CONTENTS:

NOTE TO SECOND AND FUTURE EDITIONS.
INTRODUCTION. 
AGENCIES OF WHICH THE MASSACRE WAS THE LOGICAL RESULT. 
DOCTRINE OF "BLOOD ATONEMENT" AND ITS RESULTS. 
THE DOOMED ARKANSAS COMPANY. 
CONDITIONS IN SOUTHERN UTAH. 
PERSONNEL OF THE LEADING ASSASSINS. 
ROUTE OF THE EMIGRANTS. 
THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS. 
THE CONSPIRACY. 
THE ATTACK. 
EMIGRANT'S HEROIC DEFENSE. 
ASSEMBLING OF WHITE ASSASSINS. 
THE MASSACRE. 
FUTHER DETAILS - FROM MAJOR CARLETON'S REPORT. 
TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF JOHN D. LEE. 
APPENDIX.
  TESTIMONY OF LABAN MORRILL - SECOND TRIAL OF LEE. 
  TESTIMONY OF JACOB HAMBLIN - SECOND TRIAL OF LEE. 
  TESTIMONY OF NEPHI JOHNSON - SECOND TRIAL OF LEE. 
  IN DEFENSE OF THE EMIGRANTS. 
  ELDER PENROSE'S "DEFENSE" OF BRIGHAM YOUNG AND THE CHURCH. 



NOTE TO SECOND AND FUTURE EDITIONS

   Because of the faulty memory of an aged Mormon, who gave me the name of 
Isaac Laney as that of the man who was brutally beaten. at Parowan, in 
southwestern Utah, because he sold a few onions to the emigrants who 
perished at the Mountain Meadows, a slight error crept into the first 
edition of "The Mountain Meadows Massacre."

   Since its publication I have been most fortunate in meeting a wealthy 
man, now residing at Oakland, California, who lived next door to William 
Laney at Parowan at the time of the massacre, and from him learned the 
truth of the incident. His recollection of that incident has been verified 
by reference to a letter received a year ago from Judge James S. Aden of 
Tennessee, whose brother was a victim of the religion-crazed fanatics who 
exterminated Captain Charles Fancher's companions at the Mountain Meadows. 
Judge Aden's recollection of Laney's name was DeLaney. And because of the 
fact that I could learn nothing of any man by that name the Judge's 
interesting story of how his father aided William Laney, while the latter 
was a Mormon missionary, and how his brother was entertained by William 
Laney at Parowan, and given a few onions, was omitted from the first 
edition. It is now given in full. Also, at the recent Mormon general 
conference, I met the nephew of William Laney, and who told me that it was 
his uncle instead of his father, Isaac Laney, who lived at Parowan.

   The above explanation has been given for purpose of disarming Mormon 
critics who are ever alert to even the slightest discrepancies that may 
find their way into the writings of those who presume to criticise the 
conduct and motives of the Mormon leaders.

JOSIAH F. GIBBS.
Salt Lake City, Utah, October 17th, 1910.



INTRODUCTION.

   Some five years ago a prominent Salt Lake editor, in a letter to the 
writer, said: "The Mountain Meadows massacre is an incident that should be 
forgotten." The gentleman, a well-known Gentile, was in error; the human 
family learns only by experience. The lessons taught by the tragedies of 
the past come down to us in the form of history and become danger signals 
along the highway of advancing civilization, and warn us of the peril that 
marches hand in hand with human passions, with ignorance and superstition.

   Speaking specifically, the Mountain Meadows massacre should not be 
forgotten as long as Mormon writers, pulpiteers and missionaries use the 
"Missouri Persecutions," the "Martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith," and 
the "Expulsion of the Saints from Nauvoo" as influences for proselyting. 
Nor should the discussion of any prominent tragedy cease until the causes 
that unerringly led up to the act shall have been eradicated, or until the 
lesson that it teaches is no longer necessary. The Mountain Meadows 
massacre should be kept before the public until unquestioning obedience to 
the will of the Mormon "prophets" shall be no longer exacted from the 
Mormon people, or until its deadening, damning influence is exterminated. 
Those who suggest such lapses of memory as that suggested by the Salt Lake 
editor do so in the interest of "peace in Utah," a "peace" that would be 
purchased by the surrender of justice to injustice, of right to wrong, of 
the present to the future - a surrender in Utah of moral progress and 
civil liberty to mercenary advantages and political bribes held out by the 
"prophets" and the Mormon and pro-Mormon press as the price of silence.


AGENCIES OF WHICH THE MASSACRE WAS THE LOGICAL RESULT.

   The details of the Mountain Meadows massacre have been repeatedly told. 
Embittered Mormon "apostates" and greedy romancers have distorted the 
awful incidents; Mormon historians and subsidized writers have submerged 
the truth and endeavored to shift the burthen of the terrible crime to the 
Indians; and thus far none of them have, seemingly, been able to grasp the 
elusive forces that unerringly led up to the tragedy, or they have failed 
to state them.

   With malice toward none, least of all toward the misguided assassins, 
and in a spirit of even-handed justice, the attempt will be made to 
assemble the fragments of causation and history and join them together in 
a consecutive narrative.

   And it is well to here remark that the story of the massacre is largely 
drawn from the evidence of unwilling Mormon witnesses who testified during 
the second trial of John D. Lee; from close personal contact with the 
religious and social life of Utah from 1857 to the present time; from an 
intimate acquaintance with the people of southern Utah, and from a 
personal study of the locality known as the Mountain Meadows.

   An intelligible grasp of the remarkable religious and social conditions 
that existed in Utah just prior to the massacre, and of which it was one 
of the logical results, cannot be imparted without quoting from the 
sermons of some of the Mormon "prophets." And it is a fact well known to 
Mormon leaders and historians that the expulsion of the Latter-day Saints 
from Missouri, the killing of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, and the expulsion of 
the church from Illinois were but the logical results of the
"revelations," sermons and writings of the Mormon leaders, and which 
inspired the rank and file of the Mormons with grotesquely exaggerated 
views of the religious and political mission of Mormonism, and of their 
own importance.

   Following are excerpta from a few of the "prophets'" sermons:

   "God made Aaron to be the mouthpiece of the children of Israel, and he 
will make me to be God to you in his stead, and the elders to be mouth for 
me; and if you don't like it you must lump it." - From sermon by the 
"Prophet" Joseph Smith, Jr., Nauvoo, April, 1844; clipped from the Mormon 
Deseret News of July 15, 1857.

   "The first principle of our cause and work is to understand that there 
is a prophet in the church, and that he is at the head of the Church of 
Christ on earth. Who called Joseph Smith to be a prophet? Did the people 
or God? God, and not the people, called him. Had the people gathered 
together and appointed one of their number to be a prophet, he would have 
been accountable to the people, but, inasmuch as he was called of God, and 
not by the people, he is accountable to God only... and not to any man on 
earth. The twelve apostles are accountable to the prophet and not to the 
church for the course they pursue, and we have learned to go and do, as 
the prophet tells us." - From sermon by Brigham Young, at Nauvoo, 1843, 
published in Millennial Star, Liverpool, England, Vol. XXI., page 741.

   "The fact of the matter is, when a man says 'you can direct me 
spiritually, but not temporally,'  he lies in the presence of God; that 
is, if he has got intelligence enough to know what he is talking about." - 
From sermon by Joseph F. Smith (the present-day Mormon "prophet") at 
Provo, Utah; from the Deseret News, May 20, 1896.

   The above quotations prove beyond the possibility of successful 
contradiction. that the  "prophets" of the Mormon church are, if their 
claims be accepted, vicegerents of God, that they act "in his stead"; that 
those of the Mormon people who deny the right of the "prophets" to 
"direct" them "temporally," "lie in the presence of God," and that the 
"prophets" are "accountable to God only, and not to any man on earth." 
Also from President Brigham Young we learn that "we (the Mormons) have 
learned to go and do as the prophet tells us."

   The subserviency of even the apostles of the Mormon church is well 
illustrated in the following:

   "Now, whatever I might have obtained in the shape of learning, by 
searching and study respecting the arts and sciences of men - whatever 
principles I may have imbibed during my scientific researches, yet, if the 
prophet of God should tell me that a certain principle or theory which I 
might have learned was not true, I do not care what my ideas might have 
been, I should consider it my duty, at the suggestion of my file leader, 
to abandon that principle or theory." - From sermon by Apostle Wilford 
Woodruff at Salt Lake City, April 9, 1857, recorded in Journal of 
Discourses, Vol. I., page 83.

   And in the face of the plain assertions of their leaders the Mormon 
people deny that they are ruled spiritually and temporally by one man - 
that they are slaves to the dicta of one man who claims to rule them by 
the authority and in the name and stead of God! But when the dupes of the 
Mormon "prophets" deny that self-evident fact they should remember that 
they "lie in the presence of God."


DOCTRINE OF "BLOOD ATONEMENT" AND ITS RESULTS.

   Necessarily, the believer in unquestioning obedience to the dictum of 
one man, or his agent or agents, is a fanatic, and there is not a devout 
Mormon on earth who would not commit murder if he were ordered to do so by 
the chief "prophet" or one of his agents in whom he had confidence. If he 
would not obey the order then he is not a "firm believer in the (Mormon) 
faith." The voice of the "prophet" is the voice of God to him, and he has 
no alternative but to "go and do as he is told." Otherwise, "he lies in 
the presence of God."

   And the reader will readily comprehend the awful significance of the 
combination of blind obedience and the doctrine of blood atonement, or the 
doctrine that one must submit to capital punishment for certain offenses 
which, as the Mormon "prophets" claim, were not included in the atonement 
of the Son of God. Add to that combination the fact that those blood 
atonement executions are to be carried out under the authority of the 
leader of a religious organization, and not under any civil process, and 
one will have a partial perception of the conditions that existed in Utah 
under the rule of the "prophets" from their occupation of Utah, in 1847, 
to 1880. Mormons deny the existence of those conditions, but they will not 
deny the accuracy of the following quotations:

   "There is not a man or woman who violates the covenants made with their 
God (in the Mormon temples), that will not be required to pay the debt. 
The blood of Christ will never wipe that out, your own blood must atone 
for it; and the judgments of the Almighty will come, sooner or later, and 
every man or woman will have to atone for breaking their covenants." - 
From sermon by Brigham Young, March 16, 1856, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 
III., page 247.

   "What do you suppose they would say in old Massachusetts should they 
hear that the Latter-day Saints had received a revelation or commandment 
to 'lay judgment to the line and righteousness to the plummet'? What would 
they say in old Connecticut? They would raise a universal howl of 'how 
wicked the Mormons are. They are killing the evildoers who are among them. 
Why, I hear that they kill the wicked away up yonder in Utah.'... What do 
I care for the wrath of man? No more than I do for the chickens that run 
in my dooryard. I am here to teach the ways of the Lord, and lead men to 
life everlasting; but if they have not a mind to go there, I wish them to 
keep out of my path." - From sermon by Brigham Young in 1855, Journal of 
Discourses, Vol. III., page 50.

   "If any miserable scoundrels come here, cut their throats." - From red 
hot blood atonement sermon by Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 
II., page 311. At the conclusion of the injunction to "cut their
throats," "all the people said 'amen!'"

   "I would ask how many covenant breakers there are in this city and in 
this kingdom (the Mormon 'kingdom of God')?  I believe that there are a 
great many; and if they are covenant breakers, we need a place designated 
where we can shed their blood.... If any of you ask, do I mean you, I 
answer yes. If any woman asks, do I mean her, I answer yes.... We have 
been trying long enough with these people, and I go in for letting the 
sword of the Almighty be unsheathed, not only in word but in deed." - From 
sermon by Jedediah M. Grant, second counselor to Brigham Young, Journal of 
Discourses, Vol. IV., pp. 49-50.

   It is not necessary to give the details of the blood atonement murder 
of William R. Parrish and his son Beason for "apostasy," at Springville, 
in 1856; of the murder of Rosmos Anderson by the leading priesthood of the 
Parowan "stake of Zion" in 1856, because Philip Klingensmith, bishop of 
Cedar City, Utah, coveted the buxom Scandinavian stepdaughter of Anderson 
as his plural wife, and whom Anderson also wanted as his plural, and with 
whom, as alleged, he had committed adultery as the last and surest effort 
to secure a "recommend" to enter the "holy order of celestial marriage"; 
of the castration of Tom Lewis, at Manti, Utah, in 1856, because Bishop 
Warren Snow was lecherously ambitious to polygamously marry the girl with 
whom Lewis was keeping company; of the inexpressibly cowardly murder of 
William Hatton at Fillmore, 1856, by a man who could be named, and who was 
the agent of the "prophets, seers and revelators" at Salt Lake City, and 
whose handsome widow the unspeakable "Prophet" Heber C. Kimball soon after 
added to his celestial harem; of the murder, by prophetic instructions, at 
Farmington, during the spring of 1858, of four of the Aiken party, and 
while "Johnston's" army at Ham's Fork was preparing to enter Utah, and of 
the cowardly assassination of two others of the Aiken party by a present 
high churchman and his companion, who, under pretense of conducting them 
from Utah by the southern route to California, shot them in the back at a 
point some four or five miles south of Nephi, about 110 miles south of 
Salt Lake City; of the midnight murder, later on, of King, Brassfield and 
others who became obnoxious to the Mormon leaders. This is an abbreviated 
history of the Mountain Meadows massacre - not of the entire diabolical 
results of the teaching of unquestioning obedience and blood atonement by 
the vicegerents of the Mormon god.

