JOSEPH THOMAS CLEWS/CLEWES a MORMON SHOOTER and CLUBBER.
In the 1857 Iron County muster rolls, Clews was listed as a private in a
platoon in Company F headquartered in Cedar City. He was born in either
Shropshire or Warwickshire in the West Midlands of central England.
Around 1848 he and other family members joined the Mormon church.
Biographical Sketch
During the events leading to the Mountain Meadows tragedy, Clews served as an express rider between Cedar City and Mountain Meadows. After the first attack on Monday, September 7, Clews was assigned to carry an express to Pinto. From there he went to the cabin of Jacob Hamblin at the northeast end of the valley of Mountain Meadows.
Riding toward Cedar the following morning, he encountered John M. Higbee who ordered Clews to join his detachment. So Clews returned to Mountain Meadows and remained there until Friday when, sometime before the final massacre, Higbee ordered him to take an express to Cedar City. Clews left immediately, passing express riders from Cedar who bore expresses not to harm the emigrants. But Clews knew it was too late.
Below is a statement by Clews, published in a San Bernardino newspaper and, following the execution of Lee in March 1877, in several Utah newspapers.
"[O]h! what a horrible remembrance of those five days! They have been the bane of my existence, have kept me in the back ground and in the shade, have kept me out of society and away from people I should like to have associated with. Such has been my lot or strange fatality."