Haun’s Mill is a site of infamy in Missouri where a massacre of Mormons occurred in 1838. I have featured it on its own page on The Morbid Sightseer: Haun’s Mill. I received the following e-mail in June from a relative of a survivor of the massacre and I finally got around to posting it on the page.
My name is Tony Jameson. I am a distant relative of Charles Jameson. Charles and his wife Mary Hedrick Jameson had joined the Latter-day Saint church and were baptized on April 6, 1834. They lived in Perry, Richland County, Ohio. When members of the church were compelled to move from Ohio to Missouri, Charles and Mary moved to Missouri with them. From my research it is not clear to me if Charles and Mary were among the 50 families who lived at Hauns’ Mill, or if they were just passing through the area on the way to Far West, Missouri. At any rate on October 30, 1838 they (and I suppose their many children) were there. Charles was shot four times. Once in the head (which was severe enough to expose his brain), once in the shoulder, and twice in the abdomen. Like all the people in the massacre he tried to escape into the woods. Reduced to crawling he was able to make it to the wood line when two of the militia soldiers came upon him. One of the the soldiers was going to shoot him and finish the deed. The other said something to the effect, “Don’t waste your ammunition upon him. Let him suffer longer; he’s already going to die”. With that they left him to bleed to death. However, Charles somehow survived.
Charles’ life was preserved despite his persecutions. Later the Mormons were forced to flee Illinois or face a similar fate as many of the Mormons faced at Hauns Mill. During the 1,500 mile trek to the safety of the Rock mountains Charle’s wife Mary died of Cholera. Charles later married Nancy Stanley. Nancy and Charles are my progenitors. I am here writing this E-mail to you today, because of a morbid twist of fate at Hauns’ Mill. Had the Missouri militia members come upon Charles Jameson and his brain was not exposed and his abdominal contents not partially eviscerated, they probably would have shot and killed him like they did the other men and small boys. But instead they wanted him to suffer longer. Consequently, they left him to die thus saving themselves a piece of lead they might use on some other defenseless man or child.
You can read all of the comments I’ve received on Haun’s Mill at the Haun’s Mill page of The Morbid Sightseer.