From the Journal of Jesse N Smith:

>Sept. 3 [1857]
"An immigrant train passed. I went home and sold them some flour and salt; this company was afterwards massacred at Mountain Meadows."

A couple of things about this entry puzzle me.

First of all, why did he feel compelled to make an obviously back dated claim that would show that he had defied Brigham's strict order not to render aid of any kind to the Fanchers?

My other question is why did he not suffer any punishment for this blatant act of perfidy? There was one other compassionate resident of Parowan who was severely beaten with a fence stake and left crippled for life because he had also sold food to the immigrants. There is no mention of that violent incident at all in grandfather's journal.

My best guess would be that he was spared retribution because he was a cousin of Horny Joe and apostle George A Smith but who would know?

I have been unable to uncover any sort of explanation so suppose I shall remain forever perplexed.

Shummy Wrote:
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> There was one other compassionate resident of Parowan
> who was severely beaten with a fence stake and
> left crippled for life because he had also sold
> food to the immigrants.

That was my great great grandfather. The worst thing about the incident was that he later claimed the church's thugs were justified in attacking him. That really says something about the cult mindset. I suppose it may also have been influenced by the brain damage he suffered in the beating. They say he was never the same after that.

The back dated claim in your g-grandfather's journal may have been a fake entry that he created as part of the church's general cover up of the massacre. Other journals were destroyed or had pages ripped out.

It may be he kept his journal private and not made the subject of public talk or ridicule (ridicule for doing a good deed, I know, that's the insanity about the whole thing.)

Is it possible it didn't become published until well after his death by future posterity?

Yeah, that would explain such a strange entry.

What was your g-g-grandfather's name btw?

His name was William Leany.

You can read about the incident in Will Bagley's "Blood of the Prophets".

My g-g-grandfather lived in Parowan at the time, was a member of the Nauvoo Legion, and was one of the official "Indian Interpreters" at the time. Three days after the MMM, he named his newly-born son "William Dame." I highly suspect he had something to do with MMM, but can't find any direct evidence for it.

I'm sure our three grandpas knew each other. And maybe some of us are related :0

Mine was William LeFevre, btw.

My two g-grandfathers present in the area at the time of the MMM were Jen Nielson and Lemuel Redd, Sr.

I do not think either of them were present at the MMM but Jens Nielson was definitely present at the Circleville Massacre, even though he did not participate and tried to stop it (according to what has been passed down.)

Lemuel Redd was a firm friend of John D. Lee, and stood by him even after he had become a pariah.

Lemuel Redd's second (plural) wife was Sarah Chamberlain, whose mother Terresa Morse Chamberlain left her husband Solomon Chamberlain to marry John D. Lee.

That's enough family history.

I've actually read Blood of the Prophets twice. I remember the incident which Will described but had forgotten the name.

That's a chilling thought kolob. :o)

I wonder if Lemuel was born to Mormons?

It would appear that he had a son with that same very un-Mormon name.

Lemuel's parents were John and Elizabeth Redd.

John and Elizabeth were converted to Mormonism by John D. Lee. i think they were converted after Lemuel was born.

I don't think "Lemuel" is an exclusively Mormon name. In fact, I don't think a Mormon would name his child "Lemuel."

Lemuel's oldest son by his first wife was also named Lemuel.

Lemuel Jr.'s house in Bluff, Utah is still standing. Alas, Lemuel Sr.'s house in New Harmony that he bought from John D. Lee is no longer standing.

Lemuel's job in Bluff, Utah was tax collector.

He did a very good job, but he had good incentive. His salary was a collection of the take.

Lots of Shumways in San Juan County (pacheco refugees I think.)

There is my way, your way and the Shumway.

loislane Wrote:
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> There is my way, your way and the Shumway.

That's right lois.......it's my way or the highway. :o)

Well I found this one portolan. It's touted as the smoking gun sermon but I dunno. What do you think?

http://www.truthandgrace.com/1857GeorgeSmithSermon0913.htm

Hi Shummy: Thanks very much. I have a copy of that sermon from the Journal of Discourses. It is a really good one. BTW, I just noticed your message below. I live in Mata Ortiz, Chihuahua just ten minutes from Colonia Juarez. I am a Mennonite, but am very active in the history of the colonies. I just got back from the MHA annual conference where I gave a presentation on the 1912 Mormon Exodus from here. What is your family name? Still have folks here in the colonies? Thanks again for the tip. I don't know where to find minutes of meetings, sermons, etc. for the smallish towns of southern Utah. I guess I will ask some of my Church History Department friends.

Good Morning:
I am wondering if any of you might be able to give some advice on where I might find sermons or testimonies from the time period immediately preceding MMM (maybe a year or so) that were given in the various communities in Southern Utah where the participants in MMM came from? Do any of you know if Jedediah Grant ever preached that far south during the reformation? I would think there would be transcripts of George A. Smith's sermons somewhere? Thanks for your help or advice in my quest to find original 1857ish sermons from Southern Utah.

Well I don't know about you, but I think there's something "miraculous" going on: the ancestors of 3 of my favourite posters all lived in Parowan...

Must be something in the water ;-)

Tom in Paris

Parowan was known as Salt Lake South before Cedar City and St George got going.

Jesse N. is my g-g-grandpa, from wife #5.

I hope he really did help the wagon train. Horrible that another man was beaten for doing the same!

Mormons were a very violent group, for claiming to be so religious and Christ-like. It's depressing to hear some of the stories from those early settlers.

Pray, pay and obey... I guess not much has changed, other than the punishments for not doing those things.

The Mormon god doesn't seem to care much about his followers.

