Harrison Pearce

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

Harrison Pearce

1818-1889

Biographical Sketch

Early Life in the American South

A native of rural Georgia, Harrison Pearce moved in succession to Alabama, Mississippi, the Iowa territory and then to frontier Utah. Like all the others, Pearce was an American frontiersman and pioneer in southern Utah.

Harrison Pearce was born in Jackson, Butts County in central Georgia. His earliest American forebears were from Virginia and South Carolina. In the early 1820s, his family moved to Perry County in west-central Alabama. In 1836, at the age of 17, Pearce married 19-year-old Henrietta Cromeans (1815-1864) from Scott County, Tennessee. They settled in the Itawanda County in northeast Mississippi.

In the 1840s, they joined the Mormons and late in the decade they moved westward to Iowa Territory.

Immigration to Utah

In the early 1850s, they immigrated to Utah Territory. Some of the family went to Spanish Fork. Other continued on to southern Utah to join fellow Southerners intent on growing cotton in Utah's "Dixie." Pearce was an original founder of Washington, Washington County in spring 1857. The previous year, Pearce married a second wife, Ann Meredith Mathews (1818-1889) of Glamorgan, Wales. She bore him three children but this marriage ended in divorce. Ann later married Samuel Pollock, the Irish emigrant who was also at the massacre and later testified in the first trial of John D. Lee in 1875.

In the Iron Military District, Captain Harrison Pearce, Company I, John D. Lee's 4th Battalion

In 1857, Pearce, 38, was captain of Company I, one of two companies in John D. Lee’s 4th Battalion. In September 1857, Pearce was among those of Washington recruited, probably on Sunday the 6th, to join an ad hoc detachment and muster to Mountain Meadows. On Monday, the 7th, Lee met Pearce and others from the southern settlements of Washington and Fort Clara some miles south of the Meadows. On Tuesday, the 8th, they encamped and awaited further orders. William Young implied that Pearce was among those at the massacre on Friday, the 11th.

Militiaman John Hawley recalled Pearce making inflammatory speeches against non-Mormons sometime after the massacre. In the 1859 arrest warrant issued by Judge John Cradlebaugh, Pearce was listed as Harrison "Pierce." He is not known to have made any written statements about the massacre. However, his son James was also present at the massacre. James Pearce testified in John D. Lee's first trial in 1875.

Later LIfe

Pearce remained in Washington County and was listed as a county commissioner in 1859. He was also elected sheriff in the same year. In 1861, he moved from Washington to the new community of St. George. In 1863, he married Swiss emigrant Magdalena Schneider (1838-1896). His first wife died the next year and Magdalena because stepmother to his children. Also, she bore him five additional children. In the mid-1860, Pearce moved briefly to Beaver Dams, Arizona and then returned to St. George. During the Black Hawk War of the late 1860s, Harrison and his son James were among those involved in policing and punitive actions against marauding Indians.

In 1870, Pearce and others began farming operations south of St. George. Besides working as farmer and peace officer, Pearce also worked as a mechanic and was a choir leader and member of the local brass band. Pearce remained in St. George where he died and was buried in 1889 at the age of 71. He was survived by five children.

References

Alder and Brooks, The History of Washington County, 29, 50 fn 11, App. A, 383; Bagley and Bigler, eds., Innocent Blood: Essential Narratives, 110; Bradshaw, Under Dixie Sun, 40, 235, 326; FamilySearch.org; Hafen, Devoted Empire Builders: Pioneers of St. George, 101, 102; Lee, Mormonism Unveiled, ; Lee Trial transcripts; Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Appendix C.

External Links

For additional information on Harrison Pearce see: http://www.familyperkins.com/genealogy/harrisonpearce.htm

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