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 Utah and Arizona.

Freeman was born in 1838 in Jackson, Breathitt County, Kentucky, the son of John W. 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. In 1846, they joined the forced expulsion of the Mormons from western Illinois and crossed into Iowa Territory. They sojourned in Iowa for several years until they could gather the means to immigrate to Utah.

<img src="/images/thumb/5/50/Mormon_Trail.jpg/700px-Mormon_Trail.jpg" _fck_mw_filename="Mormon Trail.jpg" _fck_mw_location="center" _fck_mw_width="700" _fck_mw_type="thumb" alt="" class="fck_mw_frame fck_mw_center" />

By spring 1851, the Freemans had acquired an outfit and necessary provisions to journey to Utah. They joined the John C. Smith Company. The Freeman family consisted of John Freeman, 46, Nancy Beal Smoot Freeman, 44, Martisha, 17, John, 15, Columbus, 13, Margaret Phoebe, 10, Jemima Marinda, 8, and Martha Jane, 3. Initially, they were part of the John G. Smith company and they traveled with them as far as the Platte River. There eight to ten wagons, including the Freemans', broke off from the main company and traveled ahead of it. This became known as the David Lewis Company and reached the Salt Lake Valley in advance of all the 1851 organized companies.

<img src="/images/f/fc/Cotton_Mill_02.jpg" _fck_mw_filename="Cotton Mill 02.jpg" _fck_mw_location="right" _fck_mw_width="400" _fck_mw_type="thumb" alt="" class="fck_mw_frame fck_mw_right" />

To the Cotton Mission in Southern Utah

John Freeman, Columbus's father, and several of his brothers were among the earliest settlers in Washington County. Evidently, John Freeman and family were 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. Washington appeared to have many advantages over other nearby locales. It was located near several fine springs and the Washington fields seemed to provide a lush expanse of farmland. However, appearances proved to be deceiving and soon "Dixie" was considered one of the most difficult areas to colonize. The broad fields were actually floodplains so if their dams washed out, which they did with discouraging frequency, their crops were jeopardizes. Meanwhile the springs, so inviting in an arid, hot country, created marshes, a perfect breeding place for mosquitos. Many of them suffered from bouts of malaria (the "fever and ague" or "chills") for many years.

In the Iron Military District: Private Columbus Freeman

<img src="/images/8/87/Map_southern_utah_1.jpg" _fck_mw_filename="Map southern utah 1.jpg" _fck_mw_location="left" _fck_mw_width="300" alt="Map southern utah 1.jpg" class="fck_mw_left" />

In 1857, the Iron Military District consisted of four battalions led by regimental commander <a href="William H. Dame">Col. William H. Dame.</a> The platoons and companies in the first battalion drew on men in and around Parowan. (It had no involvement at Mountain Meadows.) <a href="Isaac C. Haight">Major Isaac Haight</a> 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. <a href="John M. Higbee">Major John Higbee</a> 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. <a href="John D. Lee">Major John D. Lee</a> 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 earlier muster roll, he was a private in a platoon in Company C of Parowan. See <a _fcknotitle="true" href="A Basic Account">A Basic Account</a> for a full description of the massacre.

No one else from Parowan is known to have be involved in the massacre so why was Columbus Freeman identified? Furthermore, why were his father and two older brothers enlisted in Company I in Washington, while Columbus was enlisted in Company C in Parowan? 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, his father and his brother would have been enlisted in Company I in Washington, led by Captain <a href="Harrison Pearce">Harrison Pearce</a>. When the order arrived in Washington for a detachment to muster to Mountain Meadows, Columbus Freeman was among those recruited. He was among a small group of young men under twenty ordered to muster to the 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 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.

<img src="/images/thumb/9/9a/Mormon_Settlements_in_Arizona.jpg/375px-Mormon_Settlements_in_Arizona.jpg" _fck_mw_filename="Mormon Settlements in Arizona.jpg" _fck_mw_location="right" _fck_mw_width="375" alt="Mormon Settlements in Arizona.jpg" class="fck_mw_right" />

Move to Southeast Arizona

Sometime in the early 1880s, Freeman and his family joined the Mormon colonizers of southeastern 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; Bradshaw, ed., Under Dixie Sun, 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 <a _fcknotitle="true" href="Bibliography">Bibliography</a>.

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
• For information from the Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel website on the David Lewis Company, see: http://history.lds.org/overlandtravels/companyDetail?lang=eng&companyId=185

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