Daniel Allen Jr.: Joseph Smith's Bodyguard, the Sleeping-Cap Deliverance, and a Pioneer's Sacrifice (1804–1892)

Daniel Allen Jr. was born December 9, 1804, in Whitestown, Oneida County, New York. After he and his wife Mary Ann were baptized in 1834, they sold their forty-acre farm in Ohio and donated the entire proceeds to the Church, then gathered to Nauvoo, Illinois. Daniel was one of the men assigned to guard and protect the Prophet Joseph Smith, whom he valued as a friend.

After the martyrdom, Daniel felt a premonition of danger. 'Mary Ann, I have a feeling the mob will be after me tonight,' he said. 'Many who stood guard at Carthage Jail are already dead. I must find a way to outwit them if I can.' While tucking his children into bed, he noticed his wife's sleeping cap on the dresser, and inspiration struck—could this be the answer to his prayers for safety? Mary Ann tied the strings of the frilly white cap firmly on his head, and Daniel climbed into bed. When the mob came demanding to see Daniel, Mary Ann calmly stated he wasn't home. After searching the whole house, the mob left, disappointed to find only what they believed to be an old woman huddled in bed with the children. In the quiet aftermath, Daniel and Mary Ann knelt in prayerful thanksgiving for God's deliverance.

Later, returning from a mission, Daniel found most of Nauvoo evacuated. Mary Ann had just given birth to a son and was ill, but the mob threatened the family with death if they did not immediately flee. Mary Ann died of pneumonia and was buried along the Iowa trail; the baby survived on cow's milk until the family reached Winter Quarters, where the infant also died. Daniel remarried and arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in September 1849. His descendants remember how 'his clever disguise fooled the mob, and his sacrifices and unwavering faith throughout his 87 years have continued to inspire.'