Harrison Pearce

Harrison Pearce, his personal and family background, and his involvement in the Mountain Meadows Massacre

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Harrison Pearce

1818-1889

Biographical Sketch

Early Life in the American South

A native of rural Georgia, Harrison Pearce moved in succession to Alabama, Mississippi, the Iowa territory and then to frontier Utah. Like all the others, Pearce was an American frontiersman and pioneer in southern Utah.

Harrison Pearce was born in December 1818 in Jackson, Butts County in central Georgia. His earliest American forebears were from Virginia and South Carolina. In the early 1820s, his family moved to Perry County in west-central Alabama where his father died leaving his mother with six children. In 1836, at the age of 17, Pearce married 19-year-old Henrietta Cromeans (1815-1864) from Scott County, Tennessee. They crossed western Alabama and settled in Itawanda County in northeast Mississippi.

Late in 1845, Mormon missionaries proselytizing in Mississippi converted Pearce and his wife to the new faith. Early the following year they disposed of the holdings, pulled up stakes and set out for the main place of Mormon gathering in western Illinois. They arrived in Nauvoo, Illinois in late March to find taht the Mormons were evacuating western Illinois because of escalating conflicts with old-time settlers in the surrounding area. After remaining in Nauvoo only briefly, the Pearces crossed the Mississippi River into Iowa Territory. From 1846 to 1849 the Pearces lived in several small settlements along the Des Moines and Fox rivers. By late 1849 they had moved to Mt. Pisgah in west central Iowa. They passed three years there where, among ohter things, Pearce taught school.

Immigration to Utah

In summer 1852, the Pearces had accumulated enough means to purchase and equip an outfit for the trek west. They joined the James C. Snow wagon train of 250 souls in 55 wagons, which departed in early July from Kanesville (present Council Bluffs), Iowa Territory. Their family consisted of Harrison, 34, Henrietta, 37, John David Lafayette, 15, James, 13, Amelia, 11, Nancy, 9, Thomas Jefferson, 7, Harrison, Jr., 3, and Henrietta, less than one month. Young Nancy succumbed after less than three weeks and they buried her along the trail. In early October they arrived in the valley of the Great Salt Lake in Utah Territory.

Soon they had moved south to settle in Payson at the southern end of Utah Valley. After their arrival the security of Payson and other Mormon settlements in Utah Valley was shattered in mid-1853 with the outbreak of the so-called Walker War. Chief Walkara led the Utes in raids against Mormon settlements in central Utah, especially in Utah Valley where traditional lands of the Utes were located around Utah Lake. This was a time of "forting up," militia musters, and skirmishes throughout Utah Valley. The fort at Payson was enlarged and its picket fence enclosure was replaced with a tall, thick adobe wall. Harrison Pearce's oldest son, John David Lafayette (J. D. L.) Pearce, was in the militia and involved in some skirmishes. (J. D. L. Pearce married in 1856 and remained in Payson until 1862. Then he moved to St. George where as a colonel in the militia he became a noted Indian fighter during the Black Hawk War (1865-68).) Harrison Pearce probably played a role in some of these war preparations in Payson.

The Walker War concluded in 1854 with a peace treaty, resulting in some return to normalcy in Utah Valley. However, in 1855 widespread drought and insect infestations decimated crops making foodstuffs very scarce throughout the Territory. Yet there was occasional time for entertainment; Harrison Pearce was among the early performers in local theater productions in Payson.

The Cotton Mill in Washington County.

To Washington and the Cotton Mission

In spring 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, which had its initial headquarters in Washington, Washington County.

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

Pearce was one of the original founders of Washington. The previous year, Pearce married a second wife, Ann Meredith Mathews (1818-1889) of Glamorgan, Wales. She bore him three children but this marriage ended in divorce. Ann later married Samuel Pollock, the Irish emigrant who was also at the massacre and later testified in the first trial of John D. Lee in 1875.

