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History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

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546 THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE.<br />

In May <strong>of</strong> 1857 Parley P. Pratt was arraigned<br />

before the supreme court at Van Buren, Arkansas, on<br />

a charge <strong>of</strong> abducting the children <strong>of</strong> one Hector Mc-<br />

Lean, a native <strong>of</strong> New Orleans, but then living in<br />

California. He was acquitted; but it is alleged by<br />

anti-Mormon writers, and tacitly admitted by the<br />

saints, that he was sealed to Hector McLean's wife,<br />

who had been baptized into the faith years before,<br />

while living in San Francisco, and in 1855 was living<br />

in Salt Lake City. 6 McLean swore vengeance against<br />

the apostle, who was advised to make his escape, and<br />

set forth on horseback, unarmed, through a sparsely<br />

settled country, where, under the circumstances, escape<br />

was almost impossible. His path was barred by two<br />

<strong>of</strong> McLean's friends until McLean himself with three<br />

others overtook the fugitive, when he fired six shots<br />

at him, the balls lodging in his saddle or passing<br />

through his clothes. McLean then stabbed him twice<br />

6 The account given in the Millennial Star, xix. 417-18, is that McLean,<br />

after treating his wife in a brutal manner for several years, turned her into<br />

the streets <strong>of</strong> San Francisco, and secretly conveyed the children on board a<br />

steamer for New Orleans, where the woman followed him; buc finding that<br />

her parents were in the plot, set forth for Salt Lake City. Returning to New<br />

Orleans in 1S56, she rescued her children and fled to Texas; but was followed<br />

by her husband, who had previously returned to California, and now regained<br />

possession <strong>of</strong> the children. Parley, who had already befriended Mrs McLean,<br />

had written to inform her that her husband was in pursuit. Hence the<br />

prosecution. McLean and his wife finally separated in San Francisco in 1S55.<br />

See also Autobiog. <strong>of</strong> Parley P. Pratt, app. Stenhouse relates that Mrs<br />

McLean was married or sealed to Pratt in <strong>Utah</strong>, that she met Pratt in Arkansas<br />

on her way to <strong>Utah</strong>, and that the apostle was acquitted on account <strong>of</strong> her<br />

assuming the responsibility for the abduction. He admits, however, that the<br />

apostle did not abduct the children. Pocky Mountain Saint*, 429. Burton<br />

says that Pratt converted Mrs McLean and took her to wife, but on what<br />

authority he does not state. City <strong>of</strong> the Saints, 412. The fact, however, that<br />

Mrs McLean arrived on the scene <strong>of</strong> the apostle's assassination just before his<br />

death, as mentioned in the Millennial Star, xix. 478, wears a suspicious look.<br />

In the S. F. Bulletin <strong>of</strong> March 24, 1S77, it is stated that the apostle made the<br />

acquaintance <strong>of</strong> Mrs McLean while engaged in missionary work in San Francisco;<br />

that her husband, who was a custom-house <strong>of</strong>ficial and a respectable<br />

citizen, ordered him to discontinue his visits, and kicked him out <strong>of</strong> the house<br />

for continuing them surreptitiously; and that the woman was so infatuated<br />

with the Mormon elder that she devoutly washed his feet whenever he visited<br />

her. On arriving at Fort Smith (near Van Buren), McLean found letters<br />

from Paidey Pratt addressed to his wife, one <strong>of</strong> them signed ' Your own,<br />

.' The McLean residence in San Francisco, on the corner <strong>of</strong> Jones and<br />

Filbert streets, was in 1S77 a dilapidated frame building, a story and a half<br />

in height. As to the apostle's assassination, the Bulletin merely states that he<br />

was overtaken by McLean and shot within eight miles <strong>of</strong> Van Buren, and<br />

that he died <strong>of</strong> his wounds an hour afterward.

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