Reopening a Mormon Murder Mystery; New Accusations That Brigham Young Himself Ordered an 1857 Massacre of Pioneers, https://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/12/books/reopening-mormon-murder-mystery-new-accusations-that-brigham-young-himself.html. In 1830, Young was contacted by Samuel H. Smith, a missionary in the recently established Latter Day Saint movement. Early on a Monday morning in September 1857, about 140 men, women and children on a California-bound wagon train were slaughtered under a flag of truce by Mormons who apparently considered the act . The seeing of our faithful Elders slaughtered in cold blood, he wrote after his friends death, is at times almost to[o] grevious to be borne, but as the Spirit within me whispers, peace be still. This advice was never changed. As part of Young's vision of a pre-millennial "Kingdom of God," Young established colonies along the California and Old Spanish Trails, where Mormon officials governed as leaders of church, state, and military. The line was purchased by Union Pacific in 1875. His son Phineas was 15 . The most common, and the only one currently practiced by the Mormon church, is a ceremony that seals a man and a woman for time (mortal life) and eternity. Promised safe passage from the area in exchange for surrendering their weapons, the besieged group complied only to be systematically slaughtered. ''It was locally planned and carried out.''. 295 likes All Members Who Liked This Quote . Why did he do nothing to return the stolen property of the 17 surviving orphans? Young died in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory at the age of 80. ''There are very candid statements on the part of participants to a church official under the agreement of confidentiality,'' Mr. Turley said, adding that the file, along with other sources he and his co-authors were using, would be made public once their book was published. Young also led the . ''The idea that this was an Indian massacre is just absurd,'' Ms. Denton said, citing a 1999 forensic analysis that found that many of the victims had died from gunshot wounds to the head. In this company, Young served as a captain of ten.[8]. [24] Lee was executed by firing squad at Mountain Meadows on March 23, 1877. The carriage stopped near me, and the Savior inquired where my brother Brigham was. setTimeout(function(){var t=document.createElement("script");t.setAttribute("src","https://sample.dragonforms.com/getEmbeddedClientScript.do?embeddedsite=TW_dispatch_nl"),t.setAttribute("type","text/javascript"),document.body.appendChild(t)},5); Become a subscriber today and youll recieve a new issue every month plus unlimited access to our full archive of backlogged issues. There were several times when Brigham Young's life was spared or his health inexplicably restored, according to BYU professor of Mormon History Donald Q. Cannon ("Brigham Young on Life and Death"). I commenced and read every word in the book in the same week," he recorded and is recounted in The Faithful Young Family." But its not a formula for good history. A fool can earn money; but it takes a wise man to save and dispose of it to his own advantage.". After enduring a four-day gun battle with their attackers, the pioneers accepted a truce that turned out to be a deadly ploy. But I am determined by the help of God never to bear false witness against My Neighbour. Later, he complained that those who questioned him wanted lies, not truth. On Sept. 11, 1857, a group of California-bound pioneers camping in southern Utah were murdered by a Mormon militia and its Indian allies. Both authors quote a 5-year-old survivor who told a reporter two years after the event, ''My father was killed by Indians; when they washed their faces, they were white men.'' According to trial testimony given later by Haslam, when Haight read Young's words, he sobbed like a child and could manage only the words, "Too late, too late. It misfired six times, and he then pointed it at a post and all six shots . Brigham Young succeeded founder Joseph Smith as the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1847; he led the church until his death in 1877. Aaron William Davis, 21, of Cumming, Georgia, died from multiple stab wounds, according to Floyd County Deputy Coroner Chris Giles. They are, from left, Lorenzo Dow Young, Brigham Young, Phineas Howe Young, Joseph Young and John Young Jr. "John D. Lee Arrested". Fifty-three years ago Juanita Brooks classic study, The Mountain Meadows Massacre, concluded the crime was the result of one unfortunate circumstance after another. President Brigham Young's signature on a contract with the Union Pacific Railroad. ''Nothing happened in the place that did not happen under his direct orders. Writing a