The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1886-07-07
MOUNTAIN MEADOW.
ONE OF THE ArEOCloUs GRIMES OF
THE WEST.
A story Thril.insly Rc,o!d--Vcarly

bly Mu,i.a,cd ~ 5ss:S
by J. 2. Dunifs~
by the Harper's, = . sS5s:|s s:s:S
and authentic skeSss Ss>-sIro1 q y - ~
Mountain Meadow massacre, thSo,
of which eXcitcs burning. inis fke..JE
to-day, although nearly thirty years have
passed since this dark stain on American
annals. As illustrating Il, savage spirit
which melted this horribr. crime, the
writer quotes from a sermon q: Brigham
Young, published in the Dcsertct News
just prior to the wholesale murle:,s.
Young tells his congregation: Il could
refer you to lots Of instances where men
have been righteously slam in order to
atone for their sins. I have seen scores
and hundreds of people for whom there
would have been chance On the last
resurrection there will be- if their lives
had been taken and their blood spilled
on the ground as 4 smoking incense to
the Almighty, but who are now angels to
the devil until our elder brother, Jesus
Christ, raises them up, conqucrs death,
hell and the grave. 1t is true that the
blood of the Son OF God was she'd for
our sins, but men commit sins which It
can never remit.
It was during the zeal which Young
thus wrought among his fanatics that
the massacre occurred. During the sum
mer of 1857 Captain Fancher's train,
numbering fftv-six men and slxty-two
women and children, most Of whom were
from northern counties of Arkansas, at
tempted to cross the mountains en- route
to California. At Salt Lake City the
train was joined by several disatfected
Mormons. In the train were thirty good
wagons, as many mules and horses and
600 cattle. Their route lay through
southwestern Utah, where the Mountain
Meadows are located In these meadows
they camped on tie 4th OF September.
Here is the national divide. They were
on the edge Of the Pacific slope. They
Just began to realize their hopes, for
they could almost look over into Cali
MIA, their s'promised land" On Monday
morning, September 7, IS they We're
gathered about the camp fires, q volley
of musketry blazed from the gullcy
through which ran the stream that
watered the meadows. Seven Of tic eN-
pectant travellers were slain and sixteen
wounded at the first fire. The men had
been frontiermen too long to
BECOME PANIC STRICKEN.
The women and children hurried to
cover and the men returned. the ire,
much to the surprise OF the masking
assailants, who had expected to enjoy an
unresisting massacre. The assallants
were made up OF Normons masked as
Indians of Pah, Utter, Upper Pi-Eads
and Lower Pi-Eads, and al led by John
D. Lee, Mormon elder. The response
that the bloody wretches received to their
fire drove them back and they sent after
reinforcements, and while waiting for
the same amused themselves by pitching
ouoits, and occasionally shooting the
cattle and firing upon the wagons " hch
the travellers had to draw around them
as 8 barricade and defense. On We'd
nesday young man named Alden, q son
of Kentucky physician, together with
a companion, succeeded in eluding tic
vigilance of the masked sayages and get
ting out of the meadows on their way to
Cedar City, where they hoped to secure
sid. At Richards Springs they met
three Cedar City men, William c. Stew
art, Joel White and Benjamin Arthur.
AS they stopped to water their horses,
Stewart
SHOT AND KILLED ADES,
and White ATTEMPTED to kill the COM
panion, but succeeded on y III woundins
him, when he escaped and made his way
back to camp. His report filled the
emierants with despair. Aden's father
was known to have saved the life Of
Mormon bishop, and yet his son had
been assassinated by Mormon. Already
they had pierced the masks worn by
many of their assaiants to discover that
they were white men-were indeed Nor
mons, ffty-four in number. The Indians
numbered 200. The besieged prepared
q statement of their desperate condition,
giving as their belief that the Mormons
were their real besiegers, directing it to
Masons, Odd Fellows and leading rehgi-
Gus denominations. With this statement
they dispatched three of their best scouts,
directing them to California. The scouts
did not succeed in eluding the vigilance
of the murderers. They were run down
by Ira Hatch, Mormon and a leader Of
a band of Indians, in the Santa Clara
mountains.
TWO oF THEM WERE MCRDERED
as they slept and the third was wounded,
an .s~iew days afterward assassinated.
While the Mormons were awaiting re-
Inducements they knelt and formed a
PRAYER circle and asked for divine grlid-
ance. After prayer one of their leaders,
Mayor Hgbee, said: Il have the evi-
dence OF Gods approval of our mission.
It is Gods viii that We carry out our IN
structions to the letter.
In carrying out these instructions they
found it necessary to make use of the
basest treachery. This they did by means
of white flag borne by Lee and William
Bsteman ''Ihey represented to the be-
sieged that the Indians were terribly ex-
cited and thirsted for revenge because Of
the loss of some of their cattle, and they
promised protection to the emigrants if
thev would Internationally surrender.
There was no alternative. The supplies
of the emigrants were giving out, and
inasmuch as the Mormons We're the only
white people in Utah, there was no hope
for mercy from any other source. The
terms were accepted, and on the morn
ing of Friday, September II, they gave
up all their guns and ammunition, and