ST. GEORGE — When an American Army battalion marched into San Diego, California, on Jan. 29, 1847, the townspeople took notice. The newcomers, dressed in tattered clothing, with not much more than rags to cover their feet, were the emaciated remnants of the Mormon Battalion.
What began as a force of approximately 500 souls – leaving from Council Bluffs, Iowa Territory, six months earlier – had dwindled to about 330 by the time the battalion arrived in Southern California. The Mexican-American War was drawing to its conclusion and the battalion would soon be disbanded.
The Mormon Battalion was a unique U.S. Army infantry unit. It was the only military force in American history that consisted almost entirely of members of one religious group, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The battalion’s mission was straightforward: to support military operations in the war with Mexico. Yet, reaching the theater of operations necessitated a march to the Pacific Ocean, covering more than 2,000 miles.
Although there were deaths during the march, none of the battalion members died in combat. When the battalion was finally discharged – July 16, 1847, in Los Angeles – not one battalion member had fired a shot at an enemy combatant.
Kevin Henson, an avid reader of contemporary, first-person journals of the Mormon Battalion, partially disagrees with this aspect of the battalion’s documented history.
“The battalion indeed was assigned to clear hostile Indians northeast of Los Angeles,” Henson said. “The men record killing about a half-dozen natives. So, while claiming the battalion didn’t engage the Mexican forces is correct, to say (they) didn’t (engage in) combat is not true.”
About 80 veterans and three civilian aides chose to reenlist for another six months after being discharged from military service in Los Angeles.
Whether they reenlisted or left military service, many former battalion members eventually settled in new communities throughout the West. While the exact number of Mormons who enlisted in the battalion in 1846, which would later settle in Washington County, is not well documented, more than a handful of the state’s earliest pioneers chose Southern Utah as home.
Daniel Tyler
Daniel Tyler was born on Nov. 23, 1816, in New York state. He married Ruth Welton on Sept. 11, 1836, and would become the parents of at least 14 children. Following the Mexican-American War, Tyler lived in Beaver, Utah, in 1880 and in the Beaver Election Precinct in 1900. In 1881, Tyler would author “A Concise History of the Mormon Battalion in the Mexican War,” which chronicles the tumultuous events of 1846 to 1847.
During his enlistment in the Mormon Battalion, Tyler kept a vivid account of their doings including the first sight of the Pacific Ocean.
“The joy, the cheer that filled our souls, none but worn-out pilgrims nearing a haven of rest can imagine,” Tyler said. “Prior to leaving … we had talked about and sung about the great Pacific Sea, and we were now upon its very borders. Its beauty far exceeded our most sanguine expectations.”
Following his military service, Tyler was instrumental in enlarging church membership throughout Europe. He was eventually called to serve as mission president to the Italian/Swiss/ German and French missions. Tyler also played pivotal roles in various leadership positions within the church. In 1869, he was called as the first president of the Beaver Stake and later served as patriarch.
Eventually, Tyler was called to Utah’s Dixie.
The Dixie Mission
In the mid-1850s, as the specter of civil war hung over the United States, Brigham Young set out to establish new communities throughout the Utah Territory.
With the goal of creating economic prosperity, Young tasked Indian missionaries in Southern Utah to explore the possibility of growing cotton in the region. When the missionaries reported back the land would support the crop, Young swiftly set plans in motion to colonize the Virgin River Basin.
At first, nearly 40 families, primarily with cotton-growing experience from states like Mississippi, Alabama, Virginia, Texas and Tennessee, arrived in Washington County in April 1857, with more pioneers on the way.
The area they settled became known as “Dixie.”
Utah’s Dixie is a nickname given to the St. George area by the first settlers who were sent there by the church in 1861 to establish a cotton settlement. The settlers chose the name because the warm climate and desire to grow cotton matched the qualities of the American South.
Life was hard for the early settlers. They had to endure the blazing summer heat, water shortages and the lack of essential supplies. To make matters worse, their main source of income — cotton — failed to grow well in the alkaline soil. Many pioneers felt discouraged and desperate. After the Civil War, cotton farming in Utah’s Dixie had become economically unfeasible.
