Haun's Mill massacre narrative, 1839.

ArchivalResource

Young, Joseph, 1797-1881. Haun's Mill massacre narrative, 1839.

Haun's Mill massacre narrative, 1839.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/367427577

Joseph Young's handwritten and signed eyewitness account of the Haun's Mill Massacre which occured on 30 Oct. 1838. The item is dated 4 June 1839. Young describes the mob, his escape, and the condition of the slain and the survivors. Young moved his family from Kirtland, Ohio, to Missouri and stopped at Haun's Mill, in Caldwell County, Missouri, on 28 Oct. 1838. Two days later on 30 Oct. 1838 a mob of two hundred men led by Thomas Jennings attacked the settlement. Young escaped by fleeing into the nearby hills and by hiding in bushes. But he witnessed the hundreds of rounds shot into the blacksmith shop that killed seventeen persons, including Thomas McBride, Levi Merric, and Sardius Smith, an eight or nine year-old boy. After the massacre, Young helped bury the dead. He later wrote this narrative of his experience. On 4 June 1839 John Woods of the Circuit Court in Adams County, Missouri, witnessed and sealed the account which was later used by the Mormon Church in its documentation of the sufferings of its members in Missouri. Also included is a photocopy and a typescript of the item.

3 folders.

Harold B. Lee Library