THE REMINISCENCES OF JAMES HOLT A NARRATIVE OF THE EMMETT COMPANY

EDITED BY DALE L. MORGAN

PART II INTRODUCTION

N PART I of James Holt's reminiscences the focus of interest I was the period 1844-46, during which he was a member of the company James Emmett led into the Iowa wilderness. This party made its way up the Iowa River and across country to the Mis­ souri River, which was reached at last near the mouth of the Vermillion, in what is now South Dakota. Emmett's company was never entirely out of contact with the church back in Nauvoo, and it got back into the main stream of Mormon history when, in the spring of 1846, it came down die Missouri to rendezvous at Council Bluffs with the migration Brigham Young was con­ ducting across Iowa. With its absorption into Bishop George Miller's detachment of the Mormon immigration, Emmett's company largely lost its identity. But it was the fate of its members to share at once in the experiences of another remarkably interesting party, and before we pick up the thread of James Holt's narrative again, it is desirable to review briefly the history of Bishop Miller and his company. George Miller joined the Mormon Church in the spring of 1839. Born in Virginia in 1794, he removed with his family to Kentucky in 1806, and learned the trade of carpenter and joiner.1 He was living in McDonough County, Illinois, when the Mormons

aSee a fragmentary autobiography by Miller published from the manuscript in 1917 by H. W. Mills, under the title, "De Tal Palo Tal Astilla," in Annual Publications of the Historical Society of Southern California, X, Part III, 86- 172 (printed separately under the title, A Mormon Bishop and His Son). The autobiography breaks off in 1819, but continues as an actual diary for the period October 13, 1842-February 2, 1843. Though most of the manuscript was unfortunately destroyed, much of the information it contained was pre­ served in the form of a series of seven letters Miller contributed to the St. 152 UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY were expelled from Missouri in the winter of 1838-39. He be­ friended the family of Joseph Smith, and, soon afterwards baptized into the church, became an important figure in its councils, being named bishop by a revelation of 1841. Miller was never quite reconciled to what was done in working out the problem of succession after Joseph Smith's death. Never­ theless, he was still prominent in the councils of the church when the evacuation of Nauvoo began in February, 1846. Despite some friction between himself and Brigham Young, Miller with his "pioneer" company led the way for the Saints across most of Iowa, reaching the Missouri River nearly opposite Bellevue on June 13, 1846. Here it was necessary to pause and build a ferry, a labor not completed until June 29. While the work was in progress, on June 18, the Mormons were advised that the American Fur Company "wanted 40 waggons & teams to go 250 miles after fur." Miller was asked to see the company's agent, Peter A. Sarpy, who "of­ fered about $1000 to [have] about 90,000 lbs peltry brought from the head of grand Island & 15 or 20 barrels of Provisions also a horse Bishop Miller took the job." John D. Lee adds that the Twelve "wrote to . . . John L Butler & the Mormons with him [Emmett's company] to come to the Ferry Point immediately to go after the fur."2 According to William C. Staines, just as the wagons were ready to start, a messenger arrived from Sarpy's traders, advising that they were bringing their robes and furs down to his post by water and had no use for teams. Sarpy told the Bishop to send his wagons to the trading post and he would pay a forfeit. "The Bishop protested that under the circumstances he had no claim,

James, Mich., Northern Islander in the summer of 1855, which take up his story in the fall of 1838. The draft versions of these letters were preserved among Miller's papers and were printed by Dr. Mills in the article cited above, though not in altogether correct order. Almost simultaneously with their publication in California, the letters were reprinted by Wingfield Watson from the pages of the Northern Islander as Correspondence of Bishop George Miller (Burlington, Wis.? 1916?), a pamphlet of 50 pages. The latter text is cited hereafter when reference is made to the letters. 2John D. Lee, MS. diary, June 18, 19, 1846, typed transcription in the library of the Utah State Historical Society. REMINISCENCES OF JAMES HOLT 153 but [Sarpy] insisted and the wagons were sent and returned loaded with corn."3 The episode got Emmett's company into motion again. Mean­ while an entry in the diary of Hosea Stout has an important bear­ ing on the history of this company. Stout was en route to the Bluffs, when, on June 20, 1846, a few miles west of Mount Pisgah, he fell in with James W. Cummings, then returning to Nauvoo for his family. Cummings, it will be remembered, on March 27 had been sent with John L. Butler with instructions for Emmett's company about meeting the main body of the Saints, and he had reported back to Brigham Young on June 11 near the Bluffs. Cummings now told Stout that when he got to the Vermillion he found "that Emmett was absent having gone to some of the neighbouring Indians to trade off some horses and consequently he had no trouble with him. But some of his company were yet strong advocates for him & some as hard against him among the latter was his wife who was tired of his oppression & tyranny. "The two parties were about equally divided. Some of the party however having gone before to the settlements near or above Fort Leavenworth.4 They managed to get all of those who were yet there to move down to where we were to cross the Missouri at the Bluffs not however without considerable opposition from Emmetts adherents. Suffice it to say that they all left and came off and brought every thing with them and left Emmett to guess at what had happened & follow on or do whatever else he thought best. They had come to the Council Bluffs & Emmett followed an [on] and was here strip [p]ed of his kingdom and him & all his followers put under Bishop Miller and sent on to Grand Island."5

3This part of Staines's narrative is quoted in a biographical sketch printed in Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah (4 vols., Salt Lake City, 1892-1904), IV, 118. 4Lyman Hinman apparently was one of these, having separated from Emmett as early as February 19, but he does not say that he went down the river as far as Fort Leavenworth. See the January issue of the Quarterly, p. 33, note 66. 6Hosea Stout, MS. diary, typed transcription in the WPA Collection of the Utah State Historical Society. William Clayton, on June 10, 1846, also talked with Cummings. "Soon after we passed the bridge we were met by Jas. W. Cummings and the brethren from Shariton Ford (i.e., the brother sent from Chariton Ford] with John L. Butler to bring Emmet's company to 154 UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

