William Cameron Stewart (1827-1895) was born in Enganmore, Inverness-shire in the Northwest Scottish Highlands. In the 1840s or early 1850s, he converted to Mormonism. Like many European converts to Mormonism in the mid-19th century, Stewart saved his money to immigrate to America and joined the Mormons in Utah Territory.
Immigration to America and onto Utah
In the early 1850s (?), he sailed to the United States and immigrated to Utah.
To Cedar City and the Iron MIssion
The Early Ironworks in Cedar City
By the mid-1850s, Stewart had settled in Cedar City in southern Utah. In 1855 he married Mary Ann Clark Corlett (1838-1894) from Salford (Manchester), Lancashire, England.
The Deseret Iron Company
In moving to Cedar City, William Stewaft was settling in an area dominated by the Deseret Iron Company, known more familiarly as the Ironworks. See Summary of Deseret Iron Company for a brief summary of its early development.
The Ironworks in 1857 =
In April 1857, the delivery of a new steam engine from Great Salt Lake City seemed to provide the answer. Working from April to June they installed the steam engine and completed the new engine house. In the first week of July, they were ready to begin smelting. They “put on the blast” and had a modicum of success. But they continued to be plagued with problems ranging from poor quality raw materials to smelting equipment that lacked technical sophistication. When in late July the steam engine seized with sand from the dirty creek water, they speedily dug a reservoir to store a supply of clean water for the boiler. They continued making smelting runs through August. All the while crews at the ironworks manned all the necessary functions there, while other crews, mainly miners and teamsters, gathered the raw materials – iron ore, coal, limestone, and wood – necessary to sustain smelting.
The smelting continued until September 13. In other words, around September 3, when a dispute arose between some settlers and several men in the passing Arkansas company, the blast furnace was running nonstop. And when Cedar City militiamen, many of them ironworkers, mustered to Mountain Meadows where they were involved in the massacre on September 11, other ironworkers in Cedar City continued the smelting runs night and day. For additional details, see Smelting at the Ironworks in 1857.
During this period of 1857, Stewart performed a variety of tasks. In early July, while other were tinkering with the steam engine, Stewart spent five days working on the trough of the raceway carrying water from the creek to the boiler of the steam engine. The following week he spent nearly four days along with others fixing the cylinder of the steam engine. In late July, while other were still working on the configuration of the furnace's chimney stack to optimize its performance, Stewart worked for four and a half days as a carpenter. As they moved into August, he spent another two days as a carpenter. While the large crew of more than 40 built the reservoir to store water for the steam engine, Stewart worked again as a carpenter. However, in the intense period though the remainder of August and into September, there is no mention in the Ironworks account book of Stewart performing any other work for the ironworks.
The majority of the southern Utah militiamen at Mountain Meadows were from Cedar City. Of these, nearly all of them had worked at the Ironworks or supplied raw materials to it. Indeed, in the weeks before the Mountain Meadows Massacre, they had worked intensely together, hauling materials, building a new water reservoir, and making the latest run of the blast furnace. One perennial mystery of the massacre has been why the militiamen mustered to Mountain Meadows in “broken” militia units; that is, from different platoons and companies, none of which had a full compliment of its members. Perhaps the reason lies with the Ironworks. Those in the Ironworks knew each other and had worked alongside one another. Not only was Stewart familiar with those who mustered from Cedar City to Mountain Meadows, he had worked with them at the Ironworks. Perhaps the answer is that the men of the Ironworks were on hand and available and Isaac Haight, who himself had worked closely with them, assigned them to muster to Mountain Meadows.
In the Iron Military District: 2nd Lt. William C. Stewart, Company F, John M. Higbee's 3rd Battalion
In 1857, the Iron Military District consisted of four battalions led by regimental commander Col. William H. Dame. The platoons and companies in the first battalion drew on men in and around Parowan. (It had no involvement at Mountain Meadows.) Major Isaac Haight commanded the 2nd Battalion whose personnel in its many platoons and two companies came from Cedar City and outer-lying communities to the north such as Fort Johnson. Major John Higbee headed the 3rd Battalion whose many platoons and two companies were drawn from Cedar City and outer-lying communities to the southwest such as Fort Hamilton. Major John D. Lee of Fort Harmony headed the 4th Battalion whose platoons and companies drew on its militia personnel from Fort Harmony, the Southerners at the newly-founded settlement in Washington, the Indian interpreters at Fort Clara, and the new settlers at Pinto.
In September 1857, William Stewart, 30, was 2nd Lt. in one of the Cedar City platoons. See A Basic Account for a full description of the massacre.
Sunday, September 6
On Sunday, September 6, at the Cedar City council meeting to consideractions against the emigrants, Stewart and many prominent members of the church and community were present. Isaac Haight presented the plan to attack the emigrants but Laban Morrill opposed it and extracted a promise that Haight that he send an express to Great Salt Lake City to solicit Brigham Young's counsel. Haight reluctantly agreed. But Haight, his son-in-law, Dan MacFarlane, MacFarlane's fellow Scot, Bill Stewart, and others were angry with Morrill. According to Ellott Willden, Stewart and Dan McFarlane set after Morrill to waylay him on his way back to Fort Johnson. But Morrill avoided them by taking an alternate route home.