   Any one with ordinary intelligence can comprehend the terrible results 
of the license to murder which is embraced in the excerpta that have been 
quoted from the bloodthirsty sermons of two of the chief "prophets" of the 
Mormon church.

   The preaching of blood atonement was accompanied by two years -- 1856-
1857 -- of hysterical repentance called the Mormon "reformation." The 
larger portion of the "Saints" confessed their sins to the "block teachers,
" to the "ward bishops," or, as in many instances, to Brigham Young, to 
whom many of the sinful Saints went with their tales of iniquity. It was a 
time of confession, of the "renewal of covenants" by rebaptism, and the 
intensification of indescribable fanaticism, frenzy and violence.

   The reason for those violent outbreaks on the part of the prophets is 
alleged to have been the effect of the unrestrained liberty, even license, 
of frontier life, which affects alike the saint and the sinner; the 
latter, of course, being the more willing victim. Even some of the "saints 
of the Most High" descended to stealing and worse crimes. That, and the 
influx of traders, trappers and others not of the Mormon faith, created 
apprehension on the part of the "prophets" that the "kingdom of God," 
which they had "established in the top of the mountains," would perish 
because of the iniquity of the people.

   It was the hope that it might check the carnival of crime that prompted 
the Mormon leaders to inaugurate the "reformation." No truthful history of 
the religious hysteria, frenzy, fanaticism and diabolism of those early 
days in Utah has ever been written. It was as if civilization had been 
forced backward four hundred years with the spirit and practice of the 
Inquisition in full control.

   Another condition that added to the frenzy of the "prophets" was the 
presence of federal officials who attempted to enforce the "common law" in 
cases of polygamy, and who were regarded as usurpers of the divine right 
of Brigham Young to be a despot. The conflict between the civil law, 
represented by the government officials, and the ecclesiastical rule of 
Brigham Young became so acute that the Gentile officials fled the 
territory. In order to aid its officials in the enforcement of the law the 
government, in the spring of 1857, dispatched an army of 2500 men to Utah, 
which further incensed the Mormon leaders and their followers against the 
government and against all Gentiles within and without the Mormon empire.

   As governor of Utah, and vicegerent of the Mormon deity, Brigham Young 
issued a proclamation, of which three paragraphs only are necessary:

Therefore, I, Brigham Young, governor and superintendent of Indian affairs 
for the Territory of Utah,

First - Forbid all armed forces of every description from coming into this 
territory, under any pretense whatever.

Second - That all the forces in said territory hold themselves in 
readiness to march at a moment's notice, to repel any and all such 
invasion.

Third - Martial law is hereby declared to exist in this territory, from 
and after the publication of this proclamation; and no person shall be 
allowed to pass or repass, into or through, or from this territory without 
a permit from the proper officer.

   That the Mormon leaders were determined to make desperate resistance to 
the entry of the federal troops is proved by the following self-
explanatory letter:

Great Salt Lake City, Sept. 14th, 1857.

Colonel William H. Dame, Parowan, Iron county:

Herewith you will receive the governor's proclamation declaring martial 
law.

You will probably not be called out this fall, but are requested to 
continue to make ready for a big fight another year. The plan of 
operations is supposed to be about this. In case the United States 
government should send out an overpowering force, we intend to desolate 
the territory, and conceal our families, stock and all our effects in the 
fastnesses of the mountains, where they will be safe, while the men waylay 
our enemies, attack them from ambush, stampede their animals, take the 
supply trains, cut off the detachments and parties sent to the canyons for 
wood, or on other service. To lay waste everything that will burn - 
houses, fences, fields and grass, so that they cannot find a particle of 
anything that will be of use to them, not even sticks to make a fire to 
cook their supplies. To waste away our enemies and to lose none; that will 
be our mode of warfare. Thus you will see the necessity of preparing, 
first, secure places in the mountains where they cannot find us, or, if 
they do, where they cannot approach in force, and then prepare for our 
families, building some cabins, caching flour and grain.... Conciliate the 
Indians and make them our fast friends.

In regard to letting the people pass and repass, or travel through the 
territory, this applies to all strangers and suspected persons. Yourself 
and Brother Isaac C. Haight, in your districts, are authorized to give 
such permits. Examine all such persons before giving them such permits to 
pass. Keep things perfectly quiet, and let all things be done peacefully, 
but with firmness, and let there be no excitement. Let the people be 
united in their feelings and faith, as well as works, and keep alive the 
spirit of reformation. And what we said in regard to saving the grain and 
provisions we say again. We do not wish to shed a drop of blood if it can 
be avoided.

This course will give us great influence abroad.

(Signed)  BRIGHAM YOUNG (Prophet);
          DANIEL H. WELLS (Lieutenant General).

Certified to tinder seal by James Jack, notary public, August 16, 1876. 


   Brigham Young's letter to Dame is a curious mixture of governor of Utah 
and king of the Mormon "kingdom of God" - a blending of the civil and 
ecclesiastic authority, as was intended by the founders of Mormonism.

   It should be particularly noted that Bishop Colonel Dame and President 
Colonel Haight were authorized, as military and ecclesiastical 
authorities, in their districts, to issue "permits" to "pass or repass" 
through the territory.

   It will be observed that President Young's letter to Dame bears date of 
September 14, while the date of the proclamation is that of September 15. 
In the discussion between Haight and John D. Lee on the night of about 
September 3, it is alleged by the latter that Haight told him that the 
massacre of the emigrants "is the will of all in authority. The emigrants 
have no pass from any one to go through the country, and they are liable 
to be killed as common enemies, for the country is at war now. No man has 
a right to go through this country without a written pass."

   The conversation between Haight and Lee occurred about twelve days 
before the proclamation is alleged to have been promulgated. President 
Young received word on the 24th of July, 1857, that Johnston's army was en 
route to Utah, and it is unbelievable that the astute Brigham would have 
waited until September 15 to issue his "proclamation" declaring the 
existence of "martial law."

   Under all the circumstances it is not an injustice to charge that, 
after the massacre, the date of the proclamation was changed from August 
to September for the purpose of destroying the plain evidence that the 
massacre of the emigrants was authorized by the proclamation, inasmuch as 
the emigrants had no "permit" to pass through the territory.


THE DOOMED ARKANSAS COMPANY.

   Little is known of the personnel of Fancher's company. No doubt the 
larger number was from Arkansas. There were many from Missouri, and a few 
from other states.

   William Eaton, whose niece is living in Salt Lake City, was a native of 
Indiana. During the early fifties he went to Illinois, where he secured a 
farm. Early in 1857 he met some men from Arkansas who were visiting 
relatives in Illinois preparatory to moving to California with the Fancher 
company. Eaton sold his farm, took his wife and little daughter back to 
Indiana, and joined the company in Arkansas. The last letter received by 
Mrs. Eaton from her husband stated that all was well, but subsequently she 
learned that the company had been exterminated.

   William A. Aden, another of the victims, was born in Tennessee, and was 
about twenty years old at the time of the massacre. A recent letter from 
his brother, James S. Aden of Paris, Henry county, Tennessee, states that 
his brother was an artist, and relates an interesting incident that 
occurred in Paris several years prior to his brother's departure for 
California, and which forms the basis for another interesting incident at 
Parowan, Utah.

   William Laney, a Mormon elder from Utah, was proselyting in the 
vicinity of Paris. He secured the courthouse and proceeded to expound 
Mormonism. A number of mischievous lads, among whom was William A. Aden, 
pushed a small cannon to the rear of the courthouse, and while Elder Laney 
was preaching the boys discharged the small piece of ordnance. Elder Laney 
thought that an armed mob was upon him. He abruptly discontinued his 
discourse, ran from the building and sought safety in hurried flight. On 
his mad race out of town he met the father of young Aden, who took him 
home and cared for him during the elder's stay in the vicinity.

   Early in 1857 young Aden left Tennessee for California. He sketched 
scenery along the route, and on his arrival in Utah went on to Provo, 
about 47 miles south of Salt Lake City, where he did some scenic painting 
for the Provo Dramatic association. On the arrival of the doomed Arkansas 
company he joined them and went on to the Mountain Meadows.

   Frank E. King and wife traveled with the Fancher company from Pacific 
Springs, Wyoming, to Salt Lake City, where, owing to the sickness of Mrs. 
King, he was compelled to remain until December 4, when he went on to 
Beaver, 210 miles south of Salt Lake City, and thus escaped the fate that 
lurked for the company in southern Utah.

   The author of this story of the massacre is indebted to Mr. Frank E. 
King for much interesting data relative to the company, and of his 
experience in Utah about the time of the massacre, and will, therefore, 
introduce him more fully to the reader.

   On Mr. King's arrival in Beaver the bishop of the ward advised him to 
remain during the winter as the Indians, after the massacre, were more 
than usually hostile toward Gentiles. Mr. King remained during the winter, 
and, notwithstanding the friendliness of the bishop, was twice ordered to 
move on by some of the fanatics. On May 15 Mr. King again started for 
southern California, and reached Cedar City on the 17th. Quoting from Mr. 
King's letter, he says:

   "I had not unhitched my team when John M. Higbee and Elias Morris, 
second counselor to Isaac C. Haight, ordered me to leave before the sun 
rose the next morning."

   Mr. King regarded the order as ominous, and returned to central Utah. 
After living in Manti and other towns he joined the first colony of 
settlers in Marysvale, Piute county, Utah, where he resided until some 
five years ago, when he moved to Grant's Pass, Oregon.

   Although the writer's intimate acquaintance with Mr. King extended over 
a period of twenty-five years, I never heard him mention the Mountain 
Meadows massacre, and knew nothing of his association with the unfortunate 
company until his son, Charles, who resides in Marysvale, last Winter 
(1910) told me that his father traveled in Fancher's company. Soon after 
the discovery I wrote to Mr. King and received some of the information 
which is used in this history of the massacre.

   There were certain questions in dispute, and with my first letter to 
Mr. King I inclosed a list of questions which, with the answers, are given 
herewith:

Ques.- Kindly give the names of as many members of the company as you can 
remember?

Ans.- Fancher, Dunlap, Morton, Haydon, Hudson, Aden, Stevenson, Hamilton, 
a family by the name of Smith and a Methodist minister.

Ques.- Give the Christian names of the two Dunlap girls and their ages?

Ans.- Rachel and Ruth, aged sixteen and eighteen years, respectively.

Ques.- How many wagons and carriages in the train?

Ans.- Forty.

Ques.- How many men capable of bearing arms, and about how many women - 
married and single, large girls included?

Ans.- About sixty men, forty women and nearly fifty children.

Ques.- About how many horsemen in the train?

Ans.- About twelve, as near as I can remember.
 

CONDITIONS IN SOUTHERN UTAH.

   The settlements in Iron and Washington counties were less than six 
years old, and distant 240 to more than 300 miles from Salt Lake City. 
Mail lines had not been established. All communication with Salt Lake was 
necessarily by special messenger or by the slower means of those who 
occasionally went to and fro on business. At the time of which we are 
writing the people of those remote southern settlements were in the throes 
of the Mormon "reformation," and the news of the approach of Johnston's 
army served to intensify the frenzy. They had three years' breadstuff on 
hand, but were continually urged to husband it for the expected "big 
fight" with the United States.


PERSONNEL OF THE LEADING ASSASSINS.

   Isaac C. Haight resided in Cedar City, about 260 miles southwesterly 
from Salt Lake City, and forty miles northeasterly from the Mountain 
Meadows. He was president of the Parowan "stake of Zion," and as such was 
the ecclesiastical agent in Iron county of President Brigham Young. to 
whom all the presidents of "stakes" reported, and to whom they were 
directly responsible for their acts. Haight was also lieutenant colonel in 
the Iron county militia, and upon him must ever rest the larger part of 
the odium for the inception and details of the massacre.

   As bishop of the Parowan ward of the Parowan "stake of Zion,'' William 
H. Dame was under the ecclesiastical direction of President Haight. But as 
colonel in command of the military district comprising Iron and Washington 
counties Dame was the military superior of Haight.

   John M. Higbee resided in Cedar City, was first counselor to Isaac C. 
Haight in the Parowan "stake of Zion," and was major in the Iron county 
militia.

   The practice of conferring ecclesiastical, civil and military powers on 
the same individual has been a distinguishing feature of the Mormon church 
from its beginning in 1830. Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, was at 
once the representative of the Mormon god upon the earth, mayor of Nauvoo, 
and lieutenant general of the Nauvoo legion. And just before his death in 
1844, the Mormon "prophet" was nominated for president of the United 
States by the Democrats under his spiritual control. And it is an 
inexorable law that the ecclesiastical power of the Mormon hierarchs is 
superior to that of the civil and military divisions, or adjuncts, of the 
church.

   And there is no doubt that Dame reluctantly became an abettor of 
butchering the emigrants because of the fact that Haight was his 
ecclesiastical superior.

