Prophet & President
Joseph Smith
Prophet and President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and mayor of Nauvoo. He was jailed at Carthage and killed in the attack on June 27, 1844.
Martyrdom Stories
June 1844. A growing crisis. The final days of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. Follow the events of the Martyrdom—and examine the evidence for yourself.
Chapter 1 • The Geography
The Tragic Triangle
Nauvoo, Warsaw, and Carthage form the geographic center of the story.
Chapter 2 • June 7–10, 1844
The Expositor
The Nauvoo Expositor appeared on June 7, 1844. Its single issue became the immediate spark in a crisis already years in the making.
Original Document
NAUVOO EXPOSITORJune 7, 1844 • full first page • not cropped
June 7, 1844
One Issue
The paper said that the Book of Mormon was true and that Joseph Smith was once a true prophet but had fallen from grace. It called for the repeal of the Nauvoo Charter and for mobs to attack the city. It also contained libelous charges.
On June 10 the Nauvoo City Council declared the press a public nuisance and ordered it removed by the City Marshall. The destruction of the press accelerated the crisis.
Chapter 3 • Thomas Sharp & Warsaw
The Warsaw Signal Incites a Mob
Chapter 4 • June 24–26, 1844
Carthage
Joseph and Hyrum went to Carthage to answer the charges against them. By June 25 they were confined in Carthage Jail on a treason charge.
Historical Image
CARTHAGE JAILHistorical image • circa 1885
June 24–26
The Last Days Before the Attack
Joseph and Hyrum arrived in Carthage near midnight on June 24. The next day they appeared on the riot charge connected with the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor and posted recognizance. They were then charged with treason for enacting one night of martial law in Nauvoo and were committed to jail because the charge of treason did not permit bail.
On June 26 they met with Governor Thomas Ford, who repeatedly promised the protection of the state. That night Dan Jones remained near Joseph in the jail and received the last prophecy to a person from Joseph, capping almost 400 prophecies Joseph had given.
Chapter 5 • The Lead Up
June 27: The Story of the Martyrdom
Follow June 27 scene by scene. Click below to see the story, or choose any moment yourself.
Carthage JailCirca 1885 etching • public domain
Final Letter to EmmaJoseph Smith Papers • June 26–27, 1844
Joseph's PepperboxHistoric artifact photograph • public domain
John Taylor's WatchHistoric artifact photograph
Chapter 6 • Carthage Jail • Afternoon
A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief
At Hyrum Smith’s request, John Taylor sings the hymn. Hyrum later asks him to sing it again.
Taylor sings the hymn twice on June 27.
The melody sung at Carthage Jail was different from the version sung in the Church today.
In 1886, President John Taylor asked Ebenezer Beesley to write down the melody as Taylor remembered singing it at Carthage.
Beesley then arranged the four-part version that became the basis for the later hymn tune.
♪♫♪♫♪
Learn about the hymn →
Chapter 7 • Shortly after 5:00 p.m.
The Martyrdom
The attack unfolds in minutes. The experience uses sound, pacing, eyewitness words, and surviving artifacts rather than graphic violence.
HyrumShot first inside the room. “I am a dead man.”
JosephUses the small pepperbox revolver brought into the jail.
John TaylorShot repeatedly and badly wounded, but survives.
WindowJoseph reaches the window, is shot, falls to the ground and dies below.
Press play to reveal the sequence.
Chapter 8 • Eyewitness Evidence
The Warsaw House
Start with 01, then click 02–05. Each numbered step changes the scene and evidence so you can follow Eliza Graham’s story in order.
Before dark • June 27
01
Sharp Returns from Carthage
Eliza Graham, age 18, is working as a waitress at the Warsaw House when Thomas Sharp returns rapidly from Carthage.
Sharp returns before dark from Carthage.
↓ CLICK A NUMBERED STEP BELOW TO CONTINUE THE STORY ↓
Read Eliza Graham’s trial testimony →
May 26, 1845 • Hancock County murder trial
Chapter 9 • What Happened Next?
The Aftermath
The murders ended Joseph and Hyrum's lives, but not the crisis in Hancock County. The story continued through mourning, succession, indictments, trial, renewed violence, and exodus.
June 28, 1844
Joseph and Hyrum Return to Nauvoo
Their bodies are carried back to Nauvoo. Thousands mourn as the city receives the two brothers.
