Mountain Meadows Now: A Monumental Tribute

There have been several monuments erected to pay homage to those who died in the Mountain Meadows Massacre in 1857.  The first monument was erected in 1859, a short two years after the tragedy occurred.  This monument was emplaced over the grave site after the bodies were buried.  The party constructing the monument, led by Brevet Major Carleton, reportedly had to scour the surrounding area to find the bones of a reported thirty four people that had been hidden in bushes, etc. by the neighboring Mormons.  After the remains were located and buried the party erected a stone mound (or cairn) approximately fifty feet in diameter at the base, and about twelve feet tall.  On top, a cedar cross was emplaced that stood an additional twelve feet in height, making the monument twenty four feet total.  Carved into the cross are the words, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”  At the base of the mound the party emplaced a granite slab with the engraving: “Here 120 Men, Women, And Children Were Massacred In Cold Blood, Early In September, 1857. They Were From Arkansas."

In 1932 the Utah Trails and Landmarks Association dedicated another memorial.  This one a consisted of a stone wall surrounding the original cairn burial site, and was capped with a bronze plaque.  The plaque essentially stated that the massacre occurred in this spot and was committed by John D. Lee and his followers, as well as some Native Americans.  It incorrectly identified, however, the wagon train as being from Arkansas and Missouri (they were from Arkansas) and the leader of the train as “Charles Fancher” (should be Alexander Fancher).

A third monument was erected in 1990 on Dan Sill Hill, overlooking the site of this tragedy.  The monument is a paved wall built into the side of the hilltop and contains a plaque bearing the inscription, “In Memoriam: In the valley below Between September 7 and 11, 1857 A Company of More Than 120 Arkansas Emigrants Led By Capt. John T. Baker And Capt. Alexander Fancher Was Attacked While En Route to California.  This Event Is Known In History As The Mountain Meadows Massacre.  The wall itself lists the names of those who died, as well as those children who survived.

In 1999 another monument was erected to replace the one from 1932.  It consisted of a stone wall surrounding the original cairn site and is cemented together to provide a lasting emplacement.  The original cairn was damaged due to vandals, farmers, and reportedly even Brigham Young ordered it to be destroyed.  The remains were recovered and emplaced behind the 1990 monument wall at a small private ceremony.  The cairn was repaired and an American flag was placed next to it.

The most recent monument was erected in 2011 and is known as the “Men and Boys Monument.”  It consists of a stone cube surrounded by benches in one of the fields at Mountain Meadows.  The stone is inscribed with the following text: “In memory of the emigrant men and boys from Arkansas massacred here in Mountain Meadows on September 11, 1857. Their lives were taken prematurely and wrongly by Mormon militiamen in one of the most tragic episodes in western American history.  May we forever remember and honor those buried in this valley. May we never forget this tragedy but learn from the past.”

SOURCE: Mountain Meadows Association: http://www.mtn-meadows-assoc.com/

The Trial of John D. Lee

John D. Lee was a leader in the militia that attacked the Baker–Fancher party and because of that he was put on trial for his part in the massacre.  John D. Lee would be the only person who participated in the massacre to be convicted. He was then sentenced to execution.  John D. Lee was killed by firing squad on March 23, 1877 at the site of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. But the trial was not as simple as it sounds. Certain aspects lead to conclusions of John D. Lee being unfairly tried and in turn becoming the scape goat for the Mormon Church trying to cover up the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

On July 15, 1875, the formation of the trial for both W. H. Dame, who was commander of the militia, and John D Lee, was established as well as laying out the process of the case. John D. Lee agreed to give his testimony of the events according to him but he believed that he was to be sacrificed to appease the wrath of the Government and shield more guilty parties by perjury if necessary. This aspect was proven when no witnesses in favor of John D. Lee showed up to give their testimony while there were several positive testimonies for W.H. Dame.  Also nine out of the twelve jurors were Mormons and some of them which had actually participated in the massacre themselves. One of the jurors was the son in law to the man that ordered the militia to fire upon the Baker-Fancher party. The Mormons that were chosen for the trial swore to have lived in the region for at least 10 to 18 years and claimed to have never heard the massacre talked about ever. They also claimed to not have any opinions on the massacre.  This extreme amount of perjury by the jury itself tells the story of how the trial really took place. This can only lead to one conclusion, the church was trying to cover up the massacre and use John D. Lee as its scapegoat.

