Amos G. Thornton: Difference between revisions
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In 1855, he was among the Indian interpreters who moved to the Santa Clara and built a small fort, a dam and an irrigation canal. | In 1855, he was among the Indian interpreters who moved to the Santa Clara and built a small fort, a dam and an irrigation canal. | ||
In December 1856, Thornton married Mary Whitaker (1838-1914) in Cedar City. She was an English emigrant from Lancashire. | In December 1856, Thornton married Mary Whitaker (1838-1914) in Cedar City. She was an English emigrant from Lancashire. This was a Reformation-era marriage. | ||
In spring 1857, after six months of marriage, Thornton and his wife and a half-dozen fellow Indian missionaries followed Rufus C. Allen to Pinto Creek in Pinto Valley, Washington County, about 30 miles west of Cedar City. Pinto Creek originates to the south in the northern flank of Pine Valley Mountains. The land along Pinto Creek abounded in tall grass and it looked promising for raising livestock. They lived in a dugout while they built a log cabin. His young wife was 18 years old. | In spring 1857, after six months of marriage, Thornton and his wife and a half-dozen fellow Indian missionaries followed Rufus C. Allen to Pinto Creek in Pinto Valley, Washington County, about 30 miles west of Cedar City. Pinto Creek originates to the south in the northern flank of Pine Valley Mountains. Some of the other Indian missionaries in the pioneering party included David W. Tullis, Richard Robinson, and Benjamin Knell. The land along Pinto Creek abounded in tall grass and it looked promising for raising livestock. They lived in a dugout while they built a log cabin. His young wife was 18 years old. | ||
During the summer of 1857, Indian missionaries Jacob Hamblin, Samuel Knight and David Tullis were ranching at the northern end of the nearby Mountain Meadows. | |||
=== In the Iron Military District: Sergeant Amos Thornton, Company H, John D. Lee's 4th Battalion === | === In the Iron Military District: Sergeant Amos Thornton, Company H, John D. Lee's 4th Battalion === | ||
In 1857, the 24-year-old Thornton was a sergeant of a militia platoon in Pinto, which was midway between Cedar City and Mountain Meadows. His platoon was attached to Captain [[Alexander G. Ingram|Alexander Ingram's]] Company H in Major [[John D. Lee|John D. Lee's]] 4th Battalion. On Sunday, September 6, Thornton and two other unidentified militiamen visited the emigrants at Mountain Meadows. According to [[Richard Robinson]], Amos Thornton delivered an express to Pinto shortly after the emigrants had passed. [[Joseph Clews|Joseph Clews/Clewes]] recollected that on Monday, September 7, he carried an express from Cedar City to Pinto which he delivered to [[Richard Robinson]] or Amos Thornton. Thornton rode southwest along the trail from Pinto to Mountain Meadows, intent on delivering a "cease and desist" order to [[John D. Lee|John D. Lee]]. However, Thornton failed to encounter Lee at Mountain Meadows. Unbeknownst to Thornton, Lee had ridden south in search of the militia detachments from the "southern settlements," Fort Clara and Washington. Thornton's other activities during the four-day siege and the final massacre are unknown. | In 1857, the 24-year-old Thornton was a sergeant of a militia platoon in Pinto, which was midway between Cedar City and Mountain Meadows. His platoon was attached to Captain [[Alexander G. Ingram|Alexander Ingram's]] Company H in Major [[John D. Lee|John D. Lee's]] 4th Battalion. | ||
On Sunday, September 6, Thornton and two other unidentified militiamen visited the emigrants at Mountain Meadows. According to [[Richard Robinson]], Amos Thornton delivered an express to Pinto shortly after the emigrants had passed. [[Joseph Clews|Joseph Clews/Clewes]] recollected that on Monday, September 7, he carried an express from Cedar City to Pinto which he delivered to [[Richard Robinson]] or Amos Thornton. | |||
That Monday, Thornton rode southwest along the trail from Pinto to Mountain Meadows, intent on delivering a "cease and desist" order to [[John D. Lee|John D. Lee]]. However, Thornton failed to encounter Lee at Mountain Meadows. Unbeknownst to Thornton, Lee had ridden south in search of the militia detachments from the "southern settlements," Fort Clara and Washington. Thornton's other activities during the four-day siege and the final massacre are unknown. | |||
Thornton's exact role, if any, later in the week or on September 11, the day of the massacre, is not known. | |||
