Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1877-04-05

priesthood that it would set at naught all au-
thority; that he would not give the life of one
OF ss our brethren for thousand such persons
II we let them CO." he continued, they
Will raise hell In California, and the re-
suit will be that our wives and children will
have to be butchered, and ourselves too, and
they are no better to die than ours, and am sur
prlsed to hear Brother Lee talk as he does, as he
has always been considered one of the staunchest
In the Church; now he is the first to shirk from
his duty" said, Brother the Lord must hard
en- my heart before can do such thing" Allen
said, 1t Is not wicked to obey the counsel" At
this juncture withdrew, walked off some fifty
PAGES, and Frustrated myself on the ground, and
wept In the bitter anguish of my soul, and asked
the Lord to avert that evil. While In that situa-
ton, Counselor C. b. Hopkins, near friend of
mine, came to NE and said: Brother Lee
come, get up and don't draw off from the priest
hood. You ought not to do so. You are only en-
dangenng your own life by standing out. You
can't helpi it. If this is wrong, the blame won't
rest upon you" I said Charley, this is worse
move than this people ever made. / feel it." He
said, Come, go back and let them have their
way" Iwent back, weeping like child, and
took my place, and tried to be silent, and was
until Higbee said they 1.-THE emigrants) must be
decoyed out through pretended friendship. !
could no longer hold my peace, and said |, "Jo-
seph Smith said that God hated a traitor and so
do L Before would be traitor would take
ten men and go to that camp and tell them they
must die, and now to defend themselves, and
give them show for their lives. That would be
more honorable than to betray them like Judas"
Here got reproof, and was ordered to hold my
peace.
The plan agreed upon there was to meet them
with flag of truce; tell them that the Indians
were determined on their destruction; that we
dare not oppose the Indians, for were at their
mercy; that the best we could do for them (the
emigrants) was to get them and what few traps
could take in wagons, to lay their arms in the
bo{fn of ayrpp md xrifb
bed-clothes and start for the settlement as
as possible, and trust themselves In our
hands. The small children and wounded were
to go with the two wagons, the women to follow
the wagons and the men next; the troops to
stand In readiness on the east side of the road
to receive them. Shurtz and Nephi johnson were
to conceal the Indians in the brush and rocks
ill the company was strung out on the road to a
certain point, and, at the watchword, Halt; do
your duty" each man was to cover bls victim
and fire. johnson and Schurh were to rally the
Indians and rush upon and dispatch the women
and larger children. twas further told the men
that President Haight said that if we were united
in carrying out the instructions we would all re-
ceive celestial reward.
/ said was willing to put up with less
ward if could be excused. "How you do
this without shedding innocent blood?" asked.
Here got another lampOoning for my stub
borness and disobedience to the priesthood; was
told that there not drop of innocent blood
|
referred to the GENTLE nations who refused the
children of Israel passage through their country
when Moses led them out of Egypt; that the
Lord held that crime against them, and when
Israel waxed strong the Lord commanded
Joshua to slay the whole Nation, men, women
and children. Have not these people done
worse than that to us? Have they not threat
ened to murder leader and prophet, and
have they not boosted of the murder of the
patriarchs and prophets, Joseph and Hyrum?
Nov, talk about shedding innocent blood?"
They said was good, liberal, free-hearted
man, but too much of this sympathy would be
always in the way; that every man now had to
shows his colors; that it was not safe to have
Judas in camp.
Then it was proposed that every man express
himself; that if there a who would
not keep a close mouth they wanted to know it
| then.
! This gave me to understand what I might ex-
pect if continued to oppose.
Maj. Higbee said: sit is right. Let Brother
Lee take an expression of the people"
l knew dare not refuse, so had every man
speak and express himself. All said they were
willing to carry out the counsel of their leaders;
that the leaders had the Spirit of God and
knew better what was right than they did
They then wanted to know my feelings. I
| replied: II have already expressed them"
| Every eye was upon me as | paused, but, said
/, lyon can do AS you please. will not OPP
pose you any longer"
Twill you keep close mouth?" was the
question.
81 will try" was my answer.
will here say that fear of offending Brigham
Young and George A. Smith had saved my life.
was near being "blood-atoned" in Parowan
under j. @. l.. Smith in 1854, but of this have
spoken in my autobiography.
Saturday morning all was ready, and every
man assigned to his post of duty. During the
night or rather just before daylight, johnson and
Shurtz ambushed their Indians the better to de-
| ceive the emigrants. About eleven o'clock a. m.
the troops under Maj. Higbee took their position
| on the road. The white flag still kept up in
the corral. Higbee called William Bateman of
the ranks, to take a flag of truce to the corral.
lie was met about half way with another white
flag from the emigTant camp. They had talk.
The emigrant was told that we bad come to res
cue them if they would trust us. Both men with
flags returned to their respective places and re-
ported, and were to meet again and bring
word. Higbee called me out to go and in
form them of the conditions, and if
accepted Dan Mcfarland, brother to John Nc
Farland, the lawyer who acted aid-de-camp
would bring back word, and then two wagons
would be sent for the firearms children, cloth
ing, etc obeyed, and the terms proposed were
accepted but not without distrust.
had as little to say as possible. In fact, my
tongue refused to perform its Office. l sat down
on the ground in the corral near where some
young men were engaged in paying their last re-
spects to some person who had just died of
wound. A large fleshy old lady came to me
twi e, and talked while l sat there. She related
their troubles said that seven of their number
were killed and forty-nine wounded on the first
attack; that several had died since. She asked
me if was an Indian Agent I said: "In one
sense / am, as the Governor has appointed me
farmer to the Indians" told her tins to satisfy
her. l heard afterward that the same question
was asked and answered in the same manner by
Mcfarland, who had been sent by Higbee to the
would come back ana be upon them"
When all was ready, Samuel McMurdy, coun-
selor to Bishop P. X. Smith (Klinger Sn,ith),
drove out on the lead His wagon had the sew
enteen children, clothing and arms. Samuel
Knight drove the other team, with the five
wounded men and one boy about fifteen years
old. walked behind the front wagon to direct
the course and shun being in the heat of the
slaughter; but this 1 kept to myself. When we
got turned fairly to the east, I motioned to
Mcmurdy to steer north across the valley. l at
the same time told the women who were In the
next wagon to follow the road up to the troops,
which they did. Instead of saying to McMurdy
not to drive fast, as he swore to on my trial. l
said, to the contrary, to drive on, as my aim was
to get out of sight before the firing commenced,
which we did. We were about half mile ahead
of the company when we heard the first firing.
We had driven over a ridge OF rolling ground
and down on low fat.
The firing was simultaneous along the whole
line. The moment the firing commenced
McMurdy halted and tied his lines across the
rod OF his wagon,box, stepped down, and
walked back to Knights wagon, which had
the wounded men, ard was about TWEEN
ty feet In the rear. AS he raised his
piece, he said: Lord, my God, receive
their spirits, for it is for the Kingdom of Hea-
ven's sake that we do this" fired, and killed two
men. Saul knight had muzzle-leading rife,
and he shot and killed the two men, then struck