Ira Hatch

Ira Hatch, his personal and family background, and his involvement in the Mountain Meadows Massacre

Ira hatch 1b.jpg

Ira Hatch

1835-1909

Biographical Sketch

A native of rural Cattaraugus County in southwest New York, Ira Hatch and his parents' family moved to western Illinois, then frontier Utah, where Hatch pioneered and acted as Indian interpreter in southern Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. Hatch was an American frontiersman and Indian interpreter.

Early Life in New York

Hatch was born in Farmerville, Cattaraugus County, New York, the son of Ira Stearns Hatch and Welthea Bradford. Members of the Hatch family joined the Mormons as early as 1832. In the early 1840s, they joined the large Mormon settlement in Hancock County in western Illinois.

Immigration to Utah

In 1846, the Ira Stearns Hatch family joined the Mormon exodus from western Illinois and eventually migrated to the Great Basin. They sojourned in Iowa Territory for several years until they could gather the means to immigrate to Utah.

The Mormon Trail

By 1849, they had gathered the necessary outfit and provisions. That summer, they joined the Allen Taylor Company, a large company of more than 350 when it began the trek west in early July from the outfitting post at Kanesville (present day Council Bluffs), Iowa. In the Hatch family were Ira Stearns, 49, Mary Hazelton, 54, Meltiar, 24, Permelia Snyder, 21, Rhoana, 17, Ira, 13, Ephraim, 10, Ancel, 9, and Meltiar, 2.

The onrush of forty-niners to the California Gold Rush made for a very heavy travel season on the overland trail that year. Cholera was also epidemic and some members of the company died from it or other causes. 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. After suffering the usual hardships of overland trail they arrived in the valley of the Great Salt Lake in mid-October.

Initially, the Hatches settled in northern Utah.

Indian Interpreter in the Southern Indian Mission

Error creating thumbnail: File missing

A Reconstruction of Fort Clara, 1855-1862.

In late 1853, Ira Hatch, 18, was called to serve in the Southern Indian Mission. Early in 1854, he departed for southern Utah. After arriving at Fort Harmony in spring 1854, he was in a small group that made a brief trip to the Indians living around Panguitch Lake.

Later that year, Indian Mission leader Rufus Allen selected Jacob Hamblin, Gus Hardy, Thales Haskell, Ira Hatch, and Sam Knight, to leave Fort Harmony to establish a new fort on the Santa Clara Creek. Hamblin, Hardy, and Haskell arrived in December of that year while Hatch and Knight arrived early in 1855. Hatch, 19, and Knight, 22, would accompany Jacob Hamblin on a number of missions in the future. Hatch helped found a small settlement on the Santa Clara in southwestern Utah. During these years they made occasional visits to Cedar City and Fort Harmony for supplies.

In spring 1856, Jacob Hamblin, Thales Haskell, Ira Hatch, Sam Knight, and Dudley Leavitt began building a stone fort on the banks of the Santa Clara Creek and soon began planting cotton which proved successful. News of their success in raising cotton would soon lead to the founding of the Cotton Mission in nearby Washington and St. George.

In spring 1857 Hatch bought “a young squaw” and sent a request through Jacob Hamblin to Brigham Young to marry her. It gave him “much influence” with the Indians. However, Hamblin thought her too young. Hatch did not marry an Indian woman until Oct 1859. (Compton, A Frontier Life, 92-93.)

Hatch spent many years in service as an Indian missionary/interpreter under the leadership of Jacob Hamblin. Over the years, Hatch learned to speak many Native American languages and dialects.

In the Iron Military District: Private Ira Hatch, Company H, John D. Lee's 4th 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 1857, 22-year-old Ira Hatch was a private in one the militia platoons attached to Company H in Major John D. Lee's 4th Battalion in the Iron Military District. See A Basic Account for a full description of the massacre.

