185 years ago today - 1840 Jul 7

Letter from Joseph Smith to Crooked Creek IL branch. Four Saints are kidnapped from Hancock Co., Ill. and taken to prison in Missouri, where they are whipped and beaten. A group of Missourians had crossed the Mississippi in search of goods they claimed had been stolen from them, and having found a cache of them in the caves near the river bottoms on the Nauvoo side, they blamed the four Mormons, captured them, and beat confessions out of them. At this time there was a crime wave along the banks of the Mississippi, and many criminals would join the Church as a cover. When the four Mormons are kidnapped, Joseph protests loudly to Gov. Carlin about Gov. Boggs of Missouri. However, when the supposed theft is investigated, the cache of goods is found to be entirely too large to be the frame-up the Mormons had claimed it was, and Gov. Carlin begins to act less favorably toward the Saints. One of the Saints, Alanson Brown, is found guilty of the theft.

[https://docs.google.com/document/d/10ttN3vOzf2UcVhruCrvDf9pF27T0o0PP0Xj1X98tKBc/edit?fbclid=IwAR3HXLgL-X-M_c5LT2W-_F7AYqsqqaQ0yIhfNuyeFsX85irSPuEO6_Q993A]