This quick story below gives a short version (adapted for kids). It doesn't mention the mob beating the printers and tarring and feathering them which also happened.
There are numerous histories, books and court affadavits, on the killing, murder, rape, violation of Constitutional rights, losing property, false imprisonment, Extermination Order, fored migration resulting in starvation and freezing to death. The killing of children at Haun's mill. Or the killing of Joseph Smith's infant son etc. etc.
I have ancestors who died on the plains due to the forced migration. There ia a mass grave site and memorial in Omaha, (Winter Quarters) Nebraska with the names of a few hundred children most under 5 who died. The MSM has been lying about it for years. but the record is there for anyone interested.
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Saving the Book of Commandments
Fifteen-year-old Mary Elizabeth Rollins and her thirteen-year-old sister Caroline lived in Independence, Jackson County, Missouri, in 1833. At this time, revelations Joseph Smith had received were being printed by William W. Phelps, who had opened a print shop and newspaper office on the upper floor of his home. The printed revelations were to be bound into a book called the Book of Commandments.
By July the non-Mormons in the area were angry because of the growing number of Mormons. Earlier in the year some people in Missouri had been trying to get the Mormons to move away from Jackson County. When Brother Phelps wrote a newspaper editorial that was misunderstood by the non-Mormons, it increased their anger. The non-Mormons held a town meeting and ordered the Mormons to leave their new homes or be killed. Mormon leaders called to the meeting were told they had only 15 minutes to move out of the county.
Before the 15 minutes had passed, the mob broke into the home of Brother Phelps. "Sister Phelps was alone with her children when the threatening mob surrounded the house" (p. 36). She quickly took "her sick baby in her arms [and] hurried with the other children ... to safety in the woods close by. Concealed in a corner of a nearby fence, Mary Elizabeth and Caroline watched with horror as the angry men rushed into the house [and threw] the family's [things] into the street. Upstairs the mob found the valuable press and ... eagerly they hurled the [printing press and type out the window] to the street below" (pp. 3637). Someone said, " 'So much for the Mormon commandments,' [and then] dumped the huge sheets of printed pages onto the pile of [trash] in the street. Mary Elizabeth decided to try to save the revelations. 'They will kill us!' warned Caroline" (p. 37), but she agreed to help.
When the mob had their backs turned, the girls ran into the street and filled their arms with the pages. They "were just turning away when some of the mob spotted them. ... Squeezing through a gap in the fence, [the girls] found themselves in a cornfield, hidden ... by thick rows of [cornstalks]" (p. 37). The men searched through the corn but could not find the girls, who had placed the "precious printed sheets on the ground [and] covered them with their bodies" (p. 37).
When the sound of footsteps faded, the girls made their way to an old log stable. "They approached cautiously ... [and] found Sister Phelps and her older children, carrying branches to pile up to make beds for the night" (p. 37). Knowing Brother Phelps would know what to do with the papers, the girls gave them to Sister Phelps.
Mary Elizabeth and Caroline were sad that they had not had time to read the revelations they had risked their lives to save. However, before long "Oliver Cowdery made up copies of the book, incomplete as it was, and gave one [book] to [Mary Elizabeth]. Two years later the revelations in the little Book of Commandments were [reprinted], together with [other revelations]" (p. 37). Today we have these important revelations printed in the Doctrine and Covenants.
Adapted from Maureen Ursenbach Beecher, "Discover Your Heritage: 'They Will Kill Us!' " New Era, Sept. 1974, 3637.
Carried out by Lilburn Boggs DEMOCRAT-Missouri
Well, looky there Mary Rollins (same age) is listed as one of Joe Smith's wives #9 (but by then she had another husband too). Isn't that convenient??
| Wife | Date | Age | Husband* |
| Emma Hale Fanny Alger Lucinda Morgan Harris Louisa Beaman Zina Huntington Jacobs Presendia Huntington Buell Agnes Coolbrith Sylvia Sessions Lyon Mary Rollins Lightner Patty Bartlett Sessions Marinda Johnson Hyde Elizabeth Davis Durfee Sarah Kingsley Cleveland Delcena Johnson Eliza R. Snow Sarah Ann Whitney Martha McBride Knight Ruth Vose Sayers Flora Ann Woodworth Emily Dow Partridge Eliza Maria Partridge Almera Johnson Lucy Walker Sarah Lawrence Maria Lawrence Helen Mar Kimball Hanna Ells Elvira Cowles Holmes Rhoda Richards Desdemona Fullmer Olive Frost Melissa Lott Nancy Winchester Fanny Young |
Jan 1827 1833 1838 Apr 1841 Oct 1841 Dec 1841 Jan 1842 Feb 1842 Feb 1842 Mar 1842 Apr 1842 Jun 1842 Jun 1842 Jul 1842 Jun 1842 Jul 1842 Aug 1842 Feb 1843 Spring 1843 Mar 1843 Mar 1843 Apr 1843 May 1843 May 1843 May 1843 May 1843 Mid 1843 Jun 1843 Jun 1843 Jul 1843 Mid 1843 Sep 1843 1843 Nov 1843 |
22 16 37 26 20 31 33 23 23 47 27 50 53 37 38 17 37 33 16 19 22 30 17 17 19 14 29 29 58 32 27 19 14 56 |
NONE NONE George W. Harris NONE Henry Jacobs Norman Buell NONE Windsor Lyon Adam Lightner David Sessions Orson Hyde Jabez Durfee John Cleveland NONE NONE NONE NONE Edward Sayers NONE NONE NONE NONE NONE NONE NONE NONE NONE Jonathan Holmes NONE NONE NONE NONE NONE NONE |
| * Living Husband at the time of Marriage to Joseph Smith |
References |
As one who has had my sources ridiculed as being prejudiced, I see that the source you use for "saving the book of commandments" is the New Era magazine, an official magazine of the LDS church. Can you provide a neutral source for this story?