Cedar City stake president, militia major
Isaac C. Haight
1813–1886
1 topic · 9 dated events
Their part in each topic
The Mountain Meadows Massacre
Cedar City stake president, militia major
Haight held ecclesiastical, civil and military authority in Cedar City at once. He asked William Dame's permission to call out the militia against the emigrants and was refused; he then arranged with Lee to have Paiutes attack them, and after the siege went to Parowan to press Dame for authorization to kill the survivors. Walker, Turley and Leonard identify him as the primary architect. He was excommunicated in 1870, rebaptized in 1874, and lived much of the rest of his life as a fugitive.
In the timeline
9 events across 1 topics, chronological. Only events this person was actually part of — present at, responsible for, or the subject of — not every event where the name comes up.
Dame refuses the militia: 'Words are but wind'
Haight sent an express to William Dame at Parowan asking permission to call out the militia against the emigrants. Dame convened a council, which judged the company probably harmless, and wrote back: 'Do not notice their threats. Words are but wind—they injure no one; but if they commit acts of violence against citizens inform me by express.' Dissatisfied, Haight sent for John D. Lee.
The Cedar City council and the express to Salt Lake
Local leaders met at Cedar City. Laban Morrill, a member of the stake high council, objected to the plan. The meeting resolved to put the question to Brigham Young and dispatch a fast rider. By then Lee was already on his way to the Meadows with orders to gather Paiutes, and other couriers had been sent to the outlying settlements.
Dame authorizes an attack
Haight rode to Parowan. Dame and his council, still believing the emigrants were victims of an Indian attack, wanted to send the militia to protect them. In a private meeting Haight told Dame that settlers were involved and that the emigrants knew it. Dame set aside his council's decision and authorized the militia to act.
Brigham Young writes back: 'let them go in peace'hinge
Haslam reached Salt Lake City and interrupted Young in a meeting with Jacob Hamblin. Young replied the same day to Haight: 'In regard to emigration trains passing through our settlements, we must not interfere with them until they are first notified to keep away. You must not meddle with them. The Indians we expect will do as they please but you should try and preserve good feelings with them. There are no other trains going south that I know of. If those that are there will leave, let them go in peace.' Haslam started back within the hour.
The massacrehinge
William Bateman carried a white flag to the corral. Lee entered and offered terms: give up the weapons, load the wounded into wagons, and walk out under militia escort. The emigrants, out of water and low on ammunition, accepted. The youngest children and wounded went first in two wagons, then the women and children on foot, then the men, each walking beside an armed militiaman. At a prearranged signal the militiamen turned and fired. Roughly 120 people were killed. Seventeen children, all six or under, were spared.
The children at the Hamblin ranch
Klingensmith gathered seventeen small children and carried them to Jacob Hamblin's house at the north end of the valley, where Rachel Hamblin took them in; one one-year-old girl had been shot through the arm. Lee wanted to separate the wounded Dunlap girl from her sisters and Rachel persuaded him not to. The next morning Haight and Dame came to the ranch and, at the massacre site, quarrelled over who had ordered what.
Haslam returns with the letter
Haslam reached Cedar City about eleven on Sunday morning, having ridden roughly 600 miles in six days. The letter he carried told the settlers not to meddle with the train. The massacre was two days old.
Lee, Haight and Wood are excommunicated
Thirteen years after the massacre, John D. Lee, Isaac Haight and George Wood were cut off from the Church for the murders. Lee travelled to St. George in December to ask Young why now — 'If it was wrong now, it certainly was wrong then.' Haight was rebaptized in 1874. The Church had already, in 1859, released Haight and other Cedar City leaders from their callings.
A territorial grand jury indicts nine men
Nine men were indicted for the massacre. Most were eventually arrested. Only Lee was tried, convicted and executed; one indicted man turned state's evidence and others spent years as fugitives. William Dame's case was severed and postponed and never came to trial.
Appears alongside
People who share the most dated events with Isaac C. Haight.
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