Samuel Pollock

Samuel Pollock's background and his involvement in and statements about the Mountain Meadows Massacre

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Samuel Pollock

1842-1891

Biographical Sketch

Early Years in Ireland

[Under Construction.] Samuel Pollock was born in County Tyrone in Ulster (North) Ireland.

Immigration to America and onto Illinois

He joined the Mormon church, emigrated from Ireland to America and traveled to Nauvoo, Illinois, the main church center.

Migration to Utah

In 1846, Pollock and other family members joined the Mormon exodus from western Illinois. Around 1847, he married Elizabeth Reeves (1829-1864) of Shropshire, England and their first child was born while they resided in Nebraska territory. They immigrated to Utah in 1850 and Pollock immediately went to work as a laborer. By 1853, they had moved to Spanish Fork in Utah County. Evidently he took Elizabeth Brockbank (1838-1926) of Lancashire, England as a polygamous wife but this marriage was of short duration.

Move to the Iron Mission in Southern Utah

By 1855, Pollock and his first wife, Elizabeth, moved to Cedar City in southern Utah where several more children were born. In 1857, Pollock was a sergeant in Company E of Cedar City.

His Role and Statements Relative to the Massacre

Samuel Pollock was a sergeant in one of the platoons under Elias Morris, captain of Company E in Major Isaac C. Haight's 2nd Battalion.

In September 1857, between the first attack and the final massacre, Samuel Pollock, 33, was among the contingent that arrived at the Meadows during the week. On Friday the 11th, Pollock later testified, he was sick and observed the massacre from one of the militia camps where he heard the volleys of shots and saw the pall of smoke rising from the field. Pollock was listed in judge John Cradlebaugh's 1859 arrest warrant.

Later Life

By 1860, the Pollock family were among the first settlers in the new community of Toquerville and by 1862, they had moved to Kanarraville where Pollock spent the remainder of his life. In 1864, his wife Elizabeth died, having bore Pollock eight children. The following year, the 40-year-old Pollock married twenty-nine-year-old Welsh emigrant Ann Meredith Mathews (1836-1889) who became step-mother to his children and also bore him three other children.

Testifying in Lee's First Trial

During the summer of 1875, Pollock traveled to Beaver where he testified as both a prosecution and defense witness in the first trial of John D. Lee. He testified concerning their muster, the march to Mountain Meadows and the massacre itself. Contrary to the myth that witnesses never identified anyone other than John D. Lee at the massacre, Pollock named eight other militiamen at the Meadows besides himself and Lee.

According to census records, Pollock was farming in 1860, blacksmithing in 1870 and farming in 1880. Pollock and his wife Ann and children lived on in Kanarraville. Ann died in 1889 and Pollock died two years later. At least seven of his children survived into the twentieth century.

References

Fielding, ed., The Tribune Reports of the Trials of John D. Lee; Lee, Mormonism Unveiled; Lee Trial transcripts; Seegmiller, The History of Iron County, ; Shirts and Shirts, A Trial Furnace: Southern Utah's Iron Mission, ; Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Appendix C.

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