The Simpson Expedition to Uinta Valley

James H. Simpson, 1857
(Wikimedia Commons)

Just two months after James Gammell returned home from an expedition to the site of the Mountain Meadows massacre, he joined James Simpson’s expedition to explore the Uinta Valley.  James H. Simpson, an officer in the U.S. Army, and a member of the Corps of Topographical Engineers, was ordered to Camp Floyd in 1858.  Under Captain Simpson’s direction the army made its most significant contribution of the Utah War by improving western immigrant roads, and mapping new routes to shorten the travel time between the states and California.  Simpson’s team of scientists and artists accompanied the troops, collecting specimens of flora and fauna, and sketching the scenery.  The published report inspired many emigrants to move to the western frontier.

In August 1859, Simpson returned to Camp Floyd after surveying a new route to Carson Valley, Nevada.  Four days later, on August 9, he and his team left Camp Floyd again for Fort Bridger, following a new route that they had opened the previous fall.  This time he took James Gammell along as his guide.  Under orders from General Albert Sidney Johnston, they were looking for the most practical wagon road between Camp Floyd and the Uinta Valley and then to the Green River.  From Camp Floyd, Simpson’s party traveled in a northeasterly direction, passing through the Utah settlements of Lehi, American Fork, and Mountainville (Alpine) to the Timpanogos River(1) road (now the Provo Canyon Road).  Simpson established his main camp on Torbert’s Creek, Round Prairie (now called Heber Valley):(2)

August 12 [1859], Camp on Torbert’s Creek(3), Round Prairie.  Elevation above the sea, 5,786 feet. Thermometer at 5.30 a. m., 43º.  Having established my main camp at this point, I leave this morning to examine pass over Uinta range into Green River Valley, agreeably to orders of General Johnston of August 5th.  Take with me one of my assistants, Mr. Henry Engelmann, (geologist and meteorologist,) ten dragoons, Mr. James Gammell, as guide, Ute Pete, Clark, and Dougherty, in all sixteen persons, with three pack-mules.(4)

The next day the party made its way up Coal Creek Canyon to the summit of the Uinta Mountain divide (9,680 feet) and then down the other side to the Duchesne and the Uinta River junction (near Roosevelt, Utah), a distance of seventy-five miles.(5)  Simpson described the route as “a most excellent one…however, [it] is at present far from being practicable for wagons, and not even is it practicable for pack-mules without the very greatest tax upon man and animals…rendered so by willow, aspen, and fir thickets, and by steep and rocky precipices and ridges.”  Nine of the ten dragoons’ horses became crippled and had to be left behind due to the “extraordinarily rough, steep, and stony character of the route.”  Gammell reported that on a previous trip via this same route he left behind a crippled horse and came close to losing another.(6)

In his written report Simpson recommended that a military work crew remove the fallen and standing timber along a thirty-six mile stretch of this route in order to accommodate the passage of wagons.  Lacking personal knowledge of the Uinta Valley, Simpson relied on Gammell’s experience to describe the area:

The valley of the Uinta, Mr. Gammell represents as also being very fine, all the way to Green River, being covered with groves of large cottonwood, beautiful grass, and so lying as to be easily irrigated.  It is, besides, accounted as one of the warmest valleys in the Territory.  He says it is from one to ten miles wide.  Both the Du Chesne Fork and the Uinta River, where they meet, are about 50 feet wide, and from one to three feet deep.  The former is said to contain trout and white-fish, the white-fish weighing from 10 to 25 pounds.  The valleys of these rivers are deeply seated between inclosing heights, varying from 200 to 500 feet.  The formation of the rocks is like that of White Clay Creek, whitish sandstones alternating with sandstone shales.(7)

Captain Simpson and his party returned to the main camp in Heber Valley, then broke camp and headed to Fort Bridger.  The main party, including Gammell, traveled the route that was opened the previous fall and arrived at Fort Bridger on August 25.  Simpson with a small group of seven, explored a new route via Kamas Prairie (now Utah route 150), and arrived a day later.  This completed Simpson’s assignment in the Great Basin.  From Fort Bridger he returned to his wife in Minnesota.  A few years later, as chief engineer of the Interior Department, he oversaw the construction of the first Transcontinental Railroad.

It seems appropriate to acknowledge the toughness, determination, and courage of not only Simpson, but also of men like James Gammell, who made such an important contribution to exploration and road building in the Great Basin.

___________________________

1. The Timpanogos River is now called the Provo River.
2. Round Prairie was the earliest name of a valley later called Provo Valley. It became known as Heber Valley after Heber City was named in honor of Heber C. Kimball. A small settlement of ten families called Heber City had sprung up since Simpson’s first exploration of this valley the previous fall.
3. The Torbert Creek campsite was east of Soldier Hollow, on the bend of the Provo River, and would now be under Jordanelle Reservoir.
4. Simpson, J. H., Report of Explorations Across the Great Basin of the Territory of Utah for a Direct Wagon Route from Camp Floyd, to Genoa, in Carson Valley, in 1859, Washington, 1876, p. 139.
5. This route may correspond to present-day Utah state road 35 and US 40. Click on this link for a map of the area: http://mapq.st/mr8Oyl
6. Simpson Report, p. 140.
7. Simpson Report, p. 141.

Mountain Meadows Massacre



Mountain Meadows, Utah
(from Wikimedia Commons)

  

The massacre at Mountain Meadows (1857) in southern Utah was the next criminal case Judge Cradlebaugh sought to investigate.  As part of his investigation, he visited the site of the massacre in May 1859 with a military escort and with James Gammell as his Indian interpreter.  The expedition with Cradlebaugh has forever linked James with the Mountain Meadows trials, at least in family lore.  Tradition has it that James presented evidence that Brigham Young had ordered the massacre, and because of what he revealed, he was excommunicated from the Mormon Church.  However, in the most recent (2008) and most thoroughly researched account of the massacre, James Gemmell is only a footnote.(1)  Researcher Richard Turley reported that  Gammell’s name did not appear in any of the surviving trial transcripts.(2)

The complete story of the massacre, its historical context, its victims, its perpetrators, and its aftermath, could fill several volumes.  Just a brief summary is given here as it relates to the life of James Gammell.

Mountain Meadows:  A monument to the victims
(from Wikimedia Commons)

The Mountain Meadows massacre could be called the perfect storm, given the number of coinciding events that preceded this horrific crime.  The Utah War, although it was settled peaceably, had several unfortunate consequences.  One indirect, but tragic, result was the massacre.  In 1857 streams of emigrant wagon trains, many of them from anti-Mormon states like Missouri and Arkansas (where Parley P. Pratt had just been murdered), were traveling through Utah Territory on their way to a better life in California.  About the same time that the small southern settlements got word of the approaching United States Army, the Fancher wagon train from Arkansas was passing through Utah.  Dark clouds of suspicion and fear hung over the Mormon settlements.  Had the Fancher group sensed the level of war hysteria among the locals when it set up its camp thirty-five miles southwest of Cedar City, some members of the party would not have chosen to antagonize the Mormons with their demands for supplies and their blatant anti-Mormon comments.  But hysteria prevailed, and the situation spiraled out of control.  Local militiamen decided to attack the Fancher train. They also enlisted the help of the Paiute Indians by promising them plunder.  Local Mormon leaders, including John D. Lee and Isaac Haight, brought the matter before the local council, who vetoed the whole idea.  Lee and Haight ignored the council’s decision and went ahead with a plan to have the Indians attack and then lay the blame completely on them.  Several of the emigrants were killed in the attack, but one man, returning to the camp on horseback, saw that there were white men involved.  Lee and the other conspirators were now in panic mode.  The rest of the bloody massacre was the result of the cover-up of their original deceit.