   There is a popular and widespread impression that John D. Lee was the 
leader and arch criminal of the massacre. That is not true. He held no 
special office in the priesthood, but was farmer to the Indians under 
Superintendent Brigham Young. Lee was a man of medium height, heavy build, 
and possessed more than average intelligence. As an abject slave of the 
Mormon priesthood he was a willing tool of his "file leader" in deeds of 
violence. Lee's father was a member of the "First Families of Virginia," 
and had not the son become tainted with Mormon superstition, and the 
victim of the fatuous doctrine of unquestioning obedience to the self- 
constituted vicegerents of God, he would doubtless have lived and died an 
honored member of society.

   Philip Klingensmith was bishop of the Cedar ward and Samuel McVurdy was 
his first counselor.

   Except in so far as it is necessary in the discussion of the details of 
the tragedy, it would be an act of wanton cruelty to name the others of 
the fifty-five white men who were present at the massacre. The public 
naming of those men would serve no purpose, and would add unnecessary 
weight to the cross which hundreds of their innocent descendants are 
bearing.

   The great majority of the men who participated in that almost 
unparalleled crime were not murderers in the generally accepted definition 
of the word. They were irresponsible victims of gross superstition, and, 
almost without protest, they stained their souls with blood in the effort 
to perform the will of God, as they understood the order to commit murder. 
The execrations of those now living, and of those who will read the story 
of the tragedy at the Mountain Meadows in the years to come should fall 
upon those who taught the doctrine of unquestioning obedience and blood 
atonement, and upon those present day "prophets, seers and revelators" who 
teach that a Mormon "lies in the presence of God" when he declines to 
surrender his temporal being to the representatives of an alien and 
despotic priesthood.

   Such were the people, and such were the conditions that awaited Captain 
Fancher's company of one hundred and fifty souls.


ROUTE OF THE EMIGRANTS.

   It was about the middle of August, 1857, when the Arkansas emigrants 
emerged from Emigration canyon and camped on Emigration square, the 
present site of the Salt Lake city and county building.

   After laying in such supplies as could be obtained in Salt Lake City 
the emigrants proceeded southward, following the well beaten road that 
stretched out southerly and then southwesterly to southern California.

   According to Mr. Frank E. King the company was short of supplies when 
they left Salt Lake. At Nephi, about 100 miles south of Salt Lake, they 
made the attempt to purchase flour of "Red Bill" Black, who ran the flour 
mill, but were peremptorily refused. A like effort was made at Fillmore, 
sixty miles south of Nephi, and with like results.

   At Corn creek, fourteen miles southwesterly from Fillmore, the 
emigrants laid over a day or two to permit their work animals and cows 
which they were taking to California to graze on the then luxuriant 
pasturage of that locality. During their sojourn at Corn creek one of the 
emigrants' animals died. A portion of the carcass was eaten by some of the 
Pahvan Indians, who yet have an encampment near the creek. It is reported 
that four of the Indians died, presumably from the effects of eating the 
diseased meat.

   That incident has been worn threadbare by Mormon and pro-Mormon 
historians, who charge that the emigrants poisoned the carcass for the 
express purpose of killing some of the Indians.

   And those same historians also assert that, as an act of revenge, the 
Indians followed the emigrants to the Meadows and there exterminated them. 
Those historians also charge that the emigrants poisoned the water of a 
spring with the purpose, as is alleged, of killing more Indians. The 
second charge will receive first attention.

   The nearest spring is a half mile or more north of where the emigrants 
were camped, and twice that distance from the old camp ground of the 
Indians. The spring is in the nature of a slough in soil highly charged 
with alkali, of which the water contains an appreciable quantity. Not even 
an Indian would drink the water from that spring while the pure mountain 
water of Corn creek was within a few rods of where the Pahvans were 
camped. It would have required many pounds of poison to have been 
effective on life, and the emigrants would have poisoned their cattle, 
which were grazing on the bottom land near the slough.

   The emigrants were well within that section of Utah where the Indians 
were periodically at war with the Mormons, and which continued until the 
close of 1866. The Pahvan tribe was strong and restless. Less than four 
years previously Moshoquop, the war chief of the Pahvans, and a fraction 
of his band murdered Lieutenant Gunnison and his exploring party of nearly 
a dozen men as an act of revenge for the killing of Moshoquop's father by 
a hot headed emigrant.

   The Fancher company was not an aggregation of fools or lunatics. They 
knew that they were within the power of an enemy that was then preparing 
for war with the United States. Their failure to obtain food supplies, and 
the sullen behavior of the Saints would have convinced men of ordinary 
sense and caution that theirs was a dangerous situation. And they knew 
that scores of places, like the defile known as Baker's pass, not twenty 
miles away, where a dozen Indians could waylay and murder a hundred men, 
must be traversed before they could reach the open country of the Nevada 
deserts.

   And at the second trial of John D. Lee, in 1876, Nephi Johnson, a 
devout Mormon and Indian interpreter, forever disarmed the lying Mormon 
historians by declaring that no Pahvan Indians were present at the 
massacre. A portion of Johnson's evidence, as also that of other 
witnesses, is given in the appendix at the close of this narrative.

   The fact is, western Indians, when pressed for food, eat the flesh of 
diseased animals; and that the Pahvans knew that the emigrants were 
blameless in the matter of the death of four of their braves is abundantly 
proved by the fact that they did not molest the strangers.

   At Beaver, about forty-eight miles from Corn creek, the emigrants made 
another unsuccessful attempt to purchase supplies.

   On their arrival at Parowan, thirty miles south from Beaver, the 
emigrants encamped outside the "fort" or earth wall surrounding the Mormon 
residences and gardens. By some means the emigrants succeeded in 
purchasing a small quantity of wheat, but there was no mill in the 
settlement.

   Among those who visited the camp of the emigrants was Elder William 
Laney, who has before been mentioned as a missionary in Tennessee. William 
A. Aden immediately recognized Elder Laney as the man whom he, with other 
boys, had frightened by the discharge of a small cannon in the rear of the 
courthouse at Paris. Aden at once made himself known to the elder, who 
recollected that Aden's father had given him shelter when he believed that 
his life was in danger, and cordially invited the young Tennesseean to 
visit him within the fort. Aden accepted the elder's hospitality and 
visited his home where Elder Laney had two wives living in the same 
cottage. Aden noticed that the elder had a fine patch of onions growing in 
his front yard and asked to purchase some of them. Elder Laney called his 
wives and instructed them to pull the onions for Aden. The onions were 
presented to the son of Laney's benefactor in Tennessee. For that slight 
act of reciprocal kindness the bishop of Parowan sent two young men by the 
name of Carter to Laney's house. The latter was called out to the sidewalk 
where one of the young thugs beat him into insensibility with a club. 
Laney's wives dragged him into the house and protected him from further 
assault by the emissaries of the Mormon priesthood. Laney's injuries 
affected him during the remainder of his life. The incident serves to 
illustrate the fanaticism and hatred that inspired the Saints to commit 
the final act of extermination of the emigrants.

   From Parowan the road turns sharply to the southwest, and thus 
continues eighteen miles to Cedar City, where the emigrants made another 
ineffectual effort to purchase provisions. But Joseph Walker, who was 
running the flour mills, ground the wheat which had been obtained at 
Parowan. Bishop Klingensmith sent an elder to Walker and ordered him not 
to grind the wheat. The sturdy and bluff old Englishman said to the 
bishop's agent: "Tell the bishop that I have six grown sons, and that we 
will sell our lives at the price of death to others before I will obey his 
order." During many weeks after the incident the emissaries of the bishop 
hounded Walker, and one night while at work in the smutting room of the 
mill he saved his life by blowing out the candle, thus thwarting the 
assassins who were lurking near the window of the room. And although 
Joseph Walker knew by whose orders, and by whom, the Mountain Meadows 
massacre was perpetrated, he lived and died a Mormon. Once thoroughly 
converted to the belief that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, a little 
thing like the massacre at the Meadows doesn't even jar the faith of the 
average Mormon.

   It is very likely that the emigrants had neglected to apply at Salt 
Lake City for "permits" to pass through the territory of the United 
States. They were American citizens, pioneers of Arkansas and Missouri, 
and were not accustomed to asking for permits to travel the public 
highways. If defenders of the Mormon "prophets" accept the theory that 
Brigham Young's "proclamation" declaring martial law was not in effect at 
the time the emigrants were en route to the Meadows, and that "permits" 
were not necessary, they abandon the only possible excuse, or apology, for 
the massacre - that under all the circumstances it was a military 
necessity, and must, forsooth, concede that it was a religious murder and 
that "by their fruits ye shall know them."

   Cedar City was the last town on their route to California, and the last 
place where Brigham Young's order regarding permits could, without a 
massacre, be enforced. And "Brother" Isaac C. Haight was the last man on 
the route who was "authorized" by the Mormon "prophet" to issue permits. 
And there is no doubt that Haight insisted that the orders of his 
religious master in Salt Lake City be fulfilled to the letter, and that 
the emigrants resented the insult.

   Whether true or false, unfortunately the emigrants cannot be called in 
rebuttal, the Mormons of Cedar City have been insistent in their charges 
that the emigrants' conduct was rude, defiant and boisterous. It is 
alleged that they fired their pistols in the air, "swore like pirates," 
and defied the town authorities to arrest them. It is also asserted that 
some of the emigrants from Missouri boasted of having aided in driving the 
Mormons from that state, and with having helped kill "old Joe Smith" at 
Carthage jail in Illinois. It is also affirmed that the emigrants swore 
that they would take provisions by force from the small hamlets and 
ranches through which they expected to pass on their way down the Santa 
Clara river.

   Fancher's company turned westerly, following the old emigrant trail to 
California, and camped at the southwest corner of the Cedar co-operative 
field. According to Mormon statements, it was there that the emigrants 
committed their last depredation, although they passed through Pinto, six 
miles northeasterly from the Meadows. According to rumor, they used some 
fencing for fuel, thus opening the Cedar field to the trespass of range 
cattle and horses.

   The emigrants were then about thirty miles northeasterly from the 
Meadows. We will precede them and make the reader acquainted with the 
topography of the locality.
 

THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS.

   The Mountain Meadows are situated about twenty-five miles southeasterly 
from Modena, a distributing station on the Salt Lake, Los Angeles & San 
Pedro railroad, in the southwesterly part of Iron county.

   A few miles north of the Washington county line the land rises quite 
rapidly to the southwesterly "rim of the Great Salt lake basin." Beginning 
at the "rim," and descending gently toward the southwest some two miles, 
is a narrow valley or depression similar to scores of others which occur 
in the higher altitudes of the Rocky mountains. A low, undulating bench, 
occupied by sparsely growing scrub cedars and pinyon pines, forms the 
eastern boundary of the depression, while low hills and ridges roll away 
toward the west a mile or so, where they vanish in the east base of the 
Beaver Dam range of mountains.

   The locality is about 6000 feet above sea level, and fifty years ago 
the narrow strip of bottom land was covered with luxuriant high altitude 
grass. With the exception of clumps of scrub oak and scattering cedars on 
the hillsides, there is nothing to relieve the monotony of the bare hills 
and ridges. A few springs weakly emerge from the hillsides and bottom land 
and furnish all the water within a distance of several miles. Well down 
toward the lower end of the depression a small spring emerged from the 
sward within about thirty yards to the southeast of where the emigrants 
went into camp for the last time. To the west, and within twenty rods of 
the spring, the south end of a low ridge rises from the flat and reaches 
out a quarter mile or so toward the north. The crest of the ridge is 
strewn with blocks of basalt, and forms a natural rampart. The base of the 
eastern hillside is not more than thirty rods from the spring, and is 
occupied with clumps of oak brush.

   About thirty rods northeast of the old camp grounds is a comparatively 
high hill of small dimensions, from the base of which a low swell, or rise 
of ground, extends southerly to the bench. To the south and east of the 
swell, a few rods from its summit, is a depression covered with a dense 
growth of mountain sage. Across the depression, some thirty rods to the 
south, the base of the bench is bounded by a gully some twelve feet deep - 
deeper now than at the time of the massacre. The south side of the gully 
is conspicuously marked by two large clumps of scrub oak, and beyond the 
hillside is occupied with sage, scrub oak and scattered cedars. The east 
clump of oak was the scene of the most terrible incident of all that 
heartless butchery.

   Although the rights were somewhat chilly in the high altitude of the 
meadows, the days were quite warm, and the emigrants knew that three or 
four days' travel would take them down into an altitude of about 1500 
feet, and out on the blistering sand and gravel strewn plains and mesas of 
southern Nevada, where, in some localities, the watering places are fifty 
miles apart, and scant forage for animals. Doubtless those considerations 
again prompted them to rest their cattle for the hard journey that awaited 
them. And had conditions been otherwise they were really conserving time 
and comfort in the delay.


THE CONSPIRACY.

   About September 7, or the Sabbath following the departure of the 
emigrants from Cedar, a meeting of the priesthood was held in the combined 
school and meeting house on the public square.

   There had been hatched in the cruel, priest-ridden brain of Isaac C. 
Haight a plot to exterminate the emigrants. His scheme was to collect the 
Indians within a radius of sixty miles and loose them upon the strangers, 
and he would put the question to the brethren at the meeting. He was 
already assured of the enthusiastic support of Bishop Klingensmith.

   The subject of the extermination of the emigrants was duly presented to 
the priesthood (nearly every man in the Mormon church holds the 
priesthood), and was discussed at considerable length. A few of the elders 
opposed it, while others warmly approved the measure that was so in 
harmony with the teachings of the "prophets" and with the "spirit of the 
reformation." The arguments waxed warm and caused considerable commotion.

