William Peniston, a staunch foe of the Saints, was a candidate. The original settlers naturally wanted to elect a state legislator who was one of their own.

They quickly began to outnumber the Gentiles in Daviess County. The Saints poured into Adam-ondi-Ahman, some four miles north of Gallatin, in the summer of 1838. The town of Gallatin was platted to serve as the county seat, and as it grew, Millport, three miles to the east, declined. When the county was created in 1836, there were still fewer than a hundred settlers. The next year they built a mill on the Grand River to grind flour and meal for incoming settlers. In 1831 a family named Peniston had become the first white settlers in what was to become Daviess County. It was a common boast that, as soon as we had completed our extensive improvements, and made a plentiful crop, they would drive us from the State, and once more enrich themselves with the spoils.” 1 For these and other reasons, violence erupted that eventually resulted in the expulsion of the entire Church from the state of Missouri. Those who had combined against the laws in the adjoining counties, had long watched our increasing power and prosperity with jealousy, and with greedy and avaricious eyes. He said, “War clouds began again to lower with dark and threatening aspect. Pratt, who had arrived in Far West in May after returning from missionary service in the East, described the tense situation that existed by July 1838. Joseph Smith and Lyman Wight were tried before Judge Austin Kingĭuring the hot summer months of 1838, relations between the Latter-day Saints and their northern Missouri neighbors continued to deteriorate rapidly.

The crooked saints