William Cameron Stewart (1827-1895) was born in Enganmore, Inverness-shire in the Northwest Scottish Highlands. In the 1840s or early 1850s, he converted to Mormonism. Like many European converts to Mormonism in the mid-19th century, Stewart saved his money to immigrate to America and join the Mormons in Utah Territory.
Immigration to America and onto Utah
In the early 1850s (?), he sailed to the United States and immigrated to Utah.
Relocating to Cedar City and the Iron MIssion
By the mid-1850s, Stewart had settled in Cedar City in southern Utah. In 1855 he married Mary Ann Clark Corlett (1838-1894) from Salford (Manchester), Lancashire, England.
In the Iron Military District
In September 1857, William Stewart, 30, was 2nd Lt. in one of the Cedar City platoons.
According to fellow militiaman and town herdsman Henry Higgins, around sundown on Monday, September 6, 1857, Higgins observed a detachment of approximately twenty-five armed men departing Cedar City in wagons or on horseback. Besides Stewart, he mentioned William Bateman, Ezra Curtis, Samuel Pollock, Alexander Loveridge and John M. Higbee.
According to John D. Lee, William Stewart arrived at Mountain Meadows in a company from Cedar City. In addition, multiple witnesses mention Stewart at Mountain Meadows.
Stewart and his family remained in Cedar City and his wife bore him seven children.
Indicted for Complicity in the Massacre
In 1874, following the federal grand jury indictment, naming Stewart and eight other militiamen for complicity in the massacre, a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Stewart, Haight and Higbee Flee to Avoid Arrest
Stewart, Isaac C. Haight and John M. Higbee went went into hiding and Stewart remained a fugitive.
Final Years
He moved to the Mormon colony in Chihuahua, Mexico where he died in 1895, around the time the Mountain Meadows prosecutions were finally closed.
References
Bagley, Blood of the Prophets, ; Bigler and Bagley, Innocent Blood: Essential Narratives, ; Brooks, The Mountain Meadows Massacre, ; FamilySearch.org; Lee, Mormonism Unveiled, 230, 235, 244, 273, 380; Lee Trial transcripts; Turley and Walker, Mountain Meadows Massacre, ; Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Appendix C; Woolley, Personal History of Isaac Haight,100 (photo).
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