Autobiography of James Madison Fisher

    James Madison Fisher, In the year of our Lord 1906. I write a short history of my fathers family. My father was born in Penn. In the year 1801 died 1867 in East Mill Creek, Utah. He married Evaline Mclain, November 17^th 1831, who was my mother allso who was born in Penn. in the year 1805, on Christmas day.

    They had born to them four sons and three daughters one son died when four months old the others are as follows: I was born July 22, 1833, in Freedom, Beaver co. Penn.; Helen Maria was born Sept. 20^th 1835 in Falston, Beaver co. Penn.: Elizabeth Jane was born February 1839 in Illinois, Marion County: Joseph A. Fisher was born July 28, 1841, in Nauvoo, Illinois; Henry Charles was born Hune 1, 1844, Nauvoo Illinois; Rheuhamah was born feb. 27 1847, in Winter quarters, Omehaw Nation.

    My Parents joined the church about the year 1835 or 6 they emigrated from Penn. To Nauvoo in the year 1838. Which was then called Commerce. The saints had been driven out of Mosuri and had began to gather to Nauvoo about this time it proved to be a very sickley place almost everbody seemed to be down with chills and feaver. My father's family was all down but himself, the adversary was determined to kill the saints all off. The brothern and the prophet was kept busy administering to the saints, they had to exercise all the faith possible. Finley the prophet had to manafest his power he would go in to a tent and command them in the name of the Lord to get up and walk and they would obey the command he went in to the tent of brother Fordham who was sick unto death he asked brother Fordham if he had faith to be healed he said Brother Joseph I am afraid it is to late the prophet administered to him and commanded him in the name of the Lord to get up and walk and he got up and ate a bowl of bread and milk and went with the prophet to help him administer to the sick saints.

    My father's family moved in to one end of Father Robison's house it being a log one he was the father of louis Robison and fatherinlaw of Squire Wells. I will tell of a circumstance which oucered while we lived there one of the Robison boys was very sick they sent for the prophet and some of the elders to administer to him. Whne they got within 30 yards of the house the Prophet stoped sat down on a stump he told the elders to go in and administer to the boy when going home they asked the prophet why he stoped out he said if I had administered to him he would a got well and aposatized the boy died.

    finely my father bought 7 * acres of land about one-half mile south east from the temple. When we was drived out we left two houses one brick and one frame an orchard of an acre. We had to take $150.00 for it an old yoke of cattle for $75.00 and $75.00 on a store.

    Nauvoo is where I spent my boyhood days. I had two very narrow escapes of my life there 4 or 5 boys and myself went nutting after nuts. I climed the tree I sliped and fell down 40 feet on my back, I was as good as dead for a few minets the boys got scared and all run home but one he blowed breath in my mouth and brought me to, I had to be carried home. At another time when there was no one at home I fell from off the top of two chairs on to a glass bottle and cut the main blood vesel in my thigh I all-most bled to death before anyone came I had to be fed on wine for weeks to make blood. I was always having accidents I fell off a horse and broke my arm. I have had the ends of three fingers cut off.

    I have seen the Prophet and heard him preach many a time I have seen him on parade dressed in his uniform riding his black horse at the head of the nauvoo leagon I saw him at a sham battle once when John C. Benet asked him to lead the charge so he did not lead the charge. He was the handsomest man on horse back or in any other position that I ever saw, he was a very jovel sosiable man he loved children if he would find some boys playing ball he would stop and take a hand a short time. He set a day to baptize children I think it was in the year 1842 I have forgotten the month he baptiszed from 40 to fifty thata day I was one of the number brother John Taylor confirmed us as fast as we came out of the water

    I went to the same school that the Prophet's children did. Patriarch John Smith went to the same school, the schools were not like they are now they didn't teach anything but reading and wrighting, spelling, geography and arithmetic and grammer there is great improvement in the school systems in the last 60 years

    the Nauvoo temple was built in about 5 years and the people was very poor they only had a very short time to accomplish the work it was built out of white lime stone it was a pretty build- after the people left it was torn down it was like solomon's temple not one stone was left upon another.

    I will mention a circumstance that happened in Nauvoo that I am quainted with there was a man living there by the name of Pulaski Calhoon he started a saloon which was against the ordance of the city it was declared a nucens. I saw it hauled off and upset into a deep hollow barles liquor and all he started another one. He was told by the Prophet if he did not quit the business he should go blind he persested in selling liquor and he went blind. I saw him a many time before and a many time after he went blind. I have seen his wife waite on the bar after he went blind. I used to see him go around with a big dog to lead him he went down to cuinsey in a short time after that and died. about the year 1842,

