Statewide County NV Archives History - Books .....Chapter VII Without Government 1857 1881
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Book Title: History Of Nevada

CHAPTER VII.

WITHOUT GOVERNMENT.

1857.



Exodus of the Mormons-Second Attempt at Territorial Organization-Public Meeting

in Carson Valley-Resolutions- Memorial-Exaggerated Statements-A Letter from

Judge Crane to his Constituents-Mountain Meadow Massacre, September 15,

1857-Western Utah at the close of 1857.



  IN 1856 an armed mob of Mormons had driven the United States District Judge

from the bench in eastern Utah, and he had fled the Territory. The relations

between our Government and her Mormon citizens in Utah, had become of an

unequivocally hostile and belligerent character. Acts in defiance of law were

continuous; murders were not unfrequent, and a reign of terror had been

inaugurated wherever that church was in the ascendancy, which was not the case

in Carson County. This state of things, amounting to a rebellion, caused

President Buchanan to send a small army under General A. Sydney Johnston to Salt

Lake in 1857 for the purpose of re-establishing the Government's supremacy in

that locality. Brigham Young called in the members of his church from all parts

to defend the City of the Saints against the approach of what he designated as

the armed mob of Gentiles.



  In anticipation of such a state of things the Legislature of Utah, on the

fourteenth of January, 1857, enacted the following law:-



  * * * * " Said county is allowed to retain its present organization so far as

County Recorder, Surveyor, precincts, and precinct officers are concerned, and

may continue to elect those officers in accordance with the existing

arrangements and laws, until further directed by Great Salt Lake County Court or

Legislative enactment.



  "SECTION 5.-The Record books, papers and blanks, and seals, both of Probate

and County Courts, shall be delivered over to the order of the Probate Court of

Great Salt Lake County."



  April 13th the County Court, with Chester Loveland for Judge, adjourned until

the first Monday in the following June; but it was September 3, 1860, before

there was another session of this branch of the Judiciary.



  On the sixteenth of July the P. G. Sessions California Mormon train, numbering

thirty-one men, sixteen women, and eighteen children, with seventeen wagons,

forty horses, and thirty-two mules as a means of transportation, left Eagle

Valley for Salt Lake.



  The Conover Company Express arrived in Washoe Valley just after sundown on the

fifth of September, bearing a dispatch calling in the Mormons en masse from

western Utah. On the twenty-sixth of that month about 450 souls, several of whom

were from California and Oregon, with 123 wagons, started in obedience to the

order, and reached, on the second of November, the City of the Saints. This

exodus of Mormons left the Truckee and the Washoe Valleys nearly depopulated for

a time, and Johntown in the same condition, not a store remaining at the latter

place. The property left by those people in titles to land and improvements upon

it, in Carson County, passed for a trifle into the hands of others. Parties

coming from California invested in this real estate, and the temporary vacancy

created by their wholesale abandonment of the country, was soon supplied by

Gentiles and apostates from the Brigham Young theory of Mormonism.



SECOND ATTEMPT AT TERRITORIAL ORGANIZATION.



  A very formidable effort was made to procure the authorization by Congress of

a new Territory, and consequent organization of it by the people living along

the east base of the Sierra Nevada, that was set on foot August 3, 1857. The

initiatory step was made at a public meeting held in Genoa, of which the

following is the report as made by the Secretary of the meeting. It will be

observed that it occurred after the departure of the Mormon train under Sessions

from Eagle Valley to Salt Lake, and about four weeks before the arrival of the

order for all Mormons in western Utah to leave that section for the City of the

Saints. It will be further observed that Judge Loveland, the Mormon elder, was

invited to address the meeting, which he failed to do.



PUBLIC MEETING IN CARSON VALLEY.



  At a primary meeting of the citizens of Carson and adjacent Valleys, Utah

Territory, held at Gilbert's saloon, on Monday evening, August 3, 1857, to take

preliminary steps toward calling a grand mass-meeting of citizens for the

purpose of petitioning Congress to organize a new Territory out of portions of

Utah, California and New Mexico, on motion, Col. John Reese was called to the

Chair, and William Nixon appointed Secretary.



  The object of the meeting was briefly stated by the Chair, when the following

resolutions were unanimously adopted:-



  Resolved, That a mass-meeting of the inhabitants of the Territory of Utah,

lying east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, west of the Goose Creek Mountains,

and between the Colorado River on the south, and the Oregon line on the north,

be held on Saturday, the eighth day of August, 1857, to take into consideration

this subject, and to provide ways and means for presenting this whole question

to the earnest consideration of the President of the United States and both

Houses of Congress.



