MOUNTAIN MEADOWS: A REVIEW OF THE STORY OF THE MASSACRE OF
THE EMIGRANTS
The Treachery of the Mormons: The
Horrible Butchery
Responsibility of Mormon Leaders
The Survivors of the Massacre Testimony Given at John D.
Lee’s Trial: Brigham Young and John D. Lee’s Official
Reports of the Massacre.
At present a
brief review of the popular story of the Mountain Meadows
massacre, the causes leading to it, and the part which Lee
and other Mormon leaders are generally credited with
having taken in it, is opportune. The Mormon faith had its
rise in the alleged discovery of the disputed Golden
Bible, in Ontario county, New York, in 1827, by Jo Smith,
and the translation of its plates of clumsy hieroglyphics.
Among the earliest priests of the church were Orson Pratt
and Parley P. Pratt, Brigham Young being a later
accession. There were rival claimants to the origination
of the Golden Bible, the chiefs among whom were Rigdon and
Spalding. The latter is now accepted by non-believers as
the true author of the fiction. Dissensions early grew up,
and some of the original witnesses who saw the angel of
God made manifest to Smith, inside of ten years declared
the falsity of their testimony and withdrew from
Mormonism.
Then came the
cooperative and communistic organization of the new church
at Kirtland, Ohio, where the peculiar financial
transactions of the new brotherhood led to their
immigration and settlement in Missouri; where the Prophets
laid claim to the whole land as that of the Lord and His
Saints. Arrogance and intolerance enkindled opposing
fires, and the Saints met with persecutions which resulted
in their being driven across the Missouri into new
counties of the State, where they prospered and grew,
drawing the ignorant and superstitious in large numbers to
their ranks. But crime was laid at the door of the Church,
and in 1838 the aroused people drove the obnoxious sect
out, and they went into Hancock County, Illinois, where
but a few years was needed to secure their expulsion by a
people indignant and alarmed.
In Illinois, by
order of Smith, to whom all things were revealed by God
himself, the Mormons built the city of Nauvoo, from whence
missionaries went out to all civilized nations, and
proselytes came by thousands from the poor and lowly
classes of all Europe, lured by the charms of a
theocratical government and the wonderful allurements of
temporal gain. Here they grew and prospered, established a
military arm, built a temple, and Smith received a
revelation authorizing polygamy or the spiritual wife
doctrine, which began to be practiced, though publicly
denied. In 1844 the practice led to a riot, the arrest of
Smith and his brother, and their assassination in jail by
a mob. Civil war seemed imminent, and the Mormons in 1845
left Nauvoo, a part being driven out at the point of the
bayonet. They gathered at Council Bluffs, and pioneered by
Brigham Young who succeeded to the Presidency, crossed the
plains to Utah, settling in the Great Salt Lake Valley.
Here they erected the city of Salt Lake, built a spacious
Tabernacle, took up public lands, and by industry under
hardship, and a system of easy irrigation, reclaimed what
was a sterile country, and made it a prolific and yielding
region for a distance of 400 miles (with here and there
barren spots only) north and southward along the western
base of the Wasatch Mountains.
In 1849 Utah,
under the title of Deseret (signifying the land of the
honey bee, or the hive of industry), sought admission to
the Union, but was refused. Young became Governor of the
Territory by appointment of President Fillmore. He led his
people to despise the Federal Government, dispute and
disobey its laws, and drive out its Judges. The Government
named a new governor and sent out soldiers to install him,
but he declined to risk a contest, and left the Prophet in
possession.
In 1856 a Mormon
mob drove the United States Judge from his bench at the
point of the bowie knife, and he fled the Territory. This,
coupled with the frequent and horrible murders of
non-believers, the butchery of apostates and the
persecution of Gentiles, led President Buchanan in 1857 to
send an army to Utah to displace Young, seat a new
Governor and enforce the laws. As the troops drew near,
Young issued a proclamation denouncing the army as a mob,
and called the Mormons to arms to repulse it. At that
critical juncture occurred the Mountain Meadows massacre.
The new Governor declared the Territory to be in
rebellion, but in 1858 an understanding was reached, and
President Buchanan issued a proclamation of pardon to all
who would submit. the army entered the valley and remained
two years.
The history of
the crimes perpetrated in Utah under the protection and by
the direction of the Mormon Church would fill a ponderous
volume. The arm which the Church has used for its vilest
deeds is known as the Danite Band, or the Destroying
Angels, an organization of murderous ruffians. To use up a
man is a command they well understand, and their acts are
held against them by the Church as no crime, but rather as
steps to celestial rewards. By their early entrance into
the Utah Valley the Mormons gained much influence with the
Indian tribes, and by shrewd devices have used them for
years as weapons with which to wreck vengeance upon
Gentiles. A third powerful arm of the priesthood is the
doctrine of blood atonement, teaching that blood may be
justifiably spilled to punish apostasy, prevent heresy, or
avenge the Church. Thus, with these three, the Church
stands a power in Utah.
For a fuller
understanding of the incidents about to be related, a
brief sketch of the line of localities to be mentioned
will not be amiss. Utah lies between the 42d and 37th
parallels of latitude, and the 34th and 37th of longitude,
being nearly a perfect parallelogram. A chain of mountains
on the east side runs from the northern end along the east
boundary half the distance of the Territory, and then
treading westward and southward across it, striking its
west boundary 100 miles north of the Colorado River, at or
near the supposed head of navigation on that stream. Along
the base of this range of mountains, from which flow the
irrigating streams, is the chief settled section,
occupying comparatively narrow valleys, which are bounded
on the west by various low ranges, the chief of which is
the Oquirrh. On the extreme north is Smithfield, and going
south along the chief highways, the settlements and main
points are in this order in direct distances along the old
Emigrant Road, some of the roads giving greater and lesser
distances by their routes: Logan, 8 miles; Brigham, 30
miles; Ogden, 16 miles; Great Salt Lake City, 37 miles;
Little Cottonwood, 7 miles; Lehi, 24 miles; Provo City, 22
miles; Payson, 16 miles. Inclining a little more westward,
Nephi, 24 miles; Chicken Creek, 12 miles; crossing of the
Sevier River, 14 miles; Round Valley, 8 miles; Old Fort
Union, 12 miles; Fillmore, 8 miles; Corn Creek, 12 miles;
Cove Creek, 15 miles where Brigham Young has a stone fort;
Beaver City, 22 miles where Lee was tried; Parowan, 20
(sic) miles; Cedar City, 25 miles where the rally to
destroy the emigrants was made. Going due south we come to
Pinto, 32 miles; Hamlin’s Ranch, 4 miles is at the north
end of the Mountain Meadows, the scene of the massacre;
Santa Clara River, 12 miles which is but 24 miles from the
southwestern Corner of the Territory.
The Story of the Mountain Meadows
Massacre
Scarcely any crime in the history of
the land equals in atrocity that which was perpetrated by
order of the Mormon Church at Mountain Meadows, in
September, 1857, in which John D. Lee was the chief agent,
and from which he sought to shield himself to the last.
Even in his confession he cast all blame on others, and
denied that he personally shed blood.
Parley P. Pratt was one of the
original twelve apostles. One of his wives was Eleanor
McLean. She left her home in Arkansas and fled with Pratt.
Pining for her children, she induced him to return with
her to obtain them from her husband, and on their attempt
to do so the outraged husband slew the seducer. The
Mormons saw nothing wrong in Pratt’s action, and vowed
vengeance upon McLean and his friends.
The Arkansas Company and Its Property
In the Summer of 1857, a train of
emigrants hailing from Arkansas, and bound for California,
entered Salt Lake City. It was a wealthy and populous
train. There were in it one hundred and fifty persons,
men, women and children; four hundred head of cattle, and
seventy or eighty fine horses. It was a rich train, and
carried money, jewelry, bedding, household goods and
superior wearing apparel. Its strength and wealth made it
independent and doubtless its members were boastful and
bold. They were told that snows would prevent their making
the northern passage, and they resolved to pass down
through Utah and go into California by southern route.
Mormon Version of the Conduct of the
Emigrants
Some of the emigrants were from
Missouri and Illinois and Mormons say that in Salt Lake
one of the emigrants swung a pistol above his head and
swore that it helped to kill Joe Smith, and was then
loaded for Old Brigham. Mormons, when asked 104
whether their religion would
exonerate the man who should kill the desperado that
boasted of murdering the prophet, have bluntly answered
Yes, [torn]_________ several of the emigrants were from
McLean’s neighborhood in Arkansas, and at least one was
believed to have had a hand in the killing of Pratt.
The Poisoned Spring Story Exploded
Among the emigrants’ cattle were a
pair of old stags which were named Brigham and Heber. In
driving through the streets these old stags used to
receive a generous share of abuse. Next to Joseph Smith,
the Mormons worship Brigham Young and the First
Presidency. Thus these emigrants publicly insulted
President Young, it is charged, and Heber C. Kimball, his
first counsellor, and this insult is always mentioned by
the Mormons as one of the causes of provocation for the
massacre. The very ground work of Mormon Theocracy rests
upon unbounded reverence to President Young, their
Prophet, seer and revelator. It is also charged that the
emigrants wove his name into vulgar songs, which were
chanted through the streets. A Territorial law prohibited
profanity, and violation of this law on the part of some
of the emigrants is charged, and for it they were ordered
arrested at Cedar City, but they successfully resisted.
Again, it is told that a teamster, in passing through the
streets of Cedar, brought his heavy whiplash suddenly down
among widow Evans’ chickens and killed two. Remonstrated
with, the man swore he would kill the damned Mormons as
quickly as their chickens, if they interfered with him
much more.
Lee has said that while camped two
miles beyond the town they tore down and burned fifteen
rods of fence, and turned their stock upon the standing
grain.
It is rumored that at Corn Creek
they poisoned an ox, and a spring, or a running stream,
and the Indians suffered from the effects. One is said to
have died, and the rest were terribly incensed against the
emigrants. But on the first trial of Lee this charge was
utterly exploded. It was shown the spring was a very large
running stream, and could not be poisoned, and, indeed was
not, nor was the bullock, and lastly, that the party so
charged was the Duke party, which came through some time
after the Mountain Meadows party, and the Corn Creek
Indians themselves deny the whole story, as we show
further on.
Incentives to the Massacre
J ohnston’s army was entering
Utah, and the Mormons were marshalling to oppose him with
force and arms. The United States was considered as an
enemy, and its subjects were treated as foes. Practically
the Territory was under martial law, and the Nauvoo Legion
drilled regularly each week. Here was the richest and most
105
powerful company that ever traveled
the southern route to California. Their wagons, teams and
loose stock alone amounted to over $300,00, and they had
the costliest apparel and jewelry. The wildest excitement
prevailed, and murders were frequent. Driven from place to
place in the East, the Mormons determined to fight for
Utah. The emigrants are accused of having threatened to
camp on the southern boundary of Utah, and when Johnston's
army entered at the north, they would return and
exterminate the southern settlements; before the snow fell
they would hang Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball.