The Fancher party circled their wagons and held off their attackers for five days.  The Mormon militiamen who were involved finally drew them out of their fortress by waving a white flag of truce.  However, the truce was only a ploy.  They asked the party to march in single file, women and children first, followed at a distance by the men.  When the signal "Halt" was given, the militia fired at close range, killing all except the seventeen youngest children.  The final day of the siege was September 11, 1857.

On September 9, the local Mormon council had sent an express rider, James Haslam, to Salt Lake with a letter explaining the situation to Brigham Young and asking his advice.  President Young sent instructions to “let them go in peace,” but Haslam didn’t return with the reply until two days after the bloody deed was done.  When Isaac Haight, one of the leaders of the attack, read  Brigham’s message, he sobbed like a child, “Too late! Too late!”(3)

Note:  For further reading see the most recent and well-researched account of the Mountain Meadows massacre. Check out the Amazon.com link on the right-hand side of this page.

Judge Cradlebaugh convened a grand jury investigation of the massacre in March 1859 in Provo, but the jury declined any indictments.  The judge then decided to hold court in Cedar City, where he would have access to key witnesses.  He attempted to arrest John D. Lee and two others, but they had fled.  By overstepping his judicial authority, Cradlebaugh antagonized U.S. District Attorney Wilson:

Attorney General Black in Washington, D.C., said that it was not Cradlebaugh's job to determine whom to prosecute or when to call out the troops.  He instructed U.S. District Attorney Wilson to "oppose every effort which any judge may make to usurp your functions. . . . If the judges will confine themselves to the simple and plain duty imposed upon them by law of hearing and deciding the cases that are brought before them, I am sure that the business of the Territory will get along very well."…Cradlebaugh's grasping for prosecutorial power made prosecution nigh impossible.  Prosecutors must work with judges to obtain warrants and convene grand juries, but Cradlebaugh would not cooperate. (4)

The Civil War (1861) prevented any further trials, but the case was revisited in the 1870’s. A grand jury indicted nine men for their role in the massacre. Only John D. Lee, considered to be the leader and organizer of the murders, was tried and convicted. Lee was executed by firing squad in 1877 at the site of the massacre.

Concerning James Gammell’s role as a witness in the Mountain Meadows trials, there are two surviving accounts, both written at least twenty years after the incident, that seem to be the source of family legend.  Stories seem to get better with the telling, but now it is possible to compare them with facts from reliable sources.

In one account Joseph C. Walker, writing many years after James death (1881), recalled stories that James told around the campfire in the winter of 1863-64:  “Mr. Gemmell said that he was in Brigham Young’s office when a courier came to the office with the horrible news of the Mountain Meadow massacre.”  [Could this courier actually be James Haslam who brought a message to Brigham, not after, but before the massacre had occurred?]

Continuing, Walker wrote, “He [James] said he went with a party from Salt Lake City to Mountain Meadows and buried the dead.  He said it was the most gruesome, pitiful, heart rending and sickening sight he had ever beheld…” [James didn’t visit the site immediately after it happened.  He was there in May 1859 with Judge Cradlebaugh.  At that time some bodies had still not been buried.  It was still a gruesome site.]  “This massacre, the foul deed that it was, was enacted in the year 1853 [the actual year was 1857].  The people of this train were all from Arkansas…Evedently [sic], Mr. Gemmell could not go into court and testify to only such part of the above statement as he either witnessed or heard, but his opportunity to receive information was of the best, he having been in Utah before any Mormons were.”(5)

The second account comes from James Gammell’s obituary in The Dillon Tribune.  The article claims that James was in Brigham's office when Jacob Hamblin came in and reported the Arkansas train near Cedar City.  James allegedly heard Brigham tell Hamblin that if he [Brigham] were in command of the Legion "he would wipe them out.”  [A meeting at Brigham’s office on September 1, involved Jacob Hamblin and ten Indian chiefs.]

James' obituary continues:

About three weeks [actually only ten days] afterwards the Mountain Meadow massacre occurred which wiped out the Arkansas train, for which John D. Lee suffered the death penalty by being shot a few years ago [1877]… There were 125 bodies found afterwards and buried by the U.S. troops sent out for that purpose.  Gen. Albert Johnson was in command and Judge Cradlebaugh was sent along to ascertain whether any white men were engaged in the massacre.  The Indians said the Mormons incited them into it, and gave them the plunder...Bishop Jake Hamlin [Hamblin] lived within three miles of the battleground, and it was him that took the order from Brigham to John D. Lee.  [Jacob Hamblin, the Indian missionary and later Indian agent, could not have delivered orders from Brigham Young. Hamblin didn’t return to Mountain Meadows from Salt Lake City until September 18.](6)  The foregoing history came under Mr. Gemmell's immediate observation and was written down at his request and will no doubt be interesting to many.(7)

Perhaps the most reliable source of all is a letter written by James himself.  Questions about his personal knowledge related to the massacre came up again in 1872, while he was living in Montana.  Investigations were going on in Utah, and Montana officials were asked to question Gemmell.  Worried about being compelled to go to Utah, he wrote to his old and trusted friend Feramorz Little, who would later become the mayor of Salt Lake City.  As we know now, James was never summoned.  In his letter he actually seemed surprised that anyone would have knowledge of what he said “in some of our whisky sprees.”

Sheridan M.T.

October 14 1872

Mr. Feramore Little

Salt Lake City

Dear Sir

      I have been very much annoyed lately by the officials of Montana, as they say through the request of their Friends in Utah, to accertain [sic] of me what took place, and what was said in President Youngs office, on my arrival from Texas, between Jacob Hamlen President Young and others, in regard to the Arkansas Train then passing through the southern settlements of the trouble they had with the Inhabitants, and of their boasting, of Parley been [sic] killed in their neighbourhood before they left.  And of them threatening to Poison the springs and what Conversation took place between the President Hamlen and others at that time in the Presidents Office and if I knew what was the purpose of the Instructions sent South, and if I thought the massacre was in retaliation for the killing of Parley, and of what I remembered of the evidence gleaned from the Indians and others from Judge Cradlebaugh when I was his Interpreter, when he was holden [sic] Court in Cedar City.  Now where they got the Knowledge to interrogate me in this matter, is a mystery I think they must have got it from Bill Hickman, in some of our whiskey sprees when we was togeather [sic] in Echo Canyon, but thank God those sprees are at a end for I have not drank any whiskey for over two years.  Now, Ferry I expect to be put in restraint and compelled to go to Utah daily, and give evidence in that affair. I would much rather go to the end of the Earth, or Texas, than be compelled to go down there for that purpose, [but] go I must as that would be the only way I have of avoiding them, but I am dead broke as usual [and] have not the means of leaving a large family, please write as soon as you receive this.  And give me Council for the best.

