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Show BIOGRAPHICAL daughters. Arriving in Missouri, and relating his experiences to some of his friends, he remarked that if oth had come up to Missouri easier than he, they had not learned so much and had not therefore received so ers much benefit from the journey, there by acknowledging the hand of the Lord in his privations. He arrived at Far West, Missouri, JUly 3, 1838, where, with his characteristic thrift and the aid of his sons, he soon paid off the debts and had the comfortable son Myron means of a living. While he and his returning from a mill were in the fall of nine from miles 1838 and were about home, they saw a company of state militia coming in their direction, and their appearance was so much like that of a mob that, evil suspecting their intentions, Father Tanner told his son Myron to run and secret himself, so that he could be spared to tell what become of his father. Myron accordingly ran and secreted himself beneath a heap of brush. The mob came up, and, as Father Tanner had suspected they would, they sought to take his life. One, Capt. M. Meyer Odell, snapped his gun with deadly aim at him and as it refused to discharge its con tents, he seized it by the muzzle and dealt Father Tanner a heavy blow upon the head. ner worn a Had not Father Tan thick felt hat at the time, it is very probable that it would have proved fatal. The mob then took him prisoner and held him and his team for several days. order to In wipe out the evidence of the murderous sault the they ordered him blood from his to head as wash off and face, but this he refused to do. one man by the name They killed of Carey, and upon Father Tanner's word of honor that he would return, they allowed him with others to go and take the corpse to his family, and ever faith ful his promise he returned to custody. During the militia raid Father Tanner lost heavily in stock stolen by the mob. As soon as he was released, he went to work at once to their 801 ENCYCLOPEDIA making preparations to remove to Il linois. Together with his family and the families of his sons he arrived in New Liberty, about the 1st of April; here he sojourned for a year and About the prospered. March, 1840, he moved middle of to Iowa and settled upon the "half breed" tract, about four miles from Montrose, in Lee county, where his daughter Sarah Here was born in July of that year. he opened and cultivated a large farm, putting 250 acres under the plow, and about 200 acres into pasture, all under good fence, and here he lived prospered for six years. At April conference, 1844, Father ner called to take was a Before he went to Nauvoo to see He street. the Tan mission to the Eastern States. Joseph Smith, and the starting Prophet whom he met in the held the Prophet's note for $2,000, loaned in 1835, to redeem the Kirtland Temple farm, and in the of the conversation he handed course the not Prophet his note. understanding what The Prophet, by he meant it, asked what he would have him do with it, and Father Tanner replied: "Brother Joseph, you are welcome to it." hand The Prophet then laid his right heavily upon Father Tanner's shoulder and said: "God bless you, Father Tanner, your children shall never beg bread." He went upon his mission, and was in the East when the Prophet and Patriarch were assassin ated; he returned early in the fall of that The year. Church up to this time, owing to the extreme adversity through which it had been called to pass, had been unable to pay the notes in full for the $30,000, which Father signed as surety, and he was now called on to pay this, and judgment obtained against him in the sum of $700, in the district court of Lee county, Iowa; but he succeeded in affecting a compromise whereby the judgment creditors agreed to ac Tanner had cept $100 from him as his share in full, and look to the other parties for the remainder. materially in the Father Tanner aided building of the Nau- |
