Biography of Susan Ellen Johnson

Taken from the Johnson Bulletin


Susan Ellen Johnson, fifth child and second daughter of Joel Hills Johnson and Annie Pixley Johnson, was born 11 July 1836, in Kirtland, Ohio. When two years old her parents were driven from Kirtland, they started for Missouri, but were held up at Springfield, Illinois, by illness. They later moved to Carthage where Seth, her youngest brother, was born. From here they moved to Deharts Mill on Crooked Creek, where they built a house of logs, consisting of two rooms connected by a shed room open in front and closed at the back. This was where her mother died, 11 September 1840, at the age of 40. She was a kind and patient mother and a faithful Latter-Day Saint. She was buried at Ramus, Illinois.

Susan Briant came to live with them as housekeeper and her father soon married her, as his little children needed a mother's care. Soon after they moved to Ramus, where her father built a house for them to live in. Her Aunt Almera came to live with them and taught school, during that time she was sealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith as a plural wife. After a time they went back to the mill, and one day she and her brother Seth were playing near the woodpile, their parents having gone to Nauvoo. They saw some men marching toward their house. They ran in, fastened the door, and dove under the bed. The men came to the door and knocked on it with a club and said, "Come out of there, or it will be the worse for you." They went out and stood in the door hand in hand and very much frightened. They were asked where their parents were, and when told, the men said, "Tell your father when he comes home, he must leave here immediately or he will lose his life and all his property". Her father tried to sell out, but could not, and on account of illness remained until April when in the night an armed mob on horseback called him out to find out why he had not gone as ordered. He told them of their illness and was told that if they were not gone by the middle of May, they would burn the roof over their heads. Later they traded the property to a man for some property in Knox County, and in company with her Uncle Joseph E. Johnson, they made the trip of several hundred miles to a cold bleak prairie country, where they remained some time.

In February 1848, her Uncle George Johnson went to Nauvoo and Susan went with him, to live with her grandmother, who was quite old and feeble. They came near freezing several times. The last night out they went into a log hut and she was so cold that she shivered over the fire all night. In the morning they went on to the home of Almon W. Babbit where her grandmother lived with her daughter, Julia Babbit.

On May 8,1848, her father, with his family, came to Nauvoo on his way across the plains. Susan went with them one day’s ride and then returned to Nauvoo, heartsick and lonely at being left behind. On July 4 the Nauvoo Temple was hired by some gentiles for a grand ball and supper. She being twelve years old, wished to go, as she had never been to a ball and thought it was a grand thing. When she approached her grandmother on the subject, she wept and said, "The Temple has been desecrated and will be destroyed." Which proved true. In November they were awakened by a bright light. She ran to the window and saw the steeple in flames. The fire must have started in the room below the steeple, for there was no light in the lower story until the steeple fell in.

In June she left Nauvoo in company with her grandmother, Julia Hill Johnson, David Wilson, William O. Johnson and family, David LeBaron and family, Aunt Hannah and Uncle George Hales and Aunt Delcina and family. They arrived at Council Bluff on July 11, 1849, her thirteenth birthday. They then moved to Plum Hollow, where during the winter she attended school.

In June 1850, Susan started her trip across the plains with her mother's sister, Sarah Johnson and her family. They left Kanesville June 25, and camped by the Missouri River. There were 28 wagons with Stephen Markham as Captain. In the morning a woman died of cholera, and was buried in the banks of the river. She was a stranger, just having arrived from England on her way to Utah. From that time until the fifteenth of July, someone was buried almost every day. Here Aunt Sarah's husband, his mother and his sister Mary, died July 11, her birthday. They were buried when they stopped at noon the day of July 12,1850.

Susan also had the cholera, but was healed by administration of the Elders. When she felt the disease coming on, she went into her tent by herself and prayed to the Lord that she might be spared to wait upon the others. She had a testimony that she would be spared. Fourteen persons died in the company. After July passed there was no more cholera in the company. They laid over one day at Ash Holler for repairs. The next day they passed Fort Kearney and the following day a soldier who had deserted came to their camp and asked if he might go with them. The Wriston boys took him in and put him in bed with a night cap on and when the soldiers came after him and searched the wagons they found only a sick woman. They said if they only knew his character they would have nothing to do with him, which proved true for he stole the clothing of those who befriended him. Susan saw him once in Salt Lake City in 1851, he was working on the street with a ball and chain fastened to his leg.

One noon while camped at the foot of some steep hills which were covered with ripe chokecherries, she with some of the others went to gather some, intending to overtake the wagons, but on reaching the road they were entirely out of sight. They followed all afternoon and at dark came to a fork in the road and feeling along the tracks with their hands, found they had taken the wrong road. They soon found a young man waiting for them on horseback. He knew they were gone and feared they might get lost. His name was Andy Kelly (the deserter). It was ten o'clock when they reached camp and that was the last time she ever wandered from camp. They traveled up the Platt River and came upon a band of Cheyenne Indians who were hunting buffalo for their winter meat.

Her Uncle George G. Johnson having died, Susan traveled with Captain Forsaythe, working for them to pay her way. They were very kind to her. She walked many weary miles every day. At night when the ground was smooth enough, they would join in the dance to rest their weary feet or have songs, recitations, or plays, until called to prayers by Captain Markham. Then all went to rest but the guards who went on duty for the night. They passed hundreds of graves, many every day. They also saw great herds of buffalo, thousands of them in a herd. They passed independence rock, it was probably 200 yards long and ten or fifteen feet high, rising out of the level plain. On the smooth face of the rock were carved or written hundreds of names of those who passed.

One night they camped by a band of Cheyennes, the following day being rainy, they remained in camp. The Indians, old and young, came into camp trading moccasins and robes. Among the rest was a fine looking Indian who wanted to buy a squaw, offering six ponies. Andy Kelly asked him who he wanted and Susan was pointed out as his choice on account of her dark eyes and rosy cheeks. Kelly finally made a trade for five ponies, a buffalo robe and the silver ornaments in his hair. In the evening he came with the ponies and Kelly told him it was a joke, that the girl belonged to another family. This made the Indian mad, he said a trade was a trade. Captain Markham came to explain that Kelly was no good and had no right to do as he had done. The Indians finally went away very indignant. That night there was a high wind which blew down her Aunt Sarah's tent. The tent was placed facing the wagon, with the back toward a deep ravine full of willows. Her Aunt Sarah was holding the front pole and Susan the back one, while two men were driving the stakes at the sides. The night was pitch black, lightened at intervals by flashes of lightning. Suddenly she felt strong arms lift her to the back of a pony. She gave a terrified scream. At that instant a flash of uncommonly long duration revealed the horse, which the Indian mounted and rode away. He had been hiding in the ravine awaiting his chance for revenge and but for the flash of light, would have carried her off. Extra guards were placed for the night, but when morning came everything that was loose such as frying pans, skillets and cooking utensils, which had been put under the wagons, had disappeared, leaving the company short of those things. The band of Indians disappeared also and were seen no more by the company.

Sometimes the river was quite deep so the teams swam across while the wagons were ferried over. At other times the teams were driven across and the women and children were carried over by the men, which made it very hard for the men. Susan preferred to wade rather than be carried. Being a pretty good weight she might have been dropped in the water, and the bottom of the river was quite muddy in places. On October 3, 1850, they arrived in Salt Lake City, tired, weary and footsore, she having walked a great portion of the way barefooted, but she never faltered. Many others were in the same condition. They went to her Uncle B. F. Johnson's home and had dinner. Her Aunt Sarah having married a young man, William Mills on the way, went with Susan to her father's home on Big Cottonwood. She found that her sister, Sariah, had married John Eagar. Her father, Joel H. Johnson, was called to go with George A. Smith and company of about fifty others to settle Iron County. In March 1851, her father took his wife Janet and family to Iron County, leaving his wife Susan to come later. Susan attended school in Salt Lake City, taught by Mrs. Ann Goodrich Blair. Her father sent word to sell their home and get ready to move, which they did. After a trip of two weeks they reached Parowan, Iron County, September 1, 1851.

