Richard Harrison

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

Richard Harrison.jpg

Richard Harrison

1808-1882

Biographical Sketch

Richard Harrison was a native of Worchestershire in the West Midlands, England who immigrated to the United States and was a pioneer in southern Utah.

Early Years in the West Midlands, England

Harrison was born in 1808 at Dudley, Worcestershire, England, the son of William and Elizabeth Baker Harrison. In 1836, he married Mary Ann Whitaker (1811-1898). He joined the Mormon church in Liverpool in 1840. During this time, Harrison worked as superintendent of Great Britain's largest iron foundry in Liverpool. He and Mary Ann had several children while in England but evidently they all died in childhood.

Immigration to America and onto Illinois

In 1843, the Harrisons immigrated to America and joined their coreligionists in the main Mormon center in western Illinois. They lived through the assassination of the Mormon leader, Joseph Smith in 1844, and the rising unrest between Mormons and the original settlers of the area in 1845-46.

Migration to Utah

In 1846, the new Mormon leader, Brigham Young, determined to evacuate their settlements in Illinois. The Harrisons joined the Mormon exodus from Illinois that eventually took them to Utah Territory in 1849.

Move to Southern Utah

Harrison was one of the original settlers in Little Salt Lake Valley of southern Utah. In 1851, Harrison was 43, his wife, Mary Ann, 39, and they had two children, John, 5 and Mary Ann, 10 months. He was in the first Cedar City choir conducted by Robert Wiley and was appointed as one of four original aldermen. The following year, he was appointed one of the school trustees. In 1854-55, he represented Iron County in the territorial legislature. In 1855, he took a plural wife by marrying a widow, Jane Fryer Jorden (1823-1896), and in the coming years they had eight children.

Superintendent of the Ironworks

The Early Ironworks in Cedar City

Richard Harrison's main occupation in Cedar City was as one of the ironworkers. He was the first one listed in Henry Lunt's early list of "iron men". In May 1852, he was appointed superintendent of the initial ironworks and began plans for constructing the iron operation. With the help of others, Harrison began construction of a blast furnace, foundry, pattern shop, coke and charcoal ovens, waterwheel and other structures. When the ironworks was reorganized, Harrison became superintendent of the moulding department. His speciality as moulder was reheating iron and forging it into useful implements. He was a shareholder in the enterprise and in 1853, he became a member of the newly-formed iron council.

When the so-called Noble furnace was constructed in summer 1854, Harrison worked all summer as a carpenter. They had some successes with this furnace, but they also experienced damaging blowouts that required much time, manpower and resources to repair.

From the beginning, the ironworkers were dogged by competing priorities of investing means and manpower into the ironworks -- which produced no immediate return on investment -- versus raising grain and foodstuffs. They were tasked with building the former, but they could not survive without the latter. Frequently, there was a clash of personalities over these and other priorities. In the early years, they went at their task with great determination. But as the failures and technical challenges mounted, so did their sense of frustration and discouragement. After 1855, the ironworks began to decline. One problem was the fickle nature of Coal Creek, which continued to alternate between flooding and droughts. They determined to develop a more dependable source of power.

In April 1857, the delivery of a new steam engine from Great Salt Lake City seemed to provide the answer. After its arrival, they built a new room to house the engine, connected its boiler to a steady water supply and modified the furnace to accommodate the engine. In early June they started an iron run using the steam engine. However, the new machinery created its own set of problems. Through the end of July, they experimented with different configurations of furnace, engine and piping, attempting to optimize the blast furnace.

From late April through July, those working up the canyon in mining or hauling wood, coal, limestone, rock, sand or “adobies” to the ironworks were Isaac C. Haight, James Williamson, George Hunter, Joseph H. Smith, Ira Allen, Ellott Wilden, Swen Jacobs, Alex Loveridge, Joel White, Ezra Curtis, Samuel McMurdie, Samuel Pollock, John Jacobs, John M. Higbee, John M. Macfarlane, Samuel Jewkes, Nephi Johnson, Thomas Cartwright, William Bateman, Elias Morris, Benjamin Arthur, Joseph H. Smith, Robert Wiley, and Philip Klingensmith. Those working at the ironworks on the furnace, engine, coke ovens or blacksmith shop included Elias Morris, John Humphries, Ira Allen, John Urie, Benjamin Arthur, James Williamson, Joseph H. Smith, Samuel Jewkes, Joseph Clews, Richard Harrison, William C. Stewart, William Bateman, John M Macfarlane, John M. Higbee, John Jacobs, George Hunter, Samuel Pollock, William S. Riggs, Alex Loveridge, Ellott Wilden, Ezra Curtis, Eliezar Edwards, Swen Jacobs, Joel White, and Thomas Cartwright. (The two lists overlap because some worked both in the canyon and at the Ironworks.) Other prominent figures at the ironworks who were not later involved at Mountain Meadows were Samuel Leigh, George Horton, James H. Haslem, Laban Morrell, John Chatterley, Thomas Gower, Thomas Crowther and others.

By the time reports reached them in early August of a threatened “invasion” of U.S. troops into Utah, they had decided on further changes to the ironworks. They determined that a reservoir was necessary so as to provide a steady supply of filtered water to the steam engine. Immediately, they set to work, digging, lining and filling the reservoir. From late August to early September, shortly before the crisis involving the passing Arkansas emigrant company, they began a new furnace run. But it, too, ended in failure, probably around the time that a dispute arose between some community members and several of those in the passing Arkansas wagon train.