It is said the doctrine of blood
atonement had its part in the massacre which followed, as
several disaffected Mormons joined the train, and it
became necessary to blood-atone them. When their dead
bodies were found, after the massacre, it is said they
were clothed in their endowment shirts. From these causes,
gleaned from the sayings of Mormons, a little idea may be
gained of the reasons which actuated the murderers.
Gentle Version of the Emigrants’
Behavior
On the other hand, it is abundantly
proven that the emigrants were orderly, peaceable,
Sabbath-loving and generally Christian people, holding
religious services frequently. Eli B. Kelsey traveled with
them from Fort Bridger to Salt lake City, and he spoke of
them in the highest terms. Jacob Hamblin, Indian
interpreter, who has four wives, twenty children and
eighteen grandchildren, said, They seemed like real
old-fashioned farmers. A resident of Parowan visited them
often, and became well acquainted with them, and he had
never seen a company of finer people, he declared.
When the emigrants entered Salt lake
they found to their great surprise that nothing could be
procured of the Mormons, for love or money. Their cash,
their cattle, their immense wealth, could not purchase
provisions enough to keep them from starving. Trains were
always accustomed to obtain a fresh outfit at Salt Lake
prior to crossing the deserts intervening between Utah and
California.
But neither in Salt Lake nor
subsequently could they procure supplies, and it is
probable many would have starved if they had escaped the
massacre. As a climax to this inhospitable reception, they
were peremptorily ordered to break camp, and move away
from Salt Lake City. Slowly they passed down through that
blossomed at the foot of the Wasatch Range, expecting to
reach Los Angeles by the San Bernardino route. The corn
had ripened and the wheat had been harvested, every
granary was filled to bursting, yet money could not
purchase food. At American Fork, Battle Creek, Provo,
Springville, Spanish Fork, Payson, Nephi and Fillmore they
received the same harsh refusal to their requests for
trading or buying. They were ordered away from at least
two places where they were halting to rest and refresh
their weary cattle.
The avenger preceded them, in the
person of George A Smith, the second man in the Theocracy.
At every settlement he preached to the Mormons, and gave
strict orders to sell no food or grain to emigrants under
pain of excommunication. To the earnest, sincere Mormon,
death is preferable to being cut off from the privileges
of his religion. At last Smith visited and viewed the very
place chosen for the slaughter. On his return up the
valleys he met the emigrants at Corn Creek, and on their
request for advice where to recruit their teams before
going out upon the desert, he told them to pause at Cane
Spring in the Mountain Meadows, the very spot where they
were butchered.
Mountain Meadows: Their
Appearance Now and Then
The Mountain Meadows are about five
miles in length and from one and a half to two miles in
breadth. At that time the Meadows were well watered and
abounded in luxuriant grass, furnishing a desirable
stopping place for the traveler preparatory to entering
the parched desert further on. But today, how changed!
There is not now a green spear of grass, a live tree to
shelter the traveler from the scorching sun. The floods
from the mountains have cut out the old beaten road.
Gullies and ravines have washed out the bed of the streams
flowing from the springs that once supplied water to the
emigrant and his stock. Even the sagebrush, cut and
scarred by the bullets of the assaulting saint and savage,
or the heroic emigrant in defense of his wife and little
ones, have withered and died, and today it seems that the
curse of Almighty God is upon what was once the beautiful
and fertile valley of the Mountain Meadows.
Did the Indians Participate in the
Massacre?
The Mormons have ever charged this
crime at the Meadows upon the Indians and the Indians as
industriously deny it. The fact is that at Corn Creek the
Indians, when the whites refused, furnished the emigrants
with thirty bushels of corn. The Chief of the Beavers,
named Beaverite, brother of Kanosh, the chief of the Corn
Creek Indians, a warm friend of the Pahvants, recently
denied emphatically the Mormon story of the poisoned ox,
the poisoned spring and the poisoned Indians. He said that
no Corn Creek, Pahvants nor Beaver Indians went to
Mountain Meadows. All the Indians there, he added, were
not more than one hundred; for I knew Moquepus, who was
there with his Cold Creek Indians. He my friend. So were
all his Indians. I often talk with them over the last 17
years. Moqueous (sic) always said, and his warriors always
said, that they were making a living by hunting around
Cedar. John D. Lee came and told them to come and help
kill the emigrants. Moquepus said he had not guns nor
powder enough. Lee and that the Mormons would furnish guns
and powder. Moquepas asked him what the Indians would get.
Lee said they would get clothing, all the guns and horses,
and some of the cattle to eat. So they went. Moquepus was
wounded, and died the year after of the wounds. All the
Indians tell the same story. No Indians in Utah had any
animosity against the whites.
The Emigrants Encampment: The Mormon
Council
The emigrants were not allowed to
drive through Beaver or Parowan (a walled town) for in the
latter place the militia were already assembled for their
slaughter. At last they entered the Meadows, and encamped
a little distance from the spring of water there and the
small stream running through. Meanwhile their murderers
were preparing. A council was held at Cedar City. Haight
and Higbee, dignitaries of the Church, and Lee, the Indian
farmer, and Klingen Smith, the bishop, were there, and the
destruction of the emigrants was resolved upon and Lee
sent on ahead to rally Indians to his aid, while Mormons
painted and accoutered as Indians accompanied him. But a
show of waiting for orders was made, and a messenger sent
to Brigham Young; but before he could ride nearly 300
miles and back, the deed was done.
The Attack
Suddenly at daybreak Monday morning,
September 7, 1857, the emigrants were attacked, and at the
first fire seven were killed and fifteen wounded.
Unprepared, while most of them were yet asleep, they fell
helplessly before the bullets of their unseen foes. With a
promptitude unparalleled in all the history of Indian
warfare, these emigrants wheeled their wagons into an
oblong corral and with shovels and picks threw the earth
from the center of the corral against the wagon-wheels. In
an incredibly short time they had an excellent barricade.
So rapid was their work that the plans of the assassins
were turned. Three Indians were wounded, and two died
after being conveyed to Clear City, where Bishop Higbee
anointed their wounds with holy ointment and solemnly laid
his hands upon them to cure them, fervently praying that
The Lord Jesus would heal them. The unexpected vigor of
the defense made by the emigrants rendered it necessary to
call for help. A rally was made at Cedar City and
Washington, and the faithful were ordered to appear armed
and equipped for duty.
Fate of Aden and His Mormon Friend
One young man in the train was named
William A. Aden, whose
father, in Tennessee, had once saved the life of a Mormon,
and out of gratitude he befriended the young man in some
way. Soon afterwards a party of Mormons came up to the
gate of the disobedient brother and struck him over the
head with a club. His skull was cracked, and although he
is still living, his mind is seriously impaired. Aden and
a companion were after the attack sent out by the
emigrants for help. At Pinto Creek they were met by the
notorious Bill Stewart and a boy. Stewart shot Aden, but
the boy failed to fire and the other man escaped. Years
after Stewart took a friend to the bushes where Aden died
and showed him his victim's bones, and brutally kicked
them about. Stewart still lives, lurking about the
vicinity of Cedar City, but hidden from the authorities.
Mormon Treachery
The recruits arrived, were arranged
in hollow square, and told that they were to aid in the
murder of the emigrants. They were too strongly fortified
to be attacked again without the loss of life to some of
the Lord's Anointed. The plan resolved upon was to decoy
the emigrants out under a white flag protection, and the
plea that it was necessary to save them from the Indians.
But all this recruiting had taken time, and the emigrants
held their ground all the week. Their camp was in a hollow
overlooked by low hills, and from there and from behind
stone breastworks Lee and his men kept them under constant
fire, killing the cattle, wounding and killing emigrants,
and making the corral a veritable death pen. Water was the
great need of the emigrants. Every attempt to go to the
spring was met by death. A tunnel was started to reach it,
but never completed. A woman who stepped outside the
corral to milk a cow fell pierced with bullets. Two
innocent little girls, clothed in pure white, were sent
down to the spring. Hand in hand, trembling, these dear
little rosebuds walked toward the spring. Their tender
little bodies were fairly riddled with bullets. The old
breastworks still remain in places, and no one can visit
the spot without being surprised that the emigrants held
out so long.
Fate of Messengers Dispatched for
Help
Thursday night the emigrants drew up
a petition, or an humble prayer for aid. It was addressed
to any friend of humanity, and stated the exact condition
of affairs. In case the paper reached California, it was
hoped that assistance would be sent to their rescue. Then
followed a list of the emigrants names. Each name was
followed by the age, place of nativity, latest residence,
position, rank and occupation of its owner. The number of
clergymen, physicians, farmers, carpenters, etc. was
given. Among other important particulars, the number of
Free Masons and Odd Fellows was started, with the rank,
and the name and number of the lodges of which they were
members. It is the only expression that ever came from
within that corral, but it gives a thrilling picture of
their torture and mental anguish.
Volunteers were called for to bear
this letter to California, and three of the bravest men
that ever lived stepped forward and offered to attempt to
dash through the enemy and cross the wilderness and
desert. Before they started, all knelt in the corral, and
the white-haired old Methodist pastor fervently prayed for
their safety. In the dead of night they passed the
(tear)_____but Indian runners were immediately placed on
their track and they were tracked weary miles and at last
killed and their bodies left to rot. It is believed one or
more of them endured the Indian torture before being
killed. The letter was found, and in after years shown to
a leader in the massacre, and by him promptly destroyed.
Two men, the Young brother, not Mormons, still alive, saw
one of these three messengers shot to death near
Cottonwood by Indians, under command of Ira Hatch, a
Mormon.
Decoying the Emigrants from Their
Stronghold: The Horrible Butchery
Meanwhile the decoy plan at the camp
was put into effect. A white flag was displayed, and Lee
marched under its cover and met an envoy from the
beleaguered camp. He promised the emigrants protection if
they would lay down their arms and march out. They could
do nothing else, and acquiesced. The arms, the wounded and
the children were put into two wagons, driven by Mormons;
behind them came the women, marching in single file and a
little back of them came the men, unarmed, starving, many
wounded, and utterly despondent. On went the mournful
procession. Lee marched between the two wagons. suddenly
he brought his gun to his shoulder and fired at a woman in
the forward wagon, killing her instantly.
It was the signal for the massacre.
Indians rose from behind bushes, painted Mormons stepped
from behind concealment, and all along the line the men
and women were shot down like cattle in the shambles,
while Lee and his aids (sic) dragged women and youths from
the wagons and cut their throats from ear to ear. The
venerable gray-headed clergymen, the sturdy farmers, the
stalwart young men and the beardless youths, all were cut
down, one by one, and above their dead bodies waved the
stars and stripes. But this was not all. It is said that
Lee and an Indian chef cut the throats of two girls aged
fourteen and fifteen behind some bushes whither they had
fled. Their pure bosoms could not quiver neath the plunge
of the cold steel blade, nor their white throats crimson
before the keen knife’s edge until they had suffered the
torments of a thousand deaths at the hands of their brutal
captors.
