Across the library

The martyrdom at Carthage

On June 27, 1844, a mob with painted faces stormed the jail at Carthage, Illinois and killed Joseph and Hyrum Smith. Two members of the Twelve were in the room. One of them wrote the account the church later canonized. Every quote links to its source.

Joseph Smith was 38 years old. He had surrendered voluntarily and was in jail at Carthage, Illinois awaiting trial, under a promise of protection from the governor of the state. The protection failed. What happened on the afternoon of June 27, 1844 was written down by a man who was in the room and lived, and his account has been printed in the Doctrine and Covenants ever since.

What happened

To seal the testimony of this book and the Book of Mormon, we announce the martyrdom of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and Hyrum Smith the Patriarch. They were shot in Carthage jail, on the 27th of June, 1844, about five o'clock p.m., by an armed mob—painted black—of from 150 to 200 persons. Hyrum was shot first and fell calmly, exclaiming: I am a dead man! Joseph leaped from the window, and was shot dead in the attempt, exclaiming: O Lord my God! They were both shot after they were dead, in a brutal manner, and both received four balls.

Doctrine and Covenants 135:1

The men in the room

Four men were in the jail that afternoon: Joseph, Hyrum, and two members of the Quorum of the Twelve. The account records what happened to each:

John Taylor and Willard Richards, two of the Twelve, were the only persons in the room at the time; the former was wounded in a savage manner with four balls, but has since recovered; the latter, through the providence of God, escaped, without even a hole in his robe.

Doctrine and Covenants 135:2

About an hour before the attack, at Joseph's request, John Taylor had sung "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" in the jail. Taylor survived his four wounds, carried some of the lead in his body for the rest of his life, and thirty-three years later became the church's third president. Willard Richards kept a promise he had made to Joseph that he would not leave him, and walked out untouched.

The survivor's verdict

Section 135 is attributed to John Taylor. This is what a man who was shot four times in that room wrote about the friend who died there:

Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it. In the short space of twenty years, he has brought forth the Book of Mormon, which he translated by the gift and power of God, and has been the means of publishing it on two continents; has sent the fulness of the everlasting gospel, which it contained, to the four quarters of the earth; has brought forth the revelations and commandments which compose this book of Doctrine and Covenants, and many other wise documents and instructions for the benefit of the children of men; gathered many thousands of the Latter-day Saints, founded a great city, and left a fame and name that cannot be slain.

Doctrine and Covenants 135:3

He lived great, and he died great in the eyes of God and his people; and like most of the Lord's anointed in ancient times, has sealed his mission and his works with his own blood; and so has his brother Hyrum. In life they were not divided, and in death they were not separated!

Doctrine and Covenants 135:3

The record around it

The library holds the paper trail from both directions. The Times and Seasons, the church's own Nauvoo newspaper, carried the news to the Saints in its next issues. Wilford Woodruff, who was in the eastern states with most of the Twelve when it happened, recorded the news reaching him in his journal. And the Joseph Smith Papers hold the documents from Joseph's last weeks, including the letters he wrote from Carthage. Five men were later tried for the murders. All five were acquitted. Nobody was ever punished for the killings.