Keywords

Jesse Woods, Berry family, martyr

Document Type

Article

Abstract

On 10 August 1884, three Mormon missionaries, Elders William S. Berry, Henry B. Thompson, and John H. Gibbs, met at the house of James Condor in Cane Creek, Tennessee, for Sunday worship services. They had just finished singing a hymn when a mob rushed up to Condor’s front gate. Historian B. H. Roberts described the dramatic scene:

Elder Gibbs had just taken up his Bible . . . when a man disguised—which afterward proved to be David Hinson—came in at the front door, crossed the room, took down a shotgun suspended on hooks over the back door, and then took deliberate aim at Elder Gibbs, who was under considerable excitement. Hinson shot him, the charge entering the body under the arm; he clutched the wound and fell against a bed and expired without saying a word. A gun was now thrust in at the back door leveled at Elder Thompson; Elder Berry grasped it with both hands, but seemed not to struggle as if to wrench it from the one who held it; an instant later someone shot him [Elder Berry], and he fell heavily to the floor, dying without a struggle.