Four months after her arrival in Parowan, and after a whirlwind courtship, at age 15 1/2, Susan married James Henry Martineau, who was eight years her senior and the village school teacher. This happened on the 8th of January, 1852. Her wedding dress was made from material which she herself had woven, as were her other dresses. They started life together with little of this world's goods. Cupboard, table, chairs, and bedstead were homemade. The bed had strands of rope woven cries-cross on the bottom to hold the straw tick on which they slept, and she did her cooking on the fireplace.

Marriage is a challenge to any 151/2 year-old girl, but to Susan life had been one challenge after another and she was older and wiser than her years, and able to do her part, be it milking a Cow or doing any of the many tasks involved in pioneer life. Her husband, eight years her senior, born and raised in upper New York State, was well educated and had worked at various professions, but had little rural experience. Besides teaching, he was an excellent accountant or clerk and a trained surveyor.

In the next seven years she had four children. Henry Agustus, Moroni Helaman, Susan Elvira and John William. Two years before this last son was born, her greatest trial came to her, and that was when her husband married her cousin Susan Julia Sherman on the 18th of January, 1857, as a plural wife. Though she had been reared in a polygamous family, yet sharing her husband and home with another wife was not easy, though she did it with a good grace. When their husband said "Susan" each of the wives could tell which one of them he was speaking to. In 1860 he was called to Cash Valley, because his service as a surveyor was needed. They made the trip by covered wagon, of course through Indian infested country, but arrived safely. They settled in Logan, where seven more children were born to Susan. Nephi, George Albert, Joel Hills, Gertrude, Theodore, Anna Sariah and James. Here death made its first visit to her home, as John W., her four-year-old son, died 4 May 1863. Grandfather acquired a large comfortable brick home, which was needed for so large a family. Death's second visit to the home took Susan Julia, the plural wife, leaving six children for grandmother to raise. Her youngest son, James E., died 17 October 1880, and two years later they adopted a baby girl, Dora, that had been abandoned on a neighbors doorstep. There seemed to be room in grandmothers heart and home for as many as needed her.

There were merry times also in their homes, as the family liked to gather around the organ and sing songs, and have parties. And of course there were weddings, Henry A., Moroni H., Susan Elvira, and Nephi all married while they lived in Logan, also the two older sons of Susan Julia. In 1884 grandfather's skill as a surveyor was needed in the settlements of Arizona, so grandmother left her comfortable home in Logan and moved with the younger members of her family to a new frontier. They spent four years in Pima and Graham Counties, then moved on into Old Mexico, joining the colonists at Colonia Juarez, where they lived for 20 years. George A. and Joel H. married Arizona girls, and Gertrude, Theodore, and Anna married in Juarez. Dora died in 1900 at age 18, at Juarez, Mexico.

Grandmother endeared herself to all that knew her. Her mild disposition, usually calm and serene, always bearing her trials with dignity. Grandfather said, "I married her a month after I met her, I believe that we were mated in the preexistance, and chose each other there. We lived together 67 years and not once did she complain. Her purity of heart was great and so was her faith and gift of healing. She had many visions and dreams and they all came to pass. She was a true loving wife and mother, she has gone to rest with a crown of glory. God bless and preserve her memory."

Susan was a large woman, tall and large of frame, and weighing over 200 pounds. She suffered for a great many years with rheumatism, which coupled with her weight made it necessary for her to walk with the aid of a cane, and got around with great difficulty. I lived with them during 1913, and was with her at the time of her death. She told me many interesting things. She told of her patriarchal blessing, where in she was promised that polygamy would never bother her again. Her husband married other wives after this. That she should see her Savior while she yet lived, and that she would live until her 83rd birthday and as much longer as she desired. But she said life was a burden and she did not desire to live longer. This only a few weeks before her death. One little story to show she was human. She told me that she had never cared for mutton. "Why not?" I asked, "Did you ever taste it?" "Oh no, but I just knew I wouldn't like it." she answered. A short while later my husband brought home a leg of lamb. Cautioning him to say nothing, I roasted it, then sliced the meat to another plate for the table. Grandmother ate heartily of it saying, "This is the most delicious veal that I have ever tasted." The next day she caught me cutting the rest of the roast from the leg, and said very disappointedly, "Oh, it is lamb and you told me it was veal." "No, grandmother it was you that called it veal," I answered. But she ate no more of it.

Her last illness lasted two weeks, and I was glad that I was there to help care for her. Other members of her family were also there. Just a few days before she died, I was keeping watch beside her bed; as she lay very quietly, then suddenly she raised up on her elbow, and gazing with bright eyes toward the corner of the room, she exclaimed in fervent and reverent voice, "My Savior." I saw nothing, but could not doubt that I had witnessed the fulfillment of her promise. She passed quietly away the 5th of December, 1918, less than a month later than President Joseph F. Smith did. Neither of them had a public funeral, because of the flu epidemic; she was buried in City Cemetery.

[The earlier part of her story was written by Susan herself, and her married life by her granddaughter, Elzada Martineau Hurst.]

[I, Joseph Elbert Johnson, stayed in their home in Salt Lake City for a night or two when I was getting ready to leave on my mission, the 1st of October, 1916. Grandpa Martineau gave me a blessing and Uncle Henry Martineau copied it.]


Written by James H. Martineau

Susan's grandmother [Julia Hills Johnson] parted from her husband [Ezekiel Johnson] and lived with her son Joel. Joseph Smith sealed her to his uncle, John Smith (Patriarch). Joseph often visited Julia in Macedonia. Revelation 131 in the Doctrine and Covenants was given in Joel's home. When commanded to take other wives, he told Julia that if she would accept the new law and give him her daughter Almera to wife, not one of her posterity should be lost.

When Susan was a child, she was bitten on the foot by a rattlesnake and fainted on arriving home. She was cured by the prayers of her father. Joel was present with three others when the Word of Wisdom was given. Oliver wrote and read it to them. Joel threw his pipe into the fire and kept the Word of Wisdom thereafter.

He cut the shingles for the Kirtland Temple. Susan and her brother saw the McDonough troops when they went to Carthage, 200 in number, and they followed them with clubs. While the family was hiding in the woods, the mob came to the house to lynch them. They asked a young man where they were. He would not tell them so they stripped him to the waist and whipped him until he fainted and his boots were full of blood. He wasn't a Mormon, just a friend. The children had a wing in the second story of the unfinished Kirtland Temple.

1851 Johnson Springs, Utah.


She was 15 and two months, but appeared 18. Matured and a beautiful girl, highly esteemed. I heard of her and determined to marry her if possible, but did not know her by sight. I met her father one day and asked if I might keep company with her. He said yes. "Will you please give me an introduction to her." He said, "Don't you know her?" I said, "No, sir." He took me to the house and he asked for Susan. She was down in the cellar. She came up barefoot and we were introduced. We were both scared. We were married in six weeks in their home in Johnson Springs by John L. Smith, January 8, 1852, at 9:00 a.m. We slept on a straw mattress in a wagon bed until I took her home to Parowan. We lived in a log house with dirt roof and floor. Our bed of straw, with a thin feather mattress, one old chair, some tin plates, two knives and forks, and two tin cups at first, but we soon got a skillet and an oven.

In all the 67 years of union she never complained of hard times. She never gave me bad or evil council against any law or principle of the gospel. Even plural marriage, a woman's most trying subject. Her faith was great and she had the gifts of healing and vision. She did much temple work for the dead and received her second anointing also for others. She was blessed to have visions and dreams.

