See Letter from Edward Partridge, 5 Mar. 1839; Letter from Don Carlos Smith and William Smith, 6 Mar. 1839; and Letter from Don Carlos and Agnes Coolbrith Smith, 11 Apr. 1839.  

See Romans 8:28.  

On 4 April 1839, JS stated in a letter to Emma Smith, “With immotions known only to God, do I write this letter, the contemplations, of the mind under these circumstances, defies the pen, or tounge, or Angels, to discribe, or paint, to the human being, who never experiance what we experience.” It is possible that when Higbee saw Emma Smith on 15 April 1839, she shared the letter with him; if so, Higbee may have been alluding to JS’s statement. (Letter to Emma Smith, 4 Apr. 1839.)  

As the state militia approached Far West in late October 1838, the Latter-day Saint troops that fought in the skirmish at Crooked River on 25 October were advised to flee to avoid being captured and executed without a legal trial. Most of the men departed Far West just before the militia’s occupation of the town on 1 November. During that month, Samuel Bogart of Ray County, who commanded the non-Mormon troops in the Crooked River fight, actively pursued remaining Latter-day Saints, presumably including Higbee. Higbee may have remained in the area longer than most others because his son, Francis, had been arrested and charged with various crimes allegedly committed during the recent conflict. At the conclusion of the November 1838 court of inquiry held in Richmond, Missouri, Judge Austin A. King agreed to release Francis on bail if he would consent to appear at the spring session of the Daviess County Circuit Court to answer charges of “Arson, Burglary, Robbery and Larceny.” Assuming Elias Higbee waited for his son, they presumably fled from Missouri in late November or early December. (Baugh, “Call to Arms,” 326–329; Ruling, Richmond, MO, Nov. 1838, p. [125], in State of Missouri, “Evidence”; Samuel Bogart, Elkhorn, MO, to the Postmaster, Quincy, IL, 22 Apr. 1839, CHL; see also Lewis, Autobiography, 36.)  

Baugh, Alexander L. “A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri.” PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1996. Also available as A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri, Dissertations in Latter-day Saint History (Provo, UT: Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History; BYU Studies, 2000).

Bogart, Samuel. Letter, Elkhorn, MO, to the Postmaster, Quincy, IL, 22 Apr. 1839. CHL.

Lewis, David. Autobiography, 1854. CHL. MS 13716.

It is not known which uncle Francis Higbee stayed with in Ohio; he had multiple aunts and uncles on both sides of his family living in the Cincinnati area in the late 1830s. (See Higbee, Journal and Reminiscences, [20]–[21]; Clermont Co., OH, Marriage Records, 1801–1910, vol. 1, p. 142, 27 Aug. 1820, microfilm 327,559; vol. 2, p. 71, 11 Dec. 1823, microfilm 327,560, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; and 1840 U.S. Census, Springfield, Clermont Co., OH, 231, 237.)  

Higbee, John S. Journal and Reminiscences, 1845–1849. John S. Higbee, Reminiscences and Diaries, 1845–1866. CHL. MS 1742, fd. 1.

U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

Census (U.S.) / U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population Schedules. Microfilm. FHL.

Big Neck Prairie was located in Illinois, approximately thirty miles northeast of Quincy. (Rigdon, “Life Story of Sidney Rigdon,” 157–158; Portrait and Biographical Record of Adams County, Illinois, 278.)  

Rigdon, John Wickliff. “Life Story of Sidney Rigdon,” no date. CHL. MS 3451.

Portrait and Biographical Record of Adams County, Illinois, Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens, together with Biographies and Portraits of All the Presidents of the United States. Chicago: Chapman Brothers, 1892.

See Jeremiah 31:3; Philemon 1:13; and Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 582 [Moroni 8:17].