Joseph H. Smith
Joseph H. Smith, his personal and family background, and his involvement in the Mountain Meadows Massacre
Joseph Hodgetts Smith
1819-1890
Biographical Sketch
Early Years in the West Midlands of England
Joseph Hodgetts Smith was born in Dudley, Worchestershire, in the West Midlands region of England, the last of three sons born to John Smith (1785-1854) and Elizabeth Hodgetts (1769-1852). Little is known of his early life.
In 1843, Smith married Eleanor Marie Stanford (1809-1896), in Staffordshire, near his homeland in Worchestershire in the West Midlands. Together they had six children, three of whom survived to adulthood.
Immigration to Utah and onto Utah
After their conversion to Mormonism, they followed the familiar pattern of many Latter-day Saints in the British Isles: After gathering the means for emigration, they journeyed to American and crossed the plains to Utah Territory.
To Cedar City and the Ironworks
By the early 1850s, Smith was in Cedar City where the Deseret Iron Company was located. Smith lent his assistance to the efforts to create an efficient blast furnace that would convert iron ore to produce high grade iron.
In the Iron Military District: Private Joseph H. Smith, Company F, John Higbee's Battalion, Cedar City
By the time of the outbreak of the Utah War in September 1857, Smith, 38, was a private in Company F, First Platoon, lead by First Lieutenant William C. Stewart and Sergeant John Weston. Joseph Clews and several others were also privates in the same platoon. Company F was lead by Captain William Tait and it was attached to Major John M. Higbee's 3rd Battalion.
Concerning the massacre, it seems probable that Smith marched from Cedar City to Mountain Meadows in one of several detachments sent there during the week of September 7-11, under the operational command ofMajor John M. Higbee. Smith could have arrived as early as Tuesday the 8th or as late as Thursday the 10th.
At the war council on Thursday evening, September 10, many from the Cedar City detachment attended the council. However, John D. Lee did not list Smith among the participants.
On Friday, September 11, many members of the militia contingent from Cedar City acted as guards alongside the emigrant men as they left the wagon circle and marched, unknowingly, to the north toward their ill-fated destiny. As the massacre commenced, the duty of the guards was to wheel and fire on the emigrant men, quickly dispatching them. Yet during the actual massacre, reactions varied among the guards. Some shrank from their duty, others fired over the heads of their victims, while others still undertook their bloody duty with zeal. Within minutes, members of the Cedar City unit had killed all but three of the emigrant men. However, whether Joseph H. Smith was in this guard unit and if so, how he acted during the massacre will probably never be known with any certainty.
In spring 1859, Judge Cradlebaugh arrived to southern Utah to investigate the massacre at Mountain Meadows. Joseph H. Smith was among those listed in Judge Cradlebaugh's arrest warrant as were many other Cedar City militiamen who had been involved in the massacre. Smith was likewise listed among those complicit in the massacre in T.B.H. Stenhouse's Rocky Mountain Saints, published in 1873, which follows Judge Cradlebaugh's list. William Bishop listed "Joseph Smith of Cedar City" in his list of "assassins" appended to John D. Lee's Mormonism Unveiled, published posthumously in 1877. Lee, however, does not mention Smith in any of his statements.
Later Years: Smith Remained in Cedar City
Because of the perceived threat posed by the advancing U.S. Army expeditionary force bound for Utah, Mormon leader Brigham Young order Isaac Haight to close the iron works. About a month after the massacre, Smith was among those melted down the furnace.
In January 1858, iron operations were restarted on a limited scale and in the coming months they slowly refurbished the furnace and steam engine. In June, they made another test run of the blast furnace but the results were again disappointing. During this trial, Smith worked as a furnace keeper. They made some later trial runs in September and October 1858, but again without success. By then, Brigham Young had determined to shut down the iron works and all related operations. In his letter directing its discontinuance, Young noted that the project had been fraught with frustrations and was exhausting the "patient," "vital energies" and "power" of the community. (Shirts, Trial Furnace, 396.)
At the 1858 Proceeding Involving William H. Dame
Meanwhile, back in August 1858, William H. Dame was brought up on charges before a church tribunal in Parowan and Smith was among those who attended the council. Considering those known to be in attendance, including Isaac Haight and Nephi Johnson, it seems likely that the massacre was among the issues discussed during the three-day tribunal. In the end, Dame retained his church and militia positions, but the next year, Isaac C. Haight was released from his ecclesiastical, civic and militia positions and went into hiding to avoid being arrested by Judge John Cradlebaugh.
Late in 1858, Smith married Mary Dutton (1823-1867). There were no children from this union. After the death of Mary in 1867, the following year Smith married a Swiss emigrant, Barbara Elizabethe Lattmann Elliker (1841-1919), who had four children from a prior marriage. Together they had five additional children, all of whom survived to adulthood.
It appears that after Smith arrived in Cedar City in the 1850s, he and his family remained there for the next three decades. In 1875, the city paid Smith for some of his land to convert it to streets. In 1878, he served for a time as a member of the small city police force.
Final Years: Moving to New Mexico
Sometime in the 1880s, he and his wives and children moved to San Juan County, New Mexico. He died there in 1890 at the age of 70, survived by two of his wives and many children and grandchildren.
References
Deseret Iron Company Account Book (accessed at footnote.com/image/#241903584); Lee, Mormonism Unveiled, 380; Lee Trial transcripts; New.FamilySearch.org; Shirts and Shirts, A Trial Furnace, 391, 394, 496; Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Appendix C; York, ed., Mayors of Cedar City and the Histories of Cedar City, Utah, 42, 45-46.
For full bibliographic information see Bibliography.
External Links
For further information on Joseph H. Smith, see:
- http://mountainmeadowsmassacre.org/appendices/appendix-c-the-militiamen
- Deseret Iron Company Account Book, 1854-1867: http://www.footnote.com/document/241905844/
Further information and confirmation needed. Please contact editor@1857ironcountymilitia.com.