It so happened that on June 27, 1846, a party of Presbyterian missionaries and government employees who had been laboring among the Pawnees at a station on the Loup Fork of the Platte arrived at Bellevue to report that the Sioux had attacked their establishment; they had had to abandon their crops and most of their possessions, and were anxious to salvage them.6 A working arrangement with these refugees exactly suited the convenience of the Saints. "I made a bargain to haul them and their effects down," Miller says, "and forthwith started (the distance 120 miles) with thirty-two wagons, and the families thereto belonging, intending to unload the families and camp, and let the teams return with the missionaries to the Bluffs. "We started on the expedition on the 9th July, and on the 18th we arrived at the mission station, and on the 22nd July we sent them to Council Bluffs. We received in payment for hauling the effects of the missionaries their standing crop of wheat, oats and garden vegetables, together with a lot of old corn, which was all better for us than money. While the teams were gone with the missionaries' goods, we harvested and threshed our grain, shelled the corn and sacked all ready for a move on return of our teams."7 Although the mustering of the Mormon Battalion chiefly preoccupied Brigham Young during the first three weeks of July, 1846, he did not immediately give up his project of sending an advance company across the mountains, or of getting a considera­ ble part of the Camp of Israel to the head of Grand Island for meet us. The cattle have been with Emmet's company from the time they left Nauvoo .... From Cummings we learned that Emmet had left his things belonging to the company with him. Part of the company has crossed at St. Louis [Fort Leavenworth?] and are now on the line here. The agent of the U. S. refuses to let them pass. The other part of the company are thirty miles below the bluffs expecting us to cross there." William Clayton's Journal (Salt Lake City, 1921), 45. 6See "Letters Concerning the Presbyterian Mission in the Pawnee Country, Near Bellvue, Neb., 1831-1849," in Kansas State Historical Society Collections, 1915-1918, XIV, 570-784; Annual Report of Thomas H. Harvey, Superinten- dent of Indian Affairs at St. Louis, to Commissioner of Indian Affairs William Medill, St. Louis, Sept. 5, 1846, printed in 29th Congress, 2nd Session, House Executive Document 4 (Serial 497), pp. 282-88; report of Indian Agent John Miller to Thomas H. Harvey, dated Council Bluffs Agency, Sept. 10, 1847, printed in 30th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Executive Document 1 (Serial 503), pp. 857-64; and George E. Hyde, Pawnee Indians (Denver, 1951), 135-64. 7Correspondence, 32. REMINISCENCES OF JAMES HOLT 155 the winter. On July 14, he suggested to the Twelve the propriety of the main body's going up the east side of the Missouri River to winter (later the west bank was selected); of sending a small company only to Grand Island "to build a fort etc., and prepare a settlement"; and of dispatching Miller's company on over the mountains.8 In furtherance of these plans, on July 22-23 he started off to Grand Island some 150 wagons detached from his own and Heber C. Kimball's companies.9 But shortly afterward seven wagons arrived from Miller's camp laden "with Missionary and government property, which had been removed from Pawnee village through fear of the Indians";10 and when the men and teams started back to join Miller, they carried a letter from Young revoking the previous directive. "We think it would be wisdom for as many teams and saints among your companies to winter at the Pawnee village as can well be sustained, the balance to winter at Grand Island, or some point near by .... A small company, say from twenty to thirty wagons, can go on to Fort Laramie and winter there, if you choose, but we do not think it advisable for any of you to undertake to cross the mountains this fall. Use your own judgment with regard to wintering . . . ." The suggestion was made that it might be desirable for the company which wintered at the Pawnee village "to put in some fall wheat, and also to buy all the grain and other property in that place which may be for sale on reasonable terms, for most likely we shall want to make a permanent location there."11 Three days later another letter was sent to Miller: "We are satisfied that it will be impolitic for any company to attempt to cross the mountains .... According to the best knowledge we have, we are now disposed to recall our recommendation of making Fort Laramie or the island this fall, for there is danger of the fires cutting off supplies for your stock, and we would like to have you so near us that we may visit each other occasionally

8Journal History, July 14, 1846. 9Biographical sketch of Anson Call, Tullidge's Histories (Salt Lake City, 1889), Biographical Supplement, 278-79. Call was a Captain of Ten in this company. "Journal History, July 27, 1846. "Ibid., August 1, 1846. 156 UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

through the winter." It was suggested that a council of twelve be organized to superintend affairs, with Miller as president.12 During the absence of the wagons detailed to haul the effects of the missionaries down to the Bluffs, Miller's camp was visited by the principal chief of the Ponca Indians and several other braves. The Ponca chief told Miller that Brigham Young's orders would not do, "that the Pawnees wintered their horses at Grand Island, and that our immense herd would eat up all the feed before the winter was half gone, and when the Pawnees came in from their winter hunt they would kill all our cattle, and drive us away." He proposed that Miller "go with him to his village, on or near the Loquocore or Running-water River, [saying] that there was rushes abundant to winter all our cattle, and to spare; that it was his country, and he had the granting of privileges "13 The Saints in council agreed to accompany the Ponca chief to his village, and on August 13 they set off for the Niobrara, arriving August 23. This information, derived from Miller's narrative, is backed up by a letter he wrote the Twelve on August 13, which letter also advises that Jacob Gates, Lyman Hinman, and 12 others, with their families, were to remain at the Pawnee village.14 It appears that about 30 wagons were left, and that

"Ibid., August 4, 1846. 13Ibid. W. C. Staines, in "Among the Poncas," a narrative he published under the initials W. C. S. in the second volume of the Faith-Promoting Series, A String of Pearls (Salt Lake City, 1880), 1-34, backs up Miller's version of these conversations with the Poncas. The river to which they proposed to go, the Niobrara, in northern Ne­ braska, had been called by the French "I'eau qui court," or the water which runs, i.e., rapid-flowing river. Sundry versions of the name, corruptions or translations, appear in the literature of the West. "Journal History, August 20, 1846. In his Correspondence, Miller does not refer to this company left at the Pawnee village. On September 9, Brigham Young received a letter written on the 2nd by Jacob Gates reporting that 14 families "after much persuasion" had volunteered to stay at that point. "That they had moved into the houses at the mission and were comfortable, that the Pawnees returned from hunting six or eight days after the brethren left them and most of the Indians appeared friendly, though some were dis­ pleased because considerable of their corn had been destroyed by Bro. Millers company as they passed along. The brethren however had held a council with the Indians and agreed to lay them in some corn, which they expect to get from the Missionaries, this seemed to satisfy the Indians and they ex­ pressed a willingness that the brethren should stay and promised to use them well. Their thievish propensities however, were so often manifested that some of the brethren were almost disheartened and a few were leaving." Gates asked whether his company should sow fall grain and whether any of them REMINISCENCES OF JAMES HOLT 157 from 160 to 175 went on to the Niobrara.16 The site Miller's company selected for wintering is located by one account "on the west side of the mouth of the Running water River," by another "about one mile from the Missouri River, and near the mouth of Swift or Running-Water River." Two men from Miller's camp who journeyed down to the Mormon head­ quarters reported on September 15 "that the camp were in good health, one death had occurred and one man sick, that there were an hundred and seventy five wagons, besides some who had dis­ sented and were returning, that they had found buffalo within a hundred miles of their camp, that there were rushes on the islands of the running water and bottoms of the Missouri, and that they held some things in common."16 In October Miller came down from the Niobrara with some wagons and other articles, which he proposed to exchange for provisions. He reported, Hosea Stout says, "That they were on the nearest and best rout to the pass in the mountains That it was a level road all the way to Fort Larame That James Emmett Joseph Holbrook and Joe Mathews were sent as a committee to look out a road to the pass and report in time to start in the spring."17

had better accompany the Pawnees on their fall and winter hunt. The Twelve considered that the situation of these few families was rather precarious, and Hosea Stout records on September 15, "The council dispached messengers to the Pawnee village to bring down the families left mere by Miller." These families got back to the Camp of Israel on October 10. Journal History, September 9, October 10, 1846; Stout, op. cit. Lyman Hinman sums up by saying, "on the 2 of September myself wife and youngest child Helen were taken with the chill fever and 3 or 4 days after the rest of my family Eveline['s] husband [Gardner G. Potter] and all not one able to wait on the other shortly the whole camp was sick but 2 women and three or four men able to do any thing in this condition we were ordered back to this place [Winter Quarters] which is on the west bank of the Missourie River just above what is now called Council Bluff . . . ." Lyman Hinman to "Brother & Sister Taylor," Winter Quarters, June 27, 1847, un­ published document in the Coe Collection at Yale. "The total, 160 wagons, is given in a letter from Brigham Young to the officers of the Mormon Battalion on August 20, 1846, but on September 15, 1846, two arrivals from Miller's camp gave the number as 175 wagons "besides some who had dissented." See Journal History for these dates. Miller himself, in his Correspondence, 32, gives the whole number of wagons before the sepa­ ration at the Pawnee village as 240, which seems somewhat high. 16Journal History, September 15, 1846. "Ibid., October 24, 25, 26, 29, 1846; Stout's MS. diary, October 25, 29, 1846. 158 UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

