We are all aware of the famous and brilliant “pillar of light” that Joseph Smith saw at the coming of the Father and the Son. The heaven’s spoke again with this symbol of light that is representative when you hear about the Son of God.
Many of you may not have known that a “pillar of light” descended from heaven after the martyrdom of Joseph Smith as well. Several witnesses describe this pillar of light illustrated in this picture below as:
“A sheet of lightning“
“A pillar of light came down from the heavens“
“Powerful, burst from the heavens“
“This light, in its appearance and potency, baffles all powers of description“
“Joseph Smith during Zion’s Camp., he Brigham declared of this experience: I have travelled with Joseph a thousand miles. . . . I have watched him and observed every thing he said or did. . . . For the town of Kirtland I would not give the knowledge I got from Joseph on this Journey; and then you may take the State of Ohio and the United States. . . . It has done me good . . . and this was the starting point of my knowing how to lead Israel. President Brigham Young called himself “an Apostle of Joseph Smith, and also of Jesus Christ” [footnote] and attributed his wisdom and success to his diligent obedience to the counsel and instruction of the Prophet Joseph Smith:
I wish to say that, when I see [men] in Israel who are careless and unconcerned, who trifle away their time . . . where there are opportunities to learn, my experience for the best part of forty years teaches me that they never progress . . . . In my experience I never did let an opportunity pass of getting with the Prophet Joseph and of hearing him speak in public or in private, so that I might draw understanding from the fountain from which he spoke, that I might have it and bring it forth when it was needed. My own experience tells me that the great success with which the Lord has crowned my labors is owing to the fact of applying my heart to wisdom. . . . In the days of the Prophet Joseph, such moments were more precious to me than all the wealth of the world. No matter how great my poverty—if I had to borrow meal to feed my wife and children, I never let an opportunity pass of learning what the Prophet had to impart. This is the secret of the success of your humble servant.”(Brigham Young Journal of Discourses, 12:270)
Teenage Witness to the Martyrdom
By Golden R. Buchanan
“Just a lad of eight or nine was I, but I have not forgotten what he said, or how the old man trembled as he talked.
Grandpa Archie sat in Mother’s rocker, waiting for his lunch. Suddenly he called me to him, took me on his lap, and said, “Golden, I am old. I won’t be around much longer, but I have something to say to you that must not be lost. I want my grandchildren and their children to know that I was in Nauvoo when they murdered our Prophet.”
His old body trembled, and he squeezed me until I was almost frightened as I felt the deep anger in his soul. His feeble eyes blazed, and his soft, faltering voice became as hard as ice, and as cold:
“How I hated those who dared lay their hands upon the prophet I loved.”
He sighed, and his old body relaxed a little. “I was there when they brought their bodies back from Carthage. I saw their bloody, lifeless forms; I heard the anguished cries of their wives and neighbors; I saw their sobbing children and tried to comfort them.
“I knew the Prophet’s boys, played with them. They were often in our home, and I in theirs. Now they were fatherless, even as I. Their father was a martyr by bullets; my father was dead because of drivings, persecutions, and hate—but no less a martyr for the truth.
“I was there when they buried the sandbags to deceive the mob and laid the bodies in secret graves.”
Grandfather paused. He needed strength. And then he went on: “Listen again, my son. I tell you this because I want you to know. After the Prophet’s body fell from the window at Carthage, the mob rushed upon him to desecrate his body. But God would not permit this act of violence. He sent a sheet of lightning between the Prophet and those sons of the infernal pit, and they dared not touch him. Golden, my son, remember this—they could not touch him. They ran and are running still and will run till judgment day.”
He was tired now and his voice trailed off, “I hope I am present at that day.”
He dozed. Slowly the color crept back into his face, and when he opened his eyes, they shone with a light I had not seen before. Holding me at arm’s length, he commanded with a voice that no longer shook:
“My boy, look at me and listen. I want you to hear it from one who was there. I want you to hear it from one who loved him. I want you to hear it from one who knows.
“Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. Through him God restored his church, and it will never be destroyed or taken from the earth. Now, my boy, remember what I say. I, your grandfather, was 14 then, and I was there.”
Editor’s note: The family of Archibald Buchanan (1830–1915) joined the Church in 1835 at Lima, Illinois. He came to Utah in 1852, filled a mission in the Elk Mountain Indian Mission, and afterward served for many years as Brigham Young’s interpreter to the Ute Indians. Brother Buchanan was a member of the first Sevier Stake high council. Ensign 1974 Here
My parents both served the Native Americans on the Southwest Indian Mission of 1949-51 under President Golden Buchanan. They have told me wonderful stories about Pres. Buchanan all my life. I came across this Improvement Era article just a few years ago and as a lover of Lamanite Tradition and one who desires to share the Gospel with our Native brothers and sisters, I wanted to share this with you.
Lamanite Traditions & Latter-day Saints
Golden R. Buchanan was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He devoted 16 years to missionary service as President of the Southwest Indian Mission and Salt Lake Regional Mission. He was Indian coordinator for the church and was known for his work with the Indian people. He was known by some as the “father of the Indian Placement Program,” a program in the LDS Church in which thousands of Indian youngsters came to live for a time with LDS families. Pres. Buchanan hosted the first Lamanite children with his own family in the Indian Placement Program.
The Carthage Conspiracy Trial: An Account
by Douglas O. Linder (2010)
“Unfortunately for the prosecution, Daniels’ published account of the murders provided terrific material for the defense attorneys planning their cross-examination of Daniels. Especially helpful to the defense cause were several assertions in Daniels’ booklet that seemed at odds both with other accounts of the storming of the jail and with common sense.
