Salt Lake City Feb 9^th 1886 [Salt Lake City, Utah] [Tuesday 9 Feb 1886]

Dear Elisabeth [Elizabeth Rebecca Ashby Snow, b. 1831], You and folks at home, after reading in last mornings News [Salt Lake Deseret Weekly News – Monday 8 Feb 1886]] an account of the raids yesterday up on the Gardo House, Presidents office [President John Taylor], Historian office [Church Historians Office] and Tithing Block Salt Lake City, Utah], will feel a little curious to know what Prest Woodruff [President Wilford Woodruff] and I was [were] doing at the Historian office and how we felt during the two & half hours of search through the other places. Well I will say that in connection with Elder F. D. Richards [Franklin D. Richards] we, as the church Auditing committee had been, under instructions from the Presidency [First Presidency], giving attention to the Trustee accounts and we also were just at that time also consulting with a few members of the Legislature who had sought advice. I had been stoping [stopping] several days at the Gardo, but left there the previous night on account of a report that a Deputy [Deputy Marshall] was likely to come next day and subpeona [subpoena] the family as witnesses, so the girls put out at Midnight and I [went] to the Historian office where I slept and before daylight Elder W. [Wilford Woodruff] came and we [were] not a little surprised to [find] the place all sudenly [suddenly] surounded [surrounded] with Deputies Elder W. [Wilford Woodruff] and myself retired to an upper room where we could view the movements outside. While Bro. Richards [Brother Franklin D. Richards] and the clerks & visitors occupied the lower rooms, or mingled with the officers, and crowd who gathered outside keeping in the meantime the front door open or ajar and brethren occasionally passing out and into Bro Richards [Brother Franklin D. Richards] office below leading the officers to be a little careless, thinking that nobody was there who cared to hide and causing them to search all the other places first, though five Deputies maintained the posts round the Historian [Historians Office] all the while, toward the last, while the rest of the officers were searching the West part of the Block after finishing the President offices [President's Office] and the Beehive & Lion houses, Bro Richards [Brother Franklin D. Richards] came up to us and proposed for us one at a time to pass out at the front door with the crowd and cross the street into the Presidents office or into a Buggy of which several were in waiting in the Street. Elder W. [Wilford Woodruff] made the first attempt and passed unobserved by the officers who did not recognize him untill [until] he was near the entrance to the other offices and he was soon in a carriage driving away. Just then as I was ready to make a similar attempt up rushed all the balance of the officers from the Tithing yard to search the Historian office [Historians Office] so I retired to the main lower room - waited their arrival. When Deputy Smith was come in [he] first recognized me I asked if he wanted anything of me, he was not certain, but thought so and would detain me untill [until] the capt. [Captain] came. I invited him to a seat by my side while Tom Gillson and several others were going through the house examining rooms [?], closet and halls. As Captain Greenman entered I arose and greeted him cordialy [cordially], and shook hands and told him I believed you owed him an apology for sending him way [away] without his dinner on the occasion of his last visit to our house and that I had promised to apologyze [apologize] for my wife when I should have to meet him and to say that although you were sick at the time and a little excited with all you had since much regretted sending him away and if he came again she [would] do the best she could for him. He replied very cordially & friendly saying he Percived [perceived] you very sick and regretted to find you poorly and beged [begged] that you would not think that he held anything against you in that matter but that after my cordial invitation he would surely call on us if he came again and beged [begged] me to send his kind regards to yourself and family. By this time the others were nearly through their search and I enquired [inquired] of him if he had anymore need for me and he said no. I referd [referred] to young officer Smith who had detained [me] till he should arrive but he beged [begged] me not to notice that He had nothing and as all were gone out of the room Greenman steped [stepped] back and shook hands again sending regards to the family and assured me if he at any time had ought for me he would deal promptly with me. As soon as they were gone I steped [stepped] into Junius Wells Buggy who drove me quickly to Julia Woolleys where I met also her Mother and where I am now writing choosing not to give them a chance

[on typed copy – I don't have a xerox of the original from her on. DRS]

to swear out a warrant and return for me as I feared some of those scamps would. During the search Levi [Levi Mason White Snow, b. 1861], who had been in to see me that morning, was mingling with the crowd outside anxiously awaiting to see the result and when officer Smith detained I sought opportunity to whisper to a friend who came up to me and asked him to send word to Minerva [Minerva White Snow, b. 1822] to get out of the way soon as they might be after her as a witness, which he did. But just as Levi [Levi Mason White Snow, b. 1861] who went to his mother [Minerva White Snow, b. 1822] with tidings of my arrest was returning to the Eagle Gate he saw me riding off with Junius Wells & came last night to tell me where his Mother [Minerva White Snow, b. 1822] had gone.

Lucy and Heber [Heber J. Grant, b. 1856 and Lucy Stringham Grant, b. 1858] were gone to Logan Conference [Logan, Utah Stake Quarterly Conference]. Julia has one of the most quiet and best babies in town. Her Mother just left here and sends love to you. A Gelegram arrived yesterday [Monday 8 Feb 1886] from H. Pratt [Helaman Pratt] and MacD [A. F. McDonald], asking some of the land committee to come there at once. Shall not know whether myself or another until [until] we hear from the President [John Taylor]. If Moses [Moses Thatcher] or another I shall try to leave this for a warmer and more congenial clime. God bless you and preserve us all from the [?] in the Bonds of the Covenant. E. Snow [Erastus Snow, b. 1818]