Harrison Pearce
Harrison Pearce, his personal and family background, and his involvement in the Mountain Meadows Massacre
Harrison Pearce
1818-1889
Biographical Sketch
Early Life in the American South
A native of rural Georgia, Harrison Pearce moved in succession to Alabama, Mississippi, the Iowa territory and then to frontier Utah. Like all the others, Pearce was an American frontiersman and pioneer in southern Utah.
Harrison Pearce was born in Jackson, Butts County in central Georgia. His earliest American forebears were from Virginia and South Carolina. In the early 1820s, his family moved to Perry County in west-central Alabama. In 1836, at the age of 17, Pearce married 19-year-old Henrietta Cromeans (1815-1864) from Scott County, Tennessee. They settled in the Itawanda County in northeast Mississippi.
In the 1840s, they joined the Mormons and late in the decade they moved westward to Iowa Territory.
Immigration to Utah
In the early 1850s, they immigrated to Utah Territory. Some of the family went to Spanish Fork. Other continued on to southern Utah to join fellow Southerners intent on growing cotton in Utah's "Dixie."
To Washington and the Cotton Mission
In spring 1857, members of the Pearce clan were part of a migration of southerners to the new settlement of Washington in Washington County. These southerners founded the Cotton Mission, which had its initial headquarters in Washington, Washington County.
Although it eventually proved commercially unsuccessful, the Cotton Mission did succeed in producing cotton goods for local use and export at an important stage in Utah Territory's economic development
Pearce was one of the original founders of Washington. The previous year, Pearce married a second wife, Ann Meredith Mathews (1818-1889) of Glamorgan, Wales. She bore him three children but this marriage ended in divorce. Ann later married Samuel Pollock, the Irish emigrant who was also at the massacre and later testified in the first trial of John D. Lee in 1875.
In the Iron Military District, Captain Harrison Pearce, Company I, John D. Lee's 4th 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 1857, Pearce, 38, was captain of Company I, one of two companies in John D. Lee’s 4th Battalion. In September 1857, Pearce was among those of Washington recruited, probably on Sunday the 6th, to join an ad hoc detachment and muster to Mountain Meadows. See A Basic Account for a full description of the massacre.
On Monday, the 7th, Lee met Pearce and others from the southern settlements of Washington and Fort Clara some miles south of the Meadows. On Tuesday, the 8th, they encamped at Mountain Meadows and awaited further orders. William Young implied that Pearce was among those at the massacre on Friday, the 11th.
Militiaman John Hawley recalled Pearce making inflammatory speeches against non-Mormons sometime after the massacre. In the 1859 arrest warrant issued by Judge John Cradlebaugh, Pearce was listed as Harrison "Pierce." He is not known to have made any written statements about the massacre. However, his son James was also present at the massacre. James Pearce testified in John D. Lee's first trial in 1875.
Later LIfe
Pearce remained in Washington County and was listed as a county commissioner in 1859. In the summer of that year, he was elected sheriff of Washington County. In 1861, he moved from Washington to the new community of St. George. He was among the early settlers at Tonoquint at the confluence of the Virgin River and Santa Clara Creek, southwest of modern St. George. However, Tonaquint was among the early settlements on the Virgin River plagued by frequent flooding and its settlers were forced to abandon it after especially heavy flooding in early 1862.
In 1863, he married Swiss emigrant Magdalena Schneider (1838-1896), then in the nearby Swiss colony in Santa Clara. His first wife died the following year and Magdalena because stepmother to his children. Also, she bore him five additional children. In the mid-1860s, Pearce moved briefly to the northwestern corner of what is now known as the Arizona Strip to found a settlement at Beaver Dams. Thereafter he returned to St. George.
During the Black Hawk War of the late 1860s, Harrison and his son James were among those involved in policing and punitive actions against marauding Indians.
In 1870, Pearce and others began farming operations south of St. George in Bloomington. Besides working as farmer and peace officer, Pearce also worked as a mechanic and was a choir leader and member of the local brass band.
Final Years
Pearce remained in St. George where he died and was buried in 1889 at the age of 71. He was survived by five children, including James Pearce, who was an important colonizer in the Mormon settlements in eastern Arizona.
References
Alder and Brooks, A History of Washington County, 29, 50 fn. 11, App. A, 383; Bagley, Blood of the Prophets, 119-20, 128, 148, 150; Bagley and Bigler, eds., Innocent Blood: Essential Narratives, 110; Bradshaw, ed., Under Dixie Sun, 40, 235, 326; Cahoon, Washington City, Monument Plaza, May 7, 2004, 52-54 (biographical sketch); Dixon, Peteetneet Town, 182; Hafen, Devoted Empire Builders: Pioneers of St. George, 101, 102; Larson, Diary of Charles Lowell Walker, Vol. I, 266; Lee, Mormonism Unveiled, 228, 380; Lee Trial transcripts; New.FamilySearch.org; Novak, House of Mourning, 168; Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Appendix C, 261.
For full bibliographic information see Bibliography.
External Links
For additional information on Harrison Pearce see:
- http://mountainmeadowsmassacre.org/appendices/appendix-c-the-militiamen
- http://www.familyperkins.com/genealogy/harrisonpearce.htm
Further information and confirmation needed. Please contact editor@1857ironcountymilitia.com.
