The Minor Family of Somerset

Isaac Riddle
My father was John Riddle and my mother Elizabeth Stewart Riddle
. I was born on the 22nd Day of March, 1830, in Boone County, Ke
ntucky.
When I was between the age of three and four years my father sol
d his homestead in Boone County and moved to the Western part o
f the State of Tennessee, where he bought land and built a hom
e near the Ohio River. However, this was not a healthy spot, an
d we did not remain there more than three years. We thenmoved t
o Hickman County, Kentucky, near the Mississippi River, where fa
therbuilt again, and where we remained for seven years.
My father was always a great reader, and it was while living i
n Hickman County, Kentucky, that he read the Book of Mormon an
d A Voice of Warning, and became fully convinced of the truth o
f the gospel. In the summer of 1843 two Mormon elders came to ou
rcommunity to preach, and by them Father and Mother were baptiz
ed. Shortly afterwards two sisters and a brother were also bapti
zed.
The following wintermy father again broke up his home and moved
, this time going to a spot near Nauvoo. Here he began to buil
d another home, and here we were first harassed by the enemies o
f the gospel, called the "Mobbers of Illinois." In the summero
f this first year Father, myself and my brother James H. Riddle
, worked every tenth Day making oak shingles for the roof of th
e Nauvoo Temple.
On the15th Day of June, 1844, having become fully convinced o
f the truth of the gospel, I was baptized and confirmed by Zacar
iah Wilson.
In the fall we wereforced to break up our homes again. Being dr
iven out by the mobbers, we wentinto Nauvoo. That summer wa
s a very hard one. The mob was out continuously, overrunning th
e country, killing stock and burning houses. Whenever a man wh
o professed to be a Mormon was found out alone he was cruelly be
aten and tarred and feathered. This was the summer that the Prop
het and Patriarch were killed at Carthage. On that Day the 27t
h of June, 1844, I was at work just six miles away. It was a ter
rible time. I cannot tell how we felt.
I was then aboy of fourteen, large for my years and a good han
d at most every kind of work that boys were accustomed to do. Wh
en we were driven from our home in the fall of 1844, and went in
to Nauvoo, we left a large field of wheat in the shock, and anot
her field of good corn standing.
Looking for more peaceful quarters, we met James Emmett, a frien
d of the Prophet, who had been called to fill a mission to the t
ribes of Indians in the North and the NorthWest. We joined his p
arty and pulled out North through Iowa and along the Iowa River
, among the Sioux and the Fox Indians.
My father had a family of ten, four boys and four girls, and o
n that trip we suffered many hardships. I was but a boy, yet fo
r the greater part of that three-year trip, I spent most of th
e time hunting and fishing in order to get enough meat to keep t
he family alive. My father was not a good hunter, and consequent
ly took care of the teams and camps, and I dressed the skins o
f the wild animals I shot. The winter of 1844-45was so severe t
hat game was scarce. Many a time I remember that one squirrelo
r duck was divided between the four families that constituted th
e party. Our rations ran short, and for some time we lived on on
e-half pint of corn perDay to each individual.
In the spring we went up the river to a point near the present s
ituation of Omaha, then we left the Iowa River and traveled wes
t by North two hundred miles to the Missouri River. We went thro
ugh much gooduninhabited country, and crossed many fine stream
s of water from which we obtained plenty of fish of different ki
nds. On the Missouri we found the buffalo, and during that summe
r we had lots of meat, but when the winter came and the buffal
o went away, again we had hard times. The snow was very deep, cl
othes were scarce, and for a bed we had a buffalo r