Ira hatch 1b.jpg

During the massacre at Mountain Meadows, it is not clear that Hatch was on the scene although he may have been. Rather, Hatch's alleged involvement was in leading a band of Indians to track down several emigrants who reportedly escaped the fusilade at the Meadows and were fleeing across the Nevada desert toward southern California. In Rocky Mountain Saints, published by T.B.H. Stenhouse in 1873, Hatch is alleged to have tracked several escaping emigrants and in seeing to it that they were killed.

Immediate Aftermath of the Massacre

Having induced local Indians to join them in massacring the Arkansas company, the Iron County militia now found that they had lost control of them. Following behind the Arkansas train was the Dukes-Turner Company which was attacked by Pahvant Indians at Beaver. After arriving in Cedar City, Dukes and Turner hired Ira Hatch, Oscar Hamblin and Nephi Johnson to guide them through. Meanwhile, Jacob Hamblin sent Dudley Leavitt and Samuel Knight to conciliate the Paiutes in Nevada. When the Dukes-Turner Company arrived near the Muddy River in Nevada, the Paiutes drove off their cattle but otherwise did not molest them and the company made it safely through to southern California.

Explorations in Nevada

In October 1857, Hamblin sent Hatch and Dudley Leavitt to the Iyats, or Mohaves near the Colorado River below Las Vegas. They received a friendly reception from the Chemehuevis they encountered, but they arrived at the Mohaves on the lower Colorado River at a very dangerous time. The Mohaves repeatedly threatened to kill them. In response, Hatch requested the privilege of praying to the Great Spirit to spare their lives. Somehow the Mojaves were impressed Hatch’s vocal prayer and he and Leavitt were released unharmed. Surviving on lizards, snakes, and chipmunks, they made it to Las Vegas where they met Jacob Hamblin and then returned to Ft. Clara.

Later that year and in early 1858, while helping Mormon settlers return from southern California to Utah, Hatch explored along the Muddy River in (modern-day) southern Nevada. Several years later, Mormon settlers moved into the region explored by Hatch, Dudley Leavitt and others to found the settlements of St. Thomas, St. Joseph and Overton on the Muddy River.

Lt. Joseph Ives steaming of the lower Colorado River in 1858 in the midst of the Utah War. Mormon Indian missionaries Jacob Hamblin, Thales Haskell, Ira Hatch, Sam Knight, and Dudley Leavitt surveilled them.

Scouting to Encounter the U.S. Army in 1858

In March 1858, Jacob Hamblin, Ira Hatch, Sam Knight, Dudley Leavitt and Thales Haskell journeyed to the lower Colorado River to reconnoiter the progress of Lt. Joseph Ives’s historic steamboat voyage up the river. They encountered Paiutes and Mohaves and Thales Haskell made contact with the steamer. Occurring at the height of the Utah War when distrust was high, each side spied on the other and harbored mutual suspicions.

While Hatch was still in Nevada, he encountered Thomas L. Kane, the negotiator bound for Utah with the intent of resolving the differences which had precipitated the Utah War the previous year. Hatch rendered some assistance to Kane in his passage. Later, Kane arrived safely in Great Salt Lake City and by summer of that year, he had successfully defused the armed confrontation between the federal government and the Mormons in Utah Territory.

A Frequent Member of Jacob Hamblin's Expeditions to the Hopi Mesas

Map of the Hopi Mesas.

In fall 1858, Jacob Hamblin decided to visit the Indians who intrigued him so much, the Hopi. He would make many trips over the years to the Hopi Mesas and Ira Hatch would accompany him on many of these expeditions or other diplomatic missions into Arizona.

From October to December 1858, Hamblin undertook his first historic crossing of the Colorado River to travel though Navajo lands to the Hopi Mesas in northeastern Arizona. Ira Hatch, Samuel Knight and Dudley Leavitt were with Hamblin in a party of 14 on this first journey. Arriving at the Colorado River, they scouted the area at the mouth of the Paria River (later Lee’s Ferry) but were unable to cross. Traveling some miles farther east, they forded at the Ute Ford, or Crossing of the Fathers.

Error creating thumbnail: File missing

Walpi on First Mesa. The Indian interpreters first visited there in 1858.

