Columbus R. Freeman

Columbus Freeman, his personal and family background, and his involvement in the Mountain Meadows Massacre

Columbus Reed Freeman

1838-1907

Biographical Sketch

Early Life in Kentucky

A native of rural Kentucky (or Missouri per the 1880 census records), Columbus Reed Freeman moved to western Illinois before traveling with the Mormons to frontier Utah. He was an American frontiersman and early pioneer to southern Utah.

Freeman was born in 1838 in Jackson, Breathitt County, Kentucky, the son of John J. Freeman (1804-1871) and Nancy Beal Smoot (1807-1891). (Other records indicate that he was born in Missouri.) His father’s forebears were from southern England and immigrated to Jamestown, Virginia. Generations later they moved to Kentucky. His mother was in the Smoot clan, some of whom later rose to positions of some prominence among the Mormons.

Joining the Mormons and onto Utah

Freeman's parents joined the Mormons and moved to western Illinois in the early 1840s. As a child, Freeman experienced the "Mormon War" in western Illinois and the forced expulsions of the Mormons. Eventually, the Freeman family joined the Mormon migration to frontier Utah.

To the Cotton Mission in Southern Utah

John W. Freeman, Columbus's father, was among the earliest settlers in Washington County. Evidently, he was among the Southerners who were sent to the hot semi-arid southwestern corner of Utah to found the Cotton Mission. However, it is unclear where they were living immediately before they moved to Washington County. Evidently, however, Columbus Freeman either traveled with his parents, or rejoined them, in Washington County.

In the Iron Military District: Private Columbus Freeman

In 1857, the Iron Military District consisted of four battalions led by regimental commander Col. William H. Dame. The platoons and companies in the first battalion drew on men in and around Parowan. (It had no involvement at Mountain Meadows.) Major Isaac Haight commanded the 2nd Battalion whose personnel in its many platoons and two companies came from Cedar City and outer-lying communities to the north such as Fort Johnson. Major John Higbee headed the 3rd Battalion whose many platoons and two companies were drawn from Cedar City and outer-lying communities to the southwest such as Fort Hamilton. Major John D. Lee of Fort Harmony headed the 4th Battalion whose platoons and companies drew on its militia personnel from Fort Harmony, the Southerners at the newly-founded settlement in Washington, the Indian interpreters at Fort Clara, and the new settlers at Pinto.

By 1857, Freeman was a 19-year-old youth living in southern Utah. He is listed in June 1857 muster list but for unknown reasons, not in the October 1857 list. According to the early muster roll, he was a private in a platoon in Company C of Parowan. See A Basic Account for a full description of the massacre.

No one else from Parowan is known to have be involved in the massacre so why was Freeman identified? In Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Walker, Turley and Leonard opine that since Freeman's parents and siblings were living with the other Southerners in the new settlement of Washington in Washington County, he may have been living in Washington and was recruited from there to march to Mountain Meadows. He was among the young men ordered to muster to Mountain Meadows.

According to John D. Lee's account in Mormonism Unveiled, Freeman attended the fateful military council at Mountain Meadows on the evening of Thursday, September 10, just before the final massacre the following day. However, the youthful private could not have played a significant role in the deliberations of the council.

His exact role at the time of the final massacre is not unknown.

Resettling in Millard County, Utah

In 1862, Freeman married a native of Kentucky, Lydia Clementine West (1840-1912). He had left southern Utah for Corn Creek, Millard County in central Utah. They had eight children. According to Joseph Fish, he visited Freeman in 1876 at his home in Cove Creek.

The 1880 census for Kanosh in Millard County lists Freeman as being born in Missouri, 41 years old and employed as a laborer, with a wife, Lydia, born in Kentucky, 39 years old, keeping house, with four sons and three daughters, ages two to sixteen.

Move to Southeastern Arizona

Sometime in the early 1880s, Freeman and his family joined the Mormon colonizers of eastern Arizona. By December 1885, when local church leader Jesse N. Smith visited with Freeman and his family, they were located "below Solomonville" in the Gila Valley on the upper Gila River. Freeman informed Smith about an Apache uprising that had resulted in the deaths of the Wright brothers, two local Mormon settlers.

Final Years

Little is known of Freeman's activities until the turn of the twentieth century. The 1900 census indicates that Freeman was still a resident of Graham County, Arizona.

In September 1904, church leader Jesse N. Smith visited the Gila Valley where among other things he visited Columbus Freeman in Layton and stayed the night. Going to the church conference with Freeman the next day, Smith "labored with Bro. Freeman; received his promise that he would return to the Church; spoke to Pres. Kimball in his behalf." (Smith, ed., Journal of Jesse N. Smith, 449.) It is not known if Freeman made reconciliation.

At the time of his death in 1907 he may have been visiting or living in Los Angeles, California.

References

Bigler and Bagley, Innocent Blood: Essential Narratives, 235; Krenkel, ed., Life and Times of Joseph Fish, 162; Lee, Mormonism Unveiled, 232, 379; Lee Trial transcripts; Membership Records of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-1848; New.FamilySearch.org; Smith, ed., Journal of Jesse N. Smith, 320, 449; Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, 191, Appendix C, 257; U.S. Census for 1850, 1870, 1880 and 1900.

For full bibliographic information see Bibliography.

External Links

For further information on Columbus Reed Freeman see:

• http://arlisherring.com/tng/getperson.php?personID=I012566&tree=Herring&PHPSESSID=53591e73f5a6d31e53ade1dba1637ea9
• http://mountainmeadowsmassacre.org/appendices/appendix-c-the-militiamen

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