Samuel Jewkes

Samuel Jewkes/Jukes, his personal and family background, and his involvement in the Mountain Meadows Massacre

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Samuel Jewkes/Jukes

1823-1900

Biographical Sketch

Early Life in England

Samuel Jewkes/Jukes was born in Tipton, Staffordshire in central England. His family resided in Staffordshire or Worcestershire for several generations. His wife Sophia Lewis Jewkes was born in Dover, Kent, England.

Immigration to America and onto Utah

He married his wife Sophia in St. Louis in 1851. ???

By 1852, the Jewkes had gathered sufficient means to equip and provision an outfit for the overland trek. They joined the Philip De La Mare Company, which departed in early July.

The Mormon Trail

This company transported machinery for the first beet sugar refinery ever brought to the western hemisphere and with it, a number of families. They passed the usual milestones on the trail: Fort Kearney, the South Fork of the Platte River, Chimney Rock, Fort Laramie, the Sweetwater River, Independence Rock, Devil's Gate, Green River, Fort Bridger, Bear River, and Weber River. Because of the heavy load of freight it carried, the company traveled much slower than other companies and did not arrive in the valley of the Great Salt Lake until early November.

To Cedar City and the Ironworks

The Early Ironworks in Cedar City

Deseret Iron Company

By 1855, they had moved to Cedar City where he took a second wife, Mary Nash Garner. The Cedar City land records reflect that Jewkes owned one lot there. In settling in Cedar City, Samuel Jewkes was in an area dominated by the Deseret Iron Company, known more familiarly as the Ironworks. By 1855, they had achieved their greatest success with a sustained run of the furnace producing several tons of pig iron. But most of the runs both before and after failed to achieve a sustained run producing good quality iron. One problem was the fickle nature of Coal Creek, which continued to alternate between flooding and droughts. They determined to develop a more dependable source of power.

The Ironworks in 1857

In April 1857, the delivery of a new steam engine from Great Salt Lake City seemed to provide the answer. Working from April to June they installed the steam engine and completed the new engine house. In the first week of July, they were ready to begin smelting. They “put on the blast” and had a modicum of success. But they continued to be plagued with problems ranging from poor quality raw materials to smelting equipment that lacked technical sophistication. When in late July the steam engine seized with sand from the dirty creek water, they speedily dug a reservoir to store a supply of clean water for the boiler. They continued making smelting runs through August. All the while crews at the ironworks manned all the necessary functions there, while other crews, mainly miners and teamsters, gathered the raw materials – iron ore, coal, limestone, and wood – necessary to sustain smelting.

The smelting continued until September 13. In other words, around September 3, when a dispute arose between some settlers and several men in the passing Arkansas company, the blast furnace was running nonstop. And when Cedar City militiamen, many of them ironworkers, mustered to Mountain Meadows where they were involved in the massacre on September 11, other ironworkers in Cedar City continued the smelting runs night and day. For additional details, see Smelting at the Ironworks in 1857.

From late April to September, those working up the canyon in mining or hauling wood, coal, limestone, rock, sand or “adobies” to the ironworks were Isaac C. Haight, James Williamson, George Hunter, Joseph H. Smith, Ira Allen, Ellott Wilden, Swen Jacobs, Alex Loveridge, Joel White, Ezra Curtis, Samuel McMurdie, Samuel Pollock, John Jacobs, John M. Higbee, John M. Macfarlane, Samuel Jewkes, Nephi Johnson, Thomas Cartwright, William Bateman, Elias Morris, Benjamin Arthur, Joseph H. Smith, Robert Wiley, and Philip Klingensmith. Those working at the ironworks on the furnace, engine, coke ovens or blacksmith shop included Elias Morris, John Humphries, Ira Allen, John Urie, Benjamin Arthur, James Williamson, Joseph H. Smith, Samuel Jewkes, Joseph Clews, Richard Harrison, William C. Stewart, William Bateman, John M Macfarlane, John M. Higbee, John Jacobs, George Hunter, Samuel Pollock, William S. Riggs, Alex Loveridge, Ellott Wilden, Ezra Curtis, Eliezar Edwards, Swen Jacobs, Joel White, and Thomas Cartwright. (The two lists overlap because some worked both in the canyon and at the Ironworks.) Other prominent figures at the ironworks who were not later involved at Mountain Meadows were Samuel Leigh, George Horton, James H. Haslem, Laban Morrell, John Chatterley, Thomas Gower, Thomas Crowther and others.