Monday, September 7
On Monday morning, September 7, John D. Lee led his Paiute contingent in a surprise assault on the emigrant camp. That afternoon back in Cedar City, Isaac Haight ordered militiamen to assemble and quickly make preparations and depart for Mountain Meadows. At sundown, town herdsman and fellow militiaman, Henry Higgins, observed a militia detachment of approximately twenty-five armed men departing Cedar City in wagons or on horseback. Besides Stewart, he mentioned William Bateman, Ezra Curtis, Samuel Pollock, Alexander Loveridge and John M. Higbee. John D. Lee confirmed that William Stewart arrived at Mountain Meadows in one of the companies from Cedar City. Multiple witnesses attested Bill Stewart's prominent role at Mountain Meadows.
Tuesday, September 8
It was probably on Tuesday, September 8, at Hamblin's Ranch that Bill Stewart asked Ellott Willden for his pistols, saying that he was going after the emigrant riders returning toward Cedar City in search of their stray cattle. Stewart, Joel White and Benjamin Arthur pursued them and when they encountered William Aden and the other riders, Stewart shot and killed Aden while White fired on the others. However, one rider escaped alive and retreated to the protection of the emigrants' fortified camp.
Wednesday, September 9
There seems to have been another encounter between Stewart and several emigrant riders. The second episode probably occurred on Wednesday evening when Stewart and other militia sentries tracked two emigrant riders who were returning toward Cedar City seeking Mormon assistance. According to Ellott Willden, Stewart and his sentries killed both of these men.
Thursday, September 10
On Thursday, September 10, more militia reinforcements arrived at the meadows. That evening, according to John D. Lee, nearly 25 Cedar City citizens attended the war council. However, although it seems likely that Bill Stewart was present at the council, Lee failed to mention Stewart by name. But whether present or not Stewart was present, his earlier actions were at the center of the debate that evening. The fact than an emigrant had survived the fusilade of the Mormon sentries and escaped to rejoin his compatriots figured prominently in the arguments for "silencing" the entire company. "The killing of Aden is what caused, more than anything else, the decision to destroy the whole company" because, Ellott Willden explained, the retreating man "was supposed to have reported in the camp that the whites were in league with the Indians to kill the emigrants." "After that," continued Willden, "it seemed to become necessary to kill all to silence the rest. . . ."
Friday, September 11
In the main massacre on Friday, September 11, many witnesses mention Bill Stewart's prominence. The plan was to have mounted riders sweep the field to cut down those who escaped the initial fusilade. However, according to Ellott Willden, Bill Stewart and Joel White were so enthusiastic in pursuit of fleeing emigrants that Stewart was mistaken for an emigrant himself and nearly shot by his own forces. "[W]ild with enthusiasm," Willden said, Stewart raced after one fleeing man for several hundred yards before killing him. "It was well known," Willden maintained, that Stewart along with John D. Lee and Philip Klingensmith "were the most bloodthirsty."
After the massacre, Lee saw Higbee, Klingensmith and Stewart looting some of the bodies.
After returning to Cedar City, Bill and Mary Ann Stewart took in one of the surviving children, eighteen-month-old Felix Marion Jones.
Stewart and his family remained in Cedar City and his wife bore him seven children.
Indicted for Complicity in the Massacre
In 1874, a grand jury sitting in the federal district court in Beaver, Utah, returned an criminal indictment for murder against nine current or former Iron County militiamen for their complicity in Mountain Meadows Massacre. William Stewart was included with such principal figures as Col. William H. Dame, Major Isaac C. Haight, Major John M. Higbee, Major John D. Lee, and Cedar City bishop Philip Klingensmith, all of whom played prominent and well-attested roles. In addition, the indictment also included three militia privates, George Washington Adair, Samuel Jewkes, and Ellott Willden.
Stewart, Haight and Higbee Flee to Avoid Arrest
As federal marshals fanned out across Utah Territory and beyond to serve arrest warrants, Bill Stewart, Isaac Haight and John Higbee fled to avoid arrest. They went into hiding and Stewart remained a fugitive. He fled to Arizona.
Final Years
By the early 1890s, Col. William Dame, Major Isaac Haight, Major John D. Lee and Bishop Philip Klingensmith were dead and William Stewart had fled the country to the Mormon colony in Chihuahua, Mexico. Stewart died there in 1895, around the time the Mountain Meadows prosecutions were finally closed. Higbee had hid out into the 1890s and then he quietly returned to Cedar City where he maintained a low profile. In 1895, the federal indictment against Iron County militiamen for their complicity in the Mountain Meadows Massacre was finally dismissed.
References
Aird, Bagley and Nichols, Playing With Shadows, 278, 280, 281; Bagley, Blood of the Prophets, 120, 128, 133, 142, 148, 153, 205, 226, 229, 242, 283, 290, 309-11, 323, 325; Bigler and Bagley, Innocent Blood: Essential Narratives, 235, 328, 345, 411, 413, 421; Brooks, The Mountain Meadows Massacre, 67, 176, 194; Brooks, ed., Journal of the Southern Indian Mission, 106; Fielding, ed., The Tribune Reports of the Trials of John D. Lee, 42-43; Lee, Mormonism Unveiled, 230, 235, 244, 273, 293, 380; Lee Trial transcripts; New.Familysearch.org; Novak, House of Mourning, 171; Solomon, Joseph Knight, 100; Turley and Walker, Mountain Meadows Massacre: The Jenson and Morris Collections, 111, 150, 159-60, 189, 191, 202, 206, 209, 216-17, 220-21; Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, 157, 159, 160, 163-64, 167, 200, 207, 219, 229-30, Appendix C, 262; Woolley, Personal History of Isaac Haight, 100 (photo).
For full bibliographic information, see Bibliography.
External Links
For further information on William C. Stewart, see:
