Diary accounts of John Lyman Smith - Missouri, Adams Altar, Prophet Joseph Smith and Iowa

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The following account of interesting experiences appears in the Desert News, written from St. George, Washington County, Utah, under the signature of John Lyman Smith:��

John Smith, my father, was born in Daryfield, N. H., July 16, 1781. Clarissa Lyman, my mother, was born in Lebanon, N. H., June 27, 1790. They were married September 1, 1816. Their children were: George Albert, born June 26,1817; Caroline, born June 6,1820, and myself, John Lyman, born November 17,1828; all at the town of Potsdam, St. Lawrence Co., N. Y.

My father was baptized on the 9th of January, 1832, and was ordained an Elder. Mother was baptized one year previously. After spending considerable time preaching, and baptizing some, father disposed of his farm in St. Lawrence Co., N. Y., and in May, 1833, removed to Kirtland, Geauga Co., Ohio. He labored in and around that place under the direction of the Prophet Joseph, taking several preaching excursions, and worked upon the Temple.

I was baptized by my father on the 17th of November, 1836, in the Chagrin River, at Kirtland, Geauga Co., Ohio. Our clothes were frozen upon returning home. At this age I had read all the small histories of men and countries I could get, generally being first in my class. Out of school hours I carried many a pail of water for the workmen on the Kirtland Temple walls; and when school was opened inside the building I attended a class taught by my cousin Elias Smith. In 1838 my father moved to Daviess County, Missouri, where we assisted in building Adam ondi-Ahman. Our house, built of logs, was located in a point of timber near the edge of the prairie. A few hundred yards from our door, toward Grand River, the ground seemed to have dropped squarely off from twenty I to thirty feet, leaving a line of almost perpendicular rocks for two or three r" miles, running nearly parallel with the river. This piece of bottom land was covered with a rank growth of grass, occasionally interspersed with shrubbery. It was called the Grand River bottoms, and varied in width from one to two miles. This ledge formed a fence through which a passage was seldom found from one to the other. Along this edge of cliff, we often traced rock walls with angles two or three feet in height, the angles containing pieces of ancient pottery ware, all looking as if a hurricane had swept the buildings away, or an earthquake had split the ledge in two and sent to destruction the buildings so easily traced along its edge and extending prairie-wards several hundred feet.

About a quarter of the mile down the road, toward the river crossing, three or four rods to the left of the road, was to copse of trees and bushes, m the centre of which was a raised stone work, which showed marks of fire, coal, etc. The falling of the leaves and blowing in of sand and dust had rounded up this knoll until it was some feet above the road. This \ place was where the Prophet Joseph said Adam offered sacrifice and blessed his children. I looked upon this as a sacred spot, and often used to hide there when strangers passed along the road. Upon one occasion I ran across the road to this dell, when two men

hailed me and asked me if I was a Mormon. I replied I was a•Mormon, but had doubts about the other part of the blasphemous speech. ■They then asked what I carried a hickory club for. I told them to kill snakes with. After inquiring about horses, where my father was, and asking many questions, all of which were thickly interspersed with blasphemy, they said I was a fool and they would shoot me then and there. I replied, "You can shoot me if you like, as you are the strongest party, but I should not think there would be much honor or bravery in killing to tenyear old lad." They then wished to know if I was not afraid to talk so. I replied "No, I have done no one any harm; why should I fear?" They then rode off cursing fearfully, after which I retired to the mossy dell and upon my knees thanked Father for preserving me and removing from me every sensation of fear and trembling which had troubled me at the time I entered the copse.

During those days of toil and care, as the Saints could not get their corn ground, the brethren built a horse-mill, or corn-cracker, where we could get a fair sample of coarse corn meal. In October we were compelled by the mob to leave Daviess County and gathered in and around Far West, Caldwell County, Missouri.