One vision, more than 40 years ago, was part of one that Joseph smith had, so fearful that he asked the Lord to shut it up. She saw the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. silent, no living thing in sight. Tables, desks, and chairs as after flight. No railroads in operation, the rails rusty from disuse. She saw crowds of people on foot, trying to get to Utah, carrying small bundles on their backs. She saw lettered in the sky—Fire—Sword—Pestilence—Famine. These things will be in the U.S. and Zion will be the only place of safety. She frequently had significant dreams and the interpretations such a comfort and help to me. Just a week before Thanksgiving day November 21, we had a chicken dinner and she said, "We have our Thanksgiving with this fine chicken." It was the last meal she enjoyed, her appetite failed.

Now no more pain, distress, trouble or sorrow for her, all passed forever. I would not call her back. I will soon go to her.

James H. Martineau "Early Pioneer Photographer and Surveyor"

From the Book “Pioneer Photographers of the Far West”
written by Peter E. Palmquist and Thomas R. Kailbourn



James Henry Martineau (1828-1921) photographer, surveyor, active Utah (Salt Lake City) 1863; Logan, Utah, 1866-c. 1869.

James Henry Martineau was born on March 13, 1828 in either Port Jackson or Amsterdam, Montgomery County, New York. His father, John Martineau, was a civil engineer and a descendant of Elie and Marguerite Maratineau, French Huguenots who fled to the New World in 1682. His mother Eliza Mears Martineau was of English Puritan descent. As a young man, James H. Martineau worked as a pressman for several newspapers in New York and Wisconsin. During the Mexican War he enlisted in the regular army but served out his hitch as a drill sergeant and clerk at Newport Barraks, Kentucky. In 1849 he began to work his way westward to California, but upon reaching Utah Territory the following year, he decided to settle in Farmington. Martineau was baptized a Mormon in January 1851.

Two months after his induction into the church, Martineau moved to Paraowan, Utah where he lived for nine years. He was the first clerk of Iron County, and served terms as county surveyor and sheriff, city recorder of Parowan and adjutant of the Iron Military District, which included the southern half of Utah Territory.

On January 8, 1852, Martineau married Miss Susan Ellen Johnson (1836-1919) Two years later he was a co-founder of the Parowan Dramatic Assosciation. He painted the scenery for the group’s performances, played bass violin in the orchestra, and led the choir. Martineau contracted a plural marriage with Susan Julia Sherman (1838-1874) in Salt Lake City on January 18, 1857. In July 1860, at the behest of Brigham Young, Martineau moved to Logan, Utah to survey the Cache Valley. Over the next few years he was surveyor and clerk, city recorder for Logan, and a U.S. Deputy internal Revenue Collector. Despite all these duties, he also found time for farming.

In July, 1863 Martineau learned the photographic business from Edward Covington, although uncertain if this occurred in Logan or Salt Lake City. Martineau evidently adopted this trade as a supplemental source of income. He probably did not get to practice the profession soon, because by September he was surveying the communities of Stockton and Oxford in Idaho Territory. In 1866, Martineau established a gallery in Logan, using equipment he purchased from an unidentified local photographer who was leaving the business. In July 1867 he paid a $6.67 federal tax assessment on the gallery. Throughout this period of photographic work, Martineau also continued his surveying duties. However, in a memoir Martineau published in 18898, he recalled that from the fall of 1869 through 1870 he was “mostly at home, photographing.” Toward this end he renewed the liscense for his gallery in October 1869 for $5.83. Ultimately he sold his photographic business to Davy Lewis, a British immigrant not to be confused with photographer David Lewis.

After leaving the photographic profession, Martineau continued his distinguished career as a surveyor. He helped locate and survey the Union Pacific Railroad route from Echo Canyon, Utah Territory to Central, Nevada Territory, in 1868 and from Ogden to Salt Lake City in 1869. He was chief Engineer of the Utah Northern Railroad in 1871-72. In the early 1880’s he surveyed in Arizona, and during his years in that territory, and Utah he laid out thirty five towns. In 1888 he moved to the Mormon enclave of Colonia Juarez in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico. Martineau and his wife Susan left their children, now grown, in Chihuahua and moved back to Logan, Utah, in 1908. They lost all of their Mexican property in the Revolution. James H. Martineau died in Salt Lake City on June 24, 1921, at the age of ninety-three.

From the Book “Pioneer Photographers of the Far West”
written by Peter E. Palmquist and Thomas R. Kailbourn

