James Pearce: Difference between revisions
| Line 91: | Line 91: | ||
[[Image:James Pearce & family.jpg|thumb|center|600px|<center>'''The family of James and Mary Jane Meeks Pearce, c. 1890s, while living in settlements along Silver Creek in eastern Arizona.'''</center>]] | [[Image:James Pearce & family.jpg|thumb|center|600px|<center>'''The family of James and Mary Jane Meeks Pearce, c. 1890s, while living in settlements along Silver Creek in eastern Arizona.'''</center>]] | ||
[[Image:Pearce, James 5.jpg| | [[Image:Pearce, James 5.jpg|left|230px]][[Image:Pearce, James 2.2.jpg|right|230px]] | ||
Pearce remained in Navajo County, Arizona, for the remainder of his life. In 1922, Pearce died at the age of eight-two and was buried in Taylor. There were only a handful of the Iron County militiamen at Mountain Meadows who outlived James Pearce. | Pearce remained in Navajo County, Arizona, for the remainder of his life. In 1922, Pearce died at the age of eight-two and was buried in Taylor. There were only a handful of the Iron County militiamen at Mountain Meadows who outlived James Pearce. | ||
Revision as of 08:03, 24 November 2013
James Pearce, his personal and family background, and his involvement in and statements about the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
James Pearce
1839-1922
Biographical Sketch
Early Life in the American South
James Pearce (1839-1922) was born in Itawamba County, Mississippi, the son of Harrison Pearce and Henrietta Cremeans. For two generations his Scots-Irish forebears had followed a westerly migration arc from coastal South Carolina to the hill country of north-central Georgia to west-central Alabama, then to northeastern Mississippi where Pearce was born.
Late in 1845, Mormon missionaries proselytizing in Mississippi converted Pearce's parents to the new faith. Early the following year the Pearces disposed of the holdings, pulled up stakes and set out for the main place of Mormon gathering in western Illinois. They arrived in Nauvoo, Illinois in late March to find that the Mormons were evacuating western Illinois because of escalating conflicts with old-time settlers in the surrounding area. After remaining in Nauvoo only briefly, the Pearces crossed the Mississippi River into Iowa Territory. From 1846 to 1849 the Pearces lived in several small settlements along the Des Moines and Fox rivers. By late 1849 they had moved to Mt. Pisgah in west central Iowa and spent the next three years there.
Immigration to Utah
By summer 1852, the Pearces had accumulated enough means to purchase and equip an outfit for the trek west. They joined the James C. Snow wagon train of 250 souls in 55 wagons, which departed in early July from Kanesville (present Council Bluffs), Iowa Territory. Their family consisted of Harrison, 34, Henrietta, 37, John David Lafayette, 15, James, 13, Amelia, 11, Nancy, 9, Thomas Jefferson, 7, Harrison, Jr., 3, and Henrietta, less than one month. Pearce's younger sister Nancy succumbed after less than three weeks and they buried her along the trail. In early October they arrived in the valley of the Great Salt Lake in Utah Territory.
Soon they had moved south to settle in Payson at the southern end of Utah Valley. After their arrival the security of Payson and other Mormon settlements in Utah Valley was shattered in mid-1853 with the outbreak of the so-called Walker War. Chief Walkara led the Utes in raids against Mormon settlements in central Utah, especially in Utah Valley where Mormons had occupied traditional Ute lands around Utah Lake. This was a time of "forting up," militia musters, and skirmishes throughout Utah Valley. The fort at Payson was enlarged and its picket fence enclosure was replaced with a tall, thick adobe wall. Pearce's older brother, John David Lafayette (J. D. L.) Pearce, was in the militia and involved in some skirmishes, but it is not known whether James, then in his early teens, played any role in these war preparations.
The Walker War concluded in 1854 with a peace treaty, resulting in some return to normalcy in Utah Valley. However, in 1855 widespread drought and insect infestations decimated crops making foodstuffs very scarce throughout the Territory.
To Washington and the Cotton Mission
In spring 1857, many southerners throughout the territory were recruited to devote their energies to founding the Cotton Mission in southern Utah. The leaders of the new mission were Samuel J. Adair and Robert D. Covington. In March 1857, Adair led a group to settle near Adair Spring in what is now Washington City. Soon the Pearces joined a group led by Robert Covington which arrived at Adair Springs in early May. They set about founding a colony and establishing cotton culture in Utah's "Dixie." Initially, they lived in their wagon boxes, dugouts, or other crude structures.
