Far West, Missouri

Trying to find a same place to worship, most members moved to Far West, Missouri.

After an difficult journey, Patty and David's family arrived there in November 1837, having traveled by land and water, by self-made trail, and by well-used road. They had been delayed in Kirtland, Ohio. It was in Kirtland that they saw their prophet for the first time, when they heard Joseph Smith speak in the Kirtland Temple. Meeting the prophet strengthened their resolve, and gave them boost that they needed. They pushed onto Far West. 
       

With customary diligence, the Sessions family wasted no time getting established once they had reached Missouri. They bought property in Far West, including two block houses and five acres of fenced land. During the winter they fenced one hundred more acres.

In spring 1838 the Sessions men planted corn, potatoes, and grain on forty acres, after which Perrigrine, son of Patty and David, left for Maine to collect debts. While he was gone, armed and angry Missourians, perhaps fearing being overrun by these strange, religious "fanatics," turned to violence to force the growing Mormon colony from their state. At his return Perrigrine found that "twenty or twenty five of the Saints had been murdered and fifty or sixty in prison among whom was the Prophet and his brother Hirum with chains on in a cold wet dungeon with horse beef to eat. The Prison being garded by those that swore they should never come out and the whole Church under the exterminating order of Libern W. Boggs Governor of the State."