Chapter 10 • After the Martyrdom
Samuel H. Smith
The tragedy did not end at Carthage Jail. Joseph and Hyrum's brother Samuel raced toward Carthage, was pursued by armed men, and died little more than a month later.
June 27 → July 30, 1844
33
Days
Days
The Third Martyr
Samuel Harrison Smith, brother of Joseph and Hyrum and one of the Eight Witnesses of the Book of Mormon.
1Rides toward Carthage
2Mobbers pursue him
3Reaches his brothers
4Returns with the bodies
Press play to follow Samuel's ride.
Samuel escaped a dangerous pursuit and reached Carthage physically exhausted. He helped Willard Richards care for Joseph and Hyrum's bodies and returned with them to Nauvoo the next day.
Soon afterward Samuel became seriously ill. His recorded cause of death was bilious fever. Family and later Church accounts connected the illness with the severe exertion, fatigue, and distress of the chase and its aftermath.
Samuel died July 30, 1844. In the Martyrdom Stories presentation, he is remembered as the third martyr of the Smith family tragedy.
Chapter 11 • The Trial
Jury
May 1845. The courtroom in Carthage is packed. Five men stand trial for Joseph Smith's murder. Read the prosecution's charges. Read the defense. Then cast your own vote before the historical verdict is revealed.
May 21–23Jury selection
May 24Testimony begins
May 26Eliza Graham testifies
May 30Verdict
The five defendants:
Levi WilliamsMark AldrichJacob DavisWilliam GroverThomas Sharp
Press Present the Evidence. On a phone, the page will follow the prosecution and defense as each point is highlighted.
Keep this button visible while the points below light up.
Case for Conviction
The Prosecution
The state's argument: the defendants helped organize, lead, or carry out the movement that ended in the murders at Carthage.
- Eliza Graham: Thomas Sharp returned to Warsaw before dark; later, men including Jacob Davis and William Grover made statements tied to the killings.
- Warsaw House: groups totaling about 60 men arrived for supper that night, including wounded men.
- Boasting: Eliza remembered William Grover claiming he had killed Joseph; Jacob Davis said, “We have finished the men.”
- Common plan: the state argued leadership or participation in the planned attack could establish guilt even if a defendant did not fire the fatal shot.
Eliza Graham became the prosecution's most memorable Warsaw witness.
Evidence balanced
Case for Acquittal
The Defense
The defense argument: public suspicion and hostility could not substitute for legal proof against these particular defendants.
- New Jury: At the request of the defense, the judge surprisingly allowed the properly seated jury to be dismissed and permitted the defense to select replacement jurors from among the people in the courtroom. The audience was made up largely of mob members, their friends, and sympathizers.
- Contradictory testimony: defense attorneys attacked prosecution witnesses through cross-examination, alibi evidence, and competing accounts.
- Circumstantial case: much of the evidence against defendants accused as organizers or leaders depended on inference rather than direct observation of the killings.
The defence focused the jury on one question: had the state proved the five were responsible for leading the conspiracy to commit these murders.
The Jury's Question
Had the prosecution legally proved that these five defendants were guilty of conspiring to kill Joseph Smith?
How would you vote?
Make your choice below to see the verdict!
May 30, 1845
THE VERDICT: NOT GUILTY
All five defendants were acquitted.
Twenty-four years later, Warsaw native John Hay summarized the result:
“There was not a man on the jury, in the court, in the county, that did not know the defendants had done the murder. But it was not proven, and the verdict NOT GUILTY was right in law.”John Hay, “The Mormon Prophet's Tragedy,” The Atlantic Monthly, December 1869.
“There was not a man on the jury, in the court, in the county, that did not know the defendants had done the murder. But it was not proven, and the verdict NOT GUILTY was right in law.”John Hay, “The Mormon Prophet's Tragedy,” The Atlantic Monthly, December 1869.
Chapter 12 • People in the Story
Meet the People
The Martyrdom story involved religious leaders, family members, witnesses, political officials, newspaper editors, militia officers, and defendants. Here are the principal people encountered in this interactive page.
Swipe through all 15 cards to meet some of the main people involved →
Patriarch
Hyrum Smith
Joseph’s older brother and Patriarch to the Church. He voluntarily accompanied Joseph to Carthage and was the first of the brothers killed in the upstairs jail room.
Apostle & Eyewitness
John Taylor
Member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles who was in the jail with Joseph and Hyrum. He sang “A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief,” was badly wounded in the attack, and survived.
