William H. Dame
William Horne Dame, his personal and family background, and his involvement in the Mountain Meadows Massacre
William Horne Dame (1819-1884)
Biographical Sketch
William Horne Dame was born July 15, 1819 in Farmington, New Hampshire to William and Jemima Dame. While in his early twenties he became acquainted with the Mormon message in 1841 and joined the Mormon church in 1842. He moved to Hancock County in western Illinois and eventually married Lovina Andrews. Dame worked on construction of the the Mormon temple in Nauvoo, continuing in that occupation until 1846 when Mormons were forced by armed conflict with the original settlers in western Illinois to withdraw and move west. Dame and his family joined the departing Mormons in their westering saga. In fall 1848, Dame arrived in valley of the Great Salt Lake.
In late 1850, Dame joined an exploratory party lead by Mormon leader George A. Smith that traveled southward to reconnoiter potential settlements in the southern territory. Arriving in southern Utah in January 1851, Dame helped plan Fort Louisa (later Parowan) in Iron County and became its first mayor and a member of the first high council of the Iron stake.
In 1852, Dame settled near Red Creek (modern Paragonah) in Iron County. He also helped in surveying and laying out the new settlement at Cedar City in the same county. Cedar City was to become the headquarters of the newly-formed Iron Mission. In 1853-54, Indian unrest arising from the so-called Walker War forced Dame and other settlers to abandon Red Creek and return to Parowan. In 1855, he and his family returned to Red Creek (Fort Paragoonah) where stronger fortifications were built under his supervision. Early the next year, Dame returned to Parowan and became the second president of the Parowan stake, a position which he held until 1880. Contemporaneously, Dame was a colonel in the militia and commander of the Tenth Regiment, or Iron Military District (the official designations of the Iron County militia). He was also a member of Utah’s territorial legislative assembly for three successive terms, 1854-56.
In summer 1857, the Tenth Regiment was reorganized to improve its military readiness. Rumors of an army invasion into southern Utah spurred military preparations in southern Utah. Colonel William H. Dame, 38, was the commanding officer of the Iron Military District, some of which militia units were responsible for the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
Preparations for Feared Invasion
In summer 1857, the Tenth Regiment was reorganized to improve its military readiness. In early August, reports from Salt Lake City brought news of that United States Army troops were approaching Utah Territory. Rumors also circulated that an army detachment was maneuvering to "invade" southern Utah. Dame oversaw military preparations in southern Utah, including harvesting and stockpiling foodstuffs, guarding inlets, surveying arms, obtaining munitions and drilling local militias. Dame also ordered scouting parties into the eastern mountains to encounter the army detachment thought to be approaching.
Col. Dame and Unfolding Events at Mountain Meadows
On Wednesday evening, September 9, 1857, following the first attack on the Arkansas emigrant train at Mountain Meadows, Dame held a council in Parowan attended by Major Isaac C. Haight, his adjutant Elias Morris, and other militia officials. This meeting was characterized by considerable vacillation on Dame’s part in responding to the emergency at Mountain Meadows. In the wee hours of the following morning in the so-called "Tan Bark Council," and evidently at the urging of Major Isaac C. Haight, Dame approved an order authorizing further attacks on the train if such was deemed necessary to maintain peaceful relations with local Indians.
On Friday, September 11, Dame and several subordinates including Major Haight rode toward Mountain Meadows and arriving the next morning after the final massacre had occurred. John D. Lee reported that Dame appeared frantic at the sight of the dead, especially so many women and children. He was heard to exclaim, "I didn't know there were so many of them!" Lee observed Col. Dame and Major Haight quarreling among themselves over the disastrous result of their orders.
Upon Dame’s return to Parowan, he encountered his adjutant, James H. Martineau, whom Dame had sent on a 300-mile scouting expedition through the eastern mountains. Martineau informed him that the scouts had not encountered any signs of troop movements and that the rumor of an army "invasion" was false. The report that the U.S. Army was invading southern Utah over the Fremont Trail was only a wild rumor fed by war hysteria, just as was the report that the California-bound immigrants were in league with this phantom army detachment.
