Show notes
In Mormon parlance, the Tar and Feathering of Joseph Smith is a faith promoting story about a mob of mean men punishing Joseph Smith for being a prophet. But it doesn’t take one long when their ears are to the ground in non-correlated circles to hear rumblings that the tar and feathering is connected to something more devious on Joseph Smith’s end. In this episode Bill & RFM explore the story of Joseph Smith’s being tarred and feathered to see what info there is that can best explain this mob mentality in the wee hours of the morning of March 25, 1832. A.) Setup of the story with the context of how Joseph Smith was in Hiram Ohio and what other historical context is needed to help people grasp this moment historically (Leaving out the possible scandalous context) In 1818, John and Alice (known as Elsa) Johnson came to Hiram, Ohio, about 31 miles southeast of Kirtland. The family lived in several log cabins while they built a home directly across the road. The Johnsons had 15 children; 9 lived to adulthood: Alice, Fanny, John Jr., Luke, Olmstead, Lyman, Emily, Marinda, and Justin.Sidney Rigdon became a pastor in Mentor Ohio(adjacent & NE of Kirtland). He became converted to Mormonism via Parley Pratt’s mission whom he knew, while Smith lived in NY. After Sidney Rigdon baptized John and Elsa’s 19-year-old son, Lyman, in February 1831, the couple read the Book of Mormon and believed. By May, all members of the Johnson family were baptized except Olmstead, who had moved to Mexico.Later that year, the Prophet, seeking a peaceful, secluded place in which to continue his work of translating the Bible, accepted an invitation from the Johnsons to live in their home. Joseph and Emma came on 12 September 1831 with their four-month-old adopted twins, Joseph and Julia. Converts Sidney and Phebe Rigdon settled with their six young children across the road in a log cabin.Elsa Johnson the wife of John Johnson, who had suffered from chronic rheumatism in her arm for years, asked John to take her to Kirtland so the Prophet Joseph Smith could heal her. When the Prophet blessed her, she was completely healed. (Even some quakers make mention of this healing)Some of the following is overlap but it also contains additional facts After returning to Ohio from Missouri in late August 1831, JS made preparations to move his family from Kirtland to Hiram, Ohio, where he planned to resume his “translation,” or revision, of the Bible—a project he had been working on since 1830. The move occurred on 12 September 1831, following a conference held in Kirtland that same day.1 In Hiram, JS and his family stayed at the John and Alice (Elsa) Jacobs Johnson home, sleeping probably in a back room on the main level. In the end of October, the Johnsons partitioned an upstairs room, creating a work space for JS in the southeast portion of the house, where he worked on the Bible revision.2 Beginning in September, John Whitmer served as scribe for this project, working on the books of Matthew and Mark, until Sidney Rigdon assumed this responsibility in November.3 Periodically, JS traveled to Kirtland or other townships in northeastern Ohio to conduct church business,4 but he spent most of the fall in Hiram. B.) How the mob mentality was built up and tensions arose In the early 1831, Ezra Booth and Symonds Ryder, both ministers joined Mormonism. Booth and Ryder became strong supporters of Smith and Rigdon. While Booth was on a church mission to Jackson County, Missouri, he witnessed a dispute between Edward Partridge, Bishop of the Mormon Church in Jackson County, and Joseph Smith. Booth became disillusioned with Mormonism and returned to Ohio to report what he had seen in Missouri. Symonds Ryder also became disaffected for mulitple reasons though one of those is that after Joseph alleged a revelation calling Ryder to serve a mission. Smith and Rigdon both signed the official call but misspelled Ryder’s name. Ryder thought a real revelation from God would never do such a thing.(Didn’t he read the Book of Mormon) When Booth and Ryder met in the fall of 1831, they shared their experiences and concluded that they had been deceived. They both left Mormonism and returned to their former faiths. Both men became strong critics of Mormonism in Ohio, focusing on Smith and Rigdon. Booth, at the encouragement of a Reverend Ira Eddy, wrote nine letters to the Ohio Star newspaper published between October and December, 1831. The letters criticized Mormon doctrines and Smith’s and Rigdon’s character and accused the Mormon leaders of a scheme to get control of their followers’ property (D&C 51 United Order/Law of Consecration). These letters were widely circulated and generated fierce local opposition to the Mormons. By December of 31, Smith and Rigdon temporarily paused their revision of the bible to start rebutting the accusations by Booth and Ryder. Rigdon had his own letters published to the Ohio Star pushing back against Booth and Ryder to discuss their charges in public. In one article, Rigdon purposefully misspelled Ryder’s name apparently to irritate him. Tensions increased on both sides.