Eleazer Edwards

Eleazer Edwards, his personal and family background, and his involvement in the Mountain Meadows Massacre

Eleazer/Eliezar Edwards 18 ?  -18 ?

Biographical Sketch

Early Life in Wales & Immigration to America

Eleazer Edwards was a native of Wales who immigrated to the United States and pioneered in southern Utah.

By the 1850s, Edwards was living in Cedar City along with Scots, Irish, Welsh and English iron and coal workers who labored to establish an iron smelting capability in southern Utah.

In the Iron Military District: Captain Eleazer Edwards, Company G, John M. Higbee's 3rd Battalion

In the 1857 Iron County militia muster rolls, Edwards was listed as a captain of Company G in John M. Higbee's 3rd Battalion. He was among those from Cedar City who mustered under orders to Mountain Meadows. According to John D. Lee, either Edwards or Adair carried an express from the Meadows to Cedar City in the afternoon of Wednesday, September 9, about halfway through the four and one-half day siege of the Arkansas emigrant train. Little else is known of his role in the siege or whether he was present at the massacre.

Edwards was not named in the 1859 arrest warrant or referred to during the Lee trials of 1875-76. But he was identified by John D. Lee in Mormonism Unveiled. Lee's attorney, William Bishop, followed Lee's lead and listed Eleazer Edwards in his list of "assassins." In Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Walker, Turley and Leonard do not list Edwards as a participant in the Appendix C, their list of the involved militiamen.

Later Life

Edwards was involved in manufacturing gunpowder and by 1859 had produced one hundred pounds of quality powder. However, sources on this militiaman are scarce.

References

Bigler and Bagley, Innocent Blood: Essential Narratives, 70 fn 14, 343; Gibbons, "Frontier Arms of the Mormons," Utah Historical Quarterly, 42/1 (Winter 1974), 24; Lee, Mormonism Unveiled, ; Lee Trial transcripts; New.FamilySearch.org; Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Appendix C.

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