Traveling up Navajo Canyon they emerged and crossed the plateaus and arrived at Old Oraibi on Third Mesa in Hopiland. Next, they visited Sichomovi and Walpi at First Mesa. Returning, they passed through Mishongnovi at Second Mesa. Trading for what supplies the Hopis could afford to part with, they retraced their steps and crossed the Colorado. Running short of supplies north of the river, they nearly starved to death. Feeling so weak and ill, Sam Knight was left behind and nearly froze to death. In desperation, they killed and ate Dudley Leavitt’s horse to stay alive. They made it back to Ft. Clara on the Santa Clara stream without loss of life.

By 1859, Hatch had married Amanda (Mandy) Melvina Pace (1842-1861). She died before reaching the age of 20 and there were no children from this marriage.

Sometime before that Hatch and the Navajo headman Spaneshanks had formed a friendship and Spaneshanks presented Hatch with his young daughter, Asun Natoni, to marry. Hatch gave her to Andrew Gibbons, a fellow Indian interpreter, to raise for several years. In 1859, Asun was renamed Sarah and Hatch married her.

In fall 1860, Hamblin made his third crossing of the Colorado with Hatch in his party. Hatch, his Indian wife Sarah, Amos Thornton and James Pearce, and others with Hamblin on 3rd crossing of Colorado to visit the Hopis. George Smith, Jr., the son of Mormon leader George A. Smith was along on the journey. They hauled a boat in a wagon as far as the Vermillion Cliffs but failed to find a passable route to the river. Leaving the wagon and boat to use on another occasion, they proceeded to the river’s edge where they made a raft and crossed to the other side. Unfortunately, they were unable to ford their animals so they continued on to the Ute Ford. Crossing to the south of the river, they journeyed to Quichintoweep near Moenkopi Wash, There hostile Navajos fatally wounded George Smith Jr. and he died within hours. The party was forced to abandon his body and retreat without reaching the Hopi Mesas. After crossing the Colorado they returned to southern Utah.

Pearce's Ferry near Grand Wash on the Colorado River. In the 1862 expedition, they crossed the Colorado at Grand Wash.

In November 1862, Ira Hatch, James Pearce, William Stewart, Nephi Johnson and others accompanied Jacob Hamblin on his fifth crossing of the Colorado, the historic journey in which they circled the Grand Canyon. Heading south from St. George, they brought a boat in a wagon but could not find a passable route to reach the Colorado River. Abandoning the boat they build raft instead and cross the river at Grand Wash below the Grand Canyon. En route to the Hopi Mesas they visited the Hualapais and then discovered the magical canyon world of the Havasupais in Havasu Canyon. They passed the San Francisco Peaks, crossed the Little Colorado River and later arrived at the Hopi Mesas. There they joined in the ceremonials at Old Oraibi. When the explorers departed, Hatch, Thales Haskell, and Jehiel McConnell were selected to stay at the Mesas to become better acquainted with Hopi ways. Meanwhile, Hamblin, running low on food, sent Nephi Johnson, Steele, Fuller Andrus and Hancock ahead to find Indians with whom they can trade for provisions. They returned to Utah with four Hopis via the Ute Ford (Crossing of the Fathers), completing a historic circling of the Grand Canyon.

The next spring, Hamblin made his sixth crossing of the Colorado. Again they traveled south from St. George to Grand Wash where they crossed the Colorado River and headed east. They passed among the Hualapais and entered Havasu or Cataract Canyon. They took the dangerous Hualapai Trail, crossed the Little Colorado River and arrived at Old Oraibi where they found that Hatch, Haskell and McConnell had safely passed six months among the Hopi. On their return they discovered Beale's wagon route near modern Interstate 40 and followed it west. They recrossed the Colorado at Grand Wash below the Grand Canyon and returned to southern Utah.

