THE MORMON MASSACRE.
Trial of the Mountain Mea-dow Assassins.
A Horrible Account of Men, Women and Children Piled Dead Upon the Plain.
WOLVES AND VULTURES.
The Dying: and the Dead of the Emigrant Train.
A Vivid Picture of The Deed.
BEAVER, Utah, July 23.— The Lee trial was resumed to-day. The inter-est of the people is at fever heat. Lee's wives and a number of Gentile women are in the Court. U. S. Attorney Cary eloquently made a statement of the expected proof. He drew a vivid pic-ture of the rich emigrant train bound for California entering Utah; the re- fused supplies; attacked by Indians; entrenched; seige of days; then the coming of Lee with troops; the flag of truce; treachery and butchery of men, women and children; the prop-erty taken to the tithing house; the sale of goods; the bodies laying un-buried for weeks; the following and killing of those who escaped; the re- port of the deed to Brigham Young ; his orders to sell the property, and never mention the deed which accounts for the want of knowledge of the trans-action on the part of the Mormons on the jury list. All these things he would prove. The witnesses were sworn and put under rule. A recess was then taken until two o'clock.
The defense is greatly discomposed by the publication of the outlines of Lee's confession, obtained by your re-porter, as it gives a clear idea of Lee's confessed guilt and destroys the in-tended theory that the massacre is chargeable to Indians. It is not an-nounced what new theory of defense will be set up. No one expects a ver- dict from the jury as composed. The prosecution say their desire is to get the facts before the people and a pop-ular verdict against the powerful Mor-mon Church, and think that the trial will break the backbone of this priest-ly confederacy. The defense say they expect no verdict, but neither can there be a conviction. It is now open-ly charged that the Mormon authori-ties are aiding Lee's defense, notwith-standing his excommunication. The feeling of indignation is great over the jurors swearing to no knowledge of the massacre, though old residents. The comments are loud and severe, es-pecially over the attempt of the son- in- law of one of the defendants to sit on the jury. On the other hand, the Mormons claim that they are taking no part in the defense ; that the jurors live in remote regions seldom discuss-ing public matters, and honest in saying that they have no opinion or knowledge of the massacre. They declare that Judge Cradlebaugh held Court at Cedar City in May, 1858, and had all the facts of the case before him, with Johnson and his army to aid him, but took no steps; that Lee lived there sixteen years, but no at-tempt was made to take or prosecute him; that the church takes no part in the trial, and defy proof that, it had a part in the massacre.
At 2 p. m., the first witness called was Robert Keys. He came to Utah October 2d, 1857, through Mountain Meadow ; saw two piles of bodies; the women and children were piled pro-miscuously ; there were about sixty to seventy; the children were from eight months to twelve years old; the small-er ones were torn by the wolves and crows, and some of the bodies were shot, some with their throats cut, and some stabbed; they were all torn by wolves, except one woman a little way off, who appeared as if asleep; there was a ball hole in her left side; it ap-peared as if the bodies had been dead fifteen days; seven of us saw it; there was a pile of men's bodies further on; didn't go to see them; there was no clothing on the bodies, except the leg of one sock on a man.
Asael Bennett was called.— Was at the Meadows in December, 1857; saw the bones; it was a horrible sight; there were skeletons of men, women and children, with curls and long tresses of hair clotted with blood; the children were from ten to twelve years old; some of the skulls had the flesh dried on them; the bodies had been covered up, but the wolves had evidently dug them up.
Phillip Klingensmith, a defendant, of San Bernardino, Cal., was called.— The prosecution entered a uolle prosequi as to himself. Lived in Cedar City in 1857; the Meadows is 45 miles south of Cedar, on the Calafornia road; was at the massacre in September, 1857; heard of the emigrants coming; the people were forbidden to trade with them; felt bad about it; saw few of them at Cedar; this was Friday; some swore and Higby fined them; they went on; heard rumors of trouble; on Sunday it was the custom to have meetings of the President and Council of Bishops; the matter came up for discussion as to their destruction; Haight, Higbee, Morrill, Allen, Willis, myself and others were present; some of the brethren opposed the destruct-tion ; I did; Haight jumped up and broke up the meeting; I asked what would be the consequences of such an act; then Higby got mad; the Indians were to destroy them; on Monday Hig-by, Haight, White and I met; the same subject came up again; I opposed the destruction; Haight relented and told White and I to go ahead and tell the people the emigrants should go through safe; we did so; on the road we met J ohn D. Lee; told him where we were going; he replied, " I have something to say about that matter;' we passed the emigrants at Iron Springs; next morning we passed them again as we came back; they had 20 or 30 wagons; there were over one hundred people, old and young, wo-men and children; near home met Ira Allen; he said the emigrants' doom was sealed, the die was cast for their, destruction, and that Lee had orders to take men and go out and intercept them; Allen was to go on and coun-teract what we did; I went home; three days after Haight sent for me; he said orders had come from camp; they didn't get along and wanted re-inforcements; that he had been to Parowan and got further orders from Col. W. H. Dame to finish the massa-cre, and spare only the small children who could not tell the tale; I went off; met Allen, our first runner, and others; Higby came out and said, " You are ordered out armed and equipped; as I went Hopkins, Higby, John Willis and Sam Purdy went along; had two baggage wagons; got to Hamblin's ranch in the night, three miles from the emigrants; there met Lee and others from the general camp, where the largest number of men were; it was then found that the emigrants were not all killed; Lee called me out one side for consultation; he told me the situation; the emigrants were strongly fortified, and there was no chance to get them out; that Higby had been ordered to decoy them out as best he could; the command was