Lorenzo Dow Chamberlain, Sr.

Mormon War

http://library.usu.edu/specol/manuscript/caine19.html .

Mormon Affidavits & Petitions relating to the Missouri Persecutions CAINE MSS COLL 19.

Collection 19 contains those petitions and affidavits relating to Mormon difficulties in Missouri from 1831 to 1839 that were submitted to the House Judiciary Committee seeking redress for damages done in Missouri..

The Collection was obtained from the National Archives in the Spring of 1990. In filing the papers, original filing order has been preserved. Each affidavit or petition was handled separately, ad the following series of container lists and indices provide access to various names, geographical locations, and post-Missouri residences of the Mormon population..
Though the affidavits and petitions were initially collected because of the Mormon expulsion from Caldwell and Daviess counties, a significant number also detail Mormon difficulties in other northern Missouri counties during the so-called Mormon War of 1838-1839..
One of the surprising things about the affidavits, ostensibly sworn to elicit action from Congress for losses during the Mormon War is the number (and the detailed accounts within that number) of affidavits dealing with the Mormon expulsion from Jackson County in 1833 and again in 1834 after some Mormons returned to the County (see affidavits of Charles Hulet and James B.F. Page)..
A description of the collection and an analysis of the contents of it is to be found in Paul C. Richards, "Missouri Persecutions: Petitions for Redress," Brigham Young University Studies, XIII (Summer 1973), pp. 520-543..
Box III: Document 11- "Miscellaneous Subjects, Affidavits, & C." Fd 33: Lorenzo D. Chamberlain Affidavit re: expulsion from Jackson county and from Adam-ondi-Ahman. Warsaw, Hancock, Illinois, January 6, 1840. Fd 34: Jabis Durfee, 1791-1867. Land loss in Daviess County. Commerce, Hancock, Illinois, January 6, 1840. Fd 35: Solomon chamberlin, 1788-1862. Bill of damages, Jackson, Clay Daviess, Caldwell Hancock, Illinois, January 6, 1840 .

http://rsc.byu.edu/archived/mormon-redress-petitions-documents-1833... ict/part-iii-individual-affidavi .

CHAMBERLIN, Lorenzo D. .

Warsaw Hanck County Ill January 5th 1840 .

This is a list of sufferings that I sufferd in the State of Misouri By the hand of the mob I first was Driven from Jackson Co Mo from my living and all the Joys that this world affords tore Down my fences turnd in their Cattle and hogs and Destroyd my Crops took my house and Caried it of of My land on to theirs and put it up again I lived like the heathen in tents which I Robd my Beds to make the same I then had my family to take care of and Cold winter Comming on I went into Clay Co Mo and there I found some friend I was Robed of my arms 1 gun worth $15 I then Moved into Clinton Co which I had to leave in atoo months through mutch loss of propperty I then went to the village of Diahman thare I was taken prisoner and Robd of my arms one Rifle worth $12 and other arms to the amount of 4 or 5 $4.50 cents and then Compeld to leave the State of misouri in the space of four months I then took what little I had left and started for illinois whare I now am living till further orders .

from the time the people of misouri first Began to use their authority[.] they have Ben not less than fifteen hundred dollars danage to me .

Lorenzo D. Chamberlin .

[Sworn to before A. Monroe, J.P., Hancock Co., IL, 6 Jan 1840.] .

CHAMBERLIN, Solomon .

A Bill of damage .

while Suffering as a mormon so cawled in the State of Missouri from the year of december 1831 till the Spring of 1839 .

I Solomon Chamberlin was driven by a mob from Jackson County and from Clay County from davis County and from Caldwell County and so out of the State and my famuly with me expence in I moved from the State of Newyork with a ton and a half of house furniture which I had nearly all destroyd and wasted by mobs in the above Countys I had I suffered the loss of Seven houses [-] by mobs Some of them they burnt and two or three plantations with the crops on the ground they deprived me of and Said crops and destroyd my fences or removed them on to their own land they Stole two mares from my dore one worth $100-the other worth $75 and one mule worth $75 loss of Cattle hogs: all my farming eutentials and mutch other property by mobs I owned lands but I bought them Secont handed wich is lost nearly all I Claim 15,000$ .

Solomon Chamberlin I have Seen mutch of the conduct of the mob while in the State of Missourie I have seen them the mormons drove by the mob into corn fields and hunted as though they had been wolvees and this after they had Surrenderd and given up their arms and at the same time the heads of the mob told me that they did not drive the mormons for any thing they had done but they was afraid they would become more numerous than they and they would put in mormon officers and the sooner they drove them the less they would have to drive I have seen mutch property destroyed and many horses stole and many houses burned by the mob and the malitia quarter upon us and order us out of davis County in 10 days which we had to leave in the time of the great snow storm and many suffered unto death I saw some of the mob by the name of yokeham and kentrail pull down one of the mormon houses and hawl it on to their own premises contrary to the owners mind and with out their leave .

I have often had my life threatend and loaded firearms presented and been knocked down by those merceless mob and all without any provocation .

Solomon Chamberlin .

[Sworn to before T. Crawford, J.P., Hancock Co., IL, 6 Jan 1840.] .

Story of why so many Lorenzo Dow names

Quote from book "A Layman's Guide To: Why Are There So Many Christian Denominations?" By C. Jack Trickler page 17 and 18..

http://books.google.com/books?id=pmZMjfyMugQC&lpg=PA178&dq=Lorenzo%2 0Dow%20Chamberlin&pg=PA178#v=onepage&q=Lorenzo%20Dow%20Chamberlin&f=false.

"Do w is from a long line of Methodist pastors and missionaries and gives credit for his middle name, Dow, to carrying on that tradition of naming sons after Lorenzo Dow." See the book for more on the Methodist preacher and possible influences..

Solomon Chamberlin was a Methodist to start with and would have been right in the area and time of this mentioned Lorenzo Dow of the Methodists. .

https://byustudies.byu.edu/PDFLibrary/37.2PorterSolomon-9eb5d31f-dc.... pdf.

Mormon Trail Story

Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, 1847–1868 Source of Trail Excerpt: Chamberlin, Solomon, Autobiography [ca. 1858]. Read Trail Excerpt: We were driven from the state of Missouri, and settled in Illinois, at Nauvoo, where we remained in peace for several years, and built a Temple and in June 27, 1844, our Prophet and Patriarch was murdered, and about the year 1846 we were broken up and had to flee to the Rocky Mountains, April 2, 1847. This day the Pioneers began to leave the Council Bluffs or Winter Quarters for the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, to make the road and hunt a place for the Saints. I being one of them, and was unwell when I started, I suffered much of cold and hunger. When we got to the Green River I was taken down with cholera, or cholera morbus, and was brought to the point of death, and for 6 days and nights I took nothing in my stomach but cold water, and that distressed me so much. The road was new and rough, and we continued to travel and it seemed I must die, and I longed for death, my fare was course and scant. .

When we got to the Valley many of us were out of provisions, July 24th, here we stayed about one month. .

August 26th, we started for Council Bluffs, for my outfit to go back with I had but 2 quarts of parch corn and 3 quarts of course corn meal. I was sick all the way back, and suffered everything but death; many times I had nothing to eat, and sometimes I had a little poor buffalo bull meat. We returned back to the Bluffs about the last of October, and found my family well..