"Far West"
The Old Mormon Settlement in Missouri.
How it Appeared Thirteen Years Ago and What It is To-day.
A Sketch of Its History.

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Joseph Smith Home at Far West
200 Yards Southwest of the Temple Excavation

    Some twelve or thirteen years ago we had occasion to travel by private conveyance from Cameron in Clinton, to Mirable [sic], a small village in Caldwell county.
    Our journey was rather a monotonous one, unrelieved by any incident worthy of note, for the only persons we encountered were a small party of Federal soldiers and a solitary traveler wending his way northward, and who returned our greeting with the cold glance of suspicion peculiar to those perilous days, for we were in the midst of the rebellion.
    After journeying some seven or eight miles through prairie and red brush, occasionally relieved by patches of scrub oak and graceful belts of young timber that fringed the winding course of a bold stream which we were sometimes, under the necessity of crossing, about seven or eight miles from Cameron, in a southeasterly direction, we suddenly emerged upon a plain which had the appearance of a long deserted settlement.
    It was in the month of July, and the surface of the ground was literally matted with clusters of dewberry vines, laden with tempting fruit. But a single human habitation appeared to relieve the monotony of the landscape, and the utter solitude of the locality was only rendered the more pronounced by the presence of innumerable wells, whose boxes and windlasses had long since disappeared, leaving nothing but the gloomy pits to tell the tale of thronging life that once existed there, and afford us a theme for moralizing on the mutability of all human affairs.
    As we gazed with surprise and wonder on the strange and melancholy scene, our taciturn guide, the driver of the vehicle, broke his long silence with the remark: "We are now in the Mormon city of 'Far West,' and just across the hollow is the foundation of the temple."
    So, indeed, we were, and how many, like ourselves, had lived for years within forty miles of this interesting locality, scarcely conscious of its existence!
    But the matter of surprise was, that with the solitary exception before referred to, and with the occasional debris of a long-fallen chimney, scarce a vestige of the several hundred habitations that, some thirty years before, clustered in compact mass upon this beautiful prairie, remained to tell the tale of sudden rise and correspondingly prompt disappearance of a community which once counted its numbers by thousands. It seemed as though the vengeance of heaven had employed in its wrath the most uncompromising of Vandal means to wipe from the fair face of nature and the memory of men a foul and disgusting blot upon the body politic.
    Such was our impression of the place, twelve or thirteen years ago.
    What is it to-day? The delightful air of our autumn months and the gorgeous variation of foliage presented in the appearance of our native woods at that season of the year, are characteristics of our clime that never fail to evoke the enthusiastic admiration of the intelligent and contemplative traveller [sic] who visits our land at that pleasant period. Familiar as the regular recurrence of seasons has rendered these natural attractions to our senses, we ourselves experience a new sentiment of delight as we gaze in each succeeding fall, at the glorious tintings of our native woods, and are less disposed to wonder at what we might otherwise be induced to regard as the unduly extravagant admiration of the stranger who looks upon them for the first time through the charming atmosphere of novelty.
    It was in this glorious season of the year, on the third day of last October, that, in company with Major A. T. Baubie, one of the first founders, and today, a leading citizen of the enterprising and flourishing young city of Cameron, we started on a tour of exploration to the deserted town of Far West in Caldwell county. Directing our course southward over a fair prairie road, we were struck with the beauty and excellence of the improvements that had developed in the past few years: well appearing and substantial residences, long rows of well kept and squarely cut hedges; young orchards, with the unmistakable promise of abundant fruit, all attested the thrift, enterprise and good taste of the settlers that had thus improved a territory which but a few years ago, was prairie and red brush.
    Progressing abut four miles in a southerly direction, we struck the hazel brush and timber in the vicinity of Shoal Creek, and bent our course to the southeast for about three or four miles, scarcely, however, being out of sight of a human habitation of some kind; for a large portion of this brush has been cleared, and well improved farms and excellent residences occasionally appear, even in the comparatively wild district. Crossing Shoal Creek, we ascended an eminence from which we enjoyed a magnificent prospect of diversified scenery for many miles in circuit; while far to the background of the October sky, appeared in bold relief, the lofty and spacious structure of Kidder College, on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, with the roofs of the village buildings reflecting the glorious sunlight, and calling to mind the well-known lines of Rogers:
    "'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view,
    And robes the cottage in a silver hue."
    Drawing up to the door of the first farm house, we inquired: "How far are we from Far West?" "You are right in the middle of the public square," was the reply that greeted our astonished ears, "And where is the Mormon Temple?" "About two hundred yards ahead in a corn-filed by the side of the road." So indeed we were. But what a change in the past twelve or thirteen years! Where all was solitude and melancholy evidence of complete and absolute desertion, were now well-improved farms, roads and fences. How many metamorphoses has the once stirring but now almost forgotten site of historic Far West undergone in the past thirty years!
    Advancing about a quarter of a mile we arrived at the pleasant residence of J. W. Whitmer, the pioneer settler of the locality, on whose farm is located the foundation of the Temple before referred to. Mr. Whitmer, by whom we were hospitably entertained, is an old gentleman of fine intelligence and possessed of a fund of information in reference to Far West, for which we would vainly seek elsewhere; and we hold ourselves deeply indebted to his courteous communicativeness for a large proportion of whatever of interest we may offer our readers in this article.
    Before entering upon the history of the settlement we would briefly refer to the few prominent landmarks which to-day recall the site of this interesting locality. The most prominent feature of the landscape is the spacious residence of this gentleman with its extensive yard shaded by a grove of lofty locust and other forest trees, beautiful and well kept blue grass lawn, and other surroundings, which bespeak the refined taste of the proprietor. A few hundred yards west of his residence is the foundation, or rather cellar, of the Temple which, in nine cases out of ten would escape the observation of the casual traveler who might happen to pass its site- for it is nothing more nor less than a more than a half filled rectangular excavation, 120 X 80 feet in extent, the corners of which are marked by four rude and ponderous corner stones which, though considerably sunk by the settling of the earth, are still distinctly and prominently visible.
    The third feature of interest, perhaps the most attractive on the spot, is the former residence of Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet, and founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Above we present a faithful cut of its appearance to-day. This is a rude, old fashioned, one story, frame building, with two rooms, situated about a quarter of a mile southwest of the temple site, on the n e qr of sec. 15, T. 56, R. 29. A small ell room which was afterwards added, was subsequently moved away. An unusually large and clumsy stone chimney at the north end of the building is its distinguishing characteristic. Otherwise the structure is an exceedingly ordinary and common-place building, suggestive of anything rather than the residence of the founder of a mighty sect whose rise and progress constitute an ear in the history of our Republic.
    The location of the house, however, is strikingly beautiful; a blue grass pasture of emerald green slopes on all sides from its site, and a towering grove of locust and cottonwood trees embower the interesting relic. The house is at present occupied as a residence by N. Howard. The farm on which it stands was once the property of J. Hughes, but now belongs to Col. Calvin F. Burnes, of Saint Joseph. It is a remarkable fact that many writers of respectable authority who have chronicled under various heads, the rise and progress of Mormonism in our land, have been content with the baldest and most cursory glance at the episode of Far West, which really constitutes one of the most important features of our State history; while others who have published abridgements of the same fail to refer in any way to the remarkable events which transpired in that locality, and speak of the Mormons as emigrating from Jackson county to Nauvoo, Ill., altogether ignoring the existence of such a place as Far West, which once boasted a Mormon population variously estimated from two to three thousand souls.
    It is not our purpose to write a history of Mormonism, the outlines of which are sufficiently familiar to every general reader; but we propose in this brief sketch to fill a much neglected void in the history of our State, and preserve from utter oblivion one of the most stirring events in the story of its early settlement.
    In the autumn of the year 1836, a band of Mormons from Clay county made their appearance in the neighborhood of the locality afterwards known as Far West, and requested of the few settlers who then inhabited that sparsely peopled district permission to settle among them.
    Unsuspicious of any evil intent, the hospitable pioneers unhesitatingly consented, and the Mormon immigration immediately began.
    This country, soon after erected into the county of Caldwell, then constituted a portion of Ray county. The Mormons, though openly expressing the dogma that "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, and we are his servants," did not seem disposed to run any unwarrantable risks on the first advent; they entered a large tract of land, paying for the same according to law.
    We are informed, on reliable authority, that the poorest Mormon who desired to enter land had no difficulty in procuring from his brethren the necessary means, so powerful and practical was the bond which united this peculiar people. Almost immediately on their arrival they laid out the site of their future city of Far West. The town site was one mile square, including the northeast quarter of section 14, the northeast quarter of section 15, the southwest quarter of section 10, and the northwest quarter of section 11, in township 56, range 29, of what is now Caldwell county, about eight miles southwest of Hamilton, and about the same distance southeast of Cameron.
    Among those who came on an exploring tour and afterwards selected the above described locality was John Whitmer, before mentioned, who owns the beautiful farm on which the site of the Temple is located. Mr. Whitmer is regarded by all who know him as an estimable citizen, and a living evidence of the fact that among those who professed the strange faith were occasionally to be found men of sterling integrity and unblemished character.
    In the spring of 1836 there were not more than fifteen or sixteen houses in the county, but before the leaves had fallen from the trees in the succeeding autumn, a wonderful change appeared, and a young city had sprung on the late uninhabited waste, as by the stroke of the enchanter's wand.
    The first house within the limits of the town site was built in August 1836 by a man by the name of Dombsby [Ormsby], and a very short time after John Whitmer built the second. This building was long used as a hotel, and afterwards served the purpose of a stable. Four years ago it was a complete ruin.
    The town was laid out in blocks twenty-four rods square, and the streets were on a grand scale. The four principal avenues were each eight rods wide, and all the others five rods wide. These diverged at right angles from a public square in the centre [sic], designed as the site of a grand Temple, which, however, was never built. In 1837 the cellar under the prospective building was dug. We are informed that the excavation, 120 X 80 feet in area, and 4 or 5 feed deep, was accomplished in about one-half of a day, more than 500 men being employed in the work, with no other means of removing the earth than hand barrows.
    It is generally believed that on the 4th of July following, which was duly observed as a national holiday, the corner stone of the Temple was laid. This, however, is a mistake. In the fall of 1838 and spring of 1839, the Mormons were expelled the country.
    But a short time after, in the same spring, a small band including some of the twelve Apostles, had the temerity to return, and at the dead hour of midnight, with no witnesses but the silent stars and the All-seeing Eye, amid hymns of solemn rejoicing and the exercise of such other rites as their peculiar faith demanded, deposited in the northeast corner of the Temple site a copy of the Bible and a copy of the Book of Mormon, which they claim to be a revealed interpretation of the mysteries of Holy Writ. They then lowered upon those evidences of their faith the rude and ponderous corner stone which, with the three others at their several corners, remain to this day, an unpretending but enduring monument of the bold and fearless zeal of these determined fanatics. The Temple was designed to be one of the most elegant and stately structures in the United States, and but for the extravagant assumption of despotic authority, and high-handed acts of lawlessness on the part of fanatical and unscrupulous leaders of these misguided people, which aroused the just indignation and determined resistance of the "Gentiles," as they designated all who were not Mormon, the fair proportions of a stately structure would soon have remained to this day, a monument of invincible enterprise, and a proud landmark on the beautiful plains of Caldwell county.
    About half a mile west of town is the Old Burying Ground of the Mormons. It is now included within the limits of a farm owned by Mr. Boulton. Here are some two or three hundred graves, all more or less obliterated, with scarcely an occasional rude headstone to mark the presence of a once sacredly guarded, but long forsaken and forgotten village of the dead.
    But to return to the early history of the colony.
    By December of the year 1836, the Mormons in vast numbers had flocked from Clay and Jackson counties, from which latter place they had been driven for their acts of lawlessness by the incensed citizens, and taken up their abode in their new home of Far West.

