Descriptions:
After early members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were forced from their Missouri homes at the hands of a mob, Joseph Smith and men from Kirtland moved to provide aid and restore the Saints to their lands in Jackson County. This expedition was called “Zion’s Camp”.
Transcript: https://bit.ly/3l00APs
“Zion’s Camp,” from the Encyclopedia of Mormonism: https://bit.ly/3fJG4zt
Zion’s Camp participant roster: https://bit.ly/34EhJ84
“Zion’s Camp and the Redemption of Zion, 1834,” by Alexander Baugh: https://bit.ly/3iacTHC
“Zion’s Camp (Camp of Israel),” Gospel Topics Essays: https://bit.ly/3c94WP9
“Jackson County Violence,” Gospel Topics Essays: https://bit.ly/3fWIf1A
“Zion’s Camp” is a topic frequently addressed in books on the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Here are some recommendations:
“Saints: The Standard of Truth,” chapter 18 (starting on pg. 194).
“The Missouri Persecutions,” by B. H. Roberts.
“Brigham Young: American Moses,” by Leonard Arrington (starting on chapter 3, or pg. 31).
“Joseph: Exploring the Life and Ministry of the Prophet,” edited by Susan Easton Black and Andrew Skinner (chapters 21 & 22).
“Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt,” by Parley P. Pratt (chapters 14 & 15).
“Wilford Woodruff,” by Mathias Cowley (chapter 6).
“Joseph Smith’s Kirtland: Eyewitness Accounts,” by Karl Ricks Anderson (chapter 13).
“The Journal of Joseph,” by Joseph Smith Jr. (specifically the May – July 1834 entries).
And plenty of others.
Notes:
–The visit from Parley P. Pratt and Lyman Wight was not the first moment that Joseph would hear about the expulsion from Missouri. He knew as early as November 25, 1833, from Orson Hyde, that the Saints were being driven out — though I’m not sure exactly when Orson left Jackson County to deliver the update. He may have left right in the middle of the expulsion.
–13 of the 14 people who died due to the cholera were members of Zion’s Camp. Some local Missouri Saints also caught the illness.
–The main migration of Saints to Far West occurred during the fall of 1836. In December, 1838, the Missouri legislature renamed the area “Caldwell County” (previous part of Ray County). This was the land Missouri leaders had designated for Latter-day Saint settlement. Of course, problems ensued, resulting in the 1838 Missouri-Mormon war, which we’ve done an episode on.
–In “A History of Joseph Smith by His Mother,” by Lucy Mack Smith (pg. 225), we read that when he heard what had happened to the Saints in Missouri, “Joseph was overwhelmed with grief. He burst into tears and sobbed aloud, ‘Oh my brethren! My brethren’; he exclaimed, ‘would that I had been with you, to have shared your fate.’” It’s not totally clear whether this was his reaction to the visit of Parley P. Pratt and Lyman Wright (I think it probably was), or if this was his reaction to some earlier update on the situation.
–Levi Hancock’s description of the Fishing River storm: “I have witnesses rain storms in various portions of the earth, but nothing I have ever experienced has equaled that storm … missiles of hail … were hurled in vast quantities by the currents of the wind that rushed and roared through the woods … causing the sound of falling trees and massive limbs to add additional terrors to the general clang of the storm. The heavens above us were so completely lit up by the electric display that the dense and sombrous clouds appeared as ponderous masses floating through luminous areas of glowing light…” -Levi Hancock, “Diary of Levi Hancock,” pg. 81.
–Wilford Woodruff’s description of the Fishing River storm: “Shortly after these five men left us, a small cloud arose, and spread with great rapidity, until the whole heavens gathered blackness, and a mighty storm burst forth with fury upon our enemies. If the camp had not been hindered, they would have crossed into Clay County, and would have been at the mercy of the mob.” -”Wilford Woodruff,” by Matthias Cowley, pg. 42.
–Parley P. Pratt’s description of the Fishing River storm: “…we arrived at Fishing River, Ray County, and encamped for the night on a hill between its forks. This stream was then about six inches deep in each of its branches where the road crossed it. We had but just camped, when there arose such a storm as has been seldom witnessed on our earth; the wind blew, the vivid lightning flashed, the thunder rolled, the earth trembled, and the floods descended in a manner never before witnessed by us. Our tents were blown down, and some of us lay six or eight inches deep in water… Next morning the fords of Fishing River were said to be twenty to forty feet deep.” – “Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt,” pg. 116.
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