From early childhood, Tyler was quite religious. At age 15, he picked up the Book of Mormon and began to read it cover-to-cover. Despite a “stony expression and military stance,” Tyler was a kind man who loved to share his testimony. When the U.S. government called for men to fight in the Mexican-American War, Tyler joined the battalion, Co. C, eventually earning the rank of Third Corporal – with one reference that Tyler served as Fourth Corporal.
Sgt. Tyler passed away in Beaver on Nov. 7, 1906, just days before his 90th birthday.
Daniel Tyler’s contributions
- Sometime between 1865 – 1871, served as justice of the peace in Beaver.
- November 1872, Ruth became first councilor of the Relief Society then in 1876, was called to be its president.
- December 1873, ordained Patriarch in Beaver Stake. He held other offices at the time.
- July 1877, called to be president of the High Priests Quorum.
- 1900, Daniel sold his Beaver home for $800 and lived with his daughter, Alice Tanner until his death.
Jacob Mica Truman
Jacob Mica Truman, the youngest of five children was born Aug. 30, 1825, not far from the small village of Niagara, New York.
In the summer of 1845, while Brigham Young was preparing to gather Mormons to follow him west, Truman moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, where he was baptized June 10, 1845. During the next spring, Truman and his wife Martha struggled across Iowa to Council Bluffs where semi-permanent camps were made to bivouac the Mormon pioneers. While at Council Bluffs, the call for a battalion of men to assemble was issued and Truman enlisted on July 16, 1846, Co. C, commanded by Capt. James Brown.
After the battalion’s discharge, Truman and approximately 80 former battalion soldiers chose to remain in California and found a job with one of the biggest employers in the region – Johann Augustus Sutter – a Swiss immigrant and an ambitious entrepreneur. In 1848, Sutter was trying to construct a gristmill and a flume. He hired many former battalion members for this project. Jacob Truman’s name appeared on the roster of “Sutter’s Workmen,” but fails to identify what kind of work he performed.
Records kept by Sutter’s clerk reveal, “The Mormons worked as carpenters and laborers, dug ditches, made shoes, tanned hides, built granaries, and a grist mill in Natoma. Others split shingles and clapboards. There were blacksmiths and butchers, farms to be cultivated and animals to be tended.”
January 1848 – Gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill.
“Gold Fever” quickly spread like wildfire and just about everybody dropped what they were doing and started for the gold “in them thar” streams of Northern California.
Truman, caught up in the hysteria of the moment, spent most of that winter panning for gold in the cold streams of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. He returned to Salt Lake the following fall with a small sack of precious metal. At $20.67 per ounce – equivalent to about $830 in 2024 – gold prospecting was a highly profitable venture that literately emerged overnight.
Truman valued his family more than gold and knew when enough was enough. He decided to leave for the Great Salt Lake Valley in early May, along with some of his battalion comrades. However, they had to wait until July 2, when the snow had melted enough to clear the mountain passes.
Oct. 1, 1848 – Truman, and other returning battalion members, arrived in the Great Salt Lake Valley to a warm welcome, but one year later Mother Nature’s wrath would spoil the mood. In 1849, the Salt Lake settlement faced an invasion of crickets that devoured every blade of grass and every stalk of corn. The scarcity of food was so acute that some individuals paid up to $50 for 100 pounds of flour and an equivalent amount for “shorts,” which is a very coarsely ground wheat bran also known as unbolted flour.
Although construction on Sutter’s Mill began months before the Mexican-American War ended, millwright James Marshall continued the work along the South Fork of the American River, roughly 40 miles upstream from present-day Sacramento. During construction Marshall discovered gold.
California Gold Rush
During construction, the workers discovered that the mill’s tailrace did not provide enough water of volume to operate the saws effectively. In order to redirect the flow of water to the mill’s waterwheel, Marshall supervised the excavation of a shallow race or channel to carry the swift current of water to drive the wheel.
Jan. 24, 1848 – In the morning, Marshall was looking over the freshly cut millrace when a twinkle of light caught his eye. Looking closely, Marshall found that some of the race’s surface was speckled with what appeared to be small flakes of gold.
