James Pearce

James Pearce, his personal and family background, and his involvement in and statements about the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

Life

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Name: James Pearce

Lived: 1839-1922

Biographical Sketch

James Pearce (1839-1922) was born in Itawamba County, Mississippi, the son of Harrison Pearce and Henrietta Cremeans. For two generations his Scots-Irish forebears had followed a westerly migration arc from coastal South Carolina to the hill country of north-central Georgia to west-central Alabama, then to northeastern Mississippi where Pearce was born.

In the 1840s, members of the Pearce clan joined the Mormons and moved westward. From 1849, the Pearces passed several years in the Mormon settlements in Iowa and Nebraska. They immigrated to Utah in the early 1850s. In 1853, the Pearce family was in Payson in northcentral Utah.

In 1857, members of the Pearce clan were part of a migration of southerners to the new settlement of Washington in Washington County. These southerners founded the Cotton Mission in what came to be known as Utah's Dixie. In September 1857, eighteen-year-old James Pearce was a private in one of the platoons in his father's company, Company I, of Major John D. Lee's 4th Battalion.

In the late 1850s and early 1860s, James Pearce joined several of the winter expeditions of Jacob Hamblin in Hamblin's continuing explorations of the Hopi and Navajo in northeastern Arizona. These were the first Mormon explorations in Arizona. In 1861, Pearce acted as president of a small church branch at Tonaquint in the vicinity of the newly-founded settlement of St. George in southwest Utah. The Pearces lived in the St. George area from the early 1860s to the late-1870s.

During the Black Hawk War of the mid-1860s, the Pearces were among those involved in policing and punitive actions against marauding Indians. In 1867, twenty-eight-year-old Pearce married fifteen-year-old Mary Jane Meeks (1851-19?). She was born in Pottawattomie County, Iowa, as her parents immigrated to Utah. Several preceding generations of her forebears lived in Appalachia. Over the course of their marriage, she bore Pearce eleven children, all of whom lived to adulthood.

In 1874, Pearce was among the Indian interpreters living south of the Colorado River in the outpost at Moencopi, Arizona. The threat of a Navajo uprising caused them to temporarily abandon the outpost and return to the north side of the river.

The following year during the first trial of John D. Lee, Pearce was among several dozen witnesses who testified.

In 1878, as Mormon colonization expanded in Arizona, Pearce and his family moved to Navajo County. They moved successively from Sunset on the Little Colorado River to Woodruff, and thence to the Showlow River near Taylor. In getting established in Arizona, Pearce was offered land at a favorable price. Instead, following backcountry custom, he located some miles away and established a squatter's claim to his land.

The Pearces resided at different times in the new settlements of Taylor, Shumway and Snowflake. While pioneering in Arizona, Pearce was a cattleman, sheepman, farmer, storekeeper and hotelier. Pearce remained in Navajo County, Arizona, for the remainder of his life. In 1922, Pearce died at the age of eight-two and was buried in Taylor.

Private James Pearce, 4th Battalion, Company I, Washington

Role in and Statements About the Massacre

In September 1857, eighteen-year-old James Pearce was a private in one of the platoons in his father's company, Company I. Company I was attached to the 4th Battalion under Major John D. Lee. Harrison Pearce, his father, and others from Washington were recruited, probably on Sunday the 6th, to join an ad hoc detachment from the southern settlements of Washington and Fort Clara to muster to Mountain Meadows. James Pearce joined his father in the detachment.

On Monday evening, September 7, John D. Lee met the Pearces and others from the southern settlements some miles south of the Meadows. On Tuesday, the 8th, the combined contingents from Washington and Fort Clara encamped at Mountain Meadows in the "southern" camp and awaited further orders. The 1859 arrest warrant listed Harrison "Pierce", but not James.

In 1875, during the first trial of John D. Lee, James Pearce was among several dozen witnesses who testified. Pearce identified several militiamen in their party. While en route to Mountain Meadows they discussed the rumors that the emigrants had "killed Joe Smith" and would bring soldiers from California to drive the Mormons and take their means. On the eve of the massacre, Pearce overheard the quarreling among the leaders, some favored killing and others opposed. He observed that the Indians appeared angry because of their killed and wounded.

On the day of the massacre, Pearce remained in camp due to illness, from where he heard the volley of guns during the massacre. There is folklore that Harrison Pearce became angry at his son, evidently for lacking fighting spirit, and fired at him, grazing his face. This cannot be corroborated. Like several others who testified in the Lee trials, his trial testimony contains his only extant statements about the massacre.

References

FamilySearch.org; Fielding, ed., The Tribune Reports of the Trial of John D. Lee; Lee, Mormonism Unveiled; Lee Trial transcripts; Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Appendix C.

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