CEDAR CITY — Isaac C. Haight, noted Mormon pioneer and Cedar City’s first mayor, was reburied on Saturday in his former hometown alongside three of his five wives, just over 137 years after his death.

“In all honesty, this is a day I never thought would happen,” descendant Lane Peterson said as he delivered his welcoming remarks before dozens of people gathered at Cedar City Cemetery for the hourlong graveside service.

“I do apologize if I’ve not been able to contact every descendant,” Peterson said. “There are thousands of us. And I’m grateful for all those who donated and assisted to make this day a reality.”

Haight’s remains, which had been reduced to an assortment of bone fragments, were disinterred on Sept. 6 at a cemetery in Thatcher, Arizona, where Haight died on Sept. 8, 1886, at age 73. 

Ten days after the disinterment, in Cedar City, Haight’s bones were contained in a small white casket adorned with a large bouquet of yellow flowers next to the grave in front of Haight’s stone marker, which had also been transported from Thatcher.

“There is one vacant spot, here next to these three wives, where it was believed that Isaac was to be buried,” Peterson said as he addressed the crowd of approximately 125 people, many of them descendants of Isaac Haight. 

“And today, 137 years later, we, the Haight descendants, are finally fulfilling their family’s wishes,” he added.

“A few years ago, when I first learned of Isaac’s wishes, and the wishes of his family, to be reunited, even if in death, I began to wonder how we could make this happen,” Peterson said as he went on to mention the assistance provided by morticians Mark Vining in Thatcher and Jeff Mosdell in Kanab, along with Cedar City Cemetery sexton Ferl Chamberlain, who helped dig the new grave by hand.

The entire operation, which cost nearly $9,000, was funded entirely through private donations, Peterson said afterward.

Peterson concluded his remarks by reciting a short poem titled “Ancestors,” written by Sarah Haight Arthur, one of Issac C. Haight’s many granddaughters. The second stanza reads as follows:

If you could see your ancestors all standing in a row,

There might be some of them, perhaps, you wouldn’t care to know.

But there’s another question that requires a different view.

If you could see your ancestors, would they be proud of you?

During his remarks, Cedar City Mayor Garth O. Green, the city’s 43rd mayor, said his predecessor had no sooner returned to Iron County from a mission to England than he went straight to work. 

After rattling off several of Haight’s accomplishments that he achieved shortly after taking office, Green quipped, “That’s the first three months. Now, that just makes me tired.”

“I cannot imagine being a mayor, a stake president and a major in the military, all at the same time, at a time of war,” Green said. “And trying to do that 24/7, 365 days a year, in a desert and a rather difficult area.”

Although Green didn’t mention the Mountain Meadows Massacre by name, he did call Sept. 11, 1857 “clearly, the darkest day in Cedar City’s history.”

“I’m not going to elaborate or opinionate, or even try to understand,” Green said as he nevertheless touched on some of the historical circumstances leading up to that tragic event.

“You can arrive at your own conclusions,” Green added. “I hope you do.”

The next speaker was Ryan Paul, a lecturer of history at Southern Utah University.

“The common practice of placing birth and death dates on headstones is great for the genealogist,” Paul said. 

But as a historian, he said it’s the dash in the middle that interests him most.

“Knowing Isaac Haight’s story, as Mayor Green so eloquently mentioned, in all of its complexity, that is what truly makes him human to us,” Paul said. “To me, history is a collection of stories. As historians, we search those stories and look for patterns that provide meaning to our experience in an effort to understand who we are, where we came from, and how we can be our best selves.”

Added Paul:

David McCullough reminds us and just as we don’t know how things are going to turn out for us, those who went before us didn’t either. It’s all too easy to find fault with people for why they didn’t do that, or why they did do this, because we are not involved in it. We are not there inside it. We’re not confronting what we don’t know, as those who preceded us were. This is certainly true in the case of Isaac C. Haight and the whirlwind he found himself in in the fall of 1857.

Ultimately, Paul said, “We would do well to remember that the past was someone’s present, and hopefully, those that come after us will afford us the same courtesy.”

Paul emphasized the importance of learning from the past and building upon those lived experiences to create a better tomorrow.

“In conclusion, it’s my belief that humans make history, but an understanding of history makes humans,” Paul said.

Hal Adams, a retired schoolteacher and a descendant of Isaac Haight, spoke next.

“There’s no place like home. Welcome home, Grandpa Haight,” Adams said. “We’re here to honor you and your life, your final resting place before the glorious morning of the first resurrection.”

Adams talked of Isaac Haight’s lifelong dedication to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

“Brothers and sisters, I’m here to tell you, as a family, we have a great heritage of one of the most valuable servants to bring the gospel forth,” Adams said. “Brigham Young said he stood head and shoulders above those around him and both stature and ability.”

Following Hal Adams’ remarks, his brother Neil Adams then dedicated the grave with a prayer. 

According to the memorial service program, Haight’s progeny includes 21 children, 122 grandchildren and 281 great-grandchildren. More than 100 of his descendants are buried in Cedar City Cemetery, along with Isaac’s first wife Eliza Ann Snyder Haight, his fourth wife Annabella Sinclair MacFarlane Haight and his fifth wife Elizabeth Summers Haight.

The service also featured musical selections by David Lee Williams, who played on guitar and sang two of Isaac Haight’s favorite songs, “The Yellow Rose of Texas” and “I’ll Take You Home Again, Kathleen,” as the prelude and postlude numbers. Williams also performed a rousing and soulful arrangement of “Come, Come, Ye Saints” during the program.

The invocation was given by David Myron Higbee, also a descendant of Isaac C. Haight.

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