UTAH AND THE MORMONS. 
 
 SPEEC 
 
 HON. JOHN CRADLEBAUGH, 
 
 OF NKVADA, 
 
 ON THE 
 
 ADMISSION OP UTAH AS A STATE. 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, FEBRUARY 7, 
 
 826 
 
 f* O Q U TONVKIiS A CO., 1MMNTERS. 
 
 WASHINGTON: 
 

UTAH: A.;NT> THE 
 
 ' SPEECH 
 
 OF 
 
 HOE JOHN CRADLEBAUGH, 
 
 OF NEVADA, 
 
 ADMISSION OF UTAH AS A STATE. 
 
 
 DELIVEEED IN THE HOUSE OP EEPEESENTATIVES, FEBEUAEY 7, 1,863. 
 
 Mr. CHAIRMAN : Having resided for some time among the Mormons, 
 become acquainted with their eclesiastical polity, their habits and 
 their crimes, I feel that I would not be discharging my duty, if I 
 failed to impart such information as I have acquired, in regard to this 
 people in our midst who are building up, consolidating and daringly 
 carrying out a system, subversive of the Constitution and laws, and 
 fatal to morals and true religion. 
 
 The remoteness of Utah from the settled regions of our country, 
 and the absence of any general intercourse between the Mormons and 
 the masses of our people have served to keep the latter in almost com- 
 plete ignorance of the character and designs of the former. That 
 ignorance, pardonable at first, becomes criminal when the avenues to 
 a full knowledge are open to us. 
 
 Mormonism is one of the monstrosities of the age in which we live. 
 It seems to have been left for the model republic of the w'orld, for the 
 nineteenth century, when the light of knowledge is more generally 
 diffused than ever before, when in art : science and philosophy, we have 
 surpassed all that ages of the past-can show, to produce an idle, worth- 
 less vagabond of an impostor, wbo heralds forth a creed repulsive to every 
 refined mind, opposed to every generous impulse of the human heart, 
 and a faith which commands a violation of the rights of hospitality ; 
 sanctifies falsehood ; enforces the systematic degredation of woman ; 
 not only permits, but orders, the commission of the vilest lusts, in the 
 name of the Almighty God himself, and teaches that it is a sacred 
 duty to commit the crimes of theft and murder. It is surprising that 
 such faith taught, too, in the coarsest and most vulgar way, should 
 meet with any success. Yet, in less than a third of a century, it girdles 
 the globe. Its Missionaries are planted in every place. You find 
 them all over Europe, thick through England and Wales, traversing 
 
2 
 
 Asia and Africa, and braving the billows of the southern oceans to seek 
 proselytes. And, as if to crown its achievements, it establishes itself 
 in the heart of one of the greatest and most powerful governments of 
 the world ; establishes therein a theocratic government overriding all 
 other government ; putting the laws at defiance, and now seeks to 
 consummate and perpetuate itself by acquiring a state sovereignty and 
 by being placed on an equality with the other States of the Union. 
 
 Mormonism is in part a conglomeration of illy cemented creeds from 
 other religions and in part founded upon the excentric production of 
 one, Spaulding, who, having failed as a preacher and shopkeeper, 
 undertook to write a historical novel. He had a smattering of Bibli- 
 cal knowledge, and chose, for his subject, "the history of the lost tribes 
 of Israel." The whole was supposed to be communicated by the 
 Indians, and the last of the series was named, Mormon, representing 
 that he had buried the book. It was a dull, tedious, interminable 
 volume, marked by ignorance and folly. The work was so flat, stupid 
 and insipid that no publisher could be induced to bring it before the 
 world. Poor Spaulding at length went to his grave, and the manu- 
 .script remained a neglected roll in the ppssession of his widow. 
 
 Then arose Joe Smith, more ready to live by his wits than the labor 
 of his hands. Smith had, early in life, manifested a turn for pious 
 frauds. He had figured in several wrestling matches with the devil, 
 and had been conspicuous in giving in eventful experiences in religion 
 ,at certain revivals. He announced that he had dug up the book of 
 Mormon which taught the true religion 5 this was none other than 
 poor Spauldings manuscript which he had purloined from the widow. 
 In his hands, the manuscript become the basis of Mormonism. Joe 
 became a prophet ; the founder of a religious sect ; the president of 
 a swindling bank ; the builder of the city of jSTauvoo ; Mayor of the 
 city ; General of the armies of Israel ; candidate for President of the 
 United States, and, finally, a Martyr, as the saints choose to call him. 
 But the truth is that his villainies, together with the villainies of his 
 followers, brought down upon him the just vengeance of the people 
 of Illinois and Missouri, a-nd his career was brought to an end by his 
 being shot while confined in jail, in Carthage. It was unfortu- 
 nate that such was his end, for his followers raised the old cry of 
 Martyrdom and persecution, and, as has always proved, " the blood of 
 the martyr was the seejd of the church." 
 
 Mormonism repudiates the celibacy imposed by the Catholic reli- 
 gion upon its priesthood, and takes in its stead the voluptuous impo- 
 sitions of the Mahomedan church. It preaches openly that the more 
 wives and children its men have in this world, the purer, more influ- 
 ential, and conspicuous will they be in the next; that wives, children, 
 
and property will not only be restored, but doubled in the resurrec- 
 tion. It adopts the use of prayers for the dead and baptism as a part 
 of its creed. Mormons claim to be favored with marvelous gifts the 
 power of speaking in tongues, of casting out devils, of curing the sick, 
 and of healing the lame and the halt they claim that they have a 
 living prophet, seer, and revelator who holds the keys of the kingdom 
 of Heaven, and' through whose intercession alone access can be h&d. 
 They recognise the Bible, but they interpret it for themselves, and 
 hold that it is subject to be changed by new revelation, which (they 
 say) supersedes old revelation. One of their doctrines is that of con- 
 tinued progression to ultimate perfection. They say God was but a 
 man, who went on developing and increasing until he reached his 
 present high capacity ; and they teach that Mormons will be equal to 
 him in a word, that good Mormons will become Gods. They teach 
 the shedding of blood >for the remission of sins, or, in other words, that 
 if a Mormon apostatizes, his throat shall be cut, and his blood poured 
 out upon the ground for the remission of his sin. They also practice 
 other revolting doctrines, such as are only carried out in polygamous 
 countries, which is evidenced by a number of mutilated persons in 
 their midst. They hold that the prophet's revelations are binding 
 upon their consciences, and that they are bound to obey him in all 
 things. They say that the earth and the fullness thereof is the Lord's ; 
 that they are God's chosen people on earth; that their mission -on 
 earth is to take, charge of God's property, and, as faithful stewards, 
 that it is their duty to obtain it, and are taught that, in obtaining it, 
 they must not get in debt to the Lord's enemies for it : in other 
 words, they teach that it is a duty to rob and steal from Gentiles. 
 
 They have christened themselves a The Church of Jesus Chris! of 
 Latter Day Saints." They claim that Mormonism is to go on spread- 
 ing until it overthrows all the nations of the earth, and, if necessary 
 for its accomplishment, its success shall be consummated by the sword ; 
 that Jackson county, Missouri, is to be the seat of empire of the Mor- 
 mon Church ; that hence the Mormons are to be finally gathered, and 
 that from that Zion shall proceed a power that will dethrone kings, 
 subvert dynasties, and subjugate all the nations of the earth. 
 
 I have said that their doctrines were repulsive to every refined 
 mind. Every other false faith which has reigned its evil time upon 
 this goodly world of ours has had some kindly and redeeming features. 
 Even the semi-theocracy of the Aztecs, as Prescott tells you, disfigured 
 as it was by horrid and bloody rites, was not without them. Buddh- 
 ism and Brahmanism, with all their misshapen fable, still inculcated, in 
 no small degree, a pure code of morals. Nor is the like assertion un- 
 true of Mahomedanism. It was reserved for Mormonism, far off in 
 
the bosom of our beloved laud, to rear its head, naked in all its hideous 
 deformity, and unblushingly, yes, defiantly, proclaim a creed without 
 the least redeeming feature, and of such character that the Thugism 
 of India cannot match it. 
 
 So at variance is the practice of Polygamy with all the instincts of 
 humanity, that it has to be pressed upon the people with the greatest 
 assiduity as a part of their religious duty. It is astonishing with what 
 pertinacity through all their "Sermons and Discourses" it is justified 
 and insisted on. Threats, entreaties, persuasions, and commands, are 
 corrti nu ally brought in play to enforce its cheerful observance. So 
 revolting is it to the women, that to aid in its enforcement they are 
 brutalized, their modesty destroyed by coarse, low, vile, vulgar expres- 
 sions, such as I could not repeat, and would not ask the clerk to read 
 in your hearing. If, however, my conjugal friend, the delegate from 
 Utah will undertake such task, I will most cheerfully furnish them for 
 him ; certainly he ought not to hesitate. If they are proper to be 
 repeated before large congregations of women and children in Salt 
 Lake city, the representative of the church ought not to be abashed at 
 reading them to this house. Will the delegate from Utah read them? 
 
 CONDITION OF THE WOMEN. 
 
 But their teachings, officially reported by themselves, give you a 
 better idea of their estimation of womaii than anything I could say. 
 I shall read to you from a few of their sermons on this subject, only 
 observing that you may pick other passages inculcating similar doc- 
 trines, containing like threats, rebukes and complaints, in nearly every 
 sermon published in- the church organ. 
 
 President J. M. GRANT, in a sermon delivered Sept. 21st, 1856, 
 reported in the Deseret News, vol. 6, page 235, said : 
 
 " And we have women here who like anything but the celestial law of God ; 
 and if they could, would break asunder the cable of the Church of Christ : 
 there is scarcely a Mother in Israel but would do it this day. And they talk 
 it to their husbands, to their daughters, and to their neighbors, and say that 
 they have not seen a week's happiness since they became acquainted with that 
 law, or since their husband took a second wife. They want to break up the 
 Church of God, and to break it from their husbands, and from their family 
 connections." 
 
 President BRIGHAM YOUNG, in a sermon delivered the same day, 
 reported in the same paper, sai<t: 
 
 " Now for my proposition ; it is more particularly for my sisters, as it is 
 frequently happening that women say that they are unhappy. Men will say, 
 ' My wife, though a most excellent woman, has not seen a happy day since I 
 took my second wife ;' ' No not a happy day for a year,' says one ; and another 
 
has not seen a happy day for five years. It is said that women are tied down 
 and abused ; that they are misused and have not the liberty they ought to 
 have ; that many of them are wading through a perfect flood of tears, because 
 of the conduct of some men, together with their own folly. 
 
 " I wish my women to understand that what I am going to say is for them, 
 as well as all others, and I want those who are here to tell their sisters, yes, 
 all the women of this community, and then write it back to the States, and do 
 as you please with it. I am going to give you from this time until the 6th day 
 of October next for reflection, that you may determine whether you wish to 
 stay with your husbands or not, and then I am going to set every woman at 
 liberty and say to them : Now go your way, my women with the rest, go your 
 way. And my wives have got to do one of two things; either round up their 
 shoulders to endure the afflictions of this world and live their religion, or they 
 may leave, for I will not have them about me. I will go into heaven alone, 
 rather than have scratching and fighting around me. I will set all at liberty. 
 ' What, first wife too ?' Yes, I will liberate you all. 
 
 I know what my women will say; they will say, 'You can have as many 
 women as you please, Brigham.' But I want to go somewhere and do some- 
 thing to get rid of the whiners; I do not want them to receive a part of the 
 truth and spurn the rest out of doors." 
 ********** 
 
 "Let every man thus treat his wives, keeping raiment enough to clothe his 
 body ; and say to your wives, ' take all that I have and be set at liberty ; but 
 if you stay with me you shall comply with the law of God, and that too with- 
 out any murmuring and whining. You must fulfill the law of God, in every 
 respect, and round up your shoulders to walk up to the mark without any 
 grunting.' 
 
 " Now recollect, that two weeks from to-morrow I am going to set you all 
 at liberty. But the first wife will say, ' It is hard, for I have lived with my 
 husband twenty years or thirty, and have raised a family of children for him, 
 and it is a great trial to me for him to have more women ; then I say it is time 
 that you gave him up to other women who will bear children. If my wife had 
 borne me all the children that she ever would bear, the celestial law would 
 teach me to take young women that would have children. 
 ********** 
 
 " Sisters, I am not joking ; I do not throw out my proposition to banter your 
 feelings, to see whether you will leave your husbands, all or any of you. But 
 I do know that there is no cessation to the everlasting whinings of many of 
 the women in this territory. And if th# women will turn from the command- 
 ments of God and continue to despise the order of heaven, I will pray that the 
 curse of the Almighty may be close to their heels, and that it may be following 
 them all the day long. And those that enter into it and are faithful, I will 
 promise them that they shall be queens in heaven, and rulers to all eternity." 
 
 President HEBER C. KIMBALL, in a discourse -delivered in the Taber- 
 nacle, Nov. 9th, 1856. Deseret News, vol. 6, page 291, said : 
 
 " I have no wife or child that has any right to rebel against me. If they 
 violate my laws and rebel against me, they will get into trouble just as quickly 
 as though they transgressed the counsels and teachings of Brother Brigham. 
 Does it give a woman a right to sin against me because she is my wife ? Eo, 
 
6 
 
 but it is her duty to do my will as I do the will of my Father and my God. 
 It is the duty of woman to be obedient to her husband, and unless she is, I 
 would not 'give a damn for all her queenly right and authority, nor for her 
 either if -she will quarrel, and lie about the work of God and the principle of 
 plurality. 
 
 A disregard of plain and correct teachings is the reason why so many are 
 dead and damned, and twice plucked up by the roots, and I would as soon 
 baptize the devil as some of you." 
 
 Oct. 6th, 1855, vol. 5, page 274, Kimball said : 
 
 " If you oppose any of the works of God you will cultivate a spirit of 
 apostacy. If you oppose what is called the spiritual wife doctrines the patri- 
 archal order, which is of God, that course will corrode you with apostacy, and 
 YOU will go overboard : still a great many do so, and strive to justify them- 
 selves in it; but they are not justified of God." 
 
 ********* 
 
 " The principle of plurality of wives never will be done away, although 
 some sisters have had revelations that when this time passes away, and they 
 go through the veil, every woman will have a husband to herself. I wish more 
 of our young men would take to themselves wives of the daughters of Zion, 
 and not wait for us old men to take them all. Go ahead upon the right 
 principle, young gentlemen, and God bless you forever and ever, and make 
 you fruitful, that we may fill the mountains, and then the earth, with righteous 
 inhabitants." 
 
 April 2, 1854, President HEBER C. KIMBALL said in the Tabernacle 
 See Deseret News, vol. 4, No. 20 : 
 
 "There are some of the ladies who are not happy in their present 
 situation; but that woman who cannot be happy with one man cannot 
 be happy with two. You know all women are good, or ought to be. 
 They are made for angelic beings, and I would like to see them act more 
 angelic in their behavior. You were made more angelic and a little 
 weaker than man. Man is made of rougher material to open the way, cut 
 down bushes, and kill the snakes that women may walk along through life, 
 and not soil and tear their skirts. When you see a woman with ragged skirts 
 you may know she wears the unmentionables, for she is doing the man's busi- 
 ness, and has not time to cut off the rags that are hanging around her. From 
 this time henceforth you may know what woman wears her husband's pants. 
 May the Lord bless you. Amen." 
 
 President HEBER C. KIMBALL, in a lengthened discourse, delivered 
 in the Tabernacle, on the 6th day of April, 1857, took occasion to 
 say : 
 
 " I would not be afraid to promise a man who is sixty years of age, if he 
 will take the counsel of Brother Brigham, and his brethren, he will renew his 
 age. I have noticed that a man who has but one wife, and is inclined to that 
 doctrine, soon begins to wither and dry up, while a man who goes into 'plurality 
 looks fresh, young and sprightly. Why is this ? Because God loves that man, 
 and because he honors his work and word. Some of you may not believe 
 
this ; but I not only believe it, but I also know it. For a man of God to be 
 oonfined to one woman is small business, for it is as rtrtiCh as we can do now to 
 keep up under the burdens we have to carry, and I do not > know what we 
 should do if we had only one woman apiece." 
 
 President HEBER C. KIMBALL used the following language in a dis- 
 course instructing a band of Missionaries, about to start on their 
 Missions : 
 
 " I say to those who are elected to go on Missions, go, if you never return, 
 and commit what you have into the hands of God your wi^es, your children 
 your brethren, and your property. Let truth and righteousness be your motto 
 and don't go into the world for anything else but to preach the Gospel, build 
 up the Kingdom of God, and gather the sheep into the fold. You are sent out 
 as shepherds to gather the sheep together, and remember they are not your 
 sheep ; they belong to him that sends you ; then don't make a choice of any 
 of those sheep, don't make selections before they are brought home and put into 
 the fold; You UNDERSTAND THAT. Amen. 
 
 Such, then, is Mormonism in regard to all that beautifies life in the 
 conjugal relation such are their sentiments and commands pro- 
 nounced under the assumed authority of God upon the female sex. 
 When President Kimball calls his numerous wives his " cows " he 
 but reflects the Mormon idea of women in the social scale. 
 
 The view is sickening. I turn with loathing and disgust from their 
 legalized status of systematic debauchery and lust. Before it the en- 
 tire nature recoils. No wonder that it requires the whole enginery of 
 the Mormon church, threats, and intimidations to compel the women 
 to submit to it. I pity that man or woman who can for one moment 
 look upon this organized, systematic, enforced degradation and pros- 
 titution with any other feeling than that of abhorrence and disgust. 
 In matters of affection woman is a monopolist she wants the whole 
 heart or she wants none. But in Utah she is compelled to take the 
 part only of the smallest of hearts a Mormon's heart little atten- 
 tion and no devotion. 
 
 THEFT AND ROBBERY. 
 
 I have said that robbery, as well as lust, was sanctified by the Mor- 
 mon creed. One from many evidences of such teachings will suffice. 
 
 In a sermon delivered by PEBER C. KIMBALL, Sept. 15, 1857, after 
 proclaiming the coming overthrow of their enemies, and their subjec- 
 tion, he continues : 
 
 "'Now,' says the Lord, ' take that spoil, I consecrate it unto my peoples 
 The Lord will provide for the Saints when necessary, and in his own way." 
 
 In the same sermon he quoted from the " Book of Doctrines and 
 Covenants," on the same subject, as follows: 
 
" Behold, it is said in my laws, or forbidden to, get in debt to thine enemies; 
 but behold it is not said at any time that the Lord should not take when He 
 pleases, and pay as seemeth him good. Wherefore, as ye are agents, and on 
 the Lord's errands, and whatever ye do according to the will of the Lord is 
 the Lord's business, and He hath sent you to provide for the Saints in these 
 last days, that they may obtain an inheritance in the land of Zion. And, be- 
 hold, I, the Lord, declare it unto you, and my words are sure and shall not 
 fail. But all things must come to pass in their time; wherefore, be not weary 
 in well doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work, and out of 
 small things proceedeth that which is great." 
 
 The code of the Spartans allowed theft as a sort of discipline for 
 their youth, who were to be thus fitted for the strategy of war, so 
 necessary among a primitive and martial people ; but in no country 
 or age before has robbery been taught as a divine ordinance, the ob- 
 servance of which was binding as conducing to the aggrandizement 
 of His people. Yet, here at last, in the " ferment of an uneasy civi- 
 lization," it stands forth in the boldest relief that language dare give. 
 " The trumpet " here " gives no uncertain sound." 
 
 SHEDDING BLOOD FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS. 
 
 But the picture, true to life as it is, has yet darker shades. Mur- 
 der 'is openly commanded, and incessant appeals from the self-consti- 
 tuted Apostles of Almighty God prove beyond all doubt, that its ex- 
 ecution is considered and urged as one of the fundamental doctrines to 
 be enforced, and acted on by the faithful of the Latter Day Saints. 
 The doctrines, which, from their own books I have just read, may 
 perhaps merely disgust, but the doctrine of which I have now from the 
 same source to adduce proofs, will horrify. In the few extracts I have 
 to give you, (to which, if time allowed, I might add a thousand more,) 
 the right and duty of the Church to " spill blood " is asserted in the 
 plainest and coarsest words that our Anglo-Saxon language affords. 
 Theft, lust, and murder are canonized in the Mormon creed. 
 
 " It is as if the fiends prevailed 
 Against the seraphs they assailed, 
 And throned on heavecly seats should dwell 
 The freed inheritors of Hell!" 
 
 I read to you from a " Discourse " of President Brigharn Young, 
 delivered Sept. 21, 1856 : 
 
 " There are sins that men commit for which they cannot receive forgiveness 
 in this world, or in that which is to come, and if they had their eyes open to 
 their true condition, they would be perfectly willing to have their blood spilt 
 upon the ground, that the smoke thereof might ascend to heaven as an offering 
 for their sins, and the smoking ijicense would atone for their sins ; whereas, 
 
9 
 
 .f 
 
 if such is not the case, they will stick to them and remain upon them in the 
 spirit world. 
 
 " I know, when you hear my brethre'n telling about cutting people off from 
 the earth that you consider it is strong doctrine ; but it is to save them, not to 
 destroy them. 
 
 * * ' * * * * * 
 
 " It is true the blood of the son of God was shed for sins through the fall 
 and those committed by men, yet men can commit sins which it can never re- 
 mit. As it was in ancient days so it is in our day ; and though the principles 
 are taught publicly from this stand,* still the people do not understand them ; 
 yet the law is precisely the same. There are sins that can be atoned for by 
 an offering upon an altar as in ancient days; and there are sins that the blood 
 of a lamb, of a calf, or of turtle doves cannot remit, but they must be atoned 
 for by the blood of the man. That is the reason why men talk to you as they 
 do from this stand ; they understand the doctrine, and throw out a few words 
 about it. You have been taught that doctrine, but you do not understand it." 
 
 Of entirely a similar nature is a " Discourse of President Jedediah 
 M. Grant, delivered March 12, 1854; He is speaking of what he calls 
 " covenant breakers" those who leave the Mormon Church, and he 
 
 " Then what ought this meek people who keep the commandments of God 
 do unto them? 'Why,' says one, 'they ought to pray to the Lord to kill 
 them.' I want to know if you would wish the LORD to come doicn and do all 
 your dirty work? Many of the Latter Day Saints will pray, and petition, and 
 supplicate the Lord to do a thousand things they themselves would be 
 
 ashamed to do. 
 
 ******* 
 
 " When a man prays for a thing, he ought to be willing to perform it him- 
 self. But if the Latter Day Saints should put to death the covenant-breakers, 
 it would try the faith of the ' very meek, just, and pious' ones among them, 
 and it would cause a great deal of whining in Israel. 
 
 "Then there 'was another odd commandment. The Lord God commanded 
 them not to pity the person whom they killed, but to execute the law of God 
 upon persons worthy of death. This should be done by the entire congrega- 
 tion, SHOWING NO PITY. I have thought there would have to be quite a revo- 
 lution among the Mormons, before such a commandment could be obeyed com- 
 pletely by them. The Mormons have a great deal of sympathy. For instance, 
 if they can get a man before the tribunal administering the law of the land, 
 and succeed in getting a rope around his neck, and having him hung up like 
 a dead dog, it is all right. But if the Church and Kingdom of God should 
 step forth and execute the law of God, 0, what a burst of Mormon sympathy 
 it would cause ! 1 wish we were in a situation favorable to our doing that 
 which is justifiable before God, without any contaminating influence of Gen- 
 tile amalgamation, laws, and traditions, that the People of God might lay the 
 axe to the root of the tree, and every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit 
 might be hewn down. 
 
