The MMA investigates every
person who is believed to have died in the Mountain
Meadows Massacre. According to a family tradition, John
Whitely Litton died in a "Mormon Indian Massacre in Utah",
in 1867. Although the Mountain Meadows Massacre took place
in 1857, stories usually get some facts wrong, and he was
investigated as a possible victim.
John
Whitely Litton was the son of John S. Litton and Catherine
Younce, born 5 March 1830 in Elk Grove, Russell County,
Virginia. He married Lydia Eva Whitaker on 14 May 1845 in
Russell County, Virginia. She was the daughter of Moses
Whitaker and Polly Bowman. In the 1850 census, they are
enumerated in Russell County, Virginia, and in the 1860
census they are enumerated in the Western District of
Washington County, Virginia. Lydia (Whitaker) Litton is
enumerated as a widow in both the 1870 and 1880 census for
Washington County, Virginia. These census records indicate
that Litton probably died sometime between 1860 and 1870,
and not before 1860, which would have been the case if he
was a victim of the Mountain Meadows Massacre in September
1857.
John W.
Litton was in Wade's Regiment, Local Defense (Washington
County VA Militia), in April 1862, before he enlisted in
the Confederate Army. Litton served the Confederacy during
the Civil War, in Company A (originally Stevenson's
Company, Ferguson's Battalion) of the 16th Virginia
Calvary. This Company was primarily made up of men from
Russell County, Virginia. John W. Litton was a wagon
master in the Civil War. Most Confederate records from
Virginia were burned in Richmond, however a copy of a
Company Muster roll for 31 October 1863 to 1 April 1864
shows he enlisted 5 August 1862 at Lebanon, VA. for a
period of 3 years. He was signed in by Capt. Stevenson. He
appears on a Receipt Roll for pay on 31 December 1863. He
was paid $.25 for service from 1 August 1863 to 31
December 1863. These records indicate that Litton was
still alive in at the end of December in 1863. There is no
record of Litton's wife filing for a widow's pension.
Lydia
(Whitaker) and John W. Litton had seven children. The two
youngest children were Clementine Catherine Litton, born
in September 1861, and Mary Cordelia Litton, born 31 March
1865. The birth of Litton's youngest daughter indicates
that he was living in 1864. The census records, military
records, and birth date of his youngest daughter, prove
that he was not a victim of the 1857 Mountain Meadows
Massacre.
Another family story states that when he returned from the
Civil War, he didn't like the reconstruction, so he
enlisted in U.S. Army and was sent to Utah, where he died
as an Indian fighter. A different story said that he
settled in Texas and married again. He was rumored to have
several children and was living in Campbell County, Texas.
No evidence, that would support either story, has been
found.
In Lydia
(Whitaker) Litton's father's will of 31 March 1874, proved
22 November 1875, Moses Whitaker left her land, and other
property, and further stated that the "devise to Lydia E.
Litton, dau., are not to be liable for any debts due for
any one from her husband, John Litton, if he is now
alive." When and where John Whitely Litton died
remains a mystery. It is evident, from her father's Will,
that as late as 1874, Litton's wife did not know what
happened to her husband. She never remarried, and Lydia
Eva (Whitaker) Litton died 14 May 1901 and is buried in
the Hayter Cemetery in Abingdon, Washington County,
Virginia.
© 2013 A.C. Wallner for the Mountain Meadows Association. All rights
reserved