History of James H. Martineau

James H. Martineau was born in the state of New York on March 13, 1828, the son of John and Eliza Mears Martineau. The Martineaus were Huguenots who had fled France in the 1680s, escaping religious persecution and settled in the State of New York. His namesake grandfather had been a farmer near New York City during the Revolution when the British occupied the city, and Ethan Allen of Revolutionary fame was his mother’s great uncle. His father John Martineau went to England in his late teens to study medicine, but after returning to New York, took up the profession of civil engineer and became noted in that field. His family suffered significant financial losses in the Panic of 1837 which caused young James to have to work as a janitor to help pay for his education. He studied at Monroe Academy at Elbridge, N.Y., graduating at age sixteen with credit in English, Latin grammar, chemistry, geology, philosophy, history and algebra. He worked as a clerk in his uncle’s store for a short time, before deciding he wanted to become a printer by trade. He secured employment with a newspaper learning the various trades of a printer in the Finger Lakes area of central New York State. With the commencement of the War with Mexico he attempted to enlist in the armed services only to have his mother prevent this due to his being under age. He moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to work for a newspaper as compositor and running the printing press. Within a short time he enlisted in the army and after some training, the Wisconsin group was detailed to Newport Barracks in Kentucky, the rendezvous point for the northwestern states. Except for a few months detached service as a recruiter at Cleveland, Ohio, he remained at Newport Barracks serving as a drill sergeant and clerk in the ordnance department until peace was declared. He was mustered out of the service about the first of July 1848. While en route to Milwaukee his mother passed away (his father had died ten years earlier). After arriving there, he worked as a clerk in a large book store until the spring of 1849. In the meantime he developed in his mind a grand adventure to travel around the world in stages, first to the California gold fields for a year, then to China, India, Persia and Europe. An uncle tried every inducement to dissuade this notion often reciting the old proverb: "a rolling stone gathers no moss." James countered that he wanted his moss rubbed off and he was going.
The twenty-one-year-old Martineau traveled to the western jumping off place of St. Joseph, Missouri, but his six weeks journey caused him to be too late to join an overland emigrating company that year. He remained in the area teaching school near St. Joseph until the late spring of 1850. In the spring he joined an overland company that left St. Joseph headed for California. Of the thousand mile journey in which he said they traveled without seeing a house he left just brief statements concerning three incidents. He believed two of these were "narrow escapes from death." First, while possibly out exploring by himself near the Sweetwater River he found himself on a high narrow rocky ledge where his path was blocked and he had to use a small bush growing in the rock to swing out and around the rocky obstacle with "an abyss" of several hundred feet below him. The other close encounter came while he was on foot and alone and came upon a large bull buffalo; although he knew the danger of attempting to take the hard-to-kill animal by himself, especially with no place of refuge at hand, he said he "could not resist the opportunity." The other item of note was being told negative story after story about the terrible Mormons and how they were guilty of all kinds of wickedness. The group Martineau traveled with took the route through Salt Lake City and arrived there on July 22, 1850, and according to him, they "were all overjoyed," perhaps finding a speck of civilization in the western wilds. When his traveling company resumed their journey, Martineau stayed behind, having been impressed to stop there for a season and "study the people for myself," and then go on to California the next spring. He quickly learned that the bad reports concerning the Mormons were not true. He found employment from a resident of Farmington, north of Salt Lake almost halfway to Ogden, "doing all sorts of farm-work" during the remaining summer and fall, at the same time beginning his inquiry into Mormonism. While here in September of 1850 he rode with companies of militia to Ogden to thwart a threatened attack, and then pursued marauding Indians with stolen horses and other property as far north as the ford on Bear River before giving up the chase.
His pursuit of the new religion was more successful; having being taught the gospel, he was baptized in January of 1851 in Salt Lake City. In one of his writings he dismissed his plans of going to California with the words: "But I went no farther. . . ." Wherein ending his dream adventure of going around the world, but opening another venture that lasted seven decades. Early on he was given the priesthood and advancement came quickly as in February of 1851 he was ordained a Seventy, and assigned to be in a company going to reinforce the first settlement in southern Utah established January 13, 1851. Thus began the first of three geographic phases to his life in the West.
The Iron County or Parowan period began with Martineau’s selection to be part of the second company sent to Parowan. They had to travel over two hundred miles to Parowan, set up to serve the dual purpose to be a half-way station between a Mormon outpost in southern California and their base at Great Salt Lake Valley, and to produce agricultural products to support a planned "iron mission" nearby where an earlier exploring party had found a hill with rich iron ore (Iron Mountain). Before the reinforcement party arrived, the provisional government, called the State of Deseret, organized Iron County and a "city" of Parowan, which consisted of a small fort where no one could safely leave without being well-armed and in the company of others due to the Indians. The company with Martineau left Salt Lake in March of 1851 and arrived weeks later in April at Parowan. Their town or "city" was initially called "The City of the Little Salt Lake" but renamed Parowan an Indian word meaning "evil water." There were adequate resources of water and timber for the farming settlement, and upon arrival Martineau was granted land in the community and some farming land where he almost never said anything about his farming. Through the remainder of 1851 he spent much time exploring the area and countering the Indians’ threats. The latter were sufficient to post a guard at the Parowan fort every night for the first three years, plus a picket guard was posted on a hill with a commanding view a mile away. Martineau joined the revived Nauvoo Legion as a sergeant major in his district and quickly became an officer and finally became the adjutant of the Iron Military District, taking in all the area south of Fillmore. Besides responding to Indian threats and chasing after Indians with stolen stock, the military companies paraded and drilled every two weeks and kept on high alert constantly ready for any threat knowing their nearest help was 200 miles away. Martineau served as a military instructor and frequently drilled the companies and battalions in the legion.
He recalled once that "In civil affairs I have always been busy." It started at Parowan after the Territory of Utah was created and the first elections were held in September of 1851 and Martineau was selected to be the clerk of the elections. Two months later on November 17, 1851, he was elected city recorder for Parowan and appointed to be the county clerk. In addition he served as city councilor and alderman as well as surveyor and sheriff. In the fall of 1851 he taught school. He married his first wife, Susan Ellen Johnson, at Parowan January 8, 1852, and they had a large family. In accordance with Mormon belief at that time he took a second wife, Susan Julia Sherman (a cousin of his first wife), in 1857 and had more children. In church matters he was equally engaged becoming a tithing clerk and in September of 1852 a counselor in the bishopric and "Church Recorder." In March of 1853 he with nine others organized a mutual improvement society in Parowan, and he was appointed one of the school examiners.
In the meantime the situation with the Indians remained a primary concern with many alarms from the Ute Indians in 1852 and 1853. During this time the Utes stole much stock with the legion frequently deployed chasing Indians with stolen animals with only a small portion ever recovered. Martineau estimated that one-third of his time was spent in military service against the Utes who were "a great burden." To obtain needed wood individuals had to wait until a party of twelve or fifteen men could go together, half serving as guard while the other loaded their wagons and in their return to town, some drove the wagons as the others served as front and rear guards. According to Martineau, "Men always slept with loaded rifles at hand, and also carried them to the Sunday meetings, each man with his gun between his knees." Even with such care on April 10, 1853, about seven miles outside of Parowan, Martineau and twelve other men were taken prisoners by Ute Chief Walker with around 400 warriors. For a time with the Indians’ rifles cocked and leveled at the whites’ heads, it appeared that death was certain. However, with a "little strategy"—not detailed—the white prisoners got away from the "crowd" of Utes and "made a very exciting race back to Parowan" safely with great appreciation for good horses. In late July the settlers at Parowan received news that troubles with the Indians produced killings with much loss of stock to the Mormon settlers at Payson near Utah Lake. Word was received from Governor Brigham Young to fortify themselves and to always be armed, and for small settlements and isolated farms to be abandoned. At Parowan the settlers decided to build a more substantial wall six feet thick and twelve feet high around the settlement. Martineau recorded—"I worked on it all the season, to the amount of $600.00." He became the assessor and collector of "Fortification District No. 1" embracing Parowan, in which he assessed personal property in which a tax was imposed for the building of the wall. He had to post a $15,000 bond for this position.
His wide ranging interests and activities included help in organizing a dramatic association in April of 1854, and his painting the scenery for the first performance to a paying audience, netting $6.75. He had an artisan make him a bass viol which he thought was the first musical instrument made in Utah. He used it in the choir of which he was the leader. In March of 1854 he was commissioned a notary public. In July of 1855 he began teaching the Deseret alphabet, an abortive attempt to simplify the orthography and reading of the English language by way of a Mormon phonetic alphabet, and of which Martineau acknowledged he "was very proficient." In January of 1856 Martineau made a map of Utah for the territory’s delegate to Congress, J. M. Bernhisel, for his use in Washington, D.C. In addition he made surveys, doing the town plat for Parowan, Paragonah, Ft. Johnson and the first city plat of Beaver. In March of 1856 he assisted Colonel W. H. Dame to survey the line between Iron and Washington counties. In June of 1857 he was appointed captain of topographical engineers in the Nauvoo Legion. In time he became much noted as a surveyor.
