However incredible it may appear to a civilized people, it is a fact, that there were at one time, one hundred and ninety women and children, who crossed a prairie of nine miles, aided by three men only; the rest having been driven away by the violence of the mob. The saints being unarmed and the mob armed, they fell an easy prey to them.

The women and children, after crossing the prairie, travelled a number of miles, in all probability from twelve to fifteen, and then stopped and waited until their husbands and fathers found where they were, and got to them. They there built houses to winter in; but before they had continued long, the mob found where they were, and went and drove them away, and burned their houses.

A company consisting of about two hundred, nearly all of them women and children, got to the , late in the afternoon, and could not get across that night. It commenced raining and freezing most violently; in this deplorable condition, some of them took shelter under some rocks, and the remainder of them, both small and great, had to lie out in the open prairie, with nothing but the heavens to cover them, while the storm beat upon them with great fury. Among the number, was a Mrs. Higbee, wife of John S. Higbee, from , who was very sick with a fever, and also had an infant at the breast. She was under the necessity of spending this night of storm, exposed to all its violence, having nothing but the earth to sleep on. After spending the night in this distressed situation, early in the morning, another Mrs. Higbee, the wife of , was delivered of a babe, without any bed but the earth, or covering but the heavens.

There were many sick, who were thus inhumanly driven from their houses and had to endure all this abuse and suffering and seek homes where they could be found. The result was, that a number being deprived of the comforts of life, and the necessary attendance, died; many children were left orphans; wives, widows; and husbands widowers.

The mob, after thus abusing the people, the hundreth part of which is not told here, took possession of the farms of those whom they had thus driven from their homes, and all their cattle, horses, sheep and hogs, which amounted to many thousands; together with all their household stuff of every kind, amounting to many thousand dollars worth; and have forbid, under pain of death, any of them returning to get any of their property; and if any of them did attempt it and were discovered, they were whipped and otherwise abused: one or two who did attempt it, were nearly killed—they escaped with their lives, and no more!