Settlement children at play in Shoal Creek

    Relations between church members and Missouri citizens began a downward spiral following the arrival of Joseph Smith and church leaders from Ohio in 1838. A clash of cultural attitudes and events set the stage for a horrific outcome at Haun's Mill:
    The Missourians and Mormons represented vastly dissimilar political, economic and religious cultures. Both sides were subject to predominant frontier cultural worldviews regarding the use of force in the resolution of conflict. Both saw themselves in economic competition for control of a significant portion of the upper Missouri region. From the beginning, they had different expectations over whether church settlement activities were to be confined to Caldwell County.
    Distorted reports and rumors circulated by both camps. As tensions grew, the church initiated actions to stem internal dissent as well as insulate itself from external influences. In ensuing months, both side initiated hostile actions directed at those perceived as holding differing cultural values- i.e., the first use of the term "exterminate" was in Rigdon's Salt Sermon.
    Unlawful assemblies of citizens formed on both sides to protect perceived local interests. Armed encounters between disputants escalated at De Witt in Carroll County, in church settlements in Daviess County, Crooked River in Ray County and in the early phases of the siege of the Mormon headquarters city of Far West. Both sides appropriated personal property to use in its own defense and to support its actions. The State eventually authorized the use of militia to quell this growing regional conflict.
    - See: Hostilities documented to have transpired against Daviess and Livingston County Citizens by the Mormons, October 1838, Alex Baugh, A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri, Ph.D. dissertation, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, 1996, Appendix F.
    Even as Missourians purposed to drive the Mormons from the state, Church members from outlying settlements began gathering from throughout the region into the church's central community at Far West. Nearly all eventually fled to Far West but those who lived near Haun's Mill. Until mid-October, Mormons living along Shoal Creek had maintained relatively friendly relations with the non-member neighbors. Haun's Mill resident Ellis Eamut wrote, "Inhabitants behaved themselves very friendly and purchased goods from [us] and used [our] mill[s] for grinding and sawing. . . until the disturbances broke out up in Daviess county, when I observed from the conversation that they did not like the proceedings of our brethren." Eamut, "Reminiscence," 11. BYU Professor and researcher Alex Baugh proposes, "Fearful they might expect treatment similar to that received by their neighbors to the north, gentile settlers living in eastern Caldwell sought help from Livingston's vigilante forces, whose numbers were now strengthened with embittered Daviess refugees recently displaced from their homes." Baugh, A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri, Ph.D. Dissertation, Brigham Young University, 1996, 265.
    In light of non-member threats to burn the mill, Jacob Haun apparently unwisely encouraged church members in Fairview Township to stay for the purpose of defending their homes and the mill. Isaac Leany wrote, "some of the neighbours [sic] wanted to leave their homes and run off but having only about seven waggons [sic] to twenty three or four families we had to stay and defend ourselves." Petition of Isaac Leany in Johnson, Missouri Petitions for Redress, BYU Studies 23 (1982): 101.
    On 28 October 1838 a group of Missouri regulators, led by Col. William Jennings of Livingston County, negotiated a peace pact with the Saints. Though church defenders hoped this would forestall local violence, it was anticipated they should be prepared to defend the hamlet. David Evans, leader of the defenders, planned to use James Huston's blacksmith shop as a blockhouse. Some weapons were cached there in readiness.
    The hamlet had increased from its normal size, when hostilities broke out. Members en route to Far West had camped near Haun's Mill for a few days in their wagons and tents. As a result of miscommunication and feelings of powerlessness to resolve what local Missourians perceived as offensive Mormon military actions in the region, at 4:00 p.m., 30 October 1838, about two hundred-forty Livingston County regulators and other volunteers caught the settlement by surprise. Attackers approached from all sides but the creek on the south. Nathan Knight was on his way to a nearby lake to shoot ducks. Comstock's men shot at Knight, cutting the string of his powder horn. Knight, and others ran to the community's blacksmith shop as planned.
    About thirty-five church men were on hand. They immediately called for quarters and urged their wives and children to flee for safety. Stunned women and children ran in every direction. Jenning's men approached from the west, north and east of the shop. The only direction for flight was to the south or southeast, with the millpond blocking part of that retreat. The shortest way to safety was across the milldam. Amanda Smith and her girls ran to the bank of the stream, down a few feet and onto the plank walkway. Bullets splattered all around them, splashing into the millpond. Upon the attacker's first advance, Mary Stedwell raised her hands pleading for peace. Instead, she was shot in the hand. Seeing no other recourse, she ran for cover on the opposite bank of the creek. Mary fell behind a log, but her attackers continued to fire at her exposed clothing. Afterward, over twenty bullets were found in the log.
    While women and children sought cover in streambed and distant forest, the blacksmith shop turned into a death trap for defenders. David Evans swung his hat and cried for peace. Nehemiah Comstock fired in return, then, as one, the attackers discharged their rifles into the blacksmith shop. Wide spaces between logs provided little protection as withering fire from the guns of more than 200 attackers concentrated on the men in the building.
    David Lewis wrote, "The first man that fell was Simon Cox, he was standing close by my side when he received the fatal blow, he was shot threw the kidneys, and all the pain and misery I ever witnessed a poor soul in him seemed to excell [sic]. Juanita Brooks, John Doyle Lee, Zealot - Pioneer Builder - Scapegoat (Glendale, CA: Arthur H. Clark, 1962), 36-37.
    Ellis Ames' wife, Olive, left her own detailed account of the tragedy, written in 1896, "... two of the brethren, Mr. Rial Ames (my husband's brother) and Hyrum Abbott were sitting just outside the door, one cutting the other's hair, they rose from the chair and remarked. . . It's the mob right on us... I rushed out of the house... soon found myself and little ones hidden away down under the bluff in a little nook by the creek." Olive Ames, History of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 2 (Lamoni, Iowa: Herald, 1897), 234-35.

