John D. Lee

John D. Lee (1812-1877)

John D. Lee was a Danite and Mountain Meadows Massacre leader. Photograph courtesy LDS Church Archives.

Family Background

1812. September 12: Born John Doyle Lee in Kaskaskia, Illinois. He married Agatha Woolsey in 1833 and eventually married eighteen plural wives, including three sisters and their widowed mother. Lee fathered sixty children. He gave his youngest wife a divorce so she could marry one of his sons by another wife. Eleven of his nineteen wives left him.

Lee was Brigham Young's brother-in-law and his "adopted son" by sealing.

Danite

1838. Lee and his wife were converted by missionaries in Illinois and were baptized in Far West, Missouri, where he joined a paramilitary group called the "Danites." When Lee and other Mormons tried to vote in Gallatin, Missouri, they were prevented by local toughs. After one Mormon was knocked to the ground, Lee saw John L. Butler give the Danite sign of distress ("placing the right hand to the right temple, the thumb behind the ear"), and heard him yell, "Charge, Danites!"

In the ensuing fight, the eight Danites "knocked down and laid open, in a frightful manner, the skulls of several citizens with a bludgeon."

William Swartzell, one of the eight, recorded that the Danites began foraging the countryside for "honey which they called sweet oil, hogs which they called bear, and cattle which they called buffalo." Lee admitted looting, but denied killing anyone or burning any buildings.

Missionary

1839. Ordained a seventy, Lee served a short mission to Tennessee, where he baptized twenty-seven persons, including Bill Hickman. During the next four years he filled four additional short-term missions, including one to his hometown of Kaskaskia, Illinois.

Policeman

1843. Like many former Danites, Lee served as a city policeman in Nauvoo and guarded Joseph Smith's home. He was also wharfmaster, major in the Nauvoo Legion, and general secretary of Nauvoo seventies.

1844. Campaigning for Joseph Smith's presidential candidacy, Lee said he was told of the Prophet's death by an angelic visitor: "Instead of electing your leader the chief magistrate of this nation—they have Martyrd him in prison—which has hastened his exaltation to the executive chair over this generation."

Council of Fifty Member

1845. March 1: Became one of the first men admitted to the Council of Fifty following the death of Joseph Smith.

Colonizer

1848 Settled in Salt Lake City.

1850. Brigham Young called Lee to accompany George A. Smith in colonizing Iron County. Lee offered to donate $2,000 instead, but Young insisted, "Bro. George wants you to go with him so do I."

For the next twenty-five years Lee tirelessly "converted the raw wilderness into profitable farms, developed large herds of cattle, sheep, and goats, experimented successfully with many new agricultural products, including silk and cotton, founded settlements, built fences, dug irrigation ditches, erected saw-, grist-, and sugar-cane mills, played the role of explorer, dealt sternly or kindly with the Indians as occasion required, [and] established and operated a ferry across the isolated, silt-laden waters of the Colorado." He served as a Parowan alderman (1851), as Washington County's probate judge (1856), and Utah legislator (1857-58).

Mountain Meadows Massacre Leader

1857. In the midst of confusion over the advancing Utah Expeditionary Force, a wagon train of approximately 140 California-bound emigrants headed south from Salt Lake City. Some of the men boasted of possessing a gun which had "shot the guts out of Old Joe Smith" and claimed they would return from California with an army to wipe "every damn Mormon off the earth."

Indians accused the emigrants of poisoning springs, causing the death of several Indians and cattle. The emigrants also had the misfortune of being from the state where Apostle Parley P. Pratt had just been murdered— Arkansas.

Sunday, September 6, the train stopped at Mountain Meadows—eighty-five miles west of Cedar City—for a few weeks of rest before crossing the desert westward. Two days later a large band of Indians attacked the company. When word of the attack reached Cedar City, local Church leaders met and asked Lee, who was the Church's liason with the Indians, to "manage" them. A rider was dispatched to Salt Lake City for instructions.

President Young sent the messenger back, "urging him to spare no horse flesh": bloodshed was to be avoided. But before the messenger reached Cedar City, local Church and military leaders held a priesthood prayer circle and ordered the destruction of the emigrant company.

Under a flag of truce, Lee persuaded the emigrants to surrender their weapons. The wounded were loaded into Lee's wagon; their guns were placed in another wagon with the children. Each adult male emigrant was ordered to march single file beside a Mormon militiaman. At a prearranged signal—"Do your duty!"—each Mormon turned and killed the man he was guarding. Indians rushed from their hiding places and fell upon the defenseless women and older children. Lee personally killed the wounded men in his wagon. Accounts of the number of dead vary, but more than a hundred people were killed. Only the eighteen children under age ten survived.

The affair was first reported to Brigham Young as an Indian massacre. When the truth became known, suspected Church leaders in Cedar City were released and advised to remain quiet. Three were excommunicated. Many moved to Arizona under assumed names.