 "What! do you believe that people would do right and keep the law of 
 God by actually putting to death the transgressors ? Putting to death the 
 
10 
 
 % 
 
 transgressors would exhibit the law of God, 'no matter BY WHOM it was done. 
 That is my opinion. 
 
 "You talk of the doings of different Governments the United States, if 
 you please. What do they do with traitors ? What mode do they adopt 
 to punish traitors ? Do traitors to that Government forfeit their lives? Ex- 
 amine, also, the doings of other earthly governments on this point, and you 
 find the same practice universal. I atn not aware that there are any ex- 
 ceptions. But people will look into books of theology, and argue that the 
 people of God have a right to try people for fellowship, but they have no 
 right to try them on property or life. That makes the Devil laugh, saying : 
 I have got them on a hook now ; they can cut them off, and I will put eight 
 or ten spirits worse than they are into their tabernacles, and send them back 
 to mob them." 
 
 President Brigham Young (February 8, 1857) said, in a discourse 
 in the Tabernacle. (See Deseret News, vol. 6, page 397 :) 
 
 " But now I say, in the name of the Lord, that if this people will sin no 
 more, but faithfully live their religion, their sins will be forgiven them 
 without taking life. You are aware that when Brother Cummings came to 
 the point of loving our neighbors, he could say yes or no, as the case might 
 be ; that is true. But I want to connect it with the doctrine you read in 
 the Bible. When will we love our neighbor as ourselves ? In the first place, 
 Jesus said that no man hateth his own flesh. It is admitted by all that every 
 person loves himself. Now, if we do rightly love ourselves, we want to be 
 saved and continue to exist. We want to go into the kingdom where we 
 can enjoy eternity, and see no more sorrow nor death. This is the desire of 
 every person who believes in God. Now, take a person in this congregation 
 who has knowledge with being saved in the kingdom of our God and ou r 
 Father, and being exalted an exalted one who knows and understands the 
 principles of eternal life, and sees the beauty and excellency of the eternities 
 before him compared with the vain and foolish things of the world ; and sup- 
 pose he is overtaken in a gross fault that he has committed a sin which he 
 knows will deprive him of that exaltation which he desires, and that he can- 
 not attain to it without the shedding of his blood ; and also knows that by 
 having his blood shed, he will atone for that sin and be saved, and exalted 
 with the Gods; is there a man or woman in this house but what would say : 
 'Shed my blood, that I may be saved and exalted with the Gods?' 
 
 " All mankind love themselves ; and let these principlies be known by an 
 individual, and he would be glad to have his blood shed. That would be 
 loving themselves even unto an eternal exaltation. Will you love your 
 brothers or sisters likewise, when they have committed a sin that cannot be 
 be atoned for without the shedding of their blood. Will you love that man 
 or woman well enough to shed their blood. That is what Jesus Christ meant. 
 He never told a man or woman to love their enemies in their wickedness. 
 He never intended any such thing. 
 
 * * * * * * * 
 
 " I could refer you to plenty of instances where men have been righteously 
 slain in order to atone for their sins. I have seen scores and hundreds of peo- 
 ple for whom there would have been a chance in the last resurrection if their 
 
11 
 
 lives had been taken and their blood spilled upon the ground as a smoking in- 
 cense to the Almighty, but who are aow angds to the devil, until our elder 
 brother, Jesus Christ raises them up, conquers death, hell, and the grave. I 
 have known a great many men who have left this church, for whom there is 
 no chance whatever for exaltation ; but if their blood had been spilled, it would 
 have been better for them. The wickedness and ignorance of the nations for- 
 bid this principle being in full force, but the time will come when the law of 
 God will be in full force. 
 
 "This is loving our neighbor as ourselves ; if he needs help, help him ; and 
 if he wants salvation, and it is necessary to 9pill his blood upon the ground in 
 order that he may be saved, spill it. Any of you who understand the princi- 
 ples of eternity, if you have sinned a sin requiring the shedding of blood, ex- 
 cept the sin unto death, would not be satisfied nor rest until your blood should 
 be spilled, that you might^gain that salvation you desire. That is the way to 
 love mankind." 
 
 President J. M. GRANT said, September 21, 1856, Deseret News, 
 vol. 6, page 235 : 
 
 " I say there are men and women here that I would advise to go to the 
 President immediately, and ask him to appoint a committee to attend to their 
 case ; and then let a place be selected, and let that committee shed their blood. 
 
 " MEAN DEVILS " GOOD MORMON PREACHERS. 
 
 In a reported sermoo, delivered by Brigham Young, Nov. 9, 1856, 
 Deseret News, vol. 6, p. 291. After speaking of not embracing men 
 in his religion, he said : 
 
 " Some of the elders seemed to be tripped up in a moment if the wicked 
 can find any fault with the members of this church; but, bless your souls, I 
 would not yet have this people faultless, for the day of separation has not 
 not yet arrived. I have many a time, in this stand, dared the world to pro- 
 duce as mean devils as we can we can beat them at anything. We have the 
 greatest and smoothest liars in the world, the cunningest and most adroit 
 thieves, and any other shade of character that you can mention. 
 
 "We can pick out elders in Israel right here who can beat the world at 
 gambling; who can handle the cards; can cut and shuffle them with the 
 smartest rogUe on the face of God's footstool. I can produce elders here who 
 can shave their smartest shavers, and take their money from them. We can 
 beat the world at any game." 
 
 "We can beat them because we have men here that live in the light of the 
 Lord that have the holy priesthood, and hold the keys of the kingdom of 
 God. But you,mav go through all the sectarian world and you cannot find 
 a man capable of opening the door of the kingdom of God to admit others in. 
 We can do that. We can pray the best, preach the best, and sing the best. 
 We are the best looking and finest set of people on the face of the earth ; and 
 ,they may begin any game they please, and we are on hand, and can beat them 
 at anything they have a mind to begin. They may make sharp their two- 
 edged swords, and I will turn out the elders of Israel with greased feathers, 
 and whip them to death. We are not to be beat. We expect to be a stumbling 
 block to the whole world, and a rock of offence to them. 
 
12 
 
 Such a " sermon " needs no comment. It will be seen that the 
 scheme of these religionists is quite broad enough to embrace poly- 
 gamy, adultery, incest, perjury, blasphemy, robbery, and murder, as a 
 part of its devilish plan. 
 
 v 
 
 MORMON INDEPENDENCE THREATENED. 
 
 Brigham Young, in a discourse in the Tabernacle, Aug. 31, 1856, 
 Deseret News, vol. 6, p. 219, said : 
 
 "Mormonisna is true, and all Hell cannot overthrow it. All the devil's ser- 
 vants on the earth may do all they can, and.'as Brother Clinton has just said, 
 after twenty six years' faithful operation" and exertion by our enemies what 
 have they accomplished ? They have succeeded iv making us an organized 
 Territory, and they are determined to make us an independent State or Gov- 
 ernment, as the Lord lives. (The congregation shouted Amen.) 
 
 41 1 say, as the Lord lives, we are bound to become a sovereign State in the 
 
 Union, or an independent nation by ourselves." 
 
 * # * * *- 4 # * 
 
 " I have frequently told you, and I tell you again, that the very report of 
 the church and kingdom of God. 
 
 "The sound of Mormonism is a terror to towns, counties, States, the pre- 
 tended republican governments, and to all the world. 
 
 "Why, because as the Lord Almighty lives, and the prophets have ever. 
 This work is destined to revolutionize the world, and bring all under subjection 
 to the law of God." 
 
 The Church government established by the Mormons to carry into 
 operation the teachings from which I have so copiously extracted, is 
 one of the most complete despotisms on the face of the earth. Th 
 mind of one man permeates through the whole mass of the people, 
 and subjects to its unrelenting tyranny the souls and bodies of all. 
 It reigns supreme in church and State, in morals, and even in the mi- 
 nutest domestic and social arrangements. Brigham's house is at once 
 tabernacle, capitol, and harem ; and Brigham himself is king, priest, 
 lawgiver, and chief polygamist. Is treason hatched in Utah Brig- 
 ham is the head traitor. Are rebel troops mustered against the 
 United States Brigham is their commander-in-chief. Is a law to be 
 enacted Brigham's advice determines it. Is an offending " G-entile" 
 or an apostate Mormon to be assassinated the order emanates from 
 Brigham. In addition to all this, he heals the afflicted by the laying 
 on of hands, and comforts the widow by becoming her husband. It 
 may be asked, does he do this without compensation ? No, his pay is 
 both high and certain. He taxes his deluded followers to the extent 
 of all surplus property upon their arrival in the Territory. He subse- 
 quently taxes them to the extent of one-tenth of their annual produc- 
 tions and labor, and if reluctant to pay, he mercilessly snatches all 
 
13 
 
 that they have. He has through the legislature unrestricted license to 
 tax merchants. By legislation, all estrays in the Territory are im- 
 pounded and sold, and the proceeds paid over to him. By like 
 authority he seizes upon the great highway between our Atlantic and 
 Pacific possessions, grants exclusive rights to erect bridges and ferries 
 across all the streams in the Territory fixes the toll at enormous 
 rates, ranging.from five to ten dollars for a team expressly providing 
 in the law that a portion of the receipts shall be paid over to himself, 
 by which means, whether willing or unwilling, the emigrant to the 
 Pacific coast is forced to build up the Church, and furnish money to 
 emigrate pious sisters to Zion to replenish the harems of the hoary 
 headed leaders of the Church ; and as if to consummate the matter of 
 pay, all escheats in the Territory are to him ; the property of the emi- 
 grant, and even the habiliments of the deceased may be sold, and the 
 proceeds paid over to him. 
 
 He selects for himself the choicest spots of land in the Territory, 
 and they yield him their productions, none daring to interfere. The 
 timber in the mountains for a great distance from Salt Lake city 
 belongs to him, and it is only by delivering each third load, as he 
 shall order, that the gates are open and the .citizen allowed to pass up 
 City creek canon to obtain it. Having appropriated all that he 
 desires for his own use, he has quite extensive tracts of country fur- 
 nished him by the Federal government, as capital, for his Church. 
 He sends his agents, denominating them missionaries, to Europe, who 
 represent Utah as a paradise, and go into the market offering each 
 proselyte who will come to Zion a homestead of a quarter section of 
 land being in return compensated by the addition of females to fill 
 the harems, and the tithing which will in the future accrue to him. 
 
 The cattle on a thousand hills exhibit his brand. He fixes his pay, 
 he pays himself. His pampered but plebian body reposes in a 
 palace, and scores of bright-eyed women call him husband. His 
 deluded followers yield him implicit obedience, and a church organi- 
 zation known as " Danites" or " destroying angels," stand ready to 
 protect his person, to avenge his wrongs, and to execute his pleasure. 
 
 Brigham is both Church and State. True, the atrocities committed 
 in Utah are not committed by him with his own hands, but they are 
 committed by his underlings, and at his bidding. He claims that he 
 is not a criminal, because his hand is not seen in the perpetration of 
 crime. He pleads an " alibi," when he is known to be everywhere 
 present in the Territory. He seeks to avert censure by feigning 
 ignorance of the atrocities of 'his underlings. Such ignorance can 
 only be supposable on the hypothesis that Mormonism is not a system, 
 
aed Brigham is not its head. That he is a despot without power, or 
 a prophet without the ability to foresee. 
 
 Now, Brigham is either complete ruler in Utah, or he is nothing. 
 The complicity of the church dignitaries, Mayors of cities, and other 
 territorial officials, in the crimes that have been committed, demon- 
 strate that those crimes were church crimes, and Brigham is the 
 head of the church. 
 
 The Legislators of the Territory are Mormons. The endowment 
 oaths bind them to yield an implicit obedience to Brigham, as the 
 head of the church, and political head of the Territory. His man- 
 dates are superior to all law. The Mormons are fanatics ; they will 
 keep their oath to obey him. Did not their religion induce, their fears 
 would compel obedience, for the vengeance of Brigham, though 
 silent, is swift, and fearful as the horrors of death can make it. Mor- 
 mon punishment for Mormon apostacy is like the old curse of former 
 Popes ; it extends from the soles of the feet to the hairs of the head. 
 It separates husband and wife ; it reaches from the confiscation of 
 property to the severance of the windpipe. Armed with such power 
 over the hearts and lives of the people, Brigham defiantly drives the 
 barbaric chariot of Mormon robbery, murder, poligainy and incest 
 over all law, in defiance of all federal officials in the Territory. Brig- 
 ham not only controls the legislation, but he controls the courts. He 
 uses the one to aid him in accomplishing the other. On the 14th day 
 of January, 1854, he caused to be passed the following law which is 
 still in force. See revised laws Utah, pa^e 260. 
 
 "That all questions of law, the meaning of writing other than laws, and 
 the admissibility of testimony shall be decided by the court ; and no laws, nor 
 parts of laws, shall be read, argued, cited or adopted in any court during any 
 trial except those enacted by the governor and Legislative Assembly of this Ter- 
 ritory, and those passed by the Congress of the United States when applica- 
 ble ; and no report, decision or doings of any court shall be read, argued, cited 
 or adopted as precedent in any other trial." 
 
 The commoH law, the wisdom of ages, which has come down to us 
 as the handmaid of our civil and religious liberty, must be done away 
 with, that the Mormon church regulations may supply their place in 
 Utah. But, then, how convenient it is to provide that the decisions 
 made in a Utah court, under those church regulations, upon one day, 
 should not be a precedent for another day. It leaves the court wholly 
 untrammelled, and authorizes the judges or jury to make such laws 
 as they choose in every case. It leaves the courts open to receive any 
 new divine law which Brigham may see fit to give them. He conse- 
 quently feels it to be a duty to address the judges and jurors in the 
 Territory. 
 
15 
 
 You will find a specimen discourse of his in the Deseret News, vol^ 
 5, page 412, in which instance he sent quite a number of the jurors 
 on missions, for violating his instructions to them as jurors. 
 
 On the 2d of March, 1856, President Grant said, in a sermon de- 
 lived in the Tabernacle : 
 
 "Last Sunday the President chastised some of the Apostles and Bishops, 
 who were on the grand jury. Did he fully succeed in clearing away the fog 
 which surrounded them, and in removing blindness from their eyes ? No, for 
 they could go to their room and again disagree, though, to their credit, it must 
 be admitted that a brief explanation made them unanimous in, their action. 
 
 "Not long ago, I heard that in a certain case the traverse jury were eleven 
 against one, and what is more singular the one alone was right in his views of 
 the case. 
 
 "Several had got into the fog to suck and eat the filth of a gentile law 
 court, ostensibly a court of Utah though I call it a gentile court. Why ? Be- 
 cause it does not magnify the laws of Utah, as provided for in the 'organic 
 act/ by which 'act' and laws it alone exists as a court. 
 
 "A brief examination will soon convince a person, of any ordinary observa- 
 tion, that the laws of Utah are not administered in our courts, and that the 
 judges must know that fact, and that they have been seeking, from the first, 
 with but one exception, to overrule them. 
 
 "Our laws have been set at naught and walked under foot, and in lieu 
 thereof a constant effort has been made to rule in common law, English law, 
 and law after law totally inapplicable." 
 
 This attempt of the Mormons to interfere with the administration 
 of the law, and control the courts, has been one of the chief causes 
 of difficulty between the judges, sent by the Federal Government to 
 Utah, and the Morman people. From almost twenty judges sent to 
 the Territory, with the exception of two Judge Zerubbabel Snow, a 
 Morman, and J. F. Kinnej, the^ present Chief Justice, the only terri- 
 torial judge who has not been removed by the present administration, 
 and who bears the unenviable reputation ' of being the "creature and 
 tool of Brighara Young," the testimony has been uniformly to the 
 effect that the laws could not be enforced. Not one of these judges, 
 with the exception of the two named above, have been enabled to 
 serve out the short term of four years. Some have left in disgust, 
 while others were driven away by force. 
 
 As one of the Associate Justices of the Territory of Utah in the 
 month of April, 1859, I commenced and held a Term of the District 
 Court for the Second Judicial District in the city of Provo, about sixty 
 miles south of Salt Lake City. Upon my requisition General A. S. 
 Johnson, in command of the military department, furnished a small 
 military force for the purpose of protecting the court. A grand jury 
 was empannellecl, and their attention was pointedly and specifically 
 called to a great number of crimes that had been committed in the 
 
16 
 
 immediate vicinity, cases of public notoriety both as to the offense 
 and the persons who had perpetrated the same ; (for none of these 
 things had " been done in a corner.") Their perpetrators had scorned 
 alike concealment or apology, before the- arrival of the American 
 forces. The jury thus instructed, though kept in session two weeks, 
 utterly refused to do anything, and were finally discharged as an evi- 
 dently useless appendage of a court of justice. But the court was 
 determined to try a last resource to bring to light and to punishment 
 those guilty of the atrocious crimes which confessedly had been com- 
 mitted in the Territory, and the session continued. Bench warrants, 
 based upon sworn information, were issued against the alleged crimi- 
 nals, and United States Marshal Dotson, a most excellent and reliable 
 officer, aided by a MILITARY POSSE, procured on his own request, had 
 succeeded in making a few arrests. A general stampede immediately 
 took place among the Mormons, and what I wish to call your atten- 
 tion to as particularly noticeable, is the fact that this OCCURRED MORE 
 
 ESPECIALLY AMONG THE CHURCH OFFICIAL^ AND CIVIL OFFICERS. 
 
 Why were these classes so peculiarly urgent and hasty in flight? 
 The law of evidence, based on the experience of ages, has but one 
 answer. It was the consciousness of guilt which drove them to seek 
 a refuge from the avenging arm of the law, armed at last, as 
 they supposed, with power to vindicate its injured majesty. It is a 
 well-known fact that many of the Bishops and Presidents of " Stakes" 
 remained secreted in the mountains until the news was confirmed be- 
 yond doubt which announ'ced the retrograde course of the Adminis- 
 tration at Washington. You can easily conceive the rejoicing of 
 those who had fled, their rapturous change from the extreme of trepi- 
 dation to that of joy, when at last Gov. Gumming could officially 
 announce to his Mormon friends that the zealous efforts 'of the united 
 Judiciary of Utah, to expose and punish crime and administer the 
 law, were condemned by tbe National Administration. And this, too, 
 in the face of that Administration's boast, that rebellion "had been 
 crushed out" in Utah. 
 
 Let me say here, though it may seem rather a digression, that while 
 it is true that the military were appealed to for aid in the admin- 
 istration and enforcement of the laws, and in the protection of offi- 
 cers and witnesses, it is as equally and undeniably true that the legal 
 and social rights of no citizen, whoever he may have been, were for 
 one instant infringed upon, or even endangered by such a course. 
 
 Sitting, as a committing magistrate, complaint after complaint was 
 made before me, of murders and robberies : among these I may men- 
 tion as peculiarly and shockingly prominent, the murder of Forbes, 
 the assassination of the Parrishes and Potter, of Jones and his mother, 
 
, 
 
 !i 
 
 of the Aiken party, of which tW * six in all; and worst, and 
 
 darkest in this appaling catalogue^^^Krd, the cowardly, cold-blooded 
 butchery and robbery at the Mountain Meadows. At that time there 
 still lay all ghastly under the sun of Utah the unburied skeletons of 
 one hundred and nineteen men, women, and children, the hapless, 
 hopeless victims of the Mormon creed. 
 
 Time will not allow that I should read the affidavits taken. I shall 
 publish a portion as, an appendix to these remarks that you may see 
 that I am justified in charging that the Mormons are guilty, aye, 
 that the Mormon church is guilty, of the crimes of murder and rob- 
 bery as taught in their books of faith. 
 
 The scene of this horrible massacre at the Mountain Meadows is 
 situate about three hundred and twenty miles west of south from Great 
 Salt Lake city, on the road leading to Los Angelos, in California. I 
 was the first Federal judge in that part of the Territory after the oc- 
 currence. My district extending from a short distance below Salt 
 Lake city to the south end of the Territory. I determined to visit 
 that part of my district, and, if possible, expose the persons engaged 
 in the massacre, which I did in the early part of the year 1859. I 
 accordingly embraced an opportunity of accompanying a small detach- 
 ment of soldiers who were being sent to that section by General John- 
 son having requested the marshal of the Territory to accompany, 
 or to send a deputy. He accordingly sent Deputy Wm. H. Rodgers, 
 who went with me. 
 
 The command went as far south as the St. Clara, twenty miles be- 
 yond the Mountain Meadows, where we camped and remained about 
 a week. Duriug our stay there I was visited by the Indian chiefs of 
 that section, who gave me their version of the massacre. They ad- 
 mitted that a portion of their men were engaged in the massacre, but 
 were not there when the attack commenced. One of them told me, 
 in the presence of the others, that after the attack had been made, a 
 white man came to their camp with a piece of paper, which, he said, 
 Brigham Young had sent, that directed them to go and help to whip 
 the emigrants. A portion of the band went, but did not assist in the 
 fight. He gave as a reason that the emigrants had long guns, and 
 were good shots. He said that his brother [this chief's name was 
 Jaekson] was shot while running across the Meadow at a distance of 
 two hundred yards from the corral where the emigrants were. He 
 said the Mormons were all painted. He said the Indians got a part 
 of the clothing ; and gave the names of John D. Lee, President Haight, 
 and Bishop Higbee as the big captains. It might be proper here to 
 remark that the Indians in the southern part of the Territory of Utah 
 are not numerous, and are a very low, cowardly, beastly set, very few 
 
of them being armed with gum TRy are not formidable. I believe 
 all in the southern part of T^Mperritory would, under no circum- 
 stances, carry on a fight against ten white men. 
 
 From our camp on the St. Clara we again 'went back to the Moun- 
 tain Meadows, camping near where the massacre had occurred. The 
 Meadow is about five miles in length and one in width, running to 
 quite a narrow point at the southwest end, being higher at the middle 
 than either end. It is the divide between the waters that flow into 
 the Great Basin and those emptying into the Colorado river. A very- 
 large spring rises in the south end of the narrow part. It was on the 
 north side of this spring the emigrants were camped. The bank rises 
 from the spring eight or ten feet, then extends off to the north about 
 two hundred yards on a level. A range of hills is there reached, 
 rising perhaps fifty or sixty feet. Back of this range is quite a valley, 
 which extends down until it has an outlet, three or four hundred yards 
 below the spring, into the main Meadow. 
 
 The first attack was made by going down this ravine, then follow- 
 ing up the bed of the spring to near it, then at daylight firing upon 
 the men who were about the camp-fires ; in which attack ten or 
 twelve of the emigrants were killed or wounded, the stock of the emi- 
 grants having been previously driven behind the hill and np the 
 ravine. The emigrants soon got in condition to repel the attack, 
 shoved their wagons together, sunk the wheels in the earth, and threw 
 up quite an entrenchment. The fighting after continued as a siege, 
 the assailants occupying the hill, and firing at any of the emigrants 
 that exposed themselves, having a barricade of stones along the crest 
 of the hill as a protection. The siege was continued for five days, the 
 besiegers appearing in the garb of Indians. The Mormons seeing that 
 they could not capture the train without making some sacrifice of life 
 on their part, and getting weary of the fight, resolved to accomplish 
 by strategy what they were not able to do by force. The fight had 
 been going on for five days, and np aid is received from any quarter, 
 although the family of Jacob Hamlin, the Indian agent, were living 
 in the upper end of the Meadow, and within hearing of the reports of 
 the guns. 
 
