Legends of the Old West - ORRIN PORTER ROCKWELL Ep. 4 | “New Zion”

Episode Date: May 8, 2024

New church leader Brigham Young declares that the Saints must go west to find a place where they can worship in peace. Porter Rockwell becomes the lead scout for the great exodus to Utah Territory. The Saints build Salt Lake City and navigate tensions with local Native American tribes. Rockwell acts as a guide for U.S. Army troops and helps establish the Brigham Young’s mail route through the territory. In 1857, Rockwell learns news of a major threat to the LDS church: President James Buchanan is sending 2,500 soldiers and a new governor to take over Utah Territory. The perceived invasion sets the stage for one of the darkest chapters in the history of the American West.   Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join   Apple users join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes, bingeable seasons and bonus episodes. Click the Black Barrel+ banner on Apple to get started with a 3-day free trial.   On YouTube, subscribe to LEGENDS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons. Hit “JOIN” on the Infamous America YouTube homepage. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm4V_wVD7N1gEB045t7-V0w/featured   For more details, please visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com. Our social media pages are: @blackbarrelmedia on Facebook and Instagram, and @bbarrelmedia on Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In September of 1845, the sheriff of Hancock County, Illinois, faced a problem. Hancock County was the home to the towns of Nauvoo and Carthage. Nauvoo was the site of the Mormon settlements, and Carthage was the site of the murder of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hiram. In the aftermath of the murder of the brothers at the Carthage jail, anti-Mormon sentiment in the area was rampant. 45 Mormon homes had been torn down or burned down, and a raiding party had sworn that it wouldn't rest until the whole town of Nauvoo had burned. The sheriff wasn't a Mormon, but he was now

accused of being a Mormon sympathizer when he tried to raise a posse to keep the peace. Friends warned the sheriff that members of the Carthage Greys were after him. The militia unit had guarded Joseph Smith in prison and, some said, had stood by while the killings happened or actually helped in the acts. As the sheriff returned home to Carthage on the morning of September 16, 1845, he saw three mounted men, with five more in a light rig and a two-horse wagon following behind them. He recognized the lead rider as Frank Worrell, lieutenant of the Carthage Greys. Worrell was one of the men who had been assigned to guard Joseph Smith on the night he was killed. Seeing the sheriff approach, Worrell spurred his horse into a gallop. The sheriff turned his mount

and raced away with the Carthage Gray riders in pursuit. As he dashed away, he noticed two men watering their horses by a nearby railroad. He sped toward them and yelled out that he was the sheriff of Hancock County. He ordered them, in the name of the state of Illinois, to protect him from the mob that was chasing him. The two men grabbed their rifles and watched as a couple riders crested the hill. The sheriff shouted at the riders to stop, but they refused to halt. Approaching at breakneck speed, Frank Worrell's hand went for his pistol, but before he could shoot, a ball fired from the rifle of one of the two men

ripped through his abdomen and knocked him from his horse. The sheriff turned to the man holding the rifle, whom he recognized as Oren Porter Rockwell. From Black Barrel Media, this is Legends of the Old West. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer. And this season, we're telling the story of controversial figure Oren Porter Rockwell, the rise of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the infamous Mountain Meadows Massacre. This is Episode 4, New Zion. At Rockwell's trial for the killing of Frank Worrell, the sheriff testified that Rockwell

was following a legal order to defend him, and Rockwell was set free. Rockwell had avenged his friend and the leader of his church, Joseph Smith, and at the same time, Rockwell's arrest and trial served as a distraction while the Mormons in Nauvoo hastily built wagons and sold or abandoned their properties to head west. The great exodus to the desert had begun. In the days after Smith's death, Porter Rockwell had told anyone who cared to listen that the anti-Mormon mob at the Carthage jail had eliminated the only man who could control him. But in the months to come, he would prove that he could be just as loyal and as useful to Brigham Young as he had been to Joseph Smith. Brigham Young, the new head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the rest

of the saints, had fled Nauvoo, crossed the state of Iowa, and then paused on the banks of the Missouri River. There, they regrouped while they waited for the best time to leave for the Rocky Mountains. It was already late in the fall, far too late to attempt to cross the plains and then the mountains before the snow started. Brigham Young and his council decided that an advance party should set off in the spring to find a spot for their new Zion and to blaze a trail for the others to follow. He chose Porter Rockwell as the scout and chief hunter of the advance group, which Young himself would lead. On April 14,

