ALEXANDER HAMILTON LOVERIDGE, a MORMON SHOOTER and CLUBBER, b. 4/14/1828 - d. 3/3/1905, a sergeant of his platoon in Company F of Major John M. Higbee's 3 rd Battalion. born in Bristol Hollow, Ontario County which then adjoined Lake
Ontario in western New York.
It was probably Monday, September 7, when Cedar City herdsman Henry Higgins observed Loveridge among a militia detachment leaving Cedar City for Mountain Meadows. John D. Lee maintained that Loveridge was
present at military council at the Meadows on Thursday the 10 th and for the massacre on Friday the 11 th . In 1859, Loveridge was named in Judge John Cradlebaugh's arrest warrant.
Biographical Sketch
*NOTE: Almost all of us descendants of the Massacre Victims feel sorry for the Mormon participant descendants but when they write obvious untruths about their ancestor participant's roll in the massacre or try to justify the massacre like many Mormons do by pointing out Haun's Mill, the Parley Pratt murder, the alleged Joseph Smith martyrdom and the alleged persecutions in Illinois and Missouri. There is absolutely nothing that can justify the cowardly, cold blooded killings at Mountain Meadows, no, not even BRIGHAM YOUNGS'S GREED! The good LORD will make the final judgment not us Nor the LDS Church .
FAMILY HISTORY:
Alexander Hamilton Loveridge, with his mother and her other children, joined the church; their father was an unbeliever. They endured all the hardships of pioneer times. He drove an ox team across the plains for Thomas Ashton to bring immigrants to Utah. He gave two oxen to the church to help bring immigrants to Utah, one ox died on the way. He came to Lehi in 1851 and in 1853 he was sent by the L.D.S. Church to Cedar City, Utah, to help protect the saints from the Indians and teach irrigation to these people. The following is an article I copied from the records in the church offices. There were other names, but I did not copy any but Grandfather Alexander Hamilton Loveridge.
This is as I copied it: "Following is a list of persons who started for Parowan, Iron Co., Utah, about this time, November 7, 1853, name, Alexander Hamilton Loveridge; age, 24; years in church, 8; Seventies quorum, 1; married ladies, 1; boys under 14 years, 1; girls under 14 years, 1; number of wagons, 1; spades and shovels, 2; tools, 1; number of oxen, 2; number of cows, 2; number of bread stuff, 500 pounds, number of rifles, 1; number of rounds of ammunition, 20; number of pounds of powder, 1/4; number of caps, 80; number of pounds of lead, 2; from Lehi - Nauvoo, H County, Illinois." On the way Grandfather drove his oxen and cows together, milking the cows on the way.
While in Cedar City he lived in a dugout, a room cut in the ground, with a fireplace in one end and a little seat or bench on each side of the fireplace. There were no chairs. John Jacobs and his wife and Alexander Hamilton Loveridge and his wife lived in this little room. Grandfather had two small children and on March 27, 1854, their third child, Alexander Hamilton Loveridge, Jr., was born. He was one of the first white children born in Cedar City. Food was scarce.
This was about the time of the Mountain Meadow Massacre. This terrible slaughter of men was blamed on the Indians, but the truth is that white men had dressed as Indians. It was said that travelers going to California for gold had poisoned the water to kill the Mormons and this murder was the result. The Church was really upset about it. John D. Lee was executed for being the leader. NOTE: AH Loveridge was sought by the Federal Marshall's as being one of the participants.
After being in Cedar City for some time, they were called back to Lehi and they lived there all of their lives. Grandfather was a very resourceful man in every way; even on a desert he never gave up. If his wagon broke down, in some way with whatever he could get he repaired it and on he went. He was a farmer and a cooper by trade, making barrels and tubs and also brooms. The people at this time raised their own broom corn. His first home was inside the old fort wall on the northwest side. These walls enclosed four of our city blocks, encircling an oval shaped piece of land. About 1865 he built another home on Second West between First and Second South, south of the First Ward Chapel. He helped to build this chapel, the first meetinghouse in Lehi. He also worked on the Salt Lake Temple.
