The Mormon Menace: The Confessions of John Doyle Lee, Danite

Many people think that Brigham cut me off from the Church and refused to recognize me following the massacre. I will relate a circumstance that took place ten years after the fa...

With me I had brought home about all that my team could haul of supplies, clothing, and groceries, which soon made my family comfortable. I had met Brigham and shaken hands with...

While my mind is running in that direction let me tell of certain of the doings of the Danites. These stories I relate will illustrate the purpose and uses of the Danite in the...

We got into camp the next day. After striking camp I noticed that a tire was gone from one of the wagons. A few days afterwards the mother of my first wife went down to a stream...

After I moved to Luck Creek I was a fortunate man and accumulated property very fast. I look back to those days with pleasure. I had a large house and I gave permission to all s...

About the middle of February, 1839, I started back for Fayette County, Illinois, with my family, in company with Brother Levi Stewart and Riley Helm, two of my old Illinois neig...

During the winter of 1841 a letter was sent I the Prophet from the leading men and members of the branch church on Stone River, Tennessee, and Creple Creek, Rutherford County, T...

After 1844 it was my habit to keep a journal, in which I wrote at length all that I considered worthy of remembering. Most of my journals, written up to 1860, were called for by...

Among other matters I had a fine gray mare that attracted the attention of many of the mob. I was allowed to take her to water while closely guarded by armed men. One day as I t...

Almost a half century ago, being in 1857, John Doyle Lee, a chief among that red brotherhood, the Danites, was ordered by Brigham Young and the leading counselors of the Mormon...

My time I find is getting short. To continue as I have the story of the little details and what befell as we crossed the plains for the promised land of Utah would need more day...

Upon my return home I found my family well. Work on the Temple was progressing finely, every effort being made to push it ahead. About this time a man named Bennett came on a vi...

The Saints did not consecrate their possessions as they had so recently voted they would do; they began to reflect, and the final determination was that they could manage their...

Shortly after my return to Illinois I built a house for my family. During the winter I entered into a trading and trafficking business with G. W. Hickerson. We would go over the...

It was then noon, or a little after. I found the emigrants strongly fortified; their wagons were chained to each other in a circle. In the center was a rifle-pit, large enough t...

Joseph the Prophet and Hyrum, his brother, were assassinated on the 24th day of June, 1844, at Carthage, about twenty miles from Nauvoo, while under the pledged faith of Governo...

Only a short time after the events narrated it was arranged that Parson Hall and myself should hold another discussion in the Campbellite chapel. Parson Hall did not want to mee...

Only a few words in regard to the Prophet Joseph. He was tried twenty-one times for different offenses, and acquitted each time. Once when he was visiting in Peoria he was captu...

In the winter of 1845 meetings were held all over the city of Nauvoo, and the spirit of Elijah was taught in the different families as a foundation to the order of celestial mar...

On Thursday, about noon, several Danites joined us from Cedar City. I cannot remember the order in which the brethren came to the Meadows, but I do recollect that at this time a...

After holding the discussion mentioned, Brother Young, of Jackson County, Tennessee, wished me to go with him and join in a discussion with a couple of Campbellite preachers. At...

Accordingly, I went to Salt Lake City to report. I started about a week or ten days after the massacre, and was on the way about ten days. When I arrived in the city I went to B...

I formed a liking for Emily Conner. Emily was an orphan, and lived about four years at my aunt Charlotte's after her mother died, and until her father married again. She had a c...

In justice to myself, my numerous family, and the public in general, I consider it my duty to write a history of my life. I shall content myself with giving facts, and let the r...