Tuesday 27 June. This day 10 years ago Joseph Smith was
massacred in Carthage jail, and we met this afternoon to commemorate the event.
Very hot still wind from the south, from 12 to 2 o’clock. I wrote a long letter
to my wife, and 7 double verses that follow to the memory of Joseph and Hyrum,
who this day 10 years ago fell martyrs to Truth, for the sake of Jesus, his kingdom
and gospel, by the hands of apostates, pretended friends, and what are called
religious men. (Thomas D. Brown, Journal, June 27, 1854, in Journal of the
Southern Indian Mission: Diary of Thomas D. Brown, ed. Juanita Brooks [Western Text Society 4; Logan,
Utah: Utah State University Press, 1972], 71)