On August 2, 1857, the settlers in southern Utah received the news that an U.S. army was approaching Utah, with a host of Mormon fears as to their intentions beyond deposing Governor Young. Colonel Dame reorganized the Iron Military District comprising nine companies and appointed Martineau as regimental adjutant. They began drilling constantly with Martineau as drill master. Apostle George A. Smith came in early August after being appointed general in command of southern Utah. On September 4, 1857, Martineau and three men were dispatched on a scouting expedition into the mountains to the east with an expectation that they could locate a detachment of U.S. dragoons. They found no signs of an armed force approaching and returned after an eight day patrol. Of this he wrote—"On my return I heard that Indians had killed a company of emigrants at Mountain Meadows in revenge for the death of six braves poisoned by the emigrants at Corn Creek some time previously. Another company following the first applied to Col. Dame for help and was furnished by him with five Mormon interpreters, to help them through the Indian country, which they succeeded in doing, but with much difficulty." Thus Martineau received the local story that soon became the Church’s story of the fate of the Fancher company of over 120 persons that cast a long dark shadow over southern Utah beyond the two decades later when only one man was executed for the crime.
March 19, 1858, Amasa Lyman came to the area and became the new military commander of the Iron Military District and found the troops under almost constant drilling by Adjutant Martineau, with their anticipated foe being United States troops. On April 13, 1858, Colonel William H. Dame, commander of the militia in southern Utah and a bishop at Parowan, returned from Salt Lake City with instructions from Brigham Young. The Church leader directed the southern Saints to raise a company of between sixty to seventy men with twenty wagons each pulled by four mules with seed, grain, tools, etc., "to Penetrate the Desert in search for a resting place for the Saints," thinking the Mormons would have to flee from Utah. Young’s directions included his hope that they could find a desert location that would take eight days to cross, yet he feared they would only find one that could be crossed in three days. Young stressed the importance of this mission by stating it was the fourth attempt, and if the one started from Parowan did not find such a place, then Young himself would seek one when he arrived at that place. For just over a week they were selecting mule teams fit for the desert and fitting up wagons from the various settlements with rendezvous at Iron Spring on April 23rd. Martineau picks up his account as follows: "April 23rd, 1858, I started exploring the desert with Col. Dame and a party of sixty men. Our object was to find a place of refuge for the people of Utah, who were to move south, and burn everything behind them. I left my house, expecting never to see it again, but that my family, after burning it, would meet me in the desert, but I did so cheerfully." The expedition went west into the vast deserts of Nevada and experienced much suffering for lack of water but never found a location that met Young’s criteria. According to Martineau, who served as historian for the group plus made a map of the areas covered, they "explored a large part" of present day Nevada with their searching continuing to the last of July. In the meantime peace relations were made between the Mormons and the federal authorities, and the army came into Salt Lake City on June 26, 1858, and four days later the Saints were told they could return to their homes. This news was carried to the desert exploring party and they were released from their service and returned home.
Throughout this period Martineau held several Church and civic positions which need to be at least mentioned. In March of 1855 he was elected as a city councilor, and in May he was ordained a High Priest and made first counselor to President J. C. L. Smith (John Calvin Lazelle Smith was the acting presiding authority in the area until his death in December of 1855). In December of 1856 he was elected clerk of the House of Representatives of the Utah Territorial legislature. The first meeting convened on December 8th at the capital at Fillmore some seventy miles to the north. The Legislature passed a quick resolution to change the session to Salt Lake City and adjourned. Martineau went on the Salt Lake City arriving on December 14th. At the conclusion of the legislative session he started on the long return journey to Parowan on January 19, 1857, traveling at times in two feet of snow, arriving home nine days later. In April of 1857 he was unanimously elected an alderman in Parowan. In August of 1858 he was elected the county surveyor for Iron County and surveyed two areas the following month. In January of 1859 he was again elected alderman and reappointed notary public. In the latter part of 1859 he surveyed the enlarged town site of Parowan and the town of Paragonah and made "additional surveys at Cedar City."
Martineau participated in the second Mormon investigation into the Mountain Meadows Massacre held at Parowan in August of 1858, looking into complaints against Colonel William H. Dame in regard to the massacre almost a year earlier. Twenty-two men spent four days in this investigation and at the conclusion issued a statement that: "We have carefully investigated the complaints against President William H. Dame . . . . and that the complaints presented before us are without foundation in truth." The signers included two apostles, four men which history has concluded participated in the carnage, three men who were military attendants to Colonel Dame in the Iron County Brigade—James H. Martineau, Calvin C. Pendleton and Jesse N. Smith—and at least ten of the other men belonged to the local high council of the church. John D. Lee was not present at the investigation, and the twenty-two men charged Lee with being at the massacre and being the person chiefly responsible for it. However, this verdict could not dispel the dark shadow of doubt and whispers concerning this local tragedy.
Martineau related that in early May of 1859 "a large force of infantry and cavalry and Judge Cradlebaugh" passed through Parowan. This was actually two different military forces as in April the U.S. Army’s First Dragoons under the command of Brevet Major James H. Carleton were ordered from California to Mountain Meadows in Utah Territory to bury the massacred victims. The troops arrived in May and gathered the scattered remains of victims initially placed in a gully and covered with a thin covering of earth with many dug up by animals. The soldiers buried the recovered remains in a mass grave and constructed a stone cairn over the grave and placed a large cross with the inscription: "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." The second force came about when Judge John Cradlebaugh, who had been assigned to the southern judicial district, finished his first term of court held at Provo with the belief that the Mormons would not indict other members of their faith, decided to act in large part on his own. To carry this out the judge accompanied by a small detachment of solders from Camp Floyd and a deputy marshal traveled southward to visit the Mountain Meadows site and surrounding settlements. En route he met Indian Agent Jacob Forney returning from his investigation of the area along with fifteen or sixteen surviving children from the massacre some twenty months earlier. Forney supplied the judge with the names of many whites reported to be prominent in the affair at the meadows; the judge issued warrants for almost forty men. Although his name was not on the warrant list, Martineau wrote: "Quite a number, myself included, went to the hills until the danger passed." The judge’s military judicial activities soon ended when the military force was recalled by a directive that the army’s services were to be invoked only to limited cases when ordered by the governor; and Cradlebaugh was reassigned to a district in what became western Nevada.
By 1860 James H. Martineau seemed well established in Iron County, and the territorial legislature in January of 1860 re-appointed him to be the notary public for the county. However, he had other plans and in his journal he noted that in the fall of 1859 he "determined to remove to Salt Lake City." He traded his Iron County land for property in the Salt Lake First, Sixth and Thirteenth wards. As to his reasons for moving we can only speculate that among them were personal desire for better opportunities for his growing families, realizing the great hope of the Iron mission had not succeeded, and perhaps a desire to get out from under the dark shadow of Mountain Meadows in southern Utah. He with his families departed Parowan in January and apparently traveled slowly and experienced a somewhat nervous encampment with the Indians at Corn Creek in southeastern Millard County that came off without difficulties. The Martineaus arrived in Salt Lake City on May 5th followed by a deep snow with freezing temperatures. He wrote that he cut and hauled wood from the west mountain during his short stay in the city. The following month on June 5th the Martineaus were listed in the 1860 census for the 13th Ward in "Great Salt Lake City" with the head of household, two wives and seven children. His occupation was listed as a "farmer" with real estate of $800 and personal property valued at $500. Just over six weeks later on July 19, 1860, the Martineaus moved. Leaving wife Susan Ellen with her children at Manti visiting her relatives, James and wife Susan Julia with their two children headed for Cache County to beginning surveying lands "by desire of President B. Young." They traveled north with a company of settlers and while en route learned of troubles with the Indians at Smithfield wherein both whites and Indians died. Their company reacted and traveled thereafter in military order to Providence without trouble.
Martineau and his family remained at Providence for a few weeks while he began making surveys in Cache County. He relocated his family to the county seat at Logan where they would live for the next twenty-three years. He established his "plantation" or home place on the lot north of the public square. Here he constructed two homes facing south, the one of the west for Susan Julia and the house on the east for Susan Ellen. In a January 12, 1861 letter to Susan Ellen still at Manti, James wrote and drew a sketch the arrangement at Logan. The family in Logan was living in their own house, and Susan Ellen’s house next door was still under construction. In back of the houses was a stable, and in front of the residences was an eleven foot well. To the west and across a street was the "Tithing Stack Yard," on the lot to the east was the home of Brother Blair, who he came to Logan with. Logan was at this time, a mile long and five-eighth of a mile wide with lots containing one acre of land each. Perhaps most revealing in his letter to Susan Ellen, although Logan as early in its establishment and things were still primitive, still—"It is none of your two-penny Parowan operations—all is on a larger scale." Within a short time Susan Ellen and children joined the rest of the family at Logan.
