Alex, nicely reproduces the stone marker in pictures and text. Though, perhaps most importantly, Alex failed to adequately allude to MMFF board member Mike Riggs' important contribution in formulating the perceptive wording of the marker. Mike makes a significant contribution with what appears to be a major reinterpretation of the Haun's Mill episode. Reflecting cutting-edge scholarship and analysis, Mike places this event squarely in a larger American History context- rather than an isolated Mormon cultural event/or local Missouri lore. Significantly, the inscription reminds those who read it of the perpetual need for greater understanding and tolerance between people of differing ideologies. The text also makes it clear all parties were equal contributors to this event and makes an attempt to clarify some common factual historical inaccuracies. It is a masterly, concise and helpful interpretation of the reasons behind this clash of cultures.
Alex does take MMFF to task in his article, though in his usual kindly way, for identifying the mill's inclusive dates as 1836-1845. Alex explains, "Evidence indicates that Jacob Haun, for whom the settlement was named, established his mill on Shoal Creek in 1835, although it was possibly as early as 1834 [citing Caldwell and Livingston County History, 100, 477]. Why 1836 is the date given on the new marker is not known, although it is probably assumed that Haun did not construct the mill until late 1836 when the general Mormon occupation of Caldwell County began. . ."
As we helped Mike sort historical details, MMFFers felt strongly about the mill's construction date being around 1836. Dating of the marker was heavily influenced by an important alternative tradition that is not perhaps as well known. During the1830s, Church of Christ (Mormon) missionaries established a thriving church presence in Richland County, Ohio, about 100 miles southwest of Kirtland. Among the new members was a successful millwright named Jacob Myers and his family. Construction of a well operating flourmill was highly technical and beyond the skill of most millers. Myers was well known throughout central Ohio as a superior millwright. Church members in Richland County eventually heeded their leaders' call to gather to Missouri. In the fall of 1836, under the leadership of Myers, more than 50 wagons of Richland Saints set out in search of new homes in Missouri. When they arrived, Myers and his wife, Sarah, and two boys, along with many other church members from Richland County, settled along Shoal Creek, in Caldwell County. Members of Myers family first acquired land in Caldwell County in 1837 [Johnson, OLECC]. At the heart of what rapidly became an extended settlement, Jacob Haun may have already built a dam and sawmill. Upon arrival, Myers and his sons built a companion grain/flour mill that was later sold to Jacob Haun and Ellis Ames. The source of this information is from Ellis' wife Olive, who was in a perfect position to know of such an arrangement. [History of the RLDS Church, 2:236]. Olive affiliated with the RLDS Church at San Bernardino, California in 1864 and her husband Ellis joined in 1870. [San Bernardino RLDS Membership Records, Book B, beginning on page 3] If Ohio mills were Jacob Myers' model, his mill would have been a substantial structure, probably of frame construction, not some simple crudely built building. Mills typically were three stories in height, to permit grain storage in the upper level, grinding on the main floor, and space for the machinery below. Myers' son, Jacob Jr., purchased adjoining property to the west of Jacob Haun's and also helped operate the mill. Though Haun was apparently living on Shoal Creek well before 1836, Myers could not have built the flourmill before late 1836 or 1837. While we felt confident about the construction date- we were less sure about the date for its demise.
Unfortunately, when one attempts to advance understanding of an event, it is easy to introduce additional misunderstandings. Considerately, Alex avoids what is probably the marker's most serious error. Not knowing when the stone was moved to Breckenridge, MMFF simply added the following line:
"In memory of the massacre, local residents moved this Mill Stone to Breckenridge sometime after 1927." The earliest account we could find at the time definitely placed the stone in Breckenridge park in the late 1920s. Since then, Annette Curtis found a source that places the stone at Breckenridge much earlier. And, as Alex points out - sometimes Archivists pay no attention to the information they furnish others- the earliest photograph of the mill stone at Breckenridge in the Community of Christ pictorial archives is dated 1915.
The reverse of the photo reads, "Photo by [Charles] Brackenbury, 1915, give credit." This date is corroborated by other photos shot during this same jaunt to church historical sites in 1915. Church Historian Heman C. Smith noted, "We have long been planning a visit to what was known in former days as the city and stake of Adam-ondi-Ahman, and other places. So opportunity offering itself, the historian in company with his wife, his eldest daughter, Mrs. James W. Davis, and Brother and Sister Charles Brackenbury left Lamoni, Iowa on October 29, 1915, in Brother Brackenbury's comfortable automobile, bound for Missouri's borders" [see: Heman C. Smith, "Visit to Adam-ondi-Ahman," Journal of History, 9 (April 1916):130].
Holzapfel, Cottle and Stoddard's Church History in Black and White, reproduces George Edward Anderson's last known picture of the stone at Haun's Mill in 1907. [Holzapfel, Cottle and Stoddard's Church History in Black and White: George Edward Anderson's Photographic Mission to Latter-day Saint Historical Sites, 1907-08, Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center Brigham Young University, 1995), 100]. So probably, it would be more appropriate if the MMFF marker had read: Moved to Breckenridge sometime after 1907.
Annette Curtis adds this editor's note:
The millstone was moved to Breckenridge park about 1914 per Breckenridge Bulletin June 26, 1941 and definitely before 1924 per Seymore G. Young. See MMF (F Newsletter), No. 27, page 3. In Bertha Booth's speech at Haun's Mill she said 1913 or 1914. –Annette