For example, Daniels–almost alone among witnesses–had Joseph Smith surviving his fall from the second-floor jail window, and adopting a Christ-like countenance:
When President Smith had been set against the curb, and began to recover, from the effects of the fall, Col. Williams ordered four men to shoot him. Accordingly, four men …made ready to execute the order. While they were making preparations, and the muskets were raised to their faces, President Smith’s eyes rested upon them with a calm and quiet resignation. He betrayed no agitated feelings and the expression upon his countenance seemed to betoken his only prayer to be: “O, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
In the account of Daniels, after the four men carried out Williams execution order, a pillar of light came down from the heavens to save the prophet from imminent mutilation. (No other witness reported seeing such a pillar, and Mormon historians have concluded that the pillar was an invention of Daniels.) As Daniels described the scene:
The ruffian…now secured a bowie knife for the purpose of severing his head from his body. He raised the knife and was in the attitude of striking, when a light, so sudden and powerful, burst from the heavens upon the bloody scene, (passing its vivid chain between Joseph and his murderers,) that they were struck with terrified awe and filled with consternation. This light, in its appearance and potency, baffles all powers of description. The arm of the ruffian, that held the knife, fell powerless; the muskets of the four, who fired, fell to the ground, and they all stood like marble statues, not having power to move a single limb of their bodies.
In the account of witness William Daniels, a pillar of light prevents the mutilation of Joseph Smith
Would Daniels insist at trial that the incredible portions of his account were accurate and thus face ridicule, or would he admit to embellishment or downright lies? Either prospect had to be a major concern to prosecutor, and former state attorney general, Josiah Lamborn.” The Carthage Conspiracy Trial: An Account by Douglas O. Linder (2010)
An Eyewitness Account of the Murders of Joseph and Hyrum Smith
by William M. Daniels
“In the account of William Daniels, a pillar of light prevents the mutilation of Joseph Smith
The following account was first published in the Nauvoo Neighbor in its May 7 and May 14, 1845 issues. William Daniels was a key prosecution witness and the publication of his account a few weeks before Carthage Conspiracy trial was a great benefit to the defense, who used it extensively to impeach Daniels during cross-examination. The account below contains several embellishments or fantasies that are contradicted by other witnesses. (See highlighted paragraphs below.) For example, Daniels has Joseph Smith surviving his fall from the second story jail and then being shot by four men under the orders of Levi Williams. After the murder of Smith, Daniels describes a scene in which a “ruffian” draws a bowie knife and is ready to sever the head of Smith when suddenly a pillar of light “bursts from the heavens upon the bloody scene” and frightens the killers away. The account of Daniels was republished in The Martyrs: Joseph and Hyrum Smith (Lyman Omar Littlefield, editor, in 1882).
When President Smith had been set against the curb, and began to recover, from the effects of the fall, Col. Williams ordered four men to shoot him. Accordingly, four men took an eastern direction, about eight feet from the curb, Col. Williams stranding partly at their rear, and made ready to execute the order. While they were making preparations, and the muskets were raised to their faces, President Smith’s eyes rested upon them with a calm and quiet resignation. He betrayed no agitated feelings and the expression upon his countenance seemed to betoken his inly prayer to be: “O, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
The fire was simultaneous. A slight cringe of the body was all the indication of pain that he betrayed when the balls struck him. He fell upon his face. One ball then entered the back part of his body. This is the ball that many people have supposed struck him about the time he was in the window. But this is a mistake. I was close by him, and I know he was not hit with a ball, until after he was seated by the well-curb.
His death was instantaneous and tranquil. He betrayed no appearance of pain. His noble form exhibited all its powers of manly strength and healthful agility, yet not a muscle seemed to move with pain, and there was no distortion of his features. His death was peaceful as the falling to sleep of an infant—no cloud of contending passion gathered upon his brown, and no malediction trembled on his lip. The reward of a righteous man seemed hovering over him, and his breath ceased with as much ease and gentleness, as if eternity was exerting an influence in his behalf and taking his spirit home to a world of “liberty, light and life.”
The ruffian, of whom I have spoken, who set him against the well-curb, now secured a bowie knife for the purpose of severing his head from his body. He raised the knife and was in the attitude of striking, when a light, so sudden and powerful, burst from the heavens upon the bloody scene, (passing its vivid chain between Joseph and his murderers,) that they were struck with terrified awe and filled with consternation. This light, in its appearance and potency, baffles all powers of description. The arm of the ruffian, that held the knife, fell powerless; the muskets of the four, who fired, fell to the ground, and they all stood like marble statues, not having power to move a single limb of their bodies.
By this time most of the men had fled in great disorder. I never saw so frightened a set of men before. Col. Williams saw the light and was also badly frightened; but he did not entirely lose the use of his limbs or speech. Seeing the condition of these men, he hallooed to some who had just commenced to retreat, for God’s sake to come and carry off these men. They came back and carried them by the main strength towards the baggage wagons. They seemed as helpless as if they were dead.” An Eyewitness Account of the Murders of Joseph and Hyrum Smith
by William M. Daniels
“There have been some who have belittled [Joseph Smith], but I would like to say that those who have done so will be forgotten and their remains will go back to mother earth, . . . and, the odor of their infamy will never die, while the glory and honor and majesty and courage and fidelity manifested by the Prophet Joseph Smith will attach to his name forever.” George Albert Smith, Conference Report, April 1946, p. 182