The trial then moved to a series of travelers that witnessed the bodies of the massacred dead. They all cited the piles of bodies and that many of them had their throat slashed among other gruesome methods of killing. The testimony of a bishop named Phillip Klingen Smith was different than that of travelers that simply witnessed the aftermath. Phillip Klingen Smith was part of the formation of a plan to massacre the travelers and participated in it. Ironically he was never charged with a crime even with his participation be told before a court. His testimony was the nail in the coffin for John D. Lee. The public believed what Phillip Klingen Smith had to say and unrest grew for a conviction to be had.

On July 29^th, 1875 the defense was allowed to make their case. His lawyer, Mr. Spicer, attempted to paint a picture that the Baker-Fancher party angered the Indians by poisoning a creek.  He also went on to say that John D. Lee had no affiliation with the church leadership or the militia. He said that Lee was simply a farmer that traded with the Indians in the area.  He also went on to argue that it was not him who went to the encircled Baker Fancher party with a white flag seeking a truce. He said that he was home in his corral. Basically the defense put out a bunch of lies in order to confuse the jurors as a last ditch effort. But with no one truly believing anything that John D. Lee had to say and the testimony by Phillip Klingensmith being so thorough, John D. Lee was convicted though not without strong deliberation by the jury who were initially mostly in favor of acquittal. Lee was convicted of murder in the 1^st degree and sentenced to death. His last words were "I do not believe everything that is now being taught and practiced by Brigham Young. I do not care who hears it. It is my last word... I have been sacrificed in a cowardly, dastardly manner." The evidence is overwhelming that something was not right about the trial. Having no witnesses coming on behalf of Lee, no one believing his testimony and a jury that was already committing perjury, John D. Lee never stood a chance in defending himself. He was certainly the scapegoat whether by cover up or extreme coincidence.

References

1.       Brooks, Juanita. John Doyle Lee: Zealot, Pioneer, Builder, Scapegoat. Glendale, CA: A. H. Clark Company, 1962.

2.       "The Mountain Meadow Massacre Trial." New York Times (1857-1922), Jul 15, 1875. http://search.proquest.com/docview/93417091?accountid=4117.

3.       "The Mountain Meadow Massacre." New York Times (1857-1922), Jul 23, 1875. http://search.proquest.com/docview/93453493?accountid=4117.

4.       "Mountain Meadows." New York Times (1857-1922), Jul 24, 1875. http://search.proquest.com/docview/93450765?accountid=4117.

5.       "The Mountain Meadow Massacre." New York Times (1857-1922), Jul 29, 1875. http://search.proquest.com/docview/93445965?accountid=4117.

6.       "The Mountain Meadow Massacre." New York Times (1857-1922), Jul 30, 1875. http://search.proquest.com/docview/93465024?accountid=4117.

7.       "The Mormon Trial." New York Times (1857-1922), Aug 09, 1875. http://search.proquest.com/docview/93455476?accountid=4117.

8.       "The Mountain Meadow Massacre." New York Times (1857-1922), Sep 17, 1876. http://search.proquest.com/docview/93569856?accountid=4117

9.       "John Doyle Lee." Digital image. PBS. 2001. Accessed April 22, 2013. http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/i_r/lee.htm.

Cinematic Representation: September Dawn

In the movie September Dawn, 2007, the story of the Mountain Meadows Massacre is told. But with many historically based movies there is some play on the storyline in order to make the movie more compelling to its viewers. For example the movie added a love story between a local Mormon bishop’s son and a young woman of the Baker–Fancher party. But the biggest difference was the inclusion of Brigham Young, played by Terence Stamp, into the events of the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

Historians have long since hypothesized that Brigham Young had some role in the planning or at least approval of the events of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. In the movie it is Brigham Young that orders the Paiute Indians to massacre the Baker–Fancher party. But according to historical records there is no such evidence that supports this. It is only speculation that Brigham Young was the true person responsible for the massacre.