“While we were in the habit at night of turning the water through the tail race we had dug for the purpose of widening and deepening the race, I used to go down in the morning to see what had been done by the water through the night … I picked up one or two pieces and examined them attentively; and having some general knowledge of minerals, I could not call to mind more than two which in any way resembled this, very bright and brittle; and gold, bright, yet malleable,” Marshall said, according to Spartacus Educational. “I then tried it between two rocks, and found that it could be beaten into a different shape, but not broken.”
That night, John Sutter recorded in his diary: “Marshall arrived in the evening, it was raining very heavy, but he told me he came on important business. After we was alone in a private room he showed me the first specimens of gold, that is he was not certain if it was gold or not, but he thought it might be; immediately I made the proof and found that it was gold. I told him even that most of all is 23 carat gold.”
Later, Marshall was uncertain of the date, but settled on Jan. 19, 1848. However, former battalion members Henry W. Bigler and Azariah Smith kept diaries, which identified the date as Jan. 24.
March 1848 – William Sidney Willes (Willis) and Wilford Hudson, former members of the Mormon Battalion, set out from Sutter’s Fort to hunt deer. Stopping along the South Fork of the American River, they discovered their own gold strike on March 2, 1848 – just 37 days after James Marshall’s discovery in Coloma.
When the trio returned to Sutter’s Fort they told their story. Soon about 150 Mormons and other miners flocked to the site, which was now named “Mormon Island.” Not truly an island, but a sand bar, this was the first major gold strike in California after Marshall’s discovery. While members of the Mormon Battalion were among the first to collect gold from the riverbed, virtually none stayed to earn their fortunes but collected enough to fund their journeys home.
Mormon Island
In 1853, Mormon Island boasted a population of more than 2,500 residents. It thrived with four hotels, three dry goods stores, five general merchandise stores, and an express office. The bustling streets were dotted with numerous small shops. Tragedy struck in 1856 when a devastating fire razed the town to the ground. It was never rebuilt. The site was eventually inundated by Folsom Lake in 1955.
Initially, the atmosphere on Mormon Island was one of openness and trust. Prospectors, mostly Mormon, would toss their gold into unsecured containers and leave their tools out during the night. This picture of cooperation was completely reversed when the Forty-niners begin arriving from other states and international countries. Some described the goldfields as no longer safe or friendly. Researchers found that thievery, deception and murder had become the order of the day.
Although California was awash in Forty-niners, the influx had petered out by 1855, when mining claims had played out. The Mormons, not taken in by the allure of gold, saw the writing was on the wall much earlier. According to the 1850 census, most of Mormons had left the Golden State to return to their families. The journey east would take the first wagons over the Carson Pass, cutting a trail that would become a major entrance into California for thousands of gold seekers. Now known as “The Mormon Emigrant Trail” the site lies near US 50, “The loneliest road in America.”
After returning, Truman supplemented his income by serving as an officer in the Utah State Militia, or Nauvoo Legion. Soon after, he married Elizabeth Boyce. After their marriage, Jacob received an allotment of 12 acres of land in South Cottonwood. Jacob and Elizabeth worked hard to build a home and plant crops to sustain them. Twice in those early years, they had to endure cricket infestations which destroyed many of their crops. South Cottonwood was one of the hardest hit.
February 1850 – Truman was called on to join an expedition to pursue a band of Indians who had killed cattle and stolen horses. Expeditions like these were lucrative. The soldiers could earn up to $2 a day, which was a great deal of money in Utah, where currency was rare. Truman rose through the ranks and became a captain and then a commanding officer of his own company in 1857.
While living in South Cottonwood most of Truman’s children were born.
As Truman’s family grew so did his wealth. His land and improvements, which were worth $300 in 1853, doubled in value by 1857. He also bought 26 more acres of adjacent land to his property in 1856. In total, Truman owned about 103 acres in South Cottonwood, where he lived with his two wives, his mother, his uncle George C. Spencer, and his two sisters and their families. His home and small farm were among the best in the district.
