called in to cope with the vengeful horde. died before he was two years old. In 1839, Lee served a Mormon mission with his boyhood friend, Levi Stewart. outfits that had belonged to the Fancher train helped to direct the Remember the last words of your most true and devoted friend on earth, and let them sink deep into your tender aching hearts; many of you I may never see in this world again, but I leave my blessing with you. Of these, Mary Ann Williams left him to marry his oldest son, John Alma; Teressa Morse, a middle-aged woman who had refused to go with her husband, Soloman Chamberlain, and Ann Gordge was an emigrant girl from Australia, whose first child was born March 14, 1867. The site is still called Lee's Ferry. Other families from the north had settled at the Lee disharmony in his household. About this time a company en route to California arrived in the state, among whom it was said were some of the men of Missouri who had participated in the persecutions at Nauvoo, even some who had been present when the Prophet Joseph was martyred. He were made. to help with the general maintenance of their suffering families. He finished it the night he sat up with the corpse of his little Elizabeth Adeline. John D. Lee sitting on his coffin, minutes before his execution by firing squad in Mountain Meadows, Utah. The emigrants finally agreed and with each adult and larger child escorted by an armed guard, they were marched away. He worked hard and saved, but he also fought and gambled occasionally. Severe winter storms set in, bringing snow, hail, wind, and bitter He was an official scribe for the Council of 50, a group of men who in the days of Joseph Smith, Jr and Brigham Young worked together to provide guidance in practical matters to the church, specifically concerning the move westward out of the United States of America to the Rocky Mountains. Apache, Arizona. His family had also grown in numbers. Actually it was a year of floods throughout the west, for the Nevada and California settlements all have records of the devastation they caused. Early in life his mother died and John was raised by his aunt until the age of sixteen. Abigail of his life. materials and his son to assist. These papers are arranged in approximate chronological order in thirteen folders. the talk was of moving on to the mountains but it was clear that only Lee spent his time among his At Harmony he was preparing to leave the Fort and move to a site about three miles above the town near the base of the mountain, where he had smaller houses under construction. A short People refused to sell them grain or other foodstuffs, John Lee's Letter to Brigham Young Concerning Massacre. About this time the Prophet Joseph Smith decided to run for the office of President of the United States, and with this in mind he sent out many missionaries. But spring did finally come, grain and gardens were planted, and the new fort town hummed with activity. About a mile from the camp, and upon a signal, each guard shot his escort. years later in June 1866 Aggatha Ann died at Harmony after a lingering He received several Even in the far West, however, neither Lee nor his co-religionists were beyond the reach of the country whose persecution they had fled. his oldest son, John Alma; Terressa Morse was a middle-aged woman When Lee was forced to start back to the settlements in November, he met a messenger at Pipe Springs with a number of letters, one of which was a notification that he had been excommunicated from the Church but it did not specifically name the cause. meantime the doctrine of plurality of wives was being taught and practiced Morning clear, still and pleasant, since my confinement here, I have reflected much over my sentence, and as the time of execution draws near I feel composed and as calm as a summer morning. Mormon elders and had listened to their message but was not impressed. Introduced to the LDS Church, Lee and his wife moved to Far West, Missouri, in June 1838 and began the association which influenced the rest of his life. The arrival at the sit of the new Lee spent his time among them as he could, even visiting the settlements occasionally. command. Prudence counseled against dragging the ugly skeleton out for public examination, and Lee was advised to make himself scarce, to set up on the Colorado River and run a ferry in a place where he would be safe from the law. It was captured by the English during the Indians wars of 1763, then in 1778 was taken from the English by the American General George Roger Clark in a stroke of military genius. Kanosh, Millard, Utah, and was buried Jun 1885 in Panguitch, Garfield, affairs there. This story of John telling a bird to fly swiftly to his home, written in a fine lyrical verse in his diary, and of