Philip Klingensmith
Philip Klingensmith, his personal and family background, and his involvement in and statements about the Mountain Meadows Massacre
Philip Klingensmith
1815-1881 (or later ?)
Biographical Sketch
Early Days: Westward from Pennsylvania
On his father's side, Philip Klingensmith descended from German emigrants who settled in central Pennsylvania. But his grandfather moved to western Pennsylvania and established Fort Klingensmith. His parents settled in backcountry Westmoreland County, west of the Allegheny Mountains in southwestern Pennsylvania. When a young man, Klingensmith moved to Ohio, then Indiana.
In 1841 he married Hannah Henry Creemer in Tippecanoe County, Indiana and he also joined the Mormon Church. They briefly lived in Indiana, then again moved westward to the main center of the church, Nauvoo, Illinois.
Migration to Utah
They departed Illinois in 1846, suffering losses in common with others, and arrived in Utah in 1849.
To Cedar City and the Ironworks
In 1851, they moved to southern Utah where Klingensmith became one of the first settlers in Iron County. From 1852 to 1859, Klingensmith was the bishop of Cedar City. By the mid-1850s, he had embraced polygamy and had three wives. Eventually his wives, Hannah, Margaretha and Betsy, bore him fifteen, four and five children, respectively.
Klingensmith was a blacksmith who lent his skills to the newly-formed Iron Mission. Although most of those involved in the ironworks hailed from the British Isles, Klingensmith was among a handful of Americans who contributed to it. Here is a brief summary of the development of the Deseret Iron Company, known more familiarly as the Ironworks. After iron ore and coal deposits were discovered in the region, Cedar City was founded. In the first years of 1851-52, they investigated whether the region had the necessary raw materials – iron ore, limestone, wood, coal, and waterpower – to support smelting on a large scale. After confirming the presence of the necessary materials and relying heavily on the British Isles immigrants who had worked in iron-related industries in Great Britain, they set to building an iron manufacturing plant. They sited the ironworks at the mouth of Coal Creek near the present location of Cedar City. They mined the coal up canyon and transported it by team and wagon to the furnace located on the stream bank below the mouth of the canyon. The iron ore was transported from nearby Iron Springs by wagon. In 1852, after a small test furnace produced a low quality pig iron, they set about building a full-scale blast furnace.
Progress was impeded, however, in 1853-54 during the Walker War. They shifted their energies from iron making to “forting up” to increase their safety. After a peace treaty was reached with the Ute chief Wakara in 1854, they returned to improving the ironworks. By 1855, they had achieved their greatest success with a sustained run of the furnace producing several tons of pig iron. But most of the runs both before and after failed to achieve a sustained run producing good quality iron. One problem was the fickle nature of Coal Creek, which continued to alternate between flooding and droughts. They determined to develop a more dependable source of power.
In April 1857, the delivery of a new steam engine from Great Salt Lake City seemed to provide the answer. After its arrival, they built a new room to house the engine, connected its boiler to a steady water supply and modified the furnace to accommodate the engine.
In early June they started an iron run using the steam engine. However, the new machinery created its own set of problems. Through the end of July, they experimented with different configurations of furnace, engine and piping, attempting to optimize the blast furnace.
From late April through July, those working up the canyon in mining or hauling wood, coal, limestone, rock, sand or “adobies” to the ironworks were Isaac C. Haight, James Williamson, George Hunter, Joseph H. Smith, Ira Allen, Ellott Wilden, Swen Jacobs, Alex Loveridge, Joel White, Ezra Curtis, Samuel McMurdie, Samuel Pollock, John Jacobs, John M. Higbee, John M. Macfarlane, Samuel Jewkes, Nephi Johnson, Thomas Cartwright, William Bateman, Elias Morris, Benjamin Arthur, Joseph H. Smith, Robert Wiley, and Philip Klingensmith. Those working at the ironworks on the furnace, engine, coke ovens or blacksmith shop included Elias Morris, John Humphries, Ira Allen, John Urie, Benjamin Arthur, James Williamson, Joseph H. Smith, Samuel Jewkes, Joseph Clews, Richard Harrison, William C. Stewart, William Bateman, John M Macfarlane, John M. Higbee, John Jacobs, George Hunter, Samuel Pollock, William S. Riggs, Alex Loveridge, Ellott Wilden, Ezra Curtis, Eliezar Edwards, Swen Jacobs, Joel White, and Thomas Cartwright. (The two lists overlap because some worked both in the canyon and at the Ironworks.) Other prominent figures at the ironworks who were not later involved at Mountain Meadows were Samuel Leigh, George Horton, James H. Haslem, Laban Morrell, John Chatterley, Thomas Gower, Thomas Crowther and others.
By the time reports reached them in early August of a threatened “invasion” of U.S. troops into Utah, they had decided on further changes to the ironworks. They determined that a reservoir was necessary so as to provide a steady supply of filtered water to the steam engine. Immediately, they set to work, digging, lining and filling the reservoir. From late August to early September, shortly before the crisis involving the passing Arkansas emigrant company, they began a new furnace run. But it, too, ended in failure, probably around the time that a dispute arose between some community members and several of those in the passing Arkansas wagon train.
During this period of 1857, Philip Klingensmith’s specific role was as a teamster. In April, Klingensmith logged 383 hours in hauling "sundries" associated with the new steam engine from Great Salt Lake City to Cedar City. The only other time Klingensmith worked for the ironworks was in the intense period near the end of August when they worked to sustain the iron run. Klingensmith hauled three-quarters of a ton of coal to the ironworks. It is surprising that Klingensmith did no blacksmithing for the ironworks in 1857. However, it may not have been necessary because they already had men like John Urie who were competent blacksmiths. While they were fabricating implements for the boiler, steam engine, and blast furnace in 1857, perhaps Urie had a more specialized set of ironmaking skills than Klingensmith. At any rate, Klingensmith did very little work for the ironworks that year.