"___ Thornton" was named in the Judge John Cradlebaugh's 1859 arrest warrant. Thornton was also identified in T.B.H. Stenhouse's ''Rocky Mountain Saints'' whose list of participants followed the 1859 arrest warranty. Thornton was not mentioned during the 1875-76 Lee trials nor in Lee's posthumous memoir, ''Mormonism Unveiled.'' | "___ Thornton" was named in the Judge John Cradlebaugh's 1859 arrest warrant. Thornton was also identified in T.B.H. Stenhouse's ''Rocky Mountain Saints'' whose list of participants followed the 1859 arrest warranty. However, Thornton was not mentioned during the 1875-76 Lee trials nor in Lee's posthumous memoir, ''Mormonism Unveiled.'' | ||
=== Later Life === | === Later Life === | ||
In her later remembrances, Mary W. Thornton noted the insecurity they felt because of some degree of unrest among the local Native Americans. This may have been in the aftermath of the massacre at Mountain Meadows when relations with local Paiutes deteriorated. During their marriage, Mary bore Thornton six children, four girls and two boys. | |||
In 1862, Thornton married a second wife, Charity Artemesia Butler (1834-1908), of Kentucky. Over the course of their marriage, she bore him ten additional children. | |||
Thornton and his two wives remained in Pinto the rest of their lives. His two wives bore him a total of sixteen children, nine of whom survived into the twentieth century. He also adopted an Indian boy whom he named Alma. | |||
Amos Thornton died in Pinto in 1902 at the age of 69. | Amos Thornton died in Pinto in 1902 at the age of 69. Charity, his second wife, died in 1908 and Mary, his first, in 1914. | ||
= References | = References = | ||
Alder and Brooks, ''The History of Washington County'', 20, 49 fn. 4; Bagley, ''Blood of the Prophets,'' 128 | Alder and Brooks, ''The History of Washington County'', 20, 49 fn. 4; Bagley, ''Blood of the Prophets,'' 128; Brooks, "Indian Sketches from . . .Brown and Hamblin," ''Utah Historical Quarterly,'' 29/4 (October 1961), 357; Brooks, "Indian Relations on the Mormon Frontier," ''Utah Historical Quarterly,'' 12/1-2 (Jan.-Apr. 1944), 34; FamilySearch.org; Jenson, ''Encyclopedic History of the Latter-day Saints,'' "Pinto Ward," 656-57; Woodbury, "The Cotton Mission," ''Utah Historical Quarterly,'' 29/3 (July 1961), 201-202; Statement of Joseph Clews, in Turley and Walker, ''Mountain Meadows Massacre: Jenson and Morris Collections,'' 168, 170, 184, 187, Walker, et al, ''Massacre at Mountain Meadows,'' 152, 164, 214, 217, Appendix C, 263. | ||
= External Links | = External Links = | ||
For further information on Amos G. Thornton, see: | For further information on Amos G. Thornton, see: | ||
*http://www.lofthouse.com/USA/Utah/washington/wpa/pinto.html | * http://www.lofthouse.com/USA/Utah/washington/wpa/pinto.html | ||
*http://mountainmeadowsmassacre.org/appendices/appendix-c-the-militiamen | * http://mountainmeadowsmassacre.org/appendices/appendix-c-the-militiamen | ||
* Mary Whitaker Thornton: http://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:Mary_Whittaker_%284%29 | |||
Further information and confirmation needed. Please comment below or contact editor@1857ironcountymilitia.com. | Further information and confirmation needed. Please comment below or contact editor@1857ironcountymilitia.com. | ||
Revision as of 19:07, 21 July 2011
Amos G. Thornton, his personal and family background, and his role in the Mountain Meadows Massacre
Amos Griswold Thornton
1832-1902
Biographical Sketch
Early Life
Amos Griswold Thornton's forebears were in Canada, Massachusetts and Connecticut, and before that Yorkshire in the North of England, Cheshire in the North West; Wales in the West; Shropshire, Warwickshire and Northhamptonshire in the West Midlands; Lincolnshire and Derbyshire in the East Midlands; Devonshire, Somersetshire, Dorsetshire, Glouchestershire and Wiltshire in the South West; Hertfordshire and Essex in East Anglia; and London, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Kent in the South East. In other words, Thornton's forebears were from all over England and Wales. What they have in common is that they all immigrated to Massachusetts and Connecticut and, most probably, were Puritans, religious dissenters from the Church of England.
A native of Ontario, Canada, Thornton himself became a westering American who pioneered in western Illinois, then moved to frontier Utah where he was a pioneer in southern Utah.
Thornton was born in Pickering, Ontario, Canada. The Thorntons join the Mormons and settled in western Illinois in the 1840s.
Journey to Utah
They moved to Utah and many of the Thorntons settled in American Fork, thirty-five miles south of Great Salt Lake City.
Indian Interpreter in the Southern Indian Mission
In 1853, Amos Thornton was called as an Indian missionary/interpreter and in 1854 he moved to southern Utah, settling in Pinto, midway between Cedar City and the Mountain Meadows.
