The Mountain Meadows Massacre occurred on Friday, September 11, 1857 in Mountain Meadows, Utah , several miles south of Enterprise in Washington County along the Old Spanish Trail.
The victims of the massacre were from Arkansas and were members of the Fancher wagon train. The leader of the wagon train was my 3rd great Uncle Alexander Fancher. The Fancher party was headed to his older brother and my great grandfather John Fancher's Cattle Ranch 50 miles north of Visalia, California . This was Alexander Fancher's 3rd trip to California , and he is listed in the 1850 San Diego, Census.
The settlers were besieged for five days, beginning on Monday, September 7, 1857 and on the 5th day surrendered under a flag of truce to Brigham Young's adopted son, confidant and Danite, John Doyle Lee. The emigrants knew when the siege started that their attackers were Mormon's but had very little choice but to surrender since they were very low on supplies. continued......
"SEPTEMBER DAWN" NOW PLAYING ON SHOW TIME & EXTREME
"One of the damndest rascals that
ever went unhung".
- Gov. Cummings, Utah.
The Mormon's had them surrender all their worldly belongings worth approximately $300,000 for safe passage back to Cedar City , Utah. While en route to Cedar City and within one mile of the siege site a call of “Do your Duty” was given, whereupon all the adult men were shot by Mormons. The women and older children were then killed by Mormons, with the assistance of the Indians. Most of the Mormons were dressed as Indians and had on war paint. According to testimony there were very few Indians that participated in the killing. To see a list of Mormon participants click here.
REASON FOR THE MASSACRE
Frank Kirkman's MOUTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE Site
In all honesty I have to point out that I do not believe the massacre was a religious act for the following reasons:
The massacre of the wagon train only had religious connotations if you consider the perpetrators loyalty to Brigham Young. The murders in this case were to cover up the robbery keeping the authorities in California from finding out who the true criminals (Mormons instead of Indians) were in this case. The abovementioned facts negate the incident as a religious act as far as I am concerned. The LDS Church has been covering up for Brigham Young since the day of the Massacre.
If you read Brigham Young's sermons during that time period you will find that he changed his religious beliefs to be attuned with his objectives at the time. He controlled his people with absolute terror and when they got out of line he had them dealt with appropriately. The wagon train was a very obviously, a wealthy one and he set up the political tone though his sermons creating the eventual demise of the wagon train. Brigham Young's only motive in wiping out the wagon train was just plain greed, and he wanted it to look like the Indians committed the atrocity.
Brigham Young maintained loyalty from his followers with blood atonement and polygamy. The ones that obeyed on special assignments were rewarded with a new young wife. The Apostates and failed Mormons were punished appropriately usually by the acceptable method of blood atonement, which involved the slitting of the victims throat.
Most of the bounty from the wagon train massacre was shipped to Brigham Young from the Cedar City Ward tithing room within 1month of the massacre. Within 6 months of the Massacre Brigham Young was seen driving one of the Fancher Parties fancy hand caved wagons around Salt Lake City.
In my opinion the massacre at mountain meadows was a Terrorist act motivated by their leader Brigham Young's greed and not a religious act at all. John D. Lee would have never murdered and robbed all the people in that wagon train without the complete prior approval of Brigham Young whether it be a religious act or not. The religious act was the Oath of Vengeance. (Recovery of the Victim's Bones)
The following is an excerpt of Hans P. Freece's book The Letters of An Apostate Mormon to His Son, published in New York in 1908, records this passage in a letter from Utah dated February, 1907,:
“The murdered emigrants were of the Methodist and Presbyterian faith and were on their way to California to seek new homes. The chief cause of the massacre was a desire on the part of the Mormons to come into possession of the new wagons, fine horses and all the abundant farming implements which the emigrants had; all valued at about $300,000... This company of emigrants were no sooner camped at Cane Springs than they were attacked by a band of Indians, who subsequently proved to be a band of painted Mormons maneuvering under command of John D. Lee, Lieutenant at Cedar City, he being under Brigham Young, the then Governor of the Utah Territory. Their repulse was quick and decisive. The emigrants threw up embankments, but they were not in a position to protect themselves, because they were camped between two knolls, from whose tops the Mormons poured in a cross-fire. It was the place selected for them by the apostle, and they had fallen into the trap. The attempt to commit this massacre while posing as Indians proved futile. Accordingly, John D. Lee resorted to strategy. The besiegers were called off, and in a short time the emigrants saw a
company of soldiers approaching bearing the Stars and Stripes. Men heaved a sigh of relief, women wept for joy, and the old pastor of the flock knelt down and thanked God for deliverance. Mr. Lee is said to have shed tears when he saw the plight and awful suffering of the people. Kind hearted Mr. Lee! He had come to their rescue! First he must talk to the Indians and appease their supposed wrath.
