Lilburn Williams Boggs was born Dec. 14, 1796, in Lexington, Kentucky. He moved to St. Louis in 1816, and for the next couple of years he made his living as a cashier in one of the first banks in St. Louis.
His first wife was Julia Ann Bent, whose father was Judge Silas Bent. Unfortunately, Julia died in September 1820 following the birth of their second child. Boggs married Daniel Boone's granddaughter, Panthea Grant Boone, in 1823. They spent the next 23 years in Jackson County raising their 10 children while Boggs served Missouri as a politician. He was a Missouri state senator from 1825-32, lieutenant governor from 1832-36, governor from 1836-40, and back to being a state senator from 1842-46.
One of his first acts as governor was officiating at laying the cornerstone of the second Capitol in 1836 or 1837.
His most notable act as governor was Executive Order No. 44, which was issued Oct. 27, 1838. Otherwise known as the Extermination Order, this act removed the Mormons from Missouri. In 1842, Mormon prophet Joseph Smith prophesied from their temple that Boggs would die by violence within 12 months, then sent an assassin to Independence to fulfill the prophesy. Orin P. Rockwell was the assassin. On May 6, 1842, from a distance of less than 4 feet, Rockwell fired through a window with a large German holster pistol at the back of Boggs' head, discharged a load of 17 bullets, and hit the former governor four times. Boggs' 6-year-old daughter was in the line of fire, rocking her infant sister in a crib cradle, but neither child was injured. The pistol kicked out of Rockwell's hand and was left behind when he fled. Once caught, the sheriff placed 50 men around the jail to protect the prisoner. However, Rockwell escaped after getting a change of venue and was never prosecuted for attempted murder. Boggs survived.
The couple moved to California in 1846, where Boggs planned to retire. Instead, he was called into service to the office of alealde of Northern District of California by U.S. Military Gov. Gen. Bennett W. Riley following the war with Mexico. Boggs opened a store in Sonoma during the 1849 gold rush and did very well. He resigned as alealde on Nov. 8, 1849, and became the local postmaster.
In 1852, Boggs was elected to the California State Assembly. He retired in 1855 to Napa County, California, where he died March 14, 1860. Panthea joined her husband in death 20 years later on Sept. 23, 1880.
Elizabeth Davis was born and raised in Cooper County, Missouri, and has written Historically Yours for the Boonville Daily News since April 2008. In celebration of Missouri's upcoming Bicentennial, she syndicated her column statewide and encourages readers all over the Show Me State to submit topic suggestions for future columns to [email protected].