1847, the advance party left what they called Winter Quarters, just north of present-day Omaha, Nebraska, to start the long trek west. In a coincidence they probably knew nothing about, a group of westward travelers had taken a similar path the previous year. They would become known to history as the Donner Party, and one of their captains along the way was Lil' Burn Boggs, the former governor of Missouri and archenemy of Porter Rockwell. the former governor of Missouri and archenemy of Porter Rockwell. In April of 1847, as Rockwell guided the Mormon Advance Party west, the last of three rescue missions was witnessing the horror of the Donner Party camps in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Near the end of May, Rockwell returned from a scout to tell Brigham Young that he had spotted Chimney Rock, a distinctive rock formation in western Nebraska that would soon be a well-known marker for westward travelers. When the party stopped at Scotts Bluff, Nebraska, a few miles beyond Chimney Rock, the group feasted on antelope Porter provided. In early June, they reached Fort Laramie, Wyoming, where they were told that their old nemesis Lilburn Boggs had passed through the area a year earlier on his way to California. The Saints pushed on, and at the end of June, they passed a party heading east that included famous mountain man Jim Bridger.

Bridger had been one of the first white men to see the Great Salt Lake, and he gave the Mormons a wake-up call about the land near the lake that they envisioned as their new Zion. There was no timber to cut down to build homes or fire, the area was full of Ute Indians, and the climate was too cold to grow corn. The travelers were undaunted, and the party pushed on for the Green River. There, a party of saints who had sailed to California and traveled overland from the west arrived to tell Brigham Young that California was ideally suited for their new home. Refusing to be dissuaded, Young pushed his party toward the Great Salt Lake. Porter Rockwell continued to serve as scout and hunter as they

crossed the Green River and passed the Hastings Cut-Off, the fateful trail that helped doom the Donner party. On the afternoon of July 21, 1847, the Advance Party, with Rockwell at the lead, entered Salt Lake Valley. Three days later, Brigham Young and the rest of the company passed through Immigration Canyon and arrived at their new home. As a podcast network, our first priority has always been audio and the stories we're able to share with you. But we also sell merch, and organizing that was made both possible and easy with Shopify.

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selling our beanies, sweatshirts, and mugs to fans of our shows without taking up too much time from all the other work we do to bring you even more great content. And it's not just us. Shopify powers 10% of all e-commerce in the U.S. Shopify is also the global force behind Allbirds, Rothy's, and Brooklinen, and millions of other entrepreneurs of every size across 175 countries. Thank you. Shopify.com slash R-E-A-L-M. Now to grow your business, no matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com slash Realm. For the next year and a half, Porter Rockwell traveled the West on various assignments. He rode with Brigham Young back

across the plains to escort more Mormons to New Zion. He survived trips to California in 1847 and 1848, and after the second one, he again rode east to link up with Brigham Young, who was guiding 1,200 immigrants in nearly 400 wagons across the plains to the Salt Lake Valley. Rockwell learned that Brigham Young had officially been named prophet, seer, and revelator of the church at a council meeting in Iowa the previous winter. In March of 1849, in the first public election held in the Salt Lake Valley, Porter Rockwell was named Deputy Marshal of the Provisional State of Deseret. Brigham Young envisioned a massive territory in the West

as the home of the Mormons that he called the State of Deseret. He petitioned the U.S. government for statehood, but the request was never recognized. And then, one year later, the new U.S. territory of Utah was organized through the law called the Compromise of 1850, which also added the state of California and the territories of Arizona and New Mexico after the Mexican-American War. And while the slow process of politics and territorial organization played out in the background, the saints had more immediate problems in the Salt Lake Valley. Like all white travelers from the East, they had moved to land that was already claimed by someone else. Brigham Young asked Porter Rockwell if he would accompany another Mormon man who understood and

spoke some of the language of the Ute tribesmen to the south. Young hoped the pair could convince the tribe to become their allies. It was an early foray into the serious tension between the Ute tribe and the Mormon settlers. Rockwell and the younger man traveled to the Ute camp. The younger man entered the camp where he was captured and subjected to hours of taunting and physical abuse for his people's theft of Ute camp. The younger man entered the camp where he was captured and subjected to hours of taunting and physical abuse for his people's theft of Ute hunting grounds. Despite being clubbed each time he tried to speak, he eventually convinced the Ute leader to talk with Porter Rockwell, whom he said spoke for their own leader, Brigham Young. Rockwell convinced the Ute leader to trade with the saints and to halt the raids on the settlers. After the successful negotiation, Brigham Young granted Rockwell authority to speak

