The Mountain Meadows massacre
Gibbs, Josiah F. 1910. The Mountain Meadows massacre. Salt Lake Tribune Publishing Co.
Rating:
1
Summary:
I found this book while surfing around online one day (it’s available for free here: http://www.utlm.org/onlinebooks/meadowscontents.htm). I thought it looked interesting, downloaded a copy of it, and stuck it in a folder of files ‘to read’. That was in August of 2003. I finally got around to reading it.
For those unfamiliar with the Mountain Meadows Massacre, it was an event that occurred in 1857 in Southern Utah. A wagon train of settlers from Arkansas and Missouri were slaughtered in cold blood by members of the LDS Church. Close to 120 people were killed; 17 children were taken in by local Mormons but most were eventually returned to relatives in Arkansas.
Gibbs begins the book by noting how Mormon leaders believe they are called by God and answer only to God. While no recent Mormon prophet would put it that way, that belief still exists at a certain level within Mormonism. For example, if a prophet were to tell a devout member to do something illegal, even if the person was caught and punished, the person might feel they would have their reward in heaven, answering only to the higher power. While Gibbs argues this is the case for virtually any request by the leadership of the LDS Church (and it may have been 150 years ago), I would submit that today most members would only be willing to bend the rules slightly in obedience to church leadership (e.g., looking the other way for a first-time spouse abuser). It’s clear from this introduction that Gibbs is laying the blame for the Mountain Meadows Massacre clearly on the highest level of leadership in the LDS Church – the prophet, Brigham Young at the time – and on the structure of the LDS Church, which so heavily emphasized obedience to authority that it could result in a massacre.
The book then moves into a description of the people who were massacred, the Fancher company and their Missouri compatriots, and the people who did the massacring. Most of the focus of the second chapter is on Isaac C. Haight, the stake president of Parowan, William H. Dame, the bishop of the Parowan ward, and John M. Higbee, first counselor to Haight. According to Gibbs, these three were the primary instigators of the massacre. Gibbs also talks about John D. Lee, the person who was ultimately executed for the massacre. Gibbs describes him as a lowly farmer and something of a go-between with local Native Americans. For some reason Gibbs is keen on defending Lee and does his best to paint him in a positive light, despite the fact he did participate in the Massacre. In describing these men, Gibbs also describes the Mountain Meadows (with a few pictures for good measure) and the meeting in an LDS meetinghouse where the plan was hatched on September 7th.
The next chapter, chapter 3, describes the massacre and the events immediately surrounding it. The first attack on the wagon train was by Native Americans. When they were repulsed, they gave up, turning over the offensive to Mormon men. Gibbs then describes how the Mormon men deceived the wagon train by claiming to come help them, disarming them, marching them in a line, then, on command, killing them execution style. It truly was a massacre.
Gibbs then talks briefly about the kids who were taken in after the massacre by Mormon families and gives some accounting of who they were. They were all believed to have been under the age of 8, the Mormon age of accountability, but some were simply small for their age and were not. Also included in this section is a very brief discussion of John Lee’s trial. It is pretty clear that Lee was a scapegoat for the massacre. The book concludes with some excerpts from the testimony given at Lee’s trial.
Review:
biased but passionate
Make no mistake, I’m not claiming this is the authoritative treatment of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. (That title belongs to “Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows” by Will Bagley.) This book is littered with problems, the biggest, of course, being the author’s antipathy toward all things Mormon. Certainly critics of Mormonism can write objective, scholarly essays on the religion, but Gibbs does not appear interested in providing an impartial account of the events. He paints every event as having one direct cause – Mormonism and the Mormon leadership. I don’t know the history behind Gibbs and his antipathy toward the Mormons, but it certainly isn’t hidden in this treatment. (Given where the book comes from – the website of the Utah Lighthouse Ministry, an anti-Mormon organization – this isn’t particularly surprising.) In short, I wouldn’t recommend reading this book if you’re interested in an impartial account of what happened at Mountain Meadows and what led up to it. This book is only good for instigating anger toward the leadership of the LDS Church in the 1850s. Guess what? They’re all dead now. So, in fact, the book is really good for just about nothing.
That said, the author does make a couple of worthwhile points (points that are made elsewhere, so the book is still pretty useless). For instance, the author notes that Lee – despite his involvement in (and later conviction for) the massacre – was given another plural wife after the massacre. This would seem to indicate that the leadership of the LDS Church condoned the massacre, or at least condoned Lee’s part in it as polygamous marriage was generally seen as a sign that the individuals were in good-standing with the Church. Like I said above, it is pretty clear Lee was a scapegoat for the massacre. He was only ramrodded toward execution once non-Mormons raised a stink about the massacre.
The author also points out that even if Brigham Young didn’t give the order to kill the Fancher party directly, he clearly lied about the massacre after the fact (when questioned about talking to John D. Lee about it). Brigham Young was not an honest man. Does this mean he was responsible for the massacre? I don’t think anyone can clearly show that at this point, but it doesn’t absolve him of his other moral shortcomings.
Finally, the author’s claim that the real cause behind the massacre was the blind obedience exhibited by the Mormon men who participated is a point worth discussing, even if there is more to this particular scenario. A much better treatment of this issue is John Krakauer’s book “Under the Banner of Heaven” in which he explores the line that is drawn between religious obedience and immoral and illegal behavior. Blind obedience is scary. Gibbs is right to criticize the LDS Church for encouraging such behavior, even if he is wrong in throwing the accusation at every element and member of the Church with the hopes that it will stick somewhere.
The book, like all the other accounts of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, is disturbing not for its presentation but because it paints a picture of a terrible atrocity. I don’t recommend this book because there are much better books on this topic. If you’re interested in reading a biased account of the massacre that is nearly 100 years old, go for it. It’s free. But do keep in mind this book’s serious shortcomings.
