Sherlock Holmes examines a clue in the murder of two Mormon militiamen. Illustration from A Study in Scarlet (1887) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

In my last post, I looked at how – through music – people tried to make sense of the infamous Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857, in which a group of Mormon militiamen deceived and murdered 120 members of the Baker-Fancher wagon train on its way to California. In the aftermath, folk songs actively negotiated with official accounts of the massacre to assign blame. The result was a type of whodunit folk series whose twists incriminated different individuals (John D. Lee, Brigham Young), different groups of individuals (a band of Paiutes, local Mormon leaders), and entire categories of people (all Mormons everywhere).

This long-running whodunit series extends to the present day, fueled by ongoing official accounts that – more than 150 years later – are still trying to commemorate and explain the event. In 2011, for example, the massacre site was designated a National Historic Landmark and, in 2014, Mormon leaders released an essay that puts the massacre into a larger historical context:

…while intemperate preaching about outsiders by Brigham Young, George A. Smith, and other leaders contributed to a climate of hostility, President Young did not order the massacre. Rather, verbal confrontations between individuals in the wagon train and southern Utah settlers created great alarm, particularly within the context of the Utah War and other adversarial events. A series of tragic decisions by local Church leaders—who also held key civic and militia leadership roles in southern Utah—led to the massacre.

A whodunit series, then, but also a “whatdunit” series. In this post, I’ll look at another set of ballads that, as part of this series, help to explain the massacre by positioning Mormons themselves as victims of betrayal, violence, and murder.

Haun’s Mill Massacre & Praise to the Man

“Haun’s Mill by C.C.A. Christensen” by Carl Christian Anton Christensen – Brigham Young University Museum of Art.

I’ll start where the Mormons began. From the time the Mormon Church was organized by Joseph Smith in 1830 in New York through their arrival in Utah in 1847, Mormons were persecuted and kept on the run, often by force. From New York they moved to Ohio, then to Missouri, then to Illinois, then to temporary camps in Iowa and Nebraska, and finally to Utah.

Their expulsions from Missouri and Illinois were particularly violent. In 1838, after a skirmish between Mormons and the state militia, Missouri’s governor issued an executive order stating that Mormons “must be treated as enemies” and “must be exterminated or driven from the State if necessary.” Three days later, during a temporary truce, several dozen militiamen massacred a group of Mormons living in a small Mormon settlement known as Haun’s Mill. The 17 victims, men and boys, had taken refuge in a blacksmith shop as the settlement was attacked; the youngest was 9, the oldest 78.

Mormon poet Eliza R. Snow penned a lengthy poem commemorating the event, which was later set to music and sung informally. A few representative stanzas:

The Slaughter of the Saints at Shoal Creek

Here, in a land that freemen call their home,
Far from the influence of papal Rome,
Yes, in a “mild and tolerating age,”
The saints have fall’n beneath the barb’rous rage.
Of men inspired, by that misjudging hate,
Which ignorance and prejudice create.

Twas not enough for that unfeeling crew,
To murder men: they shot them through and through!
Frantic with rage; they pour’d their moulten lead
Profusely on the dying and the dead!
E’en mercy’s claim, which heaven delights to hear,
Fell disregarded on relentless ears.
(Source.)

This contemporary ballad by Holly and Jim Lawrence picks up details from Eliza Snow’s poem:

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