Sickening Scenes Of Slaughter: Human
Fiends
Sick women too ill to leave the
corral were driven up to the scene of slaughter, butchered
and stripped. Some of the younger men refused to join in
the dreadful work. Jim Pearce was shot by his own father
for protecting a girl that was crouched at his feet! The
bullet cut a deep gash in his face, and the furrowed scar
is there today. Lee is said to have shot a girl who was
clinging to his son. A score of heart-rending rumors are
afloat about the deeds of that hour. One rumor comes from
a girl who lived in Lee’s own family for years. She told
Mr. Beadle, the author of several works, that one young
woman drew a dagger to defend herself against John D. Lee,
and he killed her on the spot. And this story is told too
of that day’ darkness: A young mother saw her husband fall
dead. He lay with his face upward, and the purple
life-blood crimsoned his pallid cheeks. She sprang to his
side just as a great, brutal ruffian attempted to seize
her. Laying her tiny babe on her husband’s breast, she
drew a dirk knife, and, like a tigress at bay, confronted
the vile wretch. He recoiled in terror, but the next
instant a man stepped up behind the brave woman and drove
a knife through her body. Without a struggle she fell dead
across her husband’s feet. Picking up the dirk she had
dropped, the fiend deliberately pinned the little babe’s
body to its father’s and laughed to see its convulsive
death-struggles.
The orders were to spare children
too young to remember. Bill Stewart and Joel White were to
kill the rest. An old Indian who saw the deed says: The
little boys and girls were too frightened to do aught but
fall at the feet of their butchers and beg for mercy. Many
a sweet little girl knelt before Bill Stewart, clasped his
knees with her tiny white arms, and with tears and tender
pleading besought him not to take her life. Catching them
by the hair of the head, he would hurl them to the ground,
place his foot upon their little bodies and cut their
throats.
Mountain Meadows Eight Days after the
Massacre: Burial of the Remains
Eight days after the massacre,
witnesses who visited the field of death, and testified at
the first trial of Lee, in 1875, saw the bodies of men,
women and children strewn upon the ground and heaped in
piles. Some were stabbed, others shot, and still others
had their throats cut. there was no clothing left on man,
woman or child, except a torn stocking leg which clung to
the ankle of one. The wolves and ravens had lacerated
every one of the corpses except one. There were one
hundred and twenty-seven in all, and each bore the marks
of wolves’ teeth, except just one. It was the body of a
handsome, well-formed lady, with a beautiful face and long
flowing hair. A single bullet had pierced her side. Most
of the bodies had been thrown into three piles, distant
from each other about two rods and a half. Indians would
certainly have taken scalps or burned bodies, if savage
revenge had been the only thought. The closest examination
was made, and not the slightest trace of the scalping
knife would be discovered.
Two months afterward a single Mormon
all honor to the man gathered up the bones and placed them
in the very hollow the emigrants had dug inside the
corral. He acted upon his own responsibility, and went
alone and unaided. He did the very best he could, but the
task was horribly disagreeable, and the covering of earth
which he placed upon the bodies was necessarily light. He
testified at the first trial, and said he picked up 127
skulls. Aden was killed, and the three messengers, making
131. Eighteen children were saved, one or two emigrants
were buried in the corral after the first attack, so that
there must have been over 150 instead of 140 of the
company, as generally believed heretofore.
Parting the Raiment
The raiment of the dead was
separated among the murderers. The cattle were driven upon
Harmony range, and branded with the church brand a cross
after a portion had been given to the Indians. The wagons
were drawn to Cedar city, and they and the other
properties were stored in the Mormon tithing-house and
subsequently sold at auction, all marks of identity being
destroyed by John M. Higbee, who acted as auctioneer. The
tenth part due the Church was paid into the tithing
office. The children saved were subsequently gathered up
by a Government agent, and as far as possible restored to
their friends at the East. To this day the Indians who had
taken part in the massacre declare, first, that they had
nothing to avenge, and had no animosity against the
emigrants, they were hired assassins; second, that the
Mormons cheated them egregiously in dividing the spoils.
Suppression of the Truth: How It
Leaked Out
It was a long time before the truth
leaked out. The Deseret News, the Mormon organ at Salt
Lake, never published a line in relation to the occurrence
until thirteen months after it happened. The Duke train,
passing afterward to California, heard of it, and the news
reached California early the following Winter. Then the
old Chief Kanosh complained that the spoil was unfairly
divided, and made his complaints loudly. So public
attention was attracted. In the memories of some of the
children lingered recollections of the butchery. Attention
was drawn by George Adair, who, in the streets of Cedar,
often used to boast that he had taken babes by the heels
and dashed out their brains against the wagon wheels. In
his drunken revels he would laugh and attempt to imitate
the pitiful, crushing sound of the skull bones as they
struck the iron bands of the wagon hubs. George Adair
lives. Two boys, named John
Calvin (Miller) and Myron Tackett (Emberson
Milum Tackitt), aged respectively nine and seven, were
brought to Salt Lake City and placed under the charge of a
most estimable lady until arrangements could be made for
sending them to Arkansas. John would often tell how he
picked arrows from his mother’s body as fast as the
Indians would shoot them into her flesh. He saw his
grandfather, grandmother, aunt, father and mother
murdered. Clenching his little fists, He would burst into
a little passionate speech like this: When I get to be a
man I’ll go to the President of the United States and ask
for a regiment of soldiers to go and find John D. Lee. But
I don’t want to have any one kill him; I want to shoot him
myself, for he killed my father. He shot my father in the
back, but I would shoot him in the face. Many of the
children saw Mormon women wearing their mothers’ dresses.
Haight’s wives and Lee’s wives were often seen in Cedar
city wearing silks and satins that came from the Mountain
Meadows women. Jewelry and ornamental articles found their
way through almost all the southern settlements. John said
that Lee drove his father’s iron-gray horses for a few
days, and then a Bishop obtained possession of them.
Klingen Smith’s Confession and Lee’s
Excommunication
Next came the confession of
Philip Klingen Smith and
his flight to California. The Mormon Church now attempted
to wash its hands of the affair, and so cut off Lee from
the church, and eight of Lee’s eighteen wives left him, as
that amounted to a divorcement but still Brigham remained
on intimate terms with Lee. At last the United States
officers procured indictments against Lee and some of the
leaders, and after a long and dangerous chase Lee was
captured.
The Monument in Memory of the Dead:
Its Inscription
When the facts became known relative
to the exposure of the poor bones of the murdered
emigrants, a company of United States troops was marched
to the Meadows, and decent sepulture (sic) given the
crumbling remains, and above the dead a wooden cross was
raised, with the inscription, Vengeance is mine, I will
repay, saith the Lord. It did not stand long; vandal
Mormon hands tore it down. Perhaps the perpetrators
disliked the prophetic inscription, but this only
succeeded in stamping it more deeply upon the hearts of
the people of the United States. The Governor of the
Territory, outraged at the destruction of the monument,
gave the Mormons notice that they must restore it.
Accordingly Brigham Young had a new one put up; but, lo,
Brigham changed the inscription so as to read,
Vengeance is mine, I have repaid, saith the Lord.
But very soon, even this was torn
down, and after its second destruction a company of United
States volunteers restored it as it first stood. The
monument now is again without its cross. The spot is
marked by a heap of large stones gathered from the
neighboring hillsides. It is an irregular pile twenty feet
long and seven feet wide. It is highest in the middle and
slopes like the roof of a house to each side. It is only
three or four feet high, and bears no cross or
inscription.
Lee and His Confederates Indicted
In the summer of 1874 indictments
for murder were first found by the Grand Jury of the
Second Judicial district Court against John D. Lee, and
against W. H. Dame, Isaac C. Haight, John M. Higbee,
George Adair, J. R. Elliott Wildena, Samuel Jukes, Philip
K. Smith and W. C. Stewart, Lee’s confederates in the
Mountain Meadows massacre. After a long, patient and
dangerous pursuit Lee was arrested. He was tried in July,
1875, before a jury composed of two Gentiles, nine regular
Saints, and one renegade Mormon. That jury disagreed. In
the month of September, 1876, Lee was again placed on
trial. This time the prosecution purposely managed to have
a jury composed entirely of Mormons. Knowing that a jury
of Gentiles could not be had, new tactics were resorted
to. The confession of Lee was proven to the jury, and the
evidence of eyewitnesses, both willing and unwilling, was
brought out, proving his personal participation in the
tragedy. The evidence was so conclusive that Lee, to
protect himself from its overwhelming force, was driven to
make the defense that whatever he did on the field of
carnage was by order of the priesthood, and his counsel
were compelled to argue that his superiors in the Church,
and not Lee, were the responsible parties. It did not take
long for that Mormon jury to make a choice between the
conviction of Lee or the imputation against the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which the acquittal of
Lee on the plea and justification which he had been forced
to make would cast upon them. It was a sad dilemma for
that faithful twelve, but Lee was convicted a victim of
his own indiscretion and want of foresight in forcing his
counsel to return the heavy blows that the prosecution
gave by the direct evidence of guilt, and send them back
upon the heads of the priesthood, who were sure to be
championed by the jury in preference to Lee. Lee’s
conviction astonished no one more than it did himself.
Witnesses at Lee’s Second Trial
At the second trial of Lee the
following witnesses testified in behalf of the
prosecution: Daniel H. Well, formerly General of the Utah
Militia and chief counsellor of Brigham Young, one of the
Twelve Apostles, and for years Mayor of Salt Lake City;
Laban Morrill, a member of the council held at Cedar City
at the time of the massacre; James Harlem, the messenger
to Brigham Young; Joel White, a messenger dispatched by
Haight from Cedar City to Pinto to pacify the Indians and
let emigrants pass; Samuel Knight, one of the participants
in the massacre; Samuel McCurdy, a Mormon wagon-driver at
the massacre; Nephi Johnson, a Mormon eye-witness who
denied having taken any part in the slaughter; Jacob
Hamblin, whose ranch was at the north end of the Meadows,
but who was absent at the time of the massacre, but
testified to the condition of the scene seven or eight
days after the butchery.
Gleanings from the Testimony Given at
the Second Trial of Lee
(Also See: Testimony in Trials of
John D. Lee)
Laban Morrill testified that some of
the emigrants had sworn that they had killed old Jo Smith,
and there was excitement over it; that Haight and Klingen
Smith were in favor at the Mormon Council of killing the
emigrants.
Joel White testified that when Lee
was informed by the messenger from the Mormon council that
the emigrants were to be allowed to pass, he said, I don’t
know about that, or, I have something to do about that.
Samuel Knight swore that Lee
accompanied the men who carried the white flag into the
emigrants’ camp, and that he superintended the loading of
the wagons with the women, children and baggage. He saw
Lee raise something, as if a gun or club in the act of
striking a woman in the wagon ahead, and she fell; that
Lee staid on the ground until all the party were killed.
Samuel McCurdy testified that a man
named Bateman carried the flag of truce to meet the
emigrants; that Lee went after him and met the emigrant's
envoy; that Lee, who was behind witness, gave the order to
halt; that he heard the report of a gun right back of him
at that instant; that he looked back and saw Lee with his
gun to his shoulder; that when it exploded he saw a woman
fall; that he saw Lee draw his pistol and shoot in the
head two or three men and women who were in the wagon, and
must have killed them; that as soon as Lee fired his gun,
volleys of firing were heard; that Lee’s shot was the
signal for the slaughter. The witness refused to say
whether he had killed any one that day himself.
