History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

MURDER OF BRASSFIELD AND ROBINSON. 627
gentile community, but without success, for the arrest
of the murderer, who was probably a relative of the
elder's, as the sentiment of the Mormon community
required that the nearest of kin should avenge the
wrongs of an absent husband. 64
King Robinson, a native of Maine, and in 1864 a
resident of California, was appointed in that year
assistant surgeon at Camp Douglas. 65 When the
volunteers were mustered out of service he practised
his profession in Salt Lake City, and in the spring of
1866 married the daughter of a physician, Dr Kay,
who in his life-time had been a pillar of the church,
but whose wife and children were apostates. The
doctor was an intimate friend of Norman McLeod,
and at the time of his assassination a superintendent
of the gentile Sunday-school. 66 While at Camp
Douglas, he ascertained that certain ground in the
neighborhood of Warm Springs was unoccupied, and
supposing it to be a portion of the public domain,
took possession of it, and erected a building thereon.
The city council claimed that the land belonged to
the corporation, and ordered the marshal to destroy
the improvements and eject the claimant. The doc-
tor brought the matter before the court, but the chief
essentially with the one given in Stenhouse's Rocky Mountain Saints, 615, except
that according to Stenhouse's version no attempt was made to arrest the
murderer, while in the Deserel News it is stated that he was pursued and
several shots fired at him. Beadle, Life in Utah, 204-5, says that the woman
had repudiated her former marriage, that Brassfield, who had taken her trunk
and clothing from her former residence, was arrested for larceny, and a day
or two later, while in the street in custody of the marshal, was shot in the
back by a hidden assassin, no special effort being made to arrest him.
6t Stenhouse relates that General Sherman, on hearing of the assassination,
telegraphed to Brigham that he hoped to hear of no more murders of gentiles
in Utah, and reminded him that there were plenty of soldiers, recently
mustered out of service, who would be glad to pay him a visit. Brigham
replied that Brassfield had seduced a man's wife, and that life in S. L. Citywas
as safe as elsewhere if people attended to their own business. Stenhouse's
Rocky Mountain Saints, 616. See also The Dalles Daily Mountaineer, May
17, 1*S66.
65 He was afterward sent to Camp Connor. The Union Vedette, Oct. 25,
1866, in Beadle's Life in Utah, 206.
66 McLeod was at this time preaching at Independence Hall in opposition
to Mormonism, and the doctor no doubt shared his sentiments. Both were
heartily disliked by the Mormons. Stenhouse's Rocky Mountain Saints, 016-17.