Olive [Eames] Ames

Millstone, G. E. Anderson, 1907, courtesy LDS F&CHD, Archives.

Haun's Millstone at Breckenridge, MO

    In 1907, George Edward Anderson came to photograph the site. Observing what he interpreted as exposed wooden beams attached to the bottom of the stream, Anderson concluded the mill site had been located a bit further downstream, where Shoal Creek turns to the north. Anderson's party found a partially exposed millstone in the bank of the creek and moved it to the mill site for a photograph. The stone apparently remained on the edge of the bank until local residents moved it to Breckenridge Park around 1914 in memory of the massacre. A local myth suggests the Breckenridge millstone actually came from Marshall's Mill, formerly about a mile east of Haun's Mill. However, Anderson's photograph confirms the Breckenridge stone was at the mill site in 1907. For many years a companion millstone supported Mr. Karner's front porch, on a later house, built across the present road directly north of the mill site. Half of this second stone may now be seen in the LDS Visitors Center in Independence, Missouri.
    Because of its significance to the movement, the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, now known as Community of Christ, acquired the Haun's Mill property in 1960. The site has been improved through the years and marked. Because of differing interpretations about the meaning of this site, it has proven difficult to maintain adequate directional and interpretive signage through the years.
    The RLDS Church conducted an archaeological survey in the 1970s when a proposed dam downstream threatened to flood the area. Around this same time an iron wheel, sometimes identified as a mill face wheel, was uncovered from the stream bank. This artifact may now be seen at the LDS Museum of Church History and Art in Salt Lake City, Utah.
    Hopefully, in coming years further research can uncover the actual contours of the settlement, allowing placement of appropriate markers.
    Once the symbol of the cultural tensions of the 1838 Missouri "Mormon War," history now understands all parties as equal contributors to this horrific event. Haun's Mill now may be seen as a potent reminder of the perpetual need for greater understanding and tolerance between all peoples.