Benjamin A. Arthur

Benjamin A. Arthur, his personal and family background, and his involvement in the Mountain Meadows Massacre

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Benjamin Abel Arthur

1834-1883

Biographical Sketch

Early Life in Wales

Benjamin Abel Arthur was born in 1834 in Monmouthshire, South Wales to Christopher Abel Arthur (1796-1859) and Ann Jones (1793-1852). His father, a Baptist, joined the Mormons while Benjamin was in his teens. Benjamin was baptized into the Mormon Church in 1850.

Immigration to America and onto Utah

Following his mother's death in 1852, he, his father, Christopher Abel, and his brothers, Joshua and Christopher J., immigrated to America. They steamed up the Mississippi River to St. Louis and from there to Keokuk on a bend in the river in southeastern Iowa.

The Mormon Trail

In late spring 1853, the Arthurs joined the Claudius V. Spencer Company at Montrose, Iowa. At its departure the company consisted of roughly 250 individuals and 40 wagons. Benjamin's brother, Christopher A. Arthur, kept a diary of the journey, noting that their father was a captain of 50 and that he and Benjamin rode and slept in a wagon while his father and younger sister, Mary Ann, traveled in a carriage. He noted that they had many adventures hunting for buffalo.

That September, they arrived in the valley of the Great Salt Lake and settled on a farm in the valley.

To Cedar City and the Ironworks

The Early Ironworks in Cedar City

In 1854, the Arthurs were among the British emigrants called to the Iron Mission in southern Utah. In the early years, Benjamin Arthur participated in the Cedar City Dramatics Association and was a member of John Weston/Western's "English Choir." He also farmed and worked in the fledgling ironworks. His father, Christopher Abel Jones, was a trustee and shareholder in the Deseret Iron Company. He also served as clerk in the ironworks. His brother Christopher Jones Arthur also was involved in the ironworks.

The Deseret Iron Company

In moving to Cedar City, the Arthurs had settled in an area dominated by the Deseret Iron Company, known more familiarly as the Ironworks. See Summary of Deseret Iron Company for a brief summary of its early development.

The Ironworks in 1857

In April 1857, the delivery of a new steam engine from Great Salt Lake City seemed to breathe new life into the ironworks. 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.

Arthur's Role at the Ironworks in 1857

Between 1855 and 1858, there are various references to Ben Arthur in the Deseret Iron Company account book. Focusing on 1857, the ledger shows that on May 11, while working for the "engineering department," Arthur was credited for 2 1/2 days of tending the masons. Long before then, they had determined that water was unreliable for motive power because the creek froze in the winter, ran dry in the summer, and was liable to dam failures at any other time. They had recently taken delivery on a steam engine which would replace water power. At the time they were building an engine room in which they would install the steam engine. The masons built the engine room and Arthur and others assisted the masons. They may have acted as hod carriers.

On June 13, Arthur was credited with a half day of hauling shingles for the engine room. On August 27, while James Williamson and his crew mined coal up the canyon, Benjamin Arthur along with Isaac Haight, Thomas Cartwright, and George Hunter hauled coal down canyon to the ironworks. On Thursday, September 3rd, Ben Arthur and many others including Alexander Loveridge, Isaac Haight, Swen Jacobs, Philip Klingensmith, Samuel Jewkes, John Higbee, Ezra Curtis, Samuel Bateman, and William McMurdie were credited for hauling more coal.

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 Benjamin Arthur knew 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 assigned them to muster to Mountain Meadows.

In the Iron Military District: Sergeant Benjamin Arthur, Company D, Isaac Haight's 2nd Battalion

In 1857, the Iron Military District consisted of four battalions. 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 1857, 23-year-old Benjamin was a sergeant in the 4th Platoon in Company D of the 2nd Battalion. Major Isaac C. Haight commanded the 2nd Battalion and his adjutant was his step-son, John M. Macfarlane. Company D was led by Captain Joel White whose adjutant was Daniel Macfarlane. See A Basic Account for a full description of the massacre.