One key point that the movie does illustrate is that of the events of the massacre itself. The traveling gentiles were attacked by the Indians originally as in the movie. Then John D Lee, played by Jon Gries, rides over to the entrenched Baker–Fancher party and offers to help them. But only under the condition that he leads them away to a safe area and that the Baker–Fancher party gives up all its weapons. But as they are led away, they are ambushed by the Mormon militia that was dressed up as Indians. John D Lee then orders the militia to kill anyone that is old enough to talk.  This aspect is very in line with the true events that took place.

Overall the movie portrayed the story of the Mountain Meadows Massacre as a gruesome event. Its visual illustration of the massacre itself with the cut throats and children being killed showed the gravity of the massacre. Although there is no evidence of Brigham Young knowing anything about the massacre exists, it is logically hypothesized that he did. Overall this movie gave a mostly true picture into the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

References

1.       Brooks, Juanita. The Mountain Meadows Massacre. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963.

2.       Denton, Sally. American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows, September 1857. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003.

3.       John D Lee (John Gries)." Digital image. IMDb. September 2007. Accessed April 22, 2013. http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3990000384/tt0473700.

4.       "September Dawn Movie Poster." Digital image. DVDs Release Dates. 2007. Accessed April 22, 2013. http://www.dvdsreleasedates.com/poster/4692/September-Dawn-movie-poster.html.

5.       Setember Dawn. Directed by Christopher Caine. Performed by John Voit, John Gries, Trent Ford, Terrance Stump,. 2007. DVD.

6.       Walker, Ronald W., Richard E. Turley, and Glen M. Leonard. Massacre at Mountain Meadows. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Public Response and Media Coverage

Although the Mountain Meadows Massacre received some media coverage in the 1850’s immediately following the massacre, the incident was not largely reported to the public until the 1870’s when the trials to indict those responsible began.  Around this time coverage by the media exploded nationwide.  Immediately the public was outraged by the reports of the massacre and began demanding justice.  The LDS Church denied its involvement in the Mountain Meadows incident throughout most of the nineteenth century and used John D. Lee as their scape goat.  Almost all of the blame was placed on Lee, along with a select few others who were present.  Lee and another man by the name of Isaac Haight were excommunicated from the church and heavily slandered by Brigham Young among others.

The trial was covered extensively throughout the late 1800’s by newspapers from cities nationwide.  The Articles tended to portray Lee as the main person responsible and often wrote vicious things about him and his lack of taking responsibility for and lack of confession to the massacre.  The newspapers also covered the kidnapping of Arkansas children by the Mormons and spurred a movement to have the children returned to their family members in Arkansas, though this didn’t happen until several years after the massacre came to pass.  Overall the LDS Church took a stance of non-involvement until the turn of the century and the general public, as well as the United States government was outraged at reports of the massacre at Mountain Meadows and the likely involvement of Brigham Young and other prominent members of the Mormon Church.

Starting in the mid 1900’s many texts began to be composed about various aspects of the massacre, as well as many regarding the story as a whole.  Even now there are texts being published on the subject, including the most recent, a very in depth analysis of the event entitled Massacre at Mountain Meadows by Ronald W. Walker, Richard E. Turley, and Glen M. Leonard.  In 2007 a historical fiction movie loosely based on the events was also made about the Mountain Meadows Massacre.  The movie is called September Dawn directed by Christopher Cain and stars Jon Voight and Terence Stamp as well as others.

SOURCE: Brooks, Juanita. The Mountain Meadows Massacre. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1950.

Mormon History and Beliefs Applied to the Massacre

Mormonism follows multiple beliefs that are unlike those of any other religion, and many of these beliefs played direct and indirect roles in leading to the massacre at Mountain Meadows.