Being of an age to see and hear unmolested a great deal that passed I may say I was not always asleep or idle. As the mobbing and drivings of the Saints and their inhuman treatment by Missouri mobocrats have been told by many eye witnesses and older persons than myself, I need only say we reached Quincy, Illinois, in February, 1839. After a few days of rest my father succeeded in renting a small place of a Mr. McMahon at Green Plains, six miles from Warsaw, and put in a crop.

In July we removed to Commerce, afterwards called Nauvoo. Our first location there was in a log stable belonging to a widow White, some blocks east of what was known as the Temple block. This hovel was made of a small class of crooked poles, between which I often crept instead of raising the quilt hung over the doorway; this part of Commerce at that time was thickly covered with blackberry bushes mixed with oak and hazel brush. Our family were all sick with chills and fever (familiarly known as the shakes) except my mother.

From this "Mormon" home my brother George A. started as an Apostle on his mission to England, he having to be lifted into the wagon, as he was too weak to walk. This was in September, 1839. Before leaving he placed in my hand his last quarter of a dollar with a request to get mother some tea.

The next day the Prophet Joseph and his brother Hyrum visited us and administered to us all, father being delirious from the effects of the fever. Their words comforted us greatly, as they said in the name of the Lord you all shall be well again. Upon leaving the hovel Joseph placed his slippers upon my father's feet and sprang upon his horse from the doorway and rode home barefoot. The next day Joseph removed father to his own house and nursed him until he recovered.

In October, 1839, my father was called to preside over the Saints in Iowa, and with the assistance of my cousin, Elias Smith, we removed to uncle Asahel Smith's in Nashville, Iowa, where we resided some weeks, after which we moved to Ambrosia, six miles, known as the Avery or Hawley settlement. Under the direction of Joseph the Prophet a town was laid out and called Zarahemla, situated one mile from the river, west of Nauvoo. There we built a log cabin and dug a well forty-five feet deep to water, and walled it with rock; previous to this we had to draw all the water used three-quarters of a mile from a spring in the lone tree bluff Bouthwest of our house, by placing a barrel on a drag made of the fork of a tree. We also fenced in a few acres of the prairie with a post and rail fence, and ploughed and put in seed corn. Joseph often visited us here, as officers were seeking to kidnap and take him to Missouri. He used to call me and say, "Johnnie, now watch, and if any strangers come, you whistle to me so I can slip into the corn field, and when they are gone give me the signal and then I'll return to the house." We built another cabin adjoining, one and one-half stories high, and a small frame barn. Near by, upon lots laid off, several persons built cabins and became our near neighbors, among whom were A. O. Smoot, Isaac Clark, Dr. Alphonso Young, Iluf us Fisher, John Daley, Thomas B. King, Peter Robinson, Pierce Hawley, Joseph Meecham, Lewis Abbott, Aunt Mary Smith (widow of father's brother Silas, who died in Pike County, Illinois,) and her two boys Silas S. and Jesse N., boys of about my own age. We did the principal part of the farming.

In 1841, while living here, my brother George A. returned from his mission to England, and married Bathsheba W. Bigler and resided near us. Father was sustained as president of the branches in Iowa. In 1842, the Stake organizations in Iowa were discontinued and father presided at Zarahemla and the Saints were counseled to gather in and around Nauvoo. In the fall we moved to Nauvoo and lived in a log house of Joseph's across the street south from the White House, and across the street west from the new Mansion being built. Father was called to preside at Bamus, afterwards known as Macedonia, twenty-five miles east from Nauvoo. He exchanged his place in Zarahemla, Iowa, for a residence in Bamus and moved there in the winter. During the winter I attended school taught by Manley W. Green, and seldom missed a word or lesson. In 1843, I commenced to learn the cabinet trade. Being large of my age, I was also enrolled in the Macedonia troop of the Nauvoo Legion, with Almon W. Babbitt captain. I attended exercises, generally under the direction of First Lieutenant Hardin Yager, and went to night schools, working days in the cabinet shop.