Rachel's having a bird appear at her door and act in such a way that she knew she must go to her husband, is one of the priceless traditions of the Lee family. On February 12th, John crossed with one wagon, two horses and one cow, with provisions to sustain the family for two months or more. It was and heavy hearts. During this time, John kept a journal of the activities of the leaders and the decisions they made. Farewell. That same year Young exiled Lee to a remote part of northern Arizona and excommunicated him from the church, instructing his former confidant to "make yourself scarce and keep out of the way.". in Wyoming, and was buried 3 Sep 1848 in Wyoming. This selection from the writings of John Doyle Lee include his autobiography, his confession (regarding the Mountain Meadows Massacre), letters, poems, last words for his families, as well as related historical documents regarding his arrest, trials and execution. When we come along with our company we shall expect to pay you liberally for your services-." then went to visit his half-sister, Eliza, who was married and living He was buried in the cemetery at Panguitch, where a simple shaft marks his grave. an innocent man.". Utah. Last Words . it was that when John D. Lee set out on his trip across the plains figure, one of the great among the builders of the western empire. Traveling with Levi Stewart and others, the Lee family made their way across the Mississippi River, west to central Missouri in the vicinity of the new-formed city of Far West. John married (9) Delethia MORRIS 1845/1846 in Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois. Now the lawyers were careful to ask only questions concerning John, without incriminating anyone else. Lee served several brief missions in nearby states and enjoyed success as a preacher, organizer, and healer. Lee had been whole-heartedly I trust in God. of the parties through the southern settlements. settlements for food. The Fancher party, an emigrant group from Arkansas, camped at Mountain Meadows, a staging area in southern Utah used to prepare for the long crossing of the Mohave desert by groups traveling to California. I have always felt he was used as a scapegoat and certainly was faithful to his church. After the massacre, John D. Lee remained an active leader in Mormon affairs in southern Utah. I know that I have a reward in Heaven, and my conscience does not accuse me. He was able to purchase a limited freedom because he inspired the confidence of the officials, he was helpful and cooperative, and he paid $5.00 a month to the warden. You paint a picture of John Lee through the eyes of three of his wives. wife Aggatha Ann were baptized on June 17, 1838. Iron, Utah, and was buried 5 Mar 1903 in Parowan, Iron, Utah. The action had been taken Seventeen children under the age of seven survived the ordeal and, under Federal orders, were eventually returned to family members in Arkansas. wards had reported that the foodstuffs of the camp were almost depleted; Abigail Woolsey was taken violently ill on September 1st, and on September 3rd was buried by the roadside. Be kind and true to each other. In the aftermath of the tragedy, church leadership continued their support of him for some time. She married twenty-two-year-old Ralph Lee (1788-1860), a Lee from Virginia but decidedly down on his luck. home on Sunday evening, April 5, 1874. town of Harmony. property. to leave it and start all over again. On this date in 1877, Mormon leader John D. Lee was shot at the site of (and for the crime of instigating) the Mountain Meadows Massacre 20 years before. At the October conference his name was read from As a preacher he had remarkable success. Joseph Smith took his first admitted plural wife, Louisa Beamon, on April 5, 1841; Brigham Young took his, Lucy Deeker, on June 15th, 1842. Finally, Lee moved to Vandalia, Illinois, where he met and married Agatha Ann Woolsey in 1833. John was finally released on bail of $15,000 on May 11, 1876, during the next three months he visited all his families, tried to get his affairs in order and reconcile himself to the thought that this might be the end for him. that the Mormons were in "a state of rebellion and that the Saints Their second child, Elizabeth Adaline, There was some sickness a last effort to break his will. later, on November 7, 1874 Lee was apprehended at Panguitch by United set up a portable sawmill in the area to get lumber out for the settlement, Within a few days of this disaster, John was warned that officers were on their way to take him into custody and advised to cross the river into Indian Lands in Arizona. that he left the Conner home to make his own way. There, under directions from Brigham Young, he was instrumental in the formation of several communities and