Retiring for a pretended consultation, he returned, stating that the Indians had promised to stop the siege, but the emigrants must give up their arms to him, as he was the accredited military authority under Governor Brigham Young, otherwise he could not protect them. When they reached the point of the hill, Bishop Dame cried out, " Israel , do your duty!" And at that command the soldiers murdered the
men in cold blood, and then ran forward to join the "Indians", who had previously been concealed in the cedars, to complete the massacre. When night came stealing down the mountain side it hid from vulgar gaze the nude and mangled bodies. The murderers had stripped the bodies and left them to become carrion.”
Looking north from Dan Sill Hill you can see the flat area The emigrants threw up embankments, but they were not in a position to protect themselves, because they were camped between two knolls, from whose tops the Mormons poured in a cross-fire. where the Old Spanish Trail runs diagonally across the meadow beginning near the west edge of the roadway. That area contains the bones of the women and children killed by Mormons led by Nauvoo Legion Lieutenant, Nephi Johnson. Hwy 18 can be seen on the right. See Map The land has recently been purchased by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saints Corporation so that they can have complete control over the bodies of the victims murdered in cold blood by their Mormon members and Cult President Brigham Young. Click here or on image to enlarge
According to testimony of one of the Mormon Murderers it took the Mormon's only about 3 minutes to shoot, bludgeoned, stab the women and children to death. They gave the Indians the grim task of finishing off the victims that were still alive. The Mormon's then stripped the bodies of all clothing and valuables, and left their victims naked in the meadow to be ravaged by wolves and vultures.
They then gathered together while washing off Indian war paint and blood stained hands vowing themselves to secrecy.
The Fancher train was one of the wealthiest trains to travel through Utah that year, worth over a million dollars by today's standards and the Mormon's filled the tithing room at the Cedar City Ward with the bounty from their murder/robbery victims.
The rancher that owns the property (now owned by the LDS Corporation) related that his dad covered up the bones years ago using a team of mules and a Fresno Scraper. Indians marked the spot by marking an arrow pointing to the bones on a rock.
BRIGHAM YOUNG'S INVOLVEMENT IN THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE
The second Prophet of the Mormon Church Brigham Young was an absolute Dictator of the large Desert Theocracy. The Churches quorum of 12 and Council of 50 basically were his rubber stamps. He chose Desert or what is commonly know as the Utah Territory to keep out the gentiles because of the problems the Mormon had in practicing their cult religion at the time.
Is the Rebuilt Rock Cairn torn down by Brigham Young, at the present Mormon owned burial site at Mountain Meadows Utah. The site is off of Hwy 18 about 30 minutes north of Saint George. The Monument rebuilt by the Mormons is a Monument to the Mormon killers of the victims. The Victims were not Mormons and deserve to have a CHRISTIAN CROSS AS THEIR GRAVE MARKER, as the original was.