In summarizing some of his life in Cache County he stated: ". . . when the county was organized was appointed county clerk and elected county surveyor, which last position I held for over twenty years. On January 19th, 1861, I received appointment as notary public for Cache County. I spent some months clerking for Farnsworth & Co.; afterwards for Thomas Box & Co. Also taught a military school, and assisted some of the time in the Tithing Office." As he did in southern Utah, he was involved in many activities at his new location. He placed a long advertisement in the Deseret News at Salt Lake City on August 29, 1860, stating that he was the Cache County surveyor and would promptly attend to any business in this line. In addition he would buy and sell real estate, furs, lumber, firearms, ammunition and "various other notions." Beside this, he suggested that people seeking employment and employers wanting workers should register with him or examine his listings. A month later he advertised in the Salt Lake paper that he had established a drug store at Logan with a long list of items he carried along with three "&c." for good measure, as well as received eggs, lard and butter. The "Cache Valley Drug Store" advertisements ran in the Salt Lake newspaper weekly through the end of 1860. Much of this may well have been short time or largely involved his wives and older children. He was engaged to a large degree with the local militia most often called the "Minute Men," a name apparently preferred over the old name of Nauvoo Legion which the non-Mormon governors were trying to eliminate. As an officer in the militia he was often engaged in training, drills and inspections besides the expeditions after Indians with stolen property or threats against towns or stock. He later recalled that during his first ten years in Cache County he "spent a large proportion of time" in explorations, Indian expeditions and guard duty; and in all he spent over twenty years as a "minute man"—which included his service in Iron County and rose to the rank of colonel. For more specifics on this aspect one should read his "Military History of Cache County."
He mentioned some of his activities with little or no comment such as helping form a dramatic association in Logan as well as being "engaged in farming" and becoming the "U.S. deputy internal revenue collector." In 1861-1862 he participated in two Mormon exploring parties into Bear Lake Valley with special interest at to possibilities for settlers and best routes there. He recalled that in July of 1863, he "began photography, learning from E. Covington." Possibly he bought his equipment from Edward Covington of Ogden. Martineau took pictures for a period and then sold his business to Davy Lewis, an English emigrant photographer, but he continued photography as a hobby for many more years. Beginning while in Iron County he wrote letters to the Deseret News, usually covering local happenings with an occasional piece of poetry such as the one entitled "Truth" published in the newspaper on December 8, 1858. He was active in civic matters serving as a councilor and later an alderman from 1866 to 1880. In 1864 he was selected as one of three men on a board of examiners to determine teacher qualification for the twenty-three school districts in the county. During all this he was a surveyor and within four years had made all the surveys for all the established towns in Cache County and continued these surveys when new settlements were formed. In addition he surveyed much public land, located irrigation canals and in 1877 assisted in laying out the foundation and grounds for the new temple at Logan. He served as U.S. deputy land and mineral surveyor under three surveyor generals of the United States and made a geodetic survey of central Nevada to Ogden, Utah for the Smithsonian Institute. His survey work just within Cache County was extensive beginning with the original fort surveys, expanding these efforts when towns relocated and with the passage of the Townsite act of 1867 initiating another round of surveys. This coupled with his drive to achieve accuracy in his own work and in correcting previous misalignment in previous surveys by others and missing township corner markers kept him more than busy. A recent scholarly article on his survery work rightfully concluded: "But his survey work in northern Utah is by far his most impressive."
In 1868 he assisted in locating a route for the Union Pacific Railroad on the transcontinental line from Echo Canyon into Nevada. In 1869 he surveyed the railroad route from Ogden south to Salt Lake City over which the Utah Central Railroad would run.
In the 1870 census the head of the Martineau family in Logan was listed as a "Civil Engineer" with real estate valued at $2,000 and personal property valued at $1,000. The family consisted of the father, two wives and eleven children and resided in the Logan 1st Ward. In the early 1870s he surveyed a route for the narrow-gauged Utah Northern Railroad from Ogden into Cache County and on to Franklin, Idaho. His survey route was accepted except where he recommended that it pass through Bear River Canyon. But the railroad took the cheap way over the mountain with steep grades and sweeping curves, only to regret their decision and in 1889-1890 moved the tracks to Martineau’s route. At Logan his second wife died and was buried in 1874. Six years later the Martineau family on the 1880 census was composed of the father, a wife and eleven children ranging in age from twenty-one to three-years of age. The head of the family was listed as a fifty-two-year-old "surveyor."
In February of 1878 the city of Logan proposed construction of a water works for use by humans. Martineau was asked to make a preliminary examination with an estimate of the cost. When this was completed it was accepted, and he was placed in charge of the water project as engineer. In February of 1879 together with his son Lyman along with Moses Thatcher and Williams Jenning spent three months visiting in Washington, D.C., New York and other eastern and Midwestern cities. The trip to New York was his first since 1849. With the establishment of a Logan newspaper there was a continuous front page advertisement in each weekly issue along the line: "Jas. H. Martineau / U.S. Deputy Mineral Surveyor and civil engineer / Logan, Cache Co. Utah / Surveys for mining claims made for location or for obtaining patents." The first known ad was on the front page of The Logan Leader on October 9, 1879, and continued weekly until January 20, 1882. Then for two months his business card was printed in the Logan newspaper through March 17, 1882. By that time he was no longer the county surveyor and was in the process of relocating again. He made a three month tour into Mexico with Apostles Erastus Snow and Moses Thatcher beginning in November of 1882 seeking another "refuge" for the Mormons being pushed hard by the government on the polygamy issue. He made other trips into Arizona and Sonora, Mexico in 1883 and 1884 where he and his family and many Utah Mormons were considering moving to, but purchased no land as the prices were too high.
On September 5, 1883, the Logan paper, The Utah Journal, told its readers about a recent visit to their offices of former resident James H. Martineau, "who has been in Arizona since last spring." He brought from Arizona two fine specimens of "round cactus" for his son Lyman and President William B. Preston both of Logan. Most of the Martineaus were in southern Arizona but the family head made a series of prolonged visits to Utah. In 1884 he was called to be the second counselor in the newly organized St. Joseph Stake in Arizona. He traveled extensively in southern Arizona visiting the various Mormon settlements and surveying town sites again. In 1883 he surveyed the Mormon settlement of St. David along with a large canal nearby. He also surveyed the towns of Curtis, Graham, Pima, Thatcher, Solomonville, Duncan and Thomas plus another large canal in Graham County. From southern Arizona, usually St. David in Cochise County, he wrote a series of letters to the Logan newspaper telling about his new home and its prospects. In 1885 he wrote a general historical statement of the beginning of Mormon settlements in southeastern Arizona entitled "Settlements in Arizona." "Having a great desire to go to Mexico" to live he applied to Mormon President John Taylor for release as counselor in the St. Joseph Stake Presidency. His request was granted and in 1888, and he with most of his family moved to Colonia Juarez in Chihuahua, Mexico. Here he made a fourth round of surveying, covering the Mormon settlements of Colonia Juarez, Dublan and Chuichupa along with some surveying for private enterprises, one of which covered 800 square miles of mountain timberland in the Sierra Madre Range for a California Land Company. In February of 1892 a group from the Chihuahuan colonies which included James H. Martineau and some of his family moved westward beyond the Janos River to found the Mormon colony of Oaxaca on the Bivispi River. In 1898 James H. Martineau was ordained a patriarch in the Mormon Church.
The Martineau family remained in Mexico into the 1900s and in 1903 James H. Martineau made a long visit to Utah to see family living there and to pursue genealogical and temple work for his ancestors. In 1908 he decided to move permanently to Utah, leaving his wife and a son in charge in Mexico. Before long his first wife Susan Ellen joined him in Utah, leaving their family in Mexico to take care of the homes and property. This they did until 1912 when, according to Martineau, "all my family in Mexico, sixty in number were forced to fly [or flee] to the United States for safety, abandoning almost all they possessed, including homes, farms, orchards and live stock to bandits called Mexican soldiers . . . . I lost all the savings of a life time. . . . " due to the instability and chaos of the Mexican Revolution. In the 1910 U.S. Census James H. Martineau was in Salt Lake City with his wife living with son Lyman. The eighty-two year-old patriarch of the family listed his occupation at the time as a "writer." In December of 1918 his wife Susan Ellen died. Two years later in the Fourteenth Census of the United States in 1920, the widower James H. Martineau was living with another son, Charles F. and family, at Logan, Utah. Five months later on June 24, 1921, the extraordinary and multi-faceted James H. Martineau died at the age of ninety-three in Salt Lake City. A few days later he was buried in the Logan Cemetery. At his funeral President Heber J. Grant eulogized him. He had been in his western life, a pioneer, an explorer, a military, church and civic leader along with being a writer, photographer, and above all a surveyor—par excellence.
Larry D. Christiansen & Marcella Martineau Roe, Biographical Sketch of James H. Martineau, © 2007. Note: Marcella Martineau Roe (2nd great granddaughter of JHM)