  Resolved, That a committee of nineteen be appointed to make arrangements for

holding said mass-meeting in the town of Genoa, Carson Valley, on Saturday, the

eighth day of August, 1857.



  Resolved, That Judge Crane and Judge Loveland be invited, and are hereby

requested to address the meeting on that occasion.



  The following gentlemen were appointed as a committee of arrangements:-



  R. D. Sides, Clear Creek; Dr. B. L. King, Eagle Valley; Dr. Daggett, James

McMarlin, William B. Thorrington, Orin Gray, John S. Child, Daniel Woodford,

Major Ormsby, D. E. Gilbert, Samuel Singleton. H. L. Alexander, and eight

others, Carson Valley.



  On motion adjourned to meet en masse, on Saturday, August 8th, at one o'clock

P. M.

                                JOHN REESE, Chairman.

  WM. NlXON, Secretary. 

Genoa, August 3, 1857.



  On the day indicated there assembled at Genoa a mass-meeting that was called

to order by Major Wm. M. Ormsby; and Colonel John Reese having been elected

President thereof, the following gentlemen were named as its Vice-Presidents:

Isaac Roop, Capt. F. C. Smith, Dr. B. L. King, and Solomon Perrin. Upon motion

of Major Ormsby the following committee was appointed, to present business

before the meeting: Major Ormsby, R. D. Sides, Elijah Knott, Thomas J.

Singleton, Dr. B. L. King, Daniel Woodford, S. Stephens, Warren Smith, and John

McMarlin. They retired to perform the duties assigned them, and in their

absence, Judge James M. Crane addressed the meeting for about one hour, after

which, that committee presented the following, which were adopted as the voice

of the meeting:-



RESOLUTIONS.



  WHEREAS, The people inhabiting the territory commonly known as the Great

American Basin, lying between the eastern spurs and foot-hills of the Sierra

Nevada, west of the Goose Creek range of mountains, the Oregon line on the

north, and the Colorado and its tributaries on the south, having" become

convinced, from the rapid increase of population within these limits, the

dangers which threaten us from the numerous hostile tribes of Indians, and from

the absence of all law to restrain the vicious, and to protect the upright, that

some kind of government should be established as soon as possible for the better

security of life and property to it, therefore,



  Resolved, That it is the sense of the inhabitants of the aforesaid portion of

the Great Basin, in mass-meeting here assembled, that for the better security

and protection of their lives and property, as well as those of the emigrants

crossing the plains by the several routes which cross the continent and pass

through this Territory to and from the Atlantic and Pacific States and

Territories, that a Territorial Government should be organized within the

aforesaid boundaries by Congress within the shortest possible time.



  Resolved, That to more effectually secure this object a memorial be drawn up,

setting forth all the facts and reasons for this movement, and that the same be

submitted to the respectful and earnest consideration of the President of the

United States, and to both Houses of Congress; and that as a further means to

secure the attainment of this object, a Delegate be selected by the citizens of

the aforesaid proposed Territory, in mass-meeting here assembled, to visit the

Federal capital, to represent the interests, wants and views of the people to

the President of the United States, and to both Houses of Congress.



  Resolved, That James M. Crane be and he is hereby selected, authorized, and

appointed by the citizens of the aforesaid Territory, in mass-meeting here

assembled, as our Delegate to represent us in Washington.



  Resolved, That from Judge Crane's long residence in this part of the Union,

and his known devotions to its interests, from his personal explorations in, and

general knowledge of, the condition, wants, and resources of the Great American

Basin and the North Pacific, as well as from his known candor, fidelity, and

ability, we feel that we can not only intrust our interests to him while in the

Federal Capital, but that we can most cordially recommend him to "the powers

that be" in Washington.



  Resolved, That for the more effectual accomplishment of the great object of

this meeting, that a committee be appointed, consisting of twenty-eight persons,

to manage and superintend all matters necessary and proper in the premises.



  Resolved, That the following-named gentlemen be and they are hereby appointed

said committee, with power to fill all vacancies and to increase their number

when necessary, viz.:-



  Honey Lake Valley-Maj. Isaac Roop, Peter Lassen, Mr. Arnold, Wm. Hill, and Mr.

McMurtry.



  Eagle Valley-Dr. B. L. King and Martin Stebbins.



  Carson Valley-Maj. Wm. M. Ormsby, James McMarlin, Dr. C. D. Daggett, Col. John

Reese, Col. Wm. Rodgers, Thomas J. Singleton, Moses Job, Wm. Thorrington, Isaac

Farwell, Daniel Woodford, Orrin Gray, and D. E. Gilbert.



  Willow Town-Solomon Perrin.



  Ragtown-James Quick.