 Who can imagine the feelings of these men, women, and children, 
 surrounded, as they supposed themselves to be, by savages. Fathers 
 and mothers only can judge what they must have beea. Far off in 
 the Rocky mountains, without transportation for their cattle, horses, 
 and mules had been run off not knowing what their fate was to be, 
 we can but poorly realize the gloom that pervaded the camp. 
 
 A wagon is descried far up the meadows. Upon its nearer ap- 
 proach it is observed to contain armed men. See ! now they raise a 
 
19 
 
 white flag. All is joy in the corral. A general shout is raised, and 
 in an instant a little girl dressed in white is placed at an opening be- 
 tween two of the wagons as a response to the signal. The wagon 
 approaches the occupants are welcomed into the corral. The emi- 
 grants little suspecting that they were entertaining the fiends that, 
 had been besieging them. 
 
 This wagon contained President Haight, and Bishop John D. Lee, 
 among others of the Mormon church. They professed to be on good 
 terras with the Indians, and represented the Indians as being very mad 
 They also proposed to intercede and settle the matter with the In- 
 dians. After several hours of parley, they having apparently visited 
 the Indians, gave the ultimatum of the Indians, which was that the 
 emigrants should march out of their camp, leaving everything behind 
 them, even their guns. It was promised by the Mormon bishops that 
 they would bring a force and guard the emigrants back to the set- 
 tlements. 
 
 The terms were agreed to ; the emigrants being desirous of saving 
 the lives of their families. The Mormons retired and subsequently 
 appeared at the corral with thirty or forty armed men. The emi- 
 grants were marched out, the women and children in front and the 
 men behind, the Mormon guard being in the rear. When they had 
 marched in this way about a mile, at a given signal the slaughter com- 
 menced. The men were most all shot down at the first fire from the 
 guard. Two only escaped, who fled to the desert, and were followed 
 150 miles before they were overtaken and slaughtered. 
 
 The women and children ran on two or three hundred yards furth- 
 er, when they were overtaken, and with the aid of the Indians th,e^ 
 were slaughtered. Seventeen only of the small children were saved, 
 the eldest being about seven years. Thus, on the LOth day of Sep- 
 tember, 1857, was consummated one of the most cruel, cowardly and 
 bloody murders known in our history. Upon the way from th* 
 meadows, a young Indian pointed out to me the .place where thje Moifr- 
 mons painted and disguised themselves. 
 
 I went from the Meadows to Cedar city ; the distance is 35 or 40 
 miles. I contemplated holding an examining court there, should 
 General Johnson furnish me protection, and also protect witnesses and 
 furnish the marshal a posse to aid in making arrests. While there I 
 issued warrants on affidavits filed before me for the arrest of the fol- 
 lowing named persons. 
 
 " Jacob Haight, President of the Cedar City stake, Bishop John M. 
 Higbee, and Bishop John D. Lee, Columbus Freeman, William Slade, 
 
 John Willis, William Riggs, Ingram, Daniel McFarlan, Wil- 
 
 Stewart, Ira Allen and son, Thomas Cartwright, E. Welean, William 
 
20 
 
 Halley, Jabes Nomlen, John Mangum, Jarnes Price, John W. Adair, 
 
 Tyler, Joseph Smith, Samuel Pollock, John McFarlan, Nephi 
 
 Johnson, Thornton, Joel White, Harrison, Chas. 
 
 Hopkins, Joseph Elang, Samuel Lewis, Sims Matheny, James Mangum, 
 Harrison Pierce, Samuel Adair, F. C. McDulange, Wm. Bateman, 
 Ezra Curtis, and Alexander Loveridge." 
 
 In a. few days after arriving at Cedar City, Capt. Campbell arrived 
 with his command from the Meadows ; on his return he advised me 
 that he h.ad received orders for his command entire to return to Camp 
 Floyd. The General having received orders from Washington that 
 the military should not be used in protecting the Courts, or in acting 
 as a possee to aid the Marshal in making arrests. 
 
 While at Cedar City I was visited by a number of apostate Mormons 
 who gave me every assurance that they would furnish an abundance 
 of evidence in regard to. the matter, so soon as they were assured of 
 military protection. In fact, some of the persons engaged in the act 
 came to see me in the night, and gave a full account of the matter, 
 intending, when protection was at hand, to become witnesses. They 
 claimed that they had been forced into the matter by the Bishops. 
 Their statements corroborated what the Indians had previously said 
 to me. Mr. Rodgers, the Deputy Marshal, was also engaged in hunt- 
 ing up the children, survivors of the massacre. They were all found 
 in the custody of the Mormons. Three or four of the eldest recollect 
 and relate all the incidents of the massacre, corroborating the state- 
 ment of the Indians, and the statements made, by the citizens of Cedar 
 City to me. 
 
 These children are now in the south part of Missouri, or north part 
 of Arkansas ; their testimony could soon be taken if desired. No one 
 can depict the glee of these infants when they realized that they were 
 in the custody of what they called "the Americans," for such is the 
 designation of those not Mormons. They say they never were in the 
 custody of the Indians. I recollect of one of them, "John Calvin 
 Sorrow," after he found he was safe, and before he was brought away 
 from Salt Lake city, although not yet nine years of age, sitting in a 
 contemplative mood, no doubt thinking of the exterminatiop of his 
 family, say, "Oh, I wish I was a man, I know what I would do; I 
 would shoot John D. Lee ; I saw him shoot my mother." I shall 
 never forget how he looked. 
 
 Time will not permit me to elaborate this matter. I shall barely 
 sum up and refer every member of this house who may have the least 
 doubt about the guilt of the Mormons in this massacre, and the other 
 crimes to which I have alluded, to the evidence published in the ap- 
 hereto. 
 
21 
 
 t 
 The Indians would not have saved the infant children from the 
 
 slaughter. Neither could they have induced the " emigrants" to have 
 left their protected position. It should also be borne in mind that 
 Brigham Youug at the time claimed to be, and was acting as Super- 
 intendant of Indian affairs in the Territory. There is now pending 
 in this house a claim for thirty or forty thousand dollars, which in- 
 cludes about four thousand dollars for goods distributed by John D. 
 Lee to the Indians about the Mountain Meadows, within twenty days 
 after the massacre ; and also includes pay to Lee while he was en- 
 gaged in the commission of the massacre. Whether Brigham will 
 get it or not, I do not know. This, however, I do know, that some 
 two years ago Congress passed an act to pay to the Territory of Utah 
 some fifty-two thousand dollars, for amount paid by the Territory in 
 suppressing Indian hostilities in the Territory in the years 1852 and 
 1853. I have before me every law passed in the Territory, every 
 appropriation made by the legislature, and the statement of the Terri- 
 torial Auditor of Accounts. I defy the delegate from Utah to show 
 that there was ever appropriated or paid from the Treasury of the 
 Territory an amount to exceed three thousand four hundred dollars. 
 It never was done. But you know Brigham says " that he has the 
 most adroit scoundrels in the world in Zion, and that he can beat their 
 sharpest shavers" So there is no telling but in his persevering he 
 may succeed in procuring his demands for murdering, and expenses of 
 endeavoring to purchase the Indians to aid him in his rebellion. The 
 present claim was all made while Utah was in rebellion. 
 
 Why was it that Brigham did not report this massacre at the 
 Mountain Meadows ? Why, if he was acting as Superintendant of 
 Indian Affairs did he not make report of the property taken at the 
 massacre. And let me ask (my conjugal friend,) the delegate from 
 Utah, why it was that the Deseret News, the Church organ and only 
 paper published in the Territory, for months after failed to notice the 
 massacre, even after it was well known in the States, and when it 
 did so, only did it to say the Mormons were not engaged in it. 
 Will the delegate please answer me these questions ? 
 
 The motives which the Mormons had in the massacre was re- 
 venge for the killing of Parley Pratt, a leading Mormon, who, while in 
 the act of running another man's wife and children through Arkansas 
 to Utah, was overtaken by the outraged husband, and slain the Ar- 
 kansas courts refusing to punish the perpetrator. They, in addition, 
 no doubt, were also actuated by a desire to possess themselves of the 
 great amount of stock and property of the emigrants, supposed to be 
 worth sixty or seventy thousand dollars. 
 
 This was emphatically "getting the Lord's property," as HEBER 
 
22 
 
 KEMBALL expresses it, " without getting in debt to the LortTs enemies 
 for it." 
 
 The surviving children, after they were recovered and on the way 
 back, frequently pointed out carriages and stock that belonged to the 
 train, stating to whom it belonged. 
 
 A great portion of the property was taken to Cedar City, deposited 
 in the tithing office, and then sold out ; the bed clothes upon which 
 the wounded had been laying, and those taken from the dead, were 
 piled in the back room of the tithing office and allowed to remain for 
 so great a length of time that when I was there, eighteen months after, 
 the room was still offensive. 
 
 "What a commentary upon the condition of affairs in our country ! 
 Mormonism revelling upon the spoils obtained by murder, while sev- 
 enteen orphan children are turned penniless upon the world. Yet 
 that world has " no ear to hear, no eye to see, no heart to feel, no arm 
 to bring deliverance." That we should allow such a condition of 
 affairs to exist is shameful, disgraceful to us all. The disgrace does not 
 alone attach to the weak, imbecile administration of James Buchanan 
 and his legal adviser, who lent himself to prevent the judiciary of 
 Utah from investigating the horible crimes that had been committed 
 in that Territory, and aided in shielding the criminals, but we are all 
 guilty, and should be so held until we, by force, if necessary, compel 
 restitution to the fatherless children, so far as it can be made. 
 
 That you may not conclude that I do the Mormons injustice in 
 charging upon them this horrible massacre, I shall publish in the 
 Appendix to my remarks reports of different Government officials who 
 have visited that section of our country. 
 
 Major, now General Carlton, visited that region' he also corrobo- 
 rates all that is contained in the abstracts I make from official reports. 
 At the time he was there, he erected a monument to the memory of 
 the dead. It was constructed by raising a large pile of rock, in the 
 centre of which was erected a beam some twelve or fifteen feet in 
 height. Upon one of the stones he caused to be engraved (< Here 
 lie the bones of 120 men, women, and children, from Arkansas, mur- 
 dered on the 10th day of September, 1857." Upon a cross-tree on 
 the beam he caused to be painted " Vengeance is mine, saith the 
 Lord, and I will repay it." This monument is said to have been de- 
 stroyed the first time Brigham visited that part of the Territory. 
 
 It has been said that we have courts in Utah, and the question is 
 frequently asked, why do not the courts act ? The uniform testimony 
 of the judges is to the effect that the courts are powerless. More than 
 fifteen Federal judges, who have gone to the Territory, have so stated. 
 They have again and again told you that the entire legislation of the 
 
23 
 
 Territory is to prevent the administration of the laws ; that the church 
 authorities are determined that the laws shall not be enforced in the 
 Federal courts; that the grand and trial jurors are Mormons, who are 
 taught that the Mormon Church laws are the higher laws, and 
 should prevail, and who refuse, therefore, to discharge their sworn 
 duties, and have invariably refused to punish any Mormon for an 
 offence committed against an anti-Mormon. To such an extent has 
 
 O 
 
 this been carried, that although the valleys of Salt Lake have been 
 replete with robberies and murders, yet the records of the courts do 
 not show a single instance of the punishment of a Mormon for an 
 offence committed against a " Gentile." 
 
 This is painfully manifest in the history which I now give of a term 
 of the court held by my colleague, Hon. CHAS. E. SINCLAIR, who con- 
 vened his court in Great Salt Lake city on the 8th day of July, 1859 : 
 
 The Mormon grand jury, ever ready to use the laws for their protection, 
 but never willing to prosecute a Mormon for his crimes, promptly found a bill 
 of indictment against one Ralph Pike, a sergeant in Co. I, of the 10th infantry, 
 United States army, for an assault with intent to kill, committed upon one 
 Howard Spencer, the son of a Mormon bishop, at the military reserve in Rush 
 valley. A company of soldiers were stationed on the reserve to guard the 
 hay of the Government stacked there. Spencer had been in the habit, at 
 every opportunity, of driving his cattle to these hay stacks. Sergeant Pike 
 was ordered to take a file of men, and drive off Spencer and his cattle. "When 
 Sergeant Pike approached Spencer, the latter refused to go, seized a pitch-fork 
 lying by, and attempted to stab the sergeant with it. Pike clubbed his mus- 
 ket, struck Spencer on the head, slightly fracturing his skull. Upon capias 
 issued, Pike was arrested and brought to Great Salt Lake city. The day fol- 
 lowing, (Aug. llth,) about 12 o'clock m., as Pike was entering the Salt Lake 
 House, on Main street, to get his dinner, Spencer stepped up to him from be- 
 hind, saying : " Are you the man that struck me in Rush valley ?" at the same 
 time drawing his pistol, shot him through the side, inflicting a mortal wound. 
 Spencer ran across the street, mounted his horse, and rode off, accompanied 
 by several noted "Danites." The guard, who attempted to fire at Spencer, 
 were prevented by the police. Pike lingered in dreadful agony two days 
 before he died. He was highly esteemed in the army as an amiable, manly, 
 and gentlemanly soldier. The "Deseret News," (the church organ,) at its nest 
 issue, lauded young Spencer for his courage and bravery. 
 
 In the winter of 1857 -'58, one Franklin McNeil was incarcerated in prison, 
 being put in irons during the 'Mormon war,' for no other crime than being an 
 American citizen. Frank sued Brigham Young for false imprisonment on the 
 2d day of August. The day preceding the appointed time for trial, Frank was 
 called to the door of his boarding-house, just after dark, by some unknown 
 person, and shot down. He died from his wound next morning, and thus the 
 suit was abated. The murderer was never discovered. 
 
 A man by the name of Drown brought suit, upon a promissory note for 
 $480, against the Danite captain, Bill Hickman. The case being submitted to 
 the court, Drown obtained a judgment. A few days after, Drown and a com- 
 
panion named Arnold were stopping at the house of a friend, in Salt Lake city, 
 where Hickman, with some seven or eight of his band, rode up to the House, 
 and called for Drown to come out. Drown, suspecting foul play, refused to 
 do so, and locked the doors. The ' Danites ' thereupon dismounted from 
 their horses, broke down the doors, and shot dowu both Drown and Arnold. 
 Drown died of his wounds next morning, and Arnold a few days later. Hick- 
 man and his band rode off unmolested. 
 
 Thus, during the short term of Judge SINCLAIR'S court, the earnest labors of 
 its officers accomplished no good. On the contrary, as it appears, the majesty 
 and power of the court was used to tie the hands of an innocent man, and lead 
 him as a helpless victim to be ruthlessly shot down without the power of self- 
 defence, whilst at the same time it protected his murderer by holding the 
 strong arm of the law in terror over those who would dare to take justice in 
 their own hands and punish the assassin of their friend. Thus, during a single 
 term of the court, held in a Mormon community, the warm life-blood of four 
 human victims is shed upon the very threshold of the court, and although the 
 grand jury is in session, no prosecution is attempted, and not one of the 
 offenders will ever be punished. 
 
 This man Howard Spencer is now in, Salt Lake City, and has been 
 ever since. This the learned delegate from the Territory will not 
 deny. 
 
 With the history of one more case, and I will conclude. In the 
 summer of 1858 David McKenzie was arrested charged with engrav- 
 ing plates for counterfeiting Government drafts on the ^Treasury at 
 St. Louis. The evidence showed that the engraving had been done in 
 the upper part of the Deseret Store in Salt Lake City. This store is 
 within the enclosure of Brigham's Young's premises, the same being 
 walled in with a stone wall some 12 or 14 feet in height. Judge 
 Eckels, who issued the warrant, directed the Marshal, Peter K. Dot- 
 son, to seize the plates, and any other matter that might be found in 
 the room where the engraving had been done, which would establish 
 the offense. The Marshal accordingly went to the room and seized the 
 plate. He also found another plate there, belonging, as it since ap- 
 pears, to Brigham Young, and used for striking off the Deseret cur- 
 rency ; and, observing that the copper-plate upon which the coun- 
 terfeit engraving had been made had been cut off one side of Brigham's 
 Deseret currency plate he brought away with him the currency plate. 
 After the trial Brigham refused to take them back, but brought his ac- 
 tion against the Marshal, P. K. Dotson, in the Probate Court. Probate 
 courts throughout the Territory held in violation of the organic act, 
 are dignified into courts of co-equal jurisdiction with the Federal courts. 
 It is one of Brigham's methods of destroying and nullifying the Fed- 
 eral courts. He installs into these Probate Courts his most devoted 
 creatures. An appeal can be made from these courts to the District 
 Court, but the appeal is almost always refused. I defy the delegate 
 
25 
 
 to show that Brigham ever brought an action in one of these creature 
 courts of his in which he did not succeed. Of course lie obtained a 
 judgment against Marshal Dotson for some twenty-six hundred dol- 
 lars. It would have been as much more if he had only said the word. 
 An appeal is refused ; execution is issued ; Dotson's property is sold 
 and he is turned out of his house a property that would rent for five 
 hundred dollars per annum Brigham's agent having bought it in. 
 Thus a good, efficient officer is ruined in Utah for having faithfully 
 endeavored to prevent fraud upon the Government Treasury. 
 
 I have the plates here, (exhibiting them.) I have shown them to 
 engravers in the city, and they tell me the original cost of making 
 them could not be more than five or six hundred dollars, and say that 
 they can be put in as good order as ever they were for twenty-five 
 dollars. No stronger evidence could be adduced showing the abso- 
 lute control of Brigham Young over the courts of Utah. 
 
 The Federal courts are powerless to do good, and are used only 
 when they can subserve the purposes of the Mormons. 
 
 The. weak, timid, temporizing, cowardly policy which has ever 
 been pursued towards Utah by the Federal Government has only led 
 to disorganization and anarchy and to the open violation of the most 
 sacred rights, and has exhibited Utah before the world as the gloomy 
 theatre where murder and robbery alternately shift the scene. 
 
 The Courts being deprived of aid and protection in the administra- 
 tion of the law, no arrests can be made, and no criminals brought to 
 punishment. 
 
 Marshal Dotson, holding warrants for the arrest of almost a hun- 
 dred murderers, including the participators in the horrible butcheries 
 at the Mountain Meadows, is compelled to return those warrants un- 
 executed for the reason, as lie solemnly states, that he has not the 
 ability to serve them. In utter disgust he resigns his office ; and in 
 this connection his letter of resignation, addressed to the President, is 
 worthy of perusal : 
 
 " GREAT SALT LAKE Crrr, U. T., 
 
 "August 1, 1859. 
 " To his Excellency JAMES BUCHANAN, 
 
 " President of the United States : 
 
 "SIR: I hereby tender to your Excellency my resignation as United States 
 Marshal of the Territory of Utah, to take effect from the 20th inst. 
 
 " In tendering this, my resignation, I deem it to be rny duty to warn you 
 that the policy of your Administration has been fatal to Federal supremacy 
 in Utah, and can only tend to build up, consolidate, and perpetuate the politi- 
 cal and ecclesiastical power of Brigham Young and his successors. 
 
 ''The unasked, and to this day derided pardon extended to treason, has only 
 tended to encourage traitors, and the presence of Federal troops crippled and 
 
26 
 
 humiliated by the instructions and restrictions imposed on them, serves only 
 the purpose of enriching the coffers of the Mormon church and of subserving 
 the ends of Mormon polity. 
 
 "The courts of the United States in the Territory, powerless to do good in 
 dreadful mockery of justice, are compelled to lend the power and majesty of 
 the law to subserve the evil designs of the very criminals they seek to punish. 
 Impotent to protect innocence they encourage crime. 
 
 "The Federal officers of the Territory, opposed and annoyed continually by 
 those -whose cordial support and co-operation could alone enable them effectu- 
 ally to sustain the dignity of the positions which they occupy, are as forms 
 without substance, shadows without reality. 
 
 "Though willing to serve the administration from whick I received my ap- 
 pointment, I cannot remain an officer of the Government, without the power 
 to maintain its dignity. 
 
 * * * ' * * * * * 
 
 "I am, sir, very respectfully, 
 
 "Your obedient servant, 
 
 "P. K. DOTSON, 
 " United States Marshal for Utah Territory" 
 
 T have endeavored to set before you a fair and impartial abstract of 
 Mormonism and its results as practically exhibited, I am aw*e that 
 compelled by lack of time, the review has necessarily been meagre. 
 I have, however, endeavored to bring out the salient points, and if I 
 know myself, have nothing extenuated nor set down aught in malice. 
 I have given to you nothing but what the truth of history will prove. 
 
 I take it for granted that what I have shown, clearly establishes 
 that the system of poligamy in Utah is distasteful to the female portion 
 of the community, and that the manner in which it is enforced is but 
 a system of enslaving the women, and of enforcing their subjection 
 to the lustful desires of the hoary headed leaders of the church. 
 
 I have also shown that they teach and practice the crime of rob- 
 bery under the assumed garb of religion, and that they also teach and 
 practice the doctrine of shedding of blood for the remission of sins, 
 I have given to you instance after instance wherein they have com- 
 mitted their robberies and murders. I might continue the catalogue 
 if it was necessary. 
 
 The question now presented is, shall this system be permanently fas- 
 tened upon our body politic. It may be said that under the Consti- 
 tution of the United States, every man is guaranteed the right to 
 worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, and 
 that the Government has no right to interfere with this people in the 
 practice of their religious faith. I deny that the Constitution con- 
 templates the protection of every class of persons who may assume 
 to themselves a religious faith at war with the most cherished senti- 
 ments of virtue and morality throughout the Christian and civilized 
 
27 
 
 world. I contend that we owe it as a duty to manifest our disappro- 
 bation of practices and doctrines so odious, and that it is our duty to 
 retain this Mormon people under the general jurisdiction of the Gov- 
 ernment, so that their institutions may be reached by Federal legisla- 
 tion if necessary, and thus show in a most indubitable manner that 
 we are unwilling that the stain and disgrace shall be fastened upon 
 us. It is a duty enjoined upon us by the common obligations of jus- 
 tice and humanity. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the mass of the Mormon community 
 are misled in their errors by a set of heartless fanatical leaders. 
 Their success may be much attributed to their isolation. That isola- 
 tion, the fast filling up of the great basin, because of its vast 
 mineral deposits, will soon do away with. Nevada now has a 
 population equal to Utah. Thriving towns and cities are springing 
 up on the Humboldt river, and in near proximity to the Mormons. 
 Brigham sees this, and he knows and feels that he must place himself 
 in a position to prevent the consequences to his system which will 
 grow out of this contiguity of settlement. He feels that he cannot 
 keep his women where they have a change to get away, unless he can 
 protect himself by legislation, further than he is able to do while his 
 community remains under the general jurisdiction of our Government. 
 It is on that account that he manifests so great a desire to become an 
 independent State. I say he desires to become a State, for under his 
 tyranical sway, and with the system that is now prevalent, Brigham 
 would be the State, and the State would be Brigham. 
 
 I say, again, there does exist, on the part of this Government, an 
 obligation to withhold from the Mormon people, as far as lies in the 
 power of the Government, the means of fostering and perpetuating 
 this system. It is involved in the general duty of preserving untar- 
 nished the fair fame of our country; it is enjoined by self-respect and 
 the promptings of an enlightened humanity. The civilized world 
 would view with reprobation and disgust, and the American heart 
 would shrink with shame at the admission of Utah in the family of 
 States upon an equality with other States of the Union. 
 
