Nephi Johnson
Nephi Johnson, his personal and family background, and his involvement in and statements about the Mountain Meadows Massacre
Nephi Johnson
1833-1919
Biographical Sketch
[edit]Early Days in Ohio and Illinois
[edit]Nephi Johnson was born at Kirtland, Ohio, to Joel Hills Johnson and Anna Pixley. His parents were New Englanders who with other members of the extended family were early believers in Joseph Smith's restoration movement and followed him from New York to Ohio and later to western Illinois. By 1839, members of the extended Johnson family were in Carthage, Illinois and Johnson was baptized in 1842.
Migration to Utah
[edit]The Johnson family departed Illinois in early 1846 and spent 1846-48 in western Iowa. In summer 1848, the family of Joel Hills Johnson joined the Willard Richards Company, which departed for the valley of the Great Salt Lake in early July.
They passed the usual milestones on the trail: Fort Kearney, the South Fork of the Platte River, Chimney Rock, Fort Laramie, the Sweetwater River, Independence Rock, Devil's Gate, Green River, Fort Bridger, Bear River, and Weber River. After suffering the usual hardships of overland trail they arrived in the valley of the Great Salt Lake towards mid-October.
Moving to Southern Utah
[edit]
Nephi Johnson, 17, and his family were among the original colonists who in 1850-51 went south to settle in the Little Salt Lake Valley of Iron County. Also in the company were Thomas Cartwright, 36, William H. Dame, 31, Richard Harrison, 43, George Hunter, 22, John D. Lee, 39, Carl Shirts, 15, and Robert Wiley, 41. The Johnson family settled in Parowan in 1850 but by 1851, they had relocated to Johnson's Springs, or Fort Johnson (modern Enoch), seven miles north of Cedar City and a dozen miles south of Parowan. From an early age, Johnson began learning the local Indian languages and became a proficient interpreter.
The Walker War erupted in 1853. Late that year, Mormon leader Erastus Snow selected Nephi Johnson, 20, as an Indian missionary and interpreter. Thus began Johnson's work of many years with the Indians of the Southwest.
The Deseret Iron Company
[edit]Members of the Johnson family including Nephi also provided labor or materials to the Deseret Iron Company in Cedar City, especially in the times leading up to a sustained run of the blast furnace. The DIC ledger book notes Nephi Johnson's labor in connection with the ironworks. See Summary of Deseret Iron Company for a brief summary of its early development.
The Ironworks in 1857
[edit]In April 1857, the delivery of a new steam engine from Great Salt Lake City seemed to breathe new life for the Ironworks. 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.
From late April to September, 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.
Johnson's Role at the Ironworks in 1857
[edit]During this period of 1857, Nephi Johnson was an occasional teamster for the ironworks. In April, he was among the teamsters who hauled steam engine parts from Great Salt Lake City to Cedar City. He did no other work for the ironworks until the end of July when he hauled three-quarters of a ton of coal from the mines to the ironworks. In the intense period of activity in mid-August, Johnson hauled nearly two tons of coal to the ironworks. That is the extent of his involvement with the ironworks in 1857.
In the Iron Military District: 2nd Lieutenant Nephi Johnson, Company D, Isaac Haight's 2nd Battalion, Fort Johnson
[edit]
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, Johnson was 2nd lieutenant in a platoon in Company D of the Iron Military District. Joel White was the captain of Company D and Daniel Macfarlane was his adjutant. Company D was attached to Major Isaac Haight's 2nd Battalion. However, the members of Johnson's platoon were from Johnson's Springs, not Cedar City, and none of them, except Johnson, was at Mountain Meadows. The reason Johnson was singled out was because of his skill as an interpreter: Haight specifically sent for Johnson because Haight needed someone with Johnson's linguistic skills to deal with the Paiutes whom he and John D. Lee had unleashed at Mountain Meadows. See A Basic Account for a full description of the massacre.
Johnson rode to Mountain Meadows on Thursday, September 10. The following day, he delivered orders to the Indians to disburse and hide. At the time of the massacre he probably translated the orders to attack the women and children.
He was listed in the 1859 arrest warrant issued by Judge John Cradlebaugh for those suspected of complicity in the massacre.