polemic trying to blame Brigham Young would be self-defeating, just as writing an apologia to clear his skirts would ultimately have to justify murder. The family the Lord had put his hand upon did not fail. He said it was the greatest work and the clearest of error he had ever seen, the Bible not excepted (see The Faithful Young Family"). . In a confession made just before he was executed, Lee, the only person ever tried for the crime, blamed the Paiute Indians. Hiding Rockwells role in expressing Eleanor to Utah from my late friend Hal was evidence that had been carefully suppressed. About. So do some authors whove written about the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Finally, it is also a matter of historical record that none of the Indian leaders at the Salt Lake council were later at Mountain Meadows, except the Southern Ute leader, Ammon, who tried to prevent the massacre. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. This is a photo of Brigham Young and his brothers taken in the 1860s by C.R. 26 likes. ''The legends attributed remarkable powers to the emigrant poison that match no substance known to modern pharmacology,'' Mr. Bagley writes, noting that a federal agent who investigated the tale dismissed it as ''too improbable to be true.''. Most of you have heard by now that our son Aaron was savagely taken from us. ''They had 1,000 head of longhorns, and longhorns had never been seen in Utah before.'' Dallas Police revealed that new lab evidence had come to light, allowing the charges to be upgraded almost . Brigham Young was born in 1801 born in Whittingham, Vermont. "In my eyes, this is a gross miscarriage of justice. Many of the wives to whom Young were sealed were widows or elderly women for whom he merely cared or gave the protection of his name. Militia orders to the Mormon army carried Youngs words on the reverse: Shed no blood., When the books are opened in the day of judgment, declared an associate who was at his side in 1857, these things will be proven to heaven and earth.. I never had seen anything of the kind in my life," Phineas continued, but had always believed the people were living far beneath their privileges (see The Faithful Young Family: The Parents, Brothers and Sisters of Brigham," Leonard J. Arrington and JoAnn Jolley, Ensign, August 1980). 25 years after he murdered their mom, his kids disagree whether he should be released. He was the ninth of eleven children, growing up in an unsettled frontier environment characterized by frequent family moves to various communities throughout upstate New York. Within five minutes, recalled massacre participant Dudley Leavitt, not one stone stood upon another., A few days later Young justified the massacre as a necessary act of righteous vengeance. This railroad operated between 1871 and 1881 and was founded by prominent Mormons such as Joseph A. According to historian William P. MacKinnon, "After the war, Buchanan implied that face-to-face communications with Brigham Young might have averted the Utah War, and Young argued that a northsouth telegraph line in Utah could have prevented the Mountain Meadows Massacre."[6]. Brigham Young was a man well acquainted with life and death. Young retaliated by declaring martial law. He was a man who grew in faith, intellect and knowledge and learned throughout his life by relying on personal revelation. Phineas and John were two of the early pioneers to head West and who volunteered to turn back upon the weary trail and guide other groups who were just beginning the trek, see The Faithful Young Family." In this inspiring look at near-death experiences, authors Brent and Wendy Top illustrate how numerous recorded accounts of near-death experiences relate to Latter-day Saint teachings. Here he was ordained a Seventy and received his endowment before traveling West in the first group of pioneers, led by his brother, Brigham Young. We will always love him and miss him, Randy Davis, Davis father, wrote in a Facebook post Monday. Van Vliet's mission was to inform Young that the US troops then approaching Utah did not intend to attack the Mormons, but intended to establish an army base near Salt Lake City and to request Young's cooperation in procuring supplies for the army. Fiery yet full of doubt, frequently ill yet strong when it . The two main contenders were James Jesse Strang and Brigham Young. Young believed that Lee's punishment was just but not a sufficient blood atonement, given the enormity of the crime, to allow Lee entrance into the celestial kingdom. And in the fall of 1842, Brigham Young faced a mysterious and deadly illness. GLENDOWERThese signs have marked me extraordinary,And all the courses of my life do show I am not in the roll of common men. Brigham Young chose