In 1855, he was among the Indian interpreters who moved to the Santa Clara and built a small fort, a dam and an irrigation canal.
In December 1856, Thornton married Mary Whitaker (1838-1914) in Cedar City. She was an English emigrant from Lancashire. This was a Reformation-era marriage.
In spring 1857, after six months of marriage, Thornton and his wife and a half-dozen fellow Indian missionaries followed Rufus C. Allen to Pinto Creek in Pinto Valley, Washington County, about 30 miles west of Cedar City. Pinto Creek originates to the south in the northern flank of Pine Valley Mountains. Some of the other Indian missionaries in the pioneering party included David W. Tullis, Richard Robinson, and Benjamin Knell. The land along Pinto Creek abounded in tall grass and it looked promising for raising livestock. They lived in a dugout while they built a log cabin. His young wife was 18 years old.
During the summer of 1857, Indian missionaries Jacob Hamblin, Samuel Knight and David Tullis were ranching at the northern end of the nearby Mountain Meadows.
In the Iron Military District: Sergeant Amos Thornton, Company H, John D. Lee's 4th Battalion
In 1857, the 24-year-old Thornton was a sergeant of a militia platoon in Pinto, which was midway between Cedar City and Mountain Meadows. His platoon was attached to Captain Alexander Ingram's Company H in Major John D. Lee's 4th Battalion.
On Sunday, September 6, Thornton and two other unidentified militiamen visited the emigrants at Mountain Meadows. According to Richard Robinson, Amos Thornton delivered an express to Pinto shortly after the emigrants had passed. Joseph Clews/Clewes recollected that on Monday, September 7, he carried an express from Cedar City to Pinto which he delivered to Richard Robinson or Amos Thornton.
That Monday, Thornton rode southwest along the trail from Pinto to Mountain Meadows, intent on delivering a "cease and desist" order to John D. Lee. However, Thornton failed to encounter Lee at Mountain Meadows. Unbeknownst to Thornton, Lee had ridden south in search of the militia detachments from the "southern settlements," Fort Clara and Washington. Thornton's other activities during the four-day siege and the final massacre are unknown.
Thornton's exact role, if any, later in the week or on September 11, the day of the massacre, is not known.
"___ Thornton" was named in the Judge John Cradlebaugh's 1859 arrest warrant. Thornton was also identified in T.B.H. Stenhouse's Rocky Mountain Saints whose list of participants followed the 1859 arrest warranty. However, Thornton was not mentioned during the 1875-76 Lee trials nor in Lee's posthumous memoir, Mormonism Unveiled.
Later Life
In her later remembrances, Mary W. Thornton noted the insecurity they felt because of some degree of unrest among the local Native Americans. This may have been in the aftermath of the massacre at Mountain Meadows when relations with local Paiutes deteriorated. During their marriage, Mary bore Thornton six children, four girls and two boys.
In 1862, Thornton married a second wife, Charity Artemesia Butler (1834-1908), of Kentucky. Over the course of their marriage, she bore him ten additional children.
Thornton and his two wives remained in Pinto the rest of their lives. His two wives bore him a total of sixteen children, nine of whom survived into the twentieth century. He also adopted an Indian boy whom he named Alma.
Amos Thornton died in Pinto in 1902 at the age of 69. Charity, his second wife, died in 1908 and Mary, his first, in 1914.
References
Alder and Brooks, The History of Washington County, 20, 49 fn. 4; Bagley, Blood of the Prophets, 128; Brooks, "Indian Sketches from . . .Brown and Hamblin," Utah Historical Quarterly, 29/4 (October 1961), 357; Brooks, "Indian Relations on the Mormon Frontier," Utah Historical Quarterly, 12/1-2 (Jan.-Apr. 1944), 34; FamilySearch.org; Jenson, Encyclopedic History of the Latter-day Saints, "Pinto Ward," 656-57; Woodbury, "The Cotton Mission," Utah Historical Quarterly, 29/3 (July 1961), 201-202; Statement of Joseph Clews, in Turley and Walker, Mountain Meadows Massacre: Jenson and Morris Collections, 168, 170, 184, 187, Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, 152, 164, 214, 217, Appendix C, 263.
External Links
For further information on Amos G. Thornton, see:
- http://www.lofthouse.com/USA/Utah/washington/wpa/pinto.html
- http://mountainmeadowsmassacre.org/appendices/appendix-c-the-militiamen
- Mary Whitaker Thornton: http://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:Mary_Whittaker_%284%29
Further information and confirmation needed. Please comment below or contact editor@1857ironcountymilitia.com.
