Carthage, Illinois

It was late in the afternoon of a hot, humid June 27, 1844. My second great-grandfather, Oliver Thornton, and his family were working on their farm on the outskirts of Carthage, Illinois. Several gunshots were heard, coming from the town.

They didn't know it at the time, but those gunshots were to turn their lives upside-down. The Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum had been killed at the jail by a mob.

Alex and Jeannette in the visitor's center.	Inside the jailer's family quarters.
Some of the kids by the well where Joseph's body was propped up.	The window that Joseph fell through.
The kids in front of the statue of Hyrum and Joseph.	The pond at the Keokuk, Iowa campground where we stayed the first night.