   While the excitement was at its height a commanding figure entered the 
building. The man was Laban Morrill, who presided over the spiritual and 
temporal welfare of the Saints at Johnson's Fort, a small settlement about 
six miles northerly from Cedar. Laban Morrill would have attracted 
attention anywhere among his fellowmen. His fine head, strong, yet kindly 
features and dignified bearing marked him as an altogether superior man. 
After seating himself Mr. Morrill turned to an elder and asked him the 
cause of the excitement.

   After listening a few minutes to the speeches for and against the 
measure, Laban Morrill arose and dispassionately pointed out the unwisdom. 
and inhumanity of the proposed deed. President Haight and Bishop 
Klingensmith contended for the perpetration of the infamous crime. They 
urged that the Lord's prophet had said: "If any miserable curses come 
here, cut their throats." It was not advice, it was a command. And the 
emigrants surely came within the meaning of the term "miserable curses." 
Had they not boasted of having aided in driving the "Lord's chosen people" 
from Missouri? And had they not also boasted of helping to murder the 
Lord's greatest prophet, Joseph Smith? And had they not also threatened to 
raise an army in California and aid in exterminating the Mormons?

   Such were the arguments used by Haight, Klingensmith and others to, 
inflame the passions of the elders, and to "keep alive the spirit of the 
reformation," as President Young had advised. But the masterful presence 
of Laban Morrill, for the moment, apparently stood between the emigrants 
at the Meadows and destruction. The discussion was long and stormy, but 
Morrill finally forced an apparent compromise. He described the 
ineffaceable stain that such an infanmy would bring upon the church, and 
upon the descendants of those who participated in the crime. As a last, 
and more forcible, argument he told the elders that President Young had 
not been consulted in the matter. It was then agreed that action be 
deferred until reply could be received from a message that would be sent 
the next day to President Young. With that understanding the elders 
dispersed, and Laban Morrill returned home "feeling," as he subsequently 
expressed it, "that all was well."

   It was nearly dark of an evening some three or four days prior to the 
priesthood meeting just described, when President Isaac C. Haight walked 
out on the public square at Cedar City. Evidently he was expecting 
someone. He had but a few minutes to wait.

   A man of medium height, heavy build and square, smooth face rode up and 
dismounted. After the usual greetings, and a compliment to the newcomer 
for his promptness in responding to the summons, Haight told Lee that he 
had an important matter to discuss with him, and suggested that they take 
some blankets and spend the night in the unused iron works building 
(subsequently used for a distillery), where they would not be disturbed.

   During the night the plot for murdering the emigrants was fully 
discussed, and the details, so far as possible, were arranged. Nephi 
Johnson, a youth of nineteen years, and an excellent Indian interpreter, 
was selected to "stir up" the redskins in the vicinity and send them down 
to the Meadows. Johnson was to represent to the Indians that the 
"Mericats" - Gentiles - were at war with the Mormons and Indians, and that 
the emigrants were going to California with the avowed purpose of 
returning with an army to exterminate the Mormons and Indians. Carl 
Shirts, Lee's son-in-law, was assigned to a like mission among the Indians 
near St. George, and Oscar Hamblin was to lead the Santa Clara Indians to 
the Meadows.

   To those not acquainted with the inner workings of the hierarchal 
despotism called the Mormon church, it may appear incredible that Nephi 
Johnson and the others would consent to become tools in a scheme so 
diabolical, so cruel and inexpressibly treacherous, but the facts to be 
related will remove the last doubt. Subsquently, Nephi Johnson testified 
that he was afraid of personal violence if he refused, and that he had 
known of instances where men had been "injured" for refusal to do as they 
were told. By an ingenious ruse, at the last moment, Johnson avoided 
personal participation in the wholesale murder.

   The afternoon following the priesthood meeting James H. Haslam, now 
residing in Wellsville, Cache county, Utah, started on his memorable ride 
to Salt Lake City, bearing the message of inquiry as to the disposal of 
the emigrants. The story of that ride, of the relays of horses, of the 
delay because of the indifference of the bishop of Fillmore, and of other 
incidents would be interesting, but regard for brevity compels their 
omission.


THE ATTACK.

   In the days of those long and strenuous journeys across the western 
portion of the continent the emigrants were wont to drive their wagons 
into a circle with the tongues on the inside for convenience in getting 
into and out of the wagons. The arrangement served admirably for a fort in 
case of attack, and formed a corral into which the work animals were 
driven and held while being yoked or harnessed.

   That the emigrants had no suspicion of danger is proved by the 
haphazard position of their wagons when the first attack was made, and by 
the other fact that no guards were with their animals. The evidences of 
the feeling of security aid in disproving the charge that they were guilty 
of unprovoked acts of aggression and violence in Cedar City.

   The morning of September 13 found the men, as usual, early astir. On 
the east side of the wagons several camp fires were sending up their 
cheery light, thus relieving the darkness that precedes the early dawn. 
The forms of men were distinctly outlined against the bright light from 
burning cedar and sagebrush. There was no premonition of danger. Jets of 
flame, followed by the cracking of rifles and the fierce warwhoops from 
the throats of more than a hundred Indians startled the men from their 
fancied security. Seven men fell dead or mortally wounded. The triumphant 
yells of the Indians were mingled with the screams of women and the cries 
of children suddenly awakened to the peril that menaced them. In the 
excitement, confusion and terror the men secured their arms and, guided by 
the pandemonium on the hillside, returned the fire with such precision 
that three Indians were killed and several wounded.

   The redskins had been promised an easy victory over the white men, and 
that none of them would be injured by the "enemies of the Lord." Very 
naturally, the reds were surprised as well as frightened at the result, 
and hastily withdrew, carrying with them their dead and injured over the 
brow of the hill.

   The disgusted braves held an impromptu powwow, and immediately 
dispatched a messenger over the east range to John D. Lee, at Harmony, and 
his presence demanded at the Meadows. (See appendix.) On Lee's arrival the 
dead and wounded Indians were pointed out to him as the disastrous results 
of the attack. According to Lee's statement, the Indians insisted that he 
at once lead them to victory, or, failing, they would wreak vengeance on 
the Mormons because of their duplicity in the matter of promised divine 
protection.

   Lee avers that he believed the emigrants had been "sufficiently 
punished," and that, in order to gain time and to quiet the frenzy of the 
Indians, who were from Cedar and Parowan, he told them that he would go 
down to the Santa Clara and hurry up the Indians who were presumed to be 
en route to the Meadows.

   After some parleying Lee was permitted to depart. When some sixteen 
miles distant he met about one hundred Indians from St. George and the 
Santa Clara under the direction of Carl Shirts and Oscar Hamblin. With the 
Indians were some fifteen white men from St. George and the outlying 
hamlets. As it was then evening the white men went into camp at the upper 
crossing of the river, while the reds went on to the Meadows.

   From Lee's story of the massacre, the truth of which has not been 
challenged by any defender of the Mormon faith, we are induced to believe 
that the first intimation that he had that white men were to participate 
in the butchery was when he met those fifteen men, whom he names, at the 
upper crossing of the Santa Clara. The camp fire talk of those men removed 
the last doubt of the intention of the priesthood of the Parowan stake of 
Zion to blood atone the emigrants. Lee's statement that he spent the night 
in tears and in supplications to God for some manifestation or sign that 
the contemplated sacrifice was approved of heaven is at once sincere and 
pathetic.


EMIGRANTS' HEROIC DEFENSE.

   Immediately after the first attack the emigrants drew their wagons into 
a circle and chained the wheels together. A rifle pit, large enough to 
protect the women, children and wounded, was dug in the center of the 
corral. A few feet northeast of the rifle pit a circular excavation about 
six feet in diameter, and at present about two feet deep, is a pathetic 
witness that the emigrants made an abortive effort to obtain water by 
digging, and which remains as evidence of their desperate plight.

   During the forenoon of the 14th Lee and the other white men rode from 
the Santa Clara to the Meadows. Lee immediately sent a dispatch to Haight, 
which closed as follows: ''For my sake, for the people's sake, for God's 
sake, send me help to protect and save these emigrants."

   From a careful analysis of the evidence and statements of those present 
at the tragedy, and from an inspection of the topography of the Meadows, 
it is certain that the Indians were camped at a spring about a half mile 
below the camp of the emigrants, and that the white men camped on the 
small rivulet to the northeast of "Massacre hill," or in the depression 
which has been described as being over the "low rise of ground," some 
fifty to sixty rods northeasterly from the camp of the emigrants.

   Some time during the afternoon Lee crossed diagonally over the meadow 
to the northwest, for the purpose, as he claims, "to take a look at the 
situation." The emigrants recognized him as a white man, and immediately 
displayed a white flag. Charley Fancher, son of the captain, and another 
boy were sent out to interview Lee. But, as he asserts, he hid from the 
boys, because he had not received word from Haight regarding the final 
disposal of the emigrants. After a close search for Lee the boys returned 
to camp. They were not fired upon, which is the only gleam of light in the 
darkness of the infamous details.

   Toward evening the Indians made a detour from their camp to the west, 
and among the ridges and foothills of the Beaver Dam range approached the 
basalt ridge to the west and northwest of the improvised fort of the 
emigrants, and began the second attack on the beleaguered strangers. Lee 
heard the screams of the women and children, and accompanied by Oscar 
Hamblin and another man ran across the meadow for the purpose of quieting 
the redskins. Before reaching the shelter of the ridge, as Lee asserts, he 
received two bullets through his clothing and one through his hat. The 
incident has not been disputed by those who appear to think it their duty, 
in the interest of their church, to blacken the memory of John D. Lee. 
Aided by Oscar Hamblin Lee quieted the Indians by pleading with them to 
desist until word could be received from the big Mormon chief at Cedar 
City.


ASSEMBLING OF WHITE ASSASSINS.

   Whether or not Lee's message was received by Haight prior to 
dispatching a number of the elders to the Meadows is uncertain as well as 
immaterial. Certain it is that during the 14th William C. Stewart, a high 
priest and member of the Cedar City council; Bishop Klingensmith, Samuel 
McMurdy and about thirty-five other white men, under command of Major John 
M. Higbee, arrived at Leachy spring, in a canyon descending to the east in 
the range that divides Cedar City from Pinto, and about seventeen miles 
from the Meadows, where they camped for the night.

   Some time during the night of the l3th William A. Aden and two other 
young men left the camp of the emigrants, and after eluding the white men 
and Indians started toward Cedar for the purpose, if possible, of 
obtaining assistance. Arriving at Leachy spring they were challenged by 
Stewart, to whom Aden stated the nature of their mission. Stewart and 
another night guard replied with their guns, and the young artist from 
Tennessee was the first victim of those blood atoning priests, who shot 
him in the back. One of Aden's companions was wounded, but, with the other 
emigrant, escaped and succeeded in reaching their camp.

   Until the return of Aden's companions no doubt the emigrants hoped that 
none other than Indians were concerned in the assault upon them. The 
cowardly murder of Aden was sufficient to convince them that the redskins 
were merely the allies and tools of the white men, and that they were face 
to face with annihilation. Even if any of them could escape in the 
darkness they would surely perish on the desert. Within their inclosure 
they had buried seven of the brave defenders of the women and children, 
and others were wounded - even then dying. Any attempt to describe the 
efforts of those heroic men to comfort their wives and to calm the terror 
of their children would be as fruitless as unprofitable, Out on the 
desert, with the stars looking down on the final sepulchre of the 
emigrants, we are compelled to leave them to their reflections. Not until 
those men, women and children meet their destroyers and the Mormon 
"prophets" before the bar of eternal justice will the whole truth of the 
tragedy be known. And not until then will the story of what transpired in 
the camp of the emigrants be told.

   Higbee and his companions arrived at the Meadows the morning after the 
murder of Aden. Haight's orders were handed to Lee. The nature of those 
instructions need not be stated. Lee claims that his entire being 
revolted, but he knew the consequences of refusal.

   Why the emigrants did not inclose the spring at the time of forming 
their corral is inexplicable except on the theory of the excitement that 
accompanied the attack. Prior to the 15th they secured water during the 
night time. It appears, however, that on the 15th the supply was 
exhausted. Two men went out to the spring, and while a rain of lead 
spattered around them, filled their pails and reached the fort in safety. 
On another occasion two men went out after wood and, while the bullets 
whistled by and tore up the ground around them, coolly chopped the wood 
and returned to the inclosure. The foregoing is the tribute paid to the 
courage of those men by John D. Lee. That those shots were fired from the 
top of Massacre hill, within fifteen rods of the Mormon camp, is proved by 
the fact that the spring was sheltered from attack from miscreants on the 
ridge to the northwest by the intervening wagons, and the other fact that 
all other points were unprotected from the return fire of the emigrants.

   The evening of the 15th again witnessed the assembling of the Indians 
behind the basalt ridge. Again they poured volley after volley into the 
improvised fort, and were answered with energy and precision. One of the 
Santa Clara Indians was killed and three others were wounded. Disgusted 
with the second failure of divine protection, some of the reds rounded up 
a bunch of the emigrants' cattle and returned to their camp on the Santa 
Clara river.

   The Mormons were astir early on the morning of the 16th. The ruddy glow 
of a dozen camp fires lighted up the small depression and cast weird 
shadows as the men walked to and fro or squatted around the fires while 
preparing the morning meal.