became a successful farmer, rancher and business man in Iron County, Utah, serving as the local bishop and Indian Agent to the Paiute Indians. and two sisters, Polly and Lavina Young. to give up their land, homes, and all their property except their he then felt that he must gather with the body of the Saints. Her loss was felt by all, since as the first Kaskaskia was settled in 1703, when a French Jesuit Priest gathered a small tribe of Indians on the site. On June 4th, John returned to Salt Lake to attend to his affairs. By the first of February an exploring party reached the river, from that time until June 16th many people crossed on the ferry, both going and returning from Arizona. His wife, Terressa, moved north to make her home years in the home of her father, where she remained until her marriage His aunt of a wide, desolate area. Uncle Brigham came out, paused at the door and looked to the south. soon as possible, the Lee family were on their way, arriving back let it get into the hands of our Enemies, not to hire Gentiles to This story of John telling a bird to fly swiftly to his home, written in a fine lyrical verse in his diary, and of Rachel's having a bird appear at her door and act in such a way that she knew she must go to her husband, is one of the priceless traditions of the Lee family. sometime before 1866. families as he could, even visiting the settlements occasionally. Lee was exiled to the canyonlands of northern Arizona, where he settled with two of his wives, Rachael and Emma, at the confluence of the Colorado and Paria Rivers. Title John Doyle Lee Date Created and/or Issued 1852-01 Contributing Institution Huntington Library Collection Otis Marston Colorado River Collection The leaders were taken to prison and the citizens forced to give up all their property, except their teams and wagons, and sign affidavits to the effect that they would leave the state. Lee's involvement in the massacre -- the extent of which is still vigorously disputed and will probably never be known -- was to haunt him for the next two decades, and would ultimately lead to his execution. Verified Purchase. died Aug 1847 in Summer Quarters, Nebraska. to select the site and lay out the new fort. John was responsible for two four-mule teams. the Church with cotton. time he was sixteen John D. Lee was so thoroughly sick of life there This was another great sacrifice, for the prospective home was in the midst of a desolate area. Thus I do not care who hears it. His family had also grown in numbers. to the death in its defense but when word came of the massacre at There really was a massacre in . I wept and mourned over them before and after, but words will not help them, now it is done. In 1837 a Mormon missionary converted the couple to the young religion, which had been formally organized only seven years before. After the daughter of Samuel GORDGE and Merab HANCOCK. that time a company called the Fancher train, en route to California, This call was a severe test of his faith and loyalty; just ready to reap some of the fruits of his two years of hard labor, and now he was asked to leave it and start all over again. New settlers in the area had come to look upon him as the one wholly responsible for the tragedy at Mountain Meadows, and though President Young continued to stay at the Lee home and to give him some public recognition, the family all suffered from the stigma of his name. Just before he started on the return trip I got a program of the meetings to be held, so I could follow and attend. The court record John Doyle Lee and wives Agatha Ann Woolsey and Sarah Caroline Williams Discover your family history. Cause of death: Firearm - Mar 23 1877 - Mountain Meadows Historic Site, Sep 6 1812 - Kaskaskia, Randolph, Illinois, United States, Mar 23 1877 - Mountain Meadow, Washington, Utah, United States, Lemuel Lee, Ammon Doyle Lee, Nancy Emily Lee, John Henry Lee, Harvey Parley Lee, William Franklin Lee, Nancy Lee, Clara Anne Lee, Ellen Lee, Elizabeth Guffog (born Lee), David Edwin Lee, Thomas Lee, Sep 6 1812 - Kaskaskia, Randolph County, Illinois, United States, Mar 23 1877 - Mountain Meadows, Washington County, Utah, United States, Terressa Morse, Mary Ann Lee, Emma Louise French. There he was greeted cordially, Mary died 7 Apr 1883 in Nutrioso, Apache, Arizona, and was buried They laid out the town of Kanab and made Levi Stewart the bishop. near Vandalia. This classic biography is now in its fourth USU Press printing. After Smith was murdered, he went to Utah with most of the other Mormons. to remain and cultivate the land or work for supplies to feed the for a large area. Doyle Lee was born eighteen months after Elizabeth Reed's marriage teams and wagons, after signing affidavits to the effect that they John was a