DANITES?

[writesong]

I'm bored.

 

Can I join the Danites and be an Avenging Angel?

 

Where can I get an application form?

 

Where is their recruiting office?

 

Orrin Porter Rockwell is my hero!

 

 

(Unfortunately, the movie, "THE AVENGING ANGEL", is not available on DVD.)

 

[JimmiGerman]

I'm bored.

 

Can I join the Danites and be an Avenging Angel?

 

Where can I get an application form?

 

Where is their recruiting office?

 

Orrin Porter Rockwell is my hero!

 

(...)

 

 

“I prophesy, in the name of the Lord, that you — Orrin Porter Rockwell — so long as ye shall remain loyal and true to thy faith, need fear no enemy. Cut not thy hair and no bullet or blade can harm thee.”

Who (in this forum) doesn't know these words? Porter Rockwell - frontiersman of the "Wild West", Deputy Marshal and bodyguard of Joseph Smith, and, as I would assume, a member of the Danites. When he lived he was just as famous and controverse as Wyatt Earp or Pat Garret. The Destroying Angel of Mormondom. According to his own words, he killed nobody who didn't deserve to be killed, and certainly there were more than a hundred...

 

I think he was a dark spirit of the past and early Mormonism, maybe an instrument of deterrence and vengeance, not a person I'd ever like to shake my hand with or who I'd like to meet - not as an enemy, not as a friend, and, it's my personal conviction, Joseph Smith might have feared him more than he was his friend.

[Palerider]

“I prophesy, in the name of the Lord, that you — Orrin Porter Rockwell — so long as ye shall remain loyal and true to thy faith, need fear no enemy. Cut not thy hair and no bullet or blade can harm thee.”

Who (in this forum) doesn't know these words? Porter Rockwell - frontiersman of the "Wild West", Deputy Marshal and bodyguard of Joseph Smith, and, as I would assume, a member of the Danites. When he lived he was just as famous and controverse as Wyatt Earp or Pat Garret. The Destroying Angel of Mormondom. According to his own words, he killed nobody who didn't deserve to be killed, and certainly there were more than a hundred...

 

I think he was a dark spirit of the past and early Mormonism, maybe an instrument of deterrence and vengeance, not a person I'd ever like to shake my hand with or who I'd like to meet - not as an enemy, not as a friend, and, it's my personal conviction, Joseph Smith might have feared him more than he was his friend.

I don't believe Joseph was scared of him. They were friends since childhood. He also protected Brigham for awhile as well.

[Maureen]

... and, it's my personal conviction, Joseph Smith might have feared him more than he was his friend.

 

I doubt very much Joseph Smith feared Porter Rockwell. They were friends and distant cousins. Rockwell was 8 years younger than JS and was very loyal to the LDS church and JS. He was even friends with Joseph Smith's sons.

 

M.

[Just_A_Guy]

Rockwell was also present on April 6, 1830 when the Church was organized and by at least one account, was one of the original six members.

Edited December 1, 2014 by Just_A_Guy

[Traveler]

When Joseph was very young he became sick and it was determined that he had a rare bone disease in his leg.  The operation that followed to save him was experimental and performed on young Joseph as the first human trial.  The operation nearly took the young boy’s life and was accomplished with a hammer and chisel removing bone fragments about the size of the tip of an adult’s small finger.  What most do not know about this is that one week later the operation had to be repeated.  The result left Joseph Smith Jr. partially lame for life and he had a constant limp.

 

It would be more than a year before Joseph would be able to walk.  While he was still recovering there was a unusual cold summer that cause crops to fail in Vermont and a business venture that caused the Smith family to lose the farm.  Joseph Smith Sr. went to Western New York to homestead a new farm and family business.  Lucy was left behind and hired a professional wagon master to bring all that was left of the family possessions.  With no room on the wagon, the family was forced to walk from Vermont to New York.  Young Joseph was the exception and was to ride the seat next to the wagon master.

 

The Smith family traveled in a small wagon train with a number of other travelers New York bound.  While in root young Joseph was kicked off the wagon to make room for a teenage girl in the group that caught the wagon master’s eye.  Kicked off the wagon was literal as later the boot print in the chest of the young boy would be discovered.  Being left behind from the group young Joseph crawled, unable to walk until he lost consciousness.   He would have passed away but a stranger picked up the lad and carried him to the evening camp and then the stranger disappeared and was never seen again.  (I wonder who it could have been???)  Anyway the wagon master was fired on the spot and Lucy drove the wagon the rest of the way.

 

When the Smith family arrived young Joseph met a boy close by.  The boy was almost 3 years younger than Joseph and was unusually small – especially compared to the 6 foot Smith boys.   This small friend knew Joseph as a best friend before Joseph’s first vision.  He knew Joseph before the book of Mormon.  Though small, this boy grew to become one of the most feared gun men and a well-known anti-social individual that just did not seem to fit in anywhere.    He was among the first baptized into the first congregation of the new Church restored by G-d through Joseph Smith.  This young convert never held an official position in the Church – the only one not to hold position among the first baptized – It just was not his thing.  If there was anyone that could have known Joseph better and had the disposition to dispel a popular fraud it was the child hood friend of Joseph – this friend that never accepted position or notoriety for his service and was loyal to a fault as a child hood friend to Joseph.  The name of this undersized friend – Orrin Porter Rockwell the first US Marshal in the Utah territories.  The only marshal he trained was another unusually small lad that became my great grandfather – but that is another story.