Nephi Johnson said he got to the
Meadows the midnight before the massacre for the purpose
of burning the dead, represented to have been slain by the
Indians; that he saw Lee and Klingen Smith the following
morning; that he saw a bullet hole in Lee’s shirt, and
thought he saw something like paint around Lee’s hair; saw
the flag of truce; saw the emigrants file out of their
camp unarmed; saw Lee fire his gun at a woman who fell
dead in the lead wagon; saw Lee and Indians pull persons
out of wagons; saw Lee make a motion as if cutting a
throat, and believed he did so; that the massacre lasted
not more than five minutes, possibly not over three
minutes; saw several of the thirteen emigrant wagons
subsequently at Harmony, where Lee lived, and saw some of
the emigrant’s stock at Harmony range, near Lee’s
residence; he (witness) went to the Meadows because it was
dangerous to disobey; Haight, Higby and Klingen Smith were
present at the massacre.
Jacob Hamblin visited the Meadows
seven or eight days after the butchery and buried over 120
skulls. He also testified that he met Lee after the
massacre at Fillmore; Lee gave as a reason for the
massacre that the emigrants passed through and threatened
to make their outfit out of the outlying settlements; that
he went out with some Harmony Indians, and the latter
attacked the emigrants and made him lead; that he decoyed
the emigrants out of their camp and that they massacred
them; that he thought it best to use them up all that
would tell tales; that Lee told him the emigrants were
unarmed; that two young ladies were brought out by an
Indian Chief of Cedar city, and he asked Lee what he
should do with them; that the Indian killed one and he
(Lee) cut the other’s throat; they were from 13 to 15
years old. A little girl who belonged to the company,
staying at witness house, told him that the young ladies
were named
Dunlap; that they were her sisters. Witness gathered
up the children spared, 17 in all, and delivered them to
Forney, Superintendent of Indian Affairs. Soon after the
massacre, witness told Brigham Young and George A. Smith
more than he told on the stand, because he remembered more
of it then. Brigham Young said: "As soon as we can get a
Court of Justice we will ferret this thing out; but till
then don’t say anything about it."
Energetic Efforts of the United State
Officials
At the first trial, Klingen Smith,
one of the persons indicted, turned State’s evidence, and
was examined as a witness for the prosecution. Klingen
Smith is an ex-bishop and an apostate Mormon. He was
brought to the first trial from San Bernardino,
California. During his stay in Salt Lake he was kept under
constant guard, at his own request, so great was his fear
of the Mormons. As the second trial approached, little
interest was felt in the result outside of Utah. The press
and public complained that no verdict of guilty could be
obtained in Beaver. Despite the hopelessness of the case,
however, the United States Marshals determined to do their
whole duty. As an instance, Marshal Crowe was sent by a
circuitous route to a point on the Colorado River known as
the Needles, where, at last accounts, Klingen Smith
resided. Arriving at the Needles, after a tedious,
fatiguing journey, Marshal Crowe found that his man had
not been heard from for several months, but was probably
somewhere down the Colorado river. It was an almost
hopeless task, and was strangely desperate and
adventurous; yet the Marshal concluded to drift down the
river in an open boat, with only Indians for guides, in
quest of his witness. The country on either hand was
desolate and uninhabited save by bands of savage Indians,
and yet one morning, in an Indian camp, Klingen Smith was
discovered. He was brought to Beaver, but was never put on
the witness-stand. He was not needed. Mormons had suddenly
taken hold of the prosecution. Witnesses sprung up as if
by magic; witnesses that no Marshal ever could have found;
witnesses who knew all about the massacre; who could throw
all the blame on Lee, and whose story would completely
exonerate the Church and the First Presidency. Even
Brigham Young did not hesitate to give the prosecution his
personal encouragement and assistance. He not only
prepared and signed an affidavit purporting to tell what
he knew about the massacres, but he allowed the
Prosecuting Attorney free access to his own private
papers.
Testimony
of Klingen Smith at Lee’s First Trial
In his last confession John D. Lee
says that a great part of Klingen Smith’s testimony at the
first trial was true. This gives that part of the records
new interest, and it is consequently reproduced herewith.
Klingen Smith’s Story of the Massacre
Lived at Cedar City from 1857 to
1872. The Meadows are forty- five miles south of Cedar
city, on the California road. Was at the massacre in
September, 1857. Heard of the emigrants coming. People
were forbidden to trade with them. Felt bad about it. Saw
a few of them at Cedar city. This was on Friday. Some
swore, and Higbee fined them. They went on. Heard rumors
of trouble. On Sunday it was customary to have meetings.
The President and Council discussed the matter as to their
destruction. Haight, Higbee, Morrell, Allen, Willis,
myself and the others were there. Some of the brethren
opposed the destruction. I did. Haight jumped up and broke
up the meeting. I asked what would be the consequences of
the act. Then Haight got mad. Indians were to destroy them
on Monday. Higbee, Haight, White and I met and discussed
the same subject again.
Lee Has Something to Say about
Letting the Emigrants Go Unmolested
I opposed the destruction, and
Haight relented. He told White and I to go ahead and tell
the people that the emigrants should go through safe. We
did so. On the road we met John D. Lee. Told him where we
were going. He replied, I have something to say about that
matter. We passed the emigrants at Iron Springs. The next
morning we passed them again as we came back. They had
twenty or thirty wagons, and over one hundred people, old
men and middle-aged, and women, youths and children. Near
home we met Ira Allen. He said the emigrants doom was
sealed, the die was cast for their destruction; that Lee’s
orders were to take men and go out and intercept them.
Allen was to go out and counteract what we had done. I
went home. Three days after, Haight sent for me and said
news had come from the men, and that they did not get
along well and wanted reinforcements; that he had been to
Parowan and got further orders from Colonel W. H. Dame to
finish the massacre; to decoy them out and spare only the
small children who could not tell tales. I went off; met
Allen, our first runner, and others. Higbee came out and
said, "You are ordered out, armed and equipped." Hopkins,
Higbee, John Willis and Samuel Purdy went along; had two
baggage wagons; got to Hamblin's ranch, three miles from
the emigrants; there met Lee and others from the general
camp, where the largest number of men were; found that the
emigrants were not all killed.
Lee Commands the Mormon Assassins and
Carries the Flag of Truce
Lee called me out for consultation
one side. He told me the situation. The emigrants were
strongly fortified, with no chance to get at them, but
that Higbee had been ordered to decoy them out the best
way he could. That was agreed to, and the command given to
John D. Lee to carry out the whole plan. They went to the
camp. Lee formed all his soldiers into a hollow square and
addressed them. They were all white men, about fifty in
all. The Indians were in another camp; saw there Slade and
his son Jim, Pearce, probably his son too. All these were
from Cedar, and Bill Stewart and Seven Jacobs. Think Dan
McFarland was there too. Slade and I were outraged, but we
said, "What can we do? We can’t help ourselves." Just then
an order to march was given and we had to go. We were put
in double file. Higbee had command of part of the men. It
was the Nauvoo legion, organized from tens to hundreds. We
marched to within sight of the emigrants.
Either Bateman or Lee went out with
the white flag, and a man from the emigrants met them. Lee
and the man sat down on the grass and had a talk; don’t
know what they said. Lee went with the man into the
entrenchments; after some hours he came out, and the
emigrants came up with their wounded in wagons ahead. The
wounded were those hurt in the three days previous fight;
they said the Mormons and Indians couldn’t oust the
emigrants. Next came the women, next the men. As the
emigrants came up the men halted, and the women on foot,
children and wounded, went on ahead with John D. Lee. The
soldiers had orders to be already to shoot at the word.
The Signal for Slaughter and
Subsequent Scenes
When the word "Halt!" came, the
soldiers fired. I fired once; don’t know if I killed any.
The men were not all killed at the first shot. Saw women
afterwards with their throats cut. I saw, as I came up to
them, a man kill a young girl. The men were marched in
double file first, then thrown into single file, with the
soldiers alongside. Heard the emigrants’ congratulations
on their safety from the Indians. At last John M. Higbee
came and ordered my squad to fire. Lee, like the rest, had
firearms. No emigrants escaped. Saw soldiers on horses
take on the wing those who ran. Saw a man run. Saw Bill
Stewart, on a horse, go after and kill him. Saw a wounded
man beg for his life. Higbee cut his throat. the man said,
"I would not do this to you." Higbee knew him after he
fired. Was told to gather up the little children as we
went. Saw a large woman running toward the men, crying,
"My husband! My husband!" A soldier shot her in the back,
and she fell dead. As I went on I found the wagons, with
the wounded all out on the ground dead, with their throats
cut. Went on and found the children. Put them in a wagon
and took them to Hamblin's house. Saw no more, as the
soldiers dispersed them. Two children were wounded, and
one died at Hamblin’s. Think I had to leave it there.
There were many soldiers from the counties south whom I
did not know. The next day McCurdy, Willis and myself took
the children to Cedar city, leaving one at Pinto Creek. On
the road, met a freight train of wagons, with men, living
here in Beaver now, on it. I went to old Mrs. Hopkins and
told her that I had the children. She rustled around and
got places for them. I took one girl baby home. My wife
suckled it. Afterward I gave it to Dick Beck, he having no
children. They were all well treated, I believe. We got
good places for them, where there were few children.
Distributing the Plunder
After several days Haight sent me to
Iron Springs, where the wagons came, and the goods of the
emigrants were. Got them and put them in the tithing
house. I was to brand the cattle too. Found there John
Urie, and a hunter, and Allen. I put the goods in the
Church tithing office cellar; left the wagons in front of
the tithing office; branded the cattle with the Church
brand a cross. Lee was in the cellar with me, and saw the
goods. Haight and Higbee told me that a council had been
held, and that Lee had been deputed to go to President
Brigham Young and report all the facts of the massacre.
Lee went. I followed, to attend the Conference, October
6th, at Salt Lake City. Met Lee at Salt Lake and asked him
if he had reported to Brigham Young; he said, "Yes, every
particular. On the same day I, Lee and Charlie
Hopkins called on Brigham Young. He there, in the presence
of them, said: "You have charge of that property in the
tithing office; turn it over to John D. Lee. What you know
of this say nothing. Don’t talk of it even among
yourselves." When I came home I had to go to the Vegas
lead mines to get ore. While I was gone Lee took the
property and had an auction, so Haight and Higbee told me.
Haight sold part of the cattle to Hooper, Utah’s
Congressional delegate afterwards, for boots and shoes.