John Whitmer Hotel

    In an incredibly short space of time, from two hundred and fifty to three hundred buildings were erected, with workshops, stores, school houses, etc., and Far West began to assume the air and proportions of a thriving and prosperous village. On the 26th of December, 1836, the limits of the county of Caldwell were defined, its territory including a portion of what had been Ray county, and in the spring of 1837, the same was established by the Legislature. About this time a printing press for the colony arrived at Liberty Landing. This, however, never reached Far West. An election of county officers was forthwith ordered, which resulted in the choice of Frank Maguire, W.W. Phelps and Ramsey, recommended by the Governor, as County Judges. With W. W. Phelps as President of the Board; John Cleminson, County and Circuit Clerk; John Skidmore, Sheriff; and Squires, County Surveyor. Austin A. King, afterwards Governor of the State, was elected Circuit Judge, and the first court was held in Far West, then the only town in the county, in 1837. The first building used for a courthouse here was originally built for a school house. It was also used as a town hall and served various public purposes.
    During Mormon rule, it stood in the southeast part of the town, but was afterwards moved to the centre [sic] of the square. In the winter of 1836-7 a saw and grist mill was built on Shoal creek, about one mile north of the town. In after years it was known as Fugitt's Mill. The mill building has long since been swept away by spring freshets; and in common with most of the old land marks, all traces of the mill dam have disappeared. In 1837, before internal dissentions began seriously to disturb the peace of the community, Far West enjoyed its palmiest days. Some five or six large general stores existed in the place, among which was the large establishment known as the "Committee Store." This was during the early days of Far West, when its name was a watchword to thousands who embraced the new faith, on either side of the Atlantic, just as Great Salt Lake City is to day.

    The bulk of the population of the county were Mormons. The leading spirits among the latter at this period were Joseph Smith, the Prophet, Hyrum Smith, John Carroll, Sidney Rigdon, Edward Partridge, W. W. Phelps, Philo Dibble, Elias Higbee, Oliver Cowdery, John Clemmison, John Daley, John and David Whitmer, and the Bozarths. Orson Hyde and Heber Kimball were in England, spreading through the length and breadth of the land the doctrines of their bold and unscrupulous sect. Brigham Young, in the land of steady habits, was bending every energy of his powerful intellect in the same cause, and astonishing the staid people of New England by the enthusiasm with which he defended its claims. Missionaries swarmed in every state of continental Europe, defying with a constancy worthy of a better cause the ridicule and contumely which they often encountered in the propagation of their strange doctrines, and meeting with the triumphant success rarely denied even though exercised in the wildest and most extravagant cause. In the appeals of these bold fanatics the name of Far West was heralded as the central point of the Promised Land, from whose borders the "saints" were to go forth and possess the earth and the fullness thereof.
    Far West continued to improve rapidly in growth and prosperity. This condition of things induced many good and industrious citizens to settle within the limits of the growing young city, and its rapidly developing neighborhood, while the same attractions drew thither many desperadoes and thieves, who soon succeeded in obtaining almost unbounded sway in the Mormon councils. They boldly declared that "the Lord had given the earth and the fullness thereof to his people," and that they consequently had the right to take whatever they pleased from the Gentiles.
    In pursuance of this declaration of right, bands of the most desperate and lawless characters strolled openly about the country taking forcible possession of whatever they pleased. Those among the sect whose sense of honor and justice revolted at these acts of villainy, were soon compelled, at least, to preserve a discreet silence in regard to their unpopular views of such conduct.
    We would observe here, parenthetically, that though many conflicting opinions have been uttered in reference to the matter, we are prepared to state, on reliable authority, that the difficulty in Caldwell county was originated by the Mormons carrying the election of Representative to the State Legislature in August, 1839 [sic], the Mormons being anti-slaveholders, or Free Soilers. The other version, (frequently stated and accepted by many), is that the first occasion of the difficulty was that, at a mass convention, the Mormons passed a resolution to the effect that the soil belonged to the "Lord's chosen people" and that they were the only ones entitled to this heritage.
    A band of miscreants known as Destroying Angles, were ever on the alert to detect the slightest defection on the part of those who presumed to call in question any set of lawlessness authorized by their leaders, and visit summary vengeance on their heads.