on his behalf to all tribes in the Great Basin. Rockwell made another trip to California, but after that, he stayed close to Salt Lake for the next five years as tension escalated between a band of Ute under Chief Waukerah and the Mormon settlers. Right around the time the border war known as Bleeding Kansas was beginning on the southern plains, two parties of Mormon negotiators rode toward the chief's camp. Porter Rockwell led one small group and Brigham Young led the other. Porter Rockwell led one small group and Brigham Young led the other. Rockwell and his two companions reached the camp and Rockwell slipped a bottle of whiskey to Chief Waukera. Rockwell hoped the whiskey would loosen up the Chief for the upcoming negotiations, but the plan backfired. When Young and his group arrived later that morning with supplies of flour and beef cattle, the chief was half drunk and sulking. He refused to talk to Brigham Young, but at the same time, the chief

insisted that the Mormons spend the night. Rockwell warned Young that it would be a serious insult to refuse, and Brigham Young agreed to stay. The unexpected extension of their stay presented Rockwell with an opportunity to mend the strained relations that he blamed on the bottle he had given to Waukera. He informed Young that the chief's child was sick, and he explained that it was the sickness and not the drunkenness that had affected the chief. Young gave the sick child medicine and administered to him overnight, and the next morning, the boy showed signs of improvement. The act of kindness changed everything. Chief Waukera was now sober and jubilant, and he agreed to travel with the Mormons as

they moved south. When the groups eventually parted, all seemed well. Rockwell would try to establish a permanent trading caravan between the Ute tribe and the Mormon settlements. But hopes for a lasting peace were dashed before the Mormon emissaries could even make it back to Salt Lake City. When Young and Rockwell and the others arrived, they were greeted with reports of Chief Waukera preparing for war. reports of Chief Waukera preparing for war. Settlers in the town of Nephi, 80 miles south of Salt Lake City and in the domain of Chief Waukera, were working to raise a defensive wall around the city. Chief Waukera took the wall

as a sign of mistrust, and it reignited his fury with the Mormons. Brigham Young acted quickly and dispatched Porter Rockwell with a letter to Waukera, aiming to quell the escalating tensions. Upon their arrival at Nephi, Rockwell and his group found Waukera incensed over the perceived treachery of the wall construction. Waukera's confrontation with the settlers over their actions led to a passionate exchange, where he accused them of preparing for conflict under the guise of seeking peace.

As an interpreter read Young's letter to Waukera, the chief's anger reached its peak. He grabbed the letter, threw it on the ground, and stepped on it as he walked away. It was a vehement declaration of his independence and power. The situation escalated as Waukerah ordered his camp to move, leading to a hurried departure toward Salt Creek Canyon. The small Mormon group was outnumbered by 50 warriors and found itself in a precarious position. In the commotion, Rockwell and his party

were able to retreat behind the walls of Nephi, where they ended up experiencing another dramatic turnaround. The chief, accompanied by his son and a sub-chief, approached the settlement. The sub-chief had convinced Waukera that it was better to have peace and to trade with the Mormons than to fight it out and risk destruction. In the days that followed, the Mormons engaged in tense negotiations with Waukera, navigating through his demands and ensuring the safety of Indian children who were at risk of being sold into slavery. The complex dynamics of the interactions highlighted the fragile balance between peace and conflict in the region,

a peace that Porter Rockwell was instrumental in holding together. The restoration of peace, albeit tenuous, allowed Rockwell to return to his family, which had changed just the day before the trip with Brigham Young to meet Chief Waukera. Rockwell and Young had started their trip on May 4, 1854. The day before, on May 3, Brigham Young had presided over Porter Rockwell's marriage to Mary Ann Neff. Rockwell and his friend John Neff had been granted a land claim for a canyon, Rockwell and his friend John Neff had been granted a land claim for a canyon, and the pair spent months improving the property.

