Rising Tensions in Southern Utah

In the Spring of 1857, Mormon leader Parley P. Pratt was murdered in Arkansas. Pratt was one of the original twelve Apostles, one of the highest callings in the Church. Pratt was also a popular missionary, preacher, and writer whose book, A Voice of Warning, led to many baptisms and “helped shape Mormon historical and theological thinking for many years to come.” Many church members were extremely upset about Pratt’s murder, especially because it had been brutal. Pratt’s murder increased Mormon tensions and fears about outsiders. The Baker-Fancher party was from Arkansas, which made some Mormons believe they had ties to or agreed with Pratt’s murder. Years later, it was reported that Pratt’s widow had even “recognized one or more of the party as having been present at the death of Pratt.” Although untrue, some Mormons may have believed the emigrant party reveled in the murder of Pratt.

In August of 1857, George A. Smith began his infamous speaking tour of southern Utah. Smith, a high ranking Mormon leader, stoked Mormon residents’ fears of the incoming federal troops. Smith was warmly greeted in the region as he had helped found Parowan, the first settlement in the area, and was made military commander of all southern Utah militia during an earlier Indian conflict. Smith made it very clear that troops were coming to Utah and that none were to welcome them, declaring “Damn the man who feeds them; I say damn the man who sympathizes with them: I say curse the man who pours oil and water on their heads.” Smith’s message on this tour was more inflammatory than he intended, as his tour was “a mission of peace to preach to the people… in spite of all I could do I found myself preaching a military discourse.” As Smith left the region he felt that even a single “word [could] set in motion every man, to set a torch to every building, where the safety of this people is jeopardized.” He left the region just a few short weeks before the massacre occurred.

Figure 1

In each location on Smith’s tour, the battalion ran through drills to impress Smith. These drills were led by Isaac Haight, William Dame, and John D. Lee. Haight was leader of the LDS wards in Cedar City, as well as the mayor and military commander. Dame was the leader of LDS wards in Parowan, militia leader of the whole Iron District (which included Cedar City), and the mayor of that city. Lee was a Mormon pioneer with close personal ties to Brigham Young, as his adopted son, and worked as an Indian agent in the area. Lee also helped settle southern Utah. All three men were prominent in the southern Utah communities and would play important roles in the massacre.

These drills, combined with the fears of federal troops marching to Utah were meant to show the might of the militia. Smith’s tour reminded settlers of their hardships and of who their enemy was: non-Mormons who would persecute them for their way of life. Mormon settlers had been pushed out of their settlements across the Midwest since the establishment of their church in 1830 and had no intention of being moved from their new Zion in the west. The Saints had headed west to find their promised land, where they would establish their church in preparation for the second coming of Jesus Christ. The idea of giving up Zion, then, had serious religious implications; it was not just another move in the mind of Church members.

1. Walker, Turley, and Leonard, Massacre at Mountain Meadows: An American Tragedy, 31.

2. "An Open Letter to Brigham Young,” Daily Corinne Reporter, 15 July 1871.

3. Bagley, Blood of the Prophets, 381.
4. Smith, Aug. 9, 1857, 1st sec., 23, in Parowan Stake Historical Record, 1855-60, Church History Library.

5. Smith, Sept. 13, 1857, in “Remarks”; Aug. 15, 1857, Historian’s Office, Journal, 1844-1997, Church History Library.

6. Ibid.

Figure 1. Walker, Turley, and Leonard, Massacre at Mountain Meadows: An American Tragedy, 102. Map by Sheryl Dickert Smith and Tom Child.