given to John D. Lee to carry out the whole plan; they went to the camp; Lee called all the soldiers together in a hollow square and addressed them; they were all white men; about fifty in all; the Indians were in another camp; saw there Slade and his son, Jim Pierce and probably his sons too; all these were from Cedar, and Bill Stewart and Jacobs; think Dan Mc-Farlane too; Slade and I were enraged, but we said, " what can we do, we can't help ourselves; just then an or-der to march was given, and we had to go; were put in double file; Higby had command of part of the men; it was the Nauvoo legion, organized from tens up to hundreds; marched in sight of the emigrants; either Bateman or Lee went out with a white flag; a man from the emigrants met them; Lee and the man sat down on the grass and had a talk; don't know what they said; Lee went with the man into the intrenchments; after some hours they came out and the emigrants came up with their wounded in wagons; ahead of the wounded were those hurt in the three days previous fight; they said the Mormons and Indians couldn't oust the emigrants; next came the wo-men and next the men; as the emi-grants came up the men halted and the women, children and wounded went on ahead with John D. Lee; the soldiers had orders to be all ready to shoot at the word; when the word halt came the soldiers fired; I fired once; don't know if I killed any; the men were not all killed the first shot; saw the women afterwards, dead with their throats cut; I saw as I came up to them a man kill a young girl; the men were marched in double file first and then thrown in single file, with the soldiers along side; heard the emi-grants congratulating each other on their safety from the Indians; at last John M. Higby came and ordered my squad to fire; Lee, like the rest, had firearms; no emigrants escaped; saw soldiers on horseback to take on the wing those who ran; saw a man run, and saw Bill Stuart on a horse go after and kill him; saw one wounded man beg for his life, and Higby cut his throat; after I shot was told to gather up the little children; as I went I saw a large woman running towards the men crying " my husband, my hus-band ;" a soldier shot her in the back and she fell dead; as I went on I found the wagons with the wounded all out on the ground, dead, with their throats cut; went on and found the children, put them in the wagon and took them to Hamblin's house; saw no more; the soldiers dispersed then; two of the children were wounded; one died at Hamblin's; think I had to leave it there; many of the soldiers were from the counties south whom I didn’t know; next day I, McCurdy and Wil-lis took the children to Cedar City, leaving one at Pinto creek; on the road met a freight train of wagons, the men living here in Beaver now; I went to old Mrs. Hopkins' and told her I had children; she rustled around and got places for them; I took one girl baby home; my wife suckled it; afterwards I gave it to Birk Beck, he having no children; they were well treated and I believe good places were got for them, where there were few children.
The question of allowing the state-ments of the co-conspirator as to the disposal of the emigrants' property after the massacre was here argued for an hour. The Court held it admissible on the ground of the case of the peo-ple vs. Trima, a California case. Dur-ing the argument of the subject the defense bitterly said that it was an at-tempt to fix the crime on some one else, Lee being only a figure-head.
Baskin, for the prosecution, replied that he wanted but the truth, whoever it implicated; that Sutherland feared his real client would be reached. (De-cided sensation, it being known that Brigham Young was meant).
Witness resumed.— After several days Haight sent me to Iron Springs, where the wagons, cattle and goods of the emigrants were, to get them and put them in the tithing house; I was to brand the cattle too; found there John Urie and Hunter and Allen; I put the goods in the church tithing office cellar; left the wagons in front of the tithing office, and branded the cattle with the church brand— a cross; Lee was in in the cellar with me, and saw the goods; Haight and Higby told me a council had been held and Lee deputed to go to the President, Brigham Young, and report all the facts of the massacre; Lee went; I followed Lee to attend a conference on October 6th at Salt Lake City; met Lee at Salt Lake, and asked him if he had reported to Brigham Young; he said yes, every particular; the same day I, Lee and Charley Hopkins called on Brigham Young; he there, in the presence of them, said: " You have charge of that property in the tithing office, turn it over to John D. Lee, and what you know of this say nothing of it- don’t talk of it, even among your-selves;" I had to go to the Vegas lead mines to get ore; while, I was gone Lee took the property, had an auction, and sold it off, so Haight and Higby told me; Haight sold part of the cat-tle to Hooper, Utah's Congressional delegate afterwards, for boots and shoes; there were Indians at the mas-sacre; the hills were pretty full of them; they were deputed to kill the women; saw one Indian cut a little boy's throat; heard no effort to re-strain the Indians; several Indians were wounded, and three died of wounds; the Indians came back to Ce-dar, where they lived; one was called Bill and one Tom; both were chiefs; saw some of the emigrants' property with the Indians; saw Lee get dresses and jeans from the tithing office out of the emigrant plunder; learned from Allen that Lee was the one to gather up the Indians to attack the emigrants; talked with Lee about it afterwards; Lee was Indian agent at Harmony Agency; traded with the tribes and issued the goods and rations of the Government to the Indeans.
Court here adjourned to 9 a. m. to-morrow. After to-day night sessions are to be held. The court warned the citizens not to speak to the jurors from the street, and declared they would arrest and punish such offense. During the time Klingensmith was tes-tifying, giving horrible details of blood, the suspense was terribly pain-ful, Lee's square, hard, low- browed face and neck became fairly purple and black, and his wives scarcely breathed, straining forward to catch each syllable. The excitement in town is intense. I am prepared to state that Klingensmith's story, in all material details, is the same as Lee's suppressed confession as to the massa-cre. Klingensmith's reputation here is that of a man of truth, and he could not be impeached save by facts.