Miller returned north again November 15. A few days later Young sent off a message asking him to come back to Winter Quarters, bringing Emmett with him, for councils respecting the future movements of the Saints.18 A little rebelliously, Miller came down at Christmas for these discussions. It was then decided to get off a pioneer company early in the spring with a view to reaching the headwaters of the Niobrara by the time grass ap­ peared, prepared to cross the Black Hills "& put in a crop of grain somewhere on this side of the mountains near the head of the Yellow Stone."19 On January 14, 1847, Brigham Young brought forth a revela­ tion concerning the intended migration of the Saints. E. T. Ben­ son and Erastus Snow were delegated to carry this revelation to the camp on the Niobrara, and they presented it for their sanction on February 7-8. On Benson's return to Winter Quarters he reported that the camp was organized "comprising ninety-eight men, including three hundred and ninety-six souls."20 The plans to travel to the mountains via the Niobrara proved unworkable. On March 25, 1847, Brigham Young wrote the camp at Ponca, "By your report sent by Elder Benson we under­ stand that you have not provision as a people, to fit you for this journey and it is not wisdom for you to separate into small parties surrounded as you are or attempt to plant or sow where you are . . . therefore our council to you is, that you return to this place, or somewhere in this vicinity as speedily as your situation will permit and retaining your present organization, put in crops sufficient to sustain yourselves, and prepare you to go at a future day . . . ."21

18Journal History, November 25, 26, 1846; Correspondence, 35. 19Stout's MS. diary, December 27, 1846. ^Correspondence, 36; Journal History, January 27, 28, 29, 30, February 8, 15, 1847. Erastus Snow in his journal, providing an account of this mission to the Niobrara, gives the only thing like a description of the route employed for intercourse between the two camps of the Saints. "We were accompanied by Brothers O. P. Rockwell & Sam. Gulley—We had light waggons and horses carried our Profission and horse feed with us. We bore Northwest on to the Elkhorn River and followed up the same several days and then struck North again and struck the Missouri again a few miles below the mouth of the Running Water .... We found it to be about 170 miles." Erastus Snow, MS. diary, typed transcript in Utah State Historical Society library. "Journal History, March 25, 1847. REMINISCENCES OF JAMES HOLT 159

The Saints at Ponca, as James Holt records, came down the Missouri in April, most of them going to farming. Before their arrival, Bishop Miller came to a final break with Brigham Young and the Twelve. Friction between the two men had been of constant occurrence, irritating to both, and Miller had finally been asked to bring his family down from Ponca and take up his duties as bishop at Winter Quarters. This he did in February. Things did not improve afterwards, and the breaking point was reached April 2. With the Saints in the midst of preparations to get the Pioneer Company off to the mountains, Miller that night raised for the last time the ghost of his Texas project. Hosea Stout, who was present, says that Miller "wanted to go and settle between the Rio Grande and the Neuses river and make treaty with Mexico & have them give us the land &c. But this was in dispute now between the United States & Mexico and was the great thoroughfare for both armies." Stout adds, "A very few words from different ones on the subject caused him to con­ fess the impracticability of his plans."22 But now let us return to June, 1846, and the east bank of the Missouri River. There we may take up the narrative of James Holt, who has just received word that he and the other members of Emmett's company are to join Bishop Miller's company and journey with it to the Rocky Mountains.

LIFE OF JAMES HOLT We came back [to Keg Creek from upper Missouri] and got our families and crossed the Missouri River in July, joining Mil­ ler's company, and made for the Pawnee, which was a trading station.23 But the men of the station had been driven out by the Indians previously, and had started to return. When they fell in with our company, Brother Miller had promised to haul their ef­ fects. The day before we were to arrive there, those men went on ahead to arrange things at the fort for our reception.

22Stout, op. cit. Compare Correspondence, 36-38. Miller made his way south to the Indian Nation and eventually went on to Texas. A few years later, he came north again to join James J. Strang on Beaver Island in Lake Michi­ gan. Strang was killed in the spring of 1856 and Miller then set out for Cali­ fornia but died later that year at Marengo, 111. 23The Pawnee mission station was not a trading post, nor was it what Holt also subsequently calls it, a fort. 160 UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

About noon Emmett came to me and said he was impressed that something would happen to those men, and he wished to get my horse and go and overtake them. I let him have the horse and he went on to the fort. He found that the [Ponca] Indians had all collected to kill them. He told the men to make a feast for the Indians and treat them well, and they would not be harmed until he could go back to camp and return with help. He got back to our camp about one o'clock at night and called for a few men to go back to the fort with him immediately. About twenty-five or thirty [19] men responded to the call, including myself. It was about fifteen [20] miles to the fort. We were in a wild Indian country, and nearly all of our able-bodied men were now called on to leave their wives and children, the aged and infirm, to the mercies of the savages. It was quite a perilous time. Women were clinging to their husbands, and trying to prevail upon them not to go and leave them in their dangerous position, but we com­ mended them to the Lord and departed on foot in the dead of night. We arrived at the fort just at the first glimmer of dawn. We found the Indians all asleep in a circle around the dying embers of their camp fire. We carefully approached, surrounding them, pointed our guns and [made] ready to fire at them at a given signal. Emmett spoke to the chief in his own tongue.24 The chief arose to his feet, with the well-known Ugh!, at which the Indians all arose. Finding themselves in such a trap, they shook hands with us all around, led by the chief and silently took their depart­ ure, and thus we saved the fort without the shedding of blood.25

24William C. Staines, "Among the Poncas," 4, says that Emmett 'under­ stood a little of the Sioux language, and one of the Ponca chiefs could con­ verse in this language." 25Compare Holt's story with that of one of the Presbyterian missionaries, Samuel Allis, written about 1876: "A Mormon bishop by the name of Miller had started with about forty families for Salt Lake, as the first company across the plains. We accompanied them back to get the remainder of our things, and when we arrived at our houses we had been gone just one month. During that time no Indians had been there to molest. The last day of our trip we went eight miles ahead of Miller's camp. Soon after we arrived, however, two companies of Poncas met, one direct from their village, the other a war party that had been south-about thirty in number. There were only five of us and three from Miller's camp. The Indians did not behave very well. Most of our men lay down to sleep, but two of us concluded the safest the best policy, so stood guard. They told me to sleep, they would not harm anything. I told them all right, they could sleep, I was going to stand guard. They laid down and were soon asleep. In the night we started two messengers back to Millers REMINISCENCES OF JAMES HOLT 161

We went back and met our teams, which had been hitched up by the men and women of the company, and started on the way to the fort. We took charge of our teams and reached the fort during the day. The station men were now afraid to stop at the fort any longer, for they knew that when we were not there, the Indians would come upon them again and massacre them. So they gave Brother Miller all the corn and grain they had to take them and their effects back to the Bluffs. We stopped here about two weeks and harvested their grain, loaded up, and were ready to start again on the journey, when a dispute arose as to the leader­ ship. We had been increased by this time by two companies. One was led by Kimball, and one company [was] called [the] Brig­ ham Company. Although they were all under the direction of Brigham, Miller wished to have the honor of being chief captain because he had started out first. Some of the brethren wrote to Brigham at the Bluffs to settle the dispute and know what to do. He wrote for us not to go any farther this season, as it was too late, but to find a suitable place and winter, and he would advise us further in the spring.26 We turned off on the Missouri Bottoms, camped at the mouth of Puncaw River, and went to work building shanties to