In the Iron Military District, Captain Harrison Pearce, Company I, John D. Lee's 4th Battalion

In 1857, the Iron Military District consisted of four battalions led by regimental commander Col. William H. Dame. The platoons and companies in the first battalion drew on men in and around Parowan. (It had no involvement at Mountain Meadows.) Major Isaac Haight commanded the 2nd Battalion whose personnel in its many platoons and two companies came from Cedar City and outer-lying communities to the north such as Fort Johnson. Major John Higbee headed the 3rd Battalion whose many platoons and two companies were drawn from Cedar City and outer-lying communities to the southwest such as Fort Hamilton. Major John D. Lee of Fort Harmony headed the 4th Battalion whose platoons and companies drew on its militia personnel from Fort Harmony, the Southerners at the newly-founded settlement in Washington, the Indian interpreters at Fort Clara, and the new settlers at Pinto.

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In 1857, Pearce, 38, was captain of Company I, one of two companies in John D. Lee’s 4th Battalion. In September 1857, Pearce was among those of Washington recruited, probably on Sunday the 6th, to join an ad hoc detachment and muster to Mountain Meadows. See A Basic Account for a full description of the massacre.

On Monday, the 7th, Lee met Pearce and others from the southern settlements of Washington and Fort Clara some miles south of the Meadows. On Tuesday, the 8th, they encamped at Mountain Meadows and awaited further orders. William Young implied that Pearce was among those at the massacre on Friday, the 11th.

Militiaman John Hawley recalled Pearce making inflammatory speeches against non-Mormons sometime after the massacre. In the 1859 arrest warrant issued by Judge John Cradlebaugh, Pearce was listed as Harrison "Pierce." He is not known to have made any written statements about the massacre. However, his son James was also present at the massacre. James Pearce testified in John D. Lee's first trial in 1875.

Later LIfe

Pearce remained in Washington County and was listed as a county commissioner in 1859. In the summer of that year, he was elected sheriff of Washington County. In 1861, he moved from Washington to the new community of St. George. He was among the early settlers at Tonoquint at the confluence of the Virgin River and Santa Clara Creek, southwest of modern St. George. However, Tonaquint was among the early settlements on the Virgin River plagued by frequent flooding and its settlers were forced to abandon it after especially heavy flooding in early 1862.

In 1863, he married Swiss emigrant Magdalena Schneider (1838-1896), then in the nearby Swiss colony in Santa Clara. His first wife died the following year and Magdalena because stepmother to his children. Also, she bore him five additional children. In the mid-1860s, Pearce moved briefly to the northwestern corner of what is now known as the Arizona Strip to found a settlement at Beaver Dams. Thereafter he returned to St. George.

During the Black Hawk War of the late 1860s, Harrison and his son James were among those involved in policing and punitive actions against marauding Indians.

In 1870, Pearce and others began farming operations south of St. George in Bloomington. Besides working as farmer and peace officer, Pearce also worked as a mechanic and was a choir leader and member of the local brass band.

Final Years

Pearce remained in St. George where he died and was buried in 1889 at the age of 71. He was survived by five children, including James Pearce, who was an important colonizer in the Mormon settlements in eastern Arizona.

References

Alder and Brooks, A History of Washington County, 29, 50 fn. 11, App. A, 383; Bagley, Blood of the Prophets, 119-20, 128, 148, 150; Bagley and Bigler, eds., Innocent Blood: Essential Narratives, 110; Bradshaw, ed., Under Dixie Sun, 40, 235, 326; Cahoon, Washington City, Monument Plaza, May 7, 2004, 52-54 (biographical sketch); Dixon, Peteetneet Town, 7, 11, 98, 182; Hafen, Devoted Empire Builders: Pioneers of St. George, 101, 102; Larson, Diary of Charles Lowell Walker, Vol. I, 266; Lee, Mormonism Unveiled, 228, 380; Lee Trial transcripts; New.FamilySearch.org; Novak, House of Mourning, 168; Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Appendix C, 261.

For full bibliographic information see Bibliography.

External Links

For additional information on Harrison Pearce and family see:

• http://mountainmeadowsmassacre.org/appendices/appendix-c-the-militiamen
• http://www.familyperkins.com/genealogy/harrisonpearce.htm
• http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=52845 (son J. D. L. Pearce)

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