Claudius Spencer's Reminiscence

My father's conversion to Mormonism came about in a rather singular way. One day he met a curiously looking stranger, who said he was a preacher and that he wished to secure a building in which to preach to the people. The man was hungry and ragged and said he was 1800 miles from home and traveling without money. My father clothed and fed him and being chairman of the school trustees, gave him the use of he schoolhouse for a meeting. When the time for the services arrived it was discovered that several men had locked the house and were on the inside. They refused the preacher admission. When my father heard of this he told the Mormon elder to get an axe and threaten to break down the door unless he were admitted. The elder took the axe, but he had no occasion to use it in the way indicated, as the men on the inside allowed him to enter when they learned what his intentions were. I remember being sent before the meeting to invite the minister to attend. He at once grew indignant and said, 'Go back and tell your father I would as soon hear the devil preach.' The hall was crowded. My father was baptized afterwards. He was the first convert to Mormonism in the town.

(Of his experiences in Iowa he reported) I was just 15 yeas old when I left home for Nauvoo. That was before my father went and at that time I was not a member of the church. Shortly after my arrival there in the fall of 1846, I received a call to return to my fathers home in Massachusetts. I did not know at that time that my father's family had been forced to leave and had crossed the Mississippi on the ice. On my arrival at the old home (Nauvoo) I found that the house had been vacated, and I was obligated to break open the door. A few minutes later, while I was standing by the gate, three men came towards me leading a pony and carrying a rope. As soon as they reached me, they asked if I was a Mormon. I replied that that was an affair, which did not concern them. 'We will show you that it does concern us.' They said, 'you will get out of this town within 15 minutes on this pony or you will climb a cottonwood at the end of this 40- foot rope. I accepted the pony and then and there started for Salt Lake.

I traveled rapidly and overtook my father's family near Indian Creek. Almost immediately after my arrival in my father's company, I was commissioned to return to Nauvoo, in connection with my Uncle Hiram, to make a sale, if possible, of our property there. On our arrival there we promptly sold a 160-acre farm for some horned cattle, to be delivered to us at Alton. In the meantime some trumped-up writ of attachment was gotten out o the cattle, but through the aid of a Gentile friend, we eluded the sheriff and his posse by going to Burlington, IA., across the river, instead of to a Missouri town 60 miles below, as they had expected.

We pushed on as rapidly as possible, as the sheriff and his posse were in hot pursuit. Our hope was to reach some Mormon camp before being overtaken. The exposure of the journey was so great that it cost my uncle his life. I pushed on alone and was within one mile and a half of the Mormon camp with the cattle when I saw the sheriff and his men approaching. As soon as he came within shooting distance I told him that if he came a step closer I would bring him down. I also told him that if he shot the people in the Mormon camp would hear it and they would be given speedy justice. Then I invited them to come with me to the camp, w here we furnished them with necessary provisions and they returned.

My journey with the cattle did not by any means end when I reached the camp. President Charles C. Rich and Brother Bent were in charge, and they counseled me to make the best time possible for Council Bluffs. During this trip, which lasted six days and six nights, I had only six hours sleep, except what I took in the saddle, and during the last days I was entirely destitute of food of any kind. As soon as I reached camp I entirely gave way, and was confined to tent and wagon for five months. For several weeks my hips and shoulderblades were as devoid of flesh as the nails of my fingers. I started out with my father's company and arrived in the alley of Salt Lake on Sept 23, 1847. We had previously provided Elijah Newman, Francis Boggs and Levi Kendal with a complete outfit and they arrived with the original pioneers.

Our family, in the winter of '46-47 numbered about 19. Soon after the arrival of the entire delegation, the bread supply was found to be very scant and a certain ratio for consumption was decided upon. The ration concluded upon, with the prospect of a harvest in July, was two ounces of flour per day for each person. There was nothing arbitrary about it. I wish to bear record that every one followed this counsel closely, with one exception. This individual, fearing that her flour would be taken from her, put it in the ground, where it all molded. Our family lived, or existed, on this two-ounce ration, and kept one man busy gathering segos, thistle roots, etc., which we used to call 'thickening,' or 'fill-up' and when assurance of a harvest came, we had half a ton of flour to distribute. No one complained in those days, and the desire of the people was the founding of a fraternal brotherhood.