Bogart's Visit to Parsons'
24 October 1838
In response to aggressive Mormon actions in Daviess County, Missouri, General Atchison ordered Captain Bogart to defend the Ray County line from possible Mormon incursion. Heading into the lower range of townships in Caldwell County, Bogart's company divided and sent out scouts.
Arza Judd, Jr., was at Thorit Parsons' home when "a company of armed men (about twenty or upwards came there. And, after asking me something about my faith, they ordered me to leave. Mr. Parsons asked where should we go; and they answered that was our [own] lookout. 1 do not know any of this company; they talked something of giving Far West thunder and lightning before the next day night; they inquired for guns; and one, who seemed to command the company, said, "we must make haste to go—Gilliam is to camp west of Far West to-night, and we must join him…." ARZA JUDD, Jr. [Document Concerning Correspondence and Orders..., 148-49].
Bogart's Lieutenant Asa Cook, with two others encountered a Mormon on the road to Far West. "I told him to tell his leaders when he arrived at Far West, that we were no mob, but militia, acting under General Atchison's order. Afer this man left us... [we] turned across the prairie to the timber on the head waters of Log Creek, and, at a house in the edge of the timber, I met with a number of Capt. Bogart's company, to which I belonged; and I heard Mr. Lockhart, one of the Company, inquire(I think,) where Parsons lived; and I understood the answer to be, from the man of the house, that he lived lower down the creek. I never heard Capt. Bogart say anything to this man, like odering him off. Capt. Bogart had learned that he might be attacked that night, and he was out on the edge of Caldwell, to discover if the Mormons were making any movements indicating an intention to attack him... Asa Cook." [Testimony of Asa Cook, Correspondence and Orders, 149].
Thorit Parsons was one of several church members north of the Caldwell-Ray County line who received a visit from Bogart's forces on 24 October 1838. Parsons "was living in Caldwell county at the time of the battle with Captain Bogart, on the head of the east fork of Log creek [SE ¼ of SW ¼ Section 24 Township 55 Range 29, Rockford Township, Caldwell Co., entered 27 March, 1837], about five or six miles from" where the battle later took place. On the day before the fight, between 1 and 3 o'clock in the evening, a company of twenty-three, mostly armed men, came to my house; they inquired my name, and told me I must go away – that I must leave that place." [Testimony of Thorit Parsons, Correspondence and Orders, 148]
When Bogart's men left, "Brother Parsons dispatched a messenger with this news to Far West. Sidney Rigdon explained, "One afternoon a messenger arrived at Far West calling for help, saying that a banditti had crossed the south line of Caldwell, and were engaged in threatening the citizens with death if they did not leave their homes and go out of the state within a very short time; the time not precisely recollected; but I think it was the next day by ten o'clock, but of this I am not certain. He said they were setting fire to the prairies, in view of burning houses and desolating farms, that they had set fire to a wagon loaded with goods and they were all consumed; that they had also set fire to a house, and when he left, it was burning down."[Sidney Rigdon, Times and Seasons, 4, No. 18 (1 August 1843)]. Nothing was done about the news at the time and the messenger returned to his home.