There were Indians at the massacre. The hills were pretty
full of them. They were deputed to kill the women. Saw one
Indian cut a little boy’s throat. Heard no effort to
restrain the Indians. Some of the Indians were wounded and
three of them died of their wounds. The Indians came back
to Cedar, where I lived. One was called Bill and one Tom,
both chiefs. Saw some of the emigrants’ property with the
Indians. Saw Lee get dresses and jeans from the tithing
office out of the emigrants’ plunder. I learned from Allen
that Lee was the one to gather up the Indians to attack
the emigrants and talked with Lee about it. Afterward Lee
was Indian Agent at the Harmony Agency, traded with the
tribes, and issued good and rations of the Government to
the Indians.
Klingen Smith’s Antecedents
___________ years of age went to
Indiana; at 26 to Michigan; then _____________ to Nauvoo
in 1844. Left there with the Mormons in 1846 and went to
Iowa; thence to Council bluffs. In 1849 came to Salt Lake;
then to San Pete, and raised two crops; thence to Parowan,
and stayed there one year; thence to the river Muddy, and
stayed a part of two years. Left there in 1865, and went
back to Parowan, and remained there over a year. Then went
to Meadow Valley, Lincoln County, Nevada, and live there
yet; go out prospecting. At Nauvoo I was an Elder, and
belonged to the Ninth Quorum of the Seventies. At Cedar
City, in 1857, was Bishop over Cedar. My duty was to act
in temporal affairs, collect the tithing, and see to
making field and water ditches. Was under the Presidency
of Haight, to whom I was subordinate. The people held
councils with me. James Whittaker and old Daddy Morris
were my councilors. The first I heard of the emigrants was
their being ordered out of Salt lake. President Haight
gave out that the people were not to supply the emigrants.
He gave the order at an afternoon meeting of the
officials. Haight preached on the subject. He said the
emigrants were to be destroyed. Allen favored it with
Haight. Higbee also agreed to it. No particular reasons
were given for the order. That astonished me, and as many
opposed as favored the action. Morrill, myself and the
Councilors opposed it. I had the right to appeal to the
higher power, but did not. Knew of no power I could then
resort to. Haight preached to the people not to furnish
the emigrants with supplies, after he first heard of the
emigrants’ coming, only three or four days before they
came. A year before, Haight preached to the people not to
supply any emigrants. Do not know that Indians had been
gathering to destroy that train; had they been so
gathering I must have known it. I did hear that Indians
were to go to the Meadows ahead and do the work. I never
knew why the emigrants were to be killed. Did not try to
rally the people to prevent the massacre; had no power to
do so; went as far as I could, and protested against it.
Why Klingen Smith Did Not Attempt to
Prevent the Massacre.
Did not try to prevent any man going
to the massacre. Had I undertaken that, it would have been
bad with me. I was afraid of both the Church and the
military authorities. If a man did not then walk up to
orders, it would not be well for him. I feared personal
violence; I feared I would be killed. I had power only on
small temporal issues. I had to obey Haight and his
council, composed of Higbee and the younger Morris. I had
my fears from my long knowledge of the discipline of the
Church. I think I know of one man being put out of the
way. I heard of others, and believed it. I heard of Rasmus
Anderson being put out of the way for adultery, and
believe it. I heard of three others being put away. I do
not know how Anderson was killed. I did not hear Lee’s
address to the men while formed in hollow square, as I was
at one side. I did say to the council on the field that if
the orders came from due authority we must go and carry
them out. Higbee said, as we went to the front, that two
emigrants had escaped from camp; that they had been
overtaken at Richard’s Springs; one had been killed and
the other wounded, and had again escaped. Did not say it
was necessary to exterminate the emigrants to prevent the
news going to California of the killing at Richard’s
Springs, and thus prevent the incursions of Californians
to take revenge. Heard those say who came for troops, that
during the first three days whites and Indians together
fought the emigrants. I was ten feet from an emigrant
wagon opposite me when I fired. Cannot say if I hit him.
Did so, probably. I obeyed orders. No motive of robbery
moved me. Had not heard it talked of as a motive.
Distribution of the Survivors of the
Massacre
Of the seventeen children saved, the
oldest was a boy of two or three years. I kept one of
them. Higbee got the oldest boy. Hamblin got the wounded
ones. Ingham got one. Do not remember who got the rest.
Did not talk to Brigham Young of the massacre. Told
Charles Dalton of it in Salt Lake. Had no right to speak
to Young, Cannon, or George Smith of it unless they asked
me. I first made public about the massacre three years
ago, at Bullionville, in an affidavit to Chas. Pioche. Was
out of the Mormon Church five years ago. Resigned as
Bishop in 1858-9. Never considered myself in full
fellowship after that. Am not now a Mormon, and never
expect to be again.
Lee’s Official Report of the Massacre
as Indian Farmer
One of the documents put in evidence
at the second trial of John D. Lee was his report as
farmer to the Pahute Indians to Brigham Young, then
Governor of Utah, in which illusion is made to the
massacre at Mountain Meadows. The report reads as follows:
Harmony, Washington Co., Utah
Territory,
November 20, 1857
To His Excellency, Governor B.
Young, ex-officio and Superintendent of Indian Affairs
Dear sir:
My report under date May 11, 1857,
relative to the Indians over whom I have charge as farmer
showed a friendly relation between them and the whites,
which doubtless would have continued to increase had not
the white man been the first aggressor, as was the case
with
Captain Fanchers' company of emigrants passing through
to California about the middle of September last, on Corn
Creek, fifteen miles south of Fillmore City, Millard
County. The company there poisoned the meat of an ox which
they gave the Pahute Indians to eat, causing four of them
to die immediately, besides poisoning a number more; the
company also poisoned the water where they encamped,
killing many of the cattle of the settlers. This unguided
policy, planned in wickedness by the company, raised the
ire of the Indians, which soon spread through the southern
tribes, firing them up with revenge till blood was in
their path, and as the breach, according to their
traditions, was a national one, consequently any portion
of that nation was l able to atone for that offense. About
the 22d of September Captain Fanchers and company fell
victims to their wrath near Mountain Meadows, their cattle
and horses shot down in every direction, their wagons and
property mostly committed to the flames; and had they been
the only ones that suffered, we would have less cause of
complaint. But the following company, of near the same
size, had some of their men shot down near Beaver city,
and had it not been for the interposition of the citizens
of that place the whole company would have been massacred
by the enraged Pahvants. From this place they were
protected by military force by order of Colonel W. H. Dame
through the Territory, besides providing the company with
interpreters to help them through to Los Vegas, on the
Muddy. Some 300 to 500 Indians attacked the company while
traveling and drove off several hundred head of cattle,
telling the company if they fired a single gun that they
would kill every soul…
JOHN D. LEE
CEDAR CITY (UTAH), March 23. John D.
Lee was shot at Mountain Meadows at 11 o'clock today. The
execution took place near the emigrants’ monument. A squad
of United States soldiers were stationed in the open
field, and Lee was placed before them. The troops numbered
six men, and at Lee's request he was placed near them.
LEE’S SPEECH ON THE EXECUTION GROUND
He made a short speech, in which he
expressed his confidence in the Mormon religion, as
revealed to Joseph Smith. He denounced Brigham Young in
severe terms; said he had never intentionally done a
wrong, and was prepared to die. His language was evasive
and contradictory of what he had previously said and
written. He died as he had lived, a religious fanatic. The
marshal, with the soldiers and Lee, district Attorney
Howard and Rev. Mr. Stokes, arrived at Mountain Meadows
about 8 o'clock Thursday evening. After eating, and
stationing guards, they all retired around a camp-fire
except Lee and Rev. Mr. Stokes. They slept together in a
wagon. Lee slept all night, and took a light meal this
morning.
DISPOSITION OF HIS PROPERTY AND
REMAINS.
He gave directions, as to disposing
of his property, to District-Attorney Howard, dividing it
about equally between three of his wives and their
children. He requested the Marshal to deliver his body to
his wife Rachel.
LEE’S BEHAVIOR: HIS CONFESSION
He also requested that he might be
shot at short range, and that they would aim at his heart.
He knelt down on his coffin, and was requested to remain
there while a photographer present, took a picture. Lee
called the artist to him, and requested that each of his
wives should be forwarded a copy. He made a full
confession, which he handed to District-Attorney Howard on
the field. He seemed to be collected, and showed no fear.
LEE’S EXECUTION: SHOT THROUGH THE
HEART
After his remarks, Rev. Mr. Stokes
offered a prayer, Lee kneeling on his coffin. The bandage
was then placed on his eyes. He sat on his coffin, took
off his coat and hat, handed them to the officer, held up
his hands and said he was ready. The Marshal gave the
word, and three shots went through his heart. He fell back
upon his coffin and died without a struggle. Quite a
number of spectators were present. The best of order
prevailed. The body was immediately placed in the coffin
and sent to his wife Rachael. During the last few days Lee
had some hopes of Executive interference, in response to a
petition recently presented by his children.
FURTHER PARTICULARS OF THE EXECUTION
(FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT)
CEDAR CITY, March 23 (Evening) The
execution of Lee occurred within about 200 yards of the
spot where twenty years ago he decoyed the emigrants out,
and about the same distance from the monument. About 100
persons witnessed the execution. United States Marshal
Nelson and posse arrived at the Meadows about 8 o'clock
last night from Beaver with three Government wagons
containing a squad of twenty-two soldiers from Camp
Cameron, and commanded by Lieutenant Patterson.
LEE’S MANNER: HIS BITTER DENUNCIATION
OF BRIGHAM YOUNG
On the first night out a march of
seventy miles was made, from Beaver to Leech’s, and came
into camp about three o’clock in the afternoon. Lee ate a
hearty breakfast, smoked, and rolled himself in his
blankets under a cedar tree and slept soundly until about
one o'clock. His manner was cool and collected, and he
either failed to realize or was indifferent to the
terrible fate so soon awaiting him. On the trip for the
first time he confessed to the slaying of five emigrants.
He spoke with great bitterness against Brigham Young, whom
he accused of leading the Mormons to destruction. This
morning about nine o’clock Lee was taken from camp in one
of the Government wagons, headed by Lieutenant Patterson
and his men, and the marching to the scene of execution
commenced. He slept well all last night, and his appetite
was in no wise diminished. He talked composedly, and acted
and talked with remarkable indifference.
LEE DESCRIBES THE SITUATION OF THE
IMMIGRANTS AT THE TIME OF THE MASSACRE
Arrived at the spot, he went to a
convenient place and explained the situation of the
emigrants when the massacre occurred. The picture
presented this morning was weird and strange beyond
description. The wagons, troops, etc., as seen from an
overlooking promontory going through the Meadows was a
scene not dissimilar to the one twenty years ago on the
same spot.
PREPARATIONS FOR THE EXECUTION
The wagons were placed together, and
behind these the six men selected to do the execution were
posted, armed with needle guns. Lee, in company with the
Rev. Mr. George Stokes, of Minnesota, Marshall Nelson, and
Mr. Howard, advanced. His step faltered a little as he
approached the coffin. He took off his overcoat, and as
coolly seated himself on the head of his coffin as though
he was taking a seat by a comfortable fire. The prisoner
was about twenty-five feet from the wagons, and sat facing
them.
