Jacob B. Backenstos: The Gentile Sheriff Who Defended the Saints in Nauvoo (1844–45)

Jacob B. Backenstos (born Pennsylvania, 1811) was the sheriff of Hancock County, Illinois, in the troubled years 1844–45, after the Martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. He was not a member of the Church—a 'gentile,' or 'Jack Mormon'—but his brother William had married a niece of Emma Smith, and Backenstos counted himself a friend of the Saints. When mobs renewed their persecution of the Latter-day Saints after the Martyrdom, Sheriff Backenstos stood almost alone among county officials in defending them, calling out the posse to protect Nauvoo and risking his own life to uphold the law against the persecutors. At one point he fled for his life across the prairie and was helped by Orrin Porter Rockwell, the Prophet's boyhood friend. The Journal of Mormon History has called him the 'Defender of the Saints.' His courage is a faith-promoting reminder that the Lord raises up friends—even outside the Church—to protect His people in their hour of need.