1861 – Truman was appointed as one of the selectmen for Summit County. Part of his duties were to oversee the construction and upkeep of the roads, the gathering of taxes, and run the county in a fiscally prudent manner.
Eighteen-sixty-two was a pivotal year for Jacob Mica Truman.
This was the year that he volunteered to go to Utah’s Dixie to help build up the settlement of St. George. According to Elizabeth, Turman’s first wife, the trip to St. George was one of the most trying, and treacherous journeys of her life.
When they came to the Black Ridge, south of Cedar City, Elizabeth could not see how they would ever make it down such steep slopes. The pioneers must have thought, how in the world did the gulches drop so precipitously while offering such a narrow chasm to span? They found it essential to unload the wagons, take them apart, and get them to the other side before reassembling and repacking.
With no other options, the Truman family lived in their wagon until the town was laid out and lots were assigned. Jacob was given a lot to build upon on the corner of 2nd South and 1st West.
Neither Catherine nor Elizabeth liked St. George very well.
The weather was too hot, the water too brackish rendering many pioneers sick. The sand blew everywhere clogging everything and failed harvests made St. George not a very pleasant place to live. To get away from the harsh conditions during the first months of summer the Truman family would move their household to Diamond Valley, approximately three miles north of St. George and more than 1,800 feet higher than its neighboring municipality.
On their land, Truman primarily grew cotton.
Catherine, Truman’s second wife, joined in on the growing family business. She brought to the table the knowledge of spinning cotton, something she had learned from working in the factories of her homeland, Scotland. Although there were pleasant times and times for laughter, life in St. George was a lot harder than in the Salt Lake Valley. During a particularly hard time, when food was scarce, Catherine sold her “fine black silk dress,” which had been woven in Scotland before she came to Utah, for flour to feed her family.
This hurt Catherine more than anything else.
Truman gradually increased his wealth. By 1868, his net worth had grown to more than $1,000 or nearly $38,000 today. Truman’s tax assessment records indicate his small herd of cattle and horses gradually increased from one horse and nine head of cattle in 1865 to 18 head of cattle and four horses by 1870. That year the Truman family were called to help settle Hamblin.
Truman had a slender and wiry build, despite being 6 feet tall. His curly hair and blue eyes were striking, but so was his temper. He often spoke his mind without tact, imposing his views on others. In Hamblin, some of his neighbors nicknamed him “Old Walking Jesus,” because he would wander around and preach about how things should be done. His daughter, Nell Brockbank said that no one ever disobeyed Jacob Truman.
November 1881 – Truman contracted pneumonia (lung fever) for a second time and after suffering for a week he died on Nov. 23 at 8 p.m. in his home in Gunlock.
Truman was 56 years old.
Zadok Knapp Judd
“Seventy-five years have already passed, therefore, it must necessarily be brief, for many things have gone from my mind that I cannot recall,” said Zadok Judd in 1852.
Zadok Judd (also found as Zadock/Zaddock/Zadoc Knapp Henry Judd) was born Oct. 15, 1827 (1828) in the township of Bastard, Quebec on Oct. 15, 1827 (1828). Judd had little personal knowledge of his mother Lucinda Adams, who had died Feb. 5, 1834. Judd was 6 when his mother died.
“I remember mother’s funeral,” Judd said in his diary. “I was sick at the time; was laying in a cradle and for want of room was pushed under the coffin, I could reach my hand up and touch the bottom of the coffin. About my mother, I can say but very little. She was born Dec. 13, 1799, and was married Feb. 24, 1818. She was the mother of nine children. I am the 6th. (At the time). I had a spell of sickness of about three months. In the meantime, my legs had drawn up till my knees almost touched my breast and become stiffened. I could not straighten them day or night with all the oiling and rubbing that I could endure.”
One day after oiling and rubbing, Judd’s father took his son in his arms and sat down in a chair, promptly offering the suffering boy a “ha penny,” value 1 cent, if he would sit on his knee and let one foot hang down “natural” for “such a princely sum.”
“It was very painful but for so much money and to please father I tried it and after a long, slow and painful move I did it. I was now praised for such a manly effort and offered another copper if I would let the other down,” Judd said. “It was slow and painful, but I finally succeeded. From that time on I gained very fast.”