From your old Friend

James Gemmell (8)

__________________________

1. Walker, Turley and Leonard, Massacre at Mountain Meadows: An American Tragedy, Oxford, 2008, p. 344, footnote #108.
2. Scott, Stuart D., “A Frontier Spirit: The Life of James Gemmell”, p. 92.
3. For a review of Massacre at Mountain Meadows, by a friend, Craig Matteson, one of Amazon’s top reviewers, click on this link:   http://www.amazon.com/review/R3R68CZXY063EQ/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm    For a scholarly review by Robert H. Briggs, click on this link:   http://mimobile.byu.edu/?m=5&table=review&vol=20&num=2&id=726&q=parrish-potter
4. http://fairmormon.org/Mountain_Meadows_Massacre/Prosecution/Was_prosecution_blocked_by_the_Church
5. Joseph C. Walker Papers, pp.46-50.
6. Brooks, Juanita, The Mountain Meadows Massacre, 1950, p. 42.
7. James Gemmell obituary, The Dillon Tribune, April 9, 1881.  William Wheeler quoted the obituary in his account.  Wheeler conducted his interview shortly before James’ death (1881), but it was probably not published until 1896.
8. James Gemmell letter to Feramorz Little, Brigham Young Papers, MS 1234, LDS Archives.  Feramorz Little may never have received this letter.  He left Salt Lake City on a journey to Palestine on October 15, 1872, the day after James Gammell wrote it.  This may explain why the letter ended up in Brigham Young's papers. 

District Court Trials of 1858-59

Two incidents that occurred in 1858 may have had some bearing on James Gammell’s November 14 excommunication from the Mormon Church.  On June 3, 1858, just one day before General Johnston’s army began marching toward Salt Lake Valley, the Mormon militia was monitoring the army’s movements.  Lt. James Ferguson wrote to Daniel H. Wells concerning the activities of his militia.  He seemed to suspect that Jim Gammell was providing “aid and comfort to the enemy”:

Are you aware that in addition to the two teams that accompanied Ben Simons…five others heavily laden brought up his rear; three of which were under the charge of Jim Gammell, whom if McGraw(1) gets hold of, a little boot might be given in trade.  It may be that all the flour contained in those teams was intended for the Indians.  I am inclined to Thomasize [doubt] on that point.  And what material difference is there between flour and bacon when the enemy is equally in want of each?  I am afraid General Ben is but a tool.  At any rate I think somebody or other has wrung in a team or two that Lewis knew nothing about.  A guard of 8 foot [soldiers] and 2 horses will today be placed at the mouth of each of the two canyons you referred to.  I have requested Gen. West to take the necessary precautions against any parties going out from or by way of the Northern settlements.(2)

Another event that could have precipitated James’ excommunication took place in November 1858.  Judge Charles E. Sinclair convened the First Judicial District Court in Great Salt Lake City.  In his instructions to the grand jury he urged them to prosecute “the leading men of the Territory for treason, for intimidation of the courts, and for polygamy.”  As part of the peace negotiations that had settled the so-called Utah War, President Buchanan had pardoned any Mormon hostilities that had occurred during the conflict, but the three federal judges insisted that the hostile offenses be brought before the court.  Judge Sinclair wanted to summon ex-Governor Young, Lieutenant-General Daniel H. Wells, and other leading Mormons, particularly the Apostles:

…to make them admit that they had been guilty of treason, and make them humbly accept from him the President’s clemency…But it was something more radical and serious than a vainglorious effort to humble Utah to the footstool of a Federal Judge.  It was an attempt to reopen in the courts the entire conflict, which had so nearly come to the issue of war.  U. S. District Attorney Wilson, however, would not present to the jury bills of indictment for treason, pleading that the Commissioners had presented the pardon, and the people had accepted it, and the Governor had proclaimed that peace was restored to the Territory…Sinclair’s judicial service was a failure...(3)

No names of witnesses or jury members are cited in the Tullidge account of Sinclair’s November 1858 court, but James Gammell did sign an affidavit before Judge Sinclair in March 1859 condemning the authorities of the Mormon Church.(4)  (Further research could determine whether or not James was involved in the original trial in November.)

A few months after his excommunication James became involved in Judge Cradlebaugh’s trials, aimed at implicating “the leaders of the Mormon Church in all the criminal offenses and deeds of violence done within the Territory”(5) of Utah.  The first case that Cradlebaugh investigated from his District Court in Provo, Utah, focused on the Parrish-Potter murders of March 1857, which had taken place at Springville.

Two of the murder victims were William Parrish and his adult son, Beatson.  Both had apostatized from the Mormon Church.  They had planned to leave for California, against the wishes of local church authorities.  They acquired two good horses and hid them in a cane thicket on the edge of town.  Before dawn on the morning of the planned escape, William Parrish, his sons (Beatson and Orin), and a man named Duff Potter were attacked when they went to retrieve the horses.  Several men hiding in ambush fired at them and then engaged in a bloody hand-to-hand encounter.  Orin managed to escape into a cornfield.(6)

During the trial James gave testimony implicating Alfred Nethercot(7) and other “Prominent men” in the murders:

Testimony of James Gamble [sic] taken before the court of Chambers at Provo City March 23, 1859:

Last May [1858] riding over the ground with Alfred Nethercot coming from Palmyra,(8) Nethercot said Jim if you had seen what I saw here a year ago it would have surprised you—he stated that Parish and Potter – he tried to carry the idea that he [Nethercot] did it—he said the party that fired upon them were secreted in the locust in the corner of the fence—he pointed to the spot where the old man fell—where Beetson fell about 50 yards away and where Potter fell the place was about eight rods from the corner of the fence—we were in that grove—he said those men [Wm. & Beatson Parish] were calculating to leave the Territory and to steal horses and we headed them in it—the Prominent men spoke openly in regard to cutting the throats of Apostates.(9)

On Wednesday morning, March 23, James gave testimony and was examined by the attorneys.  It was concluded that he “knew nothing except hearsay.”  One attorney, Mr. Stout, "objected to the witness on the grounds that, from his own statement, he was not in this country at the time the murder was committed."(10)

One week later James, along with five other Springville residents, signed an affidavit accusing the leadership of the Mormon Church of sanctioning the murders, but more importantly, the document focused on the presence of federal troops at the court proceedings:

Territory of Utah, Utah County,

We, Albert Parrish, Henry Higgins, James O’Bannion, Leonard Phillips, Orlin Parrish and James Gammell, do solemnly swear…that we were summoned to appear as witnesses before the United States District Court for the 2nd Judicial District of said Territory, which convened at the city of Provo, on the 8th March, 1859; that we possessed certain knowledge of various crimes…on account of which said knowledge we had been so summoned; that on account of the participation in, or sanction afterwards of the said crimes, by the community…emanating as we believe from the authorities of the Mormon church; we considered our lives and property in imminent peril from the Mormon community, should we appear and testify to the facts within our knowledge, unless a portion of the United States troops should (as they have been) be stationed in the town of Provo, near enough the Court room to guarantee safety, and that from the Mormon community we have received threats of intimidation, in case we should divulge the facts concerning said crimes, which have come to our knowledge, and which threats we believe would have been carried into execution but for the timely aid afforded by the Commanding General in the stationing of troops, now in and near this city; and further, we believe our lives to be in danger henceforward without military protection from United States troops…

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 29th day of March 1859.
Charles E. Sinclair, Associate Justice Supreme Court, Utah Territory.(11)

The main objective of this court affidavit was to justify Cradlebaugh’s judicial order summoning the United States army to protect his court.  Much of the conflict in these District Court proceedings was not with the Mormons, but with other federal officials, a result of Cradlebaugh usurping the executive powers of Governor Cumming, and the prosecutorial role of U.S. District Attorney Wilson.  Governor Cumming asserted that the court had no authority to call for the aid of the military, except through him.  As Judge Sinclair had done the previous November, Cradlebaugh took a “most extraordinary judicial action,” extraordinary in that he assumed the roles of investigator, prosecutor, as well as judge.  In his summation of the evidence in the Springville murder trial, Judge Cradlebaugh concluded:

You are the tools, the dupes, the instruments of a tyrannical church despotism.  The heads of your church order and direct you.  You are taught to obey their orders and commit these horrid murders.  Deprived of your liberty you have lost your manhood, and become the willing instruments of bad men.  I say to you it will be my earnest effort, while with you, to knock off your ecclesiastical shackles and set you free.(12) 

In 1886, Edward Tullidge wrote his assessment of the Cradlebaugh trials.  He reasoned that “with such a grand jury, charged in this manner by such a judge, it was impossible to accomplish the ends of justice; equally impossible whether they had been ‘the willing instruments’ of a ‘tyrannical church,’ or a grand jury of honest, innocent men.”(13)

_________________________

1. McGraw and his Missouri mob attacked James the previous year.  (See post “Leaving Texas.”)  John Taylor wrote, “My private opinion, from the twinkle of his eye, when speaking on the subject is, that it would not be very good for McGraw’s health to meet him [James] on equal grounds.”
2. Letter from James Ferguson to Daniel H. Wells, June 3, 1858, Great Salt Lake City.
3. Tullidge, Edward William, History of Salt Lake City, pp. 226-231.
4. The affidavit was published in the newspaper Valley Tan on April 5, 1859.
5. Tullidge, Edward William, History of Salt Lake City, pp. 226-231.
6. Johnson, Don Carlos, A Brief History of Springville, 1900, pp. 40-41.
7. See Hosea Stout diary, March 22, 1859: “Alfred Nethercott was called as a witness today, and not testifying to suit T. S. Williams & the judge, was arrested by a bench warrant previously prepared for him. This makes 4 persons arrested for the murder of Parrishes & Potter against who there is not the shadow of evidence."     See http://robandsusanpages.com/rhistories/stout/Hosea_1859_03.html  
8. Palmyra, Utah County, Utah, is a small town located west of Springville and northwest of Spanish Fork.
9. Church History Library Archives, CR 100 397, Box 1, Fd. 1859 Feb- June.
10. "Court Doings at Provo", Deseret News, March 30, 1859, p. 8.
11. Published in Kirk Anderson’s Valley Tan, April 5, 1859.
12. Tullidge, Edward William, History of Salt Lake City, Salt Lake City, 1886, pp. 226-231.
13. Tullidge, pp. 226-231.

Camp Floyd



Photo by Bary Gammell, March 2011

“Camp Floyd [near Fairfield, Utah] is one of the most miserable, disagreeable and uninteresting places that ever disgraced the earth.  It is built upon a dry plain, entirely destitute of grass, or, indeed, any vegetation, except sage, that flourishes where nothing else will grow.  There is no water here except a little dirty stream that runs near the west end of the camp, scarcely large enough to drown a mouse.”  (Utah, a soldier with Johnston’s Army, September 25, 1858.  From the plaque at present-day Camp Floyd State Park.)

While General Johnston’s army and newly appointed governor Cumming waited out the winter in tents in western Wyoming, negotiations were going on in Washington, D.C.  Colonel Thomas L. Kane, a good friend of the Mormons, received permission from President James Buchanan to go to Salt Lake City to attempt to settle the Utah conflict peacefully.  Meanwhile, Brigham Young, still wary of an invading army, ordered the Saints to evacuate Salt Lake City and the northern settlements and to move south.(1)  Each ward was organized into teams of tens, fifties, and hundreds.  Provisions were moved first, then families.  A few young men were assigned to stay behind to irrigate crops and gardens and to guard property.  James Gammell with his family of ten,(2) along with a wagon and team, was listed in the first company of the 19th Ward, Great Salt Lake City, and assigned to move south on March 21, 1858.  While Brigham Young and many church officials moved to Provo, James most likely moved his family just south of Provo to Springville,(3) where he, like most of the refugees, had to build a temporary board shanty to live in. 



Johnston's Army entering Salt Lake City
(from CES student manual)



In April, Colonel Kane accompanied Governor Cumming to Salt Lake City, but without the army, as Brigham Young had insisted.  Young greeted Cumming cordially and delivered to him the territorial records and seal.(4)  After further negotiations, the army finally entered the Salt Lake Valley (guided by none other than Jim Bridger) on June 26, 1858, only to find the streets empty and the city nearly deserted.  One eyewitness reported that the first troops, marching in strict formation, arrived at 10:00 am, and it was 5:30 pm before the rear guard passed through the city.(5)  The column consisted of nearly 3,500 men, including cavalry, artillery, infantry, a band, the quartermasters and commissary officers, and their herds of cattle.  After camping for a few days on the Jordan River, the army marched forty miles south of the capital city to Cedar Valley (west of Utah Lake) where they established Camp Floyd.(6)  By November four hundred buildings had been constructed.  Camp Floyd was the largest military post in the United States.  Its 3,500 troops represented nearly one-third of the entire U. S. Army at that time.  All were dispatched to put down a Mormon rebellion, which never took place.

In July, Brigham Young authorized the Saints to return to their homes, but James and his family (soon to be ten children) didn’t return to their property in Salt Lake City.  At some point they moved to Fairfield and stayed there for at least two more years.  Maria, with her children, Jeannette, Josephine, James, and Charles, lived in one dwelling, and Hannah Jane (known as Jane), along with Isaac (Brown), Hannah Jane (Brown), William, Mary Edith, Francelia, and Robert (who was born five miles north of Fairfield at Cedar Fort) lived next door.(7)

Fairfield, the town adjacent to Camp Floyd, attracted many businessmen like James, who found that they could make a good living by selling their goods to three thousand men who had a weekly wage to spend and no where else to spend it.  Even more attractive was the fact that the soldiers were paid in gold and silver coin, rather than scrip (paper money).(8)  Fairfield soon grew to a population of seven thousand.

 

Bary Gammell, 2nd gr grandson of James Gammell,
at Camp Floyd Commisary & Museum, March 2011
Photo by Jan Gammell





Asher Hedquist, 4th gr grandson of James Gammell,
at Camp Floyd, April 2011 ( holding a miniature canon)
Photo by Steve Hedquist



The occupying army may have boosted the Utah economy, but it also inflicted serious damage on the moral fabric of the nearby, once sheltered Mormon communities.  Vices like gambling, drunkenness (there were seventeen saloons in Fairfield), prostitution, robbery, and homicide became commonplace in the hell-raising town of Fairfield, and even spilled over into Salt Lake City.

A more serious threat than the army itself was the arrival of three United States judges.  Each one of them seemed determined to undermine the Latter-day Saint way of life.  The new hard-line federalists, Delany R. Eckles, Charles E. Sinclair, and John Cradlebaugh, attempted to punish the Mormons for treason and polygamy, as well as for the Mountain Meadows massacre.  Judge Cradlebaugh set up court in Provo and took 1,000 soldiers with him to back his work in court, causing hysteria among the townspeople.  Governor Cumming soon ordered these troops back to Camp Floyd.

James Gammell became involved in several of the court trials convened by the new judges.  Once again we see the impetuous side of his personality that was evident even as a young man during the Canadian rebellion:  Whenever there was a conflict, he was there!  Years later, in a letter to his sister, Jane, he wrote that his family sometimes grew impatient with his quest for adventure:  “I got home on New Years Eve after an absence of thirteen months...on the Bare River lumbering…but made a bad job of it to the amount of over five thousand dollars with but very little simpathie at home for they say I had no need to go, but times was dull here and I must have excitement…”(9)

During the eight years since his baptism, James was considered to be a devoted Mormon.  Perhaps at times he felt guilty about his occasional drinking sprees and his failure to pay his taxes, but mostly he worked hard and contributed his many talents to the building of Salt Lake Valley.  He was a loyal family man, and he provided for his two wives and his many children.  He served a mission to Texas, although preaching was probably not his strong suit.  It is difficult to imagine him studying the scriptures, or any book for that matter. He was a man of action, not a man of letters.  Mundane matters like earning a living sometimes trumped his loyalty to his religion.