camp for reinforcements for we did not know what they might do. The men arrived about daylight and came so still they were upon them before they knew it, being asleep. The Indians were so surprised and agitated in their hurry, were plagued to get their traps. But they soon left and went over to Mr. Renney's [Ranney's] (the house) that had been occupied. They went upstairs, cut open some sacks containing wheat that we had stored there and let the wheat run down through a loose floor, then took the sacks with them. We did not know it until they had got so far away we could not overtake them. That day Bishop Miller arrived with his company. We sold them the wheat, loaded up, and the next day started for Bellevue." Samuel Allis; "Forty Years Among the Indians and on the Eastern Borders of Nebraska," Transactions and Reports of the Nebraska State Historical Society (Lincoln, 1887), II, 167- 68. From various Mormon journals of 1847, it would appear that Miller's company was encamped 20 miles below when word was received of the straits of those in advance, and that the force sent in their support was made up of 19 men. See in particular George A. Smith's MS. journal for April 23, 1847, the original of which is in the Historian's Office of the Church at Salt Lake City. For descriptions of the mission station and the Pawnee villages nearby, see in addition the MS. journal of Thomas Bullock, which is also in the Historian's Office; Hosea Stout's MS. diary for October 13, 1847; Clay­ ton, op. cit., 89-101; and Howard Egan, Pioneering the West (Salt Lake City, 1917), 28. 26The defective information in this and the preceding paragraph will be evident from the contemporary sources quoted in the Introduction. 162 UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY winter in.27 The grain we brought with us from Ponnie Fort was now all divided up by Brother Miller among the company. Six bushels of corn, forty pounds of flour, and a few oats fell to my share. We made the oats into meal and tried to eat them, but it was very poor stuff. Now, the way we pulverized our grain, most of the time in our travels, was to pound it in a mortar, and make it into soup, seasoning it with squirrels' legs, or a small piece of any other meat we might happen to obtain. We tried many experiments with different things to see if they were eatable. We searched out everything we could to sustain life. We even tried to make biscuits with elm bark but it was a poor substitute. At one time we were poisoned by eating some gar eggs, and we concluded that these were not food for man. A great many roots we ob­ tained were good for food, such as the lion root, artichoke, and hog potatoes. The rations which I received at Puncaw were very small for my family. I had at that time five in the family, in­ cluding myself, but [by] going down the river to work, and get­ ting a few jobs around home, and straining all my energy, we made out to live through the winter. Many things turned up for our sustenance, which would look almost like a miracle to some. There was one time during the winter that the Lord opened a way for me to get a few pounds of flour without much exertion on my part. It was but a small amount, but the Lord opened the way for me to obtain it. It was as thankfully received at that time as fifty times the amount would have been at different times since. There was a man by the name of Dalton who had lost a cow, and had been hunting for it two or three days. He came to me one evening and offered me sixteen pounds of flour if I would get her for him, so I arose early the next morning, preparatory to getting ready to start out on the hunt for a cow. I looked out, and it seemed a dismal day to take a tramp in the snow. While I was looking out, I heard a cow bellow close to my shanty, and I saw Dalton's cow close by. She seemed to be waiting for me to drive her home, which I soon did, and obtained twelve pounds of flour. He thought I shouldn't have the full amount, as I had

27The journey to the Niobrara, like the experiences among the Poncas afterward, is described in Correspondence, 33-35, and Staines, op. cit., 3-34; By "Puncaw River" Holt refers to the Niobrara, not to the northern affluent now called the Ponca. REMINISCENCES OF JAMES HOLT 163 not been to any trouble to hunt for her. However, I was very thankful for the small amount. The next spring Brigham sent for us to all come back to the Bluffs. We were now all without provisions, and Emmett took a horse and started on ahead to obtain means for us to get pro­ visions. He agreed to meet us at a certain place, but he did not meet us until we got to Mosquito Creek, which was near our journey's end. We had suffered greatly for the want of food, but by dint of much labor and fatigue in hunting wild animals and fowls, we made out to keep from starving. When we got to the Bluffs our company was broken up. Emmett and a few of us went down on the Waupause [Waubonsie] Creek in Fremont County, Iowa, and took up farms. We sowed some buckwheat and planted some potatoes, and raised a crop. There was a settlement close by where we obtained employment enough to get provisions to keep us from starving until our crops matured. My first child by my wife Parthenia died here, on the 15th of August, 1847. After our crops were raised, we began to do very well.28 I stopped here for several years and began to accumulate means until I became very comfortably situated. One great drawback with this place was that it was very unhealthy. We had a great deal of sickness in our family, but otherwise it was a rich place. There was all manner of wild fruit, such as grape, raspberry, blackberry, mulberry, strawberry, and nuts of every kind which would grow in a cold climate, and a great amount of wild game, such as the deer, elk, coon, turkeys, and all kinds of fowls and fish, and the honey bee, and any amount of all kinds of timber, and the land was very productive for everything but wheat, which didn't do very well. I generally raised other kinds of grain and bought what flour I wished by the barrel, which was brought up the river from other places. The Church went on to the Rocky Mountains, the first com­ pany arriving in Salt Lake Valley on the 24th of July, 1847,

28Meanwhile, Brigham Young having returned to Winter Quarters from the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, on November 8, 1847, he met with the Twelve, "when it was voted that the saints vacate Winter Quarters in the spring and go westward. Elder Hyde informed the council that fellowship was withdrawn from George Miller, also James Emmett and his company; which was approved." History of the Church, VII, 618. When Hyde had done this, and why action was taken against "Emmett and his company," is not explained. 164 UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY being led by Brigham Young. He was now [December, 1847] installed as President of the Church, with Willard Richards and Heber C. Kimball as his counselors, and others were chosen to fill their places in the Quorum of the Twelve. The Church was again organized according to the original pattern, and installed in the hearts of the Rocky Mountains, or the valleys thereof, in the midst of the savages of the forest, in a desert place among alkali and sagebrush, over one thousand miles from any town or village, in a land which looked as if nothing would ever grow in such a barren waste. But years later, the valleys of the mountains were filled with most beautiful vegetation and all manner of grain and fruit of every kind. In 1849 Brother Emmett started for California. He had some difficulty with his family, and he declared he would go where they would never hear of him. He left all his family but one daughter.29 He stopped a few days in Salt Lake Valley and Brigham had a long conversation with him, trying to get him to stop with the Church, but for some cause unknown to me, he had rebelled and would no longer follow the Church. He went on to California, where he died in 1854 or 1855.30 His family never heard a word from him until his death, although his daughter had written over twenty letters to them, thus fulfilling his famous prediction. In 1850 Simpson Emmett, the son of Brother Emmett, started to Salt Lake Valley, taking with him his father's family.31 Simp-

Z9Her name was "Lucindy" or Lucinda, and she is described as being 17 years old. See Addison Pratt's journal, October 18, 1849, printed in LeRoy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen, eds., Journals of Forty-Niners, Salt Lake to Los Angeles (Glendale, 1954), 74; as also a letter from Addison Pratt to Brigham Young, San Francisco, April 15, 1850, quoted in Journal History for this date. 30Emmett and his daughter traveled to southern California in Captain Jefferson Hunt's party in the fall of 1849, as above noted. Emmett stayed with Hunt throughout, not straying off into Death Valley as did many others. Holt's remark here is the only indication as to what finally became of him. The California State Library has searched the records of the special census made in California in 1852 without finding him listed. 31Mr. Stanley S. Ivins has kindly examined for me the original 1850 census returns for Utah to develop information about Simpson Emmett. Since this census was not made in Utah Territory until 1851, it fortunately corraled him in Weber County, under the name Moses S. Emmet. The data there appear as follows: Moses S. Emmet, age 26, born in Kentucky Catherine D. 28 Indiana REMINISCENCES OF JAMES HOLT 165 son Emmett had married Catherine Overton, sister to my wife. I took his farm, giving him $200 for it and if I could sell it in the future for a larger price, I was to give him the remainder when I met him in the Valley, as I contemplated going there as soon as I could conveniently. In the spring of 1852 I made calculations to go to Salt Lake Valley where the Saints were gathering. I tried to sell my place, but could only get $350 for it, including the farm I had got from Emmett. I sold to William Holloway, but he was to pay me extra for everything else that I left and couldn't sell, but when I got ready to start he would not pay me another cent, and I had to leave about 300 bushels of corn in the crib, a stack of oats, a smoke house full of meat, seven stands of bees, and several other things. But he never received much benefit from it himself, for he bought a band of horses and started with them a year or two after to California, thinking to get quite a sum for them, but when he got on the Humboldt a little over half-way, he was killed by the Indians.32 Iowa was a very unhealthy place, my family was sick a great deal, and I myself was greatly afflicted with the ague [malaria], I don't think that I could have survived much longer had I con­ tinued to stop there, but the Lord saw fit to bring upon me those afflictions in order that I might be gathered with the Saints. We started about the middle of July and went on Keg Creek about