In September 1857, a wagon train passing through Utah laden with gold was attacked. Approximately 140 people were slaughtered; only 17 children under the age of eight were spared. This incident in an open field called Mountain Meadows has ever since been the focus of passionate debate: Is it possible that official Mormon dignitaries were responsible for the massacre? In her riveting book, Sally Denton makes a fiercely convincing argument that they were. Continued......... LDS TRIAL LAWYER ATTACKS DENTON DEFENDS THE MASSACRE
"The murders at Mountain Meadow raise larger questions about the human condition, Particularly how decent men can, while acting on their best and firmest beliefs, commit a great evil." From the "BLOOD OF THE PROPHETS" by Will Bagley (photo on left of Mr. Bagley at Mountain Meadows taken in 2003 by Frank Kirkman) LDS TRIAL LAWYER ATTACKS BAGLEY
One of the wagon Captains, Captain Alexander Fancher was my uncle, four times removed. This was his third trip to Tulare County, California. His brother John Fancher my great grandfather was an established cattleman in Tulare County, California prior to 1850. His ranch (now located in Fresno, County) was east of Fresno, near Sanger and 50 miles north of Visalia. Fancher Creek, that runs through Fresno, was named after John Fancher.
The links below tell the story of the massacre from various points of view. I have been asked many times what about the LDS point of view. Since everyone on the wagon train was killed in cold blood with the exception of the 17 very small children, the only ones we have had to rely on are Mormon historians.
Gordon B. Hinckley
Basically all we have here is the LDS point of view (not President Hinckley's or the church lawyers) but from their gutsy historians and authors. The late courageous author Juanita Brooks started it all off with her book The "Mountain Meadows Massacre". Unfortunately it wasn't until after the St. George, Utah native past away that interest in the massacre finally took shape.
President Hinckley, (left) even though he denied any church evolvement in the massacre upon advisement of church attorneys, was the one who took steps to build a monument to begin the cover up at the site.
President Hinckley is the only person left in Salt Lake City that doesn't know who ordered the Massacre. NOTE: President Hinckley has written records of Brigham Young's involvement on the massacre that he has refused to release. [More Denial]
The Mormon built monument is a cover up. An LDS Interpretive Center at the site will be next! The LDS cover up extends to buying up URLS or web addresses so they cannot be used by non-LDS groups. Try the following web addresses http://mountain-meadows-massacre.com and http://mountain-meadows-massacre.org. That is just two of the URLS the LDS are controlling. A web site on LDS cover ups in this matter could be started as there is plenty of material.
SALLEY DENTON'S AMERICAN MASSACRE continued
The author–herself of Mormon descent–first traces the extraordinary emergence of the Mormons and the little-known nineteenth-century intrigues and tensions between their leaders and the U.S. government, fueled by the Mormons' zealotry and exclusionary practices. We see how by 1857 they were unique as a religious group in ruling an entire American territory, Utah, and commanding their own exclusive government and army.
Denton makes clear that in the immediate aftermath of the massacre, the church began placing the blame on a discredited Mormon, John D. Lee, and on various Native Americans. She cites contemporaneous records and newly discovered documents to support her argument that, in fact, the Mormon leader, Brigham Young, bore significant responsibility–that Young, impelled by the church's financial crises, facing increasingly intense scrutiny and condemnation by the federal government, incited the crime by both word and deed.
Finally, Denton explains how the rapidly expanding and enormously rich Mormon church of today still struggles to absolve itself of responsibility for what may well be an act of religious fanaticism unparalleled in the annals of American history. American Massacre is totally absorbing in its narrative as it brings to life a tragic moment in our history.
SALLEY DENTON'S AMERICAN MASSACRE "From its first harrowing pages to the potentially explosive discovery described in the epilogue, AMERICAN MASSACRE is hard to put down, a vivid account of persecution and paranoia, deceit and self-deception, cruelty and cover-up. Sally Denton expertly guides us along the twisting trail that leads from upstate New York in 1823 to the horror of Mountain Meadows, the most hideous example of the human cost exacted by religious fanaticism in American history until 9/11."
Even though the Mormons have elected to baptize their victims posthumously into their killers Mormon faith. The wagon train members were all devout Christians at the time of their death. President Hinckley states this site is: "Sacred ground." But apparently in his view the ground is only sacred to those of the Mormon Faith and not sacred to the Christians that shed their blood on that very "sacred ground".