JACOB FOUTZ: Mormon Redress Petitions
During March 1839, while the Prophet Joseph Smith was a prisoner in the jail at Liberty, Missouri, along with his beloved brother, Hyrum, our ancestor, Caleb Baldwin, and three others, The Prophet wrote an inspired epistle to Bishop Edward Partridge, parts of which have since become Sections 121, 122 and 123 of the Doctrine and Covenants. Because it was their Aimperative duty(see Section 123), the Saints wrote accounts of their sufferings and persecution in Missouri, hoping that the United States government would do something to redress the illegal acts committed against them because of their religion. These documents have become the Mormon Redress Petitions.
Jacob Foutz accepted his imperative duty and wrote the following, in his own language, including spelling, capitalization and punctuation. Jacob was born and raised in Pennsylvania, as was his father, John Foutz. However, his grandfather, Conrad Foutz, was born in Germany and the family undoubtedly spoke German along with English, as many still do in rural Pennsylvania. This region is referred to as Pennsylvania ADutch,although the people are of German ancestry, not actually from Holland. (The German word for German is ADeutsch,which sounds like Dutch, when pronounced by English speakers.) Jacob’s Germanic English has been preserved on pages 694-695 of the Mormon Redress Petitions:
AA short Sketch Conserning my dificulty and loses in missuri i lost at lest fife hundred dollars besides being shot i was at the murders sene at hons mill in Colvell County the reasen that ve was thare is thare was a mob of about twenty or twenty fife men came thare stolde horses and catel and took guns and thretend to burn our gritmill as i was informed ve then concludid to gether at the said mill to prevent them from robing us ve like vice getherd thare about thirty six armd men on our one (own) land and in our one (own) country that then came apone us with uperts of too hundred men armd and ve pled for qaters but thare was non grantit tha commenceit the bludy cein xxofxx (x means letters/words not readable) sum of our men runavy and wen the others vare kild and vaundid tha came round a blacksmith shop that ve had got in i then saw that the idea was to cil us all for tha run thare guns in thru the cracks and shot the voundid i being Shot in the thi could not git a vay i laid on my fais and pertenit to be ded that came in and i heird sum pleiding for thare lives a mong us a litil boy pled also tha replide that he must dy tht he woold be a mormn after awhile i heird the guns craking i had to doo as the ded done in part one of them came and put his arm under me hunting for pistels and one swor it was too bad to take ded mens buts but i must have have them and after tha had us all kild as tha supposd and then wente to plundering the ded and houses and robd the pure widows of thare horses and wagons beding and Clothing after kiling thare husbands there was severel newcomer tha took thare wagons and temes and put on the stolen prperty and hollerd hurraw boys lets git out of this plase tha then left in an our or too the poor vides and childron came xxand thexx veping for the los of thare husband and fath thers thare was none left to bery the ded only vimen and a few sick and crpelt men tha put the ded in a vell that was part dug the mob came back in a fue dys and took persestion of the mill staid 8 or ten days during this time tha and thare horses lived on our grain and meit and drove of ou catel and vente frum hous to hous with thare guns and thare faises blackend thretning if ve did not leve tha kild men and boys after ve vare priseners and boastit of it in public.