Then, in the first week of May 1854, Rockwell, who was nearly 41 years old, married John Neff's daughter Mary Ann, who was 25. It was Rockwell's third marriage, and part of a dynamic in the early years of the Mormon faith that was nearly as complex as negotiations with Native American tribes. If there was one thing in those years that produced genuine scorn from others, it was the practice of polygamy. Porter Rockwell married his first wife in 1832 in Missouri. Years later, in Nauvoo, she married a man named Alpheus Cutler, president of the church's high council, and she and her children with Porter were sealed to Cutler under the auspices of the church. At the same time, Porter took up with the wife of Amos Davis, a captain of the Nauvoo Legion.

A short time later, Davis was accused of murder, later, Davis was accused of murder, and a local newspaper speculated that the accusation was designed to run Davis out of town in favor of Joseph Smith's close friend, Porter Rockwell. And now, nearly 10 years later and after Rockwell's third marriage, there were more rumors that put the words Rockwell and murder in the same sentence. Some whispered that a man who had been part of the mob that killed Joseph Smith at the jail in Carthage, Illinois, had been beheaded as he traveled through Utah. Rockwell had been in California for two months when the man was killed, but it didn't stop the rumor from spreading. A man who had been passing through the area

heard the rumor and wrote an account for a California newspaper. Readers quickly added the presumed murder, in brutal fashion, to the list of men that Porter Rockwell was said to have killed, and to the lore of the man who was known to some as the Destroying Angel. On the last day of August, 1854, Lieutenant Colonel Edward Steptoe of the U.S. Army rode into Salt Lake City with 300 soldiers. Steptoe had been appointed by President Franklin Pierce to replace Brigham Young as the governor of Utah Territory. The territory had been organized in 1850, and Young became its

first governor in 1851. Now, three years later, Lieutenant Colonel Steptoe assessed the situation and the potential for conflict between the U.S. government and the Mormon settlers. Brigham Young and the LDS Church had established a significant and largely autonomous community in Utah. And because of their previous conflicts with the state governments in Missouri and Illinois and the denial of their appeals for help to President Martin Van Buren and the federal government, the Saints were wary of federal interference in their affairs. Despite his military command and official appointment, Steptoe chose not to assert his authority as governor. He determined that the Mormon faithful would be resistant to his leadership,

and he declined the governorship. While seemingly a gesture of conciliation, the tension of the moment foreshadowed an imminent escalation and the federal government's shift toward a more confrontational approach with Utah, the LDS Church, and Brigham Young. The slow burn of the next three years had begun. Porter Rockwell guided Lieutenant Colonel Steptoe's men on two missions. Steptoe asked Brigham Young for help in apprehending some Ute warriors who had ambushed a survey crew the previous year. The crew had been scouting a path for the Transcontinental Railroad, and warriors had killed Captain John W. Gunnison and seven of his men. Next, Rockwell led Steptoe's men from Salt Lake to California.

Steptoe's quartermaster sent a letter to the quartermaster general that testified to Rockwell's abilities. It said, As a matter of security, another party was organized under Porter Rockwell, a Mormon, but a man of strong mind and independent spirit, a capital guide, and a fearless prairieman. independent spirit, a capital guide, and a fearless prairie man. As Rockwell guided Steptoe and his troops out of Utah and into California, Rockwell took the opportunity to visit his sister Electa, who lived in California's Santa Clara County. He also visited Agnes Coolbreath, and that simple visit ended up having a big impact on Porter Rockwell. and that simple visit ended up having a big impact on Porter Rockwell.

Agnes had been the wife of Don Carlos Smith, Joseph Smith's youngest brother. When Don Carlos died of pneumonia in Nauvoo in 1841, Agnes became the seventh of Joseph Smith's plural wives. Thirteen years later, when Porter visited Agnes, she was recovering from a recent bout of typhoid fever that had caused her to lose all her hair. Joseph Smith had prophesied that Porter Rockwell could not be hurt by bullet or blade if he didn't cut his hair. It had been a decade since Smith said those words, and Rockwell hadn't trimmed a single lock. But seeing his friend's wife lying in bed, sick and bald,

Porter made a decision. He cut his hair short and took his famously long locks to a wig maker who turned Porter's hair into a wig for Agnes Kuhlbreth. When Porter returned to Salt Lake, he was tasked with escorting a group east, including Allman Babbitt, the Secretary of Utah Territory. Again, it was an innocent errand that ended up having a big impact. Babbitt, who was a former Mormon, had been entrusted with congressional funding to build a state house in Salt Lake City that would serve as the seat of the territorial government.