 The people of Utah have nothing but ill will towards our Govern- 
 ment. The great 'masses know nothing of our institutions they come 
 to Zion, not to America. They are hurried through the settled por- 
 tions of our country without being allowed to become acquainted 
 with our people or institutions. Upon arriving in Utah they hear 
 nothing but abuse of our people the whole fountain of patriotism is 
 polluted, and they are taught that they owe neither allegiance or love 
 to our Government. Treason and insubordination are openly taught. 
 God forbid that this people should be admitted into the Union as an 
 
independent State. I protest against it in the name of humanity, 
 which would be violated by the admission ! I protest against it on 
 behalf of my constituents, who have a deep interest in the institutions 
 that are to prevail in the great American basin ! I protest against it 
 in the name and on behalf of the murdered victims of the cruel Mor- 
 mon faith, whose mouldering bones are bleaching in almost every 
 valley in the Territory ! I protest against it on behalf of the down- 
 trodden and undone women of Utah, who, with their female posterity, 
 in all time to come, will bless those that would not aid in keeping 
 them in bondage ! 
 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 MASSACRE AT THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MURDER OF 
 
 THE PARISHES AND POTTER MURDER OF THE 
 
 AIKEN PARTY MURDER OF JONES AND 
 
 HIS MOTHER MURDER OF FORBES. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE "DANITE" ORGANIZATION, 
 
 FORT BRIDGER, UTAH, 
 
 December 4, 185*7. 
 
 * * * # * * * 
 
 On the tenth day of September last, George "W. Hancock, a merchant in the 
 town of Payson, came to the Indian settlements to look at some fat cattle that 
 I proposed selling, and in the course of conversation, said that he had learned 
 that the California emigrants on the southern route had got themselves into a 
 very serious difficulty with the Piedes, who had given them to understand that 
 they could not pass through their country, and on attempting to disregard this 
 injunction, found themselves surrounded by the Indians, and compelled to seek 
 shelter behind their wagons. He said he had learned these facts from an ex- 
 press man, who passed his house that morning with a message from the Indians 
 to President Young, inquiring of him what they must do with the Americans. 
 The express man had been allowed one hundred consecutive hours in which to 
 perform the trip of nearly three hundred miles and return, which Mr. Hancock 
 felt confident he would do. On the day following, one of the Utah Indians, 
 who had been absent for some days gathering pine nuts, west of the Sevier 
 lake, returned, and said that the Mormons had killed all the emigrants. He 
 said he learned this news from a band of the Piedes, but could not tell when 
 the fight occurred, or how many had been killed. One of the Utahs, named 
 Spoods, came to the farm on the morning of the 14th, having traveled all night, 
 and also confirmed the report of the difficulty between the emigrants and the 
 Piedes, but stated that when hie brother Ammon (chief, who lives in the Piede 
 country,) went to Iron county to persuade the Piedes to leave the road, the 
 bishop told him that he had no business with the Piedes, and had better leave ; 
 whereupon an altercation arose between the bishop and the chief. 
 
 Spoods thought that the Piedes had been set upon the emigrants by the 
 Mormons. 
 
 It soon began to be talked among the employees at the farm that all the emi- 
 r?.^.t3 on the southern road had been killed by the Piede Indians, and the re- 
 
30 
 
 port was confirmed by several other persons who visited the farm ; but the 
 Indians insisted that Mormons, and not Indians, had killed the Americans. 
 
 This affair had become so much the subject of conversation, that, on the 17th, 
 I started an Indian boy, named Pete, who speaks the English language quite 
 fluently, with instructions to proceed to Iron county on a secret route, and to 
 learn from the Piedes if possible, and also from the Utahs, what the nature of 
 the difficulty was, and who were the instigators of it. He returned on the 
 23d, and reported that lie only went to Ammon's village, in Beaver county, 
 where he met a large band of the Piedes, who had just returned from Iron 
 county 
 
 They acknowledged having participated in the massacre of the emigrants, 
 but said that the Mormons persuaded them into it. They said that about ten or 
 eleven sleeps ago, John D. Lee came to this village, and told them that Ameri- 
 cans were ver} 7 bad people, and always made a rule to kill Indians whenever 
 they had a chance. He said, also, that they had often killed the Mormons, 
 who were friends to the Indians. He then prevailed on them to attack the 
 emigrants, who were then passing through the country, (about one hundred in 
 number,) and promised them that if they were not strong enough to whip 
 them, the Mormons would help them. The Piedes made the attack, but were 
 repulsed on three different occasions, when Lee and the bishop of Ceder City, 
 with a number af Mormons, approached the camp of the emigrants, under pre- 
 text of trying to settle the difficulty, and with lying, seductive overtures, suc- 
 ceeded in inducing the emigrants to lay down their weapons of defense and 
 admit them and their savage allies inside of their breastworks, when the work 
 of destruction began, and, in the language of the unsophisticated boy, " they 
 cut all of their throats but a few that started to run off, and the Piedes shot them?' 
 He also stated that there were some fifteen or sixteen small children that were 
 not killed, and were in charge of the bishop. 
 
 Lee and the bishop took all the stock, [over a thousand head,] as also a large 
 amount of money. The Mormon version of this affair is that the Piedes went 
 to the emigrant camp -and aaked for meat, and they gave them beef with 
 strychnine upon it, and that when Brigham learned this fact, he sent word 
 back to them "to do with the Americans as they thought proper." But I have 
 not yet been able to learn that the strychnine had killed any of the Indians, or 
 even made them sick. A report also reached the Indian farm on Spanish Fork* 
 about the 15th of September, that the Snake Indians, under a chief named 
 Little Soldier, had attacked an emigrant, named Sqnires, from Missouri, who 
 was camped near Ogden, and driven off all his cattle, [over four hundred,] to- 
 gether with all the mulas and horses belonging to him. But the Utahs made 
 no hesitation in asserting that the Mormons took the stock themselves, and that 
 they had learned all about it from some Gosh-Utes who live in Rush valley. 
 
 In confirmation of the truth of this report of the Utahs, I learned a few 
 days ago from Ben Simon, a Delaware Indian, who lives with the Snakes in 
 Weaber valley, that sometime in the early part of September, Dirnick B. Hunt- 
 ington, [interpreter for Brigham Young,] and Bishop West, of Ogden, came to 
 the Snake village, and told the Indians that Brigham wanted them to run off 
 the emigrants' cattle, and if they w.ould do so they might have them as their 
 own. Simon says the Snake chiefs consulted him about the propriety of under- 
 taking the theft, and he advised them to have nothing to do with the cattle, 
 which course they concluded to adopt, but Huntington and West insisted on 
 
31 
 
 their taking the stock ; whereupon the chiefs told them that they did not want 
 it, and if the Mormons wanted it let them go and get it themselves, and so the 
 interview ended. Simon thinks that if any of the Indians had anything to do 
 with it they were hired by the Mormons, and says that he knows that the Mor- 
 mons got the stock. 
 
 It may be objected by the incredulous that those charges are too vague and 
 uncertain, and deficient in point of names and dates ; in answer to which I 
 would say, that the commission of these crimes need no proof, there existence 
 being generally admitted. The only questions to be determined are who insti- 
 gated them? and whose testimony is deserving the most credit the Mormons 
 or the Indians? And under existing circumstances I am free to say that I pre- 
 fer yielding my credence to the more unsophisticated. I have frequently been 
 told by the chiefs of the Utahs, that Brigham Young was trying to bribe them 
 to join in rebellion against the United States by offering them guns, ammuni- 
 tion, and blankets, on condition that they would assist in opposing the advance 
 of the United States troops into the Territory, and he has not only made these 
 overtures by his agents, but has at sundry times made them in person. How 
 far he may have succeeded in his plots of treason, at the expense of the gov- 
 ernment, may not as yet be fully known and understood, but one thing is cer- 
 tain, that the more powerful tribes of the Utahs and Snakes have so far resist- 
 ed all the allurements that have been offered them and kept themselves untram- 
 meled by this unholy alliance, and I am proud to say that they manifest no 
 
 inclination whatever to participate in it. 
 
 * ***** 
 
 FORT BRIDGER, July, 6, 1859. 
 
 MAJOR : I have the honor to inform you that, in pursuance of instructions 
 received from the adjutant general's office of this department, dated April 17, 
 1859, I left Camp Floyd, Utah Territory, on the 21st of April, 1859, to pro- 
 ceed to Santa Clara, in order to protect travellers on the road to California, 
 and to inquire into certain depredations said to have been committed by the 
 Indians in that vicinity. 
 
 My command consisted of one company of dragoons and two coin panics of 
 infantry. 
 
 Nothing of interest occurred until my arrival at the Mountain Meadows, 
 which are situated about one hundred and fifty miles south of Camp Floyd, 
 and on the southern rim of the basin. Here I found human skulls-, bones, and 
 hair, scattered about, and scraps of clothing of men, women, and children. I 
 saw one girl's dress, apparently that of a child ten or twelve years of age. 
 These were the remains of a party of peaceful inhabitants of the United 
 States, consisting of men, women, and children, and numbering about one 
 hundred and fifty, who were removing with their effects from the State of 
 Arkansas to the State of California. These emigrants were. here met by the 
 Mormons (assisted by such of the wretched Indians of the neighborhood as 
 they could force or persuade to join,) and massacred, with the exception of 
 such infant children that the Mormons thought too young to remember or 
 tell of the affair. The Mormons had their faces painted so as to disguise 
 themselves as Indians. 
 
 The Mormons were led on by John D. Lee, then a high dignitary in the self- 
 styled Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and Isaac Haight, now ft 
 dignitary in the same. 
 
32 
 
 This affair began by a surprise. The emigrants were encamped near a 
 spring from which there is a ravine. Along this ravine the Mormons and 
 Indians crept to the spring during the night. When the emigrants arose in 
 the morning they were fired upon, and some twelve or fifteen of them killed. 
 The emigrants then seized their arms and defended themselves so bravely 
 that, after four days, the Mormons and Indians had not succeeded in extermi- 
 nating them. This horrid affair was finished by an act of treachery. John 
 D. Lee, having washed the paint from his face, came to the emigrants and 
 told them that if they would surrender themselves, and give their property 
 to the Indians, that the Mormons would conduct them safely back to Cedar 
 City. The emigrants then surrendered, with their wives and children. They 
 were taken about a mile and a half from the spring, where they, their wives 
 and their children, (with the exception of some infants,) were ruthlessly 
 killed. 
 
 The infante were taken to Cedar City, where they were either sold or 
 given away to such of the Mormons as desired them. It is a notorious fact 
 that these infants never have been with the Indians. The property of the 
 emigrants was taken to Cedar City, where it was put up at public auction 
 and sold. 
 
 These facts were derived from the children who did remember and could 
 tell of the matter, from Indians, and from the Mormons themselves. This affair 
 occurred in the month of September, in 1857. 
 
 On leaving the Mountain Meadows, I proceeded on with my command to 
 the river Santa Clara, where I arrived on the 8th* of May, 1859. I sent for 
 Jackson, the chief of the tribe, said to be most hostile to the Americans. He 
 acknowledged that he had committed some outrages on the people of the 
 United States. He made the most humble protestations of future good con- 
 duct, in which I put some reliance, if he is not encouraged to commit overt 
 acts by the Mormons. These Indians are a miserable eet of root-diggers, and 
 nothing is to be apprehended from them but by the smallest and most careless 
 party. 
 
 The commanding general having concluded that the objects of the expedi- 
 tion were accomplished, I returned to Camp Floyd, Utah Territory, agreeably 
 to his instructions. 
 
 J am sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 R. P. CAMPBELL, 
 Capt. Second Dragoons, Goirig Santa Clara Expedition. 
 
 Major F. J. PORTER, 
 
 Assistant Adjutant General U. S. Army, 
 
 Camp Floyd, Utah Territory. 
 
 12 c. 
 
 CAMP AT MOUNTAIN MEADOWS, 
 
 Utah Territory, May 6, 1859. 
 
 CAPIAIN : I have the honor to report, that this morning, accompanied by 
 the detachment of men furnished by your orders, I proceeded to inter the re- 
 mains of the men, women, And children of the Arkansas emigrant train, mas- 
 
33 
 
 sacred by the Mormons at the Mountain Meadows, Utah Territory, in the 
 month of September, 1857. 
 
 At the scene of the first attack, in the immediate rieinjty of our present camp, 
 marked by a small defensive trench made by the emigrants, a number of human 
 skulls and bones, and hair, were found scattered about, bearing the appearance 
 of never having beenburied; also remnants of bedding and wearing apparel. 
 
 On examining the trenches or excavations, which appear to have been with- 
 in the corral, and within which *it was supposed some written account of the 
 massacre might have been concealed, some few human bones, human hair, and 
 what seemed to be the feathers of bedding, only were discerned. 
 
 Proceeding twenty-five hundred yards m a direction N. 15 W., I reached .a 
 ravine fifty yards distant from the road, bordered by a few bushes of scrub 
 oak, in which I found portions of the skeletons of many bodies skulls, bones, 
 ftnd matted hair most of which, on examination, I concluded to be those of 
 men. Three hundred and fifty yards further op, and in the same direction, 
 another assembly of human remains were found, which, by all appearance, had 
 been left to decay upon the surface. Skulls and bones, most of which I be- 
 lieved to be those of women, also of children, probably ranging from six to 
 twelve years of age. Here, too, were found masses of women's hair, children's 
 bonnets, such as are generally used upon the plains, and pieces of lace, muslin, 
 calicoes, and other material, part of women's and children's apparel. I have 
 buried thirteen skulls and many more scattered fragments. 
 
 Some of the remains above referred to were found upon the surface of the 
 ground, with a little earth partially covering them, and at the place where 
 the men were massacred ; some lightly buried, but the majority were scattered 
 about upon the plain. Many of the skulls bore marks of violence, being 
 pierced with bullet holes, or shattered by heavy blows, or cleft with some 
 sharp- edged instrument. The bones were bleached and worn by long exposure 
 to the elements, and bore the impress of the teeth of wolves or other wild animals. 
 
 The skulls found upon the ground near the spring, or position of first attack 
 and adjoining our camp, were eight in number. These, with the other re- 
 mains there found, were buried, under my supervision, at the base of the hill 
 upon the hill-side of the valley. 
 
 At the rate, 250 yards distant from the spring, the relative positions and 
 general appearance of the remains seemed to indicate that the men were there 
 taken by surprise and massacred. Some of the skulls showed that fire-arma 
 had been discharged close to the head. I have buried eighteen skulls and 
 parts of many more skeletons, found scattered over the space of a mile towards 
 the lines, in which direction they were no doubt dragged by the wolves. 
 
 No names were found upon any article of apparel, or any pecnliarity in the 
 remains, with the exception of one bone, the upper jaw, in which the teeth 
 were very closely crowded, and which contained one front tooth more thau 
 is generally found. 
 
 Under my direction, the above mentioned remains were all properly buried, 
 the respective locality being marked with mounds of stone. 
 
 I have the honor to be, captain, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 CHARLES BREWER, 
 Assistant Surgeon United States SLrmy. 
 
 Captain R. P. CAMPBELL, 
 
 Second Dragoons, Commanding Paymaster's Escort. 
 
 3 
 
34 
 
 PROVO CITY, U. T., March 18, 1859. 
 
 SIR : I left Salt Lake City last Sunday to visit the southern Indians, and to 
 bring the seventeen chiMren remaining from the massacre in September, 1857, 
 to Salt Lake city, or adjacent to it. 
 
 ****** 
 
 I am in possession of the facts of the murders in June and October, and have, 
 within twenty days, received highly important and reliable information of the 
 Mountain Meadow butchering affair. With the facts in my possession now, I 
 may succeed in recovering some of the property. Facts in my possession 
 warrant me in estimating that there was distributed, a few days after the mas- 
 sacre, among the leading church dignitaries, $30,000 worth of property. It is 
 presumable they also had some money. 
 
 I will make such inquiry about this extraordinary affair as contingent cir- 
 cumstances will admit. I know that the Indians are bad enough ; I am aware, 
 also, that it is, and especially has been, exceedingly convenient to implicate 
 the Indians in all such cases. 
 
 ****** 
 
 I remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 J. FORNEY, 
 
 Superintendent of Indian Affairs, U. T. 
 Hon. J. W. DENVER, 
 
 Comm'r of Indian Affairs, Washington, D. C. 
 
 SUPERINTENDENT'S OFFICE, UTAH, 
 Great Salt Lake City, August, 1859. 
 
 SIR: It has been my intention, for some weeks past, to give you a more full 
 statement than heretofore given of the Mountain Meadow tragedy, and of the 
 children saved from it. 
 
 A massacre of such unparalleled magnitude on American soil must necessa- 
 rily excite much interest ia the public mind. From information received from 
 various sources during the last twelve months, I am enabled to give you a re- 
 liable account of the emigrant company in question, and the children remain- 
 ing, and also some of the causes and circumstances of the inhuman massacre. 
 
 The company was composed of about thirty families, and one hundred and 
 thirty to one hundred and forty persons, and, I think, principally from John- 
 ston county, Arkansas. 
 
 I have deemed it a matter of material importance to make strict inquiry 
 relative to the general behavior and conduct of the company towards the peo- 
 ple of this Territory in their journey through it, and am justified in saying 
 that they conducted themselves with propriety. 
 
 It is generally conceded that the said company was abundantly supplied 
 with traveling and extra horses, .cattle, <fec. They had about thirty good 
 wagons, and about thirty mules and horses, and six hundred head of cattle, 
 when passing through Provo City, Utah Territory. At Corn Creek, fifteen 
 miles from Fillmore City, and one hundred and sixty five miles south of this 
 city, th$ company camped several days. At this place, and within a few miles 
 of the Indian farm, (commenced a few years ago for the Pah-vant tribe, and 
 all living on it,) it is alleged that the said emigrant company treated the In- 
 dians most inhumanly ; such as poisoning a spring with arsenic, and impreg- 
 
35 
 
 nating dead cattle with strychnine. John.D. Lee, living one hundred and fifty 
 miles south of Fillmore, informed me that about twenty Indiana and s 
 cattle died from drinking of the poisoned water, and Indians from eating 
 poisoned meat. 
 
 Dr. Ray, of Fillmore City, assured me that one of his oxen died while the 
 company was encamped in the neighborhood, and that his wife, while engaged 
 in rendering the tallow of the dead ox, became suddenly ill, and that a boy 
 who was assisting her died in a few days. 
 
 I have not been apprised of any investigation at the time by the Indian 
 officials who were then in the Territory, or of an official investigation by the 
 proper authorities of Fillmore. It seems obvious that Dr. Ray's ox died about 
 the time these unfortunate people were camped in the neighborhood. I cannot 
 learn, however, of any difficulty the company had with the Pah-vant Indians 
 while camped near them. The ox died unquestionably from eating a poison- 
 ous weed that grows in most of the valleys in this Territory, and it is by no 
 means uncommon for cattle to get poisoned and die from the effects of this 
 weed. One or two Indians died from eating of the dead ox, but I have not 
 been apprised that this excited any of them against the emigrants. And after 
 strict inquiry I cannot learn that even one Pah-vant Indian was present at the 
 massacre. Those persons in Fillmore, and further South, who believe that a 
 spring was poisoned with arsenic, and the meat of a dead ox with strychnine, 
 by said company, may be honest in their belief, and attribute the cause of the 
 massacre to the alleged poisoning. Why an emigrant company, and especially 
 farmers, would carry with them so much deadly poison is incomprehensible. 
 I regard the poisoning affair as entitled to no consideration. In my opinion, 
 bad men, for a bad purpose, have magnified a natural circumstance for the per- 
 petration of a crime that has no parallel in American history for atrocity. 
 
 I hear nothing more of the emigrant company until their arrival in Moun- 
 tain Madow valley, abo.ut the 2d or 3d of September, 1857. This valley is 
 seven miles in length east and west, and one to three wide a large spring at 
 each end. In about the centre, and from north to southeast, is what is termed 
 the "rim of the basin." East of this the waters go to the lakes of Utah Ter- 
 ritory, and those west into the Pacific. The valley is well hemmed in by high 
 hills or mountains ; is almost a continuous meadow, affording an abundance of 
 pasture. 
 
 At the spring in the east end is a house and corral, occupied in September, 
 1857, by Mr. Jacob Hamblin. It is due to Mr. Hamblin to say that he left 
 home several weeks before the company arrived in the valley, and returned 
 home several days after the massacre. 
 
 David Tulis (was living with Mr. Hamblin) saya,: " The company passed by 
 the house on Friday, September 2d or 3d, towards evening ; that it was a 
 large and respectable-looking company. One of the men rode up to where I 
 was working, and asked if there was water ahead. I said, yes. The person 
 who rode up behaved civilly. The company camped at the spring in the weafc 
 end of the valley. I heard firing on Monday morning, and for four or five 
 mornings afterwards; if there had been firing during the day, \ could not 
 have heard it on account of the wind." 
 
 I then asked Mr. Tulis the following questions, and received answers, to 
 wit: 
 
 1. When you heard the firing first, what was your opinion of its cause? 
 
36 
 
 Answer. I believed it was the Indians fighting the emigrant company camp- 
 ed at the spring at the other end of tlie valley. 
 
 2. Why did you not notify the nearest settlement? 
 
 Answer. I thought or expected that the people of the nearest settlement 
 knew of the fight. 
 
 3. Why did you suppose so ? 
 
 Answer. Because I saw Indians riding back and forwards on the road. 
 
 4. Was you afraid ? 
 Answer. I was a little timid. 
 
 5. How soon did you see white men ? 
 
 Answer. Two or three days afterwards that is, after the massacre ; these 
 persons looked like travellers. I think they went to bury the dead. 
 
 6. Did you see many Indians during- the fight? 
 
 Answer. During the fighting the Indians continued to run to and fro on the 
 road. 
 
 7. How many were in the train ? 
 
 Answer. I suppose 70 to 100 ; there seemed to be a good many women and 
 children. 
 
 8. Did you hear any talk about the massacre ? 
 Answer. Yes. 
 
 9. What did you hear was the cause of the massacre ? 
 
 Answer. I heard afterwards : because the emigrant party poisoned the 
 spring or some cattle at Corn creek. 
 
 10. What was your opinion of the cause? 
 
 Answer. I thought there must have been some fuss with the Indians along 
 the road somewhere. I heard that the emigrant party had poisoned a spring 
 at Corn creek. 
 
 11. What became of the property? 
 
 Answer. The Indians drove all the cattle and horses away. I heard they 
 burned the wagons where they were camped. 
 
 12. What was done with the children immediately after the massacre? 
 Answer. I heard the Indians took them to Cedar City. I also saw the 
 
 Indians drive some cattle towards Cedar City. 
 
 13. Did you ever see any of the property in the possession of whites ? 
 Answer. No. 
 
 14. Did you ever hear any one talk about the property ? 
 Answer. No. 
 
 15. Did you ever hear of any one escaping from the fight or massacre? 
 Answer. I heard of one ; and he was afterwards killed at the Muddy or Los 
 
 Vagos river. 
 
 This is part of the statement of D. Tulis, made to me in presence of Wm. 
 H. Rodgers, April 13 last, -while on my trip to Santa Clara. He was travel- 
 ling with us from Painter creek. 
 