Jewkes's Extensive Role in the Ironworks in 1857

During this period of 1857, Samuel Jewkes played a variety of significant roles at the ironworks. When they installed the new steam engine inside the engine room in late May, Jewkes hauled beam supports for the project. In early June, he spent six days with Samuel Leigh, one of the chief mechanics, "fitting up" the flywheel on the steam engine. In mid-June, he spent five days with George Horton "fixing & Building the Cistern." He also spent a day chipping iron castings. He provided beam supports for the engine in late June. In early June, "Walker & Jewkes" fixed the "gudgeon" and shaft for the saw mill. He also spent a day and a half with others "fitting up" the steam engine. The following week, he spent another five days on the engine. He also hauled several loads of lumber. In late July as they worked on the furnace chimney stack, Jewkes hauled loads of sand. Then he spent six days "fixg & repg [repairing]" the engine and its associated machinery. Next, he hauled nearly a ton and a half of coal to the ironworks. Then he and George Horton acted as the engineers for six and five days, respectively, on the machinery. In early August, Horton and he spent more than a week each on the machinery. In mid-August, Hornton and Jewkes were credited with 10 and 11 1/2 days, respectively, as engineers. The following week, he and Horton spent another day and three-quarters each as engineers on the machinery. In late August, he and Horton spent more than a week trying to engineer the machinery. In this time of intense effort to sustain the iron run, Jewkes hauled more than three tons of coal to be turned into coke by Joseph H. Smith.

At the end of September, after the massacre, Jewkes spent a day hauling rock for the rebuilding of the cupola. During all this period, the names of Walker and Jewkes were also linked with the saw mill.

The majority of the southern Utah militiamen at Mountain Meadows were from Cedar City. Of these, nearly all of them had worked at the Ironworks or supplied raw materials to it. Indeed, in the weeks before the Mountain Meadows Massacre, they had worked intensely together, hauling materials, building a new water reservoir, and making the latest run of the blast furnace. One perennial mystery of the massacre has been why the militiamen mustered to Mountain Meadows in “broken” militia units; that is, from different platoons and companies, none of which had a full compliment of its members. Perhaps the reason lies with the Ironworks. Those in the Ironworks knew each other and had worked alongside one another. Not only did Samuel Jewkes know those who mustered from Cedar City to Mountain Meadows, he had worked with them at the Ironworks as recently as the week before. Perhaps the answer is that the men of the Ironworks were on hand and available and Isaac Haight, who himself had worked closely with them, assigned them to muster to Mountain Meadows.

In the Iron Military District: Private Samuel Jewkes, Company E, Elias Morris's 3rd Battalion

In 1857, the Iron Military District consisted of four battalions led by regimental commander Col. William H. Dame. The platoons and companies in the first battalion drew on men in and around Parowan. (It had no involvement at Mountain Meadows.) Major Isaac Haight commanded the 2nd Battalion whose personnel in its many platoons and two companies came from Cedar City and outer-lying communities to the north such as Fort Johnson. Major John Higbee headed the 3rd Battalion whose many platoons and two companies were drawn from Cedar City and outer-lying communities to the southwest such as Fort Hamilton. Major John D. Lee of Fort Harmony headed the 4th Battalion whose platoons and companies drew on its militia personnel from Fort Harmony, the Southerners at the newly-founded settlement in Washington, the Indian interpreters at Fort Clara, and the new settlers at Pinto.

In the June 1857 militia list, Jewkes, 34, was listed as a company musician. In September 1857, Jewkes was a private in one of the Cedar City platoons in Elias Morris’ Company E in Isaac C. Haight’s 2nd Battalion. He was among those recruited to Mountain Meadows during the week of September 7. See A Basic Account for a full description of the massacre.

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On Thursday evening, September 10, according to John D. Lee, Jewkes and many others from Cedar City attended the war council on the grounds of Mountain Meadows.

On Friday, September 11, many members of the militia contingent from Cedar City acted as guards alongside the emigrant men as they marched northward from their fortified position inside the wagon circle. As the massacre commenced, the duty of the guards was to wheel and fire on the emigrant men, quickly dispatching them. Yet during the actual massacre, reactions varied among the guards. Some shrank from their duty, others fired over the heads of their victims, while others still undertook their bloody duty with zeal. Within minutes, members of the Cedar City unit had killed all but three of the emigrant men. However, whether Samuel Jewkes was in this guard unit and if so, how he acted during the massacre will probably never be known with any certainty.