An Indian Dinner Party

An Indian Dinner Party
By James H. Martineau

The Paheed Indians, living in the valley of the Little Salt Lake, had given us considerable trouble and loss by stealing cattle. It was thought wise, in the summer of 1852, to give the tribe a dinner, hoping thus to make them more friendly and quit their depredations. So and invitation was given them, and at the appointed time a large number assembled at Parowan Fort.

A long table made of boards placed upon trestles and big enough for all, was laden with an abundance of the best we could furnish, consisting of a variety of vegetables, but no meat or groceries of any kind, the latter being unknown in the colony. And meat was something we could not eat oftener than once in three or four months. President Young had counseled us not to hunt game, for that belonged of right to the natives; no one thought for a moment of killing a cow, and a work ox was safe as long as he could pull a plow. But occasionally a jack rabbit became a victim, the excuse being offered that he had damaged someone’s garden.

But, the absence of meat did not trouble our guests. They hugely enjoyed the dinner as a great novelty, and ate until they could eat no more. When told they could carry away all the food left, their joy was full, and they quickly disposed of everything. But one fellow for a few moments was puzzled. Much of the food was summer squash, cooked quite thin, and mushy. This Indian had two pans nearly full which he wanted, but had no kettle or dish in which to take it. But “Necessity, the mother of invention,” gave him an idea. He wore buckskin leggings, reaching up nearly to his hips, and fastened to his belt. Taking off one legging, he tied a string around the lower end, thus making a bag into which his squaw poured the squash, and carried it away in triumph, as a serious difficulty skillfully overcome.

After dinner the chief, Kanarrah, made a speech, saying the Mormons were good to his people and he hoped they would overlook the stealing his people had done, and explained their temptations by saying, “You plenty bread, plenty cow, plenty horse, plenty everything. Me nothing, no bread, no cow, no nothing, but all the time hungry, squaw and papoose all time hungry. But we no more steal cattle.”

President John C.L. Smith then made a speech, telling the Indians to learn to work, to be industrious, and live like the Mormons, saying if they would do so they would multiply and increase, otherwise they would dwindle away and die out, and in a few years none would be left.

The Indians listened attentively, and we all thought they were thoroughly converted until Kanarrah, in three words upset President Smith’s whole argument. Pointing to our cemetery, he said, “Who lies there?” For the natives, that was enough. Every grave there contained a white man – not a single Indian. Not one of us could find a word to say. Never did I know three words to produce so great an effect, or to so easily overthrow an argument.

The “talk” being over, the natives as usual, began gambling, using a little round ball of wood, held first in one hand, then in the other, as parties sat upon the ground facing each other. If the other could guess rightly which hand held the ball as it was changed from hand to hand, he gained the bet, if not, he lost.

An Indian would gamble away all his property, even his clothes, and then gamble his wife or child away. Such a thing happened now. An Indian had thus lost his wife and told her to go with her new husband, but she did not like him, and slipping away from the crowd quickly entered our house – the nearest one at hand – and hid, first behind the door, and under some clothing which hung there; then in a moment crept under the bed, the next minute crawling out and running out the back door and down into a small cellar, the door of which was open.

Scarcely was she thus concealed when in rushed an Indian, knife in hand, his face like a demon’s. Without a word to us, he looked behind the door, then under the bed, then he tumbled the bedding to see if she could be hidden there. Not finding her, but certain she had entered our house, he rushed out the back way and went to the doorway of the cellar. Seeing the place was empty, he did not enter. Had he done so he would have seen the woman, who stood behind the door, and killed her.

The Indian next rushed to the corral, searched it carefully, and then went to the next one adjoining, and so on along that line of the fort, determined to find his prey. During this time the squaw showed her sagacity, by following him up from corral to corral, quickly going to one just searched by him, while he went on to another. We believe he never found the woman, as we never heard of her murder.

During all this time, which to us was one of much excitement, the other Indians seemed as unconcerned as if nothing unusual was happening.

Mother-Courage of a Lioness

Mother-Courage of a Lioness
Written by James H. Martineau

Upon another occasion Mrs. Martineau, (Susan Ellen Johnson) returning to the house after a short absence, saw her little daughter, Elvira (Susan Elvira Martineau – Emma Johnson’s mother)
Crouching upon the floor, the picture of deadly terror, an Indian standing with tomahawk uplifted over her head as if about to dash out her brains.

Nerved with the mother-courage of a lioness she flew upon him, jerked him away from her daughter, and beat h him so soundly that he was glad to get loose from her grasp and make an inglorious retreat. Courageous while the struggle was on, when all danger was past she weakened for a few moments.

The Indian had demanded bread, and when told there was none, told the little girl she lied and said he would kill her. He might not have hurt her, but Indians, with their ungovernable passions, are not to be trusted when they are enraged.

During several years of the early settlement of Utah, especially in the outer settlements, incidents of startling character were not uncommon; but unaccountable as it may appear, women, afraid of a little innocent mouse never quailed in the presence of an angry savage, even if he stood knife in hand threatening instant death.

A Dance on Sunday

A Dance on Sunday
Written By James H. Martineau

A dance by Latter Day Saints on Sunday would justly be considered out of order in any well regulated community, but one at which the writer took part many years ago is worth mention. It was July, 1851 in Parowan.

The people were assembled on Sunday afternoon in the log school house, which was used also for religious and other meetings, and dances, and which by the way, was the first house erected in the colony – when Walker, the great Utah Chieftain, arrived with a large band of warriors and squaws, returning from a predatory expedition the Colorado River. Walker and his brother Ammon, came at once to meeting and were invited to seats on the stand and asked to speak. Walker made a short address in the Ute tongue, which was interpreted sentence by sentence by Ammon, who spoke English quite well.

Walker said he had heard much about the Mormon dances – that they were fine – in fact, unequalled; but he had never seen any, and would like very much to do so. He was told his wish should be granted, and that tomorrow evening we would have a dance in the school house, to which he and his men would be welcome.

Walker replied that this would not do as he was on his way to Salt Lake City and could not wait all that day – indeed, could not waste any time in Parowan. For this reason he asked - and in fact required, in no uncertain manner – that the dance be given “today, this afternoon – immediately”

The presiding authorities of the colony hastily discussed the demand and as we were nearly 300 miles from any assistance should help be needed in case of trouble, the colony being weak in numbers, it was considered best not to displease the Indians, who knew no difference between Sunday and any other day, and to give them the dance they desired.

Accordingly, meeting was at once dismissed, a man sent for his fiddle, and all repaired a short distance to a level piece of ground, accompanied by all the Indians, about a hundred in number. The fiddler came, a cotillion was formed, and the dance commenced. Not a drop of rain had fallen for months, and our dancing floor, destitute of vegetation, soon became very dusty with the energetic tramping of feet and swish of women’s skirts; during the second cotillion one could hardly see the opposite couple for dust. But we all did our best and most artistic dancing to suitably impress our dusky visitors, that they might see that they had not been misinformed as to our ability on the “light fantastic toe.”

Great was our astonishment at the end of the third cotillion as another set was just forming when Walker angrily shouted: “Stop! Get off the ground! You don’t know how to dance! The one lied who told me Mormons could dance! They spoke with a forked tongue! Go home and don’t try anymore dance till you know how = not like papooses! I’ll show you how to dance!”

He spoke a few words to his men and about 60 of them took their places, forming a perfect circle, all facing inwards, while a couple with their tom-toms, or rude drums squatted just outside and began beating time, singing in a monotonous chant, “Ay-yah, ay-yah! Ay-ah, ay-yah!”

The dance consisted of simply stepping at each drum beat – fist to the right, then at a special drum-thump circling to the left, and so on alternately, for about 20 minutes.

We were all astonished. In all their movements, stopping or changing direction, as they circled, there was not the least crowding or jostling or moving in other than as a perfect circle as if one had been marked on the ground; and to all appearances every foot touched the ground at precisely the same instant. They scarcely raised a dust.

When Walker saw he had sufficiently impressed us and instructed us he stopped the dance; saying to us, “Now you can see how to dance – to dance like men, not like papooses, who know nothing.” And away he and his men went, shortly continuing his way as if disdaining longer to stay with so uncultivated a set as we were.

To an onlooker our appearance must have been anything but dignified and inviting. Imagine a hot day in July, faces covered in dust and lined with furrows down which had coursed streams of perspiration gendered by heat and violent exercise, and clothing with colors indistinguishable for dirt! No wonder Walker looked upon us as a disreputable set, unworthy of further notice.

