It was about midnight when nine men secretly carried the assassinated corpses of Joseph and Hyrum Smith out of the Mansion House in Nauvoo, Illinois.
Among these trusted men was a man named Alpheus Cutler — our ancestor. (His daughter married Tunis Rappleye.)
It was just the day before — Friday, June 28, 1844, one day after the martyrdom — that the Nauvoo Legion had assembled on the Public Square awaiting the arrival of Willard Richards, Samuel Smith, and a handful of others from Carthage who accompanied the two wagons containing the bodies of Joseph and Hyrum Smith.
When the wagons arrived in Nauvoo, the solemn procession to the Mansion House began. And as a member of the Nauvoo Legion, one man served as captain of the Prophet’s bodyguard for the procession. His name was Alpheus Cutler.
The Mansion House
As the convoy moved through the city, thousands of mourners crowded the streets. One woman recalled by the time they reached the Mansion House, “the people were almost frantic to get one little glimpse of him, but they were driven back by the marshal. The wagon was driven inside of the back gate and the gate was locked. No one was allowed in the yard except the guards and the Prophet’s special friends.”
The next morning, the bodies of Joseph and Hyrum were placed in coffins. Each was lined with black velvet and built with a square, glass lid over the faces of each corpse. The two coffins sat in pine boxes, ready for display in a public viewing.
Approximately 10,000 people swarmed the house that day to bid a final farewell to the Prophet and the Patriarch. The house was cleared at about 5 p.m. so the family could be alone with Joseph and Hyrum before the burial.
That’s when they made the switch.
The prophet’s enemies had threatened to desecrate his body — there was even a reward out for Joseph’s head — so it was decided to bury the bodies in secret. The coffins were removed from the pine boxes and replaced with bags of sand. After hiding the coffins somewhere in the house, the sand-filled boxes were nailed shut and loaded into a hearse for a mock funeral procession.
The public funeral was conducted near the unfinished temple, with speakers including Willard Richards, who was present during the martyrdom, and W. W. Phelps, who had penned words we now know as Praise to the Man for this very occasion.
As the burial commenced, most of the pallbearers didn’t even know what was really in those boxes.
Hours later in the dark of night, Alpheus and the others secretly moved the coffins of Joseph and Hyrum out of the Mansion House. These nine men were guarded by a man named James Emmet, who was armed with a musket in case they ran into any trouble.
The men quietly took the bodies to an unfinished structure called the Nauvoo House which was just down the street. It was there that the real burial was held, attended only by the gravediggers and a few family members. After the bodies were interred in the basement, the ground was flattened and camouflaged with woodchips and rocks. A violent storm raged that night, erasing any other possible trace of the secret burial.
Alpheus Cutler
This was but one of many examples of the trust placed in Alpheus Cutler in the early days of the Church. He served on the high councils of Kirtland and Nauvoo, was a member of the Council of Fifty, attended the School of the Prophets, helped build the Kirtland Temple, and was chosen to supervise the construction of the Nauvoo Temple as “master workman.”
At one point Alpheus had even risked his life to return to Missouri after the Extermination Order to accompany the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in laying the foundation for a temple in Far West.
Whatever his faults (and they were many, including apostasy), this man was loyal to Joseph Smith during the Prophet’s life, and as we just read, defended him after his death.
As descendants of Alpheus, can we say the same?
Written by Adam Watson
Sources:
- Church Educational System, Church History in the Fulness of Times (Student Manual), Salt Lake City, Utah.
- Mary Rich, Autobiography, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, 16-17.
- Mildred McBeth, Alpheus Cutler, A Different Approach, LDS Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.
- Susan Easton Black, “The Tomb of Joseph,” The Disciple as Witness: Essays on Latter-day Saint History and Doctrine in Honor of Richard Lloyd Anderson, Stephen D. Ricks, Donald W. Parry, and Andrew H. Hedges, eds. Provo, Utah.
- Susan Easton Black, Who’s Who in the Doctrine & Covenants, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Watson Family History 