He had a farm and some grassland, which in these early days was covered with water. He had to wade in this water, about six inches deep, cut the tall grass with a scythe, pull it to the dry land with a rake, dry it, and then haul it to his home to feed his cattle in the wintertime He also raised flax. He would haul it to the mill pond, put it into the water to rot; then dry it and take it home where Grandmother and their children would break and whip it. Then Grandmother would spin and weave it into cloth to make clothing for her family. The wagon box Grandfather brought across the plains was placed on the north side of his home and for years it was there; I remember it and on the picture of his home it is shown there. When Johnson's Army came to Fairfield, Utah, or Camp Floyd, he bought a U.S. harness with wide leader straps from the soldiers for his oxen. The soldiers traded with the people of Lehi; it helped both the soldiers and the families. Wagons, wagon covers, army blankets, dishes, etc., were traded for eggs, butter, vegetables and chickens.
So the coming of the Army helped the settlers get the many things they needed. Grandfather Loveridge was the first man in Lehi to drive his oxen with a collar instead of a yoke. At one time he drove a mule and an ox together. He had an old-fashioned cultivator to cultivate his corn. So that the oxen would not eat the corn, he made a nose sack of gunnysack, with holes so the oxen could breathe, to cover their mouths. This also kept the flies from bothering the oxen. He cut his grain with a cradle or a sickle, and threshed it out by beating it with a flail or by cattle tramping it out. The wind blew the chaff from the grain. In 1852 sugar beet seed was brought to Lehi, and molasses was made from the beets instead of sugar. That was just the beginning of the beet sugar industry in Lehi. The following was related to me by John Woodhouse, a nephew of Grandfather: Grandfather Loveridge had a team of yellow horses and went for wood out in Cedar Valley in West Canyon. He would cook his breakfast in what was called "The Big Hollow."
In the winter to earn more money he would go to the Boulder Mountains in Rush Valley to burn charcoal for the smelters. The men would dig a pit, put the pinon pine in this, cover it with dirt and start it to burn. It took two weeks to burn a pit of charcoal. He was paid 250 per bushel for the charcoal, and there were '100 bushels to each pit. The smelter was on the shore of Rush Lake at Slug town. Some of the charcoal was sent to Sandy, Utah, by railroad. The following is another story told to me by John Woodhouse: Grandfather Loveridge had some mules he bought from the soldiers of Johnson's Army when they were called away from Fairfield, Utah. Some time after they left, the Government sent some soldiers back to this part of the country to round up all mules and horses with the Government brand on them. Grandfather had these mules with his wagon at the old tithing office, where he had brought some potatoes for tithing.
The soldiers saw the mule and were going to take them away from him, telling him to unhook the mule from the wagon. Frank Molen and Joseph Thomas, a brother-in-law of Grand father, saw that the soldiers were going to take the mules. They told the soldiers that these mules belonged to Grandfather and that he had bought them from the soldiers. These two men feared no one and were good shots with their guns: they could and would fight. The soldiers insisted on taking the mules, so a fight started. Thomas picked up one of the soldiers and threw him into the watering trough. This stopped the fight and the soldiers went on their way without the mules. Grandfather had the last ox team in Lehi. The grasshoppers ate their crops; the Indians would kill the people every time they could get a chance; with his large family he had many hardships.
His wife died when their eleventh child was born, the child living only a little while after the mother died. His son Alexander Hamilton Loveridge, Jr., did some boyish trick and there was to be a trial. He was to ask forgiveness, a punishment for everything done in those days. He left home and for 20 years every one thought he was dead. Grandfather passed away thinking his son was dead.
The lawyer that settled Grandfather's estate said, "We will count him dead." But he came back and lived here in Lehi and in Provo where he passed away years after. Parents and children had many sad experiences. I remember Grandfather's bed. I thought it was grand. It was of dark wood with a high head and foot. The bottom or springs were of small rope laced in and out in squares to hold up the mattress. In olden times these mattresses were made of straw put between pieces of cloth like a big bag. At each threshing time these straw mattresses were emptied and clean straw was put in; they had another new mattress. Grandfather Loveridge was married four times. He passed away March 3, 1905, at Lehi, Utah.
I can remember Grandfather. He was not very tall and a little heavy in his last years. He lived in our home for a while. He married in later life to a Mrs. Harvey. They enjoyed life together. On wash day as she hung the clothes he put the pegs in for her. He had a little farm, and the two went to the field together. She wore a sunbonnet and sat by him on the wagon as he drove the horses. She held an umbrella over the two as they rode along.