 I will give you a few extracts from the statements by Alfred, who is a civil- 
 ked Shoshonee Indian, raised by Mr. Jacob Hamblin, and was then and is still 
 living with him. Alfred says : 
 
 " I saw the company passing our house about sundown. It was a large com- 
 pany. They camped at the spring in the other end of the valley. A day or 
 two after passing our house, I heard firing when in bed ; it continued all day 
 four days. 
 
3T 
 
 Question. "Why did you not go there ? 
 
 Answer. I had not time. I was attending to the sheep. The time they 
 were killed, I was about a mile from them. I saw some Indians killing them. 
 They shot some with arrows and guns, and others were killed with clubs. I 
 talked with some of the Indians (the day they were killed ;) they were mad, 
 and I was afraid to talk much to them. Some of the Indians, during the four 
 or five days firing, rode to and fro towards Painter Creek settlement, about 
 ten miles east of the Mountain Meadow valley ; they were riding over the 
 hills, and riding very fast. 
 
 Question. Why did you not, during the four or five days firing, notify the 
 people of Painter Creek and Cedar City of the fight ? 
 
 Answer. I told Mr. Tulis and those at the house, when I came in from herd- 
 ing, about the Indians fighting the emigrants. Mr. Tulis told me to mind my 
 business and attend to my herding. I saw the Indians killing the whites. 
 
 Question. How did the emigrants get out of the corral ? 
 
 Answer. They thought the Indians had all left, and then they started out, 
 and were coming to our house, and when they were about a mile from the 
 wagons, the Indians, who were hid .behind oak brush and sage, fell on them. 
 I went to the place the same day, and saw the dead lying about. Some were 
 stript, and some were dressed. The Indians were mad, scolding and quarrel- 
 ling. I saw the children going past our house. (Mr. Hamblin's.) All the chil- 
 dren stopped at our house. 
 
 Question. Who brought the children to Mr. Hamblin's house? 
 
 Answer. Mr. David Tulis brought them all to our house in a wagon about 
 dark, the same evening of the day of the massacre. 
 
 Question. Was Mr. Jacob Hamblin at home when the company arrived in the 
 valley and the day of the massacre ? 
 
 Answer. He left home several weeks before the company arrived, and re- 
 turned several days after the massacre. 
 
 These person's lived at Mr. Hamblin's, and within three and a half miles of 
 the spot where the killing was done ; yet neither were there, if one is to be- 
 lieve them. 
 
 I conclude, from the most reliable information, that the company promiscu- 
 ously camped near the spring, intending to remain some days to recruit the 
 stock, preparatory to crossing the several deserts before reaching California. 
 They had no apprehension of serious danger when they first readied the val- 
 ley, and for several days afterwards, or -from Friday until Monday morning. 
 The company then corralled the wagoms, and made a protective fort, by filling 
 with earth the space under the wagons. I saw the evidences of this last 
 April. 
 
 In pursuance to arrangements, the first attack was made on the unfortunate 
 company by Indians on Monday morning, and continued daily until Friday 
 morning, September 0. The camp was surrounded continually, preventing 
 any one from leaving the corral without hazarding life, during five or six days. 
 
 It is impossible to comprehend the immense suffering. On the fatal morning 
 two wagons approached the corral, and several whites effected a compromise, 
 the emigrants giving up all their arms, with the assurance that the lives of all 
 should be saved and conducted back in safety to Cedar City. The company 
 started under the care and direction of white men; the wounded, old women, 
 and children were taken in the two wagons. They proceeded about one and 
 
a half mile toward Cedar, when suddenly, and in obedience to a signal, th 
 work of death commenced. The murderers were secreted in a few acres of 
 oak brush and sage, the only thing of the kind I saw in the valley. My im- 
 pression is that from one hundred and fifteen to on* hundred and twenty wer 
 there murdered. Several escaped ; only three got out of the valley ; two of 
 whom were soon overtaken and shot down. One adult got as far as the Muddy, 
 and was returning with two persons from California ; but he was also overta- 
 ken and shot by Indians. 
 
 From the evidence in my possession, I am justified in the declaration that 
 this massacre was concocted by white men and consummated by whites and In- 
 dians. The names of many of the whites engaged in this terrible affair have 
 already been given to the proper legal authorities. 
 
 I will in due time take the necessary steps for the recovery of the property, 
 which was sold and divided among certain parties. 
 
 The seventeen little children, all that I can learn of, were taken after the 
 massacre to Mr. Hamblin's House by John D. Lee, David Tulis, and others, in 
 a wagon, either the same evening or the following morning. The children 
 were sold out to different persons in Cedar City, Harmony, and Painter Creek. 
 Bills are now in my possession from different individuals, asking payment from 
 the Government. I cannot condescend to become the medium of even trans- 
 mitting such claims to the department. 
 
 Below is a list of the children recovered by me and brought to this city, 
 fifteen of whom are now en route to Arkansas, and two detained to giv 
 evidence. 
 
 John Calvin Sorel ; Lewis and Mary Sorel ; Ambrose Miram, and William 
 Taggit ; Frances Horn; Angeline, Annie, and Sophronia or Mary Huff; Ephraim 
 W. Huff; Charles and Annie Francher; Betsey and Jane Baker; Rebecoa, 
 Louisa, and Sarah Dunlap ; William (Welch) Baker. 
 
 I remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 J. FORNEY. 
 Supt, Indian Affairs, Utah Territory. 
 
 Hon. A. B. GREENWOOD, 
 
 Com. of Indian Affairs, Washington, D. C. 
 
 John D. Lee, a Mormon president, has knowledge of the whereabouts of 
 much of the property taken from these ill-fated emigrant, and, if I am not mis- 
 informed, in possession of a large quantity of it. Why not make him disgorge 
 this ill-gotten plunder, and disclose the amount escheated to and sold out by 
 the Mormon Church as its share of the blood of helpless victims ? When h 
 enters into a league with hell and a covenant with death, he should not be 
 allowed to make feasts and entertain government officials at his table as he did 
 Dr. Jacob Forney, superintendent of Indian affairs, while the rest of his party 
 refused, in his hearing and that of Lee, to share the hospitality of this noto- 
 rioiis murderer THIS SCOURGE OF THE DESERT. This man Lee does not deny, but 
 admits that he was present at the massacre, but pretends that he was there to 
 prevent bloodshed ; but positive evidence implicates him as the leader of the 
 murderers too deeply for denial. The children point him out as one of them 
 that did the bloody work. He and other white men had these children, and 
 they never were in the hands of the Indians, but in those who murdered them 
 and Jacob Hamlin and Jacob Forney know it. The children pointed out to 
 
39 
 
 us the dresses and jewelry of their mothers and sisters that now grace the 
 angelic forms of these murderers' women and children. Verily it would seem 
 that men and women alike combined in this wholesale slaughter. 
 
 This ill-fated train consisted of eighteen wagons, eight hundred and twenty 
 head of cattle, household goods to a large amount, besides money, estimated 
 at eighty or ninety thousand dollars, the greater part of which, it is believed , 
 now makes rich the harems of this John D. Lee. Of this train a man, whose 
 name is unknown, fortunately escaped at the time of the massacre to Vegas, 
 one hundred miles distant from the scene of blood, oh the Califordia road. H 
 was followed by five Mormons, who through promises of safety, &c., prevailed 
 upon him to begin his return to Mountain Meadows, and, contrary to their 
 promises and his just expectation, they inhumanly butched him, laughing at 
 and disregarding his loud and repeated cries for mercy ; as witnessed and 
 told by Ira Hatch, one of the five. The object in killing this man was to leave 
 no witness competent to give testimony in a court of justice, but God, whose 
 ways are inscrutable, has thought proper, through the instrumentality of 
 the "babes and sucklings" recovered by us, to bring to light this most horrible 
 tradgedy, and make known its barbarous and inhuman perpetrators. 
 
 Already a step has been taken by Judge Cradlebaugh in the right direction, 
 of which we see the evidence in the flight of presidents, bishops, and elders to 
 the mountains, to escape the just penalty of the law for their crimes. If the 
 vengeance of the Lord is slow, it is equally sure. The Mormons who know 
 better, have reported that the principals, and in fact, all the actors in this 
 fearful massacre, were Indian savages ; but subsequent events have thrown 
 Bufficient light upon this mystery to fix the foul blot indellibly upon the 
 Mormon escutcheon. Many of the leaders are well known. John D. Lee was 
 the commander-in-chief. President Haight and Bishop Smith, of Cedar City, 
 and, besides these, one hundred actors and accomplices, are known to Judge 
 Cradlebaugh and Dr. Forney. JAMES LYNCH. 
 
 James Lynch, being duly sworn, states on oath that all the material facts, 
 stated by him in the foregoing affidavit, so far as he states the same as of his 
 own knowledge are true, and so far as he states the same as from information 
 derived from others, as also the conclusions drawn from the same, he believes 
 to be true, and further saith not. JAMES LYNCH. 
 
 Sworn to and subscribed July 27, 1859. 
 
 D. R. ECKELS, 
 Chief Justice of Supreme Court. 
 
 The undersigned state on oath, that the foregoing affidavit has been care- 
 fully read to them ; that they are the identical persons named in it as having 
 been employed by Dr. Jacob Forney to return with him to Salt Lake City ; that 
 they went from Beaver City with said Forney south, and back again, and that 
 we fully concur in the statements made by James Lynch, Esq., in the foregoing 
 affidavit, as to what we saw and heard on the trip, and the conduct of Dr. 
 Forney, superintendent of Indian affairs, and further say not. 
 
 THOMAS DUNN, 
 JOHN LOFINK. 
 
 Subscribed and sworn to before me, July 27, 1859. D. R. ECKELS, 
 
 Chief Justice of Supreme Court. 
 
40 
 
 SUPERINTENDENT'S OFFICE, UTAH, 
 Great Salt Lake City, Semptember 22, 1859. 
 
 SIR: Your letter dated July 2, in which you request me to ascertain the 
 names of white men, if any, implicated in the Mountain Meadow massacre, 
 reached me several weeks since, about 300 miles west of this city. 
 
 I gave several months ago to the Attorney General and several of the 
 United States judges, the names of those who I believed were not only im- 
 plicated, but the hell-deserving scoundrels who concocted and brought to a 
 successful termination of the whole affair. 
 
 The following are the names of the persons the most guilty: Isaac T, 
 Haight, Cedar City, president of several settlements south : Bishop Smith, 
 Cedar City ; John D. Lee, Harmony; John M. Higby, Cedar City; Bishop 
 Davis, D ; avid Tullis, Santa Clara ; Ira Hatch, Santa Clara. These were the 
 cause of the massacre, aided by others. It is to be regretted that nothing hai 
 yet been accomplished towards bringing these murderers to justice. 
 I remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 J. FORNEY, 
 
 Sup't of Indian Affairs, Utah Territory. 
 Hon. A. B. GREENWOOD, 
 
 Commissioner Indian Affairs, Washington, D. C. 
 
 Extract from Superintendent Forney'* annual report of September 29, 1859. 
 
 MOUNTAIN MEADOW MASSACRE. 
 
 A company of emigrants from Arkansas, emigrating to California, arrived 
 and camped at a spring in the west end of Mountain Meadow valley on the 
 3d or 4th September, 1857. On the 9th of said month, and near the said 
 spring, one hundred and fifteen to one huhdred and twenty were inhumanly 
 messacred. The lives of seventeen children were spared, who were from two 
 months to seven years old. This massacre was brought to my official notice by 
 a letter from the Hon. C. E. Mix, received June,, 1858, instructing me to make 
 inquiry, and recover, if possible, certain children, who, it was supposed, were 
 saved from the massacre, and were supposed to be living with Mormons and 
 Indians. Sixteen of the surviving children were collected in July, 1858, and 
 were placed in a respectable family in Santa Clara, three hundred and fifty 
 miles south of this city, and were provided for by my directions. The seven- 
 teenth child was recovered last April. None of the children were claimed by 
 or were living with or among the Indians. They were taken from the field of 
 slaughter the evening of the day their friends were killed, and conveyed in a, 
 wagon to Mr. Hamblin's house, in the east end of the valley, by John D. Lee 
 and Daniel Tulis, and perhaps others. The following day the children were 
 divided out and placed in different Mormon families in Cedar City, Harmony, 
 Santa Clara, <fec., from whence they were collected in pursuance of my direc- 
 tions. A massacre of such unparalleled magnitude on American soil must^ 
 sooner or later, demand thorough investigation. I have availed myself during 
 the last twelve months, of every opportunity to obtain reliable information 
 about the said emigrant company, and the alleged causes of and circumstances 
 which led to their treacherous sacrifice. 
 
 Mormons have been accused of aiding the Indians in the commission of this 
 
41 
 
 crime. I commenced my inquiries without prejudice or selfish motive, and 
 with the hope that, in the progress of my inquiries, facts would enable me to 
 exculpate all white men from any participation in this tragedy, and saddle the 
 guilt exclusively upon the Indians ; but, unfortunately, every step in my in- 
 quiries satisfied me that the Indians acted only a secondary part. Conflicting 
 statements were made to me of the behavior of this emigrant company while 
 travelling through the Territory. I have accordingly deemed it a matter of 
 material importance to make a strict inquiry to obtain reliable information on 
 this subject; not that bad conduct on their part could in any degree palliate 
 the enormity of the crime, or be regarded as any extenuation. My object was 
 common justice to the surviving orphans. The result of my inquiries enables 
 me to say that the company conducted themselves with propriety. They were 
 camped several days at Corn creek, Fillmore valley, adjacent to one of our 
 Indian farms. 
 
 Persons have informed me that, whilst there encamped, they poisoned a large 
 spring with arsenic and the meat of a dead ox with strichnine. This ox died, 
 unquestionably, from eating a poisonous weed which grows in most of the 
 valleys here. Persons in the southern part of the Territory told me last spring, 
 when on a southern trip, that from fifteen to twenty Pah-vant Indians (of those 
 on Corn Creek farm) died from drinking the water of the poisoned spring and 
 eating of the poisoned meat. Other equally unreasonable stories were told me 
 about these unfortunate people. 
 
 That au emigrant company, as respectable as I believe this was, would carry 
 along several pounds of arsenic and strichnine, apparently for no other pur- 
 pose than to poison cattle and Indians, is too improbable to be true. I cannot 
 learn that the Pah-vants had any difficulty with these people. The massacre 
 took place only about one hundred miles south of Corn cre'ek, and yet not any 
 of those Indians were present. Bad white men have magnified a natural cause 
 to aid them in exciting the southern Indians, hoping that, by so doing, they 
 could be relied upon to exterminate the said company and escape detection 
 themselves. Thus, on the Monday morning subsequent to the Friday, 4th or 
 6th of September, the day they camped at the spring, the Indians commenced 
 firing upon them, and continued daily until and during the eighth day of their 
 encamping, but without accomplishing much. Several were killed, however, 
 and a few wounded. When the company first apprehended an attack, they 
 formed a corral with their wagons, and filled up with earth to the wagon beds, 
 which made a protecting fort. White men were present and directed the In- 
 dians. John D. Lee, of Harmony, told nie, in his own house, last April, in 
 presence of two persons, that he was present three successive days during the 
 fight, and was present during the fatal day. The Indians alone made their 
 
 last attack on the 8th of September. On the 9th, John D. Lee and others, 
 
 whose names I gave in my letter of the 23d ultimo, displayed a white flag, and 
 approached the corral with two wagons, and bad a long interview with the 
 company, and proposed a compromise. What there occurred has not trans- 
 pired. The emigrant company gave up all their arms, with the expectation 
 that their lives would be spared, and they be conducted back to Panther creek 
 and Cedar city. The old women, children, and wounded were taken in the 
 wagons, and the. company proceeded towards Panther creek, when, suddenly, 
 at a signal, the work of death commenced, about one and a half mile from the 
 spring, at a place where there was about an acre of scrub-oak brush. Here 
 
42 
 
 not less, I think, tliau one hundred and fifteen men, women, and children, were 
 slaughtered by white men and Indians. Three men got out of the valley, two 
 of whom,were soon overtaken and killed ; the other reached Muddy creek, 
 over fifty miles off, and was overtaken and killed by several Indians and one 
 white man. 
 
 Thus terminated the most extensive and atrocious massacre recorded in 
 American history. "Wkoever may have been the perpetrators of this horrible 
 deed, no doubt exists in my mind that they were influenced chiefly by a deter- 
 mination to acquire wealth by robbery. It is in evidence, from respectable 
 sources, that material changes have taken place in the pecuniary condition of 
 certain individuals suspected of complicity in this affair. It is to be regretted 
 that no well-directed effort has been made to bring the guilty to trial and pun- 
 ishment. I furnished to the proper officials the names of some of the persons 
 t who, I had reason to suppose, were instigators and participators in this unpar- 
 alleled massacre, and also with the names of witnesses. 
 
 AFFIDAVIT OF HENRY HICGINS. 
 
 Territory of Utah. 
 
 Cedar County ss: 
 
 Henry Higgins being sworn says, that he lived in Cedar city, in said Terri- 
 tory, about the month of September, 1857, the time of the massacre at the 
 Mountain Meadows. Some days before the massacre, he saw the train going 
 through towards the city, he being out herding at the time; train going south 
 a few days after, about sundown in the evening, he noticed a company of per- 
 Bons going out of Cedar city, two wagons full, and others on horse-back, about 
 25 persons in all, all armed with guns. Nothing was said about where they 
 were going, he inquired, but was unable to find out. In the Company that start- 
 ed out he recollected the following persons: William Bateman, Egra Curtis, 
 Samuel Pollock, Alexander Loveridge, John M. Higbee, and William Stewart. 
 
 Affiant further says, that he saw the same persons return with a lot of wag- 
 ons and oxen, which were loaded with plunder, there was twelve or fourteen of 
 them, four to five yoke of oxen in each, they were driven to Bishop P. K. Smith's, 
 there unloaded. Some time after the effects were sold at the Tithing office 
 and further saith not. 
 
 HENRY HIGGINS. 
 
 Sworn to and signed before me, this 20th of April, 1859. 
 
 JOHN CRADLEBAUGH, 
 
 Judge 2d District, U. 8. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM A LETTER OF WM. IL ROGERS TO THE VALLEY TAN. 
 
 "Leaving the commands here (Mountain Meadows) Judge Cradlebaugh and I 
 proceeded forward to Cedar city, where the Judge intended to remain some 
 time, and make a thorough investigation if he could, and the persons engaged 
 in it. Owing to some disadvantage in the location of Cedar city, a large por- 
 tion of the inhabitants that once dwelt there had moved away, and there was 
 in cousequence a good many vacant houses in the place. Judge Cradlebaugh 
 obtained the use of one of these to stay in, and for the purpose of a court room. 
 
43 
 
 As soon as it became known that Judge Oadlebaugh intended holding a 
 court, and investigating the circumstances of the massacre, and that he would 
 have troops to insure protection, and enforce his writs if necessary; several 
 persons visited him at his room at late hours of the night, and informed him o^ 
 different facts connected with the massacre. All those that called thus, stated 
 that it would be at the risk of their lives if it became known that they com- 
 municated anything to him, and they requested the Judge if he met them in 
 daytime, not to recognize them as persons that he had seen before. 
 
 One of the men who called thus on Judge Cradlebaugh, confessed that h had 
 been engaged in the massacre, and gave the following account of it. 
 
 * * . * * * % 
 
 Such was the substance, if not the exact words of a statement made by a 
 man to Judge Cradlebaugh, in my presence, who confessed that he participa- 
 ted in the horrible events that he related. He also gave Judge Cradlebaugh 
 the names of twenty-five or thirty men living in the region, who assisted in 
 the massacre. He offered to make the same statements in court, if protection 
 was guaranteed to him. He gave as a reason for divulging these facts that they 
 had tormented his rnind and conscience since they occurred. 
 
 ~We had been in Ceder city but two days when Capt. Campbell arrived with 
 his command, and informed the Judge that he had received an express from 
 General Johnson to bring back with him all the troops in his command, as the 
 Mormons were assembling in the mountains on the route. Judge Cradlebaugh 
 was left without protection for those who might be called as witnesses, or of 
 arresting any persons who might flee or resist his writs. Without assistance of 
 this kind it was useless to attempt to hold a court, and we accordingly left on 
 the next day with Capt. Campbell's command for Camp Floyd. 
 
 * * * # # * 
 
 WM. H. ROGERS, 
 Deputy U. 8. Marshall, U. T. 
 
 THE PARISH MURDER. 
 
 Testimony of Mrs. Alvira L. Parish. 
 
 Elvira L. Parish being duly sworn, says, that a few days before my husband 
 and son were murdered, Wilber J. Earl and Alx. F. McDonald came to my 
 house "about dusk in the evening and took my husband out. My son followed, 
 and McDonald drove him back. Then I went out and crossed the street into 
 my nephew's house, and stood at the open window, the house being an unfin- 
 ished one, and heard McDonald tell my husband that he could never see his 
 grey horses any more. My husband replied that if he would let him go to 
 Brigham Young, he would bring papers to show that the horses belonged to 
 him and no one else. McDonald said we dont care for Brigham Young, and if 
 you start to see him you will never live to get there. My husband then opened 
 his bosom and told them if they wanted to kill him to do it now. McDonald 
 said we dont want to shed blood now. 
 
 On Sunday following, after I heard this conversation, Mr. Parish started with 
 Abraham Durfee from our house about two o'clock in the afternoon, and in the 
 evening Mr. Durfee came back, and took my two sons out; soon after they left 
 the house I heard a gun fire. This was a little after dark, and shortly after 
 that the. police came and searched my house for Orrin, and told me that they 
 
44: 
 
 wanted his body dead or alive. I told them he was not there, but Games, the 
 Captain of the Police told them to search the house, and they searched it. I 
 remained in the house all night, much alarmed and very lonesome. I went to 
 the door occasionally and saw some men fixing a wagon, and passing frequently 
 with candles in their hands from John Daily's house to the wagon. I saw the 
 wagon move off in the direction that my sons went. It proved to be the wagon 
 that brought in the dead bodies. G. McKenzie told me that he was ordered by 
 the Bishop to drive the wagon out, but did not know at the time what he was 
 going after, that when they arrived at the place they threw the dead bodies of 
 my husband, my son and Mr. Potter into the wagon like dead hogs, and said : 
 "This is the way the damned apostates go." 
 
 The next morning after this, my brother-in-law, Ezra Parish, came to my 
 house and told me that Orrin was at his house guarded by four policemen. 
 He told me to come over, but to be as calm as possible. I went over and 
 found Orrin there in bed guarded by four men. I knew none of the men but 
 William Johnson. I stept Coward the bed to ask my son if he knew where 
 his father was, but Mr. Johnson jerked me away, and said if I wanted to talk 
 I must talk loud. I then asked him loud, if he knew where his father was? 
 He said he had not seen him. Soon after that, my son Albert came and told 
 me that his father and his brother, and Mr. Potter, were all dead in the 
 school house. Soon after that they came and took Orrin over to the school 
 house. I followed, but was so prostrated by the circumstances that I was 
 not able to go alone, but was assisted by my nephew and brother-in-law. 
 When I got to the school house, I heard them ask Orrin if he had been acces- 
 sory to the murder. He stated on oath that he had not, and that he did not. 
 know who did it. Orrin was at this time very much embarrassed. Pie was 
 discharged after they found that he knew nothing. 
 