LEE’S LAST MOMENTS
The Marshal, in a clear, steady
voice, read the death warrant, to which the condemned man
paid little attention. He asked to make a statement. He
spoke of the solemnity of the occasion, his willingness to
die, his innocence, of his being the best friend the
United States had, and of Brigham Young, whom he accused
of going back on one who had served him. But he stood firm
in the faith. He spoke of his family, and was from the
first affected to tears. All kneeling, and the prisoner by
his coffin, the Rev. Mr. Stokes offered a prayer. Lee
again seated himself and told the men at the wagons not to
mangle his legs, but to aim well for the heart. He said he
was not at all excited, and that he could give the word to
"fire" himself. The Marshal bandaged his eyes, but he
would not permit his hands to be tied, and clasped them
over his head. About the last thing, he told the boys to
aim well, and murmured something against Brigham Young.
HOW LEE DIED: RETRIBUTIVE JUSTICE
The Marshal then gave the command
"Make ready, take aim, fire!" and John D. Lee fell quietly
back on his own coffin, his feet resting on the ground,
and died without a struggle. Five balls went through the
region of his heart. He displayed the most extraordinary
courage, and met his fate either in the belief that he was
a martyr or a hero. In any event, he died with a fortitude
and resignation that made death easy. His crime was a
terrible one and after twenty years of waiting, the
fearful punishment of the law overtook him and was
consummated on the very spot where he plotted and executed
the destruction of one hundred and thirty men, women and
children. No member of his family was present. He has
fifty children alive. He requested that his body be sent
to Pangwitch, to his wife Rachel. His remains have just
reached Cedar. They will be sent to Pangwitch tomorrow.
The Mormon Menace: John Doyle Lee
(Also See: Last Confession
and Statement of John D. Lee)
Appended is the last confession of
John D. Lee. It was written by himself, without aid or
advise, and with the certainty of death staring him in the
face, having been penned by him subsequent to his second
trial and sentence to die. The document was originally
placed by Lee in the hands of United States District
Attorney Howard, in the Penitentiary at Salt Lake City,
last month, with the understanding that it should not be
published until after his death. The same statement was
repeated by Lee on the field at the scene of execution
yesterday. As a gentleman, Mr. Howard kept the faith
reposed in him, withholding its publication until the
prisoner had suffered the extreme penalty of the law.
Following is Lee’s confession:
Arrival of the Emigrant Train in Utah
In the month of September, 1857, the
company of emigrants known as the
"Arkansas Company"
arrived in Parowan, Iron County, Utah, on their way to
California. At Parowan young Aden,
one of the company, saw and recognized one William Laney,
a Mormon resident of Parowan. Aden and his father had
rescued Laney from an anti-Mormon mob in Tennessee several
years before, and saved his life. He (Laney), at the time
he was attacked by the mob, was a Mormon missionary in
Tennessee. Laney was glad to see his friend and
benefactor, and invited him to his house and gave him some
garden sauce to take back to the camp with him.
Bishop Dame Crooks His Little Finger:
What Came of It
The same evening it was reported to
Bishop Dame that Laney had given potatoes and onions to
the man Aden, one of the emigrants.
When the report was made to Bishop Dame he raised his hand
and crooked his little finder in a significant manner to
one Barney Carter, his brother-in-law, and one of the
"Angels of Death." Carter, without another word, walked
out, went to Laney’s house with a long picket in his hand,
called Laney out and struck him a heavy blow on the head,
fracturing his skull, and left him on the ground for dead.
Jacob Weeks and Isaac Newman, President of the High
Council, both told me that they saw Dame’s manoeuvres.
James McGuffee, then a resident of Parowan but through
oppression has been forced to leave there, and is now a
merchant in Pahranagat Valley, near Pioche, Nevada knows
these facts.
Brigham’s Right-Hand Man Paving The
Way for the Massacre.
About the last of August, 1857, some
ten days before the Mountain Meadows massacre, the company
of emigrants passed through Cedar City. George A. Smith
then First Cousellor (sic) in the Church and Brigham
Young’s right-hand man came down from Salt Lake City,
preaching to the different settlements. I, at that time
was in Washington County, near where St. George now
stands. He sent for me. I went to him, and he asked me to
take him to Cedar City by way of Fort Clara and Pinto
settlements, as he was on business and must visit all the
settlements. We started on our way up through the cañon.
We saw bands of Indians, and he (George A. Smith) remarked
to me that these Indians, with the advantage they had of
the rocks, could use up a large company of emigrants, or
make it very hot for them. After pausing for a short time
he said to me, "Brother Lee, what do you think the
brethren would do if a company of emigrants should come
down through here making threats? Don’t you think they
would pitch into them?" I replied that "they certainly
would." This seemed to please him, and he again said to
me, "And you really think the brethren would pitch into
them?" "I certainly do," was my reply, "and you had better
instruct Colonel Dame and Haight to tend to it that the
emigrants are permitted to pass if you want them to pass
unmolested." He continued: "I asked Isaac (meaning Haight)
the same question, and he answered me just as you do, and
I expect the boys would pitch into them." I again said to
him that he had better say to Governor Young that if he
wants emigrant companies to pass without molestation that
he must instruct Colonel Dame or Major Haight to that
effect, for if they are not ordered otherwise, they will
use them up by the help of the Indians.
The Decree Issued Not to Sell Any
Grain to the Emigrants
He told the people at the Clara not
to sell their grain to the emigrants nor to feed it to
their animals, as they might expect a big fight the next
Spring with the United States. President Young did not
intend to let the troops into the Territory. He said, "We
are going to stand up for our rights and will no longer be
imposed upon by our enemies, and want every man to be on
hand with his gun in good order and his powder dry," and
instructed the people to part with nothing that would
sustain life.
Lee’s Interview with President Haight
From the 1st to the 10th of
September, 1857, a messenger came to me "his name was Sam
Wood" and told me that President Isaac C. Haight wanted me
to be at Cedar City that evening without fail. This was
Saturday. He told me that a large company of emigrants had
gone south. I then lived at Harmony, twenty miles south of
Cedar City. I obeyed the summons. President Haight met me.
It was near sundown. We spent the night in an open house
on some blankets where we talked most all night. He told
me that a company of emigrants had passed through some two
days before, threatening the Mormons with destruction, and
that one of them had said he had helped to kill old Joe
Smith and his brother Hyram; that other members of the
company of emigrants had helped drive the Mormons out of
Missouri; that others had said they had come to help
Johnston's army clean the Mormons out of Utah; that they
had the halters ready to hang old Brigham and Heber, and
would have them strung up before the snow flew; that one
of the emigrants called one of his oxen (a pair a stags)
"Brig" and the other "Heber," and that several of the
emigrants had used all kinds of threats and profanity.
John M. Higbee, the City Marshal, and (sic) informed them
that it was a breach of the city ordinance to use profane
language, whereupon one of them replied that he did not
care a damn for Mormon laws, or the Mormons either; that
they had fought their way through the Indians and would do
it through the damn Mormons; and if their God, old
Brigham, and his priests would not sell their provisions,
by God they would take what they wanted any way they could
get it; that thus raging, one of them let loose his long
whip and killed two chickens, and threw them into his
wagon; that the widow Evans said, "Gentlemen, those are my
chickens; please don't kill them. I am a poor widow." That
they ordered her to "shut up," or they would blow her
brains out, etc.; that they had been raising trouble with
all the settlements and Indians on their way; that we were
threatened on the north by Johnston’s army, and now our
safety depended on prompt and immediate action; that a
company of Indians had already gone south from Parowan and
Cedar City to surprise the emigrants, who were then at the
Mountain Meadows, and he wanted me to return home in the
morning (Sunday) and send Carl Shurtz (Indian interpreter)
from my home (Harmony) to raise the Indians south, at
Harmony, Washington and Santa Clara, to join the Indians
from the north and make the attack upon the emigrants at
the Meadows. I said to him, "Would it not be well to hold
a council of the brethren before making a move?" He
replied that "every true Latter Day Saint that regarded
their covenants knew well their duty, and that the company
of emigrants had forfeited their lives by their acts." and
that bishop P. K. Smith and Joel White had already gone by
way of Pinto, to raise the Indians in that direction, and
those that have gone from Parowan and here will make the
attack, and may be repulsed. "We can’t now delay for a
council of the brethren. Return immediately and start Carl
Shurtz; tell him that I ordered you to tell him to go, and
I want you to try and get there before the attack is made,
and make the plan for the Indians, and I will call a
council to-day to talk the matter over and will send Nephi
Johnson, the interpreter, to the Meadows as soon as he can
be got, to help Carl Shurtz manage the Indians."
Lee Starts on His Mission
I did just as I was ordered. The
Indians from the north and about Harmony had already
started for the Meadows before I reached home. Shurtz
started immediately to do his part. I arrived at home in
the night and remained till morning. I thought over the
matter, and the more I thought the more my feelings
revolted against such a horrid deed. Sleep had fled from
me. I talked to my wife Rachel about it. She felt as I did
about it, and advised me to let them do their own dirty
work, and said if things did not go just to suit them, the
blame would be laid on me. She never believed in blood
atonement, and said it was from the devil, and that she
would rather break such a covenant if she had to die for
so doing than to live and be guilty of doing such an act.
I finally concluded that I would go; that I would start by
daybreak in the morning and try to get there before an
attack was made on the company, and use my influence with
the Indians to let them alone. I crossed the mountains by
a trail and reached the Meadows between nine and ten in
the morning, the distance from my place being about twenty
five miles.
The Emigrants Attacked
But I was too late. The attack had
been made just before daybreak in the morning, and the
Indians repulsed with one killed and two of the chiefs
from Cedar shot through the legs, breaking a leg for each
of them. The Indians were in a terrible rage. I went to
some of them that were in a ravine. They told me to go to
the main body or they would kill me for not coming before
the attack was made. While I was standing there I received
a shot just above my belt cutting through my clothes to
the skin some six inches across. The Indians with whom I
was talking lived with me at Harmony. I was Indian farmer.
They told me I was in danger and to get down into the
ravine. I said that it was impossible for me to do
anything there, and I dare not venture to the camp or to
the emigrants without endangering myself. I mounted my
horse and started south to meet Carl Shurtz. I traveled
sixteen miles and stopped on the Megotsy to bait my
animal, as there was good grass and water. I had rode it
over forty miles without eating or drinking. This is the
place where Mr. Tobin met his assassinators. About sunset
I saw Shurtz and some ten or fifteen white men, and about
one hundred and fifty Indians. We camped. During the night
the Indians left for the Meadows. I reported to the men
what had taken place.
They attacked the emigrants again
about sunrise the next morning, which was Tuesday, and had
one of their number killed and several wounded ,
with the white men, reached the Meadows about one o'clock
p.m. On the way we met a small band of Indians returning
with some eighteen or twenty head of cattle. One of the
Indians was wounded in the shoulder. They told me that the
Indians were encamped east of the emigrants at some
springs. On our arrival at the springs we found about two
hundred Indians, among whom were the two wounded chiefs,
Moqueetus and Bill. The Indians were in a high state of
excitement; had killed many cattle and horses belonging to
the company. I counted sixty head near their encampment
that they had killed in revenge for the wounding of their
men. By the assistance of Oscar Hamblin and Shurtz we
succeeded in getting the Indians to desist from killing
any more stock that night.
