This is not so much a story as it is a memorandum of a good man and woman who, when they could have done otherwise, instead treated a pair of jailed Mormon missionaries “in the kindest possible manner.”

In 1884, Christian F. Christensen of Kanosh, Utah, and William F. Garner of Ogden, Utah, were made mission companions in the Southern States Mission. They served in Tennessee – the same state, and in the same year, of the Cane Creek Massacre of two other elders and two local members of the Church. In June of that year Elders Christensen and Garner were working in Carter County. Elder Christensen later recorded:

Brother Garner and I were aroused from our bed of slumber about midnight by an officer and posse of men, who arrested us on a charge of “preaching, teaching and promulgating the doctrine of polygamy.”

We were taken the same hour of the night to a small railroad town five miles distant where we were kept until morning. … At 2 p.m. an examination was held.

We had been so closely confined by the officer who had us in charge, that we could not get out after witnesses, bondsmen or anything else, so we urged that we were not ready for trial. After the magistrate and prosecutor had tried to force us into trial but could not succeed, we were required to give a thousand dollar bond for our appearance four days later.

The elders had friends who offered to pledge their property for the elders’ release, but Carter County officials refused that offer. The elders were unable to raise the cash bond.

So we were put aboard the train and taken to Elizabethton, county seat for Carter, Tenn., on the 15th of May, and put in an iron cage ten feet square with two other men, one of whom was confined for murder.

The jailer of the Elizabethton jail was William Leonard (“Bill”) Carriger, just 31 years old – a year younger than Elder Garner and 9 years older than Elder Christensen.

Bill Carriger had been born in that county, one of eleven children of his parents. His father died when Bill was very young, and without a father’s support and with so many children in the family – and with all the disruptions of the Civil War that came when he was still a boy – Bill had had to work hard to make anything of himself. He took education where he could find it. He farmed to support his mother, with whom he lived until he was 22, when he married Mary Lincoln (“Mollie”) Morrell, a girl from his neighborhood. Bill did whatever came his way to earn money – he farmed, he did a little storekeeping, and established enough of a reputation for himself that he was elected county register in 1882.

Mollie kept house, and by 1884, she had borne four sons – of whom only George and Charlie survived. When Bill accepted appointment as jailer in Elizabethton, Mollie prepared the prisoners’ meals along with cooking for her own family.

The two elders spent six days jailed in Elizabethton. As unpleasant as it must have been to have lost their freedom of movement, jail wasn’t as bad as it might have been. The two men jailed with them “were somewhat rough in their speech,” but they joined with the elders in prayer, and, Elder Christensen says, “I became much attached to them as they acted the part of gentlemen in every respect.”

But he reserved his greatest words of respect for Bill and Mollie Carriger.

Much honor and respect is due to the jailer, Mr. Wm. Carriger and family, who treated us in the kindest possible manner. We had three meals each day of good food prepared in as nice and clean a manner as at a hotel, even though prisoners are only supposed to receive two meals per day.

Elder Garner was soon discharged from custody, because he was so new, so green, that the prosecutor could not find anyone to testify that he had ever spoken on a religious topic. Elder Christensen was indicted and released on a $500 bond raised by the mission. The two elders returned to work, and within the next month baptized 11 adult converts.

Bill was re-elected as county register in 1886. He and Mollie were members of the local Methodist Episcopal Church. He is described in the county’s “mug book” ((In this generation, counties throughout the U.S. published accounts of their early history, together with sketches and often engravings (hence, “mug book”) of prominent local citizens. These accounts are admittedly filled with praise and void of criticism, but for someone to be included in these books means that he did have some standing in the community.)):

[William L. Carriger] is a man of enterprise and public spirit, and is one who encourages all laudable enterprises. He is a self-made man, having no capital to begin life with, and has educated himself, and established a high character.

And he and Mollie were kind to two imprisoned Mormon missionaries.