Dorcas E. 4 Indian Territory [Nebraska?] Ellen 2 Iowa James S. 8/12 Deseret [Utah] Phoebe 44 North Carolina Marinda 6 Illinois Catherine 2 Iowa Presumably Phoebe was the wife of James Emmett, and Marinda and Catherine were his two youngest daughters. Mr. Ivins adds that in the 1880 census Moses S., now 56 years old, was living in Kane County with his wife Cather­ ine and a young wife, Electa J., age 27, no children. In another house was Emma J. Emmett, age 27, born in California, with two small children. Ac­ cording to the MS. journal of James L. Bunting, James S. Emmett was living in Kanab, Utah, during 1893-95. Perhaps this was the grandson of James Emmett. 32The massacre of the Holloway Party on the Humboldt was a celebrated event of 1857; see the account in William Audley Maxwell, Crossing the Plains, Days of '57 (San Francisco, 1915), 62-75. Holloway was killed, and his wife was scalped alive. Maxwell, who reproduces a picture of Mrs. Holloway obtained through "the kindness of Mr. William Holloway, of Fairfax, Missouri," identifies her as "Mrs. Nancy Holloway, wife of Smith Holloway." Perhaps Holt was mistaken in the name, or the man's full name may have been William Smith Holloway. 166 UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY eight miles. I left some of my stock, including a yoke of steers, and my three eldest children, who were to stop and see to things until the next morning. I was calculating to go back after them, but somehow I felt a presentiment that something would happen to tbem and I couldn't rest, so I took my team, just previously un­ loaded, and started back about dark; I got back before day, and I learned that William Alma, the youngest of the three, had broken his arm. Those steers before mentioned were yoked together and left in the corral, and while his sister was milking the cows, William got to climbing upon their backs (they being of very gentle disposition). He was thrown off; his arm was broken be­ tween the wrist and elbow. His wrist and elbow were both put out of joint. The joints had both been set and the arm splinted by those who had bought the place. I now started back to Keg Creek taking my children and all my effects which I could take. I arrived before night. The next day I got an old lady to attend to my son's arm. In a day or two I started again, and got as far as Mosquito where I stopped about one week waiting for Dr. William Smith to get ready to accom­ pany me. This Smith was not a Mormon; he was going to Cali­ fornia and wished to cross the plains with as small a company as possible on account of sickness, as it was a very bad year for cholera. We were also joined by a brother, Levi [Lewis?], who was going to the Salt Lake Valley. We now, being all ready, started on our long and tedious journey of over one thousand miles across the great plains where there was no civilization, in a country that was infested by savages. There were only three families of us nearly the whole of the journey. We crossed the Missouri River on the 27th of July. We got to Ash Hollow in two days, having traveled all night the second night, as there was a camp of Indians on the South Fork.33 The doctor thought it wiser to travel in the night in order to get as far from them as possible. The next day we traveled only seven miles. On the next morning, which was the 31st, my son Franklin

88There is an obvious inaccuracy in Holt's memory here. It was 188 miles from Fort Kearny to Ash Hollow, to say nothing of the distance from the Missouri River to Fort Kearny. The road usually taken west of Fort Kearny, along the south bank, went up the Platte and South Platte, then across the latter river and 19 miles north to reach the North Platte at Ash Hollow. REMINISCENCES OF JAMES HOLT 167

O. was born, and on the next day, August 1, we continued our journey. Most of our traveling this year was on the north side of the Platte,34 so we took the south, thinking it would be the most healthful, as there was a great deal of cholera on the north route. We had no sickness to amount to anything during the whole trip (although a great many of those ahead and behind us were dying of cholera, and it was more serious on the other route), and we had no trouble with the Indians. One morning after we had got under traveling way, there was an alarm of Indians, and looking to the left on a hill, we beheld a large company of Indians. When we arrived opposite them, they came down ahead of us blocking the road. There were about 500 of them, and many of the people began to fear that this was their last day, and I expect the doctor began to see, in imagination, his scalp dangling in the belt of some dusky savage, for he was a natural-born coward; but his scalp was safe for the present he- cause the Indians, seeing our small number, thought we were brave and they have always got a great respect for a brave person.35 Therefore they spread down their blankets and we gave them a little flour, sugar, and coffee, and a little of such things as we could spare. They then opened the road for us to pass. Some of them went with us for a day or two and helped us drive our cattle, and treated us with great respect. There was another alarm of Indians when we were in a very unsafe place, as the Indians in that part of the country were a very bloodthirsty set. It occurred one evening after we had camped. In the distance we saw a lone horseman making his way toward us. We soon found it to be an Indian so the doctor thought he would start a little strategy to frighten him away, for he had no doubt but what he was sent for a spy. There was a boy in the camp, one of brother Lewis's sons, who had a very freckled face. The doctor had him get in the wagon as quick as possible, he then put a little flour on the boy's face, and put him in bed

34A special effort was made in 1852 to vacate the Mormon lands in Iowa and bring to Utah all the Saints not yet "gathered," with the result that the immigration this year was extremely large. Down to this time most Mormon companies traveled up the north side of the Platte, as far as Fort Laramie. 35The Indians were probably Pawnees but may have been Sioux. Neither tribe was up to much mischief along the trail at this period, contenting itself with minor pilfering, and Holt, here unable to speak with the Indians, was reasoning from false premises about their intentions and attitudes. 168 UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

between two sheets. He looked almost like a corpse. The Indian came up and the doctor told him we had smallpox in that wagon. The Indian took one look at the boy and struck for the plain for dear life. He thought sure the boy had smallpox, and they were afraid to death of the disease. The doctor gained his point and we never saw the Indian after that for two or three weeks. We never had trouble with Indians while we were on our journey. We had nothing serious occur any further, but it was a very serious journey. Many times we had to travel way into the night and sometimes all night to reach water. We finally arrived in Salt Lake Valley and went about 45 miles north of Salt Lake City, to the bend of the Weber River, in Weber County, where Simpson Emmett lived. We arrived there on the 27th of October, being just three months on the way. 3 built me a house close to the Emmetts, where we stopped during (the winter. We had not been here long when my wife took sick with the mountain fever, and continued to be [sick] most of the winter, being so low that her child could not nurse and had to be raised by hand. My eldest daughter, Mary Ann, was also taken sick with the same complaint, and the rest of us had our hands full. It kept me busy tending the sick; my son, LeRoy, did the housework, and William tended the smaller children. My wife's sister, Simp­ son Emmett's wife, did what she could for us, but she had small children and she didn't have much spare time. My wife hung between life and death for several days, but the Lord again blessed us with health when the spring returned. Before spring I went up to North Ogden and bought a farm from Aaiff [Asa or Ira?] Rice, for three hundred and fifty dollars, selling some cattle to make the first payment. The place was about ten miles from where I wintered and six miles from Ogden City, which at that time consisted of only a few farms, with people living upon their own farms. I raised a very good crop. In the fall [1853] the people of different parts of Utah (which was the name of Salt Lake County) ,36 were counseled by Brother Brigham