  Twenty-six-mile Desert-Jefferson Atchison.



  Sink of Humboldt-Samuel Blackford.



  Walker River and Valley-T. J. Hall and James McIntyre.



  Hope Valley-S. Stevenson.



  Lake Valley-M. Smith.



  Resolved, That the United States Senators and Representatives in Congress from

California, and the Congressional Delegates from Oregon, Washington, Utah, and

New Mexico, be and they are hereby invited and requested to use their personal

and official influence with their brother Senators and Representatives in

Congress to secure the passage of an Act by that body for the organization of

the aforesaid Territory.



  Resolved, That the newspaper press of California, Oregon, Washington, Utah and

New Mexico, be requested to publish the aforesaid proceedings and memorial, and

to use their editorial influence in giving aid and comfort to this undertaking.



  Resolved, That the National Intelligencer, Washington Union, New Orleans

Picayune, Crescent and True Delta, the New York Herald, Tribune, News and Times

and other influential papers in the Atlantic States of the Union, be and they

are, also, hereby invited and requested to publish these proceedings and

memorial and otherwise extend to us the benefit of their powerful influence and

support.



  Resolved, That the President and Secretaries be appointed a committee to

attend to the publication of the proceedings of this meeting.



MEMORIAL.



  The citizens inhabiting the valleys within the Great Basin of the American

Continent, to be hereinafter described, beg leave respectfully to present for

the earnest consideration of the President of the United States, and the members

of both Houses of Congress this their petition; praying for the organization of

a new Territory of the United States. We do not propose to come with any

flourish of trumpets or multiply words in this memorial, but we propose simply

to submit a few plain statements as the inducements and reasons which actuate us

in making this appeal to those who have the power to remedy the existing

difficulties and embarrassments under which we now labor and suffer.



  A large portion of the inhabitants who make this appeal to the powers that be

in Washington, have been residing within the region hereinafter described, for

the last six or seven years, without any Territorial, State, or Federal

protection from Indian depredations and marauding outlaws, runaway criminals and

convicts, as well as other evil-doers among white men and Indians.



  Those who have come into this Territory since then have and are still

suffering and encountering the same difficulties which they have ever met with,

and we have no reason to suppose that life and property can ever be made secure

in this part of the country until some form of government shall be established

by which laws may be passed and enforced upon the disobedient and vicious.



  We are peaceable inhabitants and law-abiding citizens, and do not wish to see

anarchy, violence, bloodshed, and crime of every hue and grade waving their

horrid scepter over this portion of our common country.



  In the winter-time the snows that fall upon the summits and spurs of the

Sierra Nevada, frequently interrupt all intercourse and communications between

the Great Basin and the State of California, and the Territories of Oregon and

Washington, for nearly four months every year. During the same time all

intercourse and communication between us and the civil authorities of Utah are

likewise closed.



  Within this space of time, and indeed from our anomalous condition during all

seasons of the year, no debts can be collected by law; no offenders can be

arrested, and no crime can be punished except by the code of Judge Lynch, and no

obedience to government can be enforced, and for these reasons there is and can

be no protection to either life or property except that which may be derived

from the peaceably disposed, the good sense and patriotism of the people, or

from the fearful, unsatisfactory, and terrible defense and protection which the

revolver, the bowie-knife, and other deadly weapons may afford us.



  Even in the spring, summer, and fall months, we are destitute of all power and

means of enjoying the benefits of the local Territorial Government of Utah, to

which the most of us belong, as well as the local and neighboring Government of

California, Oregon, Washington, and New Mexico. The distance between the Great

Salt Lake City and the innumerable fertile valleys which lie along the eastern

spurs and foot-hills of the Sierra Nevada, where the most of the population of

this section reside, is nearly 800 miles, and over this immense space there

sweep two deserts. On this account no intercourse or communication of a legal or

political nature is or can be held with the civil authorities of Utah. The only

authority acknowledged in this part of Utah Territory, by any class of people,

is that which the Church of the Latter Day Saints, whose members are generally

known under the sobriquet of Mormons, exercises over its votaries and disciples.

Neither they nor the Gentiles appear to look to the Territorial Government of

Utah for any statutory laws for the regulation of their business, or for the

government of their conduct. The Mormons, in all their social affairs, conform

to the general, voluntary rules and habits of life among the Gentiles, but they

regulate all their business affairs, dealing and intercourse with each other by

certain established rules of the church and not by any laws passed by the

legislative department of the Territory.



  These are but a part of the grievances under which we labor. Nearly one-half

of the country in which the most of your petitioners reside, has but two

Justices of the Peace and one Constable, and while no one even respects their

authority, there are not perhaps fifty men in the whole county who know or care

to know who they are or where they live. Should they attempt to exercise any

authority, they would be regarded not only as intermeddlers but intruders.

