Mormon History
Murder of Captain Gunnison - 1853
The Dixon Telegraph – December 10, 1853
Arrival of the Salt Lake Mail.
Capt. Gunnison and his Exploring Party Massacred by Indians.
St. Louis, Nov. 30.
The Salt Lake Mail has arrived at Independence and brings intelligence of the
massacre of Captain Gunnison and his exploring party. An express reached
Governor Young on the 31 of October, from Capt. Morris, giving an account of the
massacre, by the Indians, on Lever [sic - Sevier?] river. The killed were Capt.
Gunnison, Mr. Kern, the Topographical Engineer, Mr. Porter, a guide; two others,
and three privates of "A," Mounted Riflemen. The following are the particulars.
Captain Gunnison and 12 of his party had separated from the main body, and while
at breakfast, a band of Indians intending to destroy a Mormon village near at
hand, came upon them, fired with rifles and then used bows and arrows. Shots
were returned by the Gunnison party, but they were overpowered and only four
escaped.
Capt. Gunnison had 26 arrows in his body, and when found one of his hands was
off. The notes of the survey, which had been nearly completed, instruments and
animals, were taken. Gov. Young sent aid to Capt. Morris, to release him from
his critical position in the Indians, and endeavored to regain the stolen
property. A party of Cheyenne surrounded the mail, and demanded nearly all the
provisions; which were given to them.
Liberty Weekly Tribune – May 8, 1857
The Murder of Capt. Gunnison;
Letter from Judge Drummond.
The mystery of the murder of
poor Capt. Gunnison, whose sad and tragic fate in Utah in 1853, we all remember,
is gradually clearing up, confirming the suspicion that he and his eight
companions were not murdered by Indians, but by Mormons. -- In the Chicago press
of yesterday, is a correspondence between Mrs. M. D. Gunnison, widow of the
murdered officer, and Judge Drummond, late Judge of the Federal District Court
for Utah.
In answer to Mrs. Gunnison's inquiries concerning the death of her husband,
Judge Drummond mentions a chain of circumstances which prove conclusively that
the murderers of Gunnison and his party were Mormons and Indians, and that the
whole affair, to use Judge Drummond's own words, "was a deep and maturely laid
plan by the Mormons to murder the whole party of engineers and surveyors, and
charge the murder upon the Indians." The murderers were a company of Indians and
Mormons, led by one Enies, a friend and favorite of Brigham Young. The names of
the Mormons who participated in the affair, are William A. Hackman [sic]. Anson
Call, Alexander McRay, Ephraim Hanks, James W. Cummings, Edwin D. Wooley, George
Peacock, Levi Abrams, and Bronson -- all of them members in good standing of the
Mormon church. The Indians were tried for the offence, but acquitted in
obedience with an express order to that effect from Brigham Young to the jury.
These disclosures by Judge Drummond will produce a sensation in the country.
St. Louis News.