Hello there cousin.

Hey, Shummy!

Are you from AZ? I grew up in Snowflake.

I wonder how many of grandpa Jesse's descendants have left the church... Not many from my group, at least not that I know of. I hope more are at least questioning things. It is pretty taboo to speak anything negative, so it's hard to find like-minded relatives. I'm one of the few black sheep.

Thanks for sharing the story -- I need to see if I can get a hold of his journal.

Yeah I was born in Snowflake but thankfully we moved to NM when I was 3 so I grew up in a town with very few Mormons. I now live in Salt Lake South aka Mesa.

My oldest sister and myself are the only black sheep I know of but I always look around the room during prayers at Shummy reunions to see who else has eyes open. Pretty sure there are a few more exmos-in-waiting.

You have my sympathies for growing up in Snowflake. Did you exit the morg when living there?

Unfortunately the journal of JNS is out of print.

I enjoyed reading the part where I found out that as Snowflake stake prez he was in charge of establishing the plyg colonies in Mexico where my Mom was born.

I only recently left the morg, but left Snowflake years ago (DH calls it "Snowflake, UT") right after hs graduation. I did all the things good Mormons do: went to BYU, served a mission, taught at the MTC while finishing school at BYU, married in the temple... Wasted too many years giving the geriatric white men power over my brain and body.

Thankfully, DH is also out and our kids are young and un-brainwashed. My siblings and parents are all still in rural AZ, though, so there's no escaping Mormon mentality completely. We are lucky to live in an area with lots of diversity and no one cares anything about your religion or lack of.

I might be able to track down a copy of the journal. Probably interesting reading.

I hope you're not roasting to death down there in the valley!

@ portolan:
My mom's family name was Richardson. She was born in Colonia Diaz which was destroyed by revolutionaries after my grandfather Charles Edmund Richardson had fled with his 4 wives and 36 children back to the states.

@ Chica:
No worries, I learned to live and work in the heat as a young man. I'm just glad I no longer have to work in it. I'm pretty sure if I end up in hell it will be a relief from the hell on earth here in Mesa.

Shummy:
Your grandfather was a legend here. Mechanic, doctor, and lawyer all wrapped up in one person. He had a ranch near Colonia Diaz and two homes in Colonia Juarez where he did a lot of lawyering. He was one of the very few Mexican citizens among the colonists and maybe the only one to graduate from a Mexican University (down in Mexico City). Colonia Diaz did burn down in January 1913 (or so), but it was probably the result of a fire that got out of control. There was no motivation for anyone to destroy the homes or other buildings there. No one will ever know for sure unless something is found in a government archive. Take care.

Well I always thought it was destroyed because it was named after the hated dictator Diaz who had welcomed the Mormons.

You're right about grandpa Edmund. I grew up hearing about how wonderful he was. He went to the university to learn Mexican law and to be able to litigate on behalf of the Mormons. He had also become fluent in Spanish as a missionary before ever setting foot in Mejico. Sad to say with all his education and expertise he was pretty much a failure when he got back to the Gila Valley of AZ.

My aunt Annie wrote a book she called "Heartbeats of Colonia Diaz". There are a few copies in scattered libraries where you might be able to find one.

She also co-authored an epic tome about "Papa" with my own Mom under the unassuming title: "Charles Edmund Richardson, Man of Destiny". There are a lot of copies of that one floating around if you don't already have one.

I attended BYU with a couple of kids from the Colonies and I learned to recognize the peculiar accent of their English.

I actually grew up in the bootheel of New Mexico not far from Diaz where Anglos were a minority so my Spanish ain't too bad other than the Mexican accent con que hablo.

Yes, I have both of those books - I have a digital copy of Heartbeats. To bring this more back on topic, I am trying to track down the MMM perpetrators who hid out here in the colonies. There were at least four. One never left here and is buried in the old Colonia Juarez cemetery. The colonies were a handy place to hide for a number of folks including polygamous general authorities. We even had one character named James Nathaniel Walker who was an Arizona pioneer who was arrested for incest, sentenced to 10 years in Yuma and escaped, making his way to Colonia Dublan. The folk stories say he was killed by Villistas in October 2012, but that isn't possible. There were no Villistas then. He just kind of disappears. I am trying to help some of his family figure out what really happened to him. It is a mystery wrapped up in an enigma. Take care, Phil

Thanks Phil, I'll try to find more about the Walker character.

I'm wondering if you have seen the piece that Vice did about Romney's relatives and the drug war in the Colonies.

You can plainly hear that peculiar accent I was talking about:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpIyaIHsJbc

Hi Shummy:

Yes, I have seen that VICE report. Very interesting. There are a few bios, reports, etc. about Walker floating around the internet but they contain lots of inaccuracies. He lived here from 1890 til some time but there is virtually nothing about him in colony or civil records. His families suffered for years because of his misdeeds and are still looking for closure. Take care.

I just received a note from my sister after she had read this thread. She reminded me that we have another relative who was an actual MMM perpetrator.

Nephi Johnson was a half brother of our g-g-grandmother. She also told me something about NJ that I had not been aware of.

He was evidently the impetus that motivated Juanita Brooks to investigate the incident at Mountain Meadow. On his death bed he made repeated requests to see his "teacher".  When she was summoned to his bedside he would rant "blood, blood" and so on which roused her curiosity to know more.

And the rest is now history.

Juanita Brook's account of Nephi Johnson's desire to talk with her is riveting. Very interesting account.

Glad you enjoyed it portolan.

My sister was impressed with your knowledge of our grandfather and your scholarship of all things de las colonias.