History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

CHAPTER XXII.
PROGRESS OF EVENTS,
1861-1869.
Governor Dawson's Gallantry—Utah Refused Admission as a State—
Passage of a Bill against Polygamy—Measures of the Legislature
—Arrival of Governor Harding—Disputes between Brigham and
the Federal Officials—Arrival of the California Volunteers—
False Alarm—The Morrisite Troubles—Governors Doty and Durkee—The
Limits of Utah Curtailed—Celebration of Lincoln's
Second Inauguration—The Brassfield and Robinson Murders—
Indian Outbreaks—The Battle of Bear River—Disturbances in
Southern Utah—Treaties with Indian Tribes—The Uintah Valley
Reservation—Bibliographical.
The first appointments made by President Lincoln
for the territory of Utah were John W. Dawson
as governor, 1 John F. Kinney as chief justice, R. P.
Flenniken and J. R. Crosby associate judges, Frank
Fuller secretary, and James Duane Doty superintendent
of Indian affairs. A few weeks after his
arrival, the governor was accused of making improper
advances to one of the Mormon women, and on newyear's
eve of 1861 was glad to make his escape from
Zion, being waylaid at Mountain Dell on his return
journey and soundly beaten by a party of saints. 2
1 After Cumming's departure, Secretary Wooton became acting governor,
but resigned as soon as the southern secession was announced, {henhouse's
Iiocky Mountain Saints, 445, 591.
2 In Wake's The Mormon Prophet, 76; Beadle's Life inlltah, 201; Stenhouse's
Rocky Mountain Saints, 592, it is stated that Dawson was entrapped into this
affair; in Tucker's Mormonism, 239; Tullidge's Hist. S. L. City, 249; Deseret
News, Jan. 1, 1862, that it was of his own seeking. In Id., Jan. 14th, is a
letter from Dawson to the editor of the Deseret News, dated Bear River
Station, Utah Terr., wherein the governor states that he was badly wounded
in the head and kicked in the chest and loins. A copy of his first and only
message to the legislature will be found in Utah Jour. Legist., 1861-2, 12-26.
(604)
A