The 1858 Search for New Places of Refuge
In early 1858, while the U.S. Army was still in winter quarters near Fort Bridger in modern Wyoming, Colonel Dame organized exploration of the western desert to reconnoiter new safe havens for Mormons in the event of an army invasion of northern Utah. The end result was that there were no satisfactory new sanctuaries where Mormons could retreat.
The 1858 Church Council Considering Dame and Haight
Later in 1858, after the peace accord between the Buchanan administration and Mormon officials, George A. Smith and several other church leaders held a council in southern Utah to investigate charges against Dame in his ecclesiastical role. Isaac C. Haight and several other witnesses to events at Mountain Meadows were in attendance and the council surely considered aspects of the chain of command regarding the massacre. The details of the council are not fully known but the outcome of the council was favorable to Dame. Following several days of testimony and deliberations, Dame retained his position in Parowan but Isaac C. Haight was removed from his church positions in nearby Cedar City. According to the council minutes, those attending and who found that the complaints were "without foundation" were the Mormon "general authorities," George A. Smith and Amasa Lyman, and the local community, church and militia leaders and members, James H. Martineau, Calvin C. Pendleton, H. M. Alexander, John Steele, Nephi Johnson, F. T. Whitney, Silas S. Smith, S. West, E. Elmer, William Barton, O. B. Adams, J. Lewis, C. Hall, J. T. Hall, Isaac C. Haight, S.O. White, M. Ensign, John M. Higbee, Tarlton Lewis, Piddy Meeks and Joseph H. Smith.
Mission to England
In 1860, Dame was called to serve a mission to England. He remained in England until 1862 until ill health forced him to return to southern Utah. There Dame resumed his former positions and activities.
Utah's Black Hawk War, 1865-1870
During Utah's Black Hawk War of the mid-1860s, there were various military operations in southern Utah against hostile Indians. The Iron Military District was reorganized to include the newly redrawn counties of Beaver, Iron, Washington and Kane. However, brigade headquarters were transferred from Parowan to St. George and church leader Erastus Snow became its commanding officer with Dame in a subordinate role to Snow. The 1866 Circleville Massacre during the Black Hawk War appears to have resulted when an officer subordinate to Colonel Dame contravened his orders.
Dame's Involvement in the United Order
Beginning in 1866, Dame acted as a kind of business agent for the church until his death in 1884. When the Mormons implemented an experimental economic cooperative movement known as the United Order in the 1870s, Dame operated what was reportedly the first cooperative store in Utah.
Indicted for Murder on Charges Stemming from Mountain Meadows
In 1874, a grand jury sitting in the federal district court in Beaver, Utah, returned an criminal indictment for murder against Dame and eight other current or former Iron County militiamen for their complicity in Mountain Meadows Massacre. Dame was arrested in November 1874 and incarcerated until May 1876 when he was released on bail. Meanwhile, majors Isaac C. Haight and John M. Higbee and several others went into hiding. In September 1876, U. S. Attorney Sumner Howard reached an agreement not to prosecute Dame further. Howard proceeded to trial against John D. Lee in the second Lee trial which resulted in Lee’s conviction and subsequent execution by firing squad.
Final Years
Dame continued as stake president in Parowan until 1880. According to the 1880 census, he was employed as the manager of a cooperative store. Since the 1850s, Dame had several polygamous wives but he left no surviving children. He died of a stroke on August 16, 1884 at the age of sixty-five.
References
Papers of William H. Dame; Camp, A Memory Bank for Paragonah 1851-1990, 8, 20, 39, 41, 27, 80, 145, 171, 343, 419, 429; Dalton, History of Iron County Mission -- Parawan, Utah, 16-17, 32, 39-40, 80, 94-95, 104, 114, 170-71, 174, 201-203; Fielding, ed., The Tribune Reports of the Trials of John D. Lee; Lee, Mormonism Unveiled; Lee Trial transcripts; New.FamilySearch.org; Seegmiller, A History of Iron County: Community Above Self, 46, 49, 51, 53, 57, 58, 61, 67, 78, 80, 83, 267, 269, 270, 271, 281-82; Shirts and Shirts, A Trial Furnace: Southern Utah's Iron Mission, 381, 385-87, 390-92, 395, 405, 491; Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Appendix C.
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