Just as the year 1858 brought serious challenges to the territory of Utah, it presented another turning point in the life of James Gammell.  On November 14, he was excommunicated from the Mormon Church.  The reason for his excommunication, cited in LDS Church records at the time, was apostasy.(10)  No specific details were given.  The plaque on James’ gravestone gives this explanation: ”Excommunicated by Brigham Young because of what he found out about Mountain Meadows massacre.”  Family members have generally accepted this explanation, although it is not necessarily supported by any primary sources of that time.  We know that James was involved in Judge Cradlebaugh’s investigation of the massacre, but that investigation didn’t begin until four months after James was excommunicated.  Since a person would hardly be disciplined for something that he may do in the future, it makes more sense to research what happened in the time leading up to November 14, 1858.

___________________________

1. Nearly 30,000 Mormons relocated during this crisis. When the details of the Utah conflict was published in eastern newspapers, President Buchanan came under strong criticism. Thus it became known as “Buchanan’s Blunder”.
2. James’ family consisted of two wives and eight children.
3. Excerpt from Hannah Jane Davis Gammell’s obituary: “She came to Springville in 1856, and after a residence here of several years removed to Cedar Valley and Camp Floyd, returning to Springville in 1874, which has been her home ever since.”
4. Church History in the Fulness of Times, p. 375.
5. Campbell, Eugene E., Establishing Zion, p. 247, Salt Lake City, 1988.
6. Camp Floyd was named after then Secretary of War John B. Floyd.  The site is now Camp Floyd/Stagecoach Inn State Park and Museum, located 25 miles southwest of Lehi, Utah, near Fairfield on Utah State route 73.
7. 1860 US Census, Fairfield, Cedar, Utah Territory, taken October 9, 1860. James Gamble [sic] age 46, real estate valued at $2,000 and personal estate $1,000. (James Gammell’s nine-year-old daughter Elizabeth was living in Cache County with her maternal grandparents.)
8. Tullidge, Edward William, History of Salt Lake, 1886, pp. 247-250.  A Government safe, containing $580,000 in gold, was freighted to Camp Floyd by ox team.
9. James Gemmell, letter written January 1, 1870, from Sheridan, Montana, to his sister, Jane, in Texas.
10. Apostasy is defined as rebellion or a falling away. It may refer to such offenses as insubordination, doctrinal differences, or failure to sustain, or hostility towards, the leaders of the Church. 
    

The Utah War



Johnston's Army Bugle Corps
ca. 1859 at Camp Floyd, Utah
(from Signature Books, Salt Lake City)


On July 24, 1857, the ten-year anniversary of their arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young and two thousand guests and their families were celebrating Pioneer Day at Silver Lake in Big Cottonwood Canyon, southeast of Salt Lake City.  About noon that day, five horsemen, led by Salt Lake City Mayor Abraham O. Smoot, interrupted the celebration with news that 2,500 federal troops had been dispatched to Utah to put down the so-called “Mormon rebellion”, and that Utah’s federal mail contract had been cancelled.(1)  The shocking news of an invading army conjured up painful memories of the Mormon persecutions in Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri.  A wave of war hysteria spread throughout Utah, and Brigham Young instructed the Saints to prepare to defend themselves.

Even as hysteria spread across Utah, a wave of anti-Mormon hysteria was perpetuated in the East.  The federal government opposed the Mormon Church’s practice of plural marriage and it’s control of the Utah territorial government.  Letters sent to Washington by federal appointees in Utah, especially one written by Judge William Drummond, whom Brigham had privately described as “vicious and brutal, whining and snappish, vain as a peacock and ignorant as a jackass,”(2) had convinced President James Buchanan that things were out of control in the Utah Territory.  Without any further investigation or any prior notice to Governor Brigham Young, Buchanan named Alfred Cumming of Georgia as the territorial governor, and ordered federal troops to accompany him to Utah to depose Brigham Young.

In early August the leaders of the Church issued a proclamation to the citizens of Utah.  Still having no communication from Washington, they could only expect the worst: “Our [duty] to ourselves and families requires us not to tamely submit to be driven and slain, without an attempt to preserve ourselves.  Our duty to our country, our holy religion, our God, to freedom and liberty, requires that we shall not quietly stand still.”(3)  As part of the preparation for the expected invasion, Brigham Young mustered the territorial militia, under the command of General Daniel H. Wells, and declared martial law in Utah.  He also instructed the Saints to store up their grain and not sell it to passing immigrants, and to keep their firearms in working order.

Less than two months after his return from Texas, James Gammell joined with more than one thousand other Utah militiamen to prepare fortifications against the invading United States army.  From October through December 1857, between 1,200 and 2,000 men were stationed in Echo Canyon and Weber Canyon.  These two narrow passes lead into the Salt Lake Valley, and were determined to be the army’s likely access to the populated areas of northern Utah.  Dealing with a heavy snowfall and intense cold, the Mormon men built fortifications, dug rifle pits and dammed streams and rivers in preparation for a possible battle either that fall or the following spring.

Gammell’s friend John H. Standifird had joined Major Lott Smith’s company, and headed on to Fort Bridger to meet the advance party of government supply wagons.  Instructions from Brigham Young were to scatter the government livestock, to burn the supply wagons, and to inflict as much damage to the supply train as possible without taking any lives.  At that time the Mormons owned Fort Bridger, so Lott Smith and his men, obeying the “scorched earth” policy, burned the fort as well as the surrounding grassland, hoping to deter the advancing army.(4)

Echo Canyon, Utah
(Wikimedia Commons)

James Gammell served as part of the contingent in Echo Canyon.(5)  One chilly October evening, while gathered around the campfire with his fellow militiamen, James recounted a conversation that took place while he was in Harris, Texas, the previous February.  James recalled that Clinton Harris,(6) proprietor of the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railroad in Texas, and a native of Seneca County, New York, was acquainted with Joseph Smith.  Harris related the following experience in the presence of James Gammell, his brother William Gammell, Eleanor McLean, and a Dr. Blank of Texas:

…Joseph Smith in the year 1830 called upon (Clinton Harris) and invited him to (a baptism), saying, “Come, Clint, go down and see us baptize.”  Clinton answered, “I cannot walk for I have had a fever sore on my leg for many years.”  Joseph replied, “Come go down, are you going to be lame all your days?  Come start and go down, and you’ll do well enough.”  Clinton started, straightened his leg and could walk and has been able to walk ever since.  This Clinton is one of the wealthiest men in Texas.  Dr. Blank said, “O, that is nothing, it is all owing to “Mesmerism”.  Clinton replied, “Not so, Sir.  He (Joseph Smith) never touched me, and I verily believe I should have been a cripple unto this day had I not been healed at that time.  I believe in Mormonism, tho’ I am not a Mormon.”(7) 

Another journal entry of November 16, 1857, recorded that at 11:00 AM, “James Gemmell and William Skeens started with 2 head beef cattle for Bear River [further east near Wyoming border].”(8)  Newton Tuttle’s journal reported that James came back down the canyon twelve days later:

Nov, 1857 Sat 28 In camp Robert Yure J. C. Perkins started for Bear river with theyer team with Provisions…J. M Jones,  James Samol [Garnol?] 4 others & John Frank the Soldiers teamster with a waggon went Down the Kanyon, a man came up from the other camp on a horse & leading an other & went on to Bear river, Albert Kamol [?] came in from City with Grain & a 4 Horse team…Almerin Grow & H. S. Southworth fetched in the Uncle Sams Governer's Procklimation, to our boys Camp from Fort Bridger where they had been kept Prisnors by Uncle Sams troops…” J Stodard & the other 4 boys came in just at Dark we sent in an express with the Governers Message. In evening Wm A. Hickman & Peter Conover came in from Bear river with a pack mule & Grant Randol fetched the Procklimation up to our camp or Gen D. H. Wells.(9)

The Mormon militia tactics succeeded.  As winter set in, General Albert Sidney Johnston had no choice but to delay his march to Utah until the following spring.  The company wintered at a temporary location south of burned-out Fort Bridger, named Camp Scott.  The newly appointed Governor Cumming, his wife, Elizabeth, and their entourage, along with the military officers and enlisted men, had to endure a long, cold, miserable winter, living in tents with a shortage of supplies.(10)

___________________________

1. Ronald W. Walker, et al., Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2008, pp. 33-37. Abraham Smoot, Porter Rockwell, and another courier, made a run for Salt Lake from Fort Laramie (513 miles) in just five days. Eleanor McLean Pratt, who was still fleeing from Hector McLean, returned with them to Salt Lake City.
2. Walker, Turley, and Leonard, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Oxford, 2008, p. 41.
3. Church History in the Fulness of Times, p. 370.
4. Church History in the Fulness of Times, p. 373.
5. Echo Canyon is located about 50 miles northeast of Salt Lake City, near the junction of I-80 and I-84.
6. See bio of DeWitt Clinton Harris at http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fha81
7. This account was received by Geo. A. Smith from the mouth of James Gamall [sic] at the Head of Echo Kanyon on Oct. 18, 1857. LDS Church Archives, Historical Record Book, 1843-1874. MS 3434.
8. Brigham Young’s Office Journal, (Echo Canyon Journal), November 16, 1857.
9. http://hickmanmuseum.homestead.com/tuttle.html
10. Church History in the Fulness of Times, p. 374.

Feramorz Little and a Story of Winter Survival



Feramorz Little

Feramorz Little, a nephew of Brigham Young, was elected mayor of Salt Lake City in 1876 and served three consecutive terms.  He traveled to Palestine with Apostle George A. Smith, ascended the Mount of Olives in March 1873, and witnessed the dedication of the Holy Land for the return of the scattered tribes of Israel.(1)  A self-made businessman and philanthropist, he was one of Utah’s foremost citizens.


Note:  I neglected to publish this post in its proper chronological order (1852-1853), so I will post it now.  I have found such a wealth of information about James Gammell that it's difficult to manage it all.  (A great blessing...not a curse!)  Thank you to Reed Russell, who sent me the Biographical Sketch of Feramorz Little in March 2010.

In summer 1851, Feramorz Little contracted to carry the monthly mail between Salt Lake City and Fort Laramie, a distance of more than five hundred miles with no settlement in between.  On his return trip from Fort Laramie to Salt Lake City in December 1852, Little and his party met up with James Gammell at Fort Bridger.  The gripping story of the final leg of their journey home is recorded in the Biographical Sketch of Feramorz Little (1890).  Had it not been for Feramorz’s experienced judgment and perserverance, James would have died from hypothermia.

Feramorz Little left Salt Lake City with the eastern mail on November 1, 1852, accompanied by a Canadian Frenchman named David Contway, four passengers, and an outfit of pack and saddle animals.  The weather was bitter cold when they arrived at Fort Laramie, and the mail from Independence, Missouri, had not arrived.  They waited twenty days for the eastern mail, which was delayed by severe snowstorms.

On November 25, Little sprained his ankle.  The army surgeon at Fort Laramie advised him that if he attempted to travel with his injured leg he would probably lose his life.  But he was determined to be home in time for the birth of his child, so the company headed west as soon as the mail arrived.  An Indian called Yodes, who was experienced in mountain travel, accompanied them.

The snow falling at Laramie was a sign of trouble for the return trip.  They were ten days getting to Devil's Gate, and the country was full of snow.  The second night from Devil’s Gate they encountered a terrible snowstorm.  By this time Little’s ankle was badly swollen, and he had to use a crutch.  For the next several days they fought strong winds and drifting snow.  Despite the difficulties of traveling, Little's leg soon improved, and he threw away his crutches.  On December 23, the party left Green River and started for Fort Bridger.  As they traveled on, “the snow was immense, even for that country. Each of the party had a saddle horse, but seldom rode. The saddle horses led the way and made the traveling easier for the pack animals.”

At Fort Bridger, Feramorz Little and his party met up with James Gammell, who was snowbound at the fort along with Robert Holliday, and Major Holman, superintendent of Indian affairs for Utah, and his attaches.  All were on their way to Salt Lake City and “had considered themselves snow-bound for some time.  Their courage revived when they saw the success of the mail carriers, and they concluded to proceed with them.”

On the first day out from Fort Bridger, James and the mail company traveled only five miles. As they set up camp in the cedar timber, another severe snowstorm set in.  It was intensely cold.  Mr. Little's experience had taught him the folly of standing around a fire under such circumstances:

He [Little] proposed that the company go to bed at once, as the falling snow would soon cover them and they would be warm and comfortable.  No others of the company appeared to comprehend the wisdom of the advice.  Large fires were made and the clothing on the side of the body next to the fire soon became saturated with melting snow.  As that side was turned from the fire the clothes froze hard, and by this change of alternately freezing and thawing, the outer garments became such a cake of ice that it could not well be gotten rid of.  By getting into bed in this condition the heat of the body would thaw the ice and thus thoroughly water-soak both clothing and bedding, making the future far more uncomfortable than the present.  After a while it seemed impracticable to go to bed at all, and the night was spent around the campfire.

Morning found the men in a very uncomfortable condition.  Their outer garments were so stiff with ice that it was difficult to get into their saddles without breaking the cloth.  Major Holman, thinking it impracticable to proceed, was desirous of returning to Fort Bridger.  In the meantime, Mr. Little had learned that a Frenchman there [at Fort Bridger] had two Flat-head horses.  These animals were raised in a country where snow falls deep in the winter, and for this reason were accustomed to traveling in it.  He did not like the idea of going back, but he knew the capabilities of this breed of horses in the snow, and the hope of getting the two [horses] at Bridger to assist him home [in time for the birth of his baby] induced him to go back.

The Flat-head horses were purchased at a high price, and, after remaining one day at Fort Bridger, the party of nine men, with sixteen horses, turned their faces once more toward Salt Lake.  With twelve days of severe labor they reached the mouth of Echo Canyon, seventy miles west of Fort Bridger, the Flat-head horses usually leading the outfit.  At that place [Echo Canyon] in an isolated condition, lived a Mr. David Lewis and family.  They had not much to eat and the travelers could only obtain a little elk meat.  On the morrow Mr. Little and his assistants attempted to go down the bed of Weber River, with a view of reaching Great Salt Lake in that direction.  This proved to be an undertaking of great difficulty.  In shallow water the stones in the bed of the stream were covered with ice, making them very slippery.  In the eddies the ice was strong enough to bear the animals but, since it [the ice] was weak around the edges, it was difficult to get the animals on to it.  The sharp edges of the ice cut their legs severely, often exposing the sinews and causing profuse bleeding.  The second day it was evident the animals were becoming exhausted and only about one mile had been made.  The plan was given up as impracticable.  The snow was too deep to attempt to get through it with exhausted animals.