When word reached southern Utah in mid-August that the U.S. Army was approaching the territory, the Arthurs and other local settlers hurriedly prepared for the rumored "invasion" of their valley. In these tense circumstances the Arkansas emigrants passed through Cedar City and beyond to Mountain Meadows. In early September 1857, after the Fancher and Baker companies had passed through Cedar City, Major John M. Higbee (also a counselor to stake president Isaac C. Haight) ordered Benjamin Arthur, Josiah Reeves and Ellott Willden to follow the Arkansas emigrants. According to Willden, they were to find a pretext to set the local Paiutes on the emigrants. They were also to direct the wagon train to a point some miles below Mountain Meadows where the original plans called for the attack to take place.

David Tullis recalled that Benjamin Arthur, Ellott Willden, and Josiah Reeves rode to Mountain Meadows, saw the emigrant camp and had a civil exchange with them. According to Willden, their orders were to "find occasion . . . that would justify the Indians being let loose upon the emigrants. . . ."

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Possibly in the evening of Monday, September 7, or, more probably, the following evening, Arthur was with other militiamen a short distance east of Mountain Meadows. According to John D. Lee's account in Mormonism Unveiled, Benjamin Arthur was with William Stewart and Joel White during the pivotal assault in which Stewart suddenly shot and killed Tennessean William Aden of the wagon train and White wounded Aden's companion. An injured rider managed to retreat to the emigrants' besieged camp. This confirmed to the emigrants that local Mormon settlers were complicit in the "Indian" attack on their camp.

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

Arthur was also at the final massacre 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 Ben Arthur was in this guard unit and if so, how he acted during the massacre will probably never be known with any certainty. Ellott Willden later claimed that Arthur was unarmed.

Earlier that day in Cedar City, Major Isaac C. Haight reportedly decided to halt the attack at Mountain Meadows. He sent Elias Morris and Benjamin Arthur's brother, Christopher Jones Arthur to reverse his earlier order. But they arrived too late to prevent the massacre. Joseph Clews's account implicitly confirms that they were unable to reach Mountain Meadows until all of the company except 17 small children had been massacred.

Moving From Cedar City to Beaver County

In the years after the massacre, Arthur drifted away from Cedar City. By the early 1860s, the Welshman Arthur had moved north to Beaver County where he married Jennette Easton, a native of Scotland.

Moving to Greenville, Beaver County

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Map of Beaver County, Utah.

By 1862, the Arthurs and other families had joined the new agricultural settlement of Greenville in Beaver County. Eventually, the Arthurs had eight daughters and two sons. Besides pursuing a livelihood in farming, dairying and livestock, Ben Arthur was one of the early school teachers in Greenville.

Ben Arthur was among the two-thirds of Greenville's residents who had immigrated from Wales to Utah. The British Isles' emigrants and especially the Welsh had a strong musical tradition which they imported to their new surroundings in the American West. In the early days in Cedar City, Ben Arthur had joined the English Choir. Later in Greenville when its choir director George Eyre departed for nearby Minersville, Ben Arthur assumed the directorship of Greenville's 35-member choir. He was well regarded and continued the success of the largely Welsh choir.

In the mid-1870s when John D. Lee was tried in the federal district court in Beaver, Arthur lived in the area and presumably followed the course of the trial although it is not known whether he attended the proceedings.

Final Years

In 1883, Benjamin Arthur died in Beaver County at the age of 49. He was survived by his wife Jennette and eight of his children. His wife died in 1911.

References

Bagley, Blood of the Prophets, 133; Bethers, A History of Schools in Iron County, 1851-1970, 182; Bradley, A History of Beaver County, 64; Essom, Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah, 724; Jenson, LDS Biographical Encyclopedia, 2:186; Lee, Mormonism Unveiled, 230, 235, 379; Merkley, ed., Monuments to Courage: A History of Beaver County, 155, 156, 160, 415, 470; New.FamilySearch.org; Turley and Walker, Mountain Meadows Massacre: Jenson & Morris Collections, 43, 189, 191, 206, 209, 216-217, 221, 223; Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, 140-41, 149, Appendix C, 256.

For full bibliographic information see Bibliography.

External Links

For further information on Benjamin Arthur 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 contact editor@1857ironcountymilitia.com.