    In the dissentions that naturally resulted from this condition of affairs, several of their leading men apostatized and accused Smith of gross crimes and frauds. On the 25th of October, 1838, Thomas B. March [Marsh], corroborated by Hyde, said: "They have among them a company, consisting of all that are considered true Mormons, called the Danites, who have taken an oath to support the heads of the church in all things that they say or do, whether right or wrong. The plan of said Smith is to take this State, and he professes to his people to intend taking the whole United States, and ultimately the whole world. This is the belief of the church, and my own opinion of the Prophet's plan and designs. The Prophet inculcates the idea, and it is believed by every true Mormon that the prophecies of Smith are superior to the law of the land. I have heard the Prophet say that he would yet tread down his enemies and walk over their dead bodies; that if he was not let alone he would be a second Mahomet [sic] to this generation, and that he would make it one gore of blood from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific ocean."
    Peaceful and law abiding citizens who had sustained repeated wrongs and outraged at the hands of these people, were not disposed to accept quietly this defiant and menacing tone of the Mormon leaders, and these harangues contributed to no small degree to add fuel to the flame of excitement enkindled against these blatant outlaws. Rigdon, in a sermon preached at Far West July 4th, 1838, said: "We take God and all the holy angels to witness this day that we warn all men, in the name of Jesus Christ, to come on us no more forever. The man, or set of men, who attempts it, do it at the expense of their lives; and that mob that comes on us to disturb us, it shall be between them and us a war of extermination, for we will follow them till the last drop of their blood is spilled, or else they will have to exterminate us. For we will carry the seat of war to their own houses and to their own families, and one party or the other shall be utterly destroyed."
    As the followers of Smith largely out numbered the Gentiles, and as the county officers were mostly Mormons, they were enabled to act with impunity until their overbearing lawlessness excited the furious indignation of the other settlers, who not being able to obtain justice by lawful means, also resorted to mob violence and retaliation in kind, and many a deed of revolting atrocity was perpetrated on both sides, to the regret of all good men and the disgrace of civilization. In 1839 [sic] this discord had assumed such a fiendish character that Governor Boggs issued a proclamation ordering Major General David R. Atchison to call out the militia of his division to quell the insurgents and enforce the laws. He called out a part of the first brigade of the Missouri State militia, under command of General Alex. W. Doniphan, who proceeded at once to the scene of disturbance. The militia were place under the command of General John B. Clark. The Mormon forces, an undisciplined rabble, were led by G. W [M]. Hinkle. Far West, Haughn's [Haun's] Mills, and other points in the vicinity were fortified by the Mormons in a rude and unskillful manner that moved the derision and contempt of their comparatively well appointed and drilled adversaries. They intrenched themselves behind barricades of hastily collected logs, dilapidated wagons, old buggies, and literally anything and everything which presented itself in the terrible emergency which retributive justice had called down upon their heads.
    The first skirmish took place at Crooked River, in the southwestern part of the county. It is a popularly accepted opinion that the principle engagement was fought at Haughn's Mill, about five miles south of the present site of the flourishing town of Breckenridge, on the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad. We learn, on reliable authority, however, that the latter was not worthy of being dignified by the name of a skirmish, for the insurgents fled on the first approach of the militia. In the first fight, one man was killed on each side. The Mormon, in this instance, whose name we fail to recall, was one of the twelve Apostles.
    We learn from one who was present on the scene of conflict, shortly after the fight, that the shooting, in this engagement, to use his own expression, "was of the wildest character," more damage being done to the upper branches of the trees in the neighborhood, than to the enemy. There wee present in what is known as the Haughn's Mill fight 125 militia, one of whom it is claimed by some was killed. Some sixteen or eighteen Mormons who had taken refuge in a blacksmith shop within their rude intrenchments, were ruthlessly shot down while in the act of surrender, and their bodies thrown into a neighboring well. That so revolting an atrocity should be perpetrated by men who claimed the character of enlightened and law-abiding citizens, is matter of astonishment to all unacquainted with the previous history of the insurrection; but when we call to mind the terrible threats and denunciations of Smith, Rigdon, and other Mormon leaders, and the deeds of high-handed robbery and cold-blooded assassination perpetrated by their minions, we are not disposed to be surprised that such outrages should have begotten a kindred spirit of retaliation.