(The letters are reprinted in their entirety in Eber Howe, Mormonism Unvailed (Painesville: E.D. Howe, 1834).also (Ohio Star, Plainesville, Ohio, 12 January 1832)A short time before the tar and feathering attack a hole was bored in the door of the house where Rigdon was staying and filled with black powder in an attempt to kill Rigdon. (Short Portage County Democrat, Ravenna, Ohio 15 February 1860)Mob consisted of 10 to 11 men minimum and as many as 25-30 based on eyewitness accounts and second hand sources C.) The event as described by Joseph Smith (Where Joseph abbreviates the mob’s language we have inserted the actual swearing) Joseph’s telling reiterated in Lucy Mack Smith’s History and published originally in the Times and Seasons, vol. 5, p. 611. Millennial Star, vol. 14, p. 148. – “On the twenty-fourth of March [1832], the twins before mentioned, which had been sick of the measles for some time, caused us to be broken of our rest in taking care of them, especially my wife. In the evening I told her she had better retire to rest with one of the children, and I would watch with the sicker child (Murdock Boy).[iv] In the night she told me I had better lie down on the trundle bed, and I did so, and was soon after awakened by her screaming murder! when I found myself going out of the door in the hands of about a dozen men; some of whose hands were in my hair, and some had hold of my shirt, drawers, and limbs. The foot of the trundle bed was towards the door, leaving only room enough for the door to swing. “My wife heard a gentle tapping on the windows, which she then took no particular notice of (but which was unquestionably designed for ascertaining whether we were all asleep), and, soon after, the mob burst open the door and surrounded the bed in an instant,[v] and, as I said, the first I knew I was going out of the door in the hands of an infuriated mob. I made a desperate struggle, as I was forced out, to extricate myself, but only cleared one leg with which I made a pass at one man and he fell on the door steps.[vi] I was immediately confined again, and they swore by God, they would kill me if I did not be still, which quieted me. As they passed around the house with me, the fellow that I kicked came to me and thrust his hand into my face all covered with blood (for I hit him on the nose), and with an exultant horse laugh, muttered, ‘God, God, God damn ye, I’ll fix ye.’ “They then seized me by the throat and held on till I lost my breath. After I came to, as they passed along with me, about thirty rods from the house,[vii] I saw Elder Rigdon stretched out on the ground, whither they had dragged him by the heels. I supposed he was dead. “I began to plead with them, saying, ‘you will have mercy and spare my life, I hope.’ To which they replied, ‘God damn ye, call on yer God for help, we’ll show ye no mercy’; and the people began to show themselves in every direction; one coming from the orchard had a plank and I expected they would kill me and carry me off on a plank.[viii] They then turned to the right and went on about thirty rods farther-about sixty rods from the house[ix] and about thirty from where I saw Elder Rigdon-into the meadow, where they stopped, and one said, ‘Simonds, Simonds,’ (meaning, I supposed, Simonds Rider), ‘pull up his drawers, pull up his drawers, he will take cold.’ “Another replied, ‘Ain’t ye going to kill ‘im? Ain’t ye going to kill ‘im?’ when a group of mobbers collected a little way off and said, ‘Simonds, Simonds, come here’; and Simonds charged those who had hold of me to keep me from touching the ground (as they had done all the time), lest I should get a spring upon them. They went and held a council, and as I could occasionally overhear a word, I supposed it was to know whether it was best to kill me. “They returned, after a while, when I learned that they had concluded not to kill me, but pound and scratch me well, tear off my shirt and drawers, and leave me naked. One cried, ‘Simonds, Simonds, where is the tar bucket?’ “‘I don’t know,’ answered one, ‘where ’tis, Eli’s left it.’ They ran back and fetched the bucket of tar, when one exclaimed, with an oath, ‘Let us tar up his mouth’; and they tried to force the tar paddle into my mouth; I twisted my head around so that they could not, and they cried out, ‘God damn ye, hold up yer head and let us giv ye some tar.’ They then tried to force a vial into my mouth and broke it in my teeth.[x] All my clothes were torn off me, except my shirt collar; and one man fell on me and scratched my body with his nails like a mad cat, and then muttered out, ‘God damn ye, that’s the way the Holy Ghost falls on folks.’ “They then left me, and I attempted to rise, but fell again; I pulled the tar away from my lips, etc., so that I could breathe more freely, and after a while I began to recover and raised myself up, when I saw two lights. I made my way towards one of them and found it was Father Johnson’s. When I had come to the door I was naked, and the tar made me look as though I was covered with blood; and when my wife saw me, she thought I was all mashed to pieces and fainted. During the affray abroad, the sisters of the neighborhood had collected at my room. I called for a blanket, they threw me one and shut the door; I wrapped it around me, and went in. “In the meantime, Brother John Poorman heard an outcry across the cornfield, and running that way met Father Johnson, who had been fastened in his house at the commencement of the assault, by having his door barred by the mob, but on calling to his wife to bring his gun, saying he would blow a hole through the door, the mob fled, and Father Johnson, seizing a club, ran after the party that had Elder Rigdon, and knocked one man, and raised his club to level another, exclaiming: “What are you doing here?”