Gooch, John.  Death of the prophets Joseph and Hyram [sic] Smith, who were murdered while in prison at Carthage Ill., on the 27th day of June, A.D. 1844.  Compiled and printed for our venerable brother in Christ, Freeman Nickerson.  Contents. Account of the death of the Mormon prophet and patriarch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Two official reports from Governor Ford.  A report from J. W. Woods attorney at law. A few sketchs [sic] from the faith and doctrine of the Latter Day Saints. Boston: Printed by John Gooch, Minot’s Building Spring Lane, corner Devonshire Street.  1844.

12 pp. 22 cm

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Although this tract is often attributed to Freeman Nickerson, it appears to have been compiled by John Gooch, possibly at Nickerson’s request.  Born in Concord, Massachusetts, August 6, 1824, John Gooch was a member of the Mormon branch in Boston and a professional printer who regularly advertised in The Prophet.  In 1845 he was married in Nauvoo, and three years later Orson Hyde engaged him to print the Frontier Guardian in Kanesville, Iowa.  Gooch worked on the Guardian until Hyde sold it in February 1852, and later that year, en route to Utah, he died at Woodriver Camp, Nebraska.

Death of the Prophets is mainly taken from the reports in the Nauvoo Neighbor Extra of June 30.  Its description of the events leading up to the assassination as well as Thomas Ford’s “To the People of the State of Illinois” and James W. Woods’s report are extracted from the extra.  In addition it includes Ford’s proclamation of July 25, 1844, “To the People of Warsaw, in Hancock County”, initially published as a broadside and reprinted in the Nauvoo Neighbor of July 31, 1844, and in The Prophet of August 17.  In this proclamation Ford condemns the threats of violence against the Saints and reminds the people of Warsaw of the Mormons’ peaceful stance.  He further declares that if those agitators in Warsaw become the aggressors, he is “determined that all the power of the state shall be used to prevent [their] success.”  The pamphlet concludes with the thirteen “Articles of Faith” from the Wentworth letter, and a testimony written perhaps by Freeman Nickerson.

Wilford Woodruff reached Liverpool on January 3, 1845, to assume the presidency of the British Mission.  During the next eight days, he sold six hundred copies of Death of the Prophets to four men in the mission at 12s 6p. a hundred.  One might guess that he used the tracts to help defray his mission expenses.

Excerpted and edited from Peter Crawley, A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church.  Volume One, 1830-1847. (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, Religious Studies Center, [1997]).  Item 232, p. 274-76.

Used by permission of the author and the Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University.