Militia major, Indian farmer
John Doyle Lee
1812–1877
1 topic · 12 dated events
Their part in each topic
The Mountain Meadows Massacre
Militia major, Indian farmer
Lee recruited Paiutes for the initial attack, carried the white flag into the emigrant corral on 11 September and helped direct the killing. He reported the affair to Brigham Young as an Indian action. Excommunicated in 1870, tried twice, convicted in 1876 and shot at the massacre site on 23 March 1877, he was the only person punished. His posthumous confession, published as Mormonism Unveiled, insists he was sacrificed to shield others.
In the timeline
12 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.
The first attack and the siege beginhinge
At dawn the emigrants were fired on in their camp at Mountain Meadows. Several were killed and others wounded; the company circled and dug in, banking earth against the wagon wheels, and held out for days with no access to the spring. Attackers had painted themselves; survivors later said they saw the paint washed off in the creek. James Haslam left Cedar City for Salt Lake City between five and six that evening.
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.
The Indian-blame story is put in place
Lee reported the massacre to Brigham Young as the work of Indians. Anson and Mary Call swore that Lee stayed at their house in early October 1857 and told them the massacre was perpetrated by Indians exclusively, and that he had told Young the same. George A. Smith's later account to T. B. H. Stenhouse describes Indians attacking, interpreters failing to intervene, and a relief party arriving 'too late to afford any other assistance than to rescue a few children.'
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.
First trial: hung jury
Lee was tried at Beaver before Judge Jacob Boreman, with Robert N. Baskin among the prosecutors. Philip Klingensmith testified for the prosecution. The jury deadlocked: the Latter-day Saint jurors and one other voted to acquit, three non-Mormons to convict. The prosecution had used the trial to attack Brigham Young.
Second trial: conviction
Retried under U.S. Attorney Sumner Howard, Lee was convicted of murder in the first degree. Howard wrote to Attorney General Alphonso Taft that the case of John D. Lee 'and that alone was tried,' that it became apparent early on there was no evidence connecting the chief authorities of the church with the massacre, and that documents produced by those authorities showed the orders issuing from Salt Lake City were 'directly and positively contrary to all shedding of blood.'
John D. Lee is executed at Mountain Meadowshinge
Lee was taken to the massacre site, seated on his coffin, and shot by a firing squad. James Fennemore photographed the execution and the body on the ground afterward. Lee had refused offers to save his life by charging Brigham Young with ordering the massacre. His confession, edited by his attorney William W. Bishop, was published later that year as Mormonism Unveiled and became a bestseller.
Lee's membership and blessings restored
The First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve met in joint session and authorized the reinstatement of John D. Lee to membership and former blessings; the ordinances were performed in the Salt Lake Temple on 8 and 9 May.
Appears alongside
People who share the most dated events with John Doyle Lee.
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