Nearly the whole region in which the most of your petitioners reside, was once

erected into a county called "Carson" by the Territorial Legislature of Utah,

but for some reason or reasons unknown to your petitioners, the same Legislature

has abolished the county organization and has established in lieu of it an

election precinct-a precinct too, in which nobody votes for an officer, and

nobody cares to vote.



  The present number of white inhabitants who reside within the limits of the

proposed new Territory, cannot be far from 7,000 to 8,000 souls, and their

numbers are rapidly increasing. As the county has no less than 200 intermediate

val-valleys, [sic] which run into one another, of the most fertile grazing and

agricultural lands, as well as foothills, mountain spurs and mountains in which

are found gold, silver, copper, lead, iron, coal and other minerals, metals and

precious stones, we have good reason to suppose that, when they are properly

explored and developed, it will be found that we possess, for its extent, one of

the richest and most productive regions of the globe. As the evidence in support

of these facts is known and can be known now to but a few individuals, we do not

propose here to discuss the subject, but rather to wait until further

explorations shall develop all the necessary evidence in support of the truth of

our statements. For these and many other reasons there will soon be a rush of

population to this new Territory like that which rapidly poured into Texas and

California in days passed ; and, unless a Territorial Government or some other

form of government shall be established during the coming session of Congress we

may expect to witness scenes of a tragical character so appalling and startling

in their nature as to make every man feel that no law can or should rule but

that which is enforced by the iron and savage rule of unrestrained violence and

bloodshed.



  There are some portions of the Great Basin of this continent, claimed by the

State of California, in which reside a considerable number of people who, in the

winter time, can have no connection with it. This is the case with those who

reside in Honey Lake Valley. That valley lies east of the Sierra Nevadas, and

within the Great Basin, and from this cause the people living in it have no

intercourse with other parts of the State during the rainy season for nearly

four months every year. They, therefore, naturally belong to the eastern side of

the Sierra Nevadas, and on this account they desire to join us in this movement.

If they are forced to remain with California they can never know anything about

the affairs of their State during the whole time its Legislature may be in

session. It is, therefore, folly, and worse than folly, to attach the people of

this valley to a State about which they know nothing, and care nothing, for

one-third of the year, and that third the most important part of it to them.

They therefore cordially unite with us in this prayer and memorial to Congress,

asking not only that they may be attached to the proposed new Territory, but

that they may add their united voice in support of the great necessities for the

organization of the aforesaid Territory.



  There are others residing in the southern part of California, on the eastern

side of the Sierra Nevadas, who are similarly situated during a portion of the

winter months of each year. That part, also, of New Mexico, lying near the

Colorado River and its tributaries, and within the Gadsden Purchase, adjacent to

them, have the same difficulties of communicating with the civil authorities of

New Mexico at Santa Fe, or any other local and neighboring government, that a

large portion of your petitioners have to encounter in communicating with Utah,

California, and Oregon in the winter season.



  In addition to the facts here presented we submit that all the routes across

the continent, between the Atlantic and Pacific States and Territories, will be,

by the organization of this new Territory, amply guarded and protected. The

population of the Indian tribes within the proposed Territory cannot be far from

75,000 to 100,000 souls, and the most of them, under proper management, could be

very easily controlled if we had anything like an organized government within

our limits. For these and many other cogent considerations, which will readily

suggest themselves, we pray for the organization of the aforesaid Territory.



  Below we submit for the consideration of the members of both Houses of

Congress, a rough sketch of the boundaries, which we would suggest as the most

practicable and appropriate for the proposed new Territory:-



  Beginning on the northwest on a line of 42° north latitude, and longitude

120°, thence following the Oregon and Utah boundary line on a direct east course

to longitude 116°, thence a southeast course, to about north latitude 38° and

longitude 114°, thence farther on in the same direction to north latitude 34°

and longitude 112°, thence almost a due south course to the boundary line

between the State of Sonora, in the Republic of Mexico, and the Territory of New

Mexico, thence along that line to the eastern boundary of California, and thence

along the latter line to the place of beginning.



  This boundary takes in a range of valleys that are almost indissolubly

connected together, and in the winter-time the people who inhabit them are

almost entirely shut out from all communication with California, New Mexico,

Utah, Oregon, and Washington; but in all seasons they can and do enjoy free

intercourse with one another. All the proposed wagon, military, stage, and

railroad routes, between the Atlantic and Pacific States and Territories across

the continent, enter and pass through these valleys. All the Indian tribes which

are now the most troublesome to settlers and emigrants in this region, either

roam in, or surround, these valleys. For these, and similar urgent reasons and

considerations, we ask that they may be united in one Territory, and that said

Territory be organized by Congress within the shortest possible time, and for

which your petitioners will ever pray.



