Quincy, Illinois ... generational gratitude!

 I have had another opportunity to participate as an artist in a commemorative work related to early LDS church history, working with Glenn Rawson of the History of the Saints TV program.

Here is brief history regarding these pieces ...

After Governor Boggs of Missouri issued the “extermination” order in 1838, the saints were driven from Missouri and sought refuge across the Mississippi River in Illinois. The good people of Quincy, though outnumbered by the refugee Saints, were among the only ones who would give quarter and refuge to them. They literally saved their lives during the winter of 1838-39! John Wood, the founder of Quincy led the effort to help the beleaguered Mormon refugees.

The LDS church will be placing a permanent exhibit in the new History Museum in downtown Quincy, Illinois this spring as an official “thank you” to the people of the Quincy area for the kindness of their ancestors so many years ago.

In these two paintings, I was able to render how the Quincy downtown area may have looked in the 1840's, and how the Jonathan Browning home may have appeared just before he and his family left Quincy for Nauvoo around the time of their conversion to the Church in the early 1840's.

I am again honored to have been able to participate in such a project.

 

Joseph and Hyrum

Once again, I have had another remarkable painting experience! My friend, Glenn Rawson, of the History of the Saints and Joseph Smith Papers TV programs, petitioned me to help him provide a painting for his upcoming program centered on the story of Joseph Smith's early ordeal and leg operation when he was a young boy.

Glenn gave me some of the text and asked if I could paint a scene depicting Hyrum's compassion for his younger brother as he recovered from such an ordeal. Hyrum was constantly at this side, giving him comfort and even supporting his leg so as to help ease Joseph's pain.

I only had a couple of days to complete the painting in order to meet the production deadlines so I painted quickly and decisively, not knowing exactly what the end result would actually be. This experience taught me so much ... I am thankful to Glenn for the opportunity! I have a new appreciation for these two brothers, for their family love, support and commitment to each other.

The Blacksmith Shop @ Haun's Mill

 I was asked to do one other painting for this commemoration ... the blacksmith shop at Haun's Mill. This is the place where the saints took final refuge from the mob as they began their work of destruction. In all, 17 men and boys were murdered before it was all over at the hands of over 200 men on horseback, their anonymity hidden behind their painted black faces. Sobering indeed to contemplate the horrors that went on here so many years ago.

After studying the journal accounts of the settlement and events, this is how I envisioned the blacksmith shop. It was built and owned by a member of the church, James Houston, and was still under construction at the time of the tragedy, so the cracks between the logs were not chinked or dobbed. It was about 18' square, made of local timber and a bark roof.

When the mob rode in, the men went to the blacksmith shop where they had hidden their remaining weapons (the locals had illegally disarmed the saints previously several times).  The women and children ran to the woods to hide. Basically, the men were defenseless.  The mob came with their weapons and their bullets and their guns.  The blacksmith shop was not secure enough that it could protect them, so the guns went through the spaces in the logs. 

This has been a sobering yet faith promoting experience for me to participate in this project. I am grateful for those survivors and their descendants who have risen above this incident through the years, their faith still in tact. 

Hawn's Mill Tragedy

This painting depicts the original Hawn's Mill in Missouri circa 1838. I was invited to create several paintings that will be used in the upcoming commemoration of the tragedy that occurred there in early church history.

Though such a sad part of LDS history, many have risen above it and the healing balm of the Savior allows for such a commemoration now. I am honored to have had the opportunity to participate.

Contact me for further information ...

The Hawn's Mill settlement circa 1838

This piece depicts what the Hawn's Mill settlement may have looked like in the fall of 1838. In 1835, Jacob Hawn, not a Mormon, built and operated the mill located on Shoal Creek, a tributary of the Grand River in Western Missouri. Jacob seemed to welcome the Mormons when no one else would because he viewed them as new clientele. History suggests that there were several structures built by the Mormon settlers, along with several other temporary shelters scattered about the settlement. This settlement is where the tragic Hawn's Mill Massacre occurred on October 30, 1838.

I have had the opportunity to participate as an artist in the upcoming Commemoration of the Hawn's Mill massacre of 1838.This piece is one of three that I have provided for the cause.

Sacred Burial Site @ Hawn's Mill

This is perhaps the most sobering and heart-rendering scene I have ever tried to paint. After that excruciating night of terror at the Hawn's Mill settlement in October 1838, 17 men and boys were found murdered in and around the blacksmith's shop. Several others were badly wounded. The remaining survivors were in fear for their lives and thus had to remain in hiding for some time afterward.

They didn't have the means or manpower to properly bury the dead. No funeral services were performed, nor could they be buried with customary decency. The lives of those, who in terror performed the last duty for the dead, were in jeopardy. Every moment they expected to be fired upon by the fiends who they supposed to be lying in ambush waiting for the first opportunity to dispatch the remaining few who had escaped the slaughter of the remaining day.

So in the hurry and terror of the moment, the survivors placed the bodies of the slain in a dry well and buried them with dirt, straw and rocks. They later returned to place a stone painted red atop the mass grave. Eventually all of the Mormon settlers were driven from Missouri on the extermination orders of Governor Wilburn Boggs. All this death and tragedy simply because of their faith.