History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

626 PROGRESS OF EVENTS.
nent citizens, the stand and organ "being draped in
black. The exercises commenced with an anthem by
the choir, followed by a prayer from Franklin D.
Richards. Then came an eloquent address from
Amasa Lyman, and an impressive eulogy on the life,
character, and services of Lincoln by Norman Mc-
Leod, the chaplain at Camp Douglas, the funeral
rites concluding with a benediction by Wilford Wood-
ruff.
Soon after the departure of Connor, orders were
received to disband the volunteers; but the alarm
caused among gentile citizens by further Mormon
troubles caused a portion of them to be retained
until they could be replaced by regular troops. Of
the many crimes laid to the charge of the saints at
this period, and by some ascribed to the agency of
the church, the murders of Newton Brassfield and
King Robinson were the most notorious. 62
In the
spring of 1866 Brassfield, formerly a citizen of California
and more recently of Nevada, married the
wife of one of the elders, then employed on a foreign
mission. Application was made and granted for a
writ of habeas corpus to obtain possession of the
children, the case being still pending when the assassination
occurred. On the 2d of April he was shot
dead by some unknown person while about to enter
his hotel. 63 A reward of $4,500 was offered by the
62 Gen. Hazen remarks in his report: 'There is no doubt of their murder
from Mormon church influences, although I do not believe by direct command.'
He recommends that in future the commanding officer at Camp
Douglas be ordered to send one of the Mormon leaders to the state prison
at Jefferson, Mo., for each man that is assassinated, and that he be retained
there until the culprit is surrendered. House Misc. Doc, 75, 39th Cong. 2d
Sess. , 4. Beadle states that, when most of the volunteers had been withdrawn,
all gentiles who had taken up land west of the Jordan were whipped,
tarred and feathered, or ducked in the Jordan, and their improvements destroyed,
and that Weston of the Union Vedette was seized, carried to the
temple block by night, and cruelly beaten. Life in Utah, 203-4. See also
The Union Vedette, in Virginia and Helena (Mont.) Post, Oct. 9, 1S66.
63 Deseret News, April 5, 12, 1866. In the former number it is stated that
two other cases of shooting had occurred within less than three weeks, one
of the parties, named Mayfield, being dangerously wounded by a soldier who
mistook him for a gambler with whom he had had some difficulty. The account
of Brassfield's murder and its cause as related in the Deseret News agrees