Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1876-10-12
ADVERTISING RATES.
The Scene of the Mountain
Meadows Massacre.
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Beaver (Utah) Cor. Chicago Inter-Ocean,
| September 10.
Nineteen years ago an emigrant train
of one hundred and thirty-seven per.
sons, while on their way to California,
were massacred in this territory at a
place called Mountain Meadows, and,
beyond doubt, it was done by the
Morrnons, at the instigation of their
prophet, Brigham Young. John D.
Lee, an adopted son of Brigham, figur-
ed most conspicaOusly in the awful
tragedy,
Feeling that to intelligently conduct
the prosecution it was necessary to visit
the scene of the butchery, Sumner
Howard, Esq, United States District
Attorney for Zion, determined to do so.
Accom- panied by Marshal Nelson,
Official Court Reporter A. s. Patterson,
your correspondent, and Norman
guide, he set out for that place on the
morning of the 7th instant.
At the scene of the massacre we came
across numbers of human bones. a rib
a. white as snow, shoulder blade half
buried in the sand and other fragments
of human frames, scattered Tor mile,
lay bleaching in the sun. The old
camp grounds where the emigrants cor
rallied their wagons was levil strip OF
meadow terminating in bluff-like
ma3ner, and commanding view OF
half a mile down the canon, and in
turn commanded from the hills on
every other side. There il was deter
mined the train had to stop for week
or ten days to allow their teams to re-
cruit on tAe rich grass which grew ia
abundance on the hills and in the
meadows. The Indians and Mormons
attacked them furiously; and, not
withs,anding they barricaded by
throwing up sod breastwork5 under
their wagons, quite number OF their
men were picked off by arrows and
bullets. For several days they held
their murderers at bay. but finally, by
the treachery of John ID. Lee, they
were deceyed out, and the whole COM
pany, men, women and children, ex-
cepting seventeen babes, were slaught-
cred. Their effects, even the clothing
in which they were shot down, were
carried off and appropriated by the
Mormon priesthood and the Indians,
In 1853 detachment of Colonel John:
ston's command of United States SOL
diers from Camp Floyd did the Chris
tian service of gathering together all
they could find of the bones OF these
victims and burying them in two
graves. One of these graves was made
within the limits of the little corral
where the Arkansans had so calamity
defended their wives and children
against the foe, and where several OF
their number had been shot before the
treachery of Lee brought death and
ruin on them all. Above their sacred
dust the soldiers erected rude mOnu-
ment of granite boulders and wooden
cross to their memory. Brigham spat
upon the cross, and the Mormons de-
molished the monument. 1t is now
simply heap of stones, three feet wide
and rod long, running east and west,
and is all, save the blight which has
come upon the spot, that marks their
hallowed resting-place. In 1867
cloud-burst cut the meadows into gull
lies, one of which, twenty feet deep,
turned from its course and missed this
grave. Thus, it seems, Providence
spared the rude monument and mould
ering bones, but the MormOns did not.
The other grave was half mile
north of the monument at the fork of
route, but at the present time it is lost.
The spring is almost dry what there
is of it is Oozing out in the bottom OF
the gulley which just misses the monu-
ment; the meadow where the train
stood is now a shifting sand hill; the
barricade thrown up is blown away it
is barren of vegetation, recognizable
only by the heap of boulders once serv-
ing to designate common grave. A
few feet west of it there are three rocks
lying in line, and at one end an oaken
stick stands in the ground, evidently
marking the grave of one who fell be-
fore the train surrendered. Our party
picked up a few bits of chinaware, a
nail from the wooden cross, an ounce
slug, a navy bullet, few flint and
moss-agate arrow heads, and fragments
of human remains. These mark the
scene of the siege, and the bleaching
bones strewa among the sage-brush Tor
a mile above show that the butchery
was not confined to single spot.