Although it eventually proved commercially unsuccessful, the Cotton Mission did succeed in producing cotton goods for local use and export at an important stage in Utah Territory's economic development.
In the Iron Military District: Private James Pearce, Company I, John D. Lee's 4th Battalion
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.
In September 1857, eighteen-year-old James Pearce was a private in one of the platoons in his father's company, Company I. Company I was attached to the 4th Battalion under Major John D. Lee. Harrison Pearce, his father, and others from Washington were recruited, probably on Sunday the 6th, to join an ad hoc detachment from the southern settlements of Washington and Fort Clara to muster to Mountain Meadows. James Pearce joined his father in the detachment that also included William Young, William Slade, John W. Clark and others. See A Basic Account for a full description of the massacre.
While en route to Mountain Meadows on Monday, September 7, they discussed the rumors that the emigrants had "killed Joe Smith" and would bring soldiers from California to drive the Mormons and take their means. On the eve of the massacre, Pearce overheard the quarreling among the leaders, some favored killing and others opposed. He observed that the Indians appeared angry because of their killed and wounded.
On the day of the massacre, Pearce remained in the militia encampment due to illness, from where he heard the volley of guns during the massacre. There is folklore that Harrison Pearce became angry at his son, evidently for lacking fighting spirit, and fired at him, grazing his face. This cannot be corroborated.
Pearce is not mentioned in Judge John Cradlebaugh's 1859 arrest warrant.
Later Life
Around 1859, James Pearce and others moved downstream on the Virgin River to its confluence with the Santa Clara Creek where they founded Tonaquint and Pearce acted as president of the branch there. When St. George was founded In 1861, Tonaquint became part of St. George. However, they were forced to abandon Tonaquint in early 1862 when unusually heavy flooding during the "Forty Days" rain of that year caused severe damage.
Meanwhile, Pearce had joined several of the winter expeditions of Jacob Hamblin in Hamblin's continuing explorations of the Hopi and Navajo in northeastern Arizona. These were the first Mormon explorations in Arizona. Pearce accompanied Hamblin's expedition in late 1859 in the second crossing of the Colorado River to the Hopi mesas. He was also on the 1860 expedition in which George Smith, son of Mormon leader George A. Smith, was killed by Navajos. And Pearce was with Hamblin on the historic 1862 expedition in which they circumambulating the Grand Canyon on their way to and from the Hopi mesas (see map below). On this journey they made a new crossing of the Colorado River at Grand Wash south of St. George and returned via their previous route, floating the Colorado at Crossing of the Fathers (later Lee's Ferry). Years later, Pearce would return to Grand Wash on the Colorado to build a ferry boat.
The Pearces lived in the St. George area from the early 1860s to the late-1870s. During this time, Pearce and several others acted as road contractors to improve the stretch of road from Washington to the California Road west of St. George. A "James H. Pearce" is credited with bringing 300 Shevwit Indians from the Arizona Strip to St. George where David H. Cannon performed the rite of baptism. This episode is variously dated to 1862 or the mid-1870s.
During the Black Hawk War of the mid-1860s, James Pearce and his older brother, John David Lafayette (J. D. L.), and father Harrison Pearce were among those involved in policing and punitive actions against marauding Indians. In fact, J. D. L. Pearce was a colonel in the militia and gained a reputation as a notable Indian fighter during the Black Hawk War. The war extended from 1865 to 1868 in most parts of Utah, but Navajo depredations in southern Utah continued until a separate peace treaty was reached in 1870.
In 1867, twenty-eight-year-old Pearce married fifteen-year-old Mary Jane Meeks (1851-19?). She was born in Pottawattomie County, Iowa, as her parents immigrated to Utah. Several preceding generations of her forebears lived in Appalachia. Over the course of their marriage, she bore Pearce eleven children, all of whom lived to adulthood.
In 1874, Pearce was among the Indian interpreters colonizing a new outpost at Moencopi, Arizona, south of the Colorado River. However, the threat of a Navajo uprising caused them to abandon temporarily the outpost and return to safety north of the river. In the mid-1870s as Mormons sought to establish a wagon road into Arizona, there was renewed interest in the Grand Wash crossing south of St. George. In 1876-77, James Pearce assisted his father Harrison Pearce in building and operating a ferry boat at the Grand Wash. This is still known as Pearce's (or Pierce's) Ferry.