Babbitt was headed for Washington, D.C. to report to the federal government and to return with supplies for the new state house. Eight weeks later, an ox train with cases of books, stationery, supplies, and new carpet for the building set out for Salt Lake, with Babbitt and his party following a few days later. A day out from Fort Kearney, Babbitt and his party found the remains of the wagon train. It had been attacked by Cheyenne dog soldiers, and one man had survived. At the fort, Babbitt ran into Rockwell. Porter went with Babbitt to inspect the site of the attack, where Porter was hired to

refit the supply train and haul the supplies to Salt Lake. Babbitt insisted on setting out immediately, despite the fort's commander warning him that the Cheyenne dog soldiers were still in the area. Days later, Cheyenne warriors attempted to trade goods at Fort Laramie, including a gold watch and ring that belonged to Babbitt. They had killed and scalped Babbitt and his party, and had stolen the goods that were meant for the statehouse. When Porter Rockwell arrived at Fort Laramie with the additional supplies he had been hired to carry, many people assumed that the destroying angel had dressed up as an Indian, painted his face, and killed Babbitt and his party. As wild and as improbable as it sounded, the rumor eventually reached Washington, where concern over the Mormon theocracy in the Utah Territory was rapidly growing.

In the wake of the tragedy that befell Babbitt and his party, a somber air enveloped the region, underscoring the volatile relationship between the Mormon settlers and the surrounding communities. The incident, marked by the loss of life and the misidentification of Rockwell as the perpetrator, fed into a narrative of mistrust and suspicion that stretched all the way to the corridors of power in Washington, D.C. Beyond the rumors of Rockwell's involvement, there were broader concerns about the autonomy and intentions of the Mormon settlement in Utah. It was within that charged atmosphere, where every action was scrutinized and every allegiance was questioned, that the roots of what would eventually be called the Utah War began to

take hold. The origins of the Utah War, often obscured by the drama of military expeditions and frontier skirmishes, trace back to a seemingly mundane aspect of territorial life, mail delivery. Brigham Young saw an opportunity to monopolize the vital mail route between the East and California, so he created the Brigham Young Express and Carrying Company, which was abbreviated BYX. At its foundation, the BYX mail service was two men. Porter Rockwell carried the mail from Salt Lake City to Fort Laramie, Wyoming, and Bill Hickman carried it from the fort all the way to Independence, Missouri. At the end of the inaugural run, Porter arrived back at Salt Lake with the first mail delivery in months,

and one piece of news he carried was particularly concerning for the Saints. William Drummond, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Utah Territory, had submitted his resignation, and he was now publicly criticizing Mormon practices and governance, especially polygamy. He suggested that the federal government finish what it had set out to do with Edward Steptoe several years earlier. It should replace Brigham Young as governor. When the spring snows thawed, Porter Rockwell set off carrying the mail to Fort Laramie, where he found himself thrust into the middle of an oncoming metaphorical storm.

At the fort, Porter was told that there was no mail for the saints. When he asked why, he was informed that President James Buchanan had taken steps based on Drummond's writings. Buchanan had ordered an army to suppress a Mormon rebellion. He had sent another replacement for Brigham Young, and he had sent a full complement of federal officials and 2,500 troops to Salt Lake City to make sure his orders were followed. Porter Rockwell had seen Joseph Smith struck down by armed men who disagreed with his religion. The threat that now faced current church leader Brigham Young was existential, and Rockwell wasn't going to wait in Fort Laramie to see how it played out. Rockwell raced 413 miles back to Salt Lake to

warn Brigham Young of the impending military threat. Upon Rockwell's return and breathless report, the gravity of his news compelled Brigham Young to declare martial law. He prepared the saints for a defensive posture that he hoped would repel the perceived invasion without bloodshed. If that was truly Young's intent, no bloodshed, it turned out to be darkly ironic and terribly tragic. The bloodiest and most infamous chapter in Latter-day Saints history was six weeks away. infamous chapter in Latter-day Saints history was six weeks away. Next time on Legends of the Old West, a wagon train rolls through southern Utah territory on its way to California. The Saints believe the travelers are government spies or are otherwise associated with the army column that is headed for Utah. Fear and suspicion lead to an attack that becomes known as the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

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