member of the Council of Fifty, which directed the general policies; he attended their meetings regularly and carried out many assignments in the public interest. Governor Lilburn Boggs sent in the state militia with his "Extermination Order" to protect the public good. The two daughters, Mary and Lavina, became the ninth and tenth wives of John Doyle Lee, their sponsor, and went on to Utah where they raised their families. offered substantial help in that major project, sending out "Uncle into Arizona until another boat was built. John married (17) Emma Louise BATCHELOR 7 Jan 1858 in Salt Lake City, He was buried in the cemetery at Panguitch where a simple Then he glanced hurriedly over the crowd and came direct to me and asked if I had time to take a walk with him. This he did, and remained in isolation for nine months, until mid-March of 1874. They had six children, and John D. soon felt like an extra child where there were already too many. Genealogy for John Doyle Lee (1859 - d.) family tree on Geni, with over 200 million profiles of ancestors and living relatives. was a quick-tempered, sharp-tongued woman who did not spare the rod By the late 1860s he was being harassed by his Mormon neighbors who were also ostracizing his children. by severe flooding. all the years of his imprisonment to testify that his prophet had aid to one of Lee's enemies, so she was separated from his family. They laid out the town of Kanab and made Levi Stewart the bishop. Then he walked from Lee and I knew, if nobody else did, that John D. Lee had lied to Brigham Young about the Mountain Meadow difficulty. When 20, 1819. She was born 10 Nov 1817 in Jackson families, some living outside the fort at the present site of the and returning from Arizona. a struggle. Lee never denied his own complicity, but claimed he hadn't personally killed anyone. season the Lees and a few other families moved south to Ash Creek Each of his children took half their DNA from their mother and him. by a Gentile trader a load of provisions consisting of salt, dried He was found guilty at the second trial and sentenced to death. By the first Harmony he was preparing to leave the Fort and move to a site about of the Doyle estate. exiles on the prairie, inching westward as the weather permitted, He was able to purchase a limited freedom because he inspired the time troubles with their neighbors had become so acutely threatening Upon that conviction stayed to strengthen him. one of the company sent to colonize the Iron Mission at Parowan, in Lee looked down to the ground. Lee was born in Kaskaskia, Illinois on September 12, 1812. in the steady downpour. In exchange for safe passage through the area, the emigrants were to give up all their arms, abandon their wagons, possessions, and cattle and be escorted out of the meadows. When spring came, Lee was called on another mission and went to eastern Kentucky, where he was serving in June 1844 when Joseph and Hyrum Smith were murdered. with a married son by her previous marriage. John Doyle Lee by Jeffrey S. Hardy. Always, he had insisted that he would prefer death to dishonor, and he had given his word to be at Beaver on Sept. 11th. in which one excess called forth another until an attack on the town sent on several missions of vital importance. John D. Lee had been appointed Indian agent some time before, and so was called in also. her husband. the late snows made it impossible to plant crops and the cold froze and with provisions to sustain the family for two months or more. Perhaps others of his records Prudence counseled against dragging the ugly skeleton out for public examination, and Lee was advised to make himself scarce, to set up on the Colorado River and run a ferry in a place where he would be safe from the law. While he was away, his wife, Emma, gave birth to a baby at Lonely Dell, attended only by her 12 year-old son. Winter Quarters, Douglas, Nebraska. Having been persecuted from their religion's birthplace in New York to Missouri and Illinois, the Mormons had by 1846 decided to seek their own Zion in the American West. ", Between Although Martha Berry had left him in 1858, taking his younger children, Lee had married other wives after his move south. With a history of repeated persecutions in Ohio and elsewhere, the Saints were already being threatened again by Missourians near Far West. A wagon train of emigrants from Arkansas was traveling to California under the leadership of Captains John T. Baker and Alexander Fancher. The bishops of twenty-two wards had reported that the foodstuffs of the camp were almost depleted, and the only chance for survival seemed to be to send to the Missouri settlements for more supplies. Charles The L.D.S. Graham, Arizona. 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