History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

YOUNG CHILDREN SPARED. 557
Over the last resting-place of the victims was built a
cone-shaped cairn, some twelve feet in height, and leaning
against its northern base was placed a rough slab
of granite, with the following inscription: "Here 120
men, women, and children were massacred in cold
blood, early in Sept. 1857. They were from Arkansas."
The cairn was surmounted by a cross of cedar,
on which were inscribed the words: "Vengeance is
mine: I will repay, saith the Lord." 2*
The survivors of the slaughter were seventeen children,
from two months to seven years of age, who
were carried, on the evening of the massacre, by John
D. Lee, Daniel Tullis, and others to the house of
Jacob Hamblin, 25 and afterward placed in charge of
Mormon families at Cedar, Harmony, and elsewhere.
All of them were recovered in the summer of 1858,
with the exception of one who was rescued a few
months later, and though thinly clad, they bore no
marks of ill usage. 26
In the following year they were
1859, in Sen. Doc, 36th Cong. 1st Sess., ii. no. 42, pp. 16-17; Captain
Campbell's rept, in Mess, and Doc., 1859-00, pt 2, p. 207; Hutchwgs' Gal.
Mag., iv. 346-7. A correspondent of the New York Herald, writing from S.
L. City, Nov. 8, 1874, states that William H. Rogers, Indian agent, was
ordered to proceed from Camp Floyd with a party of cavalry and bury the
remains in the summer of 1858. I find no mention of this in the official documents,
though the massacre was known to Sup. Forney at least as early as
June 22d of that year. See his letter to C. E. Mix, in Sen. Doc., ut supra,
pp. 44-5.
24 Cuts will be found in Stenhouse's Tell It All, 335; Hutching?? Gal. Mag.,
iv. 347. The cairn, cross, and slab are said to have been destroyed by order
of Brigham. Cradlebaugh's Mormonism, 14.
25 Forney's rept, in Sen. Doc, 36th Cong. 1st Sess., ii. no. 42, pp. 79-80,
where their names are given; see also p. 87; Lee's Mormonism Unvailed, 243.
Bishop Smith's statement, in Stenhouse's Rochj Mountain Saints, 441-2. In
giving the result of his investigation, Forney states (p. 76) that Hamblin had
left his home several weeks before the massacre, and did not return until
several days after it occurred. This statement was confirmed, at the trial of
Lee, in the deposition of George A. Smith, who alleged that Hamblin was
encamped with him at Corn Creek on Aug. 25, 1S57. Millennial Star, xxxvii.
675. See also Little's Jacob Hamblin, 45. Nevertheless Hamblin was accused
of complicity. Affidavit of Capt. Jas Lynch, in Sen. Doc, 36th Cong.
1st Sess., ii. no. 42, p. 83.
26 ' I succeeded in getting sixteen children, all, it is said, that remain of
this butchering affair. I have the children with me; they seem contented and
happy; poorly clad, however.' Forney's letter to General Johnston, in Sen.
Doc, ut supra, p. 8. 'The seventeenth child was recovered last April.'
(1859.) ' It is proper to remark that when I obtained the children they were
in a better condition than children generally in the settlements in which they
lived.' Forney's Rept, in Id., pp. S7, 89. On the other hand, Captain Jamea