   While yet dark the men were summoned to prayers. Under the blue vault 
of heaven, from which the angels must have looked down with infinite 
sorrow on the hellish scene, those wretched victims of unquestioning 
obedience, of superstition and fanaticism, knelt in the form of a "prayer 
circle." With heads bowed in abject servility to an alien god, and each 
right arm raised in the form of a square, those unhappy dupes listened 
while one of the "servants of the Lord" asked the blessing of their god 
upon the deeds they were about to enact, and for divine protection while 
they were "avenging the blood of the prophets who died in Carthage jail," 
and the martyrs who perished in Missouri and Illinois. The invocation 
ended, the brethren convened in "council."

   It has ever been the boast of the Mormon priesthood that all questions 
of importance to the church are submitted to the Saints and are decided by 
"common consent," and which, being interpreted, means consenting to the 
will of the Mormon god's vicegerents, or, failing, they "lie in the 
presence of God." And because of that rule the "council meeting," convened 
for the ostensible purpose of debating the measures embraced in Haight's 
program for the disposal of the emigrants was a burlesque. The fate of the 
emigrants had been predetermined by Isaac C. Haight, who was the direct 
agent of the "holy" vicegerents who resided at Salt Lake. The "council" 
was merely a ratification meeting. Some there were who had the courage to 
oppose the infamous measures, but their voices were feeble in the presence 
of "the leading priesthood."

   Jacob Hamblin brother of Oscar Hamblin, and a trusted missionary to the 
Indians, owned a ranch some two miles northeasterly from the Meadows, and 
near the junction of the roads from Modena and Cedar City to the Meadows. 
At the time of the massacre Hamblin was not at home. But Samuel Knight, 
from the Santa Clara, was temporarily ranching near the Hamblin place. 
During the forenoon of the 16th a messenger arrived at Hamblin's and 
requested Knight to go with his team over to the Meadows. Knight must have 
known of the attack on the emigrants, and very likely suspected the reason 
for the request. He pleaded the illness of his wife. The request was then 
made for the use of his team. Knight explained that his horses were only 
partly broken, and that if the demand were imperative he would go with 
them. Such, in brief, was Knight's testimony at the second trial of Lee.


THE MASSACRE.

   Unless it was the natural dread that nearly all men feel when 
conscience rebels at the vision of treachery and carnage, there is no 
explanation of the postponement of the final arrangements for the massacre 
until 2 p.m. At about that hour William Bateman, carrying a white flag, 
and, accompanied by Lee, appeared on the low rise of ground which 
separated the camp of the Mormons from that of the emigrants. Bateman went 
on to within a short distance of the corral, where he paused and awaited 
some sign of recognition. A man named Hamilton went out to Bateman, and 
after a short parley the former returned to the corral. Within a few 
minutes Hamilton again went out and told Bateman that the emigrants would 
put themselves under the protection of the flag of truce. Bateman waved 
his flag, and the curtain was lifted on one of the most inexcusable and 
atrocious crimes of all the centuries.

   Lee hastened down to the corral, followed by two teams driven by 
McMurdy and Knight. The emigrants drew aside one of their wagons, thus 
opening the corral. McMurdy, followed by Knight, drove into the inclosure. 
The emigrants were burying two men who had just died of their wounds. 
Conditions within the camp can best be described in the words of John D. 
Lee.

   "As I entered the fortifications, men, women and children gathered 
around me in wild consternation. Some felt that the time of their happy 
deliverance had come, while others, although in deep distress, and all in 
tears, looked upon me with doubt, distrust and terror." Describing his 
sensations, Lee continues: "My position was painful, trying and awful; my 
brain seemed to be on fire; my nerves were for a moment unstrung; humanity 
was overpowered, as I thought of the cruel, unmanly part I was acting.... 
I knew that I was acting a cruel part and doing a damnable deed. Yet my 
faith in the godliness of my leaders was such that it forced me to think 
that I was not sufficiently spiritual to act the important part I was 
commanded to perform.... I delivered my message, and told the people that 
they must put their arms in the wagon, so as not to arouse the animosity 
of the Indians. I ordered the children and wounded, some clothing and 
arms, to be put into the wagons." In speaking of the defensive condition 
of the camp, Lee says: "If the emigrants had had a good supply of 
ammunition they never would have surrendered, and I do not think we could 
have captured them without great loss, for they were brave men and very 
resolute and determined."

   Continuing, Lee says:

   "Just as the wagons were loaded (Adjutant) Dan McFarland (of St. 
George) came riding into the corral and said that Major Higbee had ordered 
great haste to be made, for he was afraid the Indians would return and 
renew the attack before he could get the emigrants to a place of safety."

   In the meantime the militia, nearly fifty in number, moved over the low 
ridge and proceeded close down to the emigrant camp and, in single file 
and about six feet apart, took positions on the southeast side of the road.

   The Indians, some two hundred strong, secreted themselves in the rank 
sage and behind cedar trees in the near vicinity of the Mormon camp.

   Nephi Johnson's horse had learned the trick of untying his halter rope 
when it was carelessly fastened. Johnson, as I have been informed by his 
intimate friends, carelessly tied his horse to a cedar tree, then stepped 
back and watched the intelligent brute untie the knot and scamper up the 
hillside to the south. Johnson obtained permission from Major Higbee to go 
after his horse, and took a position on the point of the bench from which 
he had an unobstructed view of the entire field.

   Two wounded men and a number of children, "too young to tell tales," 
were placed in Knight's wagon which emerged from the corral preceded by 
Lee and McMurdy's wagon. Following Knight's wagon were the women and 
children old enough to "tell tales." When the women reached a point about 
one hundred yards northeasterly from the corral, the male emigrants, in 
single file, and about six feet apart, were permitted to begin the line of 
march. When they were opposite the militia the latter stepped forward and, 
keeping a few feet to the right of the emigrants, joined in the death 
march - following the women and children.

   The horses driven by Samuel McMurdy were unusually fast walkers, and 
Lee, who had charge of the first division of the emigrants - the women and 
children, was forced to repeatedly admonish McMurdy not to travel so 
rapidly. The respective localities had been carefully selected for the 
slaughter of the men and women, and it would not do to have McMurdy pass 
the point where the Indians were secreted until the word was given to 
begin the carnage. The arrangements were made and carried out with all the 
precision of a legalized execution.

   There can be not the slightest doubt that the men knew the meaning of 
the peculiar formation of the procession. If there were danger of an 
attack by the Indians why was it, they thought, that they were not 
permitted to retain their firearms and aid in the protection of their 
wives and children? But, through unparalleled treachery, they were then 
powerless, and there was probably the hope that those so dear to them 
might be spared. That no word of protest was spoken is the strongest 
commendation of their heroism and evidence of their resignation.

   Major Higbee was mounted and occupied a position on the summit of the 
low elevation over which the wagons and women and children must pass. The 
advance section of the procession passed over the elevation and were 
partially, if not entirely, hidden from those in the rear, when Higbee 
gave the command: "Do your duty!"

   Terrified by the explosion of firearms and yells of the Indians, 
Knight's horses reared and plunged. He leaped from the wagon, caught his 
horses by the bits, and turned his face from the awful scene.

   One of the wounded men in Knight's wagon was holding his companion in 
his arms. While Knight was quieting his frightened horses McMurdy ran to 
Knight's wagon, raised his gun and exclaimed:

   "O, Lord, my God, receive their spirits: it is for thy kingdom that I 
do this!" The gun exploded and the bullet killed both men. Samuel McMurdy 
had surely "kept alive the spirit of the reformation"; he had vindicated 
his right to hold the "holy" Mormon priesthood, and to be first counselor 
to Bishop Klingensmith.

   According to Nephi Johnson less than three minutes were consumed in the 
work of death.

   During the excitement and confusion attending the massacre, two girls, 
Rachel and Ruth Dunlap, made a desperate attempt to escape the carnage. 
From the evidence, and from a careful study of the ground, the girls must 
have been on the north side of the group of women and children when the 
attack was made. Running to the east on the north side of Knight and 
McMurdy's wagons, they turned to the south and sped toward the bench, 
where clumps of oak bushes seemed to invite them to a temporary refuge. 
Clambering down the steep side of the gully they crept into the oaks on 
the opposite brink. They were then about thirty rods from the scene of 
death, over which the smoke from exploding firearms hung in a hazy cloud 
from which there no longer issued protesting cries of women and the 
pitiful screams of children.

   During a few brief minutes Rachel and Ruth Dunlap believed they were 
saved from the white and red butchers. Very likely no thought entered 
their minds of the fate that awaited them on the desert - the thirst and 
hunger that surely lurked for them amid the inextricable maze of hills and 
desert canyons. They dreamed not that if they escaped to some habitation 
the occupants, under pain of death, must surrender them to the blood 
atoning priests because, forsooth, they were old enough to tell the story 
of the massacre. Their only hope was to see the setting of the sun and to 
feel the sheltering mantle of night descend upon them.

   One or more of the assassins must have seen the terrified girls as they 
raced toward the gully and reported the fact to the chief from Parowan, 
who found the girls and dragged them from their hiding place. The Indian 
sent for Lee, and on his arrival asked what should be done with them. When 
informed that they were beyond the age limit prescribed by Haight, the 
chief pleaded that they were "too pretty to be killed." Divining the 
sentence pronounced by Lee, the elder girl dropped to her knees and with 
clasped hands cried out: "Spare me, and I will love you all my life!" But 
she died, as her sister had died, and at Lee's hands. (Lee vehemently 
denied the awful charge.) For pitiful story of attempt by Hamblin's Indian 
boy to save the girls, see appendix.

   Note.- Since the massacre, rumors have been persistent to the effect 
that prior to their death those girls were outraged by those who murdered 
them. The charge was so terrible, so diabolical and inhuman that, as a 
Mormon, and later on an "apostate," I could not believe the rumor - it 
appeared to be just another Mormon canard to further blacken the memory of 
John D. Lee. There was, however, something in the terms of the girl's 
appeal that is inexplicable when considered apart from the rumor. Last 
winter (1910) I met a devout Mormon woman in southern Utah, who was a girl 
at the date of the massacre, and she assured me that the rumor is entirely 
trustworthy; that she remembers hearing the women of St. George discuss 
the awful fate of the Dunlap girls. "And," the lady concluded "we Mormons 
have never been accused of charging crimes to our people when the 
accusations were not true."

   Jacob Hamblin was on his way from Salt Lake to his ranch near the 
Meadows when the massacre was perpetrated. Hamblin's Indian boy, Albert, 
who was about sixteen years old, and whom the former had adopted, was 
present at the massacre and witnessed the ravishment of the Dunlap sisters 
and the cutting of their throats. On Hamblin's arrival at the ranch the 
boy conducted him to the clump of oak brush where the bodies of the girls, 
nude and bloated, furnished ghastly evidence of the truth of the young 
Indian's story. Subsequently, Hamblin interviewed the Indian chief, who 
was Lee's partner in that special crime, and who verified the young 
redskin's story, and repeated the words used by the elder girl when 
pleading for her life.

   The above is the substance of Hamblin's testimony on that incident as 
given at Lee's second trial.

   We will draw the curtain on the scene, leaving those religion-crazed 
fanatics to the judgment of a merciful God, and the logic and lessons to 
the public.

   On the old camp ground of the emigrants Major Carleton of the United 
States army and other kindly hands reared a monument of boulders which 
cover the remains of Captain Fancher and his company, which, the spring 
following the massacre, were buried by Jacob Hamblin in the rifle pit 
digged by the emigrants. Major Carleton also erected a rude cross upon 
which he carved the legend: "Vengeance is mine, and I will repay, saith 
the Lord." Some miscreant destroyed the cross.

   Easterly and westerly the monument is about twelve feet long by six 
feet wide. The west end is now about four feet high, and the east end is a 
foot or so above the ground. From the east end of the grave the earth 
descends to the bottom of a deep gully, made by floods during recent 
years, and unless protective measures are soon taken the spring and summer 
floods will eat away the last visible evidence of the Mountain Meadows 
massacre.

   The once carpet of grass has vanished, and in its place is a dense 
growth of mountain sage. The spring that supplied the Fancher company with 
water now oozes up from a bog near the bottom of the gully. And all around 
the landscape is an indescribable desolation - a vista of gray sage and 
barren hills. Seemingly, the God of Justice has visited the locality with 
the withering blight of his displeasure - but Mormonism yet lives, 
aggressive, arrogant and defiant.

   As the occasional visitor, with bared head, stands by the desert grave, 
his imagination recalls the death march up the valley. Through the silence 
of more than fifty years is heard the echoes of exploding firearms. The 
shrieks of women and children mingle with the frenzied cries of fiends 
incarnate, then the death like silence returns. He seems to feel the touch 
of spirit hands, to hear the murmur of spirit voices pleading for 
remembrance of their wrongs, and for human justice for the false and 
criminal leaders of the system whose doctrines and example inspired their 
destruction, and who continue to traduce their victims as their only 
defense of the ruthless murder of those who surrendered under the sacred 
aegis of the flag of peace!


FURTHER DETAILS - FROM MAJOR CARLETON'S REPORT.

