Sims L. Matheny

Sims Lafayette Matheny, his personal and family background, and his involvement in the Mountain Meadows Massacre

Sims L. Matheny

1833-1881

Biographical Sketch

'[There is uncertainty whether Sims Matheny participated in the Mountain Meadows Massacre or was on the ground when the Arkansas company was initially attacked or besieged.]

Sims Lafayette Matheny was a native of Tennessee with forebears in Virginia and South Carolina. Over his lifetime he moved from Tennessee to Arkansas and then Texas before settling in frontier Utah. He was an American frontiersman and pioneer in southern Utah.

Early Years in the American South

Matheny’s parents were in Monroe, Mississippi before moving to Tennessee where Matheny was born. In the late 1830s they moved to Green County, Arkansas and by the early 1840s they had moved to Montgomery County in Texas territory, later the Republic of Texas.

Migration to Utah

In the 1850s the Mathenys immigrated to Utah territory, some of them settling in Fillmore, Millard County in central Utah. In 1855, Matheny married Ellen Barton Ray, (1839-1920) a native of Mississippi.

Early Cotton Mill in the Cotton Mission

Joining the Southerners in Washington County and the Cotton Mission

In spring 1857, Matheny and his wife had joined the colony of Southerners in the new settlement in Washington County in the southwestern corner of Utah. These southerners founded the new settlement of Washington and were instrumental in establishing the Cotton Mission and cotton culture in what came to be known as Utah's Dixie.

Although the Cotton Mission eventually proved commercially unsuccessful, it did succeed in producing cotton goods for local use and export at an important stage in Utah Territory's economic development.

In the Iron Military District: Sergeant Sims Matheny, Company I, John D. Lee's 4th Battalion

In September 1857, 24-year-old Sims Matheny was a sergeant of the first Washington platoon in Company I of John D. Lee’s 4th Battalion. See A Basic Account for a full description of the massacre.

If Matheny was present at Mountain Meadows, he probably arrived with the "Southern contingent" at mid-day on Tuesday, September 8. What role, if any, Matheny played during the week or at the time of the massacre on Friday, September 11, will probably never been known with any certainty.

Sims Mathey was listed in the 1859 federal arrest warrant issued by Judge John Cradlebaugh but there is little other information about his role in the massacre. He was not identified in the trials of John D. Lee of 1875-76, nor in Lee's posthumously-published autobiography, Mormonism Unveiled, nor in William Bishop's "List of Assassins" appended to it. 

In their list of actual and alleged participants in Appendix C of Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Walker, Turley and Leonard do not include Sims Matheny for lack of corroborating evidence.

Later Life

In 1859, Matheny married Ellen’s sister, Martha Jane Ray (1842-1890), also of Mississippi. Eventually they returned to Fillmore in central Utah. During the Black Hawk War, "Sims L. Mathens" was listed in the Millard County militia muster rolls and saw action in a ten-day campaign against Black Hawk’s raiders that included the engagement at Gravelly Ford in Sevier County, 1866.

The 1880 census lists, Matheny, age 46, in Fillmore with his wives Ellen (listed as suffering from a nervous debility) and Martha Jane and a servant. His wives were keeping house while Matheny and the servant were working on the railroad. Josiah Gibbs recollected that Sims and Martha raised an Indian boy named Manassa who reportedly assimilated into white society.

In 1881, Matheny died and was buried in Fillmore, survived by his two wives and children.

References

Alder and Brooks, The History of Washington County, 29 fn. 11; Bigler and Bagley, Innocent Blood: Essential Narratives, 235; Day and Ekins, Milestones of Millard: A Century of History of Millard County, 1851-1951, 189; Gibbs, "Black Hawk’s Last Raid – 1866," Utah Historical Quarterly, 4/4 (October 1931), 106-107; New.familysearch.org; Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, 393 fn 2.

For full bibliographic information see Bibliography.

External Links

For further information on Sim Matheny, see:

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

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