Source Note
David W. Kilbourne, Letter, Fort Madison, Lee Co., Iowa Territory, to Thomas Dent, England, July 29, 1844. David W. Kilbourne Papers, 1818–1914, Special Collections, State Historical Society of Iowa, Des Moines. Published in Warren A. Jennings, “The Lynching of an American Prophet,” BYU Studies 40, no. 1 (2001): 212–13.
Historical Introduction
Following his lengthy letter written a month earlier, Kilbourne supplied a few more details regarding the situation in Nauvoo, the state of the Latter-day Saints, the Twelve Apostles, and what he knew about the bodies of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. His information is impressively accurate, showing that he was well-informed about events at Nauvoo and had such connections that could provide him accurate and prompt information.
Document Transcript
Fort Madison
Upper Mississippi river
Lee Co. Iowa
July 29th 1844
Revd T. Dent
Billington
near Whalley
Lancashire England
My dear Mr Dent
I wrote you under date 29th Ultimo giving you an account of the death of Joe & Hiram Smith. As my brother leaves tomorrow for New York I will improve the opportunity to send a few lines by him, believing that you will feel some solicitude to know what has become of the “Saints.”
There have been no further hostilities since I last wrote you. They are perfectly quiet in Nauvoo & in the surrounding country. The Mormons are much more decent in their deportment—not insolent as formerly.
They have been taught a lesson which I think they will not soon forget. They will hereafter be afraid to interfere at all with the rights of the people.
All the Elders abroad have been sent for to return to Nauvoo—also the 12 apostles—who are I understand to appoint a successor to Joe.1 They continue to work on the Temple & matters go on there about as usual. There is however great distress there for the want of the necessaries of life. It is also very sickly there this Season.
It is impossible to say what will be the result there—but my opinion is that there will be great trouble among the ambitious leaders—& that hereafter the doctrine will not prosper. I think very likely they may open papers purporting to be sealed up by Joe—saying who shall be the Prophet & giving other instructions in regard to their future course.—
It is supposed that Joe & Hiram were buried under Joes house. Their remains were disposed of while all the people were assembled at preaching some miles from the house—there was no funeral service. Notice was given at the meeting where I was that a “few judicious persons would bury them.” It is said that these few men carried out two coffins & put them on wagons & buried them at the grave yard two miles out of town but that they did not contain the corpses. I have no doubt myself of the fact. They were fearful that Joe would be taken up, which no doubt would have been done if possible. I therefore believe that they rest under the house where his family now resides.2
With great Esteem
Your friend
D. W. K.
1. At the time of the Smiths’ deaths, most of the Twelve and over three hundred “Elders” were away from Nauvoo preaching and campaigning for Joseph Smith’s presidential campaign. See Margaret C. Robertson, “The Campaign and the Kingdom: The Activities of the Electioneers in Joseph Smith’s Presidential Campaign,” BYU Studies 39, no. 3 (2000): 147–80.
2. Many Saints were fearful that Joseph Smith’s body would be exhumed and stolen because Thomas Reynolds, the governor of Missouri, had offered a reward for Smith’s return to Missouri, dead or alive. Kilbourne was correct about the two coffins used in the public burial not containing the bodies. The bodies were hidden in the basement of the unfinished Nauvoo House and later buried close to the Smith family’s homestead. See Richard N. Holzapfel and T. Jeffery Cottle, Old Mormon Nauvoo, 1839–1846: Historic Photographs and Guide (Grandin Book, 1990), 160; Joseph D. Johnstun, “‘To Lie in Yonder Tomb’: The Tomb and Burial of Joseph Smith,” Mormon Historical Studies 6, no. 2 (2005): 163–80.