    The well into which the bodies of the slaughtered Mormons were thrown is on a farm owned at that time by Haughn. This land is now the property of James C. McCreary, Esq., of Kingston, to whom it was sold for a St. Louis party, by Nathan Cope, Esq., of Kingston. It is about fifteen and a half miles east of Far West on s e qr of sec. 8, T. 56, R. 26. The bloody and sepulchral well was filled up by Charles Ross, Esq., now a resident of Kingston, who arrived on the spot just ten days after the tragic occurrence. Mr. Ross is one of the oldest settlers and most respected citizens of Caldwell county. His residence at that time, was but a short distance from the spot where the slaughtering occurred. We state, on his authority, that there were, in this affair, about forty Mormons under the command of one Capt. Evans; and that there were two companies of Missouri militia, of which Col. Jennings commanded one, and Capt. Comstock the other. Capt. C., who was a frequent guest at the house of Mr. Ross, admitted to the latter that he was the officer at whose command the Mormons were shot down and thrown into the well.
    When the militia appeared at Far West, where the strength of the Mormon forces were concentrated, Joseph Smith surrendered to Gen. Doniphan, on the following terms, viz: That they should deliver up their arms, surrender their prominent leaders for trial, and that the remainder of the Mormons, should, with their families, leave the State. The leaders charged with murder, treason and felony, were taken before Austin A. King, presiding. He remanded them to Daviess county, to await the action of the grand jury, on the above charges.
    The Daviess' county jail, however, being deemed insecure, they were confined at Liberty in Clay County.
    Indictments were found against Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Lyman Wight, Col. Hinkle, Baldwin and Lyman. Rigdon was soon released on a writ of habeas corpus.
    It has been asserted and is still believed, by some, that Smith and his fellow-prisoners made their escape from the Liberty jail. Such, however, was not the case. At their request, change of venue was granted, and Judge King sent their cases to Boone county for trial. On their way to Columbia under military guard, Joseph Smith and his fellow-prisoners succeeded in effecting their escape.
    That eight or nine men should have accomplished this end without the connivance of the strong force by which they were escorted, is simply absurd; and the prevalent belief in that day, was that the guard was bribed.
    Thus did the leaders in a desperate career of iniquity temporarily escape the penalty of enormities which cried loud against them for justice, while many of their misguided followers, unable to get away in the general exodus which, in obedience to the terms of the surrender immediately followed, suffered at the hands of miscreants to whom such convulsions are ever a godsend, outrages and enormities almost as cruel and disgraceful as those perpetrated at the instigation of Smith and Rigdon against the Gentiles.
    Disposing of their property. Many of these Mormons who were poor, had invested all the little property they once possessed in these lands from which they were now driven. Valuable farms were, at this time traded for an old wagon, a horse, or a yoke of oxen- anything which afforded the means of transportation from the Promised Land where they once lived in the firm faith of establishing a last home and final resting place on earth. Conveyances of lands were not unfrequently demanded and enforced from these wretchedly deluded victims of a fierce fanaticism, at the muzzle of the pistol or point of the dagger.
    At the period of the general exodus which occurred immediately on the surrender, there were in the county of Caldwell about 5,000 inhabitants, fully four thousand of whom were Mormons. Most of these, with a blind faith in the leaders whose acts had entailed such terrible calamities on their followers, emigrated to Navuoo, Ill., only to experience, at a future and not distant day, the same inevitable consequences of lawless and criminal assumption of despotic authority that has ever characterized the leaders of this strange fanaticism in Missouri.
    The following extract from the message of the Governor of Missouri in 1840, giving a brief review of the character of the events to which we have just referred we deem not inappropriate to this article. In referring to the expulsion of the Mormons, he says: "These people had violated the laws of the land by open and avowed resistance to them; they had undertaken, without the aid of the civil authority, to redress their real or fancied grievances; the had instituted among themselves a government of their own, independent of and in opposition to the government of the State; they had, at an inclement season of the year, driven the inhabitants of an entire county from their homes, ravaged their crops, and destroyed their dwellings. Under these circumstances, it became the imperious duty of the Executive to interfere and exercise the powers with which he was invested, to protect the lives and property of our citizens, to restore order and tranquillity to the country, and maintain the supremacy of our laws."
