Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-06-29
A MORMON REVENGE,
A Missouri Tragedy Connected With
the Early Settlement of the Saints.

the Early Settlement of the Saints.
Il have often heard" remarked Col. John
T. Crisp of Independence. No., to a Star
writer my father tell how, over sixty
years ago, and before the measure had
birth, the Edmunds law was enforced in
Missouri and the Mormons put to flight.
In 1888 Lilburn Boggs was governor Of
Missouri and the standard of the Mormons
fioated wide and free over the town of In
dependence. They had come, three years
before, iootsore and weary, from Kirkland,
Ohio. penniless and with empty hands, and
had settled in and about Independence.
They were received by the original pioneer
with that calm phlegm which distinguished
his welcoming of other emigrants. The
Mormons were little understood as to their
religious peculiarities by the people of Jack
son county, and so spread their tents and
lighted the fires of a new home without
protest or objection.
In three short years they waxed rich.
and with riches they became insolant
Others came, and were still coming in
hocks, like pigeons in the spring. They
would soon outnumber the original piol-
GERS, and confidently spoke of the day when
they, the Lords chosen, would occupy
jackson county, to the exclusion and cast
ing out of every Gentle.
But the Mormons spoke too soon. The
first inhabitants of Independence were q
positive people, prompt to take action. Gov.
Boggs was a resident of the town, and
opened gateway to local effort by proc
Mormons within thirty days. They did not
go, and the impulsive Gentiles fell upon
them hip and thigh and drove them out.
Again the Mormons were exiles, and.
broken in spirit and pride. turned eastward
through the tangled bottoms of Missouri
for illinois, Nauvoo was settled, and later
when they left Nauvoo, the polygamous
faction, with Brigham Young as their head
and DrDDhet. hogan nil IN
Salt Lake. Graves of men and skeletons of
mules and cattle marked the way. and the
Mormons ate Of the bread Of bitterness
and almost of despair
AT last they reached the valley-the
Zion of their search, and planted the seeds
of new empire.
subsequent flight westward to Salt Lake,
there was one name which burned in every
Norman memorable name of Lilburn
Boggs. The prayer for vengeance on Gov,
Lilburn Boggs for the stroke he dealt them
was constant In their hearts. Many IL
not all of them, knew him personally, and
this very acquaintance permitted an in
tensfty and point 20 their deep hatred Of
which they otherwise might have been de-
prived. On the sunburned plains they
thought of Boggs and thiTsted for a rock
oning. Once safe and settled in Salt Lake
these wishes gave birth to plans and plans
John Partridge and John Oliver Cow
drey were two Of the Mormon leaders.
OF counsel mentally narrow and purblind,
they had an abiding faith in their religion
and were abject followers of Brigham
Young These men We're personally named
in Gov. Boggs proclamation, and had
Rugged and nursed their hatred Of him
through four weary years.
-Four years after the proclamation John
Partridge was chief Of the Danites-the
destroying angels Of the Mormon Church,
Gov. Boggs, no longer governor was a resi-
dent of Independence. His house was in
the center of a fve-acre grove on South
Pleasant street next to the residence now
occupied by Capt. Williams The old
Boggs house was torn down about five
years ago.
Partridge resolved to execute the ven-
geance so prayed and longed for and SO
long deferred. Taking a detachment of his
DanNes. including Cowdrey, they toiled
backward across mountain and plain until
they stood again within reach and swoop
of Independence They did not disclose
their presence and made a camp as near
as might be to their victims house. Part
ridge and Cowdrey kept constant watch,
waiting for a chance to strike in safety.
At last 1t came and Partridge shot Gov.
Boggs with his rifle as the governor sat by
his open window in the earlier hours Of
the evening.
Great was the jubilaton in Mormondom
when the Danftes returned and boosted of
vengeance. bloody and complete, and Dick
ems, in the foot notes of his American
Notes., refers to the tragedy as illustrat.
ing page of American social life"