  A committee was then nominated, consisting of W. W. Nicols, R. D. Sides, Orrin

Gray, J. K. Trumbo, and Col. William Rodgers, to procure signatures to the
memorial.



  By the unanimous request of the meeting, Milton S. Hall and H. P. Duskins,

were called upon to sing the Star Spangled Banner, which they did in excellent

style. The meeting then adjourned, with the full determination of all to work in

good earnest to accomplish the success of the undertaking. Great harmony and

enthusiasm prevailed on the occasion.



                                    JOHN REESE, President.

D. E. GILBERT,     )

J. K. TRUMBO,      )  Secretaries.



  The valleys number from 200 to 250, and range in size from 10 to 100 miles in

length. They are all alluvial, and are the best grazing and agricultural lands

on this continent. Comparatively no metals or minerals have yet been found in

them, although it is believed that many of them contain both. The foot-hills

lying throughout this basin, as well as the mountains, are known to possess

gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, iron, coal, and many other metals and

minerals, as well as precious stones. Already many copper, gold, silver, iron

and coal mines are being worked.



  Thus far they have proven to be the richest found on this side of the continent.



  The Indian tribes are numerous throughout the proposed Territory. The

aggregate Indian population is supposed to be from 100,000 to 115,000.*





  *As a sample of the exaggerated statements of the period to which it relates

this is interesting, and is the excuse for its insertion, but at that time there

were no mines worthy of note in the Territory, and it is doubtful if the number

of Indians exceeded 25,000.





  About four weeks after this meeting was held, occurred that horrible massacre

by the Mormons and Indians of those emigrants at the Mountain Meadows. This fact

was not known to the outside world until long afterwards, although in October

the news reached Los Angeles of the fate of the train. It was supposed that

Indians alone had committed the deed, but it soon began to be believed that

Mormons had incited them. This, with the further fact of hostility to the

Government by Brigham Young and his followers, caused the papers of California

to advocate the creation of this proposed new Territory, and some of the absurd

exaggerations in regard to its importance, made by correspondents, and

editorially, in furtherance of the plan, furnishes some amusing reading at this

time. The following is a sample:-



       [From the Sacramento State Journal, October 25, 1857.]



  We have from time to time presented to the public statements and facts in

relation to the project of founding and organizing a new Territory of the United

States within the Great Basin of the American Continent.

     *  *  *  *  *  *



  Now for the country per se.



  They are broken up into many bands. The Pah Tutes are much the largest in

number, being about 40,000. They are not hostile to the Americans, and have

never favored the Mormons. They are friendly to a new Territory, and indeed

anxious for it. They desire to cultivate the arts of peace, and become tillers

of the soil. They are the best servants in America; indeed, they have shown

themselves to be excellent cooks, farmers, herdsmen, and mechanics. All the

other tribes are war-like, insincere, treacherous, and the most of them

blood-thirsty. Should a Territory be organized, the Pah Yutes would promptly

unite with the whites, and identify themselves with the peaceful progress of the

country.



  The following letter from Judge Crane, shows that the creation of the

Territory of Sierra Nevada was considered at Washington about the same as an

accomplished fact at one time, but the Act was finally defeated:-



JUDGE CRANE TO HIS CONSTITUENTS.



                           WASHINGTON, February 18,1858.



  FELLOW-CITIZENS: It affords me much satisfaction to furnish you in advance

information of great interest. The Committee on Territories has unanimously

agreed to report a bill forthwith to establish a Territorial Government out of

western Utah, under the name of Sierra Nevada. It will be bounded on the east by

the Goose Creek Mountains, on the west by the Sierra Nevada, or the eastern line

of California, on the north by the Oregon line, and on the south by the Colorado

River.



