John M. Higbee
John M. Higbee's background and his involvement in and statements about the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
Life
Name: John Mount Higbee
Lived: 1827-1904
Biographical Sketch
John Mount Higbee was born in Clermont County, Ohio. His father's forebears were seventeenth century English religious dissenters who settled in Rhode Island and New Jersey before their descendants moved to the frontier, first, to western Pennsylvania, then to the Ohio territory. His mother's forebears were German emigrants to the Pennsylvania Dutch settlements.
Around 1800, Higbee's parents moved to Clermont County, Ohio, where Revolutionary War veterans were receiving land grants. His grandparents and parents joined the Mormons and moved to Jackson County in western Missouri in the spring of 1833. That fall when Higbee was six years old, the original settlers of the county drove the Mormons from their homes. In cold and inclement weather, Higbee's grandparents, Isaac and Sophia Higbee, his parents, John S. and Sarah A. Higbee, and their families were compelled to move. John S. Higbee feared for his wife's life but she survived and they relocated to nearby Ray County. In 1836, however, they were forced to leave, moving north to Caldwell County.
Over the winter of 1838-39, they were driven permanently from Missouri to Illinois. There his grandparents, his father and his uncle Elias Higbee wrote statements documenting their dispossession and prepared claims for their losses against the state of Missouri. His grandfather Isaac Higbee died within months of the departure from Missouri. In Nauvoo, Illinois, Higbee's father was bishop of one of the wards.
In 1846, the Higbees were forced from their settlements in western Illinois. Higbee's grandmother Sophia Higbee died while they crossed Iowa territory. From Higbee's perspective, the Illinois dispossession made the fourth time that he and his family had been "driven."
In 1847, his father, John S. Higbee, 30, was recruited into the company of Mormon pioneers who led the western migration. John M. Higbee, his mother, younger sisters and brother arrived in the Salt Lake Valley later that fall as part of the "big company" that trailed behind the pioneer company. Within two years they moved south to Utah County and helped found a new settlement at Provo. Several years later, they moved to southern Utah.
In 1853, Higbee married Ohio native Mary Clark (1833-1918) who was to bear him eleven children. In 1860, he married English emigrant Eunice Blanden (1844-1908) who eventually bore him eight children. In the mid-1850s, Higbee was president of the Cedar Dramatic Association and a counselor to Isaac C. Haight in the Cedar City stake (diocese) presidency. In 1858, the Higbee family was among those who moved to the new settlement of Toquerville. In 1859, Higbee was among the accused in Judge John Cradlebaugh's arrest warrant. In 1866 during the Black Hawk War, Higbee lead various militia operations. In 1874 Higbee was president of the United Order (community cooperative) in Cedar City.
The same year he was among nine Iron County militiamen indicted for murder stemming from the 1857 massacre. As arrests were made, Higbee, Isaac Haight and William Stewart fled. The 1880 census lists his wives, Mary with seven children and Eunice with six, living next door to each other in Cedar City. Higbee was absent, reportedly in Arizona. But as funding and enthusiasm for prosecuting the massacre perpetrators waned in the 1880s, he eventually returned to Cedar City. In 1896, in the federal district court in Beaver, the long pending indictment against Higbee was dismissed.
According to the 1900 census, Higbee and wife Mary were living together with an adult son. In 1904, at the age of seventy-seven, Higbee died and was buried in Cedar City, survived by his two wives and eleven children.
Major John M. Higbee, 3rd Battalion, Cedar City
His Role in and Statements Relative to the Massacre
In June 1857, Higbee was captain of Company D in the Iron Military District, but during the militia reorganization that summer, Higbee was promoted to major of the 3rd Battalion, most of whose companies and platoons were from Cedar City.
After the first attack on the emigrant train on Monday, September 7, Higbee led a detachment of militiamen from Cedar City that arrived at Mountain Meadows on Tuesday, the 8th. During the week, Higbee carried expresses between the Meadows and Cedar City. On Thursday the 10th, he brought orders from Col. William Dame and Major Isaac Haight to the Meadows and attended the council meeting that evening.
During the final massacre on Friday the 11th, Higbee's role is controversial. According to some sources, Higbee was the one who gave the signal to commence the slaughter. Higbee and John D. Lee each accused the other of leading the final massacre.
Higbee was named in the 1859 arrest warrant. He was also a named defendant in the 1874 murder indictment stemming from the massacre. Higbee went into hiding for more than a decade. In the 1890s, the criminal case was still technically pending but federal officials had not actively pursued it for years.
In those years Higbee prepared two written accounts of the massacre, one in his own name, the other under the pseudonym of "Bull Valley Snort." They include many important particulars. However, like John D. Lee's statements an evident purpose of Higbee's statements was exculpation and blame-shifting and they must be read in that light.
In 1896, the federal district judge in Beaver dismissed the long pending criminal indictment against Higbee.
References
Brooks, The Mountain Meadows Massacre, Appendix II (statement of John M. Higbee); FamilySearch.org.; Lee, Mormonism Unveiled; Lee Trial transcripts; U.S. census records; Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Appendix C.
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