36A curious remark. "The Valley," meaning the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, was more or less synonymous among the Mormons outside Utah with the Utah country, but "Utah" as a name has never been restricted to Salt Lake County, nor did Brigham Young's advice about fort-building apply very largely to that county. REMINISCENCES OF JAMES HOLT 169 to build forts, in order to protect themselves against Indians. The people of North Ogden selected a place which was north [of] and joining upon my farm, so it didn't put me to the trouble of moving. This place was presided over by Bishop Thomas Dunn. The people of the place began to gather, and it was not long before we had a settlement, but the wall around it was never built because the Indians around here were not considered very troublesome, and the settlement was laid off in the form of a town, with building lots and streets of right angles.37 Along sometime in the fall of the same year, which was 1853, my children took the whooping cough, and Joseph succumbed to the disease and died in November, after much suffering. He was a very bright boy for his age and we missed him greatly. In a week from his death our youngest child also died from the same disease. It was a girl of two months. During the winter, I was or­ dained to the office of a High Priest, under the hands of Bishop Dunn, and appointed as one of his counselors. In February, 1854, we had another girl who only lived one week. During the summer of 1855 I built a more comfortable home. In October the same year, my eldest daughter, Mary Ann, was married to William Barker. During the summer there was very little grain raised, a great deal of the wheat being smut, and

37For some account of North Ogden, see Utah Historical Records Survey, WPA, Inventory of the County Archives of Utah, No. 29, Weber County (Ogden, 1940), 12, 18, and Milton R. Hunter, ed., Beneath Ben Lomond's Peak (Salt Lake City, 1945), 175-89. It was settled in the fall of 1850 and spring of 1851; twenty families wintered on the site in 1851-52, including Thomas Dunn and Ira Rice. In the work first cited, Thomas Dunn's journal is quoted as follows concerning the fort at North Ogden: "... A site was selected in our Ward convenient to most of the farms; yet the task of building a fort was considered hard by many, consequently the work progressed rather slowly .... In the summer of 1855 considerable was said in regard to the breaking up of our fort and moving to Ogden City but in the latter part of the summer. President Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and Jedediah M. Grant and about twenty others called at my house and dined, they being on their way to Malad Valley to establish a territorial line .... President Young said to me: 'Go to and build your fort and build good houses, then I will come up and give you a new name.' This put the question at rest with regard to our moving to Ogden and most of the people seemed satisfied." All the people moved their houses to the fort site, arranging them in a square, but the fort wall was never fully completed. After a visit to the settlement in December, 1854, Wilford Woodruff wrote that the fort wall was to enclose 140 rods by 47, and to be built of stone, to be 4 feet thick, 10 feet high, and laid in mortar. Deseret News, December 11, 1854, p. 157. It was characteristic of most of the forts north of Utah Valley that the fort walls were never completed. 170 UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY a great amount was destroyed by crickets and grasshoppers, and many people suffered greatly for want of food before another har­ vest. During the winter the snow fell quite deep, causing thou­ sands of cattle to die. I lost all of mine but one yoke of oxen, one heifer, and a horse. That winter has been known as the "hard winter," and it surely deserves the name, for it was hard for both man and beast.38 In the fall [summer] of 1857 the government sent an army to destroy the Saints. Our President (at that time Governor of Utah), Brigham Young, called out an army to prevent them from coming into the Valley. They were not to go against them in battle, but to act as skirmishers to prevent the enemies from coming in. My two eldest sons were out in most of those skir­ mishes. Finally, Brigham gained his point, and kept our enemies from entering until spring. When the difficulty was amicably settled by the peace commission sent to him by the government, Brigham agreed to let them enter if they would not stop within forty miles of Salt Lake City. But as we had been betrayed many times by government, Brigham couldn't trust them, so he issued a proclamation to the Saints in the north to move south. They were all required to move sixty miles south of Salt Lake City, a group of men were left in each settlement to set fire to every thing, at the word of command from our headquarters, which should be given if our enemies should break their promise. But for once they kept faith with us and passed through the deserted Salt Lake City and went west forty-five miles.39 I moved my family to Springville, which was about fifty-five or sixty miles south of Salt Lake City. Here my son, George A., was born on the 28th of May. After the army passed through, we were permitted to return to our homes. I found a very good crop of volunteer wheat grow­ ing on my farm. Although not having saved much grain, the Lord did permit me to reap a good harvest. During the previous

38The winter of 1855-56 is still remembered in the annals of Ogden as "the hard winter"; see Utah Historical Records Survey, WPA, A History of Ogden (Ogden, 1940), 34; Hunter, op. cit, 182. 89This account of the "Utah War" of 1857-58 is characteristic of the Mormon memory of the affair, but is not otherwise valuable. See, e.g., Utah Historical Quarterly, XIII, xii-xiii, 1-30; and XXII, 297-320. Or, for a more general account, Dale L. Morgan, The Great Salt Lake (Indianapolis, 1947), 261-68. REMINISCENCES OF JAMES HOLT 171

winter, my eldest son, LeRoy, married Ellen Lowe, daughter of John and Ann Lowe. In July, 1859, my son William A. married Sarah Wardle, daughter of John and Sarah Wardle. During this summer I resigned as the Bishop's Counselor. I will here state that I responded to every call in the line of my duty while I was acting in that office and many times I have neglected my own work to attend to tithing matters and also the Bishop's individual work, while he was neglecting his duties and spending his time in pleasure. My house was also a home for the poor, having kept at my house and provided for many people. There was never a winter that I did not have one to one-half dozen people to provide for besides my own family. In the fall of 1860 I concluded to sell out, as it was getting very hard to get wood, and not having any team but a yoke of young steers which, with a few other things taken in considera­ tion, I concluded to sell my place and the following spring went to Ogden Valley, eastward about fifteen or twenty miles, and took up a farm, and moved to the same.40 I put in a crop, but I was very late. I soon sold this place and bought another in the north end of the valley [Eden vicinity] upon which I moved. I cut a few tons of hay, but during the winter it rained very severely for several days and spoiled almost all the hay in the valley. The snow also fell quite deep, and the cattle suffered great­ ly. This valley was very cold, and the grain all got frosted before it was ripe, so I thought this no place for me, and there having been a call for volunteers to go south about 350 miles where the climate was warm enough to raise cotton, I concluded to go.41

40Ogden Valley, which had been known to the mountain men as Ogden Hole, was used as a herdground by Weber County settlers from about 1856, but permanent settlement was not begun until the fall of 1859, when a few families came in by way of North Ogden Canyon and located on the site of Eden. A year later, a toll road having meanwhile been completed through Ogden Canyon, Jefferson Hunt and some other settlers established themselves on the site of Huntsville, which became the chief town in the valley. Some seven families are said to have wintered at Huntsville in 1860, joined by at least twelve others the following spring. Utah Historical Records Survey, WPA, Inventory of the County Archives of Utah, No. 29, Weber County, 21-22; Hunter, op. cit, 239-65. 41The outbreak of the Civil War, which cut off the supply of raw cotton from the South, led the Mormon authorities in the fall of 1861 to send a "Cotton Mission" to the Virgin River Valley in southwestern Utah, where cotton had been grown experimentally since 1855. St. George was founded by this mission. In the fall of 1862, additional volunteers were called for, and it was at this time that Holt responded. 172 UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

So I sold my place here, and started in the summer of 1862, my son, William, taking his family and going with me. I bought a farm and settled in Washington, but only farmed here two seasons, having very poor land, also having to haul our cotton and molasses fifty or a hundred miles north to exchange for grain, as this was a very poor grain country. Here I also lost another child, a girl of about two years of age.42 We had another son born here on the 26th of October, 1864, whom we called Henry D.43 Having heard a great deal about Long Valley, which was situated east about eighty miles, I went to take a look at it, and it seemed to be a very good place which the people were just settling up. I took up a farm, sold out in Washington, and moved to Long Valley in February, 1865. I cleared off a few acres of land and built a house and put in a crop.44 In the summer there was quite an excitement about the Indians,45 and we were re­ quired to fort up, so I moved to the fort, which was about two miles from my place.46 I lived there two months, then as the Indians seemed to be peaceable, I moved back upon my farm. During my spare time I built myself a house in the fort. I har­ vested a good crop and in February, 1866, I moved my family back to the fort. I rented a farm and put it in also, in my own land, which was cleared, having no help but my son Franklin, who was only fourteen years [old].

42The fearful infant mortality that prevailed on the American frontier is well evidenced by James Holt's story. This is the ninth death he has re­ corded among his children. *3A biographical sketch of Henry Davis Holt, written by Donald K. Walker on the basis of an interview with him in 1941, is in the WPA Col­ lection of the Utah State Historical Society. 44Long Valley, the upper valley of the Virgin River, was first settled in 1864; in June of the next year, Erastus Snow found 28 families scattered along the river over a distance of 15 miles. James G. Bleak, Annals of the Southern Utah Mission, MS., typed copy in Utah State Historical Society library. Book A, 130, 175. *5The Black Hawk War with the Utes, which broke out in the summer of 1865 and continued intermittently for three years. It forced the temporary abandonment of a number of settlements on the Sevier and Virgin rivers in south-central Utah. *eThis fort was at what was then called Berryville, now Glendale. The settlers were instructed to build such a fort in a circular ietter sent by Erastus Snow from Virgin City November 12, 1865. John W. Berry reported,at a conference in St. George on May 4, 1866 "that the Fort which President Erastus Snow, six months ago, instructed the settlers of Berryville to build, was completed two weeks before he, Berry, had left there to come to con­ ference." Bleak, op. cit, 190-91, 207. REMINISCENCES OF JAMES HOLT 173

In June we got a letter from Erastus Snow, who was one of the Twelve and the President of the southern part of Utah [i.e., the Southern Mission], to move out where we would be safe from the Indians, as they were again at a point of breaking out, so we all moved out.47 I moved to Virgin City, and camped on the river and under a cottonwood tree for eight weeks. During that time I built a house in Virgin City, and moved in. Now we wished to go back and harvest our grain, and I hauled one load out and went back after another, and gathered the rest of my crop, such as squash and other produce. My son Franklin was with me. In company with the others we started out with another load. We had only got about twenty-five miles. We camped on the river on the foot of the big hill. We had got all the wagons up it the day before, all but the provision wagon, and on this morning we were getting these down and up the next hill, when the Indians came upon us. There were three wagons going down with three span of horses to each wagon. The teamsters only had time to get out three horses before they were run away. The Indians then unhitched the rest of the horses, and took them, but while they were unhitching, the men went toward them and fired and shot one man, giving him a flesh wound, which caused them to return to camp. Along about noon Indian Mose (who professed to be a friend­ ly Indian), was back there fighting the Navajoes,48 which we then

47On May 2, 1866, Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and Daniel H. Wells wrote Erastus Snow and the Bishops and Saints of Washington and Kane counties that many of the southern settlements were too weak to resist Indian attack or to prevent the running off of their stock. They urged that these small settlements be abandoned, the settlers to repair as soon as possible to places that could be readily defended, and possessing the necessary ad­ vantages to sustain a heavy population. On receipt of this letter in St. George, about May 20, it was decided that Long Valley should be vacated. "Conse­ quently the settlers there were advised to cease planting corn Go, and the settlers of that Valley who had previously resided in Washington and Kane County settlements were advised to go back to these settlements." Under the direction of John W. Berry and Lorenzo H. Roundy this evacuation of Long Valley was carried out in June, 1866. Ibid, 209-12, 221-23. 48According to a statement by Erastus Snow in 1869, the first Navaho raid on the Mormon settlements was made at Kanab, in the fall of 1864, and a second raid, at Pipe Springs in January, 1866, was so successful that many others followed. See Erastus Snow to Capt. R. N. Fenton, St. George, No­ vember 17, 1869, in National Archives, Records of the Bureau of Indian Af­ fairs, Letters Received, New Mexico Superintendency, filemark J-205/1869. But James G. Bleak has an allusion in March, 1864, to Navaho horse-stealing during the previous fall and winter, before the founding of Kanab. The theft 174 UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

believed to be the Indians creating all the disturbances, and he wished some of us to go back and help him. Six men started back, and when they got about half way they stopped to listen. All was still, and fearing they were being led into a trap, they returned to camp. Along about dusk, Mose came again and told us we would be killed if we stopped here during the night, for there were a heap of Navajoes coming, and we had better take the trail. I told them that if there was a lot of Navajoes coming, they would surely watch the trail. John Berry, being captain, advised us to go down the creek to Virgin City, so we started. Mose now shouted to another friendly Indian to go and get some buckskin, and he said something else which our interpreter, William Berry, could not understand. We had not gone far when we spied a fire on the mountains to our right. William Berry asked the Indian Mose what it meant. He said it was where the Indians had camped and had left a stick burning. After we got opposite the light, we heard a dog give a yelp as if it was struck, and we had not gone far until an oppressive feeling came over me. I asked Brother Smith how he felt, and he said about the same as I did. I then asked William Berry who was ahead of me how he felt, and he said he did not feel like all was right. I told him to tell John Berry, who was ahead, to stop. He did so. I then told them if we went much farther on this route we were going, we would all be massacred, for I felt like it was going to be a slaughter house. I then told them that if we would only go back to the fort there would be help sent to assist us before another day passed. Berry did not want to go back to the fort, but he concluded to turn back, take another trail and go by [way of] Colob. We did so and arrived home safely, after traveling all night and three days. But as I had predicted, if we had gone any farther down the creek, we would have been massacred,49 for Mose, the Indian, at Kanab apparently occurred about April, 1865. There was another raid in this locality in December of the same year, and one on a ranch near Pipe Springs January 8, 1866. Bleak, op. cit. 134-36, 167, 193-95. Some of the other Indian incursions after this time appear to have been carried out by Utes and Paiutes who were glad to let the Navahos bear the onus, as Holt indicates. 49The memory must have weighed on the minds of all these men that on April 2, 1866, two brothers of John W. and William Berry, Joseph and Robert (together with the latter's wife, Isabella), were murdered by Indians REMINISCENCES OF JAMES HOLT 175 was a traitor, and also, as I predicted, a company came to the fort next day to our assistance, but not finding us there, they went to where we had left our wagons and emptying our wheat all out on the ground, they hitched up our teams and took everything else we had brought to the settlement. They seemed to think our goods was public property, for I never got anything but my team and wagon, but I felt that the hand of the Lord was over us, and I felt to thank him for preserving our lives. In the month of February, 1867, I moved to the Mountain Meadows, which was north [northwest] of Washington about forty miles.50 I rented a farm from Simpson Emmett, who had moved from the north some years previous and lived there.

[Thus ends the story of the first sixty-three years of James Holt's life, as told to his son, William. The remaining twenty- seven years are told by a granddaughter, Mary Ann Cottam Miller.]

