"Horrible Massacre of Emigrants!!" The Mountain Meadows Massacre in Public Discourse

 

Sixteen White Children Recovered from the Indians. 

The Commissioner of Indian Affairs has received the following interesting letter from the Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Utah:

SUPERINTENDENT'S OFFICE GREAT SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, May 4, 1859.

SIR: I have just returned from a very laborious and difficult trip through the southern portions of this Territory. I have succeeded in recovering sixteen children, and have them now in my possession. It is said these are all that remain of probably one hundred and forty men, women and children of the Mountain Meadow massacre in September, 1857.

In December last there was a small boy among the Navajos, near the Colorado, in Mexico Territory, who, it is supposed, also belonged to this emigrant train. I will allude to this boy in another communication. I was positively assured by the settlers in the neighborhood where I got the children, that I have all that were saved. I have good reason for believing that none of these children have lived among the Indians at all.

These children average from about three to nine and half years old; are intelligent and good looking; not one mean-looking child among them. I have collected the following particulars in relation to these children:

1. Calvin, now 7 or 8 years old ; does not remember his name ; says they (his family) lived at Horsehead, Johnston County, Arkansas. This boy had father, mother, and five brothers older than himself killed ; brothers named Henry, James, William and Larkin ; and four sisters, Nancy, Mary and Martha; his father Joseph, and his mother Matilda. 2 and 3. Ambrose Mirem Taggit, now about 7 years old, and William Taggit, now about 4½ years old; the elder boy says they had father, mother and two older brothers killed. He says they lived in Johnston County, and when they left the States they had a grandfather and grandmother living. 4. Prudence Angeline, 6 years old; and 5. Annie; had father and mother, and two brothers named James and Johnah killed. 6. A girl about 4½ years old says her name is Frances Hawe, or Kern. 7 A boy, now about 3 years old; I have no account of this boy; those with whom he lived called him William. 8. Eliza W. Buff, 4 years old. 9. Sophronia or Mary Huff, about 6 years old. 10. Charles Francher, 7 or 8 years old; and 11. Annie about 3½ years old, had sister. 12. Betrey, about 6 years old ; and 13. Jane about 4 years old; have no account of these. 14, 15 and 16. Rebecca, Louisa and Sarah Dunlap.

In conversation with these children, I learn that they resided in the same neighborhood; my impression is, principally in Johnston County, Ark.

I remain, very respectfully, your obedient Servant, J. FORNEY,