  

The Mormon faith was founded in 1830 by Joseph Smith Jr.  Smith attempted to move the LDS Church headquarters to Jackson County, Missouri.  Here Smith encountered much intolerance and the LDS Church was forcefully expelled from Missouri during a bloody movement that left a handful of Mormons dead.  This event is believed to be one of the primary factors in leading to the Mountain Meadows Massacre, as the Arkansas Emigrants were mistakenly believed by the Mormons to be traveling from Jackson County, Missouri.

Eventually Smith died and left Brigham Young as his successor.  Under the new leadership of Brigham Young, the Mormon Church migrated westward toward the Rocky Mountains and found their home in Utah.  Here the faith flourished and began settling in under the lack of persecution of the western frontier.

There are several aspects to the Mormon faith that lended to the frenzied state under which the massacre at Mountain Meadows.  For starters the LDS Church established a standard that the Mormons are God’s people and that everyone else is a wretched sinner that can only be saved once they die and are unable to sin any longer.  This in itself led to murder on multiple occasions in an attempt to “save” non-Mormons (gentiles).  This can be explained by the example of polygamy.  The Mormons believed that since the gentile population is sinners and people not of God that they are unfit to reproduce, leaving the burden of reproduction to those who were fit: the Mormons.  Mormon officials also tended to practice a sort of brain washing that kept the people of the Mormon Church blindly following orders, no matter what they might be.  Lee himself even wrote in his diary (quoting Brigham Young and other church officials), “Just do as I tell you and all will be right,” and, “And when you hear of Brigham Young stealing you may know that it should be stolen.”  These are examples of things said to members of the LDS Church during sermons and help to explain the alleged cries of “Mormons, do your duty!” that were supposedly shouted by Lee before the massacre unfolded.

In short, Lee was the ringleader of the massacre at Mountain Meadows, but he was likely receiving orders from higher church officials.  Even if there were no direct orders to carry out the massacre, the event can partially be blamed on the nature of the LDS Church itself.  The church’s use of brainwashing style techniques and portrayal of the Mormon Church as the only acceptable people on God’s Earth lended to a delusional frenzied state among the Mormon people, which ultimately ended in the slaughter of over a hundred innocent people at Mountain Meadows.

SOURCE: Lee, John D. Journals of John D. Lee 1846-47 and 1859, ed. Charles Kelly. Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press, 1984.

Brigham Young

Brigham Young has become the face of the Church of Latter Day Saints. Joseph Smith was certainly the founder but Brigham Young is arguably the face of the church. He is sometimes called the American Moses for his leading of the persecuted Mormons to their promised land of Utah.

Brigham Young was born in Whittington, Virginia in 1801. He was first raised Methodist but after reading the book of Mormon he converted. Young then joined a Mormon establishment in Kirtland, Ohio. After joining the Mormons of Kirtland, Ohio, Young was made an ordained member of the Quorum of the Twelve in 1835. This was Young’s first leadership position in the Church of Latter Day Saints. While in Jail for treason in 1844, Joseph Smith, Leader of the Church, was murdered by an angry mob who thought that the church’s beliefs were unmoral. Then after two year of argument over who was best suited to be the successor to Joseph Smith, Brigham Young was named President of the church.

After continued conflict between the Mormons and gentiles, as they would be called by the Mormons, Young would move his people west to the territory of Utah. Utah was then part of the Country of Mexico who was more tolerable of the Mormons than that of the United States.  After moving to Utah, the territory was made part of the United States after the Mexican American War. Brigham Young petitioned for Utah to become a state. He lobbied for the state to be called Deseret which means honey bee in the book of Mormon. But with the compromise of 1850, Utah was installed as a territory rather than a state though he was named governor of the territory.  But after becoming governor, there began to be conflicts between the federal officials and Brigham Young. Federal officials were accusing the Mormons of obstructing justice and operating an autocracy rather than a democracy. In response to this President James Buchanan sent a non-Mormon replacement to Utah along with federal troops to occupy the forts. Young ordered a militia to be formed and attack the federal troops. The troops were kept at bay for a winter but Brigham Young decided to step down and in doing so Buchanan pardoned him.

