History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

INDIAN WAES. 629
the alarm among gentile merchants, that, with a fewexceptions,
they signed an agreement to leave the territory,
on condition that their property should be purchased
by the authorities at a low valuation. The
answer was that they had not been asked to come,
and were not now asked to depart; they could stay
as long as they pleased, and would not be molested if
they did not molest others. No further deeds of violence
occurred, the excitement gradually died away,
and with the approaching completion of the overland
railroad a better feeling prevailed. Contracts had
been awarded without distinction to Mormon and
gentile ; travel had increased, and with it traffic and
the circulation of money, and for a brief space all felt
a common interest in the country's prosperity.
Not least among the benefits caused by the building
of the railroad was the gradual cessation of Indian
hostilities, which had continued, with little intermission,
from the date of the Mountain Meadows massacre.
The natives had no alternative but to steal or
starve; the white man was in possession of their pastures;
game was rapidly disappearing; in the depth of
winter they were starving and almost unclad, sleeping
in the snow and sleet, with no covering but a cape of
rabbit's fur and moccasons lined with cedar bark; even
in summer they were often compelled to subsist on
ville in 1857—who were arrested at Coalville, Weber co., for stealing a cow,
and placed in charge of a party of policemen, one of them a Danite named
Hinckley. Walker escaped to Camp Douglas, but Wilson and Potter were
killed by the officers. The murderers were arrested, but escaped from the
marshal. Soon afterward a colored man, known as Negro Tom, called on the
federal officials to state that he could give important evidence concerning certain
murders. A few days later he was found with his throat cut and his body
horribly mangled, about two miles east of the city. Life in Utah, 21 1-12. See
also Stenhouse's Rocky Mountain Saints, 621. The latter relates that Judge
Titus caused the arrests, in consequence of which one of the apostles, to mark
his contempt for the judge, had a chemise made, about ten feet in length, and
ordered it to be handed to the judge as a present. Titus regarded the matter
as a threat, as well as an insult, considering that the night garment wag
intended as a shroud. In 1866 a man named Beanfield, from Austin, Nev.,
had some difficulty with the Mormons and was shot. Bowles, Our Neiv West,
266. See also S. F. Call, Nov. 1, 16, 1866, April 14, 1867; S. F. Times, Aug.
15, Oct. 25, 1SG7; Sac. Union, Oct. 31, 1866.