In the Iron Military District: Private (also Bishop) Philip Klingensmith, Company D, Isaac Haight's 2nd Battalion, Cedar City
In 1857, Klingensmith, 42, was the bishop of Cedar City and a private in one of the Cedar platoons in Captain Joel White's Company D. White's company was attached to Major Isaac C. Haight's 2nd Battalion. See A Basic Account for a full description of the massacre.
In September, while the Fancher-Baker party traveled from Cedar City toward Mountain Meadows, Klingensmith and White carried a message to Pinto concerning the emigrant party, passing John D. Lee en route. In the days of September 7-11, during which the train was besieged, Klingensmith was among those who mustered to the Mountain Meadows.
On Thursday evening, September 10, Klingensmith attended the war council meeting and was one of the prominent participants.
On the day of the massacre, Klingensmith was among the militia guard who accompanied the emigrant men from their wagon circle. When the signal was given, Klingensmith wheeled on the man beside him, then shot and killed him. He later played some role with the surviving children.
In Judge John Cradlebaugh's 1859 arrest warranty, neither Klingensmith nor his counselor Samuel McMurdie was named, a curious anomaly. This has led to conjecture that one of them may have been among the secret informants to Judge John Cradlebaugh in 1859. But whomever the militia informants may have been, Judge Cradlebaugh's inquiry led to the issuance of an arrest warrant for 38 militiamen, most of whom were from the area around Cedar City.
Klingensmith's Peripetic Life
From 1851 to the early 1860s, Klingensmith and his families would live in Parowan, Cedar City, Beaver, Toquerville, the upper Virgin River, and elsewhere.
Leaving Utah
In the early 1860s, Klingensmith moved to Nevada on the Muddy River and, except for a brief return to Parowan later that decade, he resided outside Utah Territory for the remainder of his life. Around 1870, he lived in Lincoln County, Nevada, where he pursued ranching and mining in several locales.
Klingensmith's 1871 Affidavit Regarding the Massacre
In 1871, Philip Klingensmith was interviewed by Charles Wandell about the massacre and cooperated in preparing a formal affidavit. His was the first statement for attribution of any of the massacre participants. Wandell, under the nom de plume of "Argus," immediately published details of the massacre in the Gentile-owned newspaper, the Corinne Reporter without disclosing Klingensmith's identity. But the following year, Klingensmith's affidavit was published in Utah where it created a sensation. It did much to fan interest in the massacre and spur efforts to prosecute its perpetrators. It is easily accessible today in Juanita Brooks's classic history, The Mountain Meadows Massacre, in Appendix IV, 238-242.
Indicted for Complicity in the Massacre
In 1874. the grand jury seated by Judge Jacob Boreman of the federal court in Beaver, Utah, returned an indictment against Klingensmith and eight other Iron County militiamen. Besides Klingensmith and Lee, the others indicted were important principals or active participants such as William Dame, Isaac Haight, John Higbee, and William Stewart, as well as, for obscure reasons, three privates, George W. Adair, Ezra Curtis, and Ellott Willden.
Turning State's Evidence and Testifying in John D. Lee's First Trial
In 1875, the prosecution proceeded to trial on the murder charges against John D. Lee. Klingensmith was brought to the courthouse in Beaver under subpoena. There he and the U.S. Attorney's office negotiated a plea bargain under which the murder charges against him were dropped in exchange for his cooperation.
Thereafter, Klingensmith became the state's star witness in the 1875 trial. Newspapers throughout the United States carried his sensational testimony. Publication of his riveting first-hand account did much to fan interest in the trial of John D. Lee.
Following the hung jury in the first trial, the U. S. Attorney retried Lee in 1876. Again, Klingensmith was called to Beaver for the trial. But for tactical reasons, the new U. S. attorney did not call him to testify.
Final Years
Following the 1876 Lee trial, Klingensmith's wandering life continued. Reportedly, he moved to Arizona and then to Sonora, Mexico. The sources disagree as to when and how Klingensmith died, some holding that he died violently in 1881; others, that he died of natural causes some time later.
References
Antrei, The Other 49ers: A Topical History of Sanpete County, 491; Backus, Mountain Weadows Witness: The Life and Times of Bishop Philip Klingensmith; Bigler and Bagley, Innocent Blood: Essential Narratives, 295-98; Brooks, The Mountain Meadows Massacre, Appendix IV, 238-242; FamilySearch.org; Fielding, ed., The Tribune Reports of the Trials of John D. Lee, ; Lee, Mormonism Unveiled, 217, 226, 232, 233, 243, 244, 245, 247, 248, 250, 256, 272, 273, 282-283, 293, 380; Lee Trial transcripts; Shirts and Shirts, A Trial Furnace, 124, 156, 210, 215-17, 223-25, 236, 239-40, 246, 261, 272, 285, 290-93, 326-28, 331, 344, 346-47, 375, 379, 390-91, 394-95, 397, 464, 486-88, 494; Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Appendix C.
For full bibliographic information see Bibliography.
External Links
For further information on Philip Klingensmith, see:
- Philip Klingensmith's 1871 affidavit: http://www.mtn-meadows-assoc.com/klingensmithaffidavit.htm
- Deseret Iron Company Account Book, 1854-1867: http://www.footnote.com/document/241905844/
- http://mountainmeadowsmassacre.org/appendices/appendix-c-the-militiamen
Further information and confirmation needed. Please comment or contact editor@1857ironcountymilitia.com.