Immediate Aftermath of the Massacre
[edit]Having induced local Indians to join them in massacring the Arkansas company, the Iron County militia now found that they had lost control of them. Following behind the Arkansas train was the Dukes-Turner Company which fell under attack at Beaver. After arriving in Cedar City, Dukes and Turner hired Ira Hatch, Oscar Hamblin and Nephi Johnson to guide them through. Meanwhile, Jacob Hamblin sent Dudley Leavitt and Samuel Knight to conciliate the Paiutes in Nevada. When the Dukes-Turner Company arrived near the Muddy River in Nevada, the Paiutes drove off their cattle but otherwise did not molest them and the company made it safely through to southern California.
Leaving Fort Johnson for New Settlements on the Virgin River
[edit]In spring 1858 during the Utah War, Johnson was in the exploring party into western Utah and Nevada, scouting for new areas for possible settlement and refuge.
That same year, Johnson and his brother Seth, Carl Shirts and his brother Darius, Anthony J. Stratton and others constructed a wagon road over the Hurricane Fault so they could explore the upper reaches of the Virgin River. This difficult road was called Johnson Twist. Johnson helped found a colony at Virgin City, situated on the upper Virgin River about 20 miles west of present-day Zion National Park. Using homemade surveying instruments they had fashioned, Johnson, Anthony J. Stratton and others surveyed the new township.
From Virgin, Johnson explored to the east in the upper Virgin River drainage. He is reported to be the first white man to enter Zion Canyon. Later, he and his brothers explored the canyon.
In November 1862, Nephi Johnson, James Pearce, William Stewart, Ira Hatch and others accompanied Jacob Hamblin on his fifth crossing of the Colorado, the historic journey in which they circled the Grand Canyon. Heading south from St. George, they brought a boat in a wagon but could not find a passable route to reach the Colorado River. Abandoning the boat they build raft instead and crossed the river at Grand Wash below the Grand Canyon. En route to the Hopi Mesas they visited the Hualapais and then discovered the magical canyon world of the Havasupais in Havasu Canyon. They passed the San Francisco Peaks and crossed the Little Colorado River.
Upon arriving at the Hopi Mesas, they joined in the ceremonials at Old Oraibi. When the explorers departed, Ira Hatch, Thales Haskell, and Jehiel McConnell were selected to stay at the Mesas to become better acquainted with Hopi ways. Meanwhile, Hamblin, running low on food, sent Nephi Johnson, Steele, Fuller Andrus and Hancock ahead to find Indians with whom they can trade for provisions. They returned to Utah with four Hopis via the Ute Ford (Crossing of the Fathers), completing a historic circling of the Grand Canyon.
Johnson lived in the settlement of Virgin for thirteen years, acting in succession as presiding elder, acting bishop, and bishop's counselor. In common with other settlers on the Virgin River, he experienced its fickle nature ranging from roaring floods to drought. The town was eventually abandoned.
In 1856, he had married Mandana R. Merrill who bore him ten children; in 1860, he had married Conradina A. Mariger, who bore him sixteen children; in 1889, he married a widow with six children, who bore him one additional child.
Move to Kanab and Johnson in Kane County
[edit]
Jacob Hamblin moved to Kanab in Kane County, where he established the new headquarters of the Southern Indian Mission. In 1871, Johnson moved to Kanab where he fulfilled a series of positions including first counselor to the bishop, county commissioner, town president, superintendent of waterworks and road commissioner. He and other Johnson family members assisted their father, Joel Hills Johnson, in founding the settlement of Johnson, some miles northeast of Kanab.
In the early 1870s, Johnson was also employed for a time by John Wesley Powell in Powell's 1871 Colorado River expedition.
In 1872, Johnson moved north into Long Valley which was watered by the Sevier River. His father had established a sawmill at Hilldale south of Panguitch. His brother Seth Johnson was also there. In that year, Nephi Johnson was appointed presiding elder of the small church congregation there. For a time his sawn-log cabin was the community meeting place for church services and social gatherings. He was also an early mail contractor and merchant in Kane County. (Note: A Nephi Johnson served as a city attorney in Garfield County.)
Testifying in Lee's Second Trial in 1876
[edit]In September 1876 during the second trial of John D Lee, the prosecution called former Iron County militiamen Joel White, Samuel Knight, Samuel McMurdie, Nephi Johnson, Laban Morrill and Jacob Hamblin to testify against Lee.
