Alexander H. Loveridge

Alexander H. Loveridge, his personal and family background, and his involvement in the Mountain Meadows Massacre

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Alexander Hamilton Loveridge

1828-1905

Biographical Sketch

Alexander Hamilton Loveridge was an American frontiersman and pioneer to southern Utah. A native of rural Ontario County in western New York, he followed the westering arc of Americans in general and Mormons in particular, first to Michigan, then to western Illinois, and finally to frontier Utah.

Early Life: Moving West From New York

Loveridge was born in 1828 in Bristol Hollow, Ontario County, which then adjoined Lake Ontario in western New York. Loveridge came from old New England stock. All of his known ancestors through his 3rd-great grandparents were born in Massachusetts or Connecticut. His earliest American ancestors where religious dissenters from the Church of England who immigrated to North America. 

By 1841, the family had moved to Pleasant Valley, Michigan. In 1844, Loveridge and his mother, continuing a long family tradition of religious dissent, joined the Mormon Church and made their way to Illinois.

Migration to Utah

In 1846, the Loveridge family departed Illinois as part of the Mormon migration. In 1849, Loveridge married Malinda Stillwell Thomas (1832-1870) in Pantamant, Nebraska and in 1850 they immigrated to Utah.

An Early Pioneer in Utah Valley

In 1851, Alex Loveridge moved south to a promising new region north of Utah Lake in Utah County. Originally called Evansville, it was later named Lehi. Loveridge and his group was among the second influx to Lehi. The initial group had included Charles Hopkins, William Riggs, and Joel W. White with his brothers John and Samuel, all of whom Loveridge would know several years later in Cedar City. Loveridge and the others pioneered the new colony of Lehi, building cabins, planting crops and digging irrigation ditches to keep their crops alive. The Walker War erupted in summer 1853 and the conflict was particularly intense in Utah County. The pioneering settlers abandoned exposed settlements, made fortifications, guarded settlements and livestock and after their stock had been raided by Ute Indians, went in pursuit of it. Loveridge would have played some part in these events.

To Cedar City and the Ironworks

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In 1855, the Loveridge family moved to Cedar City. While establishing themselves in Cedar City, they shared a dugout with another family, that of John Jacobs and his wife. In 1854 or 1855, Loveridge was sealed to his first wife.

Loveridge was listed as a lot owner in the early Cedar City land records, both in Plat A and Plat B. Plat A was the area of temporary relocation after moving from the site of the original fort. Plat B was a larger section of land located southeast of Plat A, at the base of the foothills. Modern Cedar City occupies all of Plat B and extends beyond it.

In the Iron Military District: Sergeant Alexander Loveridge, Company F, John M. Higbee's 3rd Battalion, Cedar City

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In September 1857, Loveridge, 29, was elected sergeant of his platoon in Company F of Major John M. Higbee's 3rd Battalion. It was probably Monday, September 7, when Cedar City herdsman Henry Higgins observed Loveridge among a militia detachment leaving Cedar City for Mountain Meadows. John D. Lee maintained that Loveridge was present at military council at the Meadows on Thursday the 10th and for the massacre on Friday the 11th. In 1859, Loveridge was named in Judge John Cradlebaugh's arrest warrant.

Later Life

Late in 1857, Loveridge, his wife and their family returned to Lehi where they remained for the rest of their lives. Loveridge helped build the first meetinghouse in Lehi and he worked on the Salt Lake Temple. In late 1870, his wife Malinda died from complications of childbirth. In 1874, he married Mary Finn Reynolds; she died in 1877.

The 1880 census lists Loveridge (age 52) living with his wife, Caroline, age 60. He seems to have married his deceased wife’s mother who cared for his children. He may have married a Mrs. Harvey in later life. Loveridge died in Lehi in 1905, survived by seven children.

Many thanks to Craig Dalley for his generosity in providing biographical information on Alexander Graham Loveridge.

References

Cradlebaugh arrest warrent, Speech of John J. Cradlebaugh, in Bigler and Bagley, Innocent Blood: Essential Narratives, 235; Higgins affidavit, Speech of John J. Cradlebaugh; Family history research in the possession of Craig Dalley; FamilySearch.org; Gardner, History of Lehi, 66 (photo); Lee, Mormonism Unveiled 232, 380; Lee Trial transcripts; Shirts and Shirts, A Trial Furnace, 331, 477, 484, 496; Van Wagoner, Lehi: Portraits of a Utah Town, 3; Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Appendix C, 260.

External Links

For further information on Alexander Loveridge, see:

•  http://mountainmeadowsmassacre.org/appendices/appendix-c-the-militiamen

For excerpts from the history of Alexander Hamilton Loveridge, see:

• http//:www.xmission.com/~cyberman/loveridge/Alexander_Hamilton_Loveridge.txt

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