  The bill will be pressed through both Houses of Congress, by all parties, as

having an immediate connection with the present military movements against the

Mormons. It has been agreed upon that it shall form a part of the measures

designed to compress the limits of the Mormons in the Great Basin, and to defeat

their efforts to corrupt and eon-federate with the Indian tribes who now reside

in or roam through western Utah. For these and many other reasons, no time will

be lost to organize a Territory over western Utah, that there may be

concentrated there a large Gentile population, as a check both upon the Indians

and Mormons.  *   *   *  To the Hon. William Smith, the able member of Congress

from the Orange Congressional District in Virginia (well known in California),

you and I owe an everlasting debt of gratitude for bringing about this

auspicious result.   *   *   *



  In connection with this subject permit me to say (for I am not writing to you

unadvisedly) that you all sow and plant heavy crops of grain and vegetables this

spring, for they will bring ready sale at good cash prices to supply the army

and the Indians on their reservations. *   *   *   * As soon as I shall get my

seat I think I can secure mail routes between Carson Valley, via Gold Canon,

Ragtown, Sink of the Humboldt, to the Great Salt Lake, and from Honey Lake to

the Humboldt, where the two lines form a junction. As to the establishment of

other necessary mail routes in the Territory I have no fears. In connection with

this subject also, I have great hopes of having a bill passed to bridge the deep

snow region on the Sierra Nevada, over the Honey Lake and Placerville routes, so

as to keep open communication between our Territory and California all the year

around. The deep snow region on the Placerville route is, I think, about eight

miles in extent, and on the Honey Lake route, via Shasta, about the same.

Neither will cost over $50,000 or $60,000. *   *   * In conclusion, I hope the

Legislature of California will be as liberal and as generous to you as Virginia

was to Kentucky in her days of infancy and trial, and as Georgia was to Alabama

in her days of infancy; and like them, withdraw her jurisdiction over valleys

lying east of the Sierra Nevada, that they may all come under our Territorial

Government.



  Ever your faithful friend,             JAMES M. CRANE.



  The foregoing will give the reader a fair idea of the state of mind that the

settlers of western Utah were in, and the inducements that urged them to a

separation. It further presents the pecuniary outlook that floated before the

mental vision of the rancher whose products from the soil was to feed 115,000

Indians on reservations, and the soldiers that were to keep them and the Mormons

in check. Western Utah was a miners' and farmers' paradise, where the roads to

wealth were to be paved by the U. S. Treasury, with coin, over fields of

precious stones, and the richest silver and gold mines on the continent. These

exaggerations had their effect, and the public was being slowly prepared for an

excitement such as followed the eventual discovery of the Comstock Lode.



MOUNTAIN MEADOW MASSACRE.



  In advance of the arrival of General Johnston's army, an emigrant train from

the States on its way overland to California, stopped at Salt Lake for a time to

procure provisions. It was a company of superior intelligence, refinement, and

wealth, that numbered 150 souls all told. They had an outfit unusually fine and

complete, their live-stock and transportation alone being valued at $300,000. It

was an assemblage of farmers, ministers, doctors, mechanics and artisans, who

had been lured by the sheeny hues of the "golded fleece" from pleasant, happy

homes in Arkansas, Missouri and Illinois to seek other ones, on the Pacific

Coast; that far-off land where distance lent enchantment to the view. It was as

much a transcontinental party of pleasure as aught else, and recorded among its

numbers the infant, the nappy youth, the joyous maid, the fond parent, and

white-haired doting grandam and sire; the young, the middle-aged and old, a

grand patriarchal family moving with the star of empire west. Their supply of

provisions had been provided in quantity sufficient only to last them to Salt

Lake where it was supposed that whatever would be required to complete the

journey could be obtained. They knew nothing of the impending war, and were

first startled into a comprehension of the peril that menaced them when it was

found that their money would not buy food. The Mormons would neither sell nor

give it them, and starvation in a land of plenty stared them in the face. They

were ordered to leave Salt Lake City, and the journey was resumed along the

southern route by the way of San Bernardino for the coast. Settlement after

settlement was passed and not a thing could be procured for love or money to eat

except eight bushels of corn obtained from the Indians. Cave Springs was finally

reached September 6th, in the Mountain Meadows near the southeast line of what

is now Nevada. At this point while resting to give their stock a chance to graze

and recruit, they were attacked suddenly on the morning of the seventh, by a

combined force of Indians, and Mormons disguised as Indians, under the

leadership of John D. Lee. Seven of the emigrants were killed at the first fire,

some of these being awakened by the leaden messenger of death from their morning

slumberings into the realms of the dark unknown. Fifteen more were wounded and

the closing act of the darkest drama blistering a page in history had begun. The

emigrants rallying like brave men as they were, beat off their assailants and

threw up temporary fortifications. In the resistance two of the attacking party

were mortally wounded and Bishop Higbee, the Mormon representative of God's

mercy, love, justice and truth, got down on his knees and blessed the assassins,

calling upon the Supreme Ruler to heal them, and God neglected to do it.



  The Mormons withdrew to procure reinforcements, and two brave men among the

emigrants undertook to break through and procure assistance from where, God only

knew, for California was hundreds of miles away. One of them was named William

A. Aden, a Tennesseean, young, chivalrous and brave, but they met the notorious

Bill Stewart and a boy at Pinto Creek, who killed young Aden while his wounded

companion escaped. A few years later Stewart went with a friend to point out

where he too had slain a Gentile, and while there amused himself by

contemptuously kicking about the bleaching bones of his unburied victim, and yet

that soulless, unhung miscreant still lives near the scene of his atrocity.