    the enimes of the prophet commenced hunting him with a writ on some pretence he had to hide up at one time he went in to mother Pierce's house he would walk the floor and sing and holler she asked him what he done that for he said he had to give vent to his feelings or he would go crazy at one time there was a couple of sherifs hunting him they found some little boys flying a kite they asked them if they knowed where the prophet Joseph Smith was one little fellow spoke up and said that he went up to heaven yesterday and they had just sent his dinner up on that kite finely his nearest friends turned against him the two layers higbeys and the Fosters and Laws, they would hold secret meetings to conspire against him they finely started a paper called the Hauvoo Expositor which proved to be a very bad paper it told all kinds of lies against the people it was finely declared a nusance and destroyed that, set the devils to howling they never rested untill they got him in jail he knowed that his time was short in Nauvoo he chose a few men and crosed the river in the night to find a place in the rockey mountains for the people he had said this people would go to the rockey mountains and become a mighty people some of the time people followed after him and upbraided him and told him he was like a shepard running away and leaving the sheep to be devoured he was greatly troubled he did not know what to do for a few minets he finely said if my life is not worth anything to you it is not worth anything to me I will go back but I will go like a lamb to the slaughter in a few days after he gave himself up the governor pledged the honor of the state for his protection said he should have an imparsial trial, him and his brother Hyrum and a few others went out to Carthage Jail about 13 miles from Nauvoo the mob began to come in from all around, the cloud got darker every day. The Prophet and his brother Hyrum, John Taylor and willard Richard were in one room together they sang a hymn a short time before they was murdered the governor and his staf came into Nauvoo and made a speech telling the people that they need not be affraid that the Prophet was safe that he would soon return. He was murdered at the same time the governor was making his traitor speech this was in the year 1844 June 27^th the Prophet and his brother Hyrum and John Taylor took off their garments, Brother Richards kept his on, Brother Taylor was wounded in four places he carried one bullet to his grave it was the darkest time the saints ever saw the people seemed to be affraid something was a going to happen. I mind I was standing with some men on the street they was telling how they felt about the Prophet being in jail when they saw a man coming as fast as he could ride, it proved to be Porter Rockwell right from the jail and told of the murder of the Prophet and Hyrum. Everything seemed to turn black as ink the men wanted to go out and take revenge but they was restrained by some unseen power the people at Carthage expected the Mormons would slay them. They all left except the jaylor and his wife the twelve apostles were all away from home, before they got back Sydney Rigdon Wanted to call a meeting and have the people choose him for their leader the people said no wait untill the twelve comes home. Brigham Young was the first to arive after they all come home there was a meeting caled to choose a leader it was held in a grove where they held meetings in the summer time. I was there. Rigdon spoke first it did not hav the wright ring to it when he sat down brother Brigham got up. The mantle of Joseph fell upon him he was the picture of the prophet and he had the Prophet's voice it was a great surprise for the people, the saints was shown who was to be their leader, Rigdon left the church went to penn. And started a church of his own wich soon flatened out. Lyman white and others left the church and led off a number of the people but they soon got tired of their leader and scattered, very few ever gathered with the church the saints remained in Nauvoo two years after the Prophet's death they hurried to finish the temple. A great many got their endowments there my father and mother was two of them our enimes would not let us have any peace they was determind to drive us out of the country they began to drive the saints into Nauvoo from the surrounding country they would drive them out of their houses and set them and their stacks on fire. Shoot their cattle and hogs down and leave them on the ground. They took three of the brothern and striped them and tied them a cross a pole in a ditch and whiped them with hickery witches untill their backs was raw the boys made a song about them. I mind a verse it was something like this, they stole our horsed and our grain and turned out sick folks in the rain, this was another governor Ford he is so small he has no room for a soul at all if heaven or hell should do their best he neither could be damned or blest. Our people had to stand gaurd about one year before they left. The winter before we was driven out all the carpenters and wheel wrights made wagons all winter my father made one for himself but we had no team to hall it with after we crossed the river father soled his place for $150.00 He paid $75.00 for a yoke of oxen and had to take the rest on a store our place was worth about $2,000. It consisted of ten acres of land with two houses and orchard and a good well one frame house and one brick.

The main body of the people left in february, all that was able to go the rest was to poor to move but our enimes was determind we should go this in the year 1846 the people saw that they would have to protect themselves their gus was very bad and they had no canon their only show for canon was three old steamboat shafts that laid on the worf they cut them into and stoped up one end and made six very good canon. they tested them before taking them out in the field one bursted that left five they would load them with pieces of iron and short pieces of chain anything they could get ahold of. I think it was in the month of September the mob came against us twenty-five hundred strong well armed and equiped our men all told was about one hundred and fifty in a very poor condition. I went out where I could see them when they came in sight they looked as though they would kill us all off in a few hours but it was not so to be. I saw the first canon fired they commenced firing as soon as they saw our men, they was supprisedwhen they heard our steam boat shafts go off. We fought them for three days some of them was heard say after the battle there was killed and wounded on their side one hundred and fifty- on our side there was only three killed and three wounded there was a treaty drawn up we was to deliver up our guns and amunition and cross the river in three days they marched into the city the next day and took possession of our city, the third day after the treaty there was quite a number who had not crossed the river on account of ther not being boats enough a lot of the mob came there and swore some terrible oaths because some of us was there yet some of the apostates was the worst they cursed father because he was on the wrong side of the river he told them that he could not cross until his turn they swore his turn would come as soon as the boat landed so it did 8 or ten of them run the wagon on the boat and shoved it off with a curse instead of a blessing we got a cross three days sooner but the people was very poor and a great many sick. I think we did not all get away from there for three weeks while we were there we was fed on quail every morning thousands of quails would fly into camp so tame we could catch them or nock them over with sticks. the people living around there said they never saw the like before about one month before we left nauvoo the people parched bushels of corn and had it ground into meal that and a little milch was pretty much all we had to eat on the road to winterquarters, we was like the isrelites of old oblige to leave our country and homes and go into the wilderness to find a new home among the savechis and wild beasts of the rockey mountains but we was happy we held metings and would dance and sing on the road and enjoy ourselves, the people saw very hard times at winterquarters a great many died with what they called the black leg. the people lived on corn bread and homony with a little very poor beef no vegetables at all.

