then guarded him home, and guarded his house until one o'clock,
when I was relieved. He used to meet his beloved Emeline at my
house.

In the spring of 1845 Rachel Andora was sealed to me - the woman
who has stood by me in all my troubles. A truer woman was never
born. She has been to me as true as I have been to Brigham, and
always tried to make my will her pleasure. I raised her in my
family from five years of age. She was a sister of my first wife.
Her mother, Abigail Sheffer, was sealed to me for an eternal
state. The old lady has long since passed away, and entered into
endless rest and joy.

But to resume the narrative of events at Nauvoo. In the year 1845
the building of the Temple was progressing. Through the summer
trouble was brewing among the Saints, both in Illinois and Iowa.
Many of my friends from Tennessee, and some from Kentucky, joined
us during the summer and fall, as well as numbers from other
places. An effort was made to complete the Nauvoo House, if
possible, but finding the storm approaching too fast the work on
the House was abandoned and all hands put to work on the Temple.
We were anxious to complete the Temple, in order that we might
receive our promised blessings in it before we commenced our
pilgrimage across the plains in search of a home, we knew not
where.

Our time was limited, and our Gentile friends who surrounded us,
and whose ire had been aroused to the highest pitch, were not
likely to allow us to remain longer than the appointed space. The
killing of the Prophet Joseph and Hyrum had led to other acts of
violence, and many Mormons whose houses were burned and property
destroyed, and who had come to Nauvoo for protection and shelter,
retaliated by driving in Gentile stock from the range to subsist
upon. No doubt the stock of many an innocent Gentile was driven
away, and this served to brew trouble. Thus things went from bad
to worse while the saints remained at Nauvoo.

Much of the trouble that came upon the Church was brought down
through the folly of the Saints. A company was organized called
the "Whittlers." They had long knives, and when a stranger came
to town they would gather around him and whittle, none of them
saying a word, no matter what question was asked. They would
watch any stranger, gathering close to him, until they ran him
out of town.

During the fall of 1845 companies were formed to make wagons for
the contemplated move, as many of the Saints were poor