History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

-,44 THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE.
The threat and the deed came so near together as
to lead many to believe that one was the result of the
other. But a moment's reflection will show that they
were too nearly simultaneous for this to be the case;
that in the absence of telegraph and railroad, it would be
impossible to execute such a deed three hundred miles
away in two days. Indeed, it may as well be understood
at the outset that this horrible crime, so often and
so persistently charged upon the Mormon church and
its leaders, was the crime of an individual, the crime of
a fanatic of the worst stamp, one who was a member
of the Mormon church, but of whose intentions the
church knew nothing, and whose bloody acts the
members of the church, high and low, regard with
as much abhorrence as any out of the church. Indeed,
the blow fell upon the brotherhood with three-
fold force and damage. There was the cruelty of it,
which wrung their hearts; there was the odium attending
its performance in their midst; and there w7 as
the strength it lent their enemies further to malign
and molest them. The Mormons denounce the Mountain
Meadows massacre, and every act connected
therewith, as earnestly and as honestly as any in the
outside world. This is abundantly proved, and may
be accepted as a historical fact.
1 will now proceed to give the incidents as they occurred.
In the spring of 1857 a party of one hundred
and thirty-six Arkansas emigrants, 2 among whom were
a few Missourians, 3 set forth for southern California.
vailed, 218, 237, 239, where Lee states that the massacre occurred on Friday,
and that the attack began on Tuesday. At Lee's trial James Haslem testified,
as we shall see later, that he was sent from Cedar City by Isaac C. Haight,
with a letter to Brigham, on Monday, Sept. 7th, and that he reached S. L.
City at 11 A. m. on Thursday. Descret News, Sept. 20, 1S76. The next day
was the 11th. Other accounts differ slightly as to date.
2 U. S. Attorney Wilson, in his report in Sen. Doc, 36th Cong. 1st Sess.,
ii. no. 42, p. 102, states that 119 were killed, and it is certain that 17 children
were rescued. Forney and Burton say that 115 to 120 were massacred;
Waite, The Mormon Prophet, GG, that the party consisted of 150 men and
women, besides a number of children. Stenhouse, Tell It All, 324, mentions
120 to 130. Other reports vary from 120 to 150.
3 Stenhouse, Rocky Mountain Saints, 424-8, says that the Arkansas and
Missouri emigrants formed two separate parties, the latter naming themselves