give us the least information about them….
[Collection of letters by Andrew Jenson and Edward Stevenson, Infancy of the Church (Salt Lake City, 1889), 17-19.] See also: Andrew Jenson, Autobiography of Andrew Jenson (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1938); Andrew Jenson, ed., The Historical Record, Vol. 6 (Salt Lake City, 1888), 83-84. Vol. 7: 671.]
Note:
Andrew Jenson, Edward Stevenson and Joseph S. Black visited the locations of the Election Day Battle, the polling place and the site of Jacob stallings Store. While the travel narratives of these historians provide an invaluable historical record, unfortunately, to the loss of subsequent generations of scholars, the authors failed to impart precise descriptive or relational information about these sites.
The underlying events, that define the Mormon War, represent a tragic episode in American Religious history. Viewed at its best of possibilities, it may be seen as "a testament to an enduring need for greater understanding and tolerance between peoples of differing ideologies, including religious beliefs and cultural backgrounds."
[Haun's Mill Stone Interpretive Marker, Breckenridge City Park, Caldwell County, Missouri.]
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