During this period of 1857, Harrison performed numerous tasks at the ironworks. In mid-June, he shingled the blacksmith shop, following which he was "Clearing out [the] Casting Hous[e] & old Trial Furnace." The following week, he was a moulder of the cupola, or small furnace. Next, he worked on beam supports near the new engine. Returning to the cupula, he worked as a moulder for several days. Early in July he "fitted up" the cylinders of the steam engine. At mid-month, he was part of a small team who spent more than five days each on the steam engine. In late July, he worked as a carpenter. In early August, he joined the large crew of more than 40 men in building a reservoir for a reliable water supply for the steam engine. In mid-August, he spent a day making a wagon box for the coal mine.

The majority of the southern Utah militiamen at Mountain Meadows were from Cedar City. Of these, nearly all of them had worked at the Ironworks or supplied raw materials to it. Indeed, in the weeks before the Mountain Meadows Massacre, they had worked intensely together, hauling materials, building a new water reservoir, and making the latest run of the blast furnace. One perennial mystery of the massacre has been why the militiamen mustered to Mountain Meadows in “broken” militia units; that is, from different platoons and companies, none of which had a full compliment of its members. Perhaps the reason lies with the Ironworks. Those in the Ironworks knew each other and had worked alongside one another. Not only was Richard Harrison acquainted with those who mustered from Cedar City to Mountain Meadows, he had worked with them at the Ironworks. Perhaps the answer is that the men of the Ironworks were on hand and available and Isaac Haight, who himself had worked closely with them, assigned them to muster to Mountain Meadows.

In the Iron Military District: 2nd Lieutenant Richard Harrison, Company E, Isaac Haight's 2nd Battalion

In September 1857, Richard Harrison, 49, was a 2nd Lt. in one of the platoons in Company E. Fellow ironworker Robert Wiley was sergeant of the same platoon. Company E was commanded by Captain Elias Morris, who was also one of the chief masons in the ironworks. Morris's company was attached to the 2nd Battalion under Major Isaac C. Haight. See A Basic Account for a full description of the massacre.

According to John D. Lee, Harrison arrived at Mountain Meadows with a militia contingent from Cedar City.

On Thursday evening, September 10, Lee identified Harrison and many others from Cedar City who attended the war council on the grounds of Mountain Meadows.

On Friday, September 11, many members of the militia contingent from Cedar City acted as guards alongside the emigrant men as they marched northward from their fortified position inside the wagon circle. As the massacre commenced, the duty of the guards was to wheel and fire on the emigrant men, quickly dispatching them. Yet during the actual massacre, reactions varied among the guards. Some shrank from their duty, others fired over the heads of their victims, while others still undertook their bloody duty with zeal. Within minutes, members of the Cedar City unit had killed all but three of the emigrant men. However, whether Harrison was in this guard unit and if so, how he acted during the massacre will probably never be known with any certainty.

In Judge John Cradlebaugh's 1859 arrest warrant, Richard Harrison was listed as simply "Harrison." John D. Lee and his attorney William Bishop both referred to Harrison in Mormonism Unveiled, Lee's autobiography posthumously published in 1877.

Leaving Cedar City for Pinto

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Meanwhile, in Cedar City in 1858, there were some final efforts at iron production, but after these failed the ironworks was closed. Harrison remained in Iron County but in 1860, the Harrisons were among the many who abandoned Cedar City. They relocated to nearby Pinto, halfway between Cedar City and Mountain Meadows.

Starting the Union Iron Works

In 1868, Harrison and David Adams, the chief furnace master of the earlier ironworks, formed the Union Iron Works at Old Irontown (Iron City), west of Cedar City. He served for many years as a superintendent at these new ironworks. They operated a small blast furnace and several coke ovens on Pinto Creek. The pig iron they produced was shipped to the stamp mills in Bullion, Nevada. Ultimately, however, this enterprise failed for the same reason as the earlier one, lack of high-grade iron ore and coal.

Final Years

Harrison remained in Pinto until March 1882 when he passed away at the age of 73. He was survived by his two wives and children.

In 2009, a statue of Richard Harrison was unveiled in downtown Cedar City to honor his role as a founder of the Iron Mission and his contributions to early iron production in Utah.

References

Arrington, "Planning an Iron Industry for Utah, 1851-1858," Huntington Library Quarterly, 21:3 (May 1958), 237-260; Mormon Manuscripts to 1846: Guide to Lee Library; Bagley, Blood of the Prophets, 159; Bigler and Bagley, Innocent Blood: Essential Narratives, 69, 70 fn. 14; Bitton, Guide to Mormon Diaries, 147; Lee, Mormonism Unveiled, 232, 379; Lee Trial transcripts; Seegmiller, A History of Iron County, 53, fn.32, 238, 321, 323; Shirts and Shirts, A Trial Furnace, 51, 123, 150, 156, 178-79, 210, 213, 215-18, 223-226, 228, 230, 234, 240-41, 243-46, 261, 264, 267-68, 270, 272, 302, 304-5, 308, 313-14 fn. 66, 349, 355, 401, 406 fn. 84, 432, 452, 462, 483, 495; Turley and Walker, Mountain Meadows Massacre: The Jenson and Morris Collections, 107, 119, 223; Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Appendix C; Youngberg, Conquerors of the West: Stalwart Mormon Pioneers, "Richard Harrison," 1025.

For full bibliographic information see Bibliography.

External Links

For further information on Richard Harrison, see:

• Harrison diary:  http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~schick/ knell/richardharrison.htm
• Harrison journey from England to Illinois: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ ~schick/knell/adventure.html
• Deseret Iron Company Account Book, 1854-1867: http://www.footnote.com/document/241905844/
• Unveiling statue of Richard Harrison: http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_12978307

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