[xi] when they left Elder Rigdon and turned upon Father Johnson, who, turning to run towards his own house, met Brother Poorman coming out of the cornfield; each supposing the other to be a mobber, an encounter ensued, and Poorman gave Johnson a severe blow on the left shoulder with a stick or stone, which brought him to the ground. Poorman ran immediately towards Father Johnson’s, and arriving while I was waiting for the blanket, exclaimed: ‘I’m afraid I’ve killed him.’ ‘Killed who?’ asked one; when Poorman hastily related the circumstances of the encounter near the cornfield, and went into the shed and hid himself. Father Johnson soon recovered so as to come to the house, when the whole mystery was quickly solved concerning the difficulty between him and Poorman, who, on learning the facts, joyfully came from his hiding place.[xii] “My friends spent the night in scraping and removing the tar, and washing and cleansing my body, so that by morning I was ready to be clothed again. This being Sabbath morning, the people assembled for meeting at the usual hour of worship, and among them came also the mobbers, viz., Simonds Rider, a Campbellite preacher and leader of the mob; one McClentic, who had his hands in my hair; one Streeter, son of a Campbellite minister; and Felatiah Allen, Esq., who gave the mob a barrel of whisky to raise their spirits; and many others. With my flesh all scarified and defaced, I preached to the congregation as usual, and in the afternoon of the same day baptized three individuals. “The next morning I went to see Elder Rigdon and found him crazy, and his head highly inflamed, for they had dragged him by his heels, and those, too, so high from the ground that he could not raise his head from the rough, frozen surface, which lacerated it exceedingly; and when he saw me he called to his wife to bring him his razor. She asked him what he wanted of it; and he replied, to kill me. Sister Rigdon left the room, and he asked me to bring his razor. I asked him what he wanted of it, and he replied he wanted to kill his wife; and he continued delirious some days. The feathers which were used with the tar on this occasion, the mob took out of Elder Rigdon’s house. After they had seized him, and dragged him out, one of the banditti returned to get some pillows; when the women shut him in and kept him a prisoner some time. “During the mobbing, one of the twins contracted a severe cold, and continued to grow worse till Friday and died.[xiii] The mobbers were composed of various religious parties, but mostly Campbellites, Methodists and Baptists, who continued to molest and menace Father Johnson’s house for a long time.” D.) Details of story as suggested by those involved as well as additional researchers after the fact. Some of these came out in the narrative we just read others are added from additional sources. March 24 1832Tapping on the windowThey were perhaps testing to see who was asleepJoseph Smith was occupying the room of a house brother Johnson was living in, at the same time; it was a two story building, had steps in front. The mob surrounded the house, the twins being afflicted with measles, Joseph was lying upon a trundle bed with one of them. The mob rushed in, gathered up Joseph while in his bed (apparently separating him from the Murdock boy in doing so), took him out in his night clothes, and carried him out on to the top of the steps.Joseph got a foot at liberty and kicked one of the men, and knocked him down off the steps, and the print of his head and shoulders were visible on the ground in the morning.Warren Waste – Warren Waste, who was the strongest man in the western reserve considered himself perfectly able to handle Joseph alone, but when they got hold of him Waste cried out, “do not let him touch the ground, or he will run over the whole of us.” Waste suggested in carrying him to cross his legs, for they said that would make it easier for the Prophet, but that was done in consequence of the severe pain it would give to the small of the back.Tar and Feathering – Someone brought forward a bucket of hot tar which they then smeared over Joseph’s lacerated body, at the same time trying to force the tar paddle into his mouth. He resisted.Observer & Telegraph, a local Ohio newspaper – “TRIUMPHS OF THE MORMON FAITH” — Several verbal statements agree in establishing the following facts.” “That on Saturday night, March 24, a number of persons, some say 25 or 30, disguised with coloured faces, entered the rooms in Hiram, where the two Mormonite leaders, Smith and Rigdon were sleeping, and took them, together with the pillows on which they slept, carried them a short distance and after besmearing their bodies with tar, applied the contents of the pillows to the same. What sort of harm tar and feathering caused – The notion that hot tar caused severe, sometimes fatal burns is based on the assumption that “tar” meant the asphalt we use on roads, which is typically stored in liquid state at about 300°F (1…
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