William Slade

William Slade, his personal and family background and his involvement in the Mountain Meadows Massacre

William Slade

1834-1902

Biographical Sketch

William Slade was a native of St. Landry Parish, Louisiana who later moved to the Republic of Texas before moving to western Illinois and then frontier Utah. Like about two-thirds of the militiamen involved in the massacre he was an American frontiersman and pioneer of southern Utah.

Early Life in the South

Slade was born in Opelousas, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, the son of William Rufus and Julia Higganbotham Slade. Soon his family moved to the Republic of Texas. They joined the Mormons in the 1840s.

Immigration to Utah

Sometime in the late 1840s or early 1850s, they immigrated to Utah. By 1857, Slade and his father’s family had moved to Washington in southern Utah. Washington was largely populated by Southerners who had been assigned to the newly formed "Cotton Mission."

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

By September 1857, 23-year-old William Slade was a sergeant in the third Washington platoon, in Harrison Pearce’s Company I in John D. Lee’s 4th Battalion. Slade was among the Washington party who were probably recruited on Sunday the 6th and traveled toward Mountain Meadows on Monday the 7th and encamped there on Tuesday the 8th. His exact role in the massacre on Friday the 11th is unknown.

"William Slade" was listed in the 1859 arrest warrant. This could refer either to the father, William Rufus Slade, or the son, William Slade.

A "William Slade" was a county commissioner in Washington County from 1857 to 1859. This could be young Slade but more likely was his father, William Rufus Slade. Slade may have had an earlier marriage but in 1869 he married Nancy Catherine Overton Holt (1850-1931) who was born in Iowa but whose early American forebears were from North Carolina and Virginia.

In 1866, William Slade is listed as a private in the 2nd platoon of the Volunteer Cavalry Company, 1st Brigade, in the Iron Military District, who did military reconnaissance during Utah's Black Hawk War. By 1872, they had settled in Hamblin and Pine Valley in northern Washington County.

In the late 1870s, the Slades settled in Panguitch, Garfield County. His last child was born in Panguitch in 1887, indicating that Slade probably remained there. In later years he moved to Colonia Dublan, Chihuahua, Mexico where he died and was buried.

Around 1910, Slade filed for Indian Wars veterans benefits for his service in 1866 during Utah's Black Hawk War.

References

Alder and Brooks, A History of Washington County, App. A, 383; Newell and Talbot, A History of Garfield County, 87; Crampton, "Military Reconnaissance in Southern Utah, 1866, Utah Historical Quarterly, 32/2 (Spring 1964), 160; Lee, Mormonism Unveiled, ; Lee Trial transcripts; New.FamilySearch.org; Utah State Archive and Records and Service, Commissioner of Indian War Records, Indian War Service Affidavits, affidavit of William Slade, accessed at http://archives.utah.gov/research/inventories/2217.html; Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Appendix C.

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