   Prior to the publication of the foregoing story of the massacre 
repeated efforts were made to obtain a copy of Maj. J. H. Carleton's 
report of the tragedy made to the war department during the spring of 
1859. Each effort was fruitless until the 29th of this mouth, when, by a 
fortunate incident, it was learned where the loan of a copy could be 
obtained.

   In the compilation of the material from which the major made his report 
it became necessary to interview leading Mormons then residing in southern 
Utah; among whom was Jacob Hamblin, who has been sufficiently introduced 
to the reader. And inasmuch as the participants in the massacre had been 
enjoined to "keep silent" on the subject, and all Mormons were interested 
in shielding their "brethren" and their church from the odium of the 
crime, it was impossible to obtain the truth. As has been proved by Jacob 
Hamblin's evidence in the second trial of Lee, he knew every important 
detail of the crime, but in his interview with Major Carleton he placed 
the entire responsibility for the tragedy upon the Indians. When the 
latter were interviewed they denied the responsibility, but, like their 
Mormon friends, they were reticent as to the details of the crime and the 
identity of the participants.

   It was only by analysis of the testimony of the Mormons and Indians 
whom the major interviewed, and noting the numerous contradictions, that 
he was able to justly charge the crime to the Mormon priesthood of 
southern Utah. Under such conditions it is a marvel that Major Carleton 
was able to sufficiently unravel the entangled web of falsehoods to enter 
even upon the confines of accuracy. Every important detail of the major's 
report, not given in the text of this story of the massacre, is given in 
the following excerpta, which will be highly appreciated because of the 
additional information regarding the personnel of the seventeen children 
saved from the slaughter.

The Author, October 31, 1910.


   The Muddy river branch of the Pahute Indians, now residing on the 
reservation near Moapa, on the Salt Lake, Los Angeles & San Pedro 
railroad, were a murderous lot of savages at the time of the massacre. 
That, and the additional fact that their headquarters were more than 150 
miles from the Mountain Meadows, doubtless induced the Mormons to 
implicate the Muddy Indians in the crime. During his determined efforts to 
get at the facts Major Carleton interviewed prominent men of that division 
of the Pahutes. They replied as follows:

   "Where are the wagons, the cattle, the clothing, the rifles, and other 
property belonging to the train? We have not got or had them. No; you will 
find these things in the hands of the Mormons."

   While camping at the Mountain Meadows, May, 1859, Major Carleton 
interviewed Mrs. Jacob Hamblin, who lived within two or three miles of the 
Meadows at the time of the massacre. Following is the major's report of 
the interview:

   Mrs. Hamblin is a simple minded person of about 45, and evidently looks 
with the eyes of her husband at everything. She may really have been 
taught by the Mormons to believe it is no great sin to kill Gentiles and 
enjoy their property. Of the shooting of the emigrants, which she herself 
had heard, and knew at the time what was going on, she seemed to speak 
without a shudder, or any very great feeling; but when she told of the 
seventeen orphan children who were brought by such a crowd to her house of 
one small room there in the darkness of the night, two of the children 
cruelly mangled, and the most of them with their parents' blood still wet 
upon their clothes, and all of them shrieking with grief and terror and 
anguish, her own heart was touched. She at least deserves kind 
consideration for her care and nourishment of the three sisters (Rebecca, 
Louisa and Sarah Dunlap, the younger sisters of Rachel and Ruth Dunlap, 
whose pitiful fate has been detailed), and for all she did for the little 
girl, about 1 year old, who had been shot through one of her arms, below 
the elbow, by a large ball, breaking both bones and cuting the arm half 
off.

   A few of the children saved from the slaughter were subsequently taken 
to the Indian farm at Corn creek, where, it is asserted, the emigrants had 
poisoned the water. One of those girls, named Elsie, so it is credibly 
reported, remained at Corn creek and later on became the wife of a highly 
respected stockman - a gentleman who was widely known in Utah. The other 
sixteen children were taken to Salt Lake City and delivered to Dr. Forney, 
United States Indian agent, who sent them to their relatives in Arkansas 
and other states. Of the personnel of the children Major Carleton reported 
as follows:

Sixteen of those were seen by Judge Cradlebaugh, Lieutenant Kearney, and 
others, and gave the following information in relation to their personal 
identity, etc. The children varied from 3 to 9 years of age, ten girls, 
six boys, and were questioned separately. The first is a boy named Calvin, 
between 7 and 8 years; does not remember his surname; says he was by his 
mother when she was killed, and pulled the arrows from her back until she 
was dead; says he had two brothers older than himself, named James and 
Henry, and three sisters, Mary, Martha and Nancy.

The second is a girl who does not remember her name. The others say it is 
Demurr.

The third is a boy named Ambrose Miriam Tagit; says he had two brothers 
older than himself and one younger. His father, mother and two elder 
brothers were killed; his younger brother was brought to Cedar City; says 
he lived in Johnston county, but does not know what state; says it took 
one week to go from where he lived to his grandfather's and grandmother's, 
who are still living in the states.

The fourth is a girl obtained from John Morris, a Mormon, at Cedar City. 
She does not recollect anything about herself.

Fifth, a. boy obtained from E. H. Grove; says the girl obtained from 
Morris is named Mary and is his sister.

The sixth is a girl who says her name is Prudence Angelina; had two 
brothers, Jesse and John, who were killed. Her father's name was William, 
and she had an uncle Jesse.

The seventh is a girl. She says her name is Frances Harris, or Horne; 
remembers nothing of her family.

The eighth is a boy too young to remember anything about himself.

The ninth is a boy whose name is William W. Huff.

The tenth is a boy whose name is Charles Francher (Fancher).

(Note - Charles Fancher was the son of Capt. Charles Fancher, who was in 
command of the train, and was 11 years old. He was small for his age. He 
had a brother about 9 years of age, who was also small for his years, and 
which, no doubt, was the reason for their escape from the fate of those 
who were believed to be over 8 years old. Mormon children are baptised at 
8 years, when, from the Mormon viewpoint, they reach the age of 
responsibility. Thus it was that the emigrant children under 8 years were 
not regarded by the Mormon priests as being responsible for the sins of 
their parents, who were murdered in obedience to the endowment oath to 
"avenge the blood of the (Mormon) prophets and martyrs." It was from the 
lips of Charley Fancher, soon after his arrival from the vicinity of the 
tragedy, that I heard the first story of the massacre. In his childish way 
he said that "some of the Indians, after the slaughter, went to the little 
creek, and that after washing their faces they were white men." During his 
stay in Salt Lake City I frequently played marbles with Charley Fancher on 
First South, a half block or so west of Main street. - The Author.)

The eleventh is a girl who says her name is Sophronia Huff.

The twelfth is a girl who says her name is Betsy.

The thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth are three sisters named Rebecca, 
Louisa and Sarah Dunlap. These three sisters were the children obtained 
from Jacob Hamblin.

I have no note of the sixteenth.

The seventeenth is a boy who was but 6 years old at the time of the 
massacre. Hamblin's wife brought him to my camp on the 19th instant. The 
next day they took him on to Salt Lake City to give him up to Dr. Forney. 
He is a pretty little boy and hardly dreamed he had again slept on the 
ground where his parents had been murdered.

   It was twenty months after the massacre when Major Carleton encamped on 
the Meadows. His description of conditions will be interesting. He said:

   "The scene of the massacre, even at this late day, was horrible to look 
upon. Womens hair, in detached locks and masses, hung to the sage bushes 
and was strewn over the ground in many places. Parts of little children's 
and of female costumes dangled from the shrubbery or lay scattered about."

   From Major Carleton's statement of the number of skulls and other human 
bones which lie gathered up and buried, it is evident that Jacob Hamblin's 
statement of the number of skeletons which he collected and buried was 
exaggerated, or that there were many more people in the company than has 
been heretofore estimated. And some of the bones were found a mile or so 
from the old camp ground, at points to which the coyotes had dragged them.


TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF JOHN D. LEE.

   During the year 1875 Lee was tried for his part in the massacre. There 
were seven Mormons and five Gentiles on the jury. It was a mistrial. The 
Gentiles voted for conviction, the Mormons for acquittal. The wave of 
indignation that swept over the United States convinced the Mormon leaders 
that at least one Mormon must be sacrificed in the interest of their 
church. Haight and Higbee were hiding in the wilds of Arizona or Mexico. 
Klingensmith had taken refuge with a band of Indians in Arizona at a place 
on the south side of the Colorado river, opposite Eldorado canyon, in 
southern Nevada, where he took unto himself a squaw as his fourth or fifth 
wife. He voluntarily became a witness for the people during the first 
trial of Lee. He saved his neck, but lied with such facility that his 
evidence was of no value to the government, and after his discharge he 
returned to his wickiup on the Colorado.

   The second trial of Lee occurred in September, 1876. The Mormon 
witnesses that could not be found during the first trial were easily 
located for the second trial, and became eager witnesses on every feature 
of the evidence that was necessary to convict John D. Lee. But the 
attorneys for the government found it impossible to awaken the slumbering 
memories of the elders of any evidence that would convict others of the 
assassins.

   Another significant feature of the trial was that the marshal who 
subpoenaed the jurors must have received a "hunch," for he secured as many 
Mormon jurors as the law permitted.

   It was believed by the marshal who had charge of the arrangements for 
Lee's execution that if the Mountain Meadows were selected as the place 
for the final ordeal that the condemned man might, on the tragic ground, 
be induced to make a statement of the inside facts which would enable the 
representatives of the government to work more intelligently in the matter 
of bringing other guilty men to justice.

   It was about 10 a. m., March 23, 1877, when Lee and his executioners 
arrived at the Meadows. Photographer James Fennemore of Beaver, where Lee 
was tried; Josiah Rogerson, a Mormon telegrapher; a number of newspaper 
correspondents, including S. A. Kenner of the Deseret News, and a small 
number of spectators were present.

   Prior to the execution Lee accompanied the marshal and a number of 
those present over the field and pointed out the respective localities of 
chiefest interest. But no useful information was divulged.

   Lee's coffin was brought from the wagon and placed near the mound of 
stones which cover the remains of the emigrants.

   A covered wagon was drawn up to within a few paces of the coffin. Five 
holes had been made in the cover, and five men were seen to disappear 
within the wagon.

   Standing near his final receptacle, Lee made a brief farewell speech in 
which he denied any intent to do wrong. He claimed, and rightly, too, that 
he had been betrayed - sacrificed in the interest of the church to which 
he had given his whole life. Continuing, the doomed man said:

Still, there are thousands of people in this church that are honorable and 
good hearted friends, some of whom are near to my heart. There is a kind 
of living, magnetic influence which has come over the people, and I cannot 
compare it to anything else than the reptile that enamores its prey till 
it captivates it, paralyzes it, and it rushes into the jaws of death. I 
cannot compare it to anything else. It is so. I know it. I am satisfied of 
it.

   Lee's vision swept the scene of former carnage. He looked out on the 
repulsive ridge from which had been poured the deadly missiles into the 
emigrant camp. Furtively he glanced at the monument erected by Major 
Carleton. Mortals will never know the thoughts that, with torrential 
confusion, leaped through the brain of the doomed man as he sat down on 
his coffin for the crucial ordeal. He asked that his arms be not pinioned, 
and that his eyes be not bandaged. The first request was granted. United 
States Marshal William Nelson fastened a handkerchief over Lee's eyes, 
then stepped to one side. Lee clasped his hands over his head and said to 
the marshal:  "Let them shoot the balls through my heart! Don't let them 
mangle my body!"

   The marshal called "Ready, aim, fire!" A sharp, simultaneous explosion, 
and the victim of unquestioning obedience had paid the mortal demand for 
vengeance, had satisfied the doctrine of human justice!

   Lee was the husband of nineteen wives, one of whom, however, was a 
"spiritual" wife. By eighteen of his wives he had sixty-four children, 
fifty-four of whom were living at the time of his death.

   His last wife, Ann Gorge, was married to him by Heber C. Kimball about 
1865, which created considerable gossip among the Saints of southern Utah 
where every incident of the massacre was well known. And it will be proved 
by the evidence of Jacob Hamblin, given at Lee's second trial, that 
Brigham Young and his second counselor, George A. Smith, knew every detail 
of the massacre which was known to Jacob Hamblin, and he knew all of the 
facts and the name of every prominent participant within a very short time 
after the occurrence of the tragedy.

   At the time of Lee's interview, on September 29, as proved in the 
appendix herewith, Lee told President Young that there was "not a drop of 
innocent blood in the company" of emigrants. If no "innocent blood" was 
shed at the Meadows, under the "revelation" on plural marriage given to 
the first "prophet," then was John D. Lee and the other assassins 
guiltless before the Mormon god, and there was no obstacle in the way of 
Lee and Haight taking more plurals after the massacre, and becoming 
members of the Utah legislature. Indeed, the addition to their harems of 
more plurals was, according to the polygamy ''revelation," a certain means 
of salvation and exaltation. Under the teachings of that "revelation" the 
debauching and murder of the Dunlap girls was no bar to the highest 
exaltation in the Mormon "celestial kingdom of God"! Paragraph 26 of the 
"revelation" reads as follows: 

Verily, verily I say unto you (Joseph Smith), if a man marry a wife (or 
wives) according to my word, and they are sealed by the holy spirit of 
promise, according to mine appointment, and he or she shall commit any sin 
or transgression of the new and everlasting covenant whatever, and all 
manner of blasphemies, and if they commit no murder, wherein they shed 
innocent blood - yet shall they come forth in the first resurrection, and 
enter into their exaltation....

