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A Book of Mormons Richard S. Van Wagoner and Steven C. Walker Copyright 1982, Signature Books |
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Bill Hickman (1815-1883)
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Bill Hickman was a lawman, "lifeguard to prophets," and outlaw. Photograph courtesy LDS Church Archives. |
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Family Background 1815. April 16: Born William Adams Hickman, eldest of thirteen children, in Warren County, Kentucky. His family moved to Missouri, where he became a skilled woodsman. In 1832 he taught in a small rural school near his home. 1832. Married Bernetta Burckhardt and later Sarah Elizabeth Luce, Minerva Wade, Sarah Basford Meacham, Eliza Virginia Johnson, Margaret Indian, Hanna Dyantha Harr, Martha Diana Case, Mary Lucretia Harr, and Mary Jane Hetherington. Most of his wives divorced him in 1867. "Each [wife] agreed to going, and doing the best we could for our children." Only his first wife remained with him. He was the father of thirty-four children.
1839. A Methodist, Hickman "lived a quiet and religious life, making theology my principal study. I investigated every religious belief I had ever heard of, and among the balance, Mormonism, which I had supposed was trivial and trashy, but soon found I was mistaken. I continued to investigate it for two years." Baptized by John D. Lee, he traveled to Nauvoo and was ordained a seventy by Joseph Smith.
1840. In Nauvoo, Hickman was one of twelve "life guards" for Joseph Smith. 1846. Fought in the "Battle of Nauvoo: … How many were killed I never learned. I had been anxious from a boy to be in a battle, but I assure you this fight took a great deal of starch out of me. My appetite for such fun has never been so craving since." According to Hickman, a half-breed Indian Church member had a falling-out with Brigham Young in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and threatened to lead Indian attacks against the Mormons. Brigham Young "sent me word to look out for him. I found him, used him up, scalped him, and took his scalp to Brigham Young, saying: 'Here is the scalp of the man who was going to have a war-dance over your scalp; you may now have one over his, if you wish.' He took it and thanked me very much. He said in all probability I had saved his life, and that some day he would make me a great man in the kingdom." A short time later, Hickman said, he was "called upon to go for a notorious horse-thief, who had sworn to take the life of Orson Hyde. I socked him away, and made my report, which was very satisfactory. Hyde was well pleased, and said he knew I had saved his life."
1848. At Council Bluffs, Omaha Indians from across the Missouri River were stealing stock from the Saints. Hearing a report of Indians lurking about, "I took my pistol and knife… and went in search, crawling through the brush with all the quietness of a cat after a mouse. … After watching about an hour, I saw three Indians with ropes and bridle, and armed with bows and arrows. I took deliberate aim, having two in range; one fell, and one ran towards me, the third ran the other way. The one that ran towards me fell about three rods off. The ball had cut the back off his head, and made him crazy; but I was to him as he rose, and shot him dead. I took their bows, arrows, ropes, and bridles, and put them into a pile, went to town, told a few of my friends, who were well pleased, but thought we had best say nothing about it, as there might be some exceptions taken to it by United States agents." Unfortunately, the Indians were innocent Pawnee. When word of their deaths got around, Hickman was excommunicated for "violating church policy of friendliness towards the Indians." 1849. Called with a group of 150 men to clear out a group of Indians who were harassing settlers on the Provo River. The Indians had called the Mormons "all petticoats and won't fight." After personally killing the chief, Big Elk, Hickman reported, "I took off his head, for I had heard the old mountaineer, Jim Bridger, say he would give a hundred dollars for it. I tied it in his blanket and laid it on a fiat rock; hid his gun and bow and arrrows, forty-two number one good arrows, and awaited the arrival of the company. "I had to laugh. Those rear fellows who had been in the habit of picking up everything, had untied the blanket that was around the chiefs head, but on seeing what it contained left it untied with the head sitting in the middle of it, entirely untouched. I took the head, gun, bow and arrows, mounted my horse, took a pretty spuaw [sic] behind me and a sick pappoose in front, and was off for our quarters."
1850. Rebaptized, Hickman eventually became a member of the West Jordan bishopric.
1854. Brigham Young appointed Hickman sheriff, prosecuting attorney, and assessor for Green River County (later Wyoming). He was also elected a member of the Utah territorial legislature. 1856. Joined businessman Hiram Kimball and frontiersman Orrin Porter Rockwell in a mail-carrying venture. Rockwell carried the mail from Fort Laramie to Salt Lake and back; Hickman carried it from Fort Laramie to Independence, Missouri. The company eventually merged with the Brigham Young Express Company against the advice of Hickman, who knew "I would have to be gone three months or more, suffer many privations, be at a heavy expense, and the way they had things fixed, not make a dollar." When the Utah Expeditionary Force left Fort Leavenworth, the mail contract was suspended, the express company went defunct, and Hickman lost $1000.
