May 13- Carthage Jail

On the morning of May 13th we took the short drive from Nauvoo to Carthage to see the jail Joseph Smith was killed in. 

This is me with the jail and statues of Joseph and Hyrum.

A sister missionary gave us a short tour of the jail. I learned a lot about the time Joseph spent there. The jail owners lived in the house with the prisoners and were kind to Joseph. There were four prisoners ( Joseph, Hyrum, John Taylor, Willard Richards) but the first night at the jail there were 12 men in total. The other 8 were there to support Joseph. 

The prisoners were in the dungeon cell that in on the top floor of the house. Being at the top of the house, and with 12 men inside, the room got very hot so the jail owner let the men stay in a different room downstairs. 

As you can see it's just bare floors with nothing else so the men slept on the floor.

The next day the other 8 men left. The jail owner then let the 4 prisoners stay in his and his wife's bedroom. This is the room Joseph and Hyrum were killed in. A mob busted in the door downstairs and ran up the stairs shooting their guns as they went. Hyrum was tyring to hold the bedroom door shut and was shot in the face. The jail still has the original door with the bullet hole in it.  John Taylor was shot in the hip and in the chest. His pocket watch blocked that bullet so he didn't die. The shot did push him back so he rolled under the bed and was protected from further bullets. Willard Richards was never shot. Joseph was looking out the bedroom window when he was shot, he fell out the window and died. Willard Richards was able to carry John Taylor out of the bedroom and into the dungeon cell. The cell had a straw bed on the floor with a mattress. Willard put John Taylor on top of the straw and put the mattress on top of him. The straw was able to stop the bleeding in John's hip so he couldn't bleed to death. 

This is Ja outside the window Joseph fell from.