   For further details and particulars regarding the culpability of the 
leaders of the Mormon church, the reader is respectfully referred to the 
appendix herewith.



APPENDIX.

TESTIMONY OF LABAN MORRILL - SECOND TRIAL OF LEE.

   Laban Morrill moved from Johnson's fort and became one of the pioneers 
of Pinto county, settling at Junction, now the county seat. He died some 
ten or fifteen years ago, leaving a large family which, like their father, 
is highly respected.

   At the second trial of Lee, and after the usual preliminaries, Mr. 
Morrill testified as follows:

We had formed a kind of custom to come together about once a week, to take 
into consideration what would be the best good for those places. I 
happened on Sunday (about September 7) to come to Cedar City, as I usually 
came, and there seemed to be a council. We met together about 4 o'clock, 
as a general thing, on Sunday evening after service. I went into the 
council and saw there a little excitement in regard to something I did not 
understand. I went in at a rather late hour. I inquired of the rest what 
the matter was. They said a company had passed along toward Mountain 
Meadows. There were many threats given concerning this company.

As I said, there appeared to be some confusion in that council. I inquired 
in a friendly way, what was up. I was told that there was an emigrant 
train that passed along down near Mountain Meadows, and that they had made 
threats in regard to us as a people - said they would destroy every d--d 
Mormon. There was an army coming on the south and north, and it created 
some little excitement. I made two or three replies in a kind of debate 
measure that were taken into consideration, discussing the object, what 
method we thought best to take in regard to protecting the lives of the 
citizens.

My objections were not coincided with. At last we touched upon the topic 
like this: We should still keep quiet, and a dispatch should be sent to 
Governor Young to know what would be the best course. The vote was 
unanimous. I considered it so. It seemed to be the understanding that on 
the coming morning, or the next day, there should be a messenger 
dispatched. I took some pains to inquire and know if it would be sent in 
the morning. The papers were said to be made out, and Governor Young 
should be informed, and no hostile course pursued until his return. I 
returned back to Fort Johnson, feeling that all was well. About eight and 
forty hours before the messenger returned - business called me to Cedar 
City, and I learned that the job had taken place. I can't give any further 
evidence on the subject at present.

   W. W. Bishop, counsel for Lee, elicited the information from Mr. 
Morrill that when be referred to "the job " he meant the killing of the 
emigrants. United States District Attorney Howard then put the following 
re-direct questions:

Ques.- Did you say that a messenger was to be sent down to John D. Lee?

Ans.- I did, but I did not see him start. I understood at the time a 
messenger was to be sent.

Ques.- What did you understand?

Ans.- I understood there was to be word sent down towards Pinto creek.

Ques.- For what purpose?

Ans.- To have the thing stayed according to contract, to agreement made.

Ques.- What do you mean by the thing being stayed? Was the massacre of 
that emigrant train discussed there at all?

Ans.- It was, sir; and some were in favor of it, and some were not.

Ques.- Who were they?

Ans.- Bishop Smith (Klingensmith) I considered, was the hardest man I had 
to contend with.

Ques.- Who else spoke about it?

Ans.- Isaac Haight and one or two others. I recollect my companions more 
than any one else.

Ques.- They were very anxious and rabid were they not?

Ans.- They seemed to think it would be best to kill the emigrants. Some of 
the emigrants swore that they had killed old Joseph Smith; there was quite 
a little excitement there.

Ques.- You have given us the names of two who were in favor of killing 
those emigrants - who were the others? 

Ans.- Those were my companions, Isaac C. Haight and Klingensmith. I 
recollect no others:

   And who after reading the testimony of Laban Morrill, and noting his 
sincerity under the most trying conditions - to tell the truth, and to 
shield others of the elders, can deny that the conspiracy to murder the 
emigrants was initiated by the direct agent of the Mormon leaders, and was 
discussed in a priesthood meeting of the chief ecclesiastical authorities 
of the Parowan stake of Zion?


TESTIMONY OF JACOB HAMBLIN-SECOND TRIAL OF LEE.

Question by Howard - Who else did he mention?

Ans.- He mentioned my brother (Oscar Hamblin) being there, bringing some 
Indians there. Sent him word of this affair (the massacre) taking place, 
and for him to go and get the Indians, and bring up the Santa Clara 
Indians.

Ques.- Your brother, then, brought the Indians to the Meadows, and then 
left there?

Ans.- Yes, he told me so. (The fact is, if Oscar Hamblin left the Meadows 
after taking the Indians there, he returned and aided Lee in restraining 
them when they made their second attack on the emigrants.)

Question by bishop - Have you ever given a report of it (the massacre) to 
any of your superiors in the church, or officers over you?

Ans.- Well, I did speak of it to President Young and George A. Smith.

Ques.- Did you give them the whole facts?

Ans.- I gave them more than I have here, because I recollected more of it.

Ques.- When did you do that?

Ans.- Pretty soon after it happened.

Ques.- You are certain that you gave it fuller than you have told it here 
on the stand?

Ans.- I told everything I could.

Ques.- Have you told it all?

Ans.- No, sir, I have not.

Ques.- Then tell it.

Ans.- I will not undertake that now. I would not like to undertake it.


TESTIMONY OF NEPHI JOHNSON-SECOND TRIAL OF LEE.

Question by Bishop - State whether you were under any compulsion (to go to 
the Meadows).

Ans.- I didn't think it was safe for me to object.

Ques.- Explain what you mean, that is what I want. Where was the danger - 
who was the danger to come from if you objected - from Haight or those 
around him - from the Indians, or from the emigrants?

Ans.- From the military officers.

Ques.- Where?

Ans.- At Cedar City.

Ques.- Was Haight one of those military officers?

Aris.- Yes, sir.

Ques.- Who was the highest military officer in Cedar City at that time?

Ans.- I think it was Isaac C. Haight.

Ques.- You thought it would not be safe to refuse; had you any reason to 
fear danger - has any person ever been injured for not obeying, or 
anything of that kind?

Ans.- I don't want to answer.

Ques.- It is necessary to the safety of the man I am defending, and I 
therefore insist upon an answer. Had any person been injured for not 
obeying?

Ans.- Yes, sir, they had.

Question by Howard - Were you acquainted with the Indians - the Pah Vant 
(Pahvan) Indians?

Ans.- Yes, sir; somewhat acquainted.

Ques.- Were any of the Pah Vant Indians down there?

Ans.- I didn't see any.
   During the night of the day of the massacre President Isaac C. Haight 
and Bishop William H. Dame arrived from Cedar and Parowan, respectively, 
and camped at Hamblin's ranch. The next morning, with John D. Lee, they 
visited the scene of the carnage where sixty men, forty women and about 
thirty children were lying naked on the ground, having been stripped of 
their clothing and jewelry.
   Haight, Dame and other leading elders made speeches, the substance of 
which may be gathered from answers by Nephi Johnson to questions asked by 
W. W. Bishop, Lee's attorney.

Ques.- Is it not a fact that after the property was all gathered up at the 
Meadows, and you were ready to start for Iron Springs, that speeches were 
made to the men present, by those in authority, in which speeches you were 
ordered to keep it a secret forever?

Ans.- There were a great many speeches made.

Ques.- At the Meadows, before you left there, was it not told you in a 
speech then made to you, that it must be kept a secret; that it would be 
best to keep silent? Were not you so advised by your leaders?

Ans.- Yes, sir.


IN DEFENSE OF THE EMIGRANTS.

   In reply to my inquiry of Frank E. King as to the conduct of the people 
who were traveling in the Fancher company, he replied, under date of March 
15, 1910, as follows:

   "From the time that we overtook them (at Pacific Springs) they were not 
boisterous, or in any way uncivil. You would hardly ever hear an oath from 
any one."

   Although to the point, Mr. King's replies were brief, as he always was 
in his intercourse with his fellow men.

   The following affidavit is self explanatory:

State of Utah, County of Piute - ss.

William L. Jones, Reuben De Wit, George T. Henry and Josiah F. Gibbs, 
being first duly sworn, and each for himself, deposes and says: We are 
residents of Marysvale, Pinto county, Utah. And that during our residence 
in Marysvale we were personally acquainted, during a period of more than 
twenty years, with Frank E. King who, until about five years ago, was also 
a resident of Marysvale, Pinto county, and that the said Frank E. King was 
an industrious, upright citizen, and of unquestioned veracity.

(Signed)  WILLIAM L. JONES, (ex-Postmaster.)
          REUBEN DE WIT, (Justice of the Peace.)
          GEORGE T. HENRY, (Postmaster.)
          JOSIAH F. GIBBS.

Subscribed and sworn to before me, tris 15th day of August, 1910.
          WILLIAM E. WHITE, Notary Public.

My commission expires March 16, 1913.

   An estimable lady (a Mrs. Evans), yet living at Parowan, visited the 
camp of the emigrants at Parowan with other Mormon girls, and is earnest 
in her statement that in every respect the emigrants conducted themselves 
as ladies and gentlemen. Her statement was made to a gentleman of high 
repute in the official life of Utah, and is published without the 
knowledge of either of them.

   The charge that the emigrants resisted arrest at Cedar clearly proves 
that they declined to ask for permits, and for which the inexpressibly 
detestable ecclesiastical tyrant, Isaac C. Haight, commanded their arrest. 
The demand was made by the emissaries of a fanatical and brutalized 
priesthood that was then in open rebellion against the United States. In 
resisting arrest by the servile agents of the Mormon "prophets," because 
they ignored the right of bigots and rebels to prevent them from passing 
through a portion of the domain of the United States until they secured 
passes, they were guiltless of infraction of any law, rule or order of 
their country, and were justified in their resistance.

   The Arkansas company was composed of representative American citizens - 
prosperous men and women who were seeking homes in the "Golden West." And 
after being murdered under a flag of truce they were stripped of their 
clothing and left naked upon the desert, a prey to coyotes. Their property 
was divided among their assassins - an aggregation of religion crazed 
bandits whose only defense of their crime is the unsupported charge that 
the emigrants cursed the Mormons and boasted of having helped "kill old 
Joseph Smith."

   As an illustration of the desperate and lying defense of the Mormon 
"prophets," and in defiance of the fact that Jacob Hamblin told him the 
whole truth of the massacre, Brigham Young, on January 6, 1858, wrote 
James W. Denver, commissioner of Indian affairs, Washington, D. C. , as 
follows:

Sir: On or about the middle of last September a company of emigrants 
traveling the southern route to California, poisoned the meat of an ox 
that died, and gave it to the Indians to eat, causing the immediate death 
of four of their tribe, and poisoning several others. This company also 
poisoned the water where they were encamped. This occurred at Corn creek, 
fifteen miles from Fillmore City. This conduct so enraged the Indians that 
they took measures for revenge.

   The above. letter from Brigham Young to James W. Denver has been herein 
proved to be totally and wickedly false, and as such, and as the best that 
the chief "prophet" could do to besmirch the memory of the emigrants, 
furnishes a complete vindication of the character of the Company that 
perished at the hands of Brigham Young's slaves at the Mountain Meadows on 
or about September 16, 1857.

   And, in the final analysis, the reader should remember that Isaac C. 
Haight and others of the leading priesthood of the Parowan stake of Zion, 
some seven or eight days before the massacre, sent a message by James H. 
Haslam, to President Young inquiring as to the disposal of the emigrants. 
President Young's reply: "Permit the emigrants to go in peace," and his 
admonition to Haslam "not to spare horseflesh," so often and fervently 
quoted by Mormons, proves that President Young knew that the fate of the 
emigrants was at the disposal of the priesthood of the Parowan stake of 
Zion, and not at the disposal of the Indians. He had guilty knowledge that 
the massacre was contemplated by his slaves in Iron county. And although 
his farseeing statesmanship grasped the consequences of the deed, and 
although, when too late, and as a matter of policy, he did all that lie 
could to stay the hands of his blood atoning assassins, he knew, when the 
massacre had been consummated, by whom the hellish deed had been done. 
Therefore, his letter to James W. Denver is proved to have been false in 
every respect, and that President Young descended to falsehood - even 
perjury - as a measure of protection for his people and his church.


ELDER PENROSE'S "DEFENSE" OF BRIGHAM YOUNG AND THE CHURCH.

   On the evening of October 26, 1884, Elder Charles W. Penrose, then 
editor of the Deseret News, and since elevated to the apostolate, made a 
lengthy, rambling and mendacious address to a large audience of Saints in 
the twelfth ecclesiastical ward meeting house, Salt Lake City, and 
attempted to dispel the shadow that can never be lifted from the memory of 
those who, by their teachings and gross fanaticism, were responsible for 
the Mountain Meadows massacre. Penrose's was the first extended attempt to 
defend the Mormon "prophets," and it was a total failure.

   In September, 1875, Brigham Young was summoned to appear as a witness 
in the first trial of John D. Lee. The condition of his health would not 
permit of his attendance, and in lieu thereof, certain interrogatories 
were forwarded to him at Salt Lake City, and which were answered by him 
under oath.

   One question, only, and its answer are all that is required to prove 
that Brigham Young, or other affiants, testified falsely.

   Question ninth - "Did John D. Lee report to you at any time after this 
massacre what had been done at that massacre, and if so, what reply did 
you make to him in reference thereto?"