Later Life
[edit]In the early 1880s, the history of Kane County reflects that Johnson had some involvement in the Kanab Irrigation Company. In the rare moments available for entertainment in their frontier setting, Johnson and other members of his family participated in some early theatrical productions.
One account states that Johnson and his brothers continued to hold mercantile interests in Kanab in Kane County into the early 1890s. Another account states that late in the period of the anti-polygamy raid, Johnson moved to Colonia Juarez in Mexico to avoid prosecution for unlawful cohabitation. He was there from 1889 to 1894.
In the early 1890s, as Jesse N. Smith journeyed from the Mormon settlements on the Little Colorado in Arizona to Salt Lake City, he occasionally stopped over at Nephi Johnson's in Johnson. One of Smith's plural wives was Nephi Johnson's sister.
Sometime in the 1890s Nephi Johnson relocated to Bunkerville in southeast Nevada where he lived his remaining years. He served in the church in the office of patriarch to the Mormon community there.
Final Statements about the Massacre
[edit]As the years passed and the threat of criminal prosecutions receded, he made several other important statements about the massacre. Part of the importance of Nephi Johnson was that in his later years he became more forthcoming about lesser known aspects of the massacre.
His later statements have now been published in Turley and Walker, Mountain Meadows Massacre: The Jenson and Morris Collections, 324-36.
Final Years
[edit]Nephi Johnson died in 1919, survived by many children and descendants. On his deathbed, a young schoolteacher witnessed his tortured, delirious recollections of the massacre more than six decades before. The experience prompted her in later life to write The Mountain Meadows Massacre. She was Juanita Leavitt, the granddaughter of massacre participant, Dudley Leavitt. Later, she was better known by her married name, Juanita Brooks.
References
[edit]Alder and Brooks, A History of Washington County, 32, fn. 13; Bagley and Bigler, Innocent Blood: Essential Narratives, 406-411; Bitton, Guide to Mormon Diaries, 183; Bradley, A History of Kane County, 151; Bradshaw, ed., Under Dixie Sun, 133, 259, 268, 269, 276, 345, 346, 353; Brooks, The Mountain Meadows Massacre, Appendix I, 224-226; Chidester, Golden Nuggets: A History of Garfield County, 37, 57; “Diary of Almon Harris Thompson,” Utah Historical Quarterly, 7/1-3 (1939), 79; Compton, A Frontier Life, 61, 208, 216-17, 433, 507 fn. 91; Esshom, Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah, 970; Fielding, The Tribune Reports of the Trials of John D. Lee, 216-18, 220, 222; Fish, Mormon Migrations, 283, 288, 291, 293; Goodman, “New Look at Old Treasures,” Utah Historical Quarterly 26/3 (July 1958), 283; Jenson, Encyclopedic History of the Latter-day Saints, 230 (Virgin Ward); Jenson, LDS Biographical Encyclopedia, III: 131-132; Knack, Boundaries Between: The Southern Paiutes, 333 fn. 38; Krenkel, ed., Life and Times of Joseph Smith, 40-41, 261; Larson, ed., Diary of Charles Lowell Walker, 587; Lee, Mormonism Unveiled, 220, 232, 237, 242, 243, 270-272, 380; Lee Trial transcripts; Moorman and Sessions, Camp Floyd and the Mormons, 131-32, 142; Newell, A History of Garfield County, 109; Novak, House of Mourning, 176; Parkin, et al, ed., A Voice From the Mountains: Life and Works of Joel Hills Johnson, 249-53 (biographical sketch); Powell, ed., Utah History Encyclopedia, 561, 651; Riggs, History of Hatch, Utah, 341, 342; Robinson, ed., History of Kane County, 112. 126, 127, 138, 148, 280, 363, 487, 518 (brief biography); Seegmiller, A History of Iron County, 366; Smith, ed., Journal of Jesse N. Smith, 189, 221, 298, 396; Solomon, Joseph Knight, 101; Turley and Walker, Mountain Meadows Massacre: Jenson and Morris Collections, 324-34; Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, 145, 164, 170, 180-81, 187, 190, 192, 198, 201, 202 (photo), 203, 208, 213, 216, Appendix C, 259.
For full bibliographic information see Bibliography.
External Links
[edit]For further information on Nephi Johnson, see:
- Johnson's testimony in the 1876 trial of John D. Lee: http://www.mtn-meadows-assoc.com/johnson.htm
- 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.
