Apostle Rudger Clawson's Preservation During Mob Attack

On July 21, 1879, missionaries Rudger Clawson and Joseph Standing were traveling in Whitfield County, Georgia, a region where anti-Mormon sentiment was intensified by rumors and recent news. That morning, they were accosted by a mob of twelve men, some on horseback, who emerged from the woods and declared them prisoners. Despite Standing's request to see a warrant, the mob insisted there was no law in Georgia for Mormons. The mob force-marched the elders into the deep woods to a location by a spring, threatening to hang them if they returned. While the elders were detained, Standing, perhaps fearing the brutal whipping mobs often inflicted, attempted to seize a pistol left on a stump and shouted, 'Surrender!' A mobber immediately shot him in the face. Standing reeled and fell to the ground. The mob leader then ordered his men to kill Clawson. Facing a dozen leveled guns, Clawson stood calmly, folded his arms, and defiantly said, 'Shoot.' The mob, perhaps startled by this display of courage, countermanded the order. After Clawson insisted that they either send for help or allow him to go, they permitted him to depart. Upon returning to the scene to recover his companion's body, Clawson discovered that the mob had returned in his absence to fire additional shots into Standing's face and neck, hideously disfiguring him.

Fuller account of this event (in the witness’s own words):

As we were walking along, Elder Standing said to me, 'Brother Clawson, I have a presentiment that we will be killed.' I replied, 'Oh, I guess not.' We walked on, and presently we came to a place where the road forked. We took the left-hand road. We had not gone far when we saw a number of men coming toward us. They were armed with guns and pistols. They came up to us and said, 'We have got you now.' They took us prisoners and marched us into the woods. We were taken to a place where there was a spring. The mob consisted of twelve men. They were very abusive and used a great deal of profane language. They told us that we had no business in that country, and that we must leave. Elder Standing said, 'We have a right to be here; we are citizens of the United States.' One of the men said, 'There is no law in Georgia for Mormons.' They kept us there for some time, and finally they told us to get up and go. We started to walk away, and they followed us. Elder Standing was a little in advance of me. Suddenly he turned around and said, 'Surrender!' I do not know what he meant by that, unless he thought he could bluff them. Just as he spoke, one of the men, who was sitting on a log, raised his gun and fired. The ball struck Elder Standing in the forehead, and he fell to the ground. He did not speak or move again. The leader of the mob then turned to me and said, 'Now, you are the next.' I looked him in the eye and said, 'Shoot!' He hesitated, and then said, 'No, I will not shoot you.' I then asked them if they would allow me to take the body of my companion away, and they said I could. I went for help, and when I returned, I found that the mob had come back and fired several more shots into the body of Elder Standing.