1870. Brigham Young advised Lee to leave his home at Harmony to build a sawmill with Levi Stewart in the pine forests of Lower Kanab. Two weeks after the mill was completed, Lee was astonished to receive a terse notice of his excommunication. When Brigham Young came to Saint George for the winter, Lee "asked him how it was that: I was held in fellowship for 13 years for an act then committed & all of a sudden I must be cut off from this Church. … He replied that they had never learned the particulars until lately. … I declared my innocence of doeing any thing designedly wrong; what we done was by the mutual consent & council of the high counsellors, Presidents, Bishops & leading men, who Prayed over the Matter & diligently Sought the Mind & will of the Spirit of Truth to direct the affair."

A week later an unsigned letter in the handwriting of Apostle Erastus Snow warned Lee, "If you will consult your own safety & that [of] others, you will not press yourself nor an investigation on others at this time lest you cause others to become accessory with you & thereby force them to inform upon you or suffer. Our advice is, trust no one. Make yourself scarce & keep out of the way."

Scapegoat

1874. A federal grand jury indicted John D. Lee, former Stake President Isaac Haight, and seven others for complicity in the Mountain Meadows Massacre. When Lee, who had been hiding out at his ferry on the Colorado River, visited one of his families in Panguitch, he was captured and tried. After nine months in the Beaver, Utah, jail, Lee was acquitted. But he was remanded to the territorial penitentiary in Sugarhouse to await yet another trial. In 1875 he wrote:

Old Mormon Bull, how came you here?
We have tuged and toiled these many years,
we have been cuffed and kicked with sore abuse
[p.160] and now sent here for penetentiary use.
We both are creatures of some Note.
You are food for Prisoners and I the scap goat.

1876. September: Charges against everyone but Lee were dropped. He was convicted of murder. The verdict was upheld by the Utah Supreme Court.

Execution

1877. March 23: Returned to Mountain Meadows to be executed, Lee was given a moment to speak: "I have but little to say this morning. Of course I feel that I am on the brink of eternity, and the solemnities of eternity should rest upon my mind. … I am ready to die. I trust in God. I have no fear. Death has no terror. … I ask the Lord my God, if my labors are done, to receive my spirit."

	A Book of Mormons Richard S. Van Wagoner and Steven C. Walker Copyright 1982, Signature Books Salt Lake City, Utah Contents