Near the place where the old emigrant road crossed the Weber River, the company found some hills where the snow had been blown away and the grass was exposed.  They decided to leave the animals there until spring.  The two sacks of mail they had carried from Laramie weighed seventy pounds each.  The letter sack was packaged in buffalo skin to protect its contents from the weather.  The paper mail and other valuables were stored in a large iron boiler.  Due to their increasing exhaustion, they decided to limit their load to the bare minimum.  They left everything behind except the letter mail, which was to be dragged on the snow, one blanket for each man, a hatchet, a little elk meat, and some matches.  Now without horses, they trudged through snow that was “several feet deep, and usually let a man in full up to the knees.  Where there was brush under it, the difficulty was much increased.”  Major Holman wisely decided to spend the winter with the Lewis family.  James Gammell and Robert Holliday chose to accompany the mail:

Messrs. Gammell and Holliday permitted the mail party to lead and break the track for them.  At first Yodes and Contway took the lead, all keeping hold of the lariat attached to the mail.  When the one on the lead became weary, another exchanged places with him.  In a short time those dangers became so frequent that Mr. Little [even with his bad ankle] preferred to try to break the way.  The first day eleven miles were made up East Canyon Creek…

That night they made camp near the road, gathered enough fuel to build a fire, and slept a little.  The next day it became obvious that Gammell was showing signs of hypothermia and was fading quickly:

In the month of January at that high altitude, with snow or water soaked ground around their fire for a bed, and one blanket for covering, it is needless to say they were up early in the morning…The foot of the Big Mountain was soon reached.  They were only twenty-five miles from the object of their toils, Salt Lake City.  Five miles up hill would seem a hopeless task for men in their condition.  As they ascended the mountain the severity of their labor sensibly increased.  The day was a very cold one, and when part way up Mr. Gammell was manifestly giving up.  His beard and face were heavily covered with icicles, caused by the congealing of the moisture from his breath.  His eyes were sunken and haggard.  He said that he could not go any further and wanted to rest; in fact, he evinced a strong determination to camp without regard to place.  He was evidently in the first stages of insensibility from freezing.  To leave him was certain death, and that in a short time.  His companions were under the necessity of husbanding the little strength left them, or they would perish together.

The Indian, Yodes, had but little human kindness in his nature.  This characteristic made him quite useful in this trying emergency.  Mr. Little quietly told him to get a switch from a tree conveniently near and wake up Mr. Gammell for he was freezing.  A grin of satisfaction spread over the features of Yodes as he broke a limb from the tree and gave Mr. Gammell a cut around the legs.  The pain and insult together began to arouse his dull sensibilities, and he attempted to get hold of the Indian to chastise him, but Yodes managed to dodge and put in occasional doses of switch.

The medicine was severe but, with all Mr. Little's sympathies for the sufferer, he thought the doses too light for the necessities of the case, and called out, "Wake him up, Yodes!"  Mr. Gammell, to repay Yodes, soon became pretty well warmed up.  He was then told; with some emphasis, that they could not camp there but must go to the top of the mountain.  The remedy was severe but it saved the man.  They all succeeded in making the ascent.  There Mr. Gammell was told that a man who could climb up a hill could certainly go down it, and if he would not go without, they would drag him down.  The threat proved to be all that was necessary, for they all arrived at the foot of the mountain on the west side.

Near the trail were four trees but a few feet apart.  The snow was not quite so deep under the branches as it was outside of their shelter.  The blankets were spread down and Mr. Gammell put into them.  The other four of the party cleared the snow off the ground under the trees and gathered fuel, which was quite abundant and convenient.  A cheerful fire was soon burning and preparations made to spend the night to the best possible advantage.  Mr. Gammell was soon warmed up and for that time saved.

The camp was about seventeen miles from Salt Lake City.  Mr. Little, after a careful consideration of all the chances of success or failure, concluded that it was better for himself and companions to use what strength they had left in making a desperate effort the following day to reach the city.  The night was too cold to sleep much.  In the morning all prepared the best they could to take the desperate chances of the day.  No one could be expected to render any assistance to another.  Life or death hung on the issue of that day's exertions, for the chances were against any of them living through the cold of another night without shelter, after the exhaustion of another day's labor.

Deseret News, January 22, 1853

The mail pouch wrapped in buffalo hide, the hatchet, blankets, and everything except the clothes on their backs, were left in camp.  Mr. Little ate some meat and left all except what he thought he might want during the day.  He led out; Yodes and Mr. Contway followed.  The hard-beaten road in Emigration Canyon was much harder than the soft snow on Feramorz Little's injured leg.  He suffered much pain the remainder of the way.  When he arrived at his home in the evening, he lay down on a lounge and did not leave the house for two weeks.  Yodes and Mr. Contway were hardy men and got into town all right.  A search party was sent out from Holliday and Warner's store in search of Gammell and Holliday.  Fortunately they succeeded in reaching the eastern part of the city and were safe.  Feramorz Little arrived home on January 20, 1853, and on the 23rd, his daughter Juliette was born.(2)

______________________

1. Orson Hyde first dedicated the Holy Land on October 24, 1841.
2. James A. Little, Biographical Sketch of Feramorz Little, published by The Juvenile Instructor, Salt Lake City, 1890, pp. 22-35.

Leaving Texas

Trails West
Map by Frederick Smoot
see http://www.tngenweb.org/tnletters/usa-west.htm

Brigham Young called James Gammell on a mission to Texas in September 1856, and gave him a specific assignment:  he was to remain “until he got all the Mormons in Texas out to Utah.”  The three-month journey across the plains gave James plenty of time to consider how he might accomplish such a daunting task.  As soon as he arrived in Texas, he went to work locating the new Mormon converts and compiling a list of their names.  Since land was cheap, he advised them not to try to sell their farms,(1) but to keep them and sell everything else, including any slaves, and to invest the money “in young cattle, adding them to the cattle they already had.”  He “assured them they could sell their cattle in Utah at a price that would make more for them than they could make in Texas in three years.”  Supposedly, he also informed them that if they didn’t like Utah once they arrived, they could sell everything, except the teams required to take them back to Texas.  He instructed them to sell, buy, and barter to acquire just the outfit that he advised for the journey to Great Salt Lake City.  For the next few months, he continued to visit them and to give them directions.  By May 1857, “he had them all on the road.”(2)

On March 4, 1857, James left his brother William’s home in Houston, accompanied by Eleanor Pratt(3) and her two children, his brother-in-law Captain Andrews,(4) and a Mr. Stanfield [or Standifird?].  He traveled to Ellis County, Texas, (south of present-day Dallas), where the Mormon emigration group was fitting out for a trip across the plains.(5)  Homer Duncan, presiding elder of the Texas conference, was assigned as captain of the company of Texas Saints.  The group started the trip to Salt Lake Valley in May 1857.  Besides the animals used for drawing the wagons, the company brought with them over thirteen hundred head of cattle.  “They trailed their herd northward up the Old Shawnee Trail across the Red River past Preston.  Reaching Fort Gibson in Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma, they trailed northeastward on the Old Military Road to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas Territory [on the Missouri River.]”(6)

Near Fort Leavenworth, James crossed the river to Independence, Missouri, which was, at the time, a hotbed of hatred towards Mormons.  There he encountered an anti-Mormon mob led by W.M.F. Magraw.(7)  Magraw was particularly angry because he had just lost his federal contract for the Salt Lake City mail delivery to a group of Mormons.  Elder John Taylor recorded the story of the mob assault and James’ narrow escape:

At Independence, Mo., brother James Gammell, who was with a company of Texians on their way to the valley, was mobbed by a band of ruffians in front of the public square, at the instance of Mr. Magraw, the former mail contractor, who told him “if he was not gone in fifteen minutes he should hang on that tree,” pointing to one in the vicinity.  Gammell immediately fled, as he saw a number of ruffians armed with revolvers; they followed him on foot and on horseback, firing at him as he ran; by leaping fences he, however, evaded them, although he had as many as fifty shots fired at him; he afterwards swam the Missouri River, and escaped, and is now with us.(8)

John Henry Standifird, a new Mormon convert traveling with the Homer Duncan Company of Texas Saints, wrote in his diary that in March 1857 he started overland to Missouri and was also threatened by the mob at Independence:

[I] Fell in company with some Latter-day Saints who were emegrating (sic) to Utah.  I investigated their doctrines and was baptized by William C. Moody and 20 miles west or southwest of Independence, confirmed by Homer Duncan on June 14.  The next day [I] started with the Saints for Utah where I arrived 9 September 1857…Thro the unwise course of Sister Pratt in publishing me as having assisted her with means, the mob were looking for me; but thro the overruling hand of God their eyes were blinded so that the mob did not recognize me and I escaped their clutches.(9)

The mob had also threatened Elder Erastus Snow, prompting John Taylor to enlist a group of brethren to guard them:

In consequence of this and other appearances of hostility, we selected a guard of our own brethren who have accompanied us to this place [Elm Creek].  We expected here to join the mail en route for Utah, but the river is impassable, and we can only correspond through the medium of two or three good swimmers.  We were informed that this said Mr. Magraw is superintendent for the construction of the military road, and acting as government agent on said road; that twenty men were going on as an advance surveying party, and that about one hundred were to follow them.  Brother Gammell says that some of those in the advance party were the men who fired at him; but as he is preparing a statement of the affair, and will forward it with the next mail, I must leave this matter with him.(10)

Sidetracked by his narrow escape from the mob and his swim across the Missouri River, James became separated from his Texas wagon company.  He was fortunate, though, to meet up in Nebraska with John Taylor and Erastus Snow’s twelve-man company, headed back to Salt Lake City.  John Taylor kept a detailed trail journal, and we are fortunate to have a record of his personal insights into James’ personality.   After recording some of the interesting events of James' early life, John Taylor noted that "he [James] seems to have possessed a strong predilection to put the world right."   Taylor must have been amused that Gammell was more concerned about the horses he lost than he was about his own life:

[James] joined the Mormons at Salt Lake—was there what is termed a Winter Mormon: but as he has wintered and summered seven years, he calls himself a regular out and out Mormon.  He is a pretty decent, thorough going fellow, goes it strongly for equal rights, complains bitterly of McGraw taking his horses, and seems to think more of them than of being shot at by him and his ruffians in Independence.  My private opinion, from the twinkle of his eye, when speaking on the subject is, that it would not be very good for McGraw’s health to meet him on equal grounds.  He is now acting as outrider, hunter and assistant cook…(11)

John Taylor’s letter, written at Elm Creek, Nebraska, indicates that James was on the trail about midway through Nebraska by July 9, 1857.  On July 21, Ira Hinckley(12) recorded in his diary that James spent the night at Horseshoe Creek, a Mormon way station, located west of Fort Laramie, Wyoming, on the pioneer trail:

In the morning Brothers J Taylor Er Snow W. Martindail J Gamell come up About 2 P.M. making there way to GSL City to get out of the way of there Enimiys.  They staid till 9 A.M. I sent them on to Dear Creek in [?} crags with [?] 2 more men 5 horses. they spoke to us [?} few minutes give us good instructions they blessed us and went on thare way rejoysing.(13)

The John Taylor and Erastus Snow wagon company arrived in Salt Lake City on August 7,(14) but apparently James and another man named Stewart had parted with the rest of the company at the Green River cutoff on August 2.(15)  Walker reported years later that at Green River James “got aboard the stage coach and went into the city to see the wives and babies.” (16) James must have arrived home sometime between August 7 and September 10.  His original Texas Company, trailing a huge herd of cattle, arrived a month later.  Part of the company, led by William Moody, arrived in Salt Lake City on September 14, and Homer Duncan’s group on September 20.(17)

John Henry Standifird, who arrived in Salt Lake City on September 9, 1857, reportedly saw James Gammell on September 10:

I, J.H. Standifird, walked into Salt Lake City, Utah without any money in my pocket, put up at S. L. Hotel on the 10th met Jim Gammel who took me to his home where I remained several days, then I went to Bountiful and worked on the Bountiful Tabernacle as Carpenter until the latter part of the month (Sept) when with other men we were sent east to Fort Bridger to hedge up the way of U.S. troops from coming into S.L. City until the U.S. could investigate the situation in Utah which they did in the Spring of 1858.  I was in Lott Smith Co. of raiders on government trains of Supplies. 3 trains were destroyed by fire.(18)

James’ joyful homecoming didn’t last long; dark clouds loomed on the horizon.  On August 18, Brothers Richards and Stringham, traveling in one of the last wagon companies of the season, reported passing two companies of government supply wagons loaded with freight for the federal troops, and headed for Salt Lake City.  The military march to Utah Territory was conducted under great secrecy, without any official advance notice to Territorial Governor Brigham Young.(19)  This period of Mormon history became known as (President James) Buchanan’s Blunder or the Utah War.

________________________________

1. Land could be purchased from territory of Texas at $1 an acre on a ten-year payment plan at low interest.
2. Joseph C. Walker, History of the Mormons in the Early Days of Utah, pp. 53-56.
3. Because she knew that her estranged husband, Hector, was in pursuit of her, Eleanor decided to travel from Ellis County with a non-Mormon named Mr. Clark, and his wife and children.
4. Captain James B. Andrews was married to James’ sister, Margaret Jane.
5. Steven Pratt, p. 235.
6. Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, 1847–1868, narrative of Homer Duncan Company (1857).
7. It is possible that Magraw may also have been one of Hector McLean’s henchmen, since he specifically targeted James Gammell.
8. Taylor, John, “Editorial Correspondence from the Plains,” The Mormon, 8 August 1857, 3. (Written at Elm Creek, 15 miles above Fort Kearney, Nebraska, on July 9, 1857.)
9. Diary of John Henry. See Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, 1847-1868, Trail excerpts.
10. Taylor, John, “Editorial Correspondence from the Plains,” The Mormon, 8 August 1857, 3. (Written at Elm Creek, 15 miles above Fort Kearney, Nebraska, on July 9, 1857.)
11. Scott, Stuart, Australasian Canadian Studies, Vol 25, No. 2, 2007, p. 77. (Quoted from John Taylor, “Mormon Life on the Plains—On the way to Utah,” New York Times, September 30, 1857.)
12. Hinckley was a blacksmith at the Horseshoe Creek, Wyoming station from May-July 1857.
13. Ira Nathaniel Hinckley Diary, 1857 Mar-1858 June, (MS 13687), Church Archives. (See description of the stations on the trail in Great Basin Kingdom, by Arrington, p. 168.)
14. Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p. 83.
15. Scott, Stuart, Australasian Canadian Studies, Vol 25, No. 2, 2007, p.77. (Quoted from George John Taylor’s diary.)
16. Walker, Joseph C., manuscript “History of the Mormons,” p. 53-56.
17. “Immigration,” Deseret News (Weekly), 16 Sep 1857, 224; and 23 Sep 1857, 229.
18. John Henry Standifird Papers, 1857-1909.
19. Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, 1847-1868, S.W. Richards and Briant Stringam, trail excerpt, Aug. 18, 1857.