LATTER-DAY MARTYR

The following incident has been told about Ezekiel.

A company of soldiers were marching on Nauvoo to compel the Saints to leave before the time set by the agreement of the commissioners. Ezekiel heard of it and swore that the soldiers should not come into the city. Accompanied by his ever present companion, "Old Bess" (a shotgun) he met them as they were entering the city. He stepped from behind a tree and cocking both barrels he ordered, "Halt hands up."

Ezekiel then poured forth a tirade of abuse together with warning, "That they must cross his dead body before they entered and as he was homeless, friendless and cared nothing for life, that if they did not at once march out of the city he would blow the head off their Captain."

The Captain ordered "about face" and marched until they were out of sight. They entered again on a side street where Ezekiel again told the Captain that he would shoot him without warning. The mob then left.

After a conference held with the leading men of Nauvoo the next morning the mob decided to return home.

Ezekiel became a marked man. Joel when he was driven from Hancock County in 1846 sent his boys back to get their grandfather... When Joel left for the west Ezekiel returned to Nauvoo to live with his daughter...

If Ezekiel realized the danger that awaited his return he decided not to avoid it... His enemies later overpowered him and brutally whipped him and after a period of suffering he died near midnight on his seventy-second birthday at the home of his daughter...

Children - Esther Melita Johnson, Amos Partridge Johnson, Almera Woodward Johnson, William Derby Johnson, Mary Ellen Johnson, Seth Guernsey Johnson, George Washington Johnson, Joel Hills Johnson, Joseph Ellis Johnson, Elmer Wood Johnson, Benjamin Franklin Johnson, Nancy Mariah Johnson, David Partridge Johnson, Julia Ann Johnson, Delcina Diademia Johnson, Susan Ellen Johnson.

Thanks to Georgeana Cook for sponsoring this memorial.