Posted by:
badseed
(
)
Date: February 11, 2011 01:38PM
Fleeing Nauvoo before Carthage—
(PBS Mormons Site, Taken from Church History: Selections from the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, edited by LDS Scholar Daniel H. Ludlow)
"However, threats of mob violence increased. In Warsaw and Carthage, newspapers called for extermination of the Mormons. On June 18, Joseph Smith mobilized his troops to protect Nauvoo. When Illinois governor Thomas Ford apparently sided with the opposition and ordered the Church leaders to stand trial again on the same charges, this time in Carthage, Joseph and Hyrum first considered appealing to U.S. President John Tyler, but then decided instead to cross the Mississippi and escape to the West. Pressured by family and friends who felt abandoned and who believed Joseph to be nearly invincible, he agreed to return and surrender; but he prophesied that he would be going "like a lamb to the slaughter" and would be "murdered in cold blood" (HC 6:555, 559)."
Exactly the same from the Encyclopedia of Mormonism.
http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm4/doc_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/EoM&CISOPTR=3904&CISOBOX=1Masonic Cry of Distress—
Defenders claim that because John Taylor was there and did not mention the cry of distress that the others are mistaken. They were not there and the accounts are late. That said, Taylor was a Mason and being he had promised to not reveal the cry of distress may have had other reasons for not making the connection specifically...????
John Taylor (eyewitness): "In Carthage jail Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith "gave such signs of distress as would have commanded the interposition and benevolence of Savages or Pagans. They were both Masons in good standing. . . . Joseph's last exclamation was, 'O Lord, my God!'" (Times and Seasons, vol. 5, no. 13, 15 July 1844, 585).
Heber C. Kimball: "Masons, it is said, were even among the mob that murdered Joseph and Hyrum in Carthage jail. Joseph, leaping the fatal window, gave the Masonic signal of distress. The answer was the roar of his murderers' muskets" (Orson F. Whitney, Life of Heber C. Kimball [Salt Lake City: Juvenile Instructor Office, 1888], 26).
Zina D. H. Young [1878]: "I am the daughter of a Master Mason [i.e., daughter of Heber C. Kimball]! I am the widow of a Master Mason [i.e., Joseph Smith] who, when leaping from the window of Carthage jail pierced with bullets, made the Masonic sign of distress; but . . . those signs were not heeded" (Andrew Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia [Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson History Company, 1901], 1:698).
Gun Smuggled into Carthage—
http://en.fairmormon.org/Joseph_Smith/Martyrdom/Hiding_Joseph%27s_gun