Monday passed, Tuesday came and was gone, and Wednesday brought with it neither

sign, or hope of relief. From the surrounding over-looking hills came the

constant report of the merciless rifle as the besiegers continued to fire upon

the exposed stock or any living thing that showed itself from within that human

slaughter house. The situation had become desperate, they were without water,

the spring being a little ways from the fortification, and commanded by the

enemy's rifles. A heroine, hoping that her sex might possibly protect her,

stepped outside the inclosure to milk a cow, when her life paid the penalty of

the act. Two children, like stray doves from the ark, dressed in pure white,

hand in hand with a small pail, started for the spring to procure water for the

famishing garrison. Half the way had been passed when these little martyr

innocents sank by the trail, pierced with merciless bullets, as a cry of horror

from the besieged, drowning the despairing shriek of the childless mothers, went

up towards heaven and brought no answering vengeance upon the murderers. It was

then decided to make one last, desperate, and almost hopeless effort to

communicate with the outside world. A manuscript was prepared, stating the

condition of the party and giving the history of the whole affair. Upon it was

written the names of all the persons constituting the party; their residence

before starting upon the expedition, to which was added the names and number of

each Masonic or Odd Fellows' lodge, the denomination of every church or society

in the East that had a representative among that party, doomed to be

annihilated. They did not expect to get this record through the lines to tell

humanity of the ghoulish infamy that was striving to make a common grave blot

out and hide this fiendish tragedy and its victims from the world, yet something

might transpire to place it before the world. At length three men, "the bravest

of the brave," volunteered to attempt that night the passage of the line with

the record, and strive while life lasted to reach California, hundreds of miles

away over the mountains, through the deserts, on foot, guideless and without

food. It was a hopeless task, the offspring of despair, and as the night closed

in around them and the stars came out to look down upon the world, they saw this

doomed garrison gather around a white-haired old minister, whose outstretched

hands and upturned face was calling upon the throne of Omnipotence to help this

forlorn hope of three to reach-beyond the encircling coil of savages-the homes

of humanity. At midnight the three stole forth, they passed the line of the

besiegers, but the next day their trail was discovered and Indians in charge of

Ira Hatch were sent in pursuit. They were surprised while asleep on the Santa

Clara Mountains, where two were killed and one escaped, wounded in the wrist,

who struggled on until he reached the Las Vegas in southern Nevada, close to the

California line. The writer of this in 1873 stood in the place where he fell,

and listened to a detail of the manner in which the last of those three was

murdered. As he was staggering along the road, two men, one of them John M.

Young, on their way to Salt Lake, met and offered him assistance; offered to

smuggle him back to Salt Lake, and as he was journeying with them on his return,

was met near Cottonwood by the pursuing party, to whom he was unwillingly

delivered up. At a signal from the white miscreant, Ira Hatch, the Indians

rained a shower of slow arrows upon the wretched victim, that, entering the

flesh, served only as torture shafts, hanging to goad the prisoner to his death.

He turned and ran with a feeble dragging step, away from the road, leisurely

pursued by the assailants, who continued their target practice upon him. But it

could not last always, and when despair and pain had driven away his life, the

coyotes came and feasted on what was left of the last of the three dead heroes.

The papers that they had striven so nobly to place in friendly hands, were

retained by a Mormon for several years, but finally were destroyed by John D.

Lee, one of their bishops and the leader in the massacre.



  In the meantime the emigrant party had met its fate. When the assailants found

that to attack and overpower the besieged would cost too many of their own

lives, it was decided to treacherously lure them to their death.



  In carrying out this plan messengers were sent to confer with them under a

flag of truce, to say that the Mormons had come to save them from the Indians

who were their assailants, and that if the garrison would surrender to them all

should be held as prisoners and protected. Relying upon this assurance the

surrender was made, and the emigrants, in compliance with instructions from the

Mormons, moved out from their defenses unarmed, with the wounded and children in

wagons, followed by the women in single file, the men bringing up the rear. They

were suddenly assailed while moving in this form by both saints and Indians, and

in five minutes the only living members of that ill-starred party, that had

numbered over 150 souls, were eighteen children, who were supposed to be so

young that their memories could not rise up in judgment against the murderers in

after years.