In 1859, Judge John Cradlebaugh issued an arrest warrant for those alleged to be complicit in the massacre. He was informed by one or more anonymous militia sources on those involved and he implied that his sources were from in or around Cedar City. Thus, most of those listed in the 1859 arrest warrant were from Cedar City and environs. Samuel Jewkes, however, was not among them.

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Map of Sanpete County, Utah.

Leaving Cedar City for Sanpete County

By 1861, they had moved to Moroni in Sanpete County. During the Black Hawk War, 1865-68, Ute Indian depredations in Sanpete County were particularly heavy. The Jewkes must have been affected by the disruptions incident to the war.

In the late 1860s, they moved to Fountain Green in the same county where they lived for many years. While in Fountain Green, Jewkes organized and directed the ward choir. He was known in the community as an Englishman of musical ability.

Indicted for Complicity in the Massacre

Although Jewkes was a mere private in the 1857 militia and was not listed in the 1859 arrest warranty, for reasons now unclear he was named in the 1874 federal indictment issued against nine Iron County militiamen. The principal defendants were William H. Dame, Isaac C. Haight, John M. Higbee, Philip Klingensmith, John D. Lee and William C. Stewart. The two other privates indicted, besides Jewkes, were Ellott Willden and George Washington Adair.

Jewkes, however, was not actively prosecuted and the charges against him were eventually dropped.

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Map of Emery County, Utah.

Move to Emery County

In fall 1878, Mormon officials in Sanpete County called on a select group of men and their families to join the first settlers in Castle Valley in what was then eastern Sanpete County. Around 1879, Samuel Jewkes and his family pioneered in Castle Valley. He and his wife were among the oldest of those who homesteaded in this unsettled region. Jewkes and his sons built the first saw mill on Cottonwood Creek near the future site of Castle Dale. It was initially horse-powered. Later, however, after they built a mill race, creek water supplied the motive power for the sawmill. His sawmill supplied the lumber for much of the building in the area in the coming decades.

In 1880, the legislature created Emery County from the eastern portion of Sanpete County. They established the county seat at Castle Dale and appointed the first county officials. Initially, Jewkes, 57, was appointed probate judge. Later that year in the first county elections, Jewkes was elected county treasurer and stepped down as probate judge.

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Their initial settlement on Cottonwood Creek was soon named Orangeville. It became Jewkes's home for the rest of his life. By 1882, Jewkes had introduced the first grist mill and threshing machine into Castle Valley.

Making use of musical talent and prior choral experience, Jewkes organized the Orangeville Ward choir and also brought the first organ to Cottonwood Creek. He drew heavily on members of his family and others he had trained during their time in Fountain Green. His son, Samuel R. Jewkes, formed the Orangeville band, also drawing on Jewkes family members. Later, Samuel R. and several other talented musicians in the community formed an orchestra that played for dances and theatrical productions in Castle Valley.

The Jewkes family remained in the sawmill business for several generations. Later, Jewkes expanded his milling machinery by adding a molasses mill for processing sugar cane or sorgum into molasses. Jewkes was a "church going man," yet his supper of choice was "toast and hot beer, the hot beer being poured over the toast in a large bowl from which he always ate." His wife Mary and several other women in the community were expert brewers of malt beer. These were cultural relics from Jewkes's English upbringing. His two wives bore him twelve children.

Final Years

Jewkes remained in Emery County until his death in 1900. He was survived by his many children and grandchildren.

In 1949, Castle Valley: A History of Emery County was published. It noted that Samuel Jewkes "played a colorful part in the enterprises and early settling of Orangeville."

References

Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 4:165; Geary, A History of Emery County, 66, 68, 76-78, 86, 137-138, 140-41, 156-157, 159; Lee, Mormonism Unveiled, 232, 293, 379; Lee Trail transcripts; Lever, History of Sanpete and Emery Counties, Utah, 593, 596, 597-98, 600, 607, 673,679; McElprang, Castle Valley: A History of Emery County, 23, 69, 89, 90, 304, 306-307, 309, 315, 323; 1880 federal census; FamilySearch.org; Seegmiller, A History of Iron County, 270; Shirts and Shirts, A Trial Furnace, 394, 487, 495; Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Appendix C.

For full bibliographic information see Bibliography.

External Links

For further information on Samuel Jewkes, see:

• http://mountainmeadowsmassacre.org/appendices/appendix-c-the-militiamen
• Deseret Iron Company Account Book, 1854-1867: http://www.footnote.com/document/241905844/

Further information and confirmation needed. Please comment below or contact editor@1857ironcountymilitia.com.