Family Life

Hatch returned to family life with his wife, Sarah Marahboots Dyson (1843-1873), as some documents record her name. The places of birth of their children reflect their frequent moves during the 1860s and 1870s, back and forth several times between southern Utan and southern Nevada and finally to Kanab in Kane County, Utah. Their children were:

1. Ira Stearn, May 8, 1862, St. George, Washington, Utah;
2. James Henry, August 18, 1864, Meadow Valley, Lincoln, Nevada;
3. Amanda Mariah, June 25, 1867, St. George, Washington, Utah;
4. Joseph Wilford, January 9, 1870, Panaca, Lincoln, Nevada; and
5. Sarah Rhoana, August 16, 1872, Kanab, Kane, Utah.

The Black Hawk War (1865-68) and the Mormon-Navajo War (1868-1870)

In 1865, hostilities and depredations by Ute raiders under the leadership of Ute headman Black Hawk led to the largest of the Mormon-Indian wars, the Black Hawk War. It was probably in this period that the Paiute headman Minerro led raids on livestock in Santa Clara and Gunlock in southern Utah. Hatch was part of an ad hoc company from these settlements who rode through the Paiute encampment several miles north of Gunlock and killed Minerro to stop the depredations.

In 1866, at the behest of Mormon leader Erastus Snow, Hatch led a group who visited the Shivwits and Kaibab bands of Paiutes to maintain peaceful relations. In spring 1867, Jacob Hamblin, Hatch, Jesse W. Crosby and James Andrus led Erastus Snow on an exploration of a 45-mile stretch of the Colorado River above its confluence with the Virgin River. They headed south from St. George across the Arizona Strip and descended Grand Wash to the Colorado. There Snow and Hatch headed northwest to the Mormon settlement of St. Thomas on the Muddy River. Hamblin and his companions pitched into the Colorado in a small skiff and ran a previously unrun stretch of the river to its confluence with the Virgin. Then heading upstream on the Virgin, they rejoined Snow and Hatch. After visiting Mormon settlers on the Muddy, they returned to St. George.

By 1868, hostilities between Utes and Mormons had largely ended. However, Navajos continued crossing the Colorado River to raid Mormon settlements in southern Utah.

That fall, Hatch, Thales Haskell, Bill Maxwell and others formed a large expedition to accompany Hamblin on his 8th crossing of the Colorado to visit the Hopis. The purpose was to strengthen ties with the Hopis since relations with the Navajos were at a low. At Pipe Springs, Haskell was accidentally shot but he recovered. John Mangum was with them but he stayed at Kanab. Crossing the Kaibab Plateau and passing the Vermillion Cliffs, they arrived at the mouth of the Paria. They floated the river on a raft. Heading south, they passed Navajo Springs, Mineral Springs/Bitter Springs, and Moenkopi Wash. At Oraibi on Third Mesa, they witnessed the Hopi Ring Dance and other ceremonials. They returned to Utah via the Paria Crossing.

In 1870, Jacob Hamblin rode to Fort Defiance, New Mexico, where he negotiated a peace treaty with Barboneito, one of the leading headmen of the Navajos.

The following year, Erastus Snow, with Ira Hatch as his interpreter, continued these negotiations in Kanab with a group of Navajos led by Ketchene. However, there continued to be unrest and depredations until a final settlement was reached in succeeding years.

Among the Original Mormon Colonists in Arizona

Error creating thumbnail: File missing

Mormon Settlements in Arizona.jpg

In the winter of 1872-73, Hatch and other were with Hamblin again in a new type of exploration. They joined the Arizona Exploring Company led by Lorenzo Roundy to reconnoiter the Little Colorado River, Rio Verde and the San Francisco Mountains. They made the river crossing at Lee’s Ferry with three baggage wagons. At Moenkopi Wash, Hamblin and Hatch separated from the party to visit the Hopi Mesas. They returned with a Hopi guide and met the company at Black Falls on the Little Colorado River. Continuing upstream, they searched for promising locations that would support settlement. Hatch stayed with the Roundy party which turned toward San Francisco Peaks, crossed the Colorado River and returned to Utah.