    About the period of the final expulsion of the Mormons an association was instituted which might be termed a Vigilance Committee. These made it their business to compel the removal of all persons who were suspected of being in sympathy with these obnoxious fanatics, and for many months during the winter of 1839-40, mob law was supreme in Caldwell county. Emigrants from all parts of the Union flocked into the county with bitter hatred in their hearts towards Mormonism and every thing pertaining to it. The very name of Far West was an abominable sound in the ears of settlers; and after holding courts for about two and a half years longer, in the place, the county seat was removed to a locality called in honor of Austin A. King, Kingston, and which remains to-day the capital of Caldwell county. In the same year, the Post Office, the first ever established in the limit of the county, which had been held by David Hughes for three years, was removed from Far West to the new county seat. Many who had obtained lawful possession of the buildings in the old town, moved them away, but a large portion of these deserted habitations were carried off piecemeal by parties who had no shadow of claim to their possession, or were wantonly destroyed by others with whom the vandal spirit of destruction was paramount to every just claim; and in a very few years from the period of the expulsion of the Mormons scarcely a vestige remained of the once populous and flourishing town of Far West.
    It will doubtless be a matter of interest to many to know that among the Mormon residents at Far West was the widow of Morgan, the so-called exposer of the mysteries of masonry, whose sudden disappearance from his home in New York, in the year 1826 created the suspicion of his having been abducted and murdered by certain zealous members of the craft. The excitement in that day, in reference to this matter, was of sufficiently grave and extensive character to result in the inauguration of a short lived party in National politics, the leading characteristic of which was its opposition to Masonry. But for this identification of the circumstance with the political history of the country, the occurrence, like the episode of Far West, would probably long since have passed from the memory of men for we live in an age of stirring events and rushing progress. An occurrence which fixed the attention of a nation yesterday, is forgotten in the pressing interests of to-day, just as the great claims of to-day will yield to the crowding incidents of to-morrow. Every throb in the great heart of National existence is but another stride in this feverish rush of constant change and unceasing progress. Few, even among the prominent actors in this mighty and over-shifting drama, pause long enough to review their own personal parts, far less the great events of which they have merely been spectators.
    How necessary and important then becomes the office of the biographer and the historian; and what a weight of responsibility rests upon him who assumes to chronicle events which are to live as monuments of warning or example to future generations!
    The story of Far West, trivial and unimportant as it may sound, compared with the mighty events that have since transpired in this government, is not without its thrilling interest, its voice of warning, and deep philosophy. That the revolutionary schemes of Smith and his desperate and determined followers signally failed of accomplishment in Missouri, and afterwards in Illinois, as they had previously in Ohio, does not render the alarming boldness of these unprincipled fanatics the less worthy of being chronicled, especially when we reflect that, thrice and four times defeated and expelled, they ultimately succeeded in building up a hierarchy on the distant plains of a farther West, which lives and flourishes to-day, in defiance of the accepted principles of social and moral rectitude, the wonder and astonishment of the civilized world.
    With these reflections we close our sketch of Far West. The various written authorities which we have consulted in reference tot he matter, all more or less meager in their details, often conflict in their several statements.
    We have depended for our information more upon the statements of reliable parties who were eye-witnesses of the scenes and incidents we have attempted to describe. For assistance in securing information thus derived we hold ourself under special obligations to Nathan Cope, Esq., a prominent citizen of Caldwell county, and resident of the town of Kingston. It may not be improper here to add that, about the period of the first settlement of Far West, a band of Mormons numbering some three hundred, made their way to Daviess county, and built cabins in different parts of the county. On the east bluff of Grand river, about three miles above Gallatin, they build a small town which they called Adimondiamon [sic Adam-ondi-Ahman], and which in the Mormon jargon, is said to mean "The Grave of Adam," they claiming to have found that interesting locality on the site of their future village.
    The lawless element among these people soon gained for the entire settlement the ill-will of the Gentiles, who heartily co-operated in driving them from the county, in 1838-1839. They surrendered without resistance to the military, and made a partial restitution of the property they had stolen. Before this surrender, among other acts of lawlessness, they burned the town of Gallatin and many houses throughout the county. Adimondiamon, at the time of the expulsion, is said to have included a population of nearly five hundred Mormons, who nearly all emigrated to Nauvoo.
    -Viator