  The tragedies that were enacted in that hecatomb of blood is beyond the power

of any language to express. A faint conception of its fiendish detail might

possibly dawn upon the imagination of the one that can picture a scene where the

last quiver of death is moving the already senseless form of a husband, on whose

bosom rested the little form of an infant placed there by the young mother who

is standing over them dagger in hand defending herself, her young and her dead,

like a tigress at bay, while standing there holding in check with her blade a

miscreant in front, she is stealthily approached from behind by one who sends a

knife to its hilt through her heart, that stretches her lifeless form across the

feet of the dead husband. The murderer then taking from her nerveless hand the

dagger, thrusts it through the infant's body, pinning its tiny form to the

breast of its father, and then laughs at its shrieks of agony and writhings in

death. Such was one incident; over one hundred others, varying in their details

of horror and degrees of atrocity, were enacted, which left not a single one

unperformed that could have added to the infamous monument built that day by the

Mormons to make the world execrate their name forever.



  The pirates upon the sea under the black flag, waging war upon all mankind,

make their prisoners walk the plank to blot out evidence of their transactions.

The Church of Latter Day Saints, with the same motion, urged on by revenge and

sustained by a religious fanaticism; had, through the teachings of years,

arrived upon the same plan of revenge, robbery and murder, under the pirates

war-cry of "Dead men tell no tales."



  When they were done there was no one left to tell of the massacre but those

who had committed it, and for a time the fate of that emigrant party was to the

world a mystery. Conscience had driven one participant to a suicide's grave, and

reason from its throne in another, but still the secret was kept. At length

whisperings of what had been done crept out into the world, and soon it was

found that an overland party was missing. Finally, in 1859, John Cradlebaugh was

sent to Utah as a United States District Judge, and being a brave man and just,

sought, regardless of peril to himself, to unravel the mystery that surrounded

the affair. Those children were recovered, but could tell no tale of Mormon

participation in this outrage upon humanity, and baffled upon every hand, the

Judge abandoned the attempt, published to the world the evidence he had

obtained, and was sent to western Utah to preside over what is now Nevada.

Twenty years passed after the massacre before weak-handed human justice overtook

any of all those murderers, when at last John D. Lee was shot on the

twenty-third of March, 1877, by order of the Court, as a penalty for his

leadership and participation in the crime. Many of the other criminals still

curse the earth with their execrated presence, and going unwhipped of justice,

are a living reproach to our Government and justification for mob law and

vigilance committees.



WESTERN UTAH AT THE CLOSE OF 1857.



  With all the years of opportunity that had preceeded the advent of 1858

western Utah remained a sparsely-settled country. All forces influencing matter

in the universe impels it towards an improvement of its condition with inanimate

things by the blind impulse of affinity with animate life, possessed of vitality

by the ceaseless desire to be less unhappy. The power that causes a man to

voluntarily change his position or occupation in life is a belief in consequent

improved condition. But few of the human family of the many who in passing

through had seen portions of western Utah had observed anything in it that if

appropriated would be of advantage to the possessor. The opportunity of

utilizing anything therein to better one's condition outside seemed meager, and

confined to a limited area; therefore, the natural result was a population

numbering but 200 or 300 in an extensive country that had been more or less

known for thirty-two years. The inducements that had localized the few that

lived there with temporary designs of residence, was, traffic with emigrants,

who yearly grew less in number, passing through the country en route to

California, work in the poorly-paying placer mines in Gold Canon, and grazing of

stock for the California markets in the valleys along the eastern base of the

Sierra Nevada Mountains, between the Truckee River and the head of Carson Valley.



  The miner came to prospect through the mountains for mineral, hoping to pay

his expenses by working a portion of the year in Gold Canon. The traders

followed the miners to furnish supplies in exchange for gold-dust, and scattered

along the overland road to traffic with the emigrant. The ranchers sought the

fertile eastern base of the Sierra, along the mountain streams, where stock was

fattened to drive across the mountains to California; and all the population of

western Utah were members of one or the other of these three branches of

industry. The troubles of 1857, existing between the Government and Mormon

Church, had served to withdraw all the adherents of Brigham Young from the

section now called Nevada, leaving only Gentiles, and those who repudiated

Brigham's authority and polygamy, as residents of Carson County.



  The section was practically without political organization, there being no

officers to execute or enforce either civil or criminal law, if such had been

recognized as existing in the country; and the only influence, except the innate

principle of justice, that controlled the actions and dealings of men with each

other at this time was the fear of summary treatment of a nature such as the

next year was dealt out to the unfortunate "Lucky Bill."



  Such was the condition of the country as the year 1857 passed into history,

and a new era dawned upon Nevada with the events that marked the progress of the

ensuing year.



Additional Comments:
Extracted from:



History of Nevada with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its

Prominent Men and Pioneers



Oakland, Cal.: Thompson & West

1881



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