The Emigrants Corral: Lee Pleads with
the Indians
The company of emigrants had
corralled all their wagons but one for better defense.
This corral was about one hundred yards above the springs.
This they did to get away from the ravine south, the
better to defend themselves. The attacks were made from
the south ravine and from the rocks on the west. The
attack was renewed that night by the Indians, in spite of
all we could do to prevent it. When the attack commenced
Oscar Hamblin, William Young and myself started to go to
the Indians. When opposite the corral on the north, the
bullets came around us like a shower of hail. We had two
Indians with us to pilot us; they threw themselves flat on
the ground to protect themselves from the bullets. I stood
erect and asked my Father in Heaven to protect me from the
missiles of death and enable me to reach the Indians. One
ball passed through my hat and the hair of my head, and
another through my shirt, grazing my arm near the
shoulder. A most hideous yell of the Indians commenced.
The cries and shrieks of the women and children so
overcame me that I forgot my danger and rushed through the
fire to the Indians, and pleaded with them in tears to
desist. I told them that the Great Spirit would be angry
with them for killing women and little children. They told
me to leave or they would serve me the same way; that I
was not their friend, but a friend to their enemies; that
I was a squaw, and did not have the heart of a brave, and
that I could not see bloodshed, without crying like a
baby, and call me Cry-baby, and by that name I was known
by all the Indians to this day. I owe my life on that
occasion to Oscar Hamblin, who was a missionary with the
Indians, and had much influence with the Santa Clara
Indians. They were the ones that wanted to kill me.
Hamblin shamed them and called them dogs and wolves for
wanting to shed the blood of their father (myself), who
had fed and clothed them.
A Temporary Truce
We finally prevailed upon them to
return to camp, where we would hold a council; that I
would send for big captains to come and talk. We told them
they had punished the emigrants enough, and may be they
had killed nearly all of them. We told them that Bishop
Dame and President Haight would come; and may be they
would give them part of the cattle and let the company go
with the teams. In this way we reconciled them to suspend
hostilities for the present. The two that had been with
Hamblin and myself the night before said they had seen two
men on horseback come out of the emigrants’ camp under
full speed, and that they went toward Cedar City.
Wednesday morning I asked a man I think his name was
Edwards to go to Cedar City and say to President Haight,
for God’s sake, for my sake and for the sake of suffering
humanity, to send out men to rescue that company. This day
we all lay still, waiting orders. Occasionally a few of
the Indians withdrew, taking a few head of animals
Josiah Rogerson heard "from
the lips of Bill Carter", that Dame "knew everything that
went on at the Meadows every day before the finishing of
that massacre." Carter told of carrying the messages back
and forth.
Lee Reconnoiters (sic) The Wagon Fort
About noon I crossed the valley
north of the corral, thinking to examine their location
from the west range. The company recognized me as a white
man and sent two little boys about 4 years old to meet me.
I hid from them, fearing the Indians, who discovered the
children. I called the Indians, who wanted my gun or
ammunition to kill them. I prevailed with them to let the
children go back into camp, which they very soon did when
they saw the Indians. I crept up behind some rock, on the
west range, where I had a full view of the corral. In it
they had dug a rifle-pit. The wheels of their wagons were
chained together, and the only show for the Indians was to
starve them out, or shoot them as they went for water. I
lay there some two hours, and contemplated their
situation, and wept like a child. When I returned to camp
some six or eight men had come from Cedar City. Joel
White, William C. Stewart and Elliot C. Weldon were among
the number, but they had no orders. They had come merely
to see how things were. The Meadows are about fifty miles
(sic) from Cedar City. Thursday afternoon the messenger
from Cedar City returned.
He said that President Haight had gone to Parowan to
confer with Colonel Dame, and a company of men and orders
would be sent to-morrow; that up to the time he left the
council had come to no definite conclusion. During this
time the Indians and men were engaged in broiling beef and
making their hides up into lassoes. I had flattered myself
that bloodshed was at an end. After the emigrants saw me
cross the valley, they hoisted a white flag in the midst
of their corral.
Arrival of Morman [sic]
Reinforcements: The Decree of Extermination Goes Forth
from the Mormon Council
Friday afternoon four wagons drove
up with armed men. When they saw the white flag in the
corral they raised one also, but drove to the springs
where we were and took refreshments, after which a council
meeting was called of Presidents, Bishops, and other
Church officers and members of the High Council,
Societies, High Priests, etc. Major John M. Higbee
presided as Chairman. Several of the dignitaries bowed in
prayer invoked the aid of the Holy Spirit to prepare their
minds and guide them to do right and carry out the counsel
of their leaders.
Higbee said that President J. (sic)
C. Haight had been to Parowan to confer with Colonel Dame,
and their counsel and orders were that "This emigrant camp
must be used up." I replied, "Men, women and children?"
"All," said he, "except such as are too young to tell
tales, and if the Indians cannot do it without help, we
must help them." I commenced pleading for the company, and
I said though some of them have behaved badly, they have
been pretty well chastised. My policy would be to draw off
the Indians, let them have a portion of the loose cattle,
and withdraw with them under promise that they would not
molest the company any more; that the company would then
have teams enough left to take them to California. I told
them that this course could not bring them into trouble.
Fate of the Emigrant Messengers
Higbee said, "White men have
interposed and the emigrants know it, and there lies the
danger in letting them go." I said, "What white man
interfered?" He replied that in the attack on Tuesday
night two men broke out of the corral and started for
Cedar City on horseback; that they were met at Richey’s
Spring by Stewart, Joel White and another man, whose name
has passed from me. Stewart asked the two men their names
when they met them at the spring, and being told in reply
by one of the men that his name was
Aden, and that the other man was a Dutchman from the
emigrants company, Stewart shoved a pistol to Aden’s
breast and killed him, say, "Take that, damn you." The
other man, the Dutchman, wheeled to leave as Joel White
fired and wounded him. I asked him how he knew the wounded
Dutchman got back to the emigrants’ camp. He said because
he was tracked back, and they knew he was there. I again
said that it was better to deliver the man to them and let
them do anything they wished with him, and tell them that
we did not approve of such things.
Lee Reproved for Trying to Dictate to
the Priesthood
Ira Allen, High Counselor, and
Robert Wiley and others spoke, reproving me sharply for
trying to dictate to the priesthood; that it would set at
naught all authority; that he would not give the life of
one of our brethren for a thousand such persons. "If we
let them go," he continued, "they will raise hell in
California, and the result will be that our wives and
children will have to be butchered and ourselves too, and
they are no better to die than ours; and I am surprised to
hear Brother Lee talk as he does, as he has always been
considered one of the staunchest in the Church, now is the
first to shirk from his duty." I said, "Brethren, the Lord
must harden my heart before I can do such a thing." Allen
said it is not wicked to obey counsel. At this juncture I
withdrew walked off some fifty paces and prostrated myself
on the ground and wept in the bitterest anguish of my
soul, and asked the Lord to avert the evil. While in that
situation Counselor C. Hopkins, a near friend of mine,
came to me and said; "Brother Lee, come get up and don’t
draw off from the priesthood. You ought not to do so. You
are only endangering your own life by standing out. You
can’t help it; if this is wrong, the blame won’t rest on
you." I said, "Charley, this is the worst move this people
ever made. I feel it." He said, "Come, go back, and let
them have their way." I went back, weeping like a child,
and took my place and tried to be silent, and was until
Higbee said they (the emigrants) must be decoyed out
through pretended friendship. I could no longer hold my
peace, and said I, "Joseph Smith said that God hated a
traitor, and so do I. Before I would be a traitor I would
rather take ten men and go to that camp and tell them that
they must die and how to defend themselves, and give them
a show for their lives; that would be more honorable than
to betray them like Judas." Here I got other reproof, and
was ordered to hold my peace.
The Flag of Truce Decoy
The plan agreed upon there was to
meet them with a flag of truce, tell them that the Indians
were determined on their destruction; that we dare not
oppose the Indians, for we were at their mercy; that the
best we could do for them (the emigrants) was to get them
and what few traps we could take in the wagons, to lay
their arms in the bottom of the wagon and cover them up
with bed clothes and start for the settlement as soon as
possible, and to trust themselves in our hands. The small
children and wounded were to go with the two wagons, the
women to follow the wagons and the men next, the troops to
stand in readiness on the east side of the road ready to
receive them. Shurtz and Nephi Johnson were to conceal the
Indians in the brush and rocks till the company was strung
out on the road to a certain point, and at the watchword,
"Halt! do your duty," each man was to cover his victim and
fire. Johnson and Shurtz were to rally the Indians and
rush upon and dispatch the women and larger children.
Celestial Rewards for the Faithful
It was further told the men that
President Haight that those who assisted in following our
instructions would receive a celestial reward. I said I
was willing to put up with a less reward, if I could be
excused. "How can you do this without shedding innocent
blood?" Here I got another lampooning for my stubbornness
and disobedience to the priesthood. I was told that there
was not a drop of innocent blood in the whole company of
emigrants; also referred to the Gentile nation who refused
the children of Israel passage through their country when
Moses led them out of Egypt that the Lord held that crime
against them, and when Israel waxed strong the Lord
commanded Joshua to slay the whole nation, men, women and
children. "Have not these people done worse than that to
us? Have they not threatened to murder our leaders and
Prophet, and have they not boasted of murdering our
Patriarchs and Prophets, Joseph and Hyrum? Now talk about
shedding innocent blood." They said I was a good, liberal,
free hearted man, but too much of this sympathy would be
always in the way; that every man now had to show his
colors; that it was not safe to have a Judas in camp. Then
it was proposed that every man express himself; that if
there was a man who would not keep a close mouth they
wanted to know it then. This gave me to understand what I
might expect if I continued to oppose. Major Higbee said,
"Brother Lee is right. Let him take an expression of the
people." I knew I dare not refuse, so I had every man
speak and express himself. All said they were willing to
carry out the counsel of their leaders; that the leaders
had the Spirit of God and knew better what was right then
they did.
Lee Reluctantly Gives His Consent
They then wanted to know my
feelings. I replied, "I have already expressed them."
Every eye was upon me, as I paused; but, said I, "You can
do as you please, I will not oppose you any longer." "Will
you keep a close mouth?" was the question. "I will try,"
was my answer. I will here say that the fear of offending
Brigham Young and George A. Smith had saved my life. I was
near being "blood-atoned" in Parowan, under J. C. L.
Smith, in 1854, but of this I have spoken in my
autobiography.
Saturday morning all was ready, and
every man assigned to his post of duty. During the night,
or rather just before daylight, Johnson and Shurtz
ambushed [hid] their Indians, the better to deceive the
emigrants. About 11 o’clock a.m. the troops, under Major
Higbee, took their position on the road. The white flag
was still kept up in the corral. Higbee called William
Bateman out of the ranks to take a flag of truce to the
corral. He was met about half way with another white flag
from the emigrants’ camp. They had a talk.
