The exterminating order come into affect by Libern W. Boggs Governor of the State. Boggs had ordered that "the Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the State if necessary for the public peace. That their outrages are beyond all description.
Perrigrine, Patty's son, described the mob's killing cattle, hogs, and sheep and stealing horses. And he reported the relief and joy all the Sessions family felt when a letter from the Prophet Joseph instructed them to head for Illinois.
Again they were on the move. From February 15, 1839 until early in April, through mud and cold and ice-clogged rivers, the Sessions family struggled toward Illinois. They occasionally found lodging but usually had no shelter but a tent. On February 26 Patty recorded, "still muddy, and we have to tent out, cold, wet and inclement, no shelter but a tent, a sick babe and no comforts. Trust in God and pray for courage and endurance." Perrigrine's wife Julia and Patty were both ill with what Patty called ague (probably malaria) during the journey, and Patty carried the ailing eighteen-month-old Amanda in her arms the whole distance. A temporary house of their own in Carthage, Illinois, must have seemed like the promised land.
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