	Family Background 1812. September 12: Born John Doyle Lee in Kaskaskia, Illinois. He married Agatha Woolsey in 1833 and eventually married eighteen plural wives, including three sisters and their widowed mother. Lee fathered sixty children. He gave his youngest wife a divorce so she could marry one of his sons by another wife. Eleven of his nineteen wives left him. Lee was Brigham Young's brother-in-law and his "adopted son" by sealing. Danite 1838. Lee and his wife were converted by missionaries in Illinois and were baptized in Far West, Missouri, where he joined a paramilitary group called the "Danites." When Lee and other Mormons tried to vote in Gallatin, Missouri, they were prevented by local toughs. After one Mormon was knocked to the ground, Lee saw John L. Butler give the Danite sign of distress ("placing the right hand to the right temple, the thumb behind the ear"), and heard him yell, "Charge, Danites!" In the ensuing fight, the eight Danites "knocked down and laid open, in a frightful manner, the skulls of several citizens with a bludgeon." William Swartzell, one of the eight, recorded that the Danites began foraging the countryside for "honey which they called sweet oil, hogs which they called bear, and cattle which they called buffalo." Lee admitted looting, but denied killing anyone or burning any buildings. Missionary 1839. Ordained a seventy, Lee served a short mission to Tennessee, where he baptized twenty-seven persons, including Bill Hickman. During the next four years he filled four additional short-term missions, including one to his hometown of Kaskaskia, Illinois. Policeman 1843. Like many former Danites, Lee served as a city policeman in Nauvoo and guarded Joseph Smith's home. He was also wharfmaster, major in the Nauvoo Legion, and general secretary of Nauvoo seventies. 1844. Campaigning for Joseph Smith's presidential candidacy, Lee said he was told of the Prophet's death by an angelic visitor: "Instead of electing your leader the chief magistrate of this nation—they have Martyrd him in prison—which has hastened his exaltation to the executive chair over this generation." Council of Fifty Member 1845. March 1: Became one of the first men admitted to the Council of Fifty following the death of Joseph Smith. Colonizer 1848 Settled in Salt Lake City. 1850. Brigham Young called Lee to accompany George A. Smith in colonizing Iron County. Lee offered to donate $2,000 instead, but Young insisted, "Bro. George wants you to go with him so do I." For the next twenty-five years Lee tirelessly "converted the raw wilderness into profitable farms, developed large herds of cattle, sheep, and goats, experimented successfully with many new agricultural products, including silk and cotton, founded settlements, built fences, dug irrigation ditches, erected saw-, grist-, and sugar-cane mills, played the role of explorer, dealt sternly or kindly with the Indians as occasion required, [and] established and operated a ferry across the isolated, silt-laden waters of the Colorado." He served as a Parowan alderman (1851), as Washington County's probate judge (1856), and Utah legislator (1857-58). Mountain Meadows Massacre Leader 1857. In the midst of confusion over the advancing Utah Expeditionary Force, a wagon train of approximately 140 California-bound emigrants headed south from Salt Lake City. Some of the men boasted of possessing a gun which had "shot the guts out of Old Joe Smith" and claimed they would return from California with an army to wipe "every damn Mormon off the earth." Indians accused the emigrants of poisoning springs, causing the death of several Indians and cattle. The emigrants also had the misfortune of being from the state where Apostle Parley P. Pratt had just been murdered— Arkansas. Sunday, September 6, the train stopped at Mountain Meadows—eighty-five miles west of Cedar City—for a few weeks of rest before crossing the desert westward. Two days later a large band of Indians attacked the company. When word of the attack reached Cedar City, local Church leaders met and asked Lee, who was the Church's liason with the Indians, to "manage" them. A rider was dispatched to Salt Lake City for instructions. President Young sent the messenger back, "urging him to spare no horse flesh": bloodshed was to be avoided. But before the messenger reached Cedar City, local Church and military leaders held a priesthood prayer circle and ordered the destruction of the emigrant company. Under a flag of truce, Lee persuaded the emigrants to surrender their weapons. The wounded were loaded into Lee's wagon; their guns were placed in another wagon with the children. Each adult male emigrant was ordered to march single file beside a Mormon militiaman. At a prearranged signal—"Do your duty!"—each Mormon turned and killed the man he was guarding. Indians rushed from their hiding places and fell upon the defenseless women and older children. Lee personally killed the wounded men in his wagon. Accounts of the number of dead vary, but more than a hundred people were killed. Only the eighteen children under age ten survived. The affair was first reported to Brigham Young as an Indian massacre. When the truth became known, suspected Church leaders in Cedar City were released and advised to remain quiet. Three were excommunicated. Many moved to Arizona under assumed names. 1870. Brigham Young advised Lee to leave his home at Harmony to build a sawmill with Levi Stewart in the pine forests of Lower Kanab. Two weeks after the mill was completed, Lee was astonished to receive a terse notice of his excommunication. When Brigham Young came to Saint George for the winter, Lee "asked him how it was that: I was held in fellowship for 13 years for an act then committed & all of a sudden I must be cut off from this Church. … He replied that they had never learned the particulars until lately. … I declared my innocence of doeing any thing designedly wrong; what we done was by the mutual consent & council of the high counsellors, Presidents, Bishops & leading men, who Prayed over the Matter & diligently Sought the Mind & will of the Spirit of Truth to direct the affair." A week later an unsigned letter in the handwriting of Apostle Erastus Snow warned Lee, "If you will consult your own safety & that [of] others, you will not press yourself nor an investigation on others at this time lest you cause others to become accessory with you & thereby force them to inform upon you or suffer. Our advice is, trust no one. Make yourself scarce & keep out of the way." Scapegoat 1874. A federal grand jury indicted John D. Lee, former Stake President Isaac Haight, and seven others for complicity in the Mountain Meadows Massacre. When Lee, who had been hiding out at his ferry on the Colorado River, visited one of his families in Panguitch, he was captured and tried. After nine months in the Beaver, Utah, jail, Lee was acquitted. But he was remanded to the territorial penitentiary in Sugarhouse to await yet another trial. In 1875 he wrote: Old Mormon Bull, how came you here? We have tuged and toiled these many years, we have been cuffed and kicked with sore abuse [p.160] and now sent here for penetentiary use. We both are creatures of some Note. You are food for Prisoners and I the scap goat. 1876. September: Charges against everyone but Lee were dropped. He was convicted of murder. The verdict was upheld by the Utah Supreme Court. Execution 1877. March 23: Returned to Mountain Meadows to be executed, Lee was given a moment to speak: "I have but little to say this morning. Of course I feel that I am on the brink of eternity, and the solemnities of eternity should rest upon my mind. … I am ready to die. I trust in God. I have no fear. Death has no terror. … I ask the Lord my God, if my labors are done, to receive my spirit."



	John D. Lee (with neckscarf) sitting on his coffin, firing squad in background. Courtesy LDS Church Archives.


	Lee shook hands with those in attendance, had his picture taken sitting on his coffin, gave away articles of his outer clothing, and instructed the firing squad to aim for his heart so as not to mutilate his body. He was shot while sitting on the edge of his casket. He was sixty-five. His body was taken by the family to Panguitch, Utah, for burial. 1961. Reinstated in the Church by authority of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve. Sources Brooks, Juanita. John D. Lee. Glendale, California: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1972. Cleland, Robert Grass, and Brooks, Juanita, eds. A Mormon Chronicle: The Diaries of John D. Lee 1848-1876. 2 vols. San Marino, California: Huntington Library, 1955. Deseret News, 21 April 1894. Lee, John D. Mormonism Unveiled. St. Louis: Bryan, Brand, & Co., 1877. Salt Lake City, Utah. LDS Church Archives. John D. Lee Journals.