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CHAPTER LIU.
Chester Loveland a modern Ajax. Drives the Sheriff and his posse. Holds
a mobocratic jury. Brings them to terms. Captain in "Nauvoo
Legion." Comes to Utah. Goes to- Carson. A scene of suffering. Commissioned Probate Judge. Is left to preside. Mission to the States. John A. McAllister called on mission to Europe. Interesting time on the steamer. Why the "Mormons" were driven from Nauvoo. Is sent to the Orkney Islands. Stops at his uncle's in Glasgow. Missionary labors. In Dundee and Newcastle-on-Tyne. Visits London. Returns home. Is elected County Recorder.
CHESTER LOVELAND, one of Lorenzo's sons-in-law, who was baptized in Kirtland, June 27th, 1837, has had several hair-breadth escapes in defense of his brethren, in the most turbulent scenes through which the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has struggled. In one instance a leaden ball, designed to take his life, in passing his head came so close as to graze the side of his face, scorch- ing it sufficiently to cause the skin to peel off.
A stranger to fear, he never shunned positions of danger
where duty called or danger to his brethren prompted. In his
physical development evidently formed for a champion tall, robust, he might well pass for a modern Ajax in strength and agility.
The apostates, aided by our most bitter Gentile enemies
abroad, established a press in Nauvoo, and commenced the
issue of a periodical entitled The Expositor, in which appeared
the most flagrant, scurrilous, libelous articles against the lead-
ing authorities of the Church. The mayor, in connection
with the city council, declared it a nuisance, and by their
order it was demolished ; after this, the deputy sheriff called
on our hero to assist in arresting the mayor, Joseph Smith, and the city council, and he positively refused. The next day
394 BIOGRAPHY AND
the sheriff came with a posse and demanded his assistance, saying he had orders from the governor of the State. Mr. Loveland understood the trick ; he knew there was no possible means by which orders from the governor could have been obtained, as he was far distant, and at that time communica- tion by telegraph was out of the question. The sheriff insisted, and the more he did so the more Mr. Loveland's anger was aroused, till, grasping his arms, he rushed single handed towards the mounted posse, when with the fear of treacherous cowardice, riders and horses decamped with hur- ried pace.
He entered into plural marriage in January 21, 1840, hav-
ing a second wife sealed to him at that time in the Nauvoo
Temple.
A serious, and, at the same time, rather ludicrous inci-
dent, in which Brother Loveland was connected, which
transpired in Nauvoo, is worthy of record as a specimen
of mobocratic times with the Latter-day Saints, as related by
himself.
He says: I was on the jury when some of our brethren
who had been falsely accused were brought to trial before
eleven mobocratic jurors, and I held that jury thirty-six hours, until they were nearly starved. Two bills were before us one "guilty," the other "not guilty." The eleven signed the "guilty" verdict, and insisted that I should follow suit. I said: "No, gentlemen, before I will sign that paper, I will die here on this floor, and the red ants may pack me out through that keyhole." The result was, every man signed the verdict of "not guilty," and the innocent went free. He was appointed captain of the "Nauvoo Legion" in its first organization in Nauvoo.
He arrived in Salt Lake City in September, 1850. In
1853-4, was appointed lieutenant-colonel by President B. Young, then governor of Utah Territory, with instructions to organize a regiment in the northern part of the Territory, and
AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 395
was subsequently commissioned colonel by one of the Gentile
governors of Utah.
At the spring conference in 1855, Colonel Loveland was
called to go to Carson Valley (which at that time was a portion
of Utah) and assist Apostle Orson Hyde in settling a colony. After their arrival in Carson, he, with six other brethren, went to Walker's River in search of a good location, and when there another point, thirty miles distant, was highly recommended as being exceedingly favorable for a large settlement. Prompt to the suggestion, they went, but to their great disappoint- ment, found they had been imposed upon, and instead of anything favorable, only a salt marsh, without a drop of fresh water, surrounded them.