my father and others went down into mosuri to find work and send what he earned up to us the next spring we moved down to eston we lived there three years before we made a fitout to go to the valley we started on the twentieth of may 1850 and arived the 20th of August we had a very nice trip a cross the plains very little sickness and no death, that year hundreds of people went to California to hunt for gold a great many died with the colery we would pass fresh graves every day the road was strewn with bed clothes. I will mention a prophesy of Joseph Smith the Prophet he prophesied that the mosuri mobocrats bones would bleach upon the plains we saw many graves where the wolves had draged the bodies out they stunk allong the road, we heard that they were from Mosuri.

When we reached the valley my father rented a farm from Samuel Bringhurst in the sugarhouse ward we lived there tow years the first year on this farm we lost the most of our grain by a hail storm in the spring of 1853 we moved in to east mill creek ward and I have lived here ever since making 53 years the land was very hard and dead about five or six bushel of wheat to the acre was all we could raise corn would grow about three feet and a half high potatoes would grow about the size of hens eggs. The Indians was very bad when the people first came here we used to fight them they killed quite a number of our people. John Smith Patriarch, Joseph F. Smith, and myself and others stood gard a many a night in the mouth of Parleys canyon to protect ourselves from them. They bothered us off and on for about ten years before they got peaceablle.

We had to go into the canyon and chop logs and haul to the mill and have them sawed into lumber to build our houses with we burned wood about twenty years before coal was found in the year 1860. the grasshoppers came so numeerous that they eat up every green thing. I bought wheat three years and paid four dollars a bushel for it and sowed it and never reaped a kernel they would lay their eggs in the fall the next spring they would hatch out so thick they would cover the ground they would creep along untill thye would reach the grain and eat it up in a few hours in spite of all we could do one year after they had eaten all the grain I planted corn it growed to about two feet high I plowed one half day in it while I was at dinner the hoppers come and eat it all up we could not send out and get a siply we was a thousand miles from civilization everything had to be hauled on wagons it took three months to cross the plains at one time flour was one dollar a pound and very scarce one yard of calico sold for 25 cents one dollar and twenty five cents for denim to make my wifes dress sugar was 40 cents bacon 60 cents tea four dollars

we dident raise any kind of fruit for twenty years we dident think it worth while to plant trees the ground being so poor, in 1857 the govenment sent an armey of three thousand soulders out here to kill us all off they made their brags what they would do with the mormons when they got here some of the boys made a song about them one verse runs like this, captain Johnson said he would hang every man that had two wives for he had ropes quite handy that is he would have done but lot smith burnt them on Sunday. they did not get in until the next spring we bothered them by burning some of their trains of wagons loaded with goods and provisions they was obliged to pitch their tents one hundred and fifty miles east of us and stay there all winter there was a treaty of peace made before we would allow them to come in, they came in and marched through Salt Lake city but they found the city deserted we had all moved south about 75 miles they did not molest us at all we moved back in the fall. I did not raise hadley anything that season. I planted 5 bushel of potatoes and that is all I dug my wheat was two thirds smart I did not thresh it. the soulders was called back in 2 years, they joined the southern army during the rebellion and was all killed off they left a great quanty of stuff that came in very good for us such as wagons the sold them at auction the was broken to pieces for the iron, iron and everything else had to be hauled across the plains on thousand miles.

James wrote this is in the spring of 1906 and Died 1 Jan 1907 His life was an epic. he was there as an eye witness to many of the 19th century events that shaped the lives of the members of the LDS church. He not only met Joseph Smith, he was baptised by him. he watched as the mob attacked the city of Nauvoo and he gained a testimony of the power of Gods protection. He rubbed shoulders with many of the Lords annointed. When he and his family arrived in the valley, they took up residence on the east bench and began to raise crops. toward the end of his life the family began to plant fruit trees in the rocky soil that was left on the land of their inheritance. It proved to be a success and James' son, James Madison Fisher Jr made the land flourish.

James Madison Fisher SR left a great legacy that will never be exhausted. His posterity have become a living monument to him.