Church Leader & Eyewitness
Willard Richards
Church leader and close associate of Joseph Smith who remained in the jail room during the attack. He escaped with only a slight wound to his ear, fulfilling an earlier prophecy from Joseph Smith that bullets would fly around him like hail yet leave no hole in his garment. Richards later left an important eyewitness account of the murders.
Welsh Convert & Witness
Dan Jones
Welsh Latter-day Saint who stayed near Joseph in Carthage and carried a request for legal help on June 27. He received the last prophecy Joseph Smith gave to a person and later became one of the greatest missionaries of the Restoration, leading a remarkable missionary work in Wales.
Joseph’s Wife
Emma Smith
Joseph Smith’s wife and mother of his children. Joseph wrote to her repeatedly during the final days, including letters from across the Mississippi River and from Carthage.
Brother of Joseph & Hyrum
Samuel H. Smith
Joseph and Hyrum’s brother and one of the Eight Witnesses of the Book of Mormon. He rode toward Carthage on June 27, was pursued by armed men, and died on July 30 after weeks of declining health. He became the third martyr.
Editor of the Warsaw Signal
Thomas Sharp
Editor of the anti-Mormon Warsaw Signal and a leading opponent of Joseph Smith. He helped rally opposition in Warsaw and later stood trial with four others for conspiracy to murder Joseph Smith. Sharp later served three terms as mayor of Warsaw. In declining health, he spent his final years in a wheelchair. He is buried about one mile north of Carthage Jail.
Leader of the Carthage Greys
Frank Worrell
Leader of the Carthage Greys. Worrell sent a message to Thomas Sharp and the Warsaw mob at Golden’s Point saying, “Now is the time to do the deed,” referring to storming Carthage Jail. Just over a year later, on September 16, 1845, Worrell was shot and killed by Orrin Porter Rockwell, who had been deputized by Sheriff Jacob Backenstos. After ordering Worrell and the men with him to halt, the sheriff directed Rockwell to fire. It was Rockwell’s first confirmed kill. Rockwell later said that he never killed a man who did not deserve to die.
Governor of Illinois
Thomas Ford
Governor of Illinois during the crisis. He dealt directly with Joseph and Hyrum, promised state protection, and ordered part of the Warsaw force discharged on June 27. He died only a few years later in 1850, destitute and in declining health—a broken man by the end of his life.
Warsaw House Witness
Eliza Graham
Eighteen-year-old waitress at the Warsaw House in 1844. At the 1845 murder trial she testified about Thomas Sharp’s return, the men who came for supper, wounded men, and statements she heard that night.
Trial Defendant
Levi Williams
Colonel of the 59th Regiment of the Illinois militia and one of the five men tried in May 1845 for conspiracy connected with Joseph Smith’s murder. He was acquitted.
Trial Defendant
Mark Aldrich
Prominent Hancock County anti-Mormon and one of the five defendants tried for conspiracy in Joseph Smith’s murder. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty. He later moved west to Tucson, where he became the city’s first American alcalde, or mayor, and remained active in territorial politics. He died there in 1873, broke and leaving an illegitimate child.
Trial Defendant
Jacob Davis
Illinois politician and militia figure who was among the five defendants. Eliza Graham remembered Davis making a statement at the Warsaw House after the killings; he was later acquitted.
Trial Defendant
William Grover
One of the five men tried in 1845. Eliza Graham testified that she remembered Grover claiming he had killed Joseph Smith; the jury ultimately acquitted him.
Chapter 13 • Explore More
Evidence & Museum Material
Visitors who want the story can keep moving. Visitors who want the evidence can go deeper here.
Swipe the resource cards →
📜
Primary Documents
Letters, journals, warrants, court records, and contemporary accounts.
Open collection →📰
Newspapers
The Nauvoo Expositor, the Warsaw Signal, and the printed war of words.
Read sources →🎥
Martyrdom Stories Videos
Interviews and discussions gathered on the museum's Podcast page.
View all videos →🗂️
Craig Dunn Collection
Research papers, maps, biographies, and Hancock County source material.
Explore collection →Chapter 14 • Videos
Videos
Click the links below to watch the associated videos.
The Story Continues
Martyrdom Stories
Explore the people, documents, places, and testimony surrounding the deaths of Joseph and Hyrum Smith.