Two Young Girls Rescue the Book of Commandments from a Missouri Mob

Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner recorded one of the most dramatic preservation miracles of the early Restoration. In 1833, a mob tore down the Church's printing office in Independence, Missouri, where the unbound sheets of the Book of Commandments — the first compilation of Joseph Smith's revelations — were being printed. Lightner, then about 15 years old, and her younger sister Caroline risked their lives to save as many sheets as they could carry:

"The mob renewed their efforts again by tearing down the printing office, a two story building, and driving Brother Phelps' family out of the lower part of the house and putting their things in the street. They brought out some large sheets of paper, and said, 'Here are the Mormon Commandments.' My sister Caroline and myself were in a corner of a fence watching them; when they spoke of the commandments I was determined to have some of them. Sister said if I went to get any of them she would go too, but said 'They will kill us.' While their backs were turned, prying out the gable end of the house, we went, and got our arms full, and were turning away, when some of the mob saw us and called on us to stop, but we ran as fast as we could. Two of them started after us.

Seeing a gap in a fence, we entered into a large cornfield, laid the papers on the ground, and hid them with our persons. The corn was from five to six feet high, and very thick; they hunted around considerable, and came very near us but did not find us. After we satisfied ourselves that they had given up the search for us, we tried to find our way out of the field, the corn was so high we could not see where to go, looking up I saw trees that had been girdled to kill them. Soon we came to an old log stable which looked as though it had not been used for years. Sister Phelps and children were carrying in brush and piling it up at one side of the barn to lay her beds on. She asked me what I had. I told her."

The sheets the girls rescued were among the very few surviving copies of the Book of Commandments, now considered rare and sacred historical documents. Their courage under direct mortal threat preserved a portion of the early revelations of the Restoration.