twenty-year-old Lucy Ann Decker Seeley for his first plural wife, and they were married by Joseph Smith on 17 June 1842. Why did he shield the murderers and allow the churchs newspaper to blame the crime on the Paiutes for a dozen years after Jacob Hamblin told him Mormons were involved? It creates a sensation and sells books. While yet a boy, his mother had often counseled him to be a good man that the Lord might bless my life. Source: Jeffery Ogden Johnson, Determining and Defining `Wife: The Brigham Young Households, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol. Black print with blue underprint on cardstock. Union Pacific . Phineas' wife Clarissa was also baptized about this same time. James H. Haslam, interview by S. A. Kenner, reported by Josiah Rogerson, 4 December 1884, typescript, 11, in Josiah Rogerson, Transcripts and Notes of John D. Lee Trials, LDS Church Archives. Courtesy: Church History Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Stubborn facts. Brigham Young, December 12, 1850, daguerreotype. Instead I tried to tell the story as honestly and accurately as possible and let readers make up their own minds about who ordered the slaughter of more than 80 women and childrenand why. 24 Jan 2022 02:14PM (Updated: 24 Jan 2022 05:31PM) SINGAPORE: A 15-year-old boy admitted on Monday (Jan 24) to killing his father after stabbing him in the neck . Samuel also sold a copy to Phineas Howe Young, one of Brigham's brothers and Greene's brother-in-law. At the time of his death on August 23, 1877, Young had married 56 women19 predeceased him, 10 divorced him, 23 survived him, and 4 are unaccounted for. Two of the southernmost establishments were Parowan and Cedar City, led respectively by stake presidents William H. Dame and Isaac C. Haight. Justice for his peoples wrongs was heavens responsibility, not his, he said. EastIdahoNews.com reached out to the Floyd County sheriff and district attorney for further information, and our calls were not immediately returned. We were so excited to see where his future was heading.. He did not murder his own parents," she says. Young testified that Cowdery's last statements were on the truth of Mormonism as revealed through Joseph Smith. The Mountain Meadows Massacre victimized several groups of emigrants from the northwestern Arkansas region who had started their treks to California in early 1857, joining along the way and becoming known as the BakerFancher party. Brigham Young: Directed by Henry Hathaway. Phineas Young was an older brother of Brigham Young, who was the president of the LDS Church and the first governor of the Territory of Utah. More decisive to its fate, the Fancher party was said to have incited the murderous wrath of local Indians by poisoning their wells and livestock. In 1857, at the time of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, Brigham Young, was serving as President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and as Governor of Utah Territory. [11] After his rest, Haslam picked up the reply from Young and was instructed to return to Cedar City with the letter quickly and not to "spare horseflesh."[11]. This answer is: Anonymous . The massacre stands out not only for its gruesomeness but also for the act of treachery that preceded it. When I learned that Orrin Porter Rockwell, the notorious Mormon lawman and Danite, had rushed Mrs. Pratt across the plains in record time, I knew what happened at Mountain Meadows. Wouldnt these events have kindled Youngs anger and led him to seek revenge? February 24, 2023 | 4:46pm. Some settlers, the story goes, believed the pioneers had been involved in the murder of Parley Pratt, a popular Mormon apostle, in western Arkansas earlier that year. The evidence has been so corruptedsuppressed, destroyed, and fabricatedits hard to determine the date the murders took place, let alone trace all the ins and outs of the conspiracy behind the crime. Brigham Young tried to stop the massacre. Not circumstantial evidence. Friends Who Liked This Quote. This list contains the books we've recently received, if you're looking for new books that are available, this is the place to check! But rumors of a church-sponsored cover-up persisted. Adding fuel to Mormon rage, they argue, was the killing, a few months before the massacre, of Apostle Parley P. Pratt. Recommend to friends. [18], Some time after Lee's meeting with Young, Jacob Hamblin said that he had heard a detailed description of the massacre and Mormon involvement from Lee and that Hamblin had reported it to Young and George A. Smith soon after the massacre. Some testimony came in private interviews when there was no motive to lie. Hell on Wheels is fiction based on history. 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