THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE – The surviving children. Doctor Forney, Indian Agent, had arrived at Salt Lake City, having in his custody 16 children, the survivors of the Mountain Meadow massacre. The Doctor has written a long letter which appears in the “Valley Tan,” describing his visit to the Paiute Indians, whom he represents to be in a very destitute condition. 13 of the children were got at Santa Clara and 3 in CedarCity. The following, says Doctor Forney, is all I have been able to collect of the history of these unfortunate, fatherless, motherless and penniless children:
John Calvin, now 7 or 8 years old; does not remember his name; says his family lived at Horse Head, Johnson County, Arkansas. (John Calvin Miller)
Ambrose Mirona, about 7 years, and William Taggit, 41/2 years, brothers. The Tackitts also lived in JohnsonCounty. (Emberson Milum and William Tackitt)
Prudence Angeline, 6 years, and Annie, about 3 years, these 2 are said to be sisters. (Prudence Angeline and Georgianna Dunlap)
Rebecca, 9 years, Louisa, 5 years, and Sarah, 31/2 years from Dunlap. (Rebecca, Louisa, and Sarah Dunlap)
Betsey, 6 years, and Annie, 3 years; said to be sisters; these know nothing of their family or residence. (Martha Elizabeth and Sarah Frances Baker)
Charles Francher, 7 or 8 years, and his sister Annie, 31/2 years. (Kit Carson and Triphena Fancher)
Sophronia or Mary Huff, 6 years old, and Elisha W. Huff (Saphrona Huff and probably Joseph Miller)
A boy, no account of him; those among whom he lived call him William. (William Twitty Baker)
Frances Hawn or Horn, 41/2 years old.(probably Mary Miller)
I have come to the conclusion, after different conversations with these children, that most of them came from Johnson County, Arkansas. Most of them told me that they have grandfathers and grandmothers in the States.
Mr. Hamblin has good reasons for believing that a boy about 4 years of age, and belonging to the party in question, is among the Navajo Indians, at or near the Colorado River. (probably Felix Marion Jones) I will keep the children under my immediate supervision until the person appointed to take them to Fort Smith arrives.
(from elsewhere in paper)
This done, we proceeded to the residence of the man Hamblin, a Mormon, in whose possession the children were. We found them in a most wretched condition, half starved, half naked, filthy, infested with vermin, and their eyes diseased from the cruel neglect to which they had been exposed.
After 3 days in Santa Clara, where clothing was made for the children, we returned with Hamblin and 10 of the children to CedarCity, there obtained 2 more, and another at Paint Creek. When we passed through BeaverCity, some of the Mormon men hooted at the children, and called them the survivors of Sebastopol and Waterloo.
Among the children are some who retain a very vivid impression of much connected to the massacre. A very intelligent little girl, named Becky Dunlap, pointed out to me at Santa Clara, an Englishman named Tellus, whom she says she saw murder her father. She also states that Hamblin's Indian boy killed her 2 sisters. Both she and a boy named Miram recognized dresses and a part of the jewelry belonging to their mothers, worn by the wives of John D. Lee, the Mormon Bishop of Harmony. The boy, Miram, identified his father's oxen, which are now owned by Lee.
The 2 oldest boys told me that after they were in the corral, from whence the water had been cut off, Bishop Hight, of Cedar City, came into the corral, and told the emigrants that the Indians did not want anything but their cattle, and that if they would lay down their arms their lives would be spared. They did so, and started to go to Santa Clara, when they were attacked by a mixed party of whites and Indians, and all killed except the children. The boy Miram stated, that after the massacre was over, he saw the Bishop of Coal Creek washing the paint from his face, which he had used to disguise himself as an Indian.