In April 1873, after a brief respite, Hatch joined the Horton Haight exploratory party as its Indian interpreter. The purpose of this mission was to scout for habitable locations in Arizona south of the Colorado. They crossed the Colorado at Lee’s Ferry with wagons, which then made a historic ascent of Lee’s Backbone. Passing Moenave, they proceeded down Moenkopi Wash to the Little Colorado River. From there they turned downstream to present Winslow and then returned to Moenave where Hamblin plants crops. Thus, Moenave became the first Mormon colony in Arizona south of the Colorado. However, Horton Haight was unimpressed with the lower Little Colorado and gave an unfavorable report of it.

In December 1873 in Grass Valley near Circleville, Utah, four Navajos passed near the lands of Alexander McCarty and his sons. The McCartys attacked the Indians, killing three of them and appropriating their goods. They wounded the fourth who managed to escape across the Colorado to Navajo land. Two of the dead were sons of Navajo headman Ketchene. This was known as the Grass Valley murders. Although McCarty and his sons weren't Mormons the Navajos believed they were and the Grass Valley murders broke the fragile peace and reignited hostilities.

Early in 1874 Hatch was in the Blythe company who journeyed to Arizona to calm the Navajos after the McCarty affair/Grass Valley murders. With Jacob Hamblin they met with Ketchene. In April, Hatch and Sam Knight were among twenty Mormons in Arizona who signed a letter to Indian Agent Arny denying Mormon involvement in the Grass Valley murders and refusing to pay reparations. This conflict continued until Mormons were able to convince a delegation of Navajos to visit Grass Valley in Utah to ascertain that Mormon claims were true. In the midst of this, Mormons evacuated their new colonies at Moenkopi and Moenave and retreated north of the Colorado. Hatch played an important role in the diplomacy that led to settlement of this new Mormon-Navajo conflict.

In fall 1875, Hatch, Andrew Gibbons and Thales Haskell acted as guides for the Brown Company on another exploring expedition to found Mormon settlements in Arizona.

In January 1878, Hatch was called as an Indian missionary in Arizona along with Jacob Hamblin, Andrew Gibbons, and other experienced Indian interpreters. Hatch accompanied Mormon colonizers as they moved from Utah into Arizona, moving upstream on the Little Colorado River in search of suitable locations to settle. Hatch later worked with Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, and other tribes in Arizona and New Mexico.

Marriage to Nancy Julia Pipkin Kirk

In 1882, he married Nancy Julia Pipkin Kirk (1842-1922) of Hardin County, Tennessee, the daughter of Aser Pipkin and Margaret Foster. Twice widowed, Nancy and her children had accompanied her family west to Sunset, Arizona where she met Ira Hatch. The marriage ceremony was in St. George, Utah. Hatch became a father figure to Nancy's young children and she would bear Hatch two more children.

Final Move to New Mexico

In later years, Hatch and his family pushed eastward into northwest New Mexico and settled in Ramah at the southern tip of modern McKinley County. There Hatch was near the Zuni Pueblo and the Ramah Navajo reservation. In April 1883, Jesse N. Smith noted that Hatch was made a counselor to the bishop in Navajo (later Ramah) in western New Mexico. In May 1886, Hatch was one of fifteen assigned as Indian missionaries in the region encompassing eastern Arizona and western New Mexico. When Smith and other church officials visited Ramah in September of that year, they enjoyed the hospitality of Ira Hatch and others during their stay.

Eventually, Hatch and his family moved farther north to San Juan County at the extreme northwest corner of New Mexico where it intersects Arizona, Utah and Colorado in the Four Corners area. This locale was near the eastern edge of the Navajo Reservation and the southern border of the Ute Mountain Reservation. He remained there for the rest of his life.

Final Years

Ira Hatch died in 1909 at Fruitland, San Juan County, New Mexico and was buried there.

Juanita Brooks offered a summation of Ira Hatch's life work: "Always he lived on the frontier, moving as he was called to places where tact in Indian relations was needed." (Brooks, Journal of the Southern Indian Mission, 21-22, fn. 22.)

In Todd Compton's excellent new biography of Jacob Hamblin, he concluded that Ira Hatch, Thales Haskell, Samuel Knight, Ammon Tenney, and Dudley Leavitt were Hamblin's "irreplaceable supports on these forays into unknown, unmapped, and often inhospitable places.” (Compton, A Frontier Life, 480.)

