History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

MURDER OF PRATT 547
with a bowie-knife under the left arm, whereupon
Parley dropped from his horse, and the assassin, after
thrusting his knife deeper into the wounds, seized a
derringer belonging to one of his accomplices, and shot
him through the breast. The party then rode off, and
McLean escaped unpunished. 7
Thus, when the Arkansas families arrived at Salt
Lake City, they found the Mormons in no frieudly
mood, and at once concluded to break camp and move
on. They had been advised by Elder Charles C. Rich
to take the northern route along the Bear River, but
decided to travel by way of southern Utah. Passing
through Provo, Springville, Payson, Fillmore,
and intervening settlements, they attempted everywhere
to purchase food, but without success. Toward
the end of August they arrived at Corn Creek, 8 some
fifteen miles south of Fillmore, where they encamped
for several days. In this neighborhood, on a farm
set apart for their use by the Mormons, lived the Pah
Vants, whom, as the saints allege, the emigrants attempted
to poison by throwing arsenic into one of the
springs and impregnating their own dead cattle with
strychnine. It has been claimed that this charge
was disproved; and what motive the Arkansas party
could have had for thus surrounding themselves with
treacherous and blood-thirsty foes has never been
explained. In the valleys throughout the southern
portion of the territory grows a poisonous weed, and
it is possible that the cattle died from eating of this
7 This account of Parley's murder is based on the testimony of Geo. Higginson
and Geo. Crouch, whose letter, dated Flint, Arkansas, May 17, 1857,
was first published in a New York paper. Copies of it will be found in the
Millennial Star, xix. 478, and Burton's City of the Saints, 412-13, not%.
They state that the tragedy occurred close to the residence of a farmer
named Win, and was witnessed by two men who were in the house at the
time, and from whose evidence at the coroner's jury the above version is
taken. Pratt lived long enough to give instructions as to his burial and the
disposition of his property. The account given by Stenhouse, in Rocky Mountain
Saints, 429-30, does not differ materially, except that he makes no mention
of any accomplices.
8 In his deposition at the trial of John D. Lee and others, George A. Smith,
the prophet's cousin, states that he found them at Corn Creek on Aug. 25th.
Millennial Star, xxxvii. 675j Lee's Mormonism Unvailed 307.