Sunday, June 12, 2011

Before and After Mt. Pisgah - Part 2

by Clare B. Christensen, 1979, Salt Lake City, Utah


The Day that Mobs Came to the Morley Settlement


“On September 10th [1845], an armed mob entered Yolrome [a code name for Morley]. The children were so frightened they never forgot that day. Most of the men were away. One of the neighbors ran to Emeline Cox’s home and said, ‘Here comes a mob of eighteen men.’ Nine years old Fred lay sick with a fever. One of the mobbers came to the door and told Emeline to get what she wanted out of the house in a hurry. She helped her sick boy to a near-by tree where he lay down on a blanket. Sic year old Louisa held her two year old sister, Eliza. William, not quite five years, followed his mother. She began removing their belongings from the little home. She was five months pregnant. The little cupboard was too heavy for her. Some of the houses were beginning to burn. Two men stood ready to burn Emeline’s home. She turned to them and said, ‘Won’t one of you men help me get my cupboard out?’ They both stared at her. One of them shook his head. After hesitating, the other man walked in and dragged the cupboard out of the door. The men carried some straw into the house and threw it on the floor. They took burning sticks from the fireplace and set fire to the straw. They carried burning sticks out and stabbed one each into the hay-stack and a stack of unthrashed grain. . . .


“When the men returned in the evening, F. Walter helped to cook supper on the dying embers of his home. They loaded their belongings in a wagon and spent that night at a house about two miles from Morley Settlement. The next day, they moved on toward Nauvoo in a heavy rain storm.” (pp. 115-116)



When Brigham Young and the Council of Twelve Apostles at Nauvoo learned of the plight of the people in the Morley Settlement, they “issued the following notice to the brethren in and around Nauvoo.:


September 12, 1845

To the Brethren in and about Nauvoo, Greeting:


The Council of the Church requests every man who has a team to go immediately to the Morley Settlement, and act in concert with President Solomon Hancock in removing the sick, the women and children, goods and grain to Nauvoo.

[Signed]

Brigham Young president

[DHC VII page 443]



“Men with 134 teams responded and went to bring the homeless to Nauvoo. . . .


“Mary Cox wrote:


“I think Brother [Stephen] Markham came and took us up to Nauvoo where we found Walter and [his brothers] Orville and Amos all living near each other on what they called Parley Street. . . .there were three and four families living in many of the homes but there were not many complaints.” (pp. 117-118) Thus they spent the winter of 1845-46.



For those who visit Nauvoo, it will be good to remember that when Walter and Emeline had to leave the Morley settlement, they lived on Parley Street during the winter of 1845-46 and that is where our great-grandmother Rosalie Ellen Cox was born.


{Karen}


1 comment:

  1. Oh Karen! I should have been reading this blog more religiously! We just got back from Nauvoo on the 6th of July. I'm now following the blog, so I don't miss anything! We had such a fun time and looked up some of our ancestors!

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