Jabez Nowlin

Jabez T. Nowlin, his personal and family background, and his alleged involvement in the Mountain Meadows Massacre

Jabez Townsend Nowlin

1821-1893

Biographical Sketch

[There is uncertainty whether Jabez Nowlin participated in the Mountain Meadows Massacre or was on the ground when the Arkansas company was attacked or besieged.]

Jabez Townsend Nowlin was a native of rural Tennessee. From there he moved to western Illinois, then to the Iowa-Nebraska territories and finally to frontier Utah. He was an American frontiersman and pioneer in southern Utah.

(In historical records, "Jabez" is sometimes "Jebez" while "Nowlin" was sometimes rendered as "Nomlin," "Nowland," "Nowlen," and "Norman.")

Early Life in Tennessee and Illinois

Nowlin was born in Bedford, Bedford County, Tennessee in 1821 to Peyton Wade Nowlin and Margaret Phagan. He was converted to the Mormon religion through the teachings of James W. Cummings, a Mormon missionary to the Southern States. In the mid-1840s, he arrived in Nauvoo, Illinois, the largest Mormon community at the time. In 1846, he married Amanda A. Thomas.

Migration to Utah

After the Mormons were forced from western Illinois into Iowa Territory, Nowlin was among those recruited into the "Mormon Battalion." He was listed as a First Corporal in Company C under Captain James Brown. In July 1846, the Battalion recruits departed from Council Bluffs, Iowa Territory, for Fort Leavenworth in present-day Kansas. En route from Fort Leavenworth to Santa Fe, Nowlin was evidently among those who became ill during the difficult march. He was among the sick detachment that was redirected to Fort Pueblo in present-day Colorado where they passed the winter of 1846-47. Meanwhile, other Battalion members continued their march to Alta California where they assisted other Americans in wresting control over the area from the Californios. Several years later, the new state of California would be admitted to the Union. Meanwhile, Nowlin and others in the sick detachment in Fort Pueblo were discharged from the Army and made their way to the valley of the Great Salt Lake in what would soon became Utah Territory. Nowlin returned east and reunited with his wife, Amanda. Later, they traveled west to Great Salt Lake City.

Moving to Utah Valley

The Utah County Centennial History notes that in 1849, a "Jabez Norman (Nowland)" was a pioneer in Provo, Utah. Also, a daughter was born to "Jabez Nowlen (Nowland)" and his wife in 1849 or 1850. The first inhabitants of Utah Valley constructed a fort for protection from Ute Indians who frequented Utah Valley and Utah Lake. In August 1852, Jabez Nowlen was made a counselor to Bishop James Bird of the Provo Second Ward. During the summers they met under the bowery in Pioneer Park; in the winters, they met in individual homes. Nowlin and the others pioneered the new colony of Provo, building cabins, planting crops and digging irrigation ditches to keep their crops alive.

The Walker War erupted in summer 1853 and the conflict was particularly intense in Utah County. The pioneering settlers abandoned exposed settlements, made fortifications, guarded settlements and livestock and after their stock had been raided by Ute Indians, went in pursuit of it. Nowlin would have played some part in these events. Although the Walker War ended in a truce in summer 1854, the sharp conflict in Utah Valley may have impacted Nowlin's decision to move to other parts.

To Washington and the Cotton Mission

Early Cotton Mill in the Cotton Mission.

By spring 1857, the Nowlins had joined fellow Southerners in the new colony in Washington, Washington County, in southwestern Utah where they intended to establish cotton culture. These and a later influx of southerners founded the Cotton Mission in what came to be known as Utah's Dixie.

Although it 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

There is some evidence that Jabez Nowlin may have married Mercy Wilson (1829-1921), a native of Yorkshire, England, in 1857. If so, this marriage was another of those contracted during the Mormon "Reformation" of 1856-57.

Iron Military District: Private Jabez Nowlin, Company I, John D. Lee's 4th Battalion

In September 1857, Jabez Nowlin, 36, along with George Washington Adair and James Pearce, were privates in a platoon in Company I, under young Pearce's father, Captain Harrison Pearce, in the 4th Battalion under Major John D. Lee. It seems likely that Nowlin was among the Southerners recruited over the weekend of September 5-6. They departed for Mountain Meadows on Monday, September 7, and arrived there around noon the following day. However, Nowlin's role during the week of siege and the final massacre on September 11 is not known.

In 1859, Judge John Cradlebaugh issued an arrest warrant naming more than 30 southern Utah militiamen. Nowlin was listed in the warrant as "Jabes Nomlen." However, in their list of actual and alleged participants in Appendix C of Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Walker, Turley and Leonard do not include Jabez Nowlin for lack of corroborating evidence.

Later Life

In later years, Nowlin was among those who "helped in quelling the Indian disturbances in Southern Utah." Later still, the Nowlin family moved to Springville, where he set up a molasses mill. In 1867, they moved to Wellsville, Cache County in northern Utah and Nowlin engaged in farming.

In 1893, Jabez Nowlin died in Ucon, Bonneville County, Idaho, at the age of 72, survived by Amanda and their three children.

References

Carter, ed., Heart Throbs of the West, 7:13; 8:415; Carter, ed., Treasures of Pioneer History, 4:492; Huff, Utah County Centennial History, 55, 66, 116; New.FamilySearch.org.

External Links

For additional information on Jabez Nowlin, see:

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

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