Judd’s treatments continued until he was able to walk again. So, it seems ironic that Judd would eventually join a military unit at 17, where he would march from Iowa to California and back.
Judd’s life always seemed to be one degree of separation from important historical events, including the Second Great Awakening, the establishment of Utah Territory, the California gold rush and service as a private in Co. E during the Mormon Battalion’s participation in the Mexican-American War. Prior to his enlistment, Zadok had long debates with himself about the logic of joining the U.S. Army.
“This was quite a hard pill to swallow – to leave wives and children on the wild prairie, destitute and almost helpless, having nothing to rely on only the kindness of neighbors and go to fight the battles of a government that had allowed some of its citizens to drive us from our homes, but the word came from the right source and seemed to bring the spirit of conviction of its truth,” Judd said.
The Death of Lt. Col. James Allen
Aug. 23, 1846 – Newly promoted Lt. Col. James Allen became ill but ordered the battalion forward along the Santa Fe Trail to overtake Kearny. On Aug. 23, Allen died and was the first officer buried there in the old officer’s burial grounds. His death, more devastating than the battalion could guess, cast a deep gloom over the entire company.
“What could we do,” Judd wrote in his diary. “Our provisions were not within our reach, our Captains were not yet commissioned; it was said we could not draw rations, so a council of officers was held and it was decided to send to Fort Leavenworth and ask for a commissioned officer to come and take command.”
Accordingly – 1st Lt. Andrew Jackson Smith – was sent as Allen’s temporary replacement.
“Smith took command until we arrived at Santa Fe and with the Colonel and staff came a doctor whose name was Dr. George B. Sanderson,” Judd said. “His principal medicine was quinine. The doctor and his quinine played quite a conspicuous part on our journey.”
If anything was ailing any of the men, if they had caught a cold or had blistered feet or just about any other affliction they were ordered to the doctor’s quarters. Following what some soldiers described as “a slight examination,” Sanderson would give each a “nice little paper” containing a dose of calomel, another “mineral medicine,” in the physician’s arsenal of remedies. Despite a long-held belief by some battalion members that Sanderson was prejudiced against the Mormons, others said the doctor treated everyone alike. Whichever the case, Sanderson’s use of quinine surely saved many sick soldiers.
In the meantime, the battalion considered their discharge, whether to reenlist, start for home or stay in California. At first, Judd was pulled home to Salt Lake City, but soon found the journey unwise.
“My brother Hyrum and I, with a number of others of the same mind, prepared ourselves for the journey towards home,” Judd said. “When we arrived at the Truckee River we met Samuel Brannan and others, just from Salt Lake, bringing word from the Quorum of the Twelve, which was then the ruling authority of the Church, advising all who had enough provisions to last until the next harvest should remain in California unless they expected to go right on through to Winter Quarters and not stay in Salt Lake where provisions were scarce.”
Judd and many others chose to stay in California.
“I went to San Francisco and looked for work at the tailoring business,” Judd said. “I remained there a few days but not finding work that suited, I went to Monterey. Here I found a chance to work in a tailor shop. I worked there a few weeks. In the meantime, many of my comrades had stopped at Sutter’s Mill and were digging a millrace. While digging the race, gold was discovered in great abundance.”
When the report of gold reached Judd, he was in Monterey, California. People, he said, were so anxious to get to Sutter’s mill, so much so that one man offered to furnish supplies including a wagon and team, if the men would give him a portion of all the gold they found.
“This company I joined, with the understanding that when my companions were ready to go home, I should go with them,” Judd said. “We were soon on the road traveling for the mines.”
After traveling a day or two, the troop came to a place of rest. While unloading their provisions for the night they stumbled upon a mound of fresh dirt. To many, this looked suspicious, so a shovel was brought in and digging commenced.
What the Mormons had found would haunt their dreams for the rest of their lives.
“We found that … companions (missing for a few days) had been killed and buried by the Indians,” Judd said. “We covered them up and put a few stones over their graves and cut their names, Daniel Browelt … John Cox (and Ezra Allen), on a large tree nearby. We journeyed on a few miles farther that day and camped.”