Brigham Young’s connection to the Mountain Meadows Massacre is that of speculation. He was the supreme ruler of the church and any decisions would have come through him. He would have heard about the Baker–Fancher party crossing into the Utah Territory and any plan among the members of the church would have had to have been approved by him.  According to the Mormons, Brigham Young had issued an order that the Baker–Fancher party was supposed to be able to pass through the territory unmolested though the order arrived two days too late. One issue in the story of events was that after the massacre had occurred the church seemed to have attempted a cover up. This can be further hypothesized by the results of the trial of John D. Lee, a key member of the militia of the Mormons at the Mountain Meadows Massacre.  John D. Lee was the only person to be convicted of the massacre and during his trial not one Mormon came to his defense.  In essence he was the scape goat.  Brigham Young also cited his age as reasoning for not attending the trial.  These clues would suggest that something is being hidden from history.

References

1.       Arrington, Leonard J. Brigham Young: American Moses. New York: Knopf, 1985

2.       Bagley, Will. Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002.

3.       "Brigham Young Portrait." Digital image. Brigham Young Family Association. Accessed April 22, 2013. http://www.brighamyoungfamily.org/.

4.       Brooks, Juanita. The Mountain Meadows Massacre. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963.

5.       Denton, Sally. American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows, September 1857. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003.

6.       Walker, Ronald W., Richard E. Turley, and Glen M. Leonard. Massacre at Mountain Meadows. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

John Doyle Lee

John D. Lee was a Mormon Church official living in Cedar City, Utah in the 1850’s.  He was the supposed leader of the party that massacred the Arkansas Emigrants at Mountain Meadows in 1857.  He became the scape goat for the Mormon Church and was executed for his role in the incident.  But how did he come to this point?

John Doyle Lee was born in Illinois Territory on September 12, 1812 and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1838.  He came across the Mormon faith via his longtime friend, and founder of the LDS Church, Joseph Smith Jr.  He was set on his path to infamy when he entered the Mormon Church, at which time he became an adopted son of Brigham Young under the Mormon law of adoption.  With this early step, Lee was put on a track to one day become a high ranking Mormon Church official.  In his early years with the church, Lee served as a Danite, which was a vigilante secret society that carried out the needs of the church.  Throughout his years with the Mormon Church (up until the point when the LDS Church turned their backs on him by making him a scapegoat) Lee remained a close friend of and assistant to Brigham Young, the man in charge of the Mormon Church after the passing of Joseph Smith Jr.  This relationship allowed Lee many bonuses, as well as a quick rise to wealth and power within the church.

Lee was also a family man, of sorts.  The Mormon faith includes a belief in polygamy, and therefor Lee had nineteen wives.  In addition to these wives, Lee had fifty six children.  So Lee was a family man in the sense that he had a large family, but in many aspects he barely knew his direct family.  Many of Lee’s wives lived in an entirely different state than Lee for most of the marriage.  There were even instances where a wife would try to visit Lee or spend time with him, and either Brigham Young or Lee himself would dismiss the wife and have her sent back to the place from which she came.

Lee fits into the puzzle that was the Mountain Meadows Massacre in an ambiguous way.  It is widely accepted that Lee was the leader of the party committing the massacre, but Lee is stated as claiming that he was acting reluctantly under direct orders from his commanding militia officers.  Lee accepted responsibility for playing a major role in the massacre, but claims that he himself didn’t kill a single person.  Lee was placed on trial and eventually convicted and sentenced to death.  He was executed by firing squad on the site of the massacre, at Mountain Meadows in 1877.  Up until his death Lee claimed that Brigham Young knew nothing about the pre-meditated massacre until after the events had transpired.  His final words before his execution, as well as his autobiography written shortly before his execution, however, expressed his belief that Young did send orders with the militia officers to have Lee lead the massacre.  Lee was excommunicated from the Mormon Church for his role in the massacre, and wasn’t reinstated to the church until 1961, long after his death.

SOURCE: Lee, John D. Journals of John D. Lee 1846-47 and 1859, ed. Charles Kelly. Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press, 1984.