Error creating thumbnail: File missing

Ira Hatch with his third wife, Nancy Julia Pipkin Kirk Hatch, and their children. The older children are Hatch's with his second wife, Sarah Marahboots Dyson (1843-1873); the younger children are those of his third wife, Nancy Julia. This photograph may have been taken around the time of Hatch's marriage to Nancy Julia in June 1882. If so, Hatch was a youngish-looking 46 years old.

References

Alder and Brooks, A History of Washington County, 132; Aird, Bagley and Nichols, Playing With Shadows, 268; Bagley, Blood of the Prophets, 34, 142, 160-69,183-84, 219; Bigler and Bagley, Innocent Blood: Essential Narratives, 36, 39, 111, 147, 149-50, 155, 240, 242, 258, 468; Bradley, A History of Kane County, 67; Bradshaw, ed., Under Dixie Sun: A History of Washington County, 25, 30, 36, 62, 130, 132, 146, 214, 220; Brooks, The Mountain Meadows Massacre, 98-99, 117, 130-32, 136, 142, 231; Brooks, On the Ragged Edge: The Life and Times of Dudley Leavitt, 79-80; Brooks, ed., Journal of the Southern Indian Mission, 2, 6, 21, 21 fn. 22 (biographical sketch), 22, 28, 38, 67, 76, 78, 82, 83, 86, 93; Campbell, Establishing Zion, Carter, Heart Throbs of the West, 10:456; Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Enduring Legacy, 12:389-90; Cheasebro, "Journey into Anasazi Country," This People, 10:2 (Summer 1989): 37-38, 41; Compton, A Frontier Life, 61, 65, 68-69, 81, 92-93, 103-104, 107, 111-14, 119-22, 133-47, 163, 171-72, 173, 181-82, 208, 216-17, 225, 230, 237, 241-46, 274-76, 284-85, 287, 337-39, 368-69, 375, 378, 396, 399, 403, 404-406, 412, 413, 419, 423, 450, 463, 480, 507 fn. 3; Esshom, Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah, 924; Fielding, ed., The Tribune Reports of the Trails of John D. Lee, 32; Jenson, Encyclopedic History of the Latter-day Saints, 554 (Muddy Mission), 572 (Nevada), 776 (Santa Clara Ward); Knack, Boundaries Between: The Southern Paiutes, 70; Krenkel, ed., Life and Times of Joseph Fish, 62; Larson, I Was Called to Dixie, 10, 23, 38, 44, 161; Larson, Diary of Charles Lowell Walker, 268; Larson, Erastus Snow, 315, 396, 442; Lee, Mormonism Unveiled, 270; Lee Trial transcripts; Moorman and Sessions, Camp Floyd and the Mormons, 34, 140; New.FamilySearch.org; Novak, House of Mourning, 144; Peterson, Take Up Your Mission, 6-7, 202; Reeve, Making Space on the Western Frontier, 38, 50, 67, 88, 108; Robinson, ed., History of Kane County, 3, 14, 17, 32, 39, 59, 60, 67, 72, 224; Smith, ed., Journal of Jesse N. Smith, 271, 326, 329; Solomon, Joseph Knight, 89, 100, 104, 128; Turley and Walker, Mountain Meadows Massacre: Jenson and Morris Collections, 14; Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, 223-25, Appendix C, 258; Whitaker, History of Santa Clara, Utah, 81-115; Wilhelm, History of the St. Johns Stake, 2, 10, 12, 14.

For full bibliographic information see Bibliography.

External Links

For further information on Ira Hatch, see:

• http://mountainmeadowsmassacre.org/appendices/appendix-c-the-militiamen
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ira_Hatch
• http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=17832459
• Nancy Julia Pipkin Hatch: http://www.pipkinusa.org/nancyjulia.txt
• For the early Southern Indian Mission, see http://wchsutah.org/miscellaneous/indian-mission.php

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