The Leavenworth weekly times., 1875-07-29
OVER THE WIRES
Failure Of Duncan, Sherman l.
Go, in New York.
Death Of y Well.knOwu WOMan's
Suffrasist, ut Syracuse, n. Y.
A Passenger Train Falls ThrO'
q Bridge.
over the Mississippi ri er, ut
Brainard, Ninn.
UTAH.

| BEAVER, July 23.-At two o'clock the first
witness, Robt keyes, was called, and testi-
1857, through Mountain Meadows; saw
the bodies Of men, women and children
piled up promiscuously-about 60 to 20;
the children were from two months OVto
twelve years; the smaller ones were torn by
wolves and crows; some Of the bodies had
been shot, some had their throats cut, and
some were stabbed; one woman, little
ways of, appeared as if asleep; there was a
bullet hole in her left side; the bodies ap-
peared to have been dead about fifteen days !;
some Of us saw pile Of mems bodies fur
ther on did not 60 close to them they had
| no clothes on one man was scalped.
Asa Bennett was called, and testified as
follows:
was at the Meadows in December, 1857 !;
saw bones there horrible sight skele-
tons Of women and children curls, long
tresses of hair and dried blood; children,
ten to twelve years of age, some skulls !;
covered up wolves had evidently dug
them up.
Philip Klinger Smith was next called
| and testified
lived at Cedar City in 1857 the Mead
ows are forty-fve miles South of Cedar, on
the California road was at the massacre,
grants coming the people were forbidden
saw few Of them at Cedar, this was Fri
day some swore, and Hegbee
fined them they; then went
on heard rumors OF trouble on Sunday; it
is the custom to have meetings of the Pres
ident and Council, Bishop and Counsel, and
| High Church was a Bishop the matter
came under discussion a. to their destruc-
tion; Haight, Hegbee, Morrill,, Allen, Will
lis, myself and others there were some
brethren opposed to the destruction did
| Haight jumped up and broke mp the meet
| ing asked what would be the result of
such an act; then Haight got mad Indians
were to destroy them; Monday Hegbee,
Haight, White and l met, and discussed
the same subject; again | opposed the de-
struction Haight relented, and told White
and l to go ahead and tell the
| people that the emigrants should
| go through safe; we did so; on the road
we met John ID. Lee; told him why going
he replied, 81 have something to say about
! that matter we passed the emigrants at
| Iron Springs next morning; We passed them
again as we came back; they had twenty or
| thirty wagons. over one hundred people,
| old men, middle aged, old women, middle
| aged. youth and children near home met
| Ira Allen he said the emigrant's doom
| was sealed the die was cast for their de-
structiOn; that Lees orders we're to take
men and go out and intercept them; Allen
| to 90 on and counteract what we did; |
| went home. three days after Haight sent
| for me: said the orders came from camp
| didn't get along; wanted reinforcements; that
| he had been to Parowen and got new orders
| from Col. W. Ii. Dame to finish the massa-
Gre to decoy out and spare only small chill
dren who could not tell the tale; / went
| Off: met Allen. our first runner. and Others
| Hepbee came out. and said. "You are
| ordered out, armed and equipped" So
| | went; Hopkins, Hegbee. John Willis and
| Sam Purdy went along: had two baggage
| wagons: got to Hambiin's rancho in the
night, about three miles from the emigrantS;
| there met Lee and others from the general
camp, where the largest number Of men
| were then; found the emigrants not all
killed; Lee called me out to one side for
consultation; he told Inc the situation !;
| that the emigrants were strongly fortified,
| there WAS no chance to get them out; that
Hesbee gave orders to decoy them out, and
the command was given to J. d. Lee to
carry out the whole plan; after they went
to camp Lee called all the soldiers in hol-
low SOU are and addressed them; they were
all white men, about fifty in all; the Ind
ians were in another camp; saw there
Slade and his son and Jim Pearce, proba-
bly His,ons. too: all those were from Cedar
Slade and l were outraged, but we said,
"What can We do? we can't help our
selves" Just then the order to march
was given We had to 60; we we're put
in double file; Hegbee had command OF
a part OF the men; it was the
Nauvoo legion, organized from tens up to
hundreds; marched in sight of the emil
grants either Bateman or Lee went out
with white flag; man from the emi-
grants Lee and the man sat down on the
grass and had talk; don't know what
| they talked about; Lee went with the man
into the intrenchmel.ts; after some time
they came out, and the emigrants came
| up with their wounded in wagons ahead
| the wounded were those hurt three days
previous in the fight; said the Mormons
| and Indians could not oust the emigrants
next came the women, and next the men
| when the emigrants came up the men halt
ed, and the women, children and wounded
went on ahead, with John d. Lee; the SOL
diers had to be ready to shoot when the word
halt came 1 fired once don't know if l
killed the man or not all were killed at
the first shot saw the women afterwards,
dead, with their throats cut 1 saw, as
came up to them, man kill young girl
the men were marched in double file, at
first, and then thrown into single file, with
the soldiers alongside heard the emigrants
congratulating themselves on their safety
from the Indians. At last John NJ. Heg-
bee came and ordered the squad to fire no
emigrants escaped saw soldiers on horses,
To take, on the wing, those who ran saw
one wounded man beg for life. but Hegbee
cut his throat: the man said IL would not
do this to you, Hegbee;n had
to leave many soldiers from counties south
whom did not know; next day and
McCurdy and Willis took the children to
Cedar CITY, leaving one at Pinto creek
on the road We met a freight train of wae-
ous men living here in Beaver now. were
in il !; vent to old Mrs. Hopkins, and told
her 1 had some children; she rustled round
and got places for them; l took one girl
home: nv wife sucked it; afterwards
gave il TO Kirkbeck, he having no children
thew were well treated, l believe: got good
places for them, where there were few chill
dren.
The question Of allowing statements Of