[Palerider]

When Joseph was very young he became sick and it was determined that he had a rare bone disease in his leg.  The operation that followed to save him was experimental and performed on young Joseph as the first human trial.  The operation nearly took the young boy’s life and was accomplished with a hammer and chisel removing bone fragments about the size of the tip of an adult’s small finger.  What most do not know about this is that one week later the operation had to be repeated.  The result left Joseph Smith Jr. partially lame for life and he had a constant limp.

 

It would be more than a year before Joseph would be able to walk.  While he was still recovering there was a unusual cold summer that cause crops to fail in Vermont and a business venture that caused the Smith family to lose the farm.  Joseph Smith Sr. went to Western New York to homestead a new farm and family business.  Lucy was left behind and hired a professional wagon master to bring all that was left of the family possessions.  With no room on the wagon, the family was forced to walk from Vermont to New York.  Young Joseph was the exception and was to ride the seat next to the wagon master.

 

The Smith family traveled in a small wagon train with a number of other travelers New York bound.  While in root young Joseph was kicked off the wagon to make room for a teenage girl in the group that caught the wagon master’s eye.  Kicked off the wagon was literal as later the boot print in the chest of the young boy would be discovered.  Being left behind from the group young Joseph crawled, unable to walk until he lost consciousness.   He would have passed away but a stranger picked up the lad and carried him to the evening camp and then the stranger disappeared and was never seen again.  (I wonder who it could have been???)  Anyway the wagon master was fired on the spot and Lucy drove the wagon the rest of the way.

 

When the Smith family arrived young Joseph met a boy close by.  The boy was almost 3 years younger than Joseph and was unusually small – especially compared to the 6 foot Smith boys.   This small friend knew Joseph as a best friend before Joseph’s first vision.  He knew Joseph before the book of Mormon.  Though small, this boy grew to become one of the most feared gun men and a well-known anti-social individual that just did not seem to fit in anywhere.    He was among the first baptized into the first congregation of the new Church restored by G-d through Joseph Smith.  This young convert never held an official position in the Church – the only one not to hold position among the first baptized – It just was not his thing.  If there was anyone that could have known Joseph better and had the disposition to dispel a popular fraud it was the child hood friend of Joseph – this friend that never accepted position or notoriety for his service and was loyal to a fault as a child hood friend to Joseph.  The name of this undersized friend – Orrin Porter Rockwell the first US Marshal in the Utah territories.  The only marshal he trained was another unusually small lad that became my great grandfather – but that is another story.

Off topic here a bit.....that cold summer ...the crops were doing great. The right in the month of June it snowed about 5 inches. Killed all the crops in the area and the Smith family lost the farm.

[writesong]

@ PALE RIDER:

 

I love that story!

 

Those words, "individual that just did not seem to fit in anywhere", in the final paragraph sounds like a description of ME!

 

In fact, that reminds me of a dream I had.

 

"When I was sleeping, I dreamed I was at church, and folks were all going inside the chapel for the meeting.

However, I wandered away, curious about an adjacent road, following it to a dirt road leading into a deserted, barren wilderness area.

I was wearing my cavalry spurs and my cavalry stetson, with my .357 magnum revolver holstered on my hip.

I turned away from the wilderness and headed back towards the chapel.

As I approached a ranch house, a dog in the yard began barking, and I wondered if I'd have to shoot that dog?

But, a boy came out of the house, and calmed the dog.

I think we may have had a conversation, and I may have petted the dog.

Then, I continued to the chapel, where they were having a Christmas program.

A feeling of peace came over me, as I finally accepted the reality that I was different than all the other Mormons, and would have to live my own life my own way, preferring a life of solitude exploring the wide open spaces of the high desert wilderness."

[JimmiGerman]

I was wearing my cavalry spurs and my cavalry stetson, with my .357 magnum revolver holstered on my hip.

I turned away from the wilderness and headed back towards the chapel.

(...)

 

 

 

 

...A feeling of peace came over me,  puuh...   and I've already thought...

 

PS   Stetson...you certainly mean one of these ten gallons hats?

 

Edited December 3, 2014 by JimmiGerman

[writesong]

@ JIMMI GERMAN:

 

Yep, I wear one of those.

 

Here's a photograph of me in Washington, D.C. at the Ol' Soldiers' Home with a visiting Sergeant Major:

 

 

I was a Cavalry Scout in the 7th Cavalry (Custer's Unit!), so I wore spurs as part of my regular uniform.

 

When I was serving my full time Church mission protecting the Rocking G Ranch, I wore my old second-hand Ruger "Security Six" .357 Magnum revolver on my hip, and my mission companion was a Border Collie dog named, "Ringo", whom I wrote stories about.

 

This is the ranch:

 

 

I'm not just a gunslinger.

 

I also have training and experience in fire fighting and emergency medical response, and carry my own emergency trauma kit and firefighting rescue equipment in my pickup truck.