The Missouri Persecutions by B. H. Roberts

Author:B. H. Roberts [Roberts, B. H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781515374954
Google: rnItjwEACAAJ
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: 2015-11-28T00:28:01+00:00

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Table of Contents

FAR WEST.

At the time the saints were requested to leave their homes in Clay County, the whole northern part of Missouri was very sparsely settled; and but few counties were organized. As it was desirable on the part of the saints to obtain a location where they would be the principal settlers and occupants of the lands, where they would be free from injustice and violence of mobs, where they might quietly gather together and be taught to observe the principles of truth in the Gospel of Christ, that they might be prepared in all things for the redemption of Zion—upper Missouri, with its boundless prairies, wooded streams, and sparse population, seemed admirably adapted for their home until Zion could be redeemed.

W. W. Phelps and others had traveled through it, and had described it to the saints some two years before. It was recommended to the attention of the brethren by their influential friends in Clay County, and so the month of October, 1836, found a number of them settling on Shoal Creek. They soon petitioned for an enactment organizing a new county, which was granted. The new county was organized on the 26th of December, 1836, and was named Caldwell, with the county seat at Far West.

The town plat of Far West as first laid off embraced a square mile, but afterwards additions were made as the population increased. In the center of the town a large public square was laid off, approached by four main roads running east and west, north and south, each a hundred feet wide. Eventually the blocks were so laid off that each block contained four acres, divided into four lots. Far West was located in the western part of Caldwell County, about eight miles west of the present county seat—Kingston. The town site is the highest swell in that high rolling prairie country, and is visible from a long distance.

Standing on what used to be the public square of Far West, on the occasion of my visit there in 1884, I obtained an excellent view of all the surrounding country. Vast fields of waving corn and meadow land were stretched out on all sides, as far as the eye could see. Several towns and villages, with their white church spires gleaming in the sun-light, were in plain view, though from five to ten miles distant. Away to the east is Kingston, the present county seat of Caldwell; further to the northeast is Breckenridge, Hamilton and Kidder; to the west is Plattsburg, and south is the quaint village of Polo. All these places are within easy vision from the site of Far West, and increase the grandeur of the scene.

The site chosen for Far West is the finest location for a city in the county, but notwithstanding all the advantages of the location, Far West has been abandoned. In the fall of 1838 it was a thriving town of some three thousand inhabitants, but today nothing remains except the house of the Prophet Joseph, now owned by D.

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