Alexander and Eunice McRae, 6th installment

In June, 1843, it was reported that there were state writs in Nauvoo to arrest Lyman Wight, Parley P. Pratt, and Alexander, probably to take them back to Missouri. The case in the Boone County Court had been dismissed when the defendants failed to appear, but this didn’t seem to make much difference. [B.H. Roberts, Comprehensive History of the Church, 2:200-201.] The three men who were threatened by this action armed themselves to prevent being kidnapped. [Joseph Smith, History of the Church, 5:448.]

On April 15, 1844, Alexander McRae was called to labor as a missionary and to preside over the Church in North Carolina. Aaron Razer, Thomas Guymon, George Watt, John Holt, John Houston, and James Sanderson were called to work with him. [Joseph Smith, History of the Church, 6:334-] Brigham Young instructed the missionaries to preach the gospel and to also present “General Smith’s Views of the Powers and Policy of the General Government”, with an eye to finding electors who would stand for him in the presidential election later in the year. [Joseph Smith, History of the Church, 6:334-340.]

Alexander must have had some influence in Nauvoo, because on April 18th he met with the Quorum of the Twelve, the City Council, the High Council, and several others, to act as part of an excommunication court. [Joseph Smith, History of the Church, 6:341.] The men they excommunicated in April were those who would publish the Nauvoo Expositor in June, which would be the immediate cause for the murder of Joseph and Hyrum at Carthage. Before he left on his mission, Alexander was said to have made the suit Joseph wore when he was shot in the Carthage Jail. [David F. McRae, “Sketch of the Life of Alexander McRae.”] After Joseph’s death, he returned to Indiana, not returning to Nauvoo until the spring of 1845. [Andrew Jenson, LDS Biographical Encyclopedia, 1:620.] The McRae’s first daughter, Catherine, was born in Nauvoo on December 24, 1844. [Records of Alice McRae; Records of Regina McRae.] The little girl died in Nauvoo on April 24, 1845. [Records of Alice McRae; Nauvoo Neighbor, April 30, 1845.] Alexander was ordained a member of the 22nd Quorum of Seventies in Nauvoo, April 9, 1845. [General Record of the Seventies, p 80; Record of the 22nd Quorum.]

The leaders of the Church had decided to leave Nauvoo to go to the West, but they wished to complete the Nauvoo Temple first, so they could receive their endowments before leaving. There was no telling how long it would be before a temple could be built in the west. The temple was completed enough in December that the first ordinances could be performed. Alexander McRae received his endowment December 18, 1845. [Temple Records Index Bureau.] The next day he was called to officiate and labor in the temple by Brigham Young. [Joseph Smith, History of the Church, 7:547-548.] Eunice was endowed February 7, 1846. [Temple Records Index Bureau.]

By the spring of 1846, most of Nauvoo’s citizens were leaving for Iowa and the West. Alexander probably stayed because of his position with the Nauvoo Legion, in order to help defend the city until its inhabitants had gone. The McRae’s sixth child, Daniel, was born in the city April 12, 1846. [32nd Quorum of Seventies Records; Mill Creak and Granger Ward Records.]