Some who found the graves noted in their journals that this event was the most difficult and trying experience of their long journey. Wilford Hudson, a group member, carved the names of the slain members in the trunk of fir tree, preserving their identities and the site of the massacre.
After prospecting for gold, Judd made his way to Utah.
The journey home was uneventful until they reached the Great Salt Lake Valley in September 1848. There, they faced a food shortage that became critical. Judd wrote that an “innumerable army” of huge black crickets from the Wasatch Mountains had descended in the valley and eaten most of the crops that the Mormon settlers had sown.
“The people could not drive them back, although men, women, and children turned out en masse every day to drive them away and destroy them,” Judd said. “(The crickets) were nearly as large as a man’s thumb … eating every green thing they came to, entirely destroying the crop as they went along.”
After several days of fighting the crickets, the people were dumbfounded to see numerous flocks of seagulls heading in from the northwest. What did this mean?
“The (seagulls) lit down on the crickets and commenced eating them like hungry chickens would eat grains of wheat, until their craws were entirely filled, then they would vomit … and commence eating again,” Judd added. “This the seagulls continued day after day until the crickets were all destroyed.”
Much of the crops were destroyed making provisions throughout Salt Lake even more scarce than it had been. Searching for food, Judd crossed paths with a man who could spare four or five bushels of wheat, but after learning Judd had no family accompanying him, the seemingly Good Samaritan declined to let Judd have the grain.
“I finally obtained a sack of corn which I got ground fine for bread,” Judd said. “The corn proved to be a little damp and the meal soon got musty, for I did not know how to take care of it. This was my winter’s bread and I ate it and felt thankful for it.”
1849 – A call was made for volunteers to go and settle Little Salt Lake, which is now known as Parowan – a Native American term meaning “evil water.”
Zadok Judd, and others, answered the call.
After several days, “we had camped (at Elkhorn Springs). The company ahead loaded their cannon and fired it off just in the edge of evening and their report reached us and we could also see the fire of the gun. It so frightened some of our company; we did not know what to do … we supposed that the Indians had attacked … This excitement kept up until (we) learned that it had been fired in celebration of New Year’s Day,” Judd said. “On the next day we all arrived and camped on the ground where Parowan now stands.”
Farming was Judd’s primary means of employment in Parowan. During his free time, Judd fell in love with and married “a pretty girl” named Mary Minerva Dart.
Times were hard during the first years at Parowan, said Judd’s son John in his diary.
“The beaver-built dams in the creek and shut off the water supply,” he said. “The men would go in (during) the day and clear them out and in the night the beaver would put them in again. The wheat was beginning to head, but it was burning. The people held a meeting and prayed for relief. That night it snowed about twelve inches. The people were disheartened. They had water but the wheat all lay flat. During the day the sun came out and melted the snow. The wheat straightened up and they had a good crop.”
Late summer 1855 – Jacob L. Hamblin – Judd’s brother-in-law – with a few others had been sent to Santa Clara as missionaries to the Indians. Hamblin looked every bit a weather-worn mountain man. His rugged appearance and extensive travels throughout the region earned him the nickname the “Buckskin Apostle.”
“It was a good country with a warm climate and good soil,” Judd said. “(Hamblin) called on me as one to go with him. I was anxious to go. I went to the Bishop and told him the situation. He advised me not to go. He doubted the authority of Hamblin to call men to that place.” Judd’s love of warm climates and anxiety to go overcame the advice of the bishop, and Judd headed off to Santa Clara.
As this was cotton country, Judd began to hunt for cottonseed. All he found was a dozen or so seeds which he procured from a family who had come from South Carolina.
“We planted them one seed in a place. We raised enough cotton to give us a sad experience of picking the seed out. It was slow business and made our fingers sore. We were glad when the seeds were all pricked out of that first crop,” Judd said.
Judd procured enough cottonseeds to plant a “respectable” cotton patch the second year.
