Carthage Jail

Born and raised in New England in the United States, Joseph Smith Jr. had been a controversial figure ever since he claimed he had received a vision from God in 1820. In subsequent years, Smith published The Book of Mormon, which he claimed to have translated from ancient American writings that had been revealed to him by an angel from God. He later founded the Church of Christ, which claimed to be a restoration of the New Testament church. Smith’s followers, known colloquially as Mormons, were driven from Ohio and Missouri before they settled in Hancock County, Illinois, and built the city of Nauvoo on the Mississippi River.

In 1844, in the face of rising tensions with neighboring communities, Smith was jailed in Carthage on charges that he had incited a riot and committed treason against the state of Illinois. While imprisoned in the jail’s upper room on June 27, 1844, Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were killed by a mob that stormed the jail.

Hyrum was shot in the face and died on the floor of the upper room. Joseph was shot several times in the torso while attempting to escape through a window. His body fell out of the window to the ground outside of the jail. Another of Smith’s companions, John Taylor, was wounded and rescued by a fourth companion, Willard Richards.

Without Smith’s leadership, the Church of Christ fragmented into several groups. The largest group, led by Joseph Smith’s associate Brigham Young, left Nauvoo in 1846 to settle in the valley of the Great Salt Lake, now in the U.S. state of Utah.