 After the burial, I was required to pay $48 for funeral expenses before I 
 could get back my husband's watch and other things he had with him. On a 
 second visit to the school house, I noticed that a knife had been drawn through 
 my husband's left hand ; the fore finger hung by the skin ; his hand arid left 
 arm were all cut up with a knife ; a large gash in the back of his head. One 
 of his suspenders was cut off; the knife pierced his body, then another wound 
 lower down and more in front. There was forty-eight holes in his coat, all 
 caused by stabs ; examined and counted them myself. Mr. Parri?h's throat 
 was cut from ear to ear ; his watch had saved him one stab, there was the 
 mark of a knife on it. There was four bullet holes in the left side of my 
 son. My husband had a Territorial order in his pocket book when he left 
 home called for $500 ; I never got it back; when I got his pocket-book it 
 had a few jewels in it belonging to my sons, a medal, a half dollar, a twenty- 
 five cent piece, the paper containing the conversation my husband and Earl 
 and McDonald was in it, but it was not returned. 
 
 * * * * * * * 
 
 Mr. Dibble, who was on the coroner's inquest said, that where he examined 
 the pocket-book on the inquest, he saw no papers of any kind. 
 
 I went to Salt Lake City in July, 1857, to see Brigham, in accordance with a 
 promise I had made my husband. Brigham told me he knew nothing of the 
 affair. Springville was fifteen years ahead of him. He would have stopped 
 it Ead he known anything about it. I asked him about the horses. He said 
 he would do everything he could do to have the horses restored to me he 
 
45 
 
 would write to me after seeing Mr. Bullock and others. I told him G^e had 
 possession of the horses, and that he had said, nothing but an order from 
 Brigham could get them. Brigham's clerk put down in a book what I said. 
 Brigham never wrote tome. I went to see him this winter he would'nt see 
 me. It was between Christmas and New Years could'nt see him. I went to 
 Brigham Young's office about 8 o'clock in the morning, and eat there till 4 
 o'clock in the afternoon. His clerks were present. At 4 o'clock I was told 
 that I could not see Brigham Young that day, but next day to call and see him 
 between 8 and 11 o'clock in the morning. I came next morning and waa told 
 I could'nt see him, that he saw nobody. Mr. Sharp, chief the police in Salt 
 Lake City, when I was going out, called me back, and asked me what I would 
 do about it. I told him I did'nt know. I went to John Young's, from there to 
 Mr. Long's, and noticed Mr. Sharp and one of the clerks following me ; they 
 called after me ; they said I should wait till the soldiers left, and I would get 
 back my horses and four fould with them. It would be best for me to drop 
 it. They told me to go to Bishop Hunter and try to settle the matter. I 
 would not go. 
 
 The first day I was at Brigham's office, I was told by the clerk, Brigham 
 Young- don't want to see you, such business should be put into the hands of 
 the Bishops to see Bishop Hancock, Bishop Johnson, and Bishop Roeberry, 
 and they would settle it That Brigham had told him that he didn't want to 
 see me. 
 
 There had been public pi'eaching at Springville, to the effect that no apos- 
 tates would be allowed to leave, if they did, hog-holes in the fences would be 
 stopped up with them. I heard these sermons. Elder Hyde and President 
 Snow, and others, preached that way. My husband was no believer in the 
 doctrine of killing to "save" as taught by the teachers. 
 
 (Signed) ALVIRA L. PARISH. 
 
 Sworn to and subscribed before me, this 26th day of March, A. D. 1859. 
 
 JOHN CRADLEBAUGH, Judge, dec. 
 
 TESTIMONY OF ORRIN K. FARRISH. 
 
 Orrin E. Parish, being sworn, says : He was twenty years old last July; lived 
 with his father's family in Springville, in March, 1857. Family consisted of 
 father, mother, and six children ; eldest brother, William Beason, aged twenty- 
 two ; witness next. Lived in James O'Bannion's house double house ; we lived 
 in one end, O'Bannion in the other. We came here from Council Bluffs. 
 
 Father, brother, and Potter were murdered on the evening of the 14th 
 March, 1857. About a week before the murder, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Met- 
 calf, and a person whose name witness does not recollect, came to father's 
 as teachers, and questioned father about his religion, whether he prayed, and 
 what he intended to do ; don't recollect all that was said, but they didn't seem 
 pleased with father's answer. 
 
 A night or two after, our four horses and carriage were stolen ; they were 
 in the stable on the lot where we lived. We found two of the horses before 
 father's death in Kim Bullock's stable in Provo ; got them back after father's 
 death from the Bishop. Bullock said they were brought and put in his stable 
 
46 
 
 at night, and he did not know who by. Lysander Gee, of Tooele city, has the 
 other horses; saw him driving them last fall in Great Salt Lake city, and 
 riding one of them, and another man the other, in Echo Kanyon, five or six 
 days after father's death. 
 
 Two or three days before the murder, Wilber J. Earl and Abram F. McDon- 
 ald came to our house, called father out, and went across the street behind an 
 unfinished house belonging to cousin. Witness started to follow, but was driven 
 back by A. F. McDonald, who said they wanted to talk privately to father. 
 Mother went over into the house, and returned in about ten minutes. Father 
 oon after came in. Father afterwards wrote on a piece of paper what was 
 said to him. "Witness thinks it read about as follows : "Abram F. McDonald 
 and Wilber J. Earl says that I (William R. Parish) will never see my grey 
 horses any more, and if I start to the city to see Brigharn Young, I will never 
 live to get there." Abraham Durfee was at our house frequently after the 1st 
 of March, and up to the time of the murder he lived half a mile from our 
 house. Pretended to father that he couldn't stand Mormonism any longer, 
 and that he wanted to get out of the country. Durfee and Potter were there 
 most every day. The arrangement was finally made, that father, brother, 
 Durfee, Potter and myself, were to start on Sunday night, the 14th of March, 
 1857. They talked'the matter over, and concluded that it would not be safe 
 to start in the daytime ; if we did we would be followed and killed as apos- 
 tates. It was arranged to go out after dark, and meet about a quarter of a 
 mile south of the city wall, at a corner of the lane fence. 
 
 Durfee and Potter were at our house at ten o'clock on the Sunday of the 
 murder. Durfee was there also at two o'clock, at which time he and father 
 left, directing us boys where to meet after dark. Durfee came back before 
 dark, again after dark; last time said father sent word to mother to send us 
 out, whether ready or not. Durfee and brother started ; I remained at the 
 door talking to mother a minute or two, then overtook them;- we went out 
 through the south gate of the city wall. Two persons followed us on the 
 street; did not talk much. Brother and I carried bundles of provision and 
 ammunition. 
 
 Durfee left us at the gate ; said he was going home to get his gun ; directed 
 us to go to the southwest corner of the city wall ; went as directed. Saw no 
 person; heard them inside the wall. Durfee came to us; had his gun; asked 
 brother to go with him to get some things that he said he had hid out during 
 the day ; returned to me in ten minutes. Durfee said he could not find the 
 things. While they were absent a gun was fired, apparently about the corner 
 of the lane fence, where we were to meet. When they got back I asked what 
 it meant. Durfee said some Indians might "be camped down there ; then he 
 said it might be a signal from father or Potter. We then started a southeast 
 course, towards the corner where we were to meet. Crossed the fence one or 
 two hundred yards north into the road. After we got into the road, Durfe 
 called out, " Duff, Duff, Duff," three times. Potter's name was Duff. 
 
 We then stopped and looked to the fence on the east side of the road. No 
 one answered. We went on towards the corner ; when within fifteen or twenty 
 feet of the corner a person at the corner called out " Durfee " three times. 
 Durfee answered. Immediately a gun or pistol was fired ; brother Beason fell, 
 (Beason is brother William's middle name.) I was nearest Durfee; brother 
 farthest away, and ahead of us. Durfee had a blanket and black hat on ; had 
 
47 
 
 a gun and revolver. Brother had a black hat on. Durfee knew we had no 
 arms. Durfee said, " My God ! what does this mean ?" Witness was close to 
 him, but stepped away. Durfee drew up his gun and pointed it at witness, 
 and bursted a cap, the* gun failing to go off. "Witness went further off from 
 Durfee. Another gun was then fired at corner of fence ; then two or three 
 other shots were fired ; one ball passed through a cartridge box witness had 
 on, (cartridge box shown with a hole in it.) 
 
 Witness jumped fence and ran for the city; climbed the wall at a place 
 where it was low, about seven feet high, and was severely injured in getting 
 off it ; when he crossed Hobble Creek, heard person behind ask which way he 
 went. Witness ran to his uncle's house ; some ten or twelve men were standing 
 in the street to the left. Witness got in so quick they could not catch him. 
 Uncle, aunt, and cousins, at home. Told them that Beason had been shot. 
 Asked uncle to go and see if he was alive. Uncle was afraid to go. Got 
 Robert Brooks to go. Brooks went, returned in a short time twenty minutes, 
 and said he went to the South city gate, was there met by a lot of men who 
 told him to go back if he wanted to live. 
 
 Half an hour after Brooks returned, Wilber J. Earl, H. H. Games, Daniel 
 Stanton, Sanford Fuller, Andrew Wiles, and a man by the name of Curtis, 
 came to uncle's; Carnes asked for me, said he wanted me, dead or alive. Wit- 
 ness was sick from hurt in jumping the wall, and had laid down in bed; made 
 me get up to see if I was shot. Told him I was sick; got up, sat in chair; 
 felt my shoulders and arms, and examined me to see if I was shot. Said he 
 had a writ for me, and I must go with him. Aunt said I was sick and not able 
 to go. That no matter ; when they took me, ene would follow them ; and 
 that they could guard me: then a guard was left over me. In the morning, 
 John Daily, William Johnson, and a man I don't recollect, were there as a 
 guard. Ten or eleven o'clock, was taken by John Daily and others to the 
 meeting house. John M., Stuart acted as Justice of the Peace; twenty or 
 thirty men there. Durfee and I were sworn. Durfee was examined first; 
 don't recollect all he said ; he had snapped a cap at the enemy. I told them I 
 knew nothing about it more than Durfee had stated ; that I saw nobody, but 
 saw something dark toward the corner of the fence. My uncle got a chance to 
 speak to me in the morning, and he told me to say that 'I knew nothing; said 
 that if they found out that I knew anything, they would kill me. That was 
 the reason I testified that way. They discharged me. The voice I heard at 
 the corner of the fence calling Durfee, was Carrie's voice ; he has a peculiar 
 voice ; I knew it well, and cannot be mistaken. The dead bodies were at the 
 meeting or school when we were sworn. Father laid in the middle his throat 
 was cut; body was covered up. Brother fell forward, when shot, on his 
 hands ; five or six shots fired ; four ball holes in brother's coat, entering on 
 one side of the breast and coming out on the back. (Coat produced and iden- 
 tified.) Never suspected Durfee's treachery until he pointed the gun at me. 
 Heard father say that Durfee's life had been threatened. Eight o'clock in the 
 evening when they were murdered. 
 
 (Signed) ORRIN E. PARRISH. 
 
 Swofn to and signed before me this 26th day of March, A. D. 1859. 
 
 ' JOHN CRADDLEBAUGH, 
 
 Judge, &c. 
 
48 
 
 AFFIDAVIT OP JOSEPH BARTHOLOMEW. 
 
 TERRITORY OF UTAH, ) 
 Utah County. J 
 
 Joseph Bartholomew of Springville, in the county of Utah aforesaid, being 
 duly sworn, deposes and says: 
 
 Duff Potter came to me and notified me to attend a meeting at Bishop John- 
 son's about the 1st of March, 1857. 
 
 In pursuance of that notice we met at Bishop Johnson's in a private council 
 meeting. I do not recollect what was done at this first meeting ; there was 
 merely some talk about persons leaving and matters and things connected 
 therewith, of which I do not remember the particulars. In about a week after 
 that they met again, and at that meeting Potter and Durfee were "dropped off" 
 and selected for the purpose of finding out what was going on. 
 
 At the meeting the conversation was about the Parrishes, and about persons 
 at the Indian farm. The meeting was called to enter into arrangements to find 
 out what these persons expected to do. This is what I understood was the 
 purpose pf these two meetings. I did not attend any meetings after this. At 
 this meeting it was not known what the Parrishes intended to do, and nothing 
 was decided as in regard to them. 
 
 Bishop Johnson made a remark, however, that some of us would yet "see 
 the red stuff run." He said he had a letter, and the remark was made by 
 some one that " dead men tell no tales." I do not know whether any other 
 meetings were held or not. 
 
 The same night that the Parrishes were killed, at about nine o'clock, I was 
 notified by Carnes to go home and get my gun. I asked him what was up. 
 He said there was enough up. I was just returning from a public meeting 
 which had been held that night ; they did not tell me what they wanted with 
 me. Bishop Johnson, Lorenzo Johnson, A. F. McDonald, Mayor; John M- 
 Stewart, Justice of the Peace; Wilber J. Earl, Alderman, now captain of po- 
 lice ; Andrew Wiles, William Bird, Lorin Roundy, Simmons Curtis, Abraham 
 Durfee, Duff Potter and myself, were at the council meetings, and other persons 
 I do not remember the name of. There were at least fifteen present. 
 
 I went and got my gun and came back, and was told to take my post and 
 watch west of Parrish's house, three rods ; I was told to stay there and watch 
 if Orrin Parrish came back. I stayed there some 10 or 15 minutes, when I 
 was notified to repair to the school house ; I don't remember who notified me. 
 
 When I got there, there was a company formed there with a wagon and 
 team. We were ordered to inarch south, down the lane, formed as a guard in 
 front of the team ; I did not know at that time for what purpose. When we 
 got out at the south gate I learned then what was up. When we reached the 
 bodies we were formed into two companies, one to go to the south-east and 
 one to the west ; I went to the west side of the street from where the bodies 
 lay. They were on the east side and we were on the west side. The street is 
 eight rods wide. The companies were divided before we came to the bodies. 
 There were two persons beside myself in the company I was with, and about 
 three in the other. There were some ten or fifteen altogether that went out. 
 Of these I remember the following: A. F. McDonald, John M. Stewart, Philio 
 Dibbee, George McKenzie went as teamster; Davis Clark, Simmons Curtis, John 
 Daley, Moses Daley, jr., and John Curtis. Carnes, the Captain of police, called 
 us together, and told us to start out. 
 
49 
 
 While I and the two with me were standing as guard, the others went and 
 found the bodies. When the bodies were found we were called together, and 
 I saw the bodies of Potter and Wm. Parrish lying side by side. 
 
 The body of Season Parrish was lying about fifty yards to the south east of 
 the other bodies, from the corner of the fence. 
 
 The bodies were put into the wagon and taken to the school house. The 
 bodies were searched and a note taken of the effects found on the bodies, the 
 pocket-books, knives, <fcc. 
 
 A guard was put around the school house that night. I was called to take 
 charge of the house, and to wash the bodies and lay them out. Edward Hall 
 and Thomas Cordingly (since dead) assisted me. 
 
 Old man Parrish was cut all over with knife wounds. His throat was cut in 
 the left side. He was cut at least fifteen times in the back, in front, on the 
 arms, the hands, in fact all over. 
 
 Potter was shot with three balls in his right breast below the nipple, proba- 
 bly with a shot gun; there were no knife marks about Potter. 
 
 Beason Parrish was shot through the left arm with four balls, passing through 
 the arm and coming out near the middle of his back. They may have entered 
 at his back and come out through the arm ; they were nearer together in his 
 back than in front. 
 
 I was invited by Sanford Fuller to go and participate in the killing of Henry 
 Forbes. He told me there was such a thing in contemplation, and wanted me 
 to go with him which I declined doing. 
 
 About two days after that Wilber J. Earl spoke to me, and told me that the 
 job which they contemplated was done, and if I had a went he would not have 
 had it to do. He charged me not to tell it, and I am now under the threats of 
 death for doing so. I never saw the body. Some four or five days after, Coles 
 told me that the Indians had found the body some where between there and 
 Provo. 
 
 There has been several attempts to put me out of the way. Last fall was a 
 year ago, I was called upon to go with four men up the Kanyon to look for 
 some valley. When we got to camp one of the men asked me to go with him 
 to hunt bears. Their plan was for him to lead me round to a place where the 
 others would kill me and say it was the Indians. 
 
 As I went out, however, I could see their manouverings, and I suspected 
 something ; so when we got on a piece I left him, and going another course re- 
 turned to camp. When I got there I found the man with whom I had started, 
 and the others were all gone. When the other men came back they saddled 
 up their horses, and went to a more convenient camp. Abraham Durfee, Wil- 
 ber J. Earl, Nelson Spafferd and Selin Curtis were with me. 
 
 In the night, after dark, they tied my horse in an opening, where the light 
 of the fire would shine on him. When we went to get our horses, they said 
 they would take their guns. I said I would take my gun too, and went out, 
 but took care to keep out of the light of the fire. I found my horse tied, 
 but got him loose without getting into the fire-light. They then wanted me 
 to come where they were, and that would have brought me into the light, but 
 I refused, and tied him elsewhere. The guards were arranged so that Spafford 
 and I were on the first guard. I watched them all very narrowly, and satis- 
 fied myself from their movements that they had determined to kill me ; so, 
 making some excuse, I went out with my gun and ran off. After traveling 
 
50 
 
 some time I laid down and slept; the next day I traveled through the brush 
 as much as possible. Towards evening, however, I was headed by four men 
 on foot, and chased by them until dark. The next morning I found some men 
 getting wood, and came home with them. "When I got back I met Earl and 
 the Bishop, and they told me I was crazy that nothing of the sort was 
 thought of. 
 
 It all passed off well enough until two weeks ago ; the second time that 
 Marshal Dotson came tp my house; then Andrew "Wiles and Sanford Fuller 
 came to me and told me I must go into the mountains. I started from Oliver 
 McBride's. The two McBride boys, (Oliver and Harlin,) the two Curtis' (Uriah 
 and Selie,) William McBride and "William Johnson, were at the house. Two 
 of them followed me until I w^nt up the mountain about eighty rods; I then 
 stepped to one side into a little kind of a kanyon, and then got away up 
 among the rocks till they passed by and lost me; I then came down the moun- 
 tain again, and went about half a mile north and went up Rock kanyon. 
 
 This was on Friday night ; on Sunday night I came into town and went to 
 Uriah Curtis'; there they notified me again that I must go to Wilber J. Earl 
 and Abraham Durfee. I was notified by "William Johnson, the Marshal by 
 Uriah Curtis, Harlin McBride and "William Bird. "We then proceeded Oliver 
 and Harlin McBride and myself out to where Earl and Durfee were, up Hob- 
 ble Creek a piece. As soon as we got there William Bird and U. Curtis 
 came to us with an express that we must go to the city. They would tell 
 who the counsel was from, but said it was 'counsel; and we were not to be 
 seen by any living being, but were to travel at night and lay by in the day time 
 and keep to the mountains. 
 
 We started and traveled along the mountain, and camped the first morning 
 between Brattle creek and the mouth of Provo kanyon, up in a little kanyon. 
 The next night we crossed over the mountain, near Mountain ville, and camped 
 the next day at Dry creek, in Salt Lake valley. There Wilber J. Earl began 
 to get uii.- -5} about noon, and wished to go on. Duvf- ind I opposed it, but 
 Earl would go on, and we finally consented; f r obeying what 
 
 Durfee and I had understood as counsel, to keep -.:. ; i gl i. nf men, he took 
 a etraight course for Cottonwood Fort. When % e got within about half a 
 mile of the fort, Earl took off. his pistol belt and buckled it on again so that 
 his pistol would be right in front, and then wanted us to go up in the willows 
 above the fort ard wait there till night. It had been snowing all the time 
 since we started, and was still snowing. 
 
 Durfee and I believed that there was a plan laid to kill us right there, and 
 we would not go, but determined to go past the fort. When I got opposite 
 the fort I stopped and asked them whether they intended to kill and butcher 
 me, and told them that I believed that was their intention.- They both denied 
 it positive!}', and Earl said that I must be crazy again. About a mile past 
 Cottonwood Fort a man pa?s<:>d us riding at full speed on horseback ; he rode 
 at full speed until he got out of sight. When he passed UP lie did not look at 
 us or notice us at all. 
 
 At Big Cottonwood we were tired of carrying our blankets, which were 
 wet and heavy, and left them at a blacksmith's shop. We .went on to Gard- 
 ner's mill, and from there we turned right west through the willow patcfles. 
 Earl wanted to go that way, and would go no other. We went across until 
 we came to a clam to turn water into^ a mill race, and here saw a man sitting 
 
51 
 
 down ; and when lie saw us coming he raised up, and then slipped down again 
 behind the dam out of sight ; as he raised up we saw the breech of a gun. 
 Abraham Durfee then stopped and said to Earl, " Wilber Earl, have you any- 
 thing against me?" Wilber said he had not, and raised his hand and said he 
 had nothing against either of us, and that there was nothing against either of 
 us. He seemed to become very much excited. We turned and went back a 
 piece and crossed the race, and went on and struck into the first street east of 
 the state road. We then went up that street into town. 
 
 At the corners of the first cross street there were men posted at each corner. 
 There Wilber J. Earl made a sign with his hand for them to go round us. They 
 then started one way and we went another around the corner. We would not 
 go the way Earl wanted us to go, but kept him with us. At the next corner 
 we turned north, and then at the next corner two men were stationed in the 
 same manner as at the first corner, which we supposed were the same two we 
 had met before. Here Earl put his hand to his pistol, and then made a motion 
 by putting his hand to his forehead. One of the men whistled. We went up 
 this street until we got to Brigham's house, and then turned west to the coun- 
 cil house corner. Here we stopped right in the street, Durfee saying that he 
 wanted to go to Stringham's. We talked about it, and Earl seemed willing to 
 have us go. He said he did not want me to go with him with the feeling which 
 I had towards him. Durfee and me then started towards Kinkead's. Wilber 
 J. Earl started on west down the street. A man followed after him, and when 
 we saw him last there were three men talking with him. We went to Kin - 
 kead's store, and told Mr. Kinkead about our case, and told him we wanted 
 protection until morning. He took us over to the Secretary's. Mr. Kiukead 
 and his clerk went there with us. We claimed the Secretary's protection. 
 
 There was a gun fired close to us when we entered the city. 
 
 I have heard it said that apostates running off would never get farther than 
 Muddy creek. 
 
 I do not think that the killing of Potter was intentional, but that he was 
 killed through mistake. He was the one who notified me, and was a leading 
 man. 
 
 JOSEPH BARTHOLOMEW. 
 
 Sworn to and subscribed before me, on the 29th day of March, 1859. 
 
 JOHN CRADLEBAUGH, 
 Judge 2d Judicial District. 
 
 Bartholomew was afterwards examined as a witness, and made the same 
 statements, and in addition said: 
 
 "Durfee and Potter were set off by council meeting to watch Parrish's. Saw 
 John Daley about the public meeting on the Sunday night of the murder ; he 
 did not go into the house. Council meetings were held in the upper room of 
 Bishop Johnson's house ; confident he saw McDonald there. Brother Games 
 sailed on witness, and ordered him to get his gun on the night of the murder. 
 Carnes called out the company; does not know that any person was sworn 
 when we took up the bodies." 
 
THE FARCB OF A COURT OF INQUIRY. 
 