Through diligent labor, two hands could get about 2-pounds of cotton lint per day and about 4-pounds of seed. This method of ginning cotton was practiced in St. George for two or three seasons. When the demand for the finished product increased, a regular circular saw gin was introduced powered by a treadle – a pump on the floor that was pushed by foot to make the saw spin.
About this time a tremendous flood descended upon Santa Clara, taking away nearly all of the homes as it cut a channel about 20 feet deep. The force of the water was so intense that the bank of earth that the walls were built upon became undercut until, piece by piece, it fell into the creek, also taking away the gristmill and many peach orchards.
“The next season following the flood, the Swiss brethren came and settled in a bend of the creek a few hundred yards below where we had settled,” Judd said. “About this time Saint George was settled, and the legislature had given the people the entire control of the water that ran down the channel and we were obliged to turn the water down to them at times, the same as the Indians had done for us in previous years. The water was very scarce and much of our crops perished.”
In some respects, Judd was doing well in St. George, but in other respects, it was a very trying time.
“I should have previously told you about the births of our children while at Santa Clara,” Judd said. “All of them that were born there died in infancy.”
1870 – A new boundary survey confirmed that some of the new settlements in Southern Utah were actually in Nevada, not Utah or Arizona. Both territories had accepted payment of taxes in the form of goods, but Nevada officials wanted back taxes paid in gold or silver. Few settlers could afford this, so in early 1871, all but one Mormon family had left. Accordingly, Judd sold all of his possessions and moved to Kanab in the spring.
“Later in the season before we had made a shelter or got out of our wagon, we were visited by a party of about thirty Navajo Indians,” Judd said. “They seemed very hostile, making heavy demands upon us for provisions, of which we had a very small supply. They were tinkering with their bows and arrows and making preparations to enforce their demands.”
Jacob Hamblin and a few others gathered around the meeting.
“Some of them asked, ‘What shall we do?’ My wife replied, ‘Let’s give them their breakfast,’ with Hamblin answering back, ‘That’s a very sensible idea. Will you feed a few of them?’ ‘Yes, I can feed four or five.’ said Judd’s wife Mary.
“Hamblin then went out among the crowd and brought four or five to our camp. My wife made a pot of mush, roasted a few ears of corn and soon gave them breakfast,” Judd added.
Zadok Judd’s Accomplishments
- March 13, 1884 – Kanab Town Council appointed Judd as treasurer.
- Dec. 26, 1885 – Judd appointed as prosecuting attorney for Kanab.
- Dec. 7, 1886 – Judd was allowed $33 for coroner duties and burying bodies found on Buckskin Mountain, by Kane County Commissioners.
- March 15, 1887 – Judd appointed Sexton of the Town Cemetery. This cemetery was located north of Kanab at the time.
- In 1856, Judd moved his family to Santa Clara to join Jacob Hamblin as a missionary. Judd would soon become the first bishop of the Santa Clara Ward.
- Zadok was among the saints who colonized Eagle Valley, Nevada, and, when the saints were recalled in 1871, Judd moved his family to Kanab, Utah, where he lived the remaining years of his life.
- While living in Parowan, Zadok worked as a tailor and also became a productive farmer, raising grapes, fruit trees, cane for molasses and, also raising bees and experimenting with silkworms.
He carried the mail from Johnson to Lee’s Ferry, Arizona, for 12 years, served as cemetery sexton, Justice of the Peace and coroner.
Jan. 28, 1909 – Zadok Knapp Judd passed away at about 2:30 p.m. in his home at Kanab.
“Even though they weren’t involved in combat, which is easy to pass over when they were in the moment, they had no idea what the future held,” said Mormon Church Historian Brandon Metcalf. “They had no idea if they’d ever see their families again and how things were going to shake out.”
Combine the uncertainty with the lack of water for days on end, lack of food, force marches in open country, arid hot deserts to cross and mountains to climb, “Everything they dealt with pushed them to an emotional threshold, but this is a story of perseverance and the will of the human spirit. These are the things of legend,” Metcalf added.
For the final part of the history of Mormon Battalion, continue reading: “Mormon Battalion: The Rescue of the Donner Party, Part 3,” on Sunday, April 7.
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