Witness in the First Trial of John D. Lee in 1875
In the previous year of 1875 during the first trial of John D. Lee, Pearce was among several dozen witnesses who testified. Pearce described being a lad of eighteen who joined a detachment bound for Mountain Meadows. Contrary to the assertion that militia witnesses never identified other militiamen, Pearce identified William Young, John W. Clark, and William Slade. He recounted how they discussed the rumors that had originated in Cedar City that the Arkansas emigrants had "killed Joe Smith" and would bring soldiers from California who would drive the Mormons from their homes.
Pearce was not in the Thursday evening council meeting at the Meadows but he heard the bickering among the militia leaders as they sought consensus on a plan of action. He also described being ill on the morning of September 11, 1857, of remaining in camp where he heard the barrage of gunfire as the killing began. Like several others who testified in the Lee trials, James Pearce's trial testimony contains his only extant statements about the massacre.
Pioneering on the Little Colorado River in Arizona
In the late 1870s, as Mormon colonization expanded on the Little Colorado River in Arizona, Pearce was among the pioneers in the new region. They moved successively upstream on the Little Colorado from Sunset to Woodruff, and thence to the Showlow River. In getting established in Arizona, Pearce was offered land at a favorable price. Instead, following backcountry custom, he located some miles away and established a squatter's claim to his land.
By January, 1878, Pearce had arrived on Silver Creek, a tributary of the Little Colorado River at the southern extreme of Navajo County. He became the first Mormon settler on Silver Creek. He and another pioneer in the area obtained land which later became the settlement of Taylor. Later, the Mormons established a string of settlements up this tributary of the Little Colorado. Beginning with Snowflake and moving upstream, they established Taylor, Shumway and finally Showlow, as well as smaller settlements along the way.
In the late 1880s, Pearce and other Mormon settlers came into conflict with the Aztec Land and Cattle Company, which claimed a monopoly on thousands of acres of eastern Arizona grazing lands. Pearce was forced at gun point to abandon one of his claims. When John Payne, a notorious outlaw, threatened fellow-Mormon Neils Petersen, Pearce and Petersen approached local Mormon leader, Jessie N. Smith, to inquire "if it would be right to kill him." Smith, however, urged restraint.
Eventually, things shifted more in the Mormons' favor when the local land agent resisted the tactics of the Aztec company while Payne and several of his associates died in a skirmish during the Pleasant Valley War. But Pearce and other Mormons would remain embroiled in securing legal recognition of their land claims in Arizona for decades to come.
The Pearces resided at different times in the new settlements of Taylor, Shumway and Snowflake. While pioneering in Arizona, Pearce was a cattleman, sheepman, farmer, storekeeper and hotelier.
Pearce remained in Navajo County, Arizona, for the remainder of his life. In 1922, Pearce died at the age of eight-two and was buried in Taylor. There were only a handful of the Iron County militiamen at Mountain Meadows who outlived James Pearce.
References
Alder and Brooks, A History of Washington County, 25-27, 28-29, 41-49, 50 fn 11; Bagley, Blood of the Prophets, 120, 128, 205, 292, 326; Bradshaw, ed., Under Dixie Sun, 235 (Harrison Pearce); Compton, A Frontier Life, 157, 161-62, 173-75, 208, 226 (photo of Pearce's Ferry), 435-36; Fielding, ed., The Tribune Reports of the Trial of John D. Lee, 125; Jenson, Encyclopedic History of the Church, 863 (Taylor Ward), 878 (Tonaquint); Larson, I Was Called to Dixie, 24, 516; Larson, The Red Hills of November, 125; Lee, Mormonism Unveiled, 228, 380; Lee Trial transcripts; McClintock, Mormon Settlement in Arizona, 84 (photo), 289; New.Familysearch.org; Peterson, Take Up Your Mission, 170-71; Smith, ed., Journal of Jesse N. Smith, 286, 406; Solomon, Joseph Knight, 100; Turley and Walker, Mountain Meadows Massacre: Jenson and Morris Collections, 236; Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, 109, 127, 154, 173, 191, 193, 198, Appendix C, 261.
For full bibliographic information see Bibliography.
External Links
For further information on James Pearce, see:
- http://mountainmeadowsmassacre.org/appendices/appendix-c-the-militiamen
- http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&db=suppionbind&h=443&new=1
Further information and confirmation needed. Please comment or contact editor@1857ironcountymilitia.com.