 The following is the examination referred to by Orrin E. Parrish in 
 his testimony ; it is copied from a loose sheet of paper in the docket 
 of John M. Stuart, and must satisfy any reasonable person that the 
 anxiety manifested by the diligent police in searching for O rr in 
 placing a guard over him when injured and scarcely able to get out 
 of bed ; treating him as a criminal in custody ; not allowing even his 
 mother to speak to him unless she spoke loud ; taking him to the 
 school house as a prisoner then swearing him and Durfee ; was for 
 no other purpose than to find out if he could identify any of the 
 murderers. If he had said he knew any of them, no doubt he would 
 soon after have been killed by assassins to the jurors unknown. 
 
 REPORT OF THE COURT OF INQUIRY HELD IN THE SCHOOL HOUSE, 8PRINGVILL, 
 MARCH 16th, 1857. 
 
 Said court was held to inquire into the reasons Abram Durfee and Orrin 
 Parrish should be held in custody of the police. 
 
 H. H. Games Captain of the police was called, and stated that Cyrus Sand- 
 ford, city Marshal, delivered into his custody Abram Durfee, who stated u that 
 he had reason to suppose that certain men had been murdered south of the 
 city, and as he also said that the young man Parrish was in company with 
 him and believed he had also come into the city." I directed his arrest, that 
 he also might be in safe keeping until proper investigation could be made. 
 
 Abram Durfee being sworn stated, that it had been arranged between my- 
 self and G. Potter and the Parrishes, that they would leave the country that 
 he in company with the two sons of Win. Parrish left the city by the west 
 gate and proceeded to the southwest corner of the fort wall ; he had arranged 
 to meet with Potter and Parrish at the corner of Chields field, they were to 
 go on before. When we reached the corner of the wall we heard a gun fired. 
 I thought it might be Potter and Parrish firing a gun off to let us know their 
 whereabouts. We went on, and when we got pretty near the corner of the 
 field, I spoke and called Potter, but no one answered. I spoke again and some 
 one spoke ; I dont know whether it was Potter or not. Just then a gun fired, 
 and the boy Parish fell on my right. I run ; then another gun fired. I then 
 heard a gun fire the third time. There must have been more than one gun 
 fired from the reports. I did not see Parrish or Potter ; I dont know whether 
 they were there or not I did not see anybody, only the two boys, this one 
 that is here and the one that fell ; I could not have seen anybody ten feet off, 
 it was so dark. A ball passed just in front of me, at the first time I saw the 
 boy fall. I ran from the spot when I heard the fire and saw the boy fall ; this 
 was about 7 o'clock in th evening. 
 
 Orrin Parrish, sworn, says he went out with his brother, as Durfee had sta- 
 ted. On the first gun my brother fell ; there were four or five guns fired after. 
 I dont know whether I saw any person. I saw something black ; I ran off 
 after the first fire I saw my brother fall 
 
 The court decided that there was no just cause to hold the men in custody 
 any longer and that they be released. 
 
 Prisoners discharged. 
 
53 
 
 P. S. Durfee also said that he had no idea of any one being aware of their 
 intention to leave the place. 
 
 (Signed) P. W. WESTWOOD, Clerk. 
 
 The decision or verdict of the jury was as follows: "The jurors called to 
 examine the bodies of Win. B. Parrish, Beason Parrish, and Gardner G. Potter, 
 find that the above named bodies all came to their death by the hands of as- 
 sassins to the jurors unknown. 
 
 J. M. STEWART, 
 
 A. F. McDONALD, foreman. 
 
 M. N. CRANDALL, 
 
 N. J. GUYMAN, 
 
 URIAH CURTIS, 
 
 S. P. CURTIS, 
 
 JOHN DAYLEY, 
 
 WM. SMITH, 
 
 G. McKENZIE, 
 
 PHILO DIBBLE, 
 
 WILBER J. EARL, 
 
 JOSEPH BARTHOLOMEW, 
 
 THOMAS G. SPRAGUE, 
 
 The reader should observe carefully the foregoing documents and 
 consider the same in connexion with the testimony of Bartholomew 
 and Durfee. Several of these persons were on the Grand Jury at 
 Provo. The Mormon county court in Utah having the selecting of the 
 Grand and trial jurors for the Federal courts. It will also be ob- 
 served, that many of them take conspicuous parts in the Bishop 
 council meetings, at Bishop Johnson's, which determined on killing 
 the Parishes, for which, also see the affidavits of Durfee and Bar- 
 tholomew. 
 
 AFFIDAVIT OF ZEPHANIAH J. WARREN. 
 
 TERRITORY OF UTAH, } 
 Provo City, Utah County, j-ss: 
 Second Judicial District. ) 
 
 Zephaniah J. Warren being duly sworn, says as follows : I am fifty-seven 
 years old, I came to Utah in the year A. D. 1862. I came from Iowa to this 
 Territory ; I settled in the town of Springville, Utah county, when I came into 
 this valley, and have resided there ever since, with the exception of about sev- 
 en months absence in California, in the years 1856 and 1857. I reside in Spring- 
 ville now. On my return home from California in the Spring of 1857, I heard 
 of the murder of the two Parrishes and Potter; the day I came to Springville 
 I saw the place where they were murdered. Seeing the place and the appear- 
 ance of blood, I became somewhat excited and spoke very reproachfully of the 
 leading men of Springville ; however, I tried to reconcile my mind enough to 
 stay until I could dispose of my property, and get away with my family. 
 
 I did not say much to anybody, unless I was interrogated, during the whole 
 season. I heard of many threats being thrown out against me in the meeting- 
 house by the overseers, but I did not use much caution. I was thrown off my 
 
54 
 
 guard by supposing that they dare not touch me. In the latter part of August, 
 I was very feeble from a severe cold, so that I was confined to nay house, and 
 in bed much of the time. 
 
 On the night of the 31st August, 1857, I arose from my bed and applied 
 some medicine to my eyes which occasioned great pain. During the time a 
 person knocked at my door ; I bade him come in. Two men came in "William 
 Johnson and Oliver McBride. They asked me if Mr. "Warren was at home, I 
 told them I was the man, but was very feeble. They told me brother Earl 
 wished to see me a few minutes just here. I said I would not go, but would 
 try to see him in the morning, if I was able. They said they were policemen, 
 and brother Earl told them, if I did not come willingly, they must bring me 
 by force. I insisted they should wait until my son came home, as I did not 
 want to go alone. They said they would not wait and that I must and should 
 go immediately. I told them I would go that I was not concious of any crime, 
 and was not afraid to go ; and if it was not far I would do my best. I went out 
 into the street in company with these two men. I found six others standing in 
 the street. Their names were "Wilber J. Earl, Sanford Fuller, Abraham Durfee, 
 John Curtis, Lehi Curtis, and Simmons P. Curtis. They were all armed with 
 pistols, knives, and guns. Earl told me to be still and go with them out of the 
 city gate. I told them I would not go one step without the knowledge of the 
 public. Earl seized me by the throat, saying " Damn your old heart, if you 
 speak another loud word (applying his knife to my throat) I will cut your 
 throat on the spot." They then, Johnson and Earl took me by force and drag- 
 ged me on the ground most of the time, for about sixty rods, through the gate ; 
 they then suddenly stopped, and some one said "there is some one coining; 
 damn him! stop him, stop him! " Two ran back, and the others then threw 
 me into a fence ditch. Earl then seized me by the throat saying, " you damned 
 old American, you will never write or talk any more about people that have 
 been murdered." Then all but one left me, and held a private conversa- 
 tion on the other side of the road, lasting perhaps an hour ; then six of them 
 came back and Earl said, " we have concluded to let you live a few days, if 
 you will now swear before us that you will never divulge what has been done 
 to you to-night to any person, and go within a day or two and settle up your 
 tithing, as all men in these valleys have got to be tithed. We have declared war 
 against the whole world, and at any time we can put you aside very easy. I 
 did promise that I would go and settle my tithing that they required. Then 
 they all addressed me, one by one, and advised me to make friends with the 
 Mormons and never to write any more or try to make myself as one of the 
 Gentiles. They then left me. A short time after I went to the Bishop and 
 tried to settle my tithing. The Bishop became so much enraged at my talking 
 to him, that I could not settle at that time, and I never tried again until the 
 spring of 1858 ; the Bishop then appeared in a very good humor and soon told 
 me what my tithing was. He did not take my note. Suppose he forgot it. 
 Since that time, which was about the time the army came in, he always ap- 
 peared very hostile sending me word to come and settle up my tithings. I 
 always told the men he sent that I never would settle the tithing ; that I had 
 been forced by duress to say that I would, in order to save my life. 
 
 (Signed) Z. F. WARREN. 
 
 Subscribed and sworn to before me, this 26th day of March, 1859. 
 
 JOHN CRADLEBAUGH, Judge, dec. 
 
55 
 
 AFFIDAVIT OF ALVA A. WARREN. 
 
 TERRITORY OF UTAH, 
 Prove City, Utah County, 
 Second Judicial District. 
 
 Alva A. Warren being duly sworn, says as follows : I am twenty-two years 
 old ; I am the son of Zephaniah J. Warren, I came to Springville with my 
 father in 1852, and have resided in Springville ever since, and reside there now. 
 On the night of the 81st of August, 1857, I came up to my father's house, just 
 as two men, William Johnson and Oliver McBride, were bringing my father 
 out of the house. My father asked me to go with him. I said I would. The 
 two men said, " You need not go we are not going to hurt him." 1 went till 
 I came to the other six men, and then William Johnson said : "You can't go 
 any further We are not going to hurt him." I stopped and they went on till 
 they got opposite to Earl's house, and I heard a noise that I thought was 
 father's voice, and I went on, down to where they were, and Lelie Curtis or- 
 dered me to be taken back, and John Curtis came and took me back about one 
 hundred and fifty yards from where they were then, and John Curtis and my- 
 self staid there till they came back. Then father and I went home, and Wil- 
 liam Johnson and Oliver McBride came and called for me, and I went up with 
 them to Earl's house, and they made me promise never to say anything about it. 
 
 (Signed) ALVA A. WARREN. 
 
 Sworn to and subscribed before me, this 26th day of March, 1859. 
 
 JOHN CRADLEBAUGH, 
 
 Judge, &c. 
 
 AFFIDAVIT OF JAMES W. WEBB. 
 
 James Wesley Webb, being sworn states: I lived at Springville in 1857. 
 I lived there when the Parishes and Potter were killed. The morning after 
 they were killed Daniel Stanton came to me to get me to make a coffin for 
 Gardner Potter. About three months aftr making the coffin for Potter I ap- 
 plied to the city council of Springville for pay for it while the council was 
 in session. Wilber J. Earl, a member of the council, took me out of the house, 
 and remarked that I ought not to have said anything about the coffin or Potter 
 then, that it always made McDonald feel bad. He repeated this remark to me 
 two or three times, as if to impress it strongly on my mind, and to caution me 
 against saying anything again about Potter in the presence of McDonald. 
 Alexander F. McDonald was present in the council when I applied for pay for 
 making the coffin for Potter. I do not know whether he was a member of the 
 council or not. Alex. F. McDonald has been Mayor of Springville, and I think 
 that he was when the Parishes and Potter were killed, though I will not be 
 positive about this. 
 
 J. W. WEBB. 
 
 i 
 
 Subscribed and sworn to in open court, the 30th day of August, 1859. 
 
 JNO. E. RISLEY, Clerk. 
 
56 
 
 CONFESSION OF ABRAHAM DURFEE. 
 
 TERRITORY OF UTAH, 
 
 2e? Judicial District. 
 Provo City, Utah County. 
 
 Abraham Durfee, of his own free will and accord, and without being influ- 
 enced by any promise of any kind, by any person whatever, or of the hope 
 thereof, now, this first day of April, A. D. 1859, comes before Judge Cradle- 
 bangh, and makes the following confession, viz : 
 
 I am thirty-four years old. I have resided in Springville, Utah county, U. 
 T., since the spring of 1851. I came from Iowa in 1850. In Springviile I was 
 farming part of the time, and part of the time attending a saw mill and work- 
 ing at millwrighting. 
 
 I was notified of a council by Wilber J. EarJ in the month of January, 1857 ; 
 he told me he wanted me to come to the Bishop's house that evening, and he 
 said there would be others there at the room. I went, and there were a num- 
 ber of persons in the room ; it was in the upper room in the Bishop's dwelling 
 house, in Bishop Aaron Johnson's house. The Bishop was there, A. F. McDon- 
 ald, Wilber J. Earl, Abraham Durfee, Andrew Wiles, and Lorenzo Johnson, 
 William Bird, and Gardner G. Potter and Joseph Bartholomew, Simmons Cur- 
 tis and Lorin Roundy were there, and there were a number of others whose 
 names I have forgotten, I do not know what the meeting had been called for ; 
 there were matters talked of concerning people going away. Some individuals 
 were mentioned by the Bishop ; he stated that he had instructions in regard 
 to them. The Bishop said he had received a letter, which he had in his hand ; 
 he said that he supposed that was sufficient for us to know ; that he did not 
 wish that any inquiry should go any further back than to himself. He stated 
 that there were some individuals at the Indian farm who were about to leave ; 
 he said he wanted them watched, and wanted some one to see when they 
 would leave ; he said there was word that they were going to steal some 
 horses, and then going to leave the Territory. That was about all I recollect 
 that transpired that night The understanding was that the persons there 
 were to watch generally for persons going away, 
 
 There was another meeting in the neighborhood of a week, or longer can't 
 say exactly. I was notified by some person to attend that meeting ; that meet- 
 ing was held at the same place, in the room. It was some three weeks before 
 the Parrishes and Potter was killed. The same persons were at this meeting 
 that were at the first I have spoken of. N. T. Guyman was at this meeting ; 
 Bishop Johnson presided. There was something mentioned at this meeting 
 about the Parrishes that they were going to leave the Territory. The Bishop 
 said there were some demands against them, for debts that they were owing; 
 he did not state the bebts. It was mentioned, either by the Bishop or Mc- 
 Donald. I don't recollect which, to have some one to find out when the Par- 
 rishes were going to start ; they nominated or named persons to know when 
 the Parrishes were going to leave. My name (Abraham Durfee) was men- 
 tioned, and I objected to it; then they mentioned Potter's name; and then 
 the Bishop decided that both Potter and myself should try and learn when 
 the Parishes were going to leave the Territory. The Bishop said he did not 
 wish any one to decline when he was called upon. I then told the Bishop I 
 would do the best I knew how, and Potter assented to the same; I can't recol- 
 lect that Potter made any reply. 
 
57 
 
 There was considerable talk about other matters, but I can't recollect what 
 it was. I saw Potter several times through the course of the week following. 
 I talked with Parish that week, and with s sveral others who were going 
 away, and I went I think it was that week and did some work for him. 
 Parrish's horses were not mentioned in the meetings I have named. 
 
 In the course of th'at week Parrish's horses were taken, and Parrish came 
 over to see me in the morning ; he told me that they had taken all his horses ; 
 he wished me to help him hunt them up. I went with him to his house ; we 
 went from there to John M. Stewart's, the justice of the peace; he got out a 
 search warrant, and went to find the constable, Cyrus Sandford. He was not 
 at home, and I went back to the justice's with Parrish to get deputized to 
 serve the warrant, and the justice refused to do it. Parrish and I went back 
 to Parrish's house, and Potter came up to Parrish's, and Potter took the papers 
 I mean the warrant ; then Parrish and Potter started for Provo. 
 
 That is about all that transpired before the next meeting that was held, the 
 evening that Potter returned from Provo, having gone there after the horses, 
 but returned without them. I don't think I was at this third meeting. Potter 
 told me that he went to the meeting after he returned from Provo. He told 
 the meeting that he had found one span of the horses. I asked him what they 
 said about the taking of the horses ; he said that the Bishop told him that Par- 
 rish or his son was owing Bullock something in regard to an order that Par- 
 rish's son had traded to Bullock, and that he (the Bishop) wanted those horses 
 placed where they belonged to answer the demand. 
 
 That, evening, at that meeting, "Wilber J. Earl and A. F. McDonald were ap- 
 pointed to go and tell Parrish that he should not receive those horses ; this 
 was told me by Potter. Parrish the next day told me that he had given up 
 all hope of getting his horses, that they were gone. Parrish told me that he 
 had seen the Bishop and he had agreed to have the horses that had been found 
 at Bullock's in Provo, brought back and put into the custody of Cyrus San- 
 ford, the constable. Parrish, after this had transpired in regard to the horses, 
 proposed leaving right away ; he wanted to know if Potter and I would go 
 with him. I told him I would. Potter said he would go too. Parrish made 
 the arrangements to start, I think it was the Saturday before the murder, I 
 cannot recollect the day exactly ; Potter told me before this, a day or two, 
 that they arrived to bring them the Parrishes back, if they started, and I went 
 to Parrishes the next Sunday morning and they had not gone yet. Parish told 
 me then that he had expected to have started before, but the police watched 
 the house so closely that he could not go out of doors. Parrish said he wanted 
 to go that day, or that evening; but he said he could not gethis things out so 
 as to start in the day time. Potter came into Parrish while we were talking, 
 and he proposed that he would take Parrish's things out. Parrish got some 
 things for Potter to take with him, some gloves, bridle, a gun, some tape, and 
 some things which I don't recollect. Parrish took the gun apart and gave it to 
 Potter, and Potter said he would take care of them, and bring them to him. 
 
 Parrish proposed that he would start out in the daytime, on account of the 
 police and he wanted me to go with him; we started off together, and when 
 we got outside of the house I asked him if he was going to take his gun. He 
 said he would like to have his gun, that he had given Potter one, and he had 
 another one in the house, and he sent me back to the house to get the gun, and 
 then we started off together; we went up the street, east to the edge of the 
 
58 
 
 city, and there turned south and went to the east gate. After passing through 
 the gate we went south and crossed Hobble Creek; till we came to Dry Creek. 
 Fairish stopped then and said he would stay there, and asked me to go back 
 and bring the boys Orrin and Beason, out to him. They were to meet on the 
 State road near the corner of the fence, they were to meet there after dark. 
 
 This was a little while before sundown, and I went back to Parrish's house 
 and told the boys that their father said he wanted them to come to him as soon 
 as they got ready. Potter, while I was there, came to the house or yard, and 
 wanted to know of me which way we were going, that he wanted to carry the 
 things which had been given to him by Parrish. Potter said that he expected 
 Parrish and his boys would be brought back. I told Potter that we were go-, 
 ing south to come on the state road south of the field. Potter then started off, 
 and I went into Parrish's house. The boys, Beason and Orrin got their things 
 and we started and went south until we came to Centre street, then we turned 
 west and passed through the west gate, and then turned south until we came 
 to the first corner of the city. We stopped then for a few minutes to look for 
 some things that I had left there, and my gun. While we were there we heard 
 a gun fired ; the boys asked what the gun was fired for, I told them I thought 
 it was Potter or their father, who was waiting for them ; and the boys said 
 then we had better go on. We started and went a south-east course across the 
 field till we came to the state road. We got into the state road and traveled 
 south, and when we came to Dry Creek or Dry Hollow, I spoke for Potter. I 
 called Duff! and no one answered. We traveled on until we came near the 
 corner, and I called Duff again, I think twice. I heard some one speak, but I 
 could not tell by the voice who it was, it was a very low sound. Just as the 
 person spoke, there was a gun fired near the corner of the fence. The ball hit 
 Beason Parrish. I and the two Parrish boys were walking abreast, I was near 
 the fence, and Orrin was next to me, and Beason was outside near the middle 
 of the wagon track. Beason was west of myself and Orrin, and the shot came 
 from the south-east. The shot struck Beason and he fell. I sprang back to 
 the right and Orrin passed behind me. I spoke out at the time but I don't 
 recollect the words I said. Beason made some noise after he fell. Then they 
 fired again from the fence, and I started west into the hollow where it crosses 
 the street. Orrin started back north. While I was in the hollow I saw some 
 one who started after Orrin. This person sprang from the fence just as I was 
 going to the hollow. As he came into the street partly on the run, he shot; 
 from .the flash of the gun it appeared to be pointed north. This person called 
 me. He said : "Durfee, you need not be afraid, it was all right." He staried 
 then right on towards the city. I got over the fence into the same field. We 
 came out and J went back north towards the city. I went into the city through 
 the south gate. After I got into the city this man that I saw in the road with 
 the gun, came to me and said that he had done the job ; he said that I need not 
 be afraid of him, because he said he would not hurt me. This man was Wil- 
 liam Bird. I went on until I came to the bridge, and met Cyrus Sandford and 
 told him there had been some shooting ; that I believed Beason was shot. 
 Sandford then took me into custody, and took me to the Bishop's yard, and 
 called for the Captain of the police, M. Games, and delivered me into his 
 charge, and I remained there till about eleven o'clock at night. 
 
 William Bird after I left him went right into the Bishop's house. Bird's 
 cloths were somewhat bloody. I don't know what went on the balance of the 
 
59 
 
 evening. Bird washed the blood off his clothes, and he and Wilber Earl went 
 away soon together, from the Bishop's. I saw the blood on Bird's clothes. 
 William Bird told me a short time afterwards, that he was called on by Potter 
 to go out there with him, and to do this deed that had been committed ; he did 
 not tell me who was with him but Potter and himself. 
 
 Sanford Fuller a month or two after, told me he had been on to go, but did 
 not go. He said Potter had borrowed his gun to go with Bird told me that 
 after he went out with Potter, that Potter went and found Parrish, and that 
 they came down to the corner together, and that he, Bird, was lying in the 
 corner of the fence. He, Bird, said he shot Potter, as Parrish and Potter walked 
 along the fence, supposing him to be Parrish : that after he, Bird, had shot, 
 he got up and stepped out to where Parrish stood, and Parrish spoke and want- 
 ed to know if it was he that had shot. He said that Parrish had his gun in 
 his hand and laid it down, and they, Parrish and Bird, clinched together. As 
 they clinched, Bird drew his knife, and worked the best he could in stabbing 
 Parrish. Bird said, after Parrish was down he gave him a lick which cut his 
 throat. He n^ver said anything about any other person's being there, helping 
 him. Bird said, after he got through with the old man, he took Potter's gun 
 and Ins own, and got into the corner of the fence again, to be ready for us. 
 He said he laid there till we came up the two Parrish boys and myself. Then 
 he said he fired and he saw one fall ; he said he was afraid the one he had shot 
 would run off and he fired at him again. 
 
 When Orrin and I started, he said he came out from the fence and shot at 
 Orrin ; he said he ran me, or he supposed it was me, when I ran into the hol- 
 low. He asked me if I heard him call for me. I told him I did. He wanted 
 to know why I did not come to him. I told him that I did not like to, that I 
 did not know what it meant in regard to their shooting. 
 
 The next morning after the murder I heard Bishop Johnson and Bird talking 
 together, and he blamed Bird and Potter for not going further away with them. 
 
 The Bishop said he wanted I should be satisfied about the affair, and not tell 
 who was in it, that if I did, they would serve me in the same way. I did not 
 know that the Parrishes were to be killed. I supposed from what Potter told 
 me that they were to be brought back. In the second meeting which I attend- 
 ed Bishop Johnson said there were some of them that would see the blood run. 
 It was William Bird that called me Durfee. Bishop Johnson, some two or three 
 days before this murder, told me to take a gun out with me. 
 
 The young Parrishes had no gun. 
 
 About three weeks or a month after the Parrishes were killed, Wilber J. Earl 
 told me he guessed the folks now would think he was a true prophet. I had 
 some idea of leaving, but I did not expect to leave with the Parrishes. My 
 object in going out with the Parrishes was to get them clear of the police, out 
 of the city. When I was put in Games' custody on the night of the murder, 
 Games called on Ogias Strong to keep me until Games got some other person 
 to take charg6|of 'me. Games left me and went off about other matters. 
 
