History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

CHARGES AGAINST THE EMIGRANTS. 549
City to Cedar the emigrants were guilty of further
gross outrage. If we can believe a statement made
in the confession of Lee, a few days before his death,
Isaac C. Haight, president of the stake at Cedar, accused
them of abusing women, of poisoning wells and
streams at many points on their route, of destroying
fences and growing crops, of violating the city ordinances
at Cedar, and resisting the officers who attempted
to arrest them. These and other charges,
even more improbable, 11 have been urged in extenuation
of the massacre ;
but little reliance can be placed
on Lee's confession, and most of them appear to
be unfounded. 12
It must be admitted, however, that
rather than see their women and children starve, they
perhaps took by force such necessary provisions as
they were not allowed to purchase.
Near Cedar City the Spanish trail to Santa Fe
branched off from what was then known as Fremont's
route. About thirty miles to the south-west of Cedar,
and within fifteen of the line of the route, are the
Mountain Meadows, which form the divide between
the waters of the great basin and those that flow into
the Colorado. At the southern end of the meadows,
which are four to five miles in length and one in
width, but here run to a narrow point, is a large
stream, the banks of which are about ten feet in height.
Close to this stream the emigrants were encamped
on the 5th of September, almost midway between two
11 ' They proclaimed that they had the very pistol with which the prophet
Joseph Smith was murdered, and had threatened to kill Brigham and all of
the apostles. That when in Cedar City they said they would have friends
in Utah, who woidd hang Brigham by the neck until he was dead, before
snow fell again in the territory. They also said that Johnston was coining
with his army from the east, and they were going to return from California with
soldiers, as soon as possible, and would then desolate the land, and kill every
damned Mormon man, woman, and child that they could find in Utah.' Lee's
Mormonism Unvcaled, 218-19.
12 ' Conflicting statements were made to me of the behavior of this company,'
says the superintendent of Indian affairs. ' I have accordingly made
it a matter of material importance to make a strict inquiry to ascertain reliable
information on this subject. . .The result of my inquiries enables me to
say that the company conducted themselves with propriety.' Forney's Rept,
ut supra, p. 88.