1857. A blessing given by Church Patriarch John Young, shortly before Hickman embarked on a mail run, promised, "You shall have power over all your enemies, even to set your feet upon their necks, and no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper. … When danger approaches you the Angel of Life shall be with you to forewarn you of those things. If you are faithful, you shall assist in avenging the blood of the prophets of God…Not a hair of your head shall fall to the ground by the enemy." 1859. An argument over stolen property between Hickman and Lot Huntington escalated into a wild Christmas Day shootout in Salt Lake City. Forty shots were exchanged, two striking Hickman. This altercation, along with his theft of army horses from the Utah Expeditionary Forces and his association with "bad men," made Hickman a target for Church action. Orson Hyde, a friend since Nauvoo, acknowledged Hickman's guilt but "gave it as the word of the Lord to set him free for the past, and bid him go and sin no more." 1860. According to Brigham Young's office journal, "Mayor Smoot had a conversation with the President about Wm. A. Hickman, observing people see him come in and out the office, and that leads them to suppose he is sanctioned in all he does by the President. He also observed that dogs were necessary to take care of the flock, but if the Shepherd's dogs hurt the sheep it would be time to remove them." Hickman was disfellowshipped by the Third Quorum of Seventy. 1868. Excommunicated for reasons not completely clear. Official Church records cite "apostasy," but Hickman declared it was because he left the territory "without permission." When he asked Brigham Young if there were any other charges against him, "He said yes, I had been intimate with the Smith boys, Joseph's sons …. I told him I only went to see them out of respect to their father, and never had a private chat with them. This he was not disposed to believe. … I asked him what more was against me, and he said he did not know, I asked him why I was disfellowshipped. He seemed beat, and was mad, and said, 'If it was not right to have done it, it would not have been done,' and got up and left." August 15: Hickman wrote Brigham Young, "I feel bad to have so many false charges brought against me. I feel bad when I think you do not feel well towards me. What am I to do when I do not know of wrong I have done? How or of what can I repent? I wish you would point out a course and have it under your immediate notice for me to take, not under [Bishop] Gardner." A postscript added, "I know I was always your friend at home or abroad and true in every sense of the word. I do hope you'll be kind to me—how bad I feel, you do not know."
1871. After killing "Spanish Frank," seducer of his wife, Eliza, Hickman was unable to resolve his difficulties with President Young. He published a sensational autobiography, Brigham's Destroying Angel: Being the Life, Confession, and Startling Disclosures of the Notorious Bill Hickman, purporting to give, in vivid detail, an account of his murderous deeds instigated by Brigham Young. Hickman apparently prepared a very rough draft for ghost writer J.H. Beadle, a prominent anti-Mormon journalist intent on implicating Brigham Young in numerous alleged crimes, especially in the 1857 murder of Richard Yates. Though Hickman testified that "Brigham Young had ordered him to kill Yates," he called Brigham's Destroying Angel "a lie from the wild boar story onward." Hickman's disclaimer may have been related to his disappointment in not receiving a promised $50,000 for the book—or an honest, albeit belated retraction. In either case, the book is an important document of Mormon folklore. At the final meeting between the two, Brigham Young asked Hickman if he planned to rejoin the Church. Hickman said that he "had for three years tried to find out what was against me, and could not; consequently, I expected to remain as I was." Later he added, "I had no desire to belong to his Church, but would have accepted a [p.124] re-union for the purpose of having more peace and a better show to do business and raise my children." 1872. Brigham Young and others were indicted on testimony provided by Hickman. The charges were eventually dropped.
1883. Seriously wounded in the groin in his 1859 gun battle with Lot Huntington, Hickman recovered only partially and suffered a nearly fatal typhoid infection on two separate occasions. His death on August 21 at the age of sixty-eight was attributed to "diarrhea and old bullet wounds." He was buried in Lander, Wyoming, though rumor "has it that the body was exhumed by a physician from the East and his skull now adorns his private collection." 1934. May 5: As authorized by President Heber J. Grant, all former priesthood and temple blessings were restored. Sources |
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