“At first light, gunfire ripped through the morning calm, raining fire on the camp. A child who survived the attack later wrote. “Our party was just sitting down to breakfast of quail and cottontail rabbits when a shot rang out from a nearby gully and one of the children toppled over, hit by the bullet.” The deadly barrage struck down between 10 and 15 victims, killing seven of them…” so goes the account from Will Bagley’s 2002 book, “Blood of the Prophets”.
Today marks the 150th anniversary of the very sad and despicable event of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. The finger of blame for the murders of the members of the Fancher party has been pointed from the least to the highest in Mormondom. Only one participant was ever tried and executed for the crimes committed by Southern Utah Mormons and Indian helpers. Now the descendents of John Doyle Lee want to raise money to buy the statue of Lee, which has been languishing at a sculptor’s gallery for more than three years, and move it to a historical site honoring him and other early pioneers according to a Tribune article. The thought of that at best is an ill conceived and inappropriate one.
It was the eyewitness testimony of an adopted Indian son of Apostle Jacob Hamblin that would put Lee before a firing squad and into his coffin. Albert Hamblin, from the vantage of a nearby tree top, saw him shoot at point blank range two young women deemed 'too beautiful' to kill by the Paiutes.
The truth of the matter likely will not be fully discovered and understood in spite of the several books published to date about this episode in Mormon History. Insider Richard Turley’s book will not be out until next year. Whether or not guilt is assigned to the hierarchy of the leadership of the faithful is a matter for personal introspection and interpretation. History records that a number of inflammatory speeches were made by President Brigham Young and especially senior Apostle George A. Smith throughout the territory. These speeches fanned the hysteria and hostility toward all outsiders, mobocrats and Missourians in particular. The Fanchers were neither. Parley Pratt's death in Arkansas added to the fires of hatred toward outsiders. He being the latest victim of a Gentile. In truth Parley had taken the man's wife after converting her. Legend has it that Apostle Smith advised the Saints in Parowan to plant fruit trees in their public square and that 'bones made good fertilizer', reportedly saying, “As for the cursed mobocrats, I can think of nothing better that they could do than feed a tree in Zion.”
For those descendents of the Fancher and Baker party the murder of your ancestors 150 years ago is not forgotten on this day. We must not forget what happened at Mountain Meadows.
1 comment:
your posts never fail to fascinate me. i should read up more on this kind of stuff and spend less time following star trash, pop culture and sportscenter. gah.
i don't want to take away from the seriousness of this post, but man oh MAN am i glad i don't have to eat quail and cottontail for breakfast. i am thankful for my quaker oats.
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