The Mormon Treachery
The emigrant was told we had come to
rescue them if they were willing to trust us. Both men
with flags returned to their respective places and
reported, and were to meet again and bring word. Higbee
called me out to go and inform them the conditions, and,
if accepted, Dan McFarland, brother to John McFarland,
lawyer, who acted as aide-de-camp, would bring back word,
and then two wagons would be sent for the firearms,
children, clothing, etc. I obeyed, and the terms proposed
were accepted, but not without distrust. I had as little
to say as possible, in fact, my tongue refused to perform
its office. I sat down on the ground in the corral, near
where some young men were engaged in paying the last
respects to some person who had just died of a wound. A
large, fleshy old lady came to me twice and talked while I
sat there. She related their troubles , said that seven of
their number were killed and forty-six wounded on the
first attack; that several had died since. She asked me if
I was an Indian Agent. I said, "In one sense I am, as
Government has appointed me Farmer to the Indians." I told
her this to satisfy her. I heard afterward that the same
question was asked and answered in the same manner by
McFarland, who had been sent by Higbee to the corral, to
hurry me up for fear that the Indians would come back and
be upon them.
The Emigrants Abandon Their
Stronghold
When all was ready, Samuel McMurdy,
Counsellor to Bishop P. K. Smith, drove out on the lead.
His wagon had the seventeen children, clothing and arms.
Samuel Knight drove the other team, with five wounded men
and one boy about 15 years old. I walked behind the front
wagon to direct the course, and to shun being in the heat
of the slaughter but this I kept to myself. When we got
turned fairly to the east I motioned to McMurdy to steer
north, across the valley. I at the same time told the
women, who were next to the wagon, to follow the road up
to the troops, which they did. Instead of my saying to
McMurdy not to drive so fast as he swore on my trial I
said to the contrary, to drive on, as my aim was to get
out of sight before the firing commenced, which we did.
The Massacre : Revolting Scenes
We were about half a mile ahead of
the company when we heard the first firing. We had drove
over a ridge of rolling ground, and down on a low flat.
The firing was simultaneous along the whole line. The
moment the firing commenced McMurdy halted and tied his
lines across the rod of his wagon-box, stepped down coolly
with a double-barrelled shotgun, walked back to Knight’s
wagon who had the wounded men, and was about twenty feet
in the rear. As he raised his piece he said, "Lord, my
God, receive their spirits, for it is for the Kingdom of
Heaven’s sake that we do this," fired and killed two men.
Samuel Knight has a muzzle-loaded rifle, and he shot and
killed the three men, then struck the wounded boy on the
head, who fell dead. In the meantime I drew a five shooter
from my belt, which accidentally went off, cutting across
McMurdy’s buckskin pants in front, below the crotch.
McMurdy said, "Brother Lee, you are excited; take things
cool; you was near killing me. Look where the ball cut,"
pointing to the place on his pants.
Children Snatched from the Jaws of
Death
At this moment I heard the scream of
a child. I looked up and saw an Indian have a little boy
by the hair of his head, dragging him out of the hind end
of the wagon, with a knife in his hand getting ready to
cut his throat. I sprang for the Indian, with my revolver
in hand and shouted to the top of my voice, "Arick, ooma,
cot too sooet" (stop, you fool). The child was terror
stricken. His chin was bleeding. I supposed it was the cut
of a knife, but afterward learned that it was done on the
wagon box as the Indian yanked the boy down by the hair of
the head. I had no sooner rescued this child, than another
Indian seized a little girl by the hair. I rescued her as
soon as I could speak; I told the Indians that they must
not hurt the children; that I would die before they should
be hurt; that we would buy the children off them. Before
this time the Indians had rushed up around the wagon in
quest of blood, and dispatched the two runaway wounded
men.
Lee’s Demoralization: The Dead
In justice to my statement, I would
say that if my shooter had not prematurely exploded I
would have had a hand in dispatching the five wounded. I
had lost control of myself, and scarce knew what I was
about. I saw an Indian pursue a little girl, who was
fleeing. He caught her about one hundred feet from the
wagon, and plunged his knife through her. I said to
McMurdy that he had better drive the children to Hamblin’s
ranch and give them some nourishment, while I would go
down and get my horse at the camp. Passing along the road
I saw the dead strung along the distance of
about half a mile.
The women and children were killed by the Indians.
I saw Shurtz
with the Indians, and no other white man with them. When I
came to the men they lay about a rod apart. Here I came up
with Higbee, Bishop Smith and the rest of the company. As
I came up, Higbee said to me, let us search these persons
for valuables, and asked me to assist him. Gave me a hat
to hold. Several men were already engaged in searching the
bodies. I replied that I was unwell, and wanted to get
upon my horse and go to the ranch and nurse myself. My
request was granted.
Quarrel Between Dame and Haight
Reaching Hamblin’s ranch being
heart-sick and worn out, I lay down on my saddle blanket
and slept, and knew but little of what passed through the
night. About daybreak in the morning I heard the voices of
Colonel Dame and Isaac C. Haight. I heard some very angry
words pass between them, which drew my attention. Dame
said that he would have to report the destruction of the
emigrant camp and the company. Haight said, "How as an
Indian massacre?" Dame said he did not know so well about
that. This reply seemed to irritate Haight, who spoke
quite loudly saying, "How the hell can you report it any
other way without implicating yourself?" At this Dame
lowered his voice almost to a whisper, I could not
understand what he said, and the conversation stopped.
The Survivors of the Massacre
(MMA Note: None of this section, regarding the Fancher
children, is true.)
I got up, saw the children, and
among the others the boy who was pulled by the hair of his
head out of the wagon by the Indian and saved by me. That
boy I took home and kept home until Dr. Forney, Government
Agent, came to gather up the children and take them East.
He took the boy with the others. That boy’s name was Wm.
Fancher. His father was Captain of the train. He was taken
East and adopted by a man in Nebraska, named Richard
Sloan. He remained East several years, and then returned
to Utah, and is now a convict in the Utah penitentiary,
having been convicted the past year for the crime of
highway robbery. He is now known by the name of "Idaho
Bill," but his true name is William Fancher.
His little sister was also taken
East, and is now the wife of a man working for the Union
Pacific Railroad Company, near Green River. The boy (now
man) has yet got the scar on his chin caused by the cut on
the wagon-box, and those who are curious enough to examine
will find a large scar on the ball of his left foot,
caused by a deep cut made with an axe while he was with
me.
Burying
the Slain: Condition of the Bodies
I got breakfast that morning, then
all hands returned to the scene of the slaughter to bury
the dead. The bodies were all in a nude state. The Indians
through the night had stripped them of every vestige of
clothing. Many of the parties were laughing and talking as
they carried the bodies to the ravine for burial. They
were just covered over a little, but did not long remain
so, for the wolves dug them up, and, after eating the
flesh from them, the bones laid upon the ground until
buried some time after by a government military officer.
Dame Terror-Stricken
At the time of burying the bodies
Dame and Haight got into another quarrel. Dame seemed
terror-stricken, and again said he would have to publish
it. They were about two paces from me. Dame spoke low, as
if careful to avoid being heard. Haight spoke loud, and
said: "You know that you counselled it, and ordered me to
have them used up." Dame said: "I did not think that there
were so many women and children. I thought they were
nearly all killed by the Indians." Haight said: "It is too
late in the day for you to back water. You know you
ordered and counselled it, and now you want to back out."
Dame said: "Have you the papers for that?" or, "Show the
papers for that." This enraged Haight to the highest
pitch, and Dame walked off. Haight said: "You throw the
blame of this thing on me and I will be revenged on you,
if I have to meet you in hell to get it." From this place
we rode to the wagons. We found them stripped of their
covers and every particle of clothing, even the feather
beds had been ripped open and the contents turned out upon
the ground, looking for plunder. I crossed the mountains
by Indian trail, taking my little Indian boy with me on my
horse. The gathering up of the property and cattle was
left in the charge of Bishop
P. K. Smith. The testimony
of Smith in regard to the property and the disposition
that was made of it was very nearly correct. I must not
forget to state that after the attack a messenger by the
name of James Haslem was sent with a dispatch to President
Brigham Young, asking his advice about interfering with
the company, but he did not return in time. This I had no
knowledge of until the massacre was committed.
Lee’s Report of the Massacre to
Brigham Young
Some two weeks after the deed was
done, Isaac C. Haight sent me to report to Governor Young
in person. I asked him why he did not send a written
report. He replied that I could tell him more
satisfactorily than he could write, and if I would stand
up and shoulder as much of the responsibility as I could
conveniently, that it would be a feather in my cap some
day, and that I would get a celestial salvation, but the
man that shrunk from it now would go to hell. I went and
did as I was commanded. Brigham asked me if Isaac C.
Haight had written a letter to him. I replied not by me;
but I said he wished me to report in person. "All right,"
said Brigham. "Were you an eye-witness?" "To the most of
it," was my reply. Then I proceeded, and gave him a full
history of all, except that of my opposition. That, I left
out entirely. I told him of the killing of the women and
children, and the betraying of the company; that, I told
him, I was opposed to; but I did not say to him to what
extent I was opposed to it, only that I was opposed to
shedding innocent blood. "Why," said he, "you differ from
Isaac, for he said there was not a drop of innocent
blood in the whole company."
When I was through he said that it
was awful; that he cared nothing about the men, but the
women and children was what troubled him. I said,
"President Young, you should either release men from their
obligation, or sustain them when they do what they have
entered into the most sacred obligation to do." He
replied, "I will think over the matter and make it a
subject of prayer, and you may come back in the morning
and see me." I did so. He said, "John, I feel first rate.
I asked the Lord if it was all right for the deed to be
done, to take away the vision of the deed from my mind,
and the Lord did so, and I feel first rate. It is all
right. The only fear I have is of traitors." He told me
never to lisp it to any mortal being, not even to Brother
Heber. President Young has always treated me with the
friendship of a father since, and has sealed several women
to me since, and has made my home his home when in that
part of the Territory until danger has threatened him.
This is a true statement according to my best
recollection.
(Signed:) John D. Lee
Lee’s Autobiography and Its Startling
Revelations
This statement I have made for
publication after my death, and have agreed with a friend
to have the same, with very many facts pertaining to other
matters connected with the crimes of the Mormon people
under the leadership of the priesthood, from a period
before the butchery of the Nauvoo to the present time,
published for the benefit of my family, and that the world
may know the black deeds that have marked the way of the
Saints from the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter Day Saints, to the period when a weak and too
pliable tool lays down his pen to face the executioners'
guns for deed which he is not more guilty than others who
to-day are wearing the garments of the priesthood and
living upon the "tithing" of a deluded and priest-ridden
people. My autobiography, if published, will open the eyes
of the world to the monstrous deeds of the leaders of the
Mormon people, and will also place in the hands of the
attorney for the Government the particulars of some of the
most blood-curdling crimes that have been committed in
Utah, which, if properly followed up, will bring many down
from their high place in the Church to face offended
justice upon the gallows. So note it be.
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