Thomas H. Cartwright

Thomas H. Cartwright, his personal and family background, and his involvement in the Mountain Meadows Massacre

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Thomas H. Cartwright

1814-1900

Biographical Sketch

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Early Life in the Industrial North of England

Thomas Henry Cartwright was born in December 1814 in Lancashire, England, the son of Thomas and Jane Cartwright. He converted to Mormonism in 1843.

In late November 1843, a freak accident occurred in Chester, England. Mormon elder Jonathan Pugmire and Cartwright were attempting to baptize Cartwright's wife in a creek. They had used the creek before for the same purpose but this time the creek was swollen. Entering the water, Pugmire and Mrs. Cartwright fell into a hidden hole and she was swept away. Cartwright went in after her and they were both swept downstream. Pugmire and others were able to save Cartwright but Mrs. Cartwright drowned. Cartwright and Pugmire were arrested and held for trial. At trial in January 1844, the two were acquitted.

Later in 1844, Cartwright married Jane Allen (1818-1888), the daughter of Robert Allen and Jane Allen and a native of Ireland.

Immigration to America and onto Utah

In 1848, the Cartwrights immigrated to New York City. In 1850, they traveled by rail and steamer to the end of the road where they joined a Mormon wagon company and crossed the plains to Utah Territory, arriving in August of that year.

By then, Parley Pratt's Southern Exploring Expedition of 1849-50 had successfully reconnoitered southern Utah, finding plentiful sources of coal and iron ore near the future site of Cedar City. Soon, the first recruits for the "Iron Mission" were being organized and Thomas Cartwright was among them. Mrs. Cartwright and their children would stay in Great Salt Lake City for several years while Cartwright headed to southern Utah to help found the Iron Mission.

The early ironworks in Cedar City.

To Cedar City and the Ironworks

Cartwright was among the company who in 1850-51 went south to settle in the Little Salt Lake Valley of Iron County were he helped found Fort Louisa (later Parowan), the first Mormon settlement in southern Utah. Along with the others, he suffered the privations of pioneering which included the loss of his wagon when it caught fire in high winds and was destroyed. Later while cutting logs, Cartwright accidentally severed one of his toes. Undeterred, Cartwright sent for his wife and family who joined him in Iron County in spring 1852.

Robert Wiley started the English Choir consisting of Thomas Cartwright, Richard Harrison, Henry Lunt and other English immigrants.

In 1852, his wife and children joined them in southern Utah. Cartwright followed the trade of blacksmithing and made the first plows in Iron county, as well as the first woolen carding machine in southern Utah. He was a member of the high priest's quorum.

In the Iron Military District: Private Samuel Cartwright, Company D, Isaac Haight's 2nd Battalion

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In 1857, Thomas Cartwright, 42, was a private in the Fourth Platoon attached to Company D led by Captain Joel White and the company was attached to Major Isaac C Haight's 2nd Battalion. Benjamin Arthur was the sergeant of the platoon. Cartwright was in one of the detachments of Cedar City militiamen that rode to Mountain Meadows during the week of September 7-11. He probably arrived on Tuesday, September 8.

His role in the final massacre on September 11, is not known with certainty. However, it seems likely that he was among the Cedar City militiamen who guarded the emigrant men as they left their wagon circle and marched toward the northern end of the valley.

In 1859, Judge John Cradlebaugh's arrest warrant listed Cartwright and he was also mentioned in T.B.H Stenhouse's Rocky Mountain Saints, published in 1873. 

In 1875, during the first Lee trial, witness Samuel Pollock identified Cartwright as one of his companions on the march from Cedar City to Mountain Meadows. He was also listed in John D. Lee's Mormonism Unveiled, published in 1877, and William Bishop's list of "assassins" appended to it.

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Moving North to Beaver County

Cartwright went to California for over a year and then returned to Cedar City. However, by then, Cedar City was under a pall because of the failure of the ironworks and the disastrous massacre at Mountain Meadows. In 1858, the Cartwrights abandoned Cedar City and moved north to Beaver County.

After getting established in Beaver, Cartwright and the Gillies brothers built the first woolen carding machine in southern Utah. When it built down, they erected another carding machine and several threshing machines. Cartwright also assembled some of the machinery for a sugar cane press. Besides his mechanical talents, Cartwright also played in Beaver's first brass band. He was a member of the high priest quorum.

In 1866, he married Catherine Beswick Hooton. This was his first polygamous marriage but there were no children from this union. During the Black Hawk War of the late 1860s, his son, Joseph Henry Cartwright was identified as a "[m]inuteman in [the] Utah militia."

References

Esshom, Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah, 797; Lee, Mormonism Unveiled, 232, 379; Lee Trial transcripts; Seegmiller, A History of Iron County, 238; Shirts and Shirts, A Trial Furnace, 9, 51, 107, 119, 150, 157. 178-79, 210, 213, 224, 225, 244, 246, 268, 270, 272-73, 300, 306, 327, 428, 451, 461, 488, 494; Stenhouse, Rocky Mountain Saints, ; Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Appendix C.

External Links

For further information on Thomas Cartwright, see:

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

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