 The Parrish boys said they took the bridle and gloves and things to trade 
 off on the road for provisions. 
 
 The next morning when the hearing of myself and Orrin Parrish was before 
 John M. Stewart, I knew that Bird was the man, but I was afraid to state 
 it. Bishop Johnson told me that morning what evidence I should give ; and 
 
60 
 
 he said if I told what I learned that night, they would send me the same 
 way; I stated to the justice what the Bishop told me to say. 
 
 (Signed) ABRAHAM DURFEE, 
 
 Subscribed and sworn to before me, this 1st day of April, 1859. 
 
 JOHN CRADLEBAUGH, 
 
 Judge, &c. 
 
 AFFIDAVIT OF THOMAS o'BANNION. 
 TERRITORY OF UTAH, 
 
 City of Provo, Utah County, j" ** 
 
 Thomas O'Bannion, being duly sworn, deposes and says : I lived in a room 
 adjoining the Parrishes. Parrish didn't keep much of a store, but sold things 
 to persons coming there. Horses and carriage were taken a few days before 
 the murder ; got two of the horses back. Parrish told me three or four days 
 before the murder that he had had a terrible dream, and should be murdered 
 in his own house if he did not leave soon ; wrote on a paper that his life had 
 been threatened by Earl and McDonald. One the night of the murder several 
 persons came in front of Parrishes ; some went in. I heard Games ask for 
 Orrin ; he said he had a writ for him. They afterwards came into my house 
 and asked for Parrish ; I asked which Parrish ; Games replied, " any Parrish." 
 They then searched my house and granary. H. H. Games, Lehi Curtis, Moses 
 Daley, Sanford Fuller, Richard Bird, Henry Rollins and William Johnson were 
 there.- Carnes said they must make a clean sweep or search of it ; said he 
 always did what he undertook. My best recollection is that the words used 
 were, a clean sweep of it. Did not hear of the murder until the next eve- 
 ning. Went out of town to work in the morning. Didn't say why they 
 wanted Parrish. Curtis and Fuller appeared excited when they were making 
 the search ; when they opened my granary door Fuller cocked his gun. 
 
 Moses Daley came to me a few days before the murder, and told me to tell 
 Parrish if he did not settle that matter between Beason and Bullock his blood 
 would pay the debt. And further deponent saith not. 
 
 [Signed] THOMAS O'BANNION. 
 
 Sworn to and subscribed before me, this 1st day of April, 1859. 
 
 JOHN CRADLEBAUGH, Judge, &c. 
 
 AFFIDAVIT OF PHILLIPS. 
 
 TERRITORY OF UTAH, ) 
 Provo City, Utah County, y ss ' 
 
 Phillips, being duly sworn, deposes and says : I live in Provo. On the 
 
 Sunday night of the murder I was at a meeting in the street in Provo. Pres- 
 sdent Snow, President of this State, and others, preached from a wagon. 
 Their preaching about that time was pretty much about apostates and per- 
 sons going to leave the Territory, and how they would be disposed of. After 
 the meeting Pres. Snow inquired if there was anybody going to Springville 
 that day. A man by the namfe of Nethercot said he was going. Nethercot 
 went up, and Snow handed him a letter, and told him he wanted it to be de- 
 
61 
 i 
 
 livered to Bishop Johnson that day without fail, and remarked that dead men 
 tell no tales. Nethercot took the letter. And further deponent saith not. 
 (Signed) PHILLIPS. 
 
 Subscribed and sworn to before me, this 1st day of April 1859. 
 
 JOHN CRADLEBAUGH, Judge, die. 
 
 MURDER OF HENRY JONES AND HIS MOTHER. 
 
 Affidavit of Nathaniel Case. 
 
 TERRITORY OF UTAH, ) 
 Cedar County. \ ss ' 
 
 Nathaniel Case, being sworn, says : That he has resided in the Territory of 
 Utah since the year 1850. Lived with Bishop Hancock, (Charles Hancock,) in 
 the town of Payson, at the time Henry Jones and his mother were murdered, 
 about the 13th of April, 1858. The night prior to the murder a secret council 
 meeting was held in the upper chamber of Bishop Hancock's house ; saw 
 Charles Hancock, George W. Hancock, Daniel Rawson, James Bracken, George 
 Patten and Price Nelson go into that meeting that night. Meetings had been 
 held pretty regularly for three weeks before the last one at the same place. I 
 was not in any of the meetings ; I boarded at the Bishop's. About eight 
 o'clock in the evening of the murder the company gathered at Bishop Han- 
 cock's ; the same persons I have named above were in the company. They said 
 they were going to guard a corral, where Henry Jones was going to come 
 that night and steal horses ; they had guns. . ^^f. off f II^TJU"? 
 
 I had a good Minie rifle, and Bishop Hancock wanted to borrow it ; I re- 
 fused to lend it to him. The above persons all went away together ; I don't 
 know what time they got back. Next morning I heard that Henry Jones 
 and his mother had been killed. I went down to the dug-out where they 
 lived when the sun was about an hour high. The old woman was lying on 
 the ground in the dug-out on a little straw in the clothes in which she was 
 killed ; she had a ballet hole through her head, entering near the center of 
 the forehead. In about fifteen or twenty minutes Henry Jones was brought 
 there and laid by her side ; they then threw some old bed-clothes over them, and 
 an old feather bed, and then pulled the dug-out on top of them. The dug-out 
 was built on level ground a hole about twelve feet square dug to the depth 
 of five feet, a ridge pole running from the centre, back, three feet above the 
 level of the ground ; small poles are then laid up close together, running 
 from the sides up on to the ridge pole, so that the dirt won't fall through. 
 The dirt taken out of the hole is thrown baek on to the poles for a roof, and 
 steps cut down into the end like cellar steps for entrance. There are a great 
 many such houses occupied by poor people in this county who are not able to 
 build houses, and who never will while they stay here. 
 
 The next Sunday after the murder, in a church meeting in Payson, Charles 
 Hancock, the Bishop, said ; as to the killing of Jones and his mother, he cared 
 nothing about it, and it would have been done in daylight if circumstances 
 would have permitted it. This was said from the stand j there were one hun- 
 dred and fifty or two hundred persons present. He gave no reason for killing 
 
 them. And further saith not. 
 
 NATHANIEL CASE. 
 
62 
 
 Sworn to and signed before me this 9th day of April, 1859. 
 
 JOHN CRADLEBAUGH, 
 
 Judge, &c. 
 
 AFFIDAVIT OF ANDREW 8. MOORE. 
 
 TERRITORY OF UTAH, } 
 2 d. Judicial District, > ss : 
 Provo City. ) 
 
 Andrew J. Moore being duly sworn, says as follows: I live in Pondtown, in 
 Utah Co. ; I had lived there only a few days, and sometime in the night in 
 the month of April, 1858, I cannot recollect the day of the mouth, there was 
 an alarm raised in the night between 12 and 2 o'clock. Heard the alarm to 
 raise the Fort; I jumped up and run out without dressing. I saw nothing and 
 went back into the house to dress myself. I thought at the time it was a 
 break of the Indians. After dressing I went out again and Henry Jones had 
 just come in, and I went to where the people had gathered, and the persons, 
 two or three men, strangers to me, were just taking Henry Jones out of the 
 fort. I did not go outside of the fort, which is now called Pondtown, until 
 the next morning, and then I saw Henry Jones lying dead in the middle of the 
 road about eighty rods west from the fort. The sun was then about an hour 
 high. About ten or fifteen minutes after the persons left the fort with Henry 
 Jones, I heard the report of a gun, I think I heard four reports inside of two 
 minutes. The reports were in the direction that Jones was found, and ap- 
 peared to have been fired about where the dead body was found. I saw three 
 bullet holes in the body of Jones, two of them were in his side and one of them 
 in his head. The report was that the persons who took Jones out of the fort 
 came from the town of Payson, which is about three miles in a westerly di- 
 rection from Pondtown. I was not acquainted in Payson; I had gone from 
 Proyo to live at Pondtown shortly before that. I do not know anything 
 about the mother of Henry Jones and I do not know anything about the burial 
 of Jones; I never heard of any inquest being held on the body of Jones. 
 
 (Signed.) ANDREW J. MOORE. 
 
 Sworn and subscribed before me, this 29th day of March, 1859. 
 
 JOHN CRADLEBAUGH, 
 
 . Judge, &c. 
 
 
 
 AFFIDAVIT OF THOMAS HOLLINGSHEAD. 
 
 TERRITORY OF UTAH, ) ss . 
 Utah County. ) ' 
 
 Thomas Hollingshead being duly sworn, says: I reside in Pondtown, Utah 
 County ; was iu Pondtowto the time Henry Jones was murdered. In the night, 
 between midnight and daylight, a year ago in the coming April, we were 
 alarmed; we supposed the Indians had made an attack upon the outposts of 
 the town. We, that is, affiant and his sou, and others jumped up and ran out; 
 directly we heard the cry of murder; when we got out into the yard the man 
 came up and said they were after him to kill him; said, where shall I go I 
 where shall I hide from them? About this time his pursuers came up. He 
 then ran there, and made a bolt into a house of Mr. Lycurgus Wilson, jumping 
 
63 
 
 over a bed where a woman was lying, on the floor, and tried to secrete him- 
 self in the House. Wilson brought him out of the house ; the leading man of 
 the pursuers said "lay hold of that man!" said to be a constable from Pay- 
 son; they called him George. I have since seen him; it is George W. Han- 
 cock; he told them to disarm Jones, Jones had a pistol and knife but did not 
 offer to use them. He was disarmed there was no charge in the pistol. 
 
 I noticed blood running from his arm; he said they had shot him in the 
 pursuit. The ball went through his arm below the elbow ; one or two per- 
 sons came up with George ; I never heard who they were, it was kept dark 
 nothing said about it. 
 
 Some one spoke and wanted to know what they were going to do with the 
 man. George said, I know what I am going to do with him. Some one said 
 this horse stealing has got to be stopped. They passed out in the direction 
 of Payson. Payson is distant two miles. 
 
 We went into the house and I was talking the matter over with my son ; in 
 about fifteen minutes after we went in we heard the report of fire-arms, three 
 or four shots in succession appeared to be pistol shots from the report; at 
 which time we went to the door. About five or ten minutes after, some one 
 came up and said they had shot the man. I went over and found him lying 
 in the road; two balls had taken effect in his body and one in his head. The 
 persons who had him in custody had fled. The body was taken away in the 
 morning. Report says that the mother of Jones at Payson while sitting in her 
 own house at the time these persons were pursuing Jones. 
 
 THOMAS HOLLINGSIIEAD. 
 
 Sworn and signed before me, this 29th day of March, 1859.' 
 
 JOHN CRADLEBAUGH. 
 
 Judge, &c. 
 
 AFFIDAVIT OF ABNER M. IIOLLINGSIIEAD. 
 
 TERRITORY oy UTAH, ) . 
 Utah County. \ SS 
 
 Abner M. Hollingshead being sworn, says: I lived at Pondtown at the time 
 Jones was murdered. Heard unusual noise in the night; went out of my house, 
 stepped back aud dressed. Noise approached. A person entered the fort, 
 stating that he was pursued and asked' for a hiding place. Mr. Leycurgus 
 Wilson asked hLn what was the matter. The man gave no satisfactory answer. 
 Two men suddenly came running up shouting, arrest that rnan; suppose one 
 of them to be George W. Hancock, judging from his voice ; don't know who 
 the other man was. The two men took the other out towards Payson, the 
 same way he came in. Afterwards heard that the man was Henry Jones. Ten 
 minutes after the two men left, heard the report of fire-arms in the direction 
 they went, heard four shots, three shots in quick succession, the fourth shot a 
 minute later. Heard Hancock was an officer at Payson ; saw a dead body next 
 morning about eighty rods from the fort ; the body was taken to Payson. No 
 inquest was held at Pondtown; no person called to give evidence. Body was 
 lying in the road in the direction from which ] heard the shots. Saw -blood 
 lying in the road. Occurred in spring. I am a farmer.' At that time but part 
 of the crop was in. And further deponent saith not. 
 
 (Signed) ABNER M. HOLLINGSHEAD. 
 
64 
 
 Subscribed and sworn to, before me, this 29th day of March, 1859. 
 
 JOHN CRADLEBAUGH, 
 
 Judge, <fec. 
 
 AFFIDAVIT OF AMOS B. MOOR. 
 
 TERRITORY OF UTAH, 
 
 Second Judicial 'District, 
 
 City of Provo. 
 
 Amos B. Moor being duly sworn, says as follows: I live at Pondtown, Utah 
 county. One night in the month of April, 1858 can't recollect the day, an 
 alarm was raised in the fort, and I was awakened by the guard. When I got 
 up and went out into the fort, some men, can't tell how many, nor who they 
 were, had just taken a man out of the fort; heard afterwards that his name 
 was Henry Jones. After standing there ten or fifteen minutes I heard the re- 
 port of a gun or pistol in a westerly direction, on the road to Payson. I judged 
 the distance to be seventy-five or one hundred rods from the fort. I heard 
 four shots in pretty quick succession. 
 
 In about half an hour after I heard the shots I went out in company with 
 some other persons, don't recollect their names to see what was the shooting 
 about I saw a man lying crossways in the middle of the road ; he was dead ; 
 it was Henry Jones ; I was told that was his name. 
 
 I don't know that any inquest was held on his body; I heard afterwards 
 that a man named Hatch took the body to Payson. I don't know anything 
 about Henry Jones' mother, nor about the burial of Jones. I had just a short 
 time before that moved to Pondtown from Provo. 
 
 I heard that the men who took Jones frm Pondtown had come from Payson ; 
 this was a report only, I knew nothing of it of my own knowledge. 
 
 I went out again at daylight and saw Jones again ; I saw two bullet holes, 
 one in his left side and one in his head. I did not go close to the body. I un- 
 derstood that Mr. Hatch, Jones' step-father, so report said, came when the sun 
 was about an hour and a half high, and took the body to Payson. 
 
 (Signed) AMOS B. MOOR. 
 
 Sworn to and subscribed before me, this 29th day of March, 1859. 
 
 JOHN CRADLEBAUGH, 
 
 Judge, <kc. 
 
 MURDER OF THE AIKENS AND OTHERS. 
 
 The circumstances of the murder of the Aiken party is as follows : 
 Two brothers, Thomas and John Aiken, well known throughout southern 
 California. A. J. Jones well known in the State as "Honesty Jones " and three 
 other men passed through Carson Valley in the fall of the year, 1857. Many 
 of my constituents recollect the party very well, they designed joining the army 
 in Utah. At Carson they fell in with a party of Mormons on their way to Salt 
 Lake. With these Mormons they traveled to the Goose Creek Mountains, 
 where hearing of the hostility of the Mormons, and the halt of the army on 
 Blacks Fork, they left the Mormons, and to avoid trouble and delay cut across 
 

 65 
 
 the country leaving Ogden to the right with the hope of reaching the army. 
 The Mormons despatched a messenger to Brigham, who sent after them. They 
 were arrested without difficulty and taken to Salt Lake City. Two of them were 
 murdered in the vicinity of Salt Lake. It was subsequently arranged that the 
 remaining ones should be allowed to return to California. They were sent off 
 in charge of Porter Rockwell, the Danite Chief. They had with them about 
 eight thonsand dollars and several valuable animals* 
 
 The following affidavit of Alice Lamb tells the sad story of the fate of the 
 last of them : 
 
 TERRITORY OF UTAH, 
 Jutab County, 
 
 Alice Lamb being duly sworn, says she is fourteen years of age, has lived in 
 the City of Nephi for two years, and in the family of John Anthony Wolf, 
 President of one of the Church seventies, late in the fall of 1857. Porter Rock- 
 well and four other men came from towards Salt Lake City about the middle 
 of the afternoon into Nephi, all on horseback, it was on Friday they stopped 
 at Mr. Foots, Mayor of the city, and got their dinner. They all left on the 
 same afternoon on the road to California. Porter Rockwell was going to guard 
 them through the settlement. Mr. "Wolf lived right across the street from Mr. 
 Foots. On the next morning Mr. Foots boy Ceynes came over to Mr. Wolf, and 
 asked Mr. Wolf to come over to his fathers. Mr. Wolf said he was sick, and 
 told Ceynes to tell his father to come over there. The boy left and shortly 
 after Mr. Foot, (Bishop,) Jacob Bigler, brother Bryant, his first counsellor, 
 Samuel Pitchforth, a President of one of the Seventies came over to Mr. Wolfs. 
 They talked about two of the men that had went through the day before with 
 Porter Rockwell. Coming back in the middle of the night, they talked about 
 two of the men bein*g killed, and these two escaping and getting back. They 
 talked about ten minutes.'when it was determined to take them up to Willow 
 Creek, about eight miles north of here, and kill them. They were to pretend 
 to the two men that they were a going to take them back to Salt Lake City. 
 Affiant went over to Mr. Foots in the morning to get Mr. Wolf's paper. Mr. 
 Foot is the Post master. Three families took one paper, and Mr. Foot wanted 
 to read it first. There was a great many people there. Saw one of the men 
 there, his face was bruised all up, his nose was mashed flat to his face, looked 
 as though he had been beaten with a club or gun barrel. He had no shoes on 
 and his clothes were all torn. The mail had come in during Friday night, and 
 Mr. Wolf sept me early next morning for the paper. A little after sun up the 
 two men were put into a wagon. James Cook and James Wolf got into the 
 wagon. Porter Rockwell, Absalom Wolf, and Horner Brown went along as a 
 guard, on horseback, and had guns. Started towards Willow Creek. All came 
 back just after dinner but the two men and Porter Rockwell. After they got 
 back James Wolf said, when they got opposite the Mud Corral on Willow 
 Creek the two men did not want to go down to the Corral, which is four or 
 five hundred yards from the road. We told them they must go down and get 
 something to eat, and Reed drove down ; and after we got there, the men got 
 out of the wagon. Our men fired at them and killed them both, then they 
 dug ajhole near the creek, and not far from the Corral, and buried them both 
 together. Affiant never heard their names mentioned. Mr. Foot, the people 
 say, h*s an ivory or pearl handled pistol that belonged to one of them. And. 
 
 5 
 
66 
 
 Affiant has seen him most ever since riding a horse that one of the men rode. 
 Mr. Foot says they had a heap of money, and further says not. 
 
 (Signed) ALICE LAMB. 
 
 Sworn to and signed before me, this 30th day of May, A. D. 1859. 
 
 JOHN CRADLEBAUGH. 
 Associate Justice of the Supreme Court> U. S. 
 
 MURDER OF FORBES. 
 
 The New York Daily Times of August 3d, 1858, contains the following cor- 
 respondence from Mr. McNeill, a Gentile, who was imprisoned in Salt Lake 
 city, during the winter of '57 and '58, and who afterwards brought suit against 
 Brigham Young for false imprisonment, and was himself subsequently mur- 
 dered : 
 
 "A young man, (Forbes,) whose name McNeill does not remember, came here 
 from California last year, and went to board with a man named Terry, at 
 Springville. Some time afterwards his revolvers were stolen from the house 
 during the day time, and his horse carried off from the field. Terry told him 
 that they had been carried off by Indians. On a Sunday evening, subsequent 
 to the thefts, Terry started for the church, as he said, and the young man 
 went out with him, which is the last time he was ever seen ; and the next day 
 Terry was seen riding the stolen horse about town, with the pistol of deceased 
 in his belt" 
 
 The following affidavit explains the foregoing statement of McNeill : 
 
 Affidavit of Abraham Durfee. 
 
 TERRITORY OF UTAH, ) 
 
 Second Judicial District, [ ss. 
 
 Provo City, Utah County. ) 
 
 Abraham Durfee, being duly sworn, says as follows : I have resided in 
 Springville, Utah county, U. T., for about eight years. In the latter part of 
 January, 1858, Wilber J, Earl, came to me in Springville, and wanted me to go 
 with him to assist him in killing Forbes. I told him that I could not go. He 
 wanted some of the boys. He said it was orders to kill Forbes ; did not say 
 from whom the orders came. He wanted me to come over to the north gate 
 the evening that Forbes was to be killed ; it was Saturday that he was telling 
 me about it, and Fortes was to be killed the next evening. The next evening 
 (Sunday) I went over to the north gate as requested by Earl. About a half 
 an hour of dark Earl and Sanford Fuller came with Forbes ; Wilber J. Earl 
 ordered me to stay at the gate ; he said that they were going to Provo. I staid 
 at the gate until Wilber J. Earl and Satiford Fuller came back, which was about 
 midnight. They said that they had got rid of Forbes ; that was about all they 
 told me that night. About a week afterwards Wilber J. Eail told me that they 
 had killed Forbes down on Spring creek, about half way to Provo ; they said 
 they shot him ; they said they had dug a hole near the creek and put him in. 
 I don't know what became of Forbes property; I saw Forbes horse at Partial 
 Terry's since and before Forbes* death ; I don't know how Terry became pos- 
 
6T 
 
 sessed of Forbes' horse. Both Earl and Fuller told me that they had shot 
 Forbes. I don't know where Earl or Fuller are, or either of them, at this 
 time ; I saw Earl on the 22d inst. at last at Salt Lake city. I went with him 
 from Springville to Salt Lake city ; we parted in the city between the Temple 
 black and the Deseret store, and I have not seen him since. I saw Fuller last 
 in Springville, two weeks ago last Saturday in the evening. 
 
 (Signed) ABRAHAM DURFEE. 
 
 Sworn and subscribed before me this 1st day of April, 1859. 
 
 JOHN CRADLEBAUGH, 
 
 Judge, Ac. 
 
 (See also Bartholomew's testimony as to the death of Forbes.) 
 
 HISTORY OF THE DANITE ORGANIZATION. 
 
 In the excellent work of John Hyde, jr., upon Mormonism, we find the fol- 
 lowing account of the origin of the Danites : 
 
 "When the citizens of Carroll and Davis counties, Missouri, began to threaten 
 the Mormons with expulsion in 1838, a death society was organized under the 
 direction of Sidney Rigdon, and with the sanction of Smith. Its first captain 
 was Captain Fearnot, alias David Patton, an apostle. Its object was the pun- 
 ishment of the obnoxious. Some time elapsed before finding a suitable name. 
 They desired one that should seem to combine spiritual authority with a suit- 
 able sound. Micah, iv, 13, furnished the first name, 'Arise and thresh, 
 daughter of Zion ; for I will make thy horn iron and thy hoofs brass; and 
 thou shalt beat in pieces many people ; and I will consecrate their gain unto, 
 the Lord, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.' This fur- 
 nished them with a pretext; it accurately described their intentions, and they 
 called themselves the ' Daughters of Zion.' Some ridicule was made at these 
 bearded and bloody 'daughters,' and the name did not sit easily. 'Destroying 
 Angels' came next; the ' Big Fan ' of the thresher, that should thoroughly 
 purge the floor, was tried and dropped. Gen. xlix, 1Y, furnished the name 
 they finally assumed. The verse is quite significant: 'Dan shall be a serpent 
 by the way, an adder in the path that biteth the horse's heele, so that his 
 rider shall fall backward.' The 'Sons of Dan' (or the Danites) was the style 
 they adopted. Many have been the times that they have been adders in the 
 path, and many has fallen backward, and has been seen no more. 
 
 " At Salt Lake, among themselves, they ferociously exult in these things 
 rather seek to deny or extenuate them."