When James Holt moved to the Mountain Meadows in 1867, there had been established a small settlement named Hamblin in honor of Jacob Hamblin who, in the early 1850's, established a ranch at the north end of the Meadows to care for his cattle interests and to assist emigrants passing on their way to Califor­ nia.51 These people, when reaching Cedar City, traveled the route which turned west onto the Escalante Desert until reaching while en route from Spanish Fork to Berryville via Pipe Springs and Kanab; they were killed soon after leaving Short Creek. Bleak, op. cit., 207. 50What had been known in the days of the Spanish Trail as the Vegas de Santa Clara became the Mountain Meadows after the Mormon occupation of Utah. A famous recruiting place on the trail to and from southern Cali­ fornia, the Meadows became tragically famous for the massacre which took place there in September, 1857; see Juanita Brooks, The Mountain Meadows Massacre (Stanford, 1950). Overgrazing in subsequent years, and consequent erosion of the Mountain Meadows, has been examined in Walter P. Cottam, "Man as a Biotic Factor, illustrated by Recent Floristic and Physiographic Changes at the Mountain Meadows, Washington County, Utah," Ecology, October, 1929; and in Walter P. Cottam and George Stewart, "Plant Suc­ cession as a Result of Grazing and of Meadow Desiccation by Erosion Since Settlement in 1862," Journal of Forestry, August, 1930. "See Pearson H. Corbett, Jacob Hamblin, The Peacemaker (Salt Lake City, 1952), 96-97. Hamblin obtained the grant of the Mountain Meadows as a herdground in 1856; it was his purpose "to care for his cattle interests," as also those of the Southern Indian Mission, but not necessarily "to assist emi­ grants passing on their way to California." 176 UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY what was called Pinto Canyon, then along the water course to where later the town of Pinto was located. From there the road turned west, crossing over the divide52 into the Meadows. It was along this highway route that the town [hamlet] of Hamb­ lin was located. To the east of the town was a small spring, which had spread over the Meadows and now was used by the settlers for culinary purposes and to irrigate gardens and orchards. The Meadows extended five or six miles, divided into two distinct parts by a higher body of rich soil forming the dividing line. This line was about the center of the valley and divided the flow of water, that to the north running out a draw, or canyon, later known as Holt's, onto the Escalante Desert; while the south drain­ age formed the head of the Magotsu, a tributary of the Santa Clara Creek. At the extreme end of each of these fertile valleys were large meadows where travelers, on their way to California, often stopped to rest and graze their teams, to prepare them for the long hard trip over the desert just ahead to the south and west. On these meadows great quantities of wild hay were cut by the travelers to carry on their way and by the farmers and stock growers to provide feed for their cattle and teams during the winter. James Holt was one of these farmers. The Meadows like all other places where the farmers extended their acreage, plowing up that which nature had provided for preserving the soil from erosion, had reached down to the narrow channel of the canyon. The loose soil began to give way to the runoff waters carrying away the precious soil. Soon deep gullies were formed by drawing off the water which had provided underground irrigation for the meadows. At Hamblin no effort was made to stop this continual washing until all of the fertile farm lands were gullied deeper and the land became unproductive. James Holt, who had been a renter of the farm of Simpson Emmett, saw the inevitable result, and realizing what would eventually come to the town of Hamblin, he followed the water down the canyon to the north, where it opened out onto the desert. He diverted the small stream onto a garden plot along the stream and planted an orchard of apple trees. By 1875 the stream of water had increased to such an extent that he prepared to establish his home at what was to be known

52The divide here was the Rim of the Great Basin. REMINISCENCES OF JAMES HOLT 177

as Holt's Ranch. First he built a log house but later he built a four- room rustic lumber house. When his two younger sons married, they built nice, red brick houses. Here was to be carried on the extensive farming, cattle, sheep, and horse growing operations of James Holt and sons, "Whose place by the side of the road was to become a friend to man"; and here were cared for the many travelers who passed this way. Many passed by who were not able to pay for the southern hospitality extended to them. As the flow of water increased in the creek, a large reservoir was made, collecting all the runoff water. Canals were provided, conducting the streams of water to large tracts of land out on the desert. Here huge crops of grain were raised. The production increased to the extent that at harvest time a group of harvest hands had to be hired for cutting and binding the grain crops. At threshing time the threshing machine would come from Pinto and as the yield increased this service was provided from Pine Valley. The crew of hired men and the large teams which ran the horse power had to be cared for, sometimes for a week. With a large supply of grain and hay, the ranch was able to care for the hundreds of travelers going to and from the mining camps of Nevada, also over the desert road which was used by the teams hauling freight from the [then] railroad terminal of Milford to the towns in Washington County. A large number who sought the hospitality of the ranch were those passing between the noted mining camp of Pioche, Nevada, and Silver Reef. Coming in contact with these travelers, James was imbued with the idea that there was more wealth in search­ ing for the hidden mines than there was on the farm. He became very much interested in a ledge he felt sure was a mine of rich gold. He was anxious to tell people coming his way about his find. One day a man came to the door and was invited in, as was the Holt custom. The host in the course of conversation told his visitor about the possibility of a fine mining district. The visitor listened with interest then asked to give some advice. He said for James Holt to have nothing to do with mines or mining, for if he did, his sons would leave him and he would lose them; but if he kept the farms and farm interests, they would stay with him and become prominent citizens, leaders, and bishops. Who the visitor was, where he came from, or where he went no one knew. As long as James Holt lived, he was convinced the 178 UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

visitor was a divine personage53 sent to warn him, as he stressed the fact that wealth was to be found in the family with their vast herds of cattle, bands of horses, productive farms and miles of pasturage; and later he saw the fulfillment of the promises made relative to the accomplishments of his sons. He was so im­ pressed by the visit he had received that he never again gave thought to mines or mining. Instead he turned to the work of his fine orchard of apples, peaches, plums, and currants, the grain and lucerne fields, the fine garden of vegetables and melons- all of which had been neglected. Now he thought of the many things to be done to improve his home. He and the boys built better corrals and sheds with pens for his sheep and all animals which should be protected from wild animals; they built a fine large granary for the grain, a nice cellar for the milk, butter, and cheese, a pit in which to store the vegeta­ bles for winter, and a potato pit. He could spend more time teach­ ing the group of Indians which lived on the ranch. He gave them a piece of land and taught them to make a garden similar to his, he furnished them the seed and helped them to plant and irrigate until they could do for themselves. He talked their language to them and they loved him. During the boom days of Pioche, hundreds of teams hauling to and from the camp made Holt's Ranch the main stopping place. Here teams were fed and drivers could buy milk, butter, cheese, eggs, at times beef and pork, and during the summer, vegetables, fruits, and melons. There was no cafe, but many a hungry person was given a meal. During the summer months many cows were milked and butter and cheese was made. In the 1880's when the ranch was doing a good business financially the Holts spent much means on genealogy. They pur­ chased a Holt family book at a great price. This book contained the list of the Holt ancestors back to early Massachusetts days.

53This divine personage was construed by the family to have been one of "the Three Nephites," believed by Mormons to have been ancient apostles of Christ left on the American continent to await the Second Coming. See Hector Lee, The Three Nephites: The Substance and Significance of the Legend in Folklore (Albuquerque, 1949). The Utah State Historical Society has in its files two somewhat more extended versions of James Holt's singular experience, written by his granddaughters, Ada Cottam Pace and Maggie Cottam Petty. REMINISCENCES OF JAMES HOLT 179

After purchasing the book, they paid large sums to have the fami­ lies it contained assembled into large record books.54 The temple in St. George had been completed,55 and during the winter months James and wife left the ranch in the care of the sons while they spent their time doing work for their kindred dead in the temple. Few men are privileged to live a life of near ninety years so full of hardships, pioneering, home building and farm making as James Holt. However, he did not live to see all the promises made by the stranger he felt to be a divine messenger, relative to his three youngest sons, fulfilled. The eldest son married and lived at Hamblin a short time, when he was called to Gunlock to preside over the people there as bishop. Franklin Overton Holt became as a father to the people of Gunlock for many years. George Albert was called to Hebron to preside as bishop. He was later asked to move to Enterprise, a new town,56 where he helped the people financially in addition to being bishop and adviser for them. Hundreds of people have received of his help and generosity. Henry Davis, the youngest, helped pioneer the town of Central and was its bishop. Thus all three sons of James Holt became leaders and bishops among the people. James Holt died at his ranch January 24, 1894. He was buried in the family cemetery on the hillside overlooking the ranch home.

"Baptisms for the dead, "sealings," and vicarious marriage ceremonies, to bring dead ancestors within the pale of church membership and invest them with all privileges of the hereafter, are a strong motive force in the Mormon pursuit of genealogical information. 55It was completed in 1877 in time to be dedicated by Brigham Young, the first Mormon temple to be completed in Utah. 56The abandonment of Hebron in favor of a new site at Enterprise is one of the most dramatic tales in the history of Mormon community-building; it has been well told by Nels Anderson, Desert Saints (Chicago, 1942), 383-86.