Liberty Jail

Liberty Jail is a historical jail in Liberty, Missouri, United States, which served as the county jail of Clay County, Missouri between December 1834 and 1853. The jail is known in Latter Day Saint movement due to the imprisonment of its founder, Joseph Smith, and some of his associates during the 1838 Mormon War.

The location is now a visitors’ center operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), and includes an indoor cut-away reconstruction of the jail on its original site, at 216 North Main.

Followers of Joseph Smith from Kirtland, Ohio, were among the first settlers in the Kansas City metropolitan area, locating about 15 miles (24 km) southeast of the jail site in Independence, Jackson County, Missouri, in 1831. After Smith proclaimed that Independence was the location of the biblical Garden of Eden and the City of Zion should be located there, settlers in the area feared that they would lose political control of the county to the growing numbers of immigrating Mormons. Tensions led to violence when a battle between the two groups broke out on the banks of the Blue River (Missouri). In November 1833, the Mormons were violently driven from Independence and compelled to resettle temporarily in Clay County.

In 1836, Smith's followers then moved 30 miles (48 km) northeast of Liberty to establish Far West in Caldwell County, Missouri, which had been established by the state especially for them. A few settlers led by Lyman Wight moved about 15 miles (24 km) further north to Daviess County, Missouri, where he established a ferry across the Grand River north of Gallatin at Adam-ondi-Ahman.

On May 18, 1838, Smith proclaimed that the land around Wight's ferry was the area to which Adam was banished after leaving the Garden of Eden, and that it would be a gathering spot prior to the Millennium. Within three months, the population of Daviess County exploded to 1,500.

Non-Mormon settlers in Daviess County, fearing that they would lose control of the county, attempted to prevent Mormons from voting during the Gallatin Election Day Battle on August 6, 1838. This was the first skirmish in what became known as the 1838 Mormon War, in which men would be killed and property destroyed by both sides. Increasing vigilantism on both sides led to the burning of several farms and homes, and also of the towns of Gallatin and Millport. The climax of the conflict came when Captain Samuel Bogart of the Missouri state militia took 3 Mormon men as prisoners, fearing the Mormons were going to raze Richmond and Liberty. Rumors consequently spread through Far West that a "mob" was going to execute the 3 men, and the tensions culminated in October 1838 when Mormon militia forces engaged the state militia unit on the banks of Crooked River, in what became known as the Battle of Crooked River.

Following this engagement, on October 27, 1838, Lilburn W. Boggs, governor of the state of Missouri, issued Missouri Executive Order 44: "The Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the State if necessary for the public peace ... their outrages are beyond all description."

General Samuel D. Lucas, leading a militia of 2500 men informed the Mormons at Far West that "they would massacre every man, woman and child" if Smith and several others were not given up. Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Parley P. Pratt, Lyman Wight, and George W. Robinson surrendered on November 1.