Though Hiram Rathbun, son of Robert, was but a youth at the time, he vividly remembered his experience. "I was at Haun's Mill at the time of the massacre, that occurred in 1838, under the extermination order of the Governors to exterminate Mormons, Nehemiah Comstock, captain of the militia with whom I was acquainted, raised about 250 men, and came down to Haunts Mill, and while on his way there he stopped at my uncle's house, and they went in and they wanted their arms; their guns I believe they demanded,

    They did not take their arms, but went on down to the mill, where we all were, and when they came up the first thing we heard was “fire" and they did fire, and kept on firing until a man by the name of Evans, a Latter Day Saint, ran out and held up a white flag, and asked them to stop shooting, that he would surrender; but they kept on shooting away, so he ran with others to get away. While they were running they shot down some of them who were attempting to escape, and so we all ran into an old blacksmith shop that was made of logs not notched down closely, and they kept on shooting, and shot them down in there.

    After the shooting was over, and the militia had gone away, the ones who had escaped came back and took care as best they could of the wounded and the dead. I was shot through one of my limbs. After they got through taking care of the others, my father and uncle came and put me on a litter, and carried me into the house, and from that wound I am crippled for life. There was no fight there, because there was no resistance made at all. There was no resistance upon the part of the Latter Day Saints. There were nineteen killed, but history does not state but 18 as being killed, but I know there were nineteen according to the names of the ones that were killed, and I carried their names in my head for a good many years, but I have forgotten them now. [Hiram Rathbun testimony in the Temple Lot Suit, page 221.]

    Charles Ross lived in a rented house aand operated the mill after the expulsion of the Saints from Missouri. He recalled, "I suppose I met some forty or fifty of these Mormons, and perhaps about the same number on the other side. I was in a mill there at the time, and the Mormons had come to get their grinding done, and we would talk matters over, and they would tell me (about their trouble) when they would be getting their grinding done. I mean Haun's Mill; it was the only mill for many miles around - both parties treated me all right.
    I went up to Haun's Mill the first of February 1839 (first day)- I took possession of the mill with my nephew. There were two of three wounded men there at that time, pretty badly wounded.
    I knew the old gentleman Rathbun there: the father of the one who appeared here as a witness. I knew the one who was here as a witness when he was there. He remained there with his mother in our neighborhood for some time; I cannot say how long. I think I saw him at the spring of 1839 at my house. I know his mother was there, and I believe he was. Yes sir, I recollect now of his being there, and he was lame at that time. I was in Far West in May after the Mormons left, at the time that the first Court was held in that County.
    Yes sir, I owned real estate in Caldwell County, about nine hundred acres at one time. I know of a boy that was shot during these troubles there at Haun's Mill, in a blacksmith shop, and the man that did the deed stood on the ground the next summer and said: “I stood right here, Charley, and shot that boy under the bellows right there, for the boy run up under the bellows for protection."
    And that is where he shot him. That was in 1839, along in the summer. The man was boasting of the shooting, that I took by the shoulder and shook him and said "Bill Runnels, never tell that again in the world." I said "be ashamed of it" and he said “Nits make lice," and that was all the reply he made to what I said to him. [Charles R. Ross, in Temple Lot Suit, page 265.] I might know the name of the boy now if I heard it- It was Bill Runnels who told me, he shot the boy, and he lived in Caldwell Co.
    There was another man I was-acquainted with who was in that fight, for he shot a man by the name of Lewis. Across the creek on the top of the hill: and he was there the next summer after the fight, and walked out on top of the hill and showed me where he shot the man, where he stood when he fired the shot, and where the man was that he shot.

    He shot this man Lewis from the fence on the other side of the creek, and two years afterward his remains were taken out of the field and buried, for he was not put in the well with the rest of them. I was not there when the body was taken up, but I was there after it was taken up and in a box in the house, and I examined it myself, and the size of the ball that he shot him with was the same as the size of the ball that the man told me he shot him with, and the hole was right through both blades of the shoulder. I saw that with my own eyes, and this man told me that he shot him. There is no hearsay about that, for that is something I saw myself.
    Neither of these men were ever indicted or brought to justice for shooting any of these men. They are dead now, but they were never brought to justice for what they did, unless they have been since they died. One of them lived near Utica, and the other in the northeastern part of our county.

    What [do] I know about these people being thrown in the well when they were killed[?] There can be no manner of doubt about it, they were put in the well, for the next spring when it thawed out it stunk like an old dead horse. It was a 12 foot well and eighteen of those Mormons were put in there. Afterwards I helped fill the well up. I call it the grave, too. It smelt so bad, and annoyed me so much, for it was within ten steps of my door. It was so had that I had to fill it up. Yes, sir there were 18 people in that well.
    There were a good many people killed there at Haun's Mill, but they were not all put into that well. This man Lewis was not put in the well that I told you about; all the rest of them were put in there. I was well acquainted with Mr. McBride's family; he was the gentleman who was cut with the corn knife. A man from Davies County by the name of Rogers --- he belonged to that company that came there to fight the Mormons,--and he cut Mr. McBride, who was an old gentlemen, with a piece of a scythe or corn knife,---cut him all to pieces with it, and out off his head.
    I got personally acquainted with his family afterwards, and bought what they had when they started away. The body of this man McBride that he chopped up, was put in that well. [Testimony of Charles R. Ross in the Temple Lot Suit, pages 265, 67, 68.]