July
20, 1833. Bishop Partridge and Charles Allen (27 year old convert) endure
mistreatment.
“The
mob caught Bishop Edward Partridge and Charles Allen, and dragged them through
the maddened crowd, which insulted and abused them along the road to the public
square. Here two alternatives were presented them; either they must renounce
their faith in the Book of Mormon or leave the county. The Book of Mormon they would not deny, nor
consent to leave the county. Bishop Partridge, being permitted to speak, said
that the saints had to suffer persecution in all ages of the world, and that he
was willing to suffer for the sake of Christ, as the saints in former ages had
done; that he had done nothing which ought to offend anyone, and that if they
abused him, they would injure an innocent man. Here his voice was drowned by
the tumult of the crowd, many of whom were shouting: ‘Call upon your God to
deliver you!’ The two brethren, Partridge and Allen, were stripped of their
clothing, and bedaubed with tar, mixed with lime, or pearl-ash, or some other
flesh-eating acid, and a quantity of feathers scattered over them. They bore
this cruel indignity and abuse with so much resignation and meekness that the
crowd grew still and appeared astonished at what they witnessed. The brethren
were permitted to retire in silence” (B. H. Roberts, A Comprehensive History of the Church, 1:333; see also Church History in the Fulness of Times Student Manual, 2nd ed. [Church Educational System
manual], 2003, 133).
