With the Remnants at Nauvoo

RICHARD BALLANTYNE. Founder of the first Sunday School in Utah.

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WITH THE REMNANTS AT NAUVOO.

REMARKABLE EXPERIENCE IN THE HANDS OF A MOB, FROM THE PAGES OF AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

BY ELDER RICHARD BALLANTYNE.

[The following interesting narrative is printed for the first time from the autobiography of Elder Richard Ballantyne, who may be called the father of the Sabbath Schools, because he was the first pioneer to open his house for the religious instruction of the children of the Latterday Saints who had been driven from Nauvoo to this then western wilderness, to seek homes. He organized and taught the first Sabbath School in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the Fourteenth Ward, beginning his labors in the school on the second Sunday of December, 1849. He was born in Whitridgebog, Scotland, August 26, 1817. With his mother and her family, he arrived in Nauvoo, November 11, 1843, where he continued to reside with the remnant of the Saints, after the main body had set their faces towards the wilderness, until the latter part of the year 1846, when he experienced the incidents here related, after which he departed with the remnants of Nauvoo for Winter Quarters. Here he remained until May 18, 1848, when he joined President Brigham Young's company for Utah, arriving in Salt Lake City in September of that year. During 1851-4, he filled a mission to India, and after his return was an earnest worker in The Church, and for the Sunday School cause, until his death which occurred in Ogden, Utah, on November 8, 1898. The portrait of Elder Ballantyne, presented herewith, was taken in his seventy-third year, and is an excellent likeness. Editors.]

Nauvoo at this time, contained a population of some ten thousand people, mostly poor. When the prophet was killed, the walls

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of the Temple had not reached the second story; but after his death, it arose with great rapidity, and in the fall of 1845, ordinances were administered in it. Many were baptized for their dead, and many during that winter, received their washings and anointings, and many were adopted. In the beginning of this winter, I received the holy ordinances, and was set apart in the Temple, and ordained one of the seventy by President Joseph Young, of the First Presidency of the Seventies. About six weeks after this ordination, I was ordained a high priest by Apostle John Taylor, assisted by Bishop Miller. But this house of God, erected by the faithful under circumstances of great privation, sickness, death and other troubles, was soon to be vacated and left in the hands of the wicked, to be by them profaned. Several times had the mob attempted to destroy the Saints here, or expatriate them, but this time they succeeded in their wicked purposes. A large mob gathered in the suburbs of Nauvoo, armed with rifles and cannon, and compelled the authorities to sign an agreement to leave the Temple and vacate the city in the next spring, "as soon as grass grows, and water runs." On the 18th of February, 1846, the first company crossed the Mississippi river with their teams and wagons on the ice. The weather was extremely cold and stormy and much suffering was inevitable. Snow also was on the ground. Company after company followed until none but the poor, and a few that were in charge, and that had special business to transact, were left behind. I was one of them, my sister Jane had gone on with the first com-

panies, and I, with my mother and sister, Annie, and my afflicted brother, stayed until after the harvest. During this summer, I was kidnapped by a mob of about twenty armed men. Phineas Young, his son Brigham H., and James Standing, were kidnapped with me. The circumstances were these. Phineas Young, and his son Brigham, desired the use of my horse-team, including my wagon, •

to go to McQueen's mill for some flour with which to go west. 1

consented to let them have it, and as my health was quite poor at the time, I concluded to go with them to improve my health, and was to be ready next morning. During the night, I had a dream which betokened trouble. I thought, in my dream, that myself

and some others were rowing a boat up the middle of the great

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Mississippi river, when suddenly a dreadful flood of water was seen rolling down toward us. The flood seemed to be about twenty or twenty-five feet high, and I thought destruction was inevitable. However, I thought we rowed with all our might to the shore, and as it was about to overwhelm us, I suddenly found myself, as if by some unseen power, with the rest of the company walking safely up the banks of the river. But this dream did not dissuade me from going on the morrow. We started up the river, on the public road that led to Pontoosuc, and from there reached McQueen's mill, a distance of about twelve miles from Nauvoo. We obtained the flour, and next morning, (being Sunday) we took the homeward journey, and as we passed through Pontoosuc we saw, around the public square, a large number of horses, here and there tied to the fences. We wondered what this could mean, and, on reaching the edge of the town, a woman, probably a friend, standing on the porch of her house, cried, "For God's sake, be off for the mob's in town!" Not thinking that they had seen us, we traveled leisurely along about two miles further, and finding a convenient watering place, we unhitched our horses and watered them in the Mississippi. Just as we were harnessing them to the wagon, we became alarmed on hearing the sound of horses, as if rushing at full speed. Supposing this to be the mob, I seized my gun, but Phineas Young, fearing that the sight of this might endanger our lives, seized it and threw it into the bush, not, however, soon enough to hide it from the mob, for in the verv act, they came rushing upon us with cocked revolvers and ordered us to surrender, and with them to return to Pontoosuc. Having seen the gun, they took it, and one of them, on my asking by what authority all this was being done, presented his cocked revolver in my face, and said, with a terrible oath, "this is my authority." Finding it useless to resist, for there was some twenty of them, we turned our team and followed them back to Pontoosuc* On our arrival in Pontoosuc, our captors halted us on the pub-

• Pontoosuc was a small town of perhaps two hundred people, and built on land immediately adjoining the Mississippi river, above Nauvoo about ten miles.

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lie square, where we were immediately surrounded with many others of the mob who were extending congratulations to the victors, who seemed to be proud of their bloodless victory. It was

now about ten o'clock in the morning, and we were kept on the square till sometime after noon. Then we were taken to the wharf, on the river, and lodged in a warehouse till it was growing dark. About a dozen mounted men, armed with rifles and revolvers, now came and took us out of town, continuing till we came to a dense forest of timber. They led us into this over a dim and narrow track until we came to a lonely place having an -opening large enough for a camp to tarry over night. We were here ordered to unhitch, and to fasten our horses, then we were ordered into our wagon. It was now quite dark, and their mysterious movements and purposes we could not understand, as they had thus far made no explanation. But our situation was far from being comfortable. We spent a wakeful night, and were much chilled, having no bedding, and although it was July, the night was quite cold. Just as the first indications of morning appeared in the east, we were all aroused by the rumbling of wagons, and the sound of horsemen, and a few sharp reports from the firing of muskets, as well as a clamoring sound from the town of Pontoosuc. The truth was, the town had been taken by surprise. A body of well armed men from Nauvoo had taken the place before most of its inhabitants were out of bed. The shots which had been fired were the result of a short skirmish between the Pontoosuc guard and the pioneer horsemen of the Nauvoo troops. The object of our brethren was to take us out of the hands of the mob, without giving our captors time to mature their evil designs. Of course, the first demands made by our brethren were to know what had been

done with us. The answer must have been evasive, as the mob had no design to surrender us into the hands of our friends. But I must now go back to our camp. As soon as the sound of the tumult reached us, the guard ordered us into the center of a circle of armed men. What their purpose was, we can best interpret by what afterwards occurred. But here we were in a state of alarm. As soon as we were placed in this position, "Old Wimp," for this was the leader's name, said, "Hold on till I go and