   Answer - "Within some two or three months after the massacre he called 
at my office and had much to say with regard to the Indians, their being 
stirred up to anger and threatening the settlements of the whites, and 
then commenced giving an account of the massacre. I told him to stop, as 
from what I had already heard by rumor, I did not wish my feelings 
harrowed up with a recital of detail."

   With seeming glee Elder Penrose quotes the above affidavit to prove 
that it was some time after the massacre before President Young knew 
anything about the affair further than "rumor," and that he would not 
permit Lee to tell the story. Then, with singular stupidity, Elder Penrose 
proceeds to prove that President Young was a falsifier by putting his 
son's affidavit against that of his father's. Elder Penrose's hysterical 
zeal to also prove that Brigham Young did not know that the massacre had 
been concocted and perpetrated by the presiding priesthood of Iron county, 
led him into the fatal error of securing an affidavit from John W. Young 
to prove that Lee charged the massacre to the Indians. But that affidavit 
proved too much in another respect.

   According to his affidavit, John W. Young, son of Brigham Young, was 13 
years old at the time of the massacre, and was office boy for his father. 
After stating those facts Mr. Young continued as follows:

I distinctly remember one day in the latter part of September, 1857, being 
in my father's office when John D. Lee, travel worn, entered the office 
and asked for a private interview with Governor Young.

It is distinctly impressed on my mind beyond the power of time to efface, 
how Lee described the terrible deed which he said was committed by the 
Indians at Mountain Meadows.

   From John W. Young's affidavit it is learned that Lee's visit was made 
immediately after the massacre, and that he did not "stop" at the command 
of President Young.

   Not satisfied with pitting the affidavit of John W. Young against that 
of his father's, Elder Penrose secured a statement from Apostle Wilford 
Woodruff that, in every respect, supported the statements made by the 
"prophet's" son.

   So eager was Elder Penrose to prove his stupidity and to fix the date 
of Lee's arrival at President Young's office, that he examined the 
voluminous diary kept by Apostle Woodruff and discovered that it was on 
September 29, 1857, or thirteen days after the tragedy at Mountain 
Meadows. No comment on the Woodruff and John W. Young contradictions to 
President Young's replies to the interrogatories in the Lee trial, and to 
his letter to James W. Denver, are necessary.

   Elder Penrose's discourse in the twelfth ward was delivered more than 
seven years after the excution of Lee, and the world then knew a portion 
of the truth relative to the massacre. And in his anxiety to mitigate the 
hideousness of the crime, he committed the usual Mormon blunder of 
attacking the moral status of the murdered emigrants. If that were not his 
intent why did he quote the following paragraph from Apostle Woodruff's 
diary, and which had not the slightest bearing on the subject matter of 
his discourse?

Brother Lee said he did not think there was a drop of innocent blood in 
the camp, for he had two of the children - (of the seventeen that were 
saved) in his house, and he could get but one to kneel down at prayer 
time, and the other would laugh at her for doing it, and they would swear 
like pirates.

(You elders of Israel will go into the canyons, and curse and swear, G-
damn and curse your oxen, and swear by him who created you. I am telling 
you the truth. Yes, you rip and swear and curse as bad as any pirates ever 
did.

   Doubtless Apostle Woodruff had, for the moment, forgotten the above 
selection from a sermon by Brigham Young in the early fifties Journal of 
Discourses, Vol. 1, page 211, and that "swearing like pirates" was not 
regarded as evidence that there "was not a drop of innocent blood" among 
the "elders of Israel"; and that profanity among the Saints in 1853 was 
not regarded as sufficient cause for blood atoning them. But the "elders 
of Israel" had entered into the "new and everlasting covenant," and were, 
therefore, immune from all crimes "except the shedding of innocent blood" 
or the blood of the Mormon prophets.

   If the Indians, as alleged by John W. Young and Apostle Woodruff, had 
been the sole perpetrators of the crime, why the attempt to partially 
condone the crime of the redskins who knew absolutely nothing, and cared 
less, of the moral status of those whom they murdered? The more the 
"prophets" and their agents squirm and wriggle in their attempts to get 
from under the fearful responsibility for that crime the deeper do they 
sink into the quicksands of perfidy and guilt.

   The massacre occurred on or about September 16, and John D. Lee was at 
President Young's office on the 29th. During the interim Lee remained a 
part of one day at the Meadows; it required one day for Lee to reach his 
home with the girls, and it would require full ten days to make the trip 
from Harmony to Salt Lake City. Therefore, the girls might, possibly, have 
been at Lee's residence two days before his departure for Salt Lake City. 
It was probably the second day after the massacre when Lee first asked the 
girls to join the family in prayers. Before those children, less than 8 
years old, there was ever the vision of the slaughter. No doubt the girls 
had witnessed the murder of their mother, or mothers. Very likely they 
were clinging to their skirts when Lee and the others struck them down. 
Doubtless they had seen their older brothers and sisters slain by those 
monster fanatics of an alien church. Very likely they had heard McMurdy's 
frenzied cry of "O, Lord,  my God, receive their spirits, it is for thy 
kingdom that I do this!" Is there wonder, then, that but one of those 
children knelt at prayer with the inhuman fanatic whose hands were red 
with the blood of their parents?

   And those children "swore like pirates!" On the 16th of this month, 
September, 1910 - the fifty-third anniversary of the massacre, while on a 
visit to the Mountain Meadows for the purpose of investigating the 
condition of the emigrants' grave, and to secure photographs of the grave 
and vicinity, the writer stood by the cairn on the desert. In imagination, 
the emigrants filed away up the valley under a flag of truce. Again the 
silence of that mountain solitude was broken by the cries of women, the 
screams of children and the rattle of firearms held by those wretched 
victims of blind obedience. Even after the lapse of fifty-three years, 
"swearing" would not only have been a relief, but would have been 
appropriate. Who, then, but arch-hypocrites could blame those girls for 
swearing? And who, but fiends incarnate, would claim that "there was not a 
drop of innocent blood in the camp" because one of those children refused 
to worship at the shrine of a god who would permit the representatives of 
his "holy prophets" to commit such a diabolical crime?

   Apologists for, and defenders, by implication, of the Mountain Meadows 
massacre have ever attempted to palliate that crime by the besmirchment of 
the characters of the slain! Out upon such driveling, sickening cant and 
hypocrisy!

   In defiance of the testimony of Jacob Hamblin during the second trial 
of Lee to the effect that "Pretty soon after it (the massacre) happened," 
he ''told them (President Young and George A. Smith) everything I could," 
and his story was complete, Apostle Woodruff, in his affidavit, used by 
Elder Penrose, affirms that neither he nor Brigham Young knew anything 
about Lee's participation in the massacre until the year 1870, when they 
obtained the information from Apostle Erastus Snow of St. George, Utah! 
(It should be remembered that Jacob Hamblin's report was made to Brigham 
Young and George A. Smith.) Subsequently Lee was excommunicated in Salt 
Lake City, instead of in one of the southern stakes of Zion, where he 
could have secured witnesses, and have been ''present in court." The haste 
and irregularity of Lee's excommunication prove that the belated act was 
forced by popular clamor - that it was merely an expedient, or grand stand 
play, with the express purpose of deceiving the people of the United 
States!

   It may be contended by some of the "prophets" and their agents that the 
practice of blood atonement is a thing of the past. But, from the saints' 
viewpoint, it is a law of God, and his laws are eternal.

   Given the absolute dominion for which these latter-day "prophets" are 
sleeplessly working, the torrid sermons of Brigham Young and Jedediah M. 
Grant would be as mild in comparison as a summer zephyr to the vitriolic 
mouthings of the present insanely fanatical ruler of Joseph Smith's 
"Kingdom of God."

   The hell born twins of unquestioning obedience and blood atonement are 
merely sleeping; the fires of Mormon fanaticism are merely smouldering. 
Yet, from the darkness of moral blindness and bigotry of Mormonism, the 
personality of Laban Morrill rises like a shaft of light, and serves 
notice to the world that there are Mormons who are infinitely better than 
their religion.

   On a recent trip to the Meadows I went over to Pinto and from that 
point visited the scene of the massacre. It was my good fortune to be 
received at the home of Benjamin Platt, aged 78 years, who was working for 
John D. Lee at the time of the massacre. Mr. Platt is an intelligent 
Englishman, and withal a devout member of the Mormon church. It is to Mr. 
Platt that the public is indebted for the following information which was 
freely imparted during the ride over to the Meadows for the purpose of 
securing photographs of the "monument" and vicinity.

   In the context of this story of the massacre Lee's version of the first 
attack by the Indians has been given, and in which Lee claims that he was 
not present. Mr. Platt avers that Lee's statement was not correct, and 
that the following version is the truth:

On the Sunday preceding the massacre fourteen Indians, an escort of the 
Cedar Lamanites, arrived at Lee's home at Harmony. Lee objected to 
accompanying the Indians, but after a brief consultation Lee departed with 
them toward the Meadows. Comanche, one of the reds, objected to the 
program of slaughter, but was finally induced to accompany the expedition.

   Mr. Platt is relieved from responsibilty for the following narrative, 
but it is true, nevertheless. The party camped at Leachy spring. During 
the night the leader of the Indians dreamed that both his bands were 
filled with blood, and was alarmed at the significant omen. He related his 
dream, the next morning, to Lee who interpreted the "double handful of 
blood" as a victory for the redmen, and that they would secure the blood 
of the emigrants.

   Mr. Platt's statement regarding the day of Lee's departure agrees with 
all the facts in the case, and which are as follows:

The first attack took place at about daylight on Tuesday, and after which 
Lee went down to the Santa Clara river where, according to Lee's 
statement, he met Oscar Hamblin and fourteen other white men with a band 
of Indians. The second attack was made on Wednesday evening. On Thursday 
the militia arrived at the Meadows. The massacre was perpetrated on 
Friday. Early on Saturday morning Haight and Dame went from Hamblin's 
ranch over to the Meadows, and after viewing the results of the slaughter, 
and admonishing the elders to keep the fact of their participation a 
"secret forever," and to lay the burden of the crime on the Indians, the 
entire party left the Meadows for their homes. They could easily get to 
Leachy spring in time for the night's encampment, and Lee could easily 
reach his home early in the forenoon of Sunday, which is the day that Mr. 
Platt says he arrived in Harmony.

   Mr. Platt related how Lee and his Indian escort rode into the stockade 
fort and around it to the well on the south side. In his autobiography Lee 
says that the Indians gave a whoop of victory, and after a repast on 
watermelons departed to their camp. Mr. Platt avers that the Indians made 
no oral demonstration of victory.

   At the afternoon meeting of the Harmony Saints, according to Mr. Platt, 
John D. Lee gave a lurid description of the massacre, and that he seemed 
to glory in the deed which he said was the "will of the Lord. Asked if, in 
after years, Lee exhibited any feeling of remorse, Mr. Platt answered that 
he did not; that Lee was the same jovial, companionable man that he was 
prior to the massacre.

   While condemning in the strongest and most earnest terms the leaders in 
the massacre, Mr. Platt averred that John D. Lee was the personification 
of hospitality toward all who called at Harmony, and related many acts of 
kindness and generosity to himself.

   The years of silence on the massacre have passed, and the people of 
southern Utah now talk as freely of the tragedy as on any other subject, 
and deeply lament the ineffaceable stain that, unjustly, is the heritage 
of those who were residents of Iron and Washington counties at the time of 
the massacre, but who were guiltless of participation in, or sympathy 
with, the deed.

   Many stories of the awful incidents, some true, others false, are in 
circulation among the people of southern Utah. Mr. Platt related a pitiful 
story about Albert, Hamblin's Indian boy, guarding the hiding place of the 
girls during several days, and secretly sharing his food, which he took 
over to the Meadows while herding cows in the vicinity, with Rachel and 
Ruth Dunlap before they were discovered, ravished and murdered as before 
related. But, unfortunately for the Indian boy, the story is not true.

   Another interesting story, of the truth of which there is no doubt, was 
told by Mr. Platt as follows:

On one occasion when the emigrants were out of water they sent a child, a 
little girl dressed in white, to the spring. She was fired upon but 
escaped unharmed.

   Notwithstanding that the people of southern Utah are familiar with 
nearly all the incidents of the massacre they have thus far, as a general 
truth, failed to grasp the central force that was responsible for the 
devilish act. Their abiding faith in the "divine mission of Joseph Smith," 
and their certainty that the Mormon "prophets" can do no wrong, blinds 
them to the forces that unerringly led up to the massacre. But there are 
scores of young men and women who are now demanding that the truth be 
told. Their reason teaches them that the assigned causes, or reasons, for 
the massacre, are insufficient to account for all the facts. They are now 
asking: "Why did those fifty-five men, professed followers of the merciful 
Son of God, commit a crime at which the civilized world stood aghast? If 
it was murder for plunder, why is it that only one assassin was punished 
for the crime when the name of every one of the murderers was known to the 
leading religious and civil authorities of Utah at the time of Lee's 
trial, or could have been obtained had there been any inclination to 
punish them? "There is something hidden," they say, ''something mysterious 
and inexplicable as to the impelling motive to the crime. What is it?"

   While not complete, the youth of Utah, and the people of the world, 
may, in the foregoing pages, learn the basic causes that led up to the 
Mountain Meadows massacre.