A Time of Fear and Death

A Time of Fear and Death
Written By James H. Martineau

In the summer of 1882, the small village of Show Low, in Apache County, Arizona stood upon the banks of the creek of that name, which is one of the tributaries of the Li5ttle Colorado River. Show Low obtained its peculiar name from the following circumstance:

The whole surrounding country was possessed by two men, Gentiles, whose herds roamed over its grassy hills and vales, but who after a time began to disagree, feeling that the estate, though large enough for one, was not big enough for two. They finally agreed that its sole ownership should be decided by chance. Sitting by a rude table in their cabin, after having been for some time engaged in card playing, they agreed to shuffle well the cards and each one cut; he who could show “low” to own the whole ranch. This they did, the loser departing contentedly to seek pastures new. And so from this little game of “Show Low” the place took its name.

Only eight Mormon Families dwelt here; and as farm land near by was limited in area, some of the men took up farms in the timber land or “forest” as it was called, some miles away. Among these were John Reidhead and wife, and Benjamin Samuel Johnson and Elvira, his wife; daughter of J.H. Martineau formerly and for many years a resident of Logan City, Utah who took adjoining f arms about seven miles from Show Low. Here they built a double log house in which both families lived during the time of planting, cultivating and harvesting their crops. When this labor was over, they would then return to the little village.

It was about the first day of June when the following tragic scenes were enacted: It was a season, apparently, of most profound peace with the Indians. Not a speck darkened the sky of the toiling settlers – not the faintest rumor of impending evil disturbed the quiet of their daily lives. They were busy as bees, clearing the land, plowing and planting, fencing and building, and already had made quite a creditable showing in the way of substantial improvement. But all this was suddenly to cease; trouble, fear and death were waiting to succeed this time of peace and prosperity.

While these two families of Johnson and Reidhead were thus laboring industriously and contentedly upon their lonely farms, unsuspicious of approaching danger, their guardian spirits one day gave them a gentle whisper, not sufficient to alarm them, but which caused them to find a place of safety, unknowing, themselves, the cause of their action. One morning after breakfast, Reidhead said, “I believe I’ll go down to Taylor and get my wagon fixed.” Said Johnson, “I think I’ll go with you.” Then said Mrs. Reidhead, “If both of you are going, I’ll go too.” “I too” said Mrs. Johnson. “Well,” said Johnson, “Let’s all go” “Yes,” said Mrs. Johnson, “and take the cows and everything.” And so, without any premeditation, and obeying a sudden impulse, but without any real or well defined reason, they did that which no doubt saved the lives of all of them.

They hitched up their teams, loaded up their household gear into their wagons, and with their cows and chickens went to Show Low, intending ere long to return. As the little party thus proceeded on their way to Show Low, Mrs. Johnson, an experienced pioneer, who had already passed through many dangerous and trying scenes with unflinching courage, relates that she felt a fear and unrest which caused her often to look over her shoulder – a nameless dread, which hastening events soon explained. Arrived at the little village-“What did you come in for? Any trouble?” said the surprised people. “No trouble, we just thought we’d come back for a little while.”

But there was trouble, though they knew it not. The dreaded Apaches had again broken out, and were even then upon the war path, plundering scattered settlers horses and shooting their stock. On Wednesday, June 1st, Brother Nathan Robinson, a resident of Show Low, was killed by Apaches, only 1 ½ miles from his home. Riding peacefully along the road, he say a small party of Indians gathered about a dead animal not far from the road; he rode up next to them and while examining the dead ox, was murdered, stripped, and his mangled corpse thrown into the creek and weighted down with stones.

Although no breath of ill rumor had as yet, ruffled the peace of the villagers, the wife of the murdered man felt a sad premonition and alarm for her husband all day- a fear which her neighbors endeavored in vain to dispel. With streaming eyes and wringing hands she exclaimed again and again-“My husband is dead! My husband is dead! I know he is killed!”

“About two o’clock the next morning,” says Mrs. Johnson, “I was suddenly awakened by a rough shake of the arm and the voice of a boy calling out: “Mrs. Johnson! Get up quick and run to the barn! The Indians have broken out. Run quick!” and away he sped to awaken others.” The night being warm, and her husband absent, she had made her bed out of doors, upon the ground. Hastily dressing, she snatched her child and fled to the barn – the rendezvous appointed – crossing in her flight a deep rocky gulch upon two long, slim poles which lay across it – a feat she would not have dared assay at any other time, as a misstep would result in almost certain death or broken limbs. Arrived at the barn, she found the people all gathered – three old men – the rest being women and children, whose husbands and fathers were away from the settlement. Who may know the agony of those helpless ones, as the night dragged slowly along; the nameless dread that their loved ones already might have been butchered, and the uncertainty of their own fate. With what intensity is every faculty strained – how many uncanny sounds they hear – or think they hear. With what piercing glances they fearfully peer into the surrounding gloom, fancying, every now and then, that they see dusky forms stealthily approaching. Tears dim their eyes and prayer fills their hearts as mothers look upon their darling children, and think, with a chill shudder, of what has been and of what may be again.

But while others were in dread, Mrs. Johnson was calm. Her husband and four year old boy were absent, and should, as he intended when he went to Taylor, have returned the day previous. No one knew what was hindering his homecoming. Should not she, too, be very anxious? Here is the key to her calmness – a little secret well worth knowing by the youth of Utah; she was a woman of faith, and had been trained from her youth that the Father hears and answers the prayers of those who trust in him; she went by herself and asked that if her husband and boy were alive and should return to her, that she might have the testimony of a peaceful mind and an assurance of their safety. She arose with this testimony in her soul, and thenceforward felt no fear, much to the surprise of her associates – a faith fully justified next day when her loved ones returned safe and unharmed. The writer mentions this little incident to impress upon the youth the fact that God is ever willing to hear and answer the prayer of faith and give peace to the troubled soul.

We will here mention that about 11 p.m. it was decided to send a messenger to Taylor, nine miles distant, for aid; but who would venture alone upon such a dangerous errand? Should one of the men go? There would be only two left to defend the helpless flock in case of attack; and how could a woman undertake such a fearful risk? But a boy of fourteen years – John Reidhead – volunteered and went. Every heart was filled with supplication to the Father that he might reach his destination in safety, for who could say that he might not fall into an ambush of skulking savages? As he sped along the rocky road, it seemed to the anxious listeners in the barn that the resounding clatter of his horse’s hoofs could be heard for miles, and must surely be heard by the Indians and bring them upon him.

He reached Taylor and informed Bishop Standifired of the danger of the people in Show Low. The Bishop seized his gun, stepped to the door and fired his piece as a signal of alarm. As the report echoed through the stillness of the night, men hastily sprung from their beds and hurried to the Bishop’s to learn what was the matter. A party of twenty men quickly volunteered to go to the relief of Show Low, arriving there about daylight, much to the joy of the waiting ones.

But Brother Nathan Robinson had not yet returned, nor did any one know aught concerning him. Parties well armed went out in search and were for hours unsuccessful, until someone, passing by the crystal stream, saw something under the water and under a pile of stones, that drew his attention. It was the body of Brother Robinson, stripped and mangled. Nearby they found some of his clothing. Tenderly, and sorrowfully, they laid his stiffened form across two horses, and so they brought him back to his sorrowing wife and children. Guided by the moccasin tracks of his murderers, they found the place where he had been killed, and where still lay the remains of the ox. They found too, the trail of his horse, where unsuspicious of danger, he had turned from the road and ridden up to a place occupied by supposed friends, but instead, he rode into the gloom of death. Who may know his thoughts, when suddenly assailed wounded and beaten to earth, he knew the hour of his death had come – his beloved wife and children to be evermore deprived of his loving, helpful hand! But his was not a solitary case; in this beautiful southern clime, such has been the fate of hundreds!

After some days it was decided to abandon Show Low. The people there were too few to hold the place; and other settlements near it were not strong enough to furnish constant aid. So willing hands and teams helped move the settlers to places of greater safety, some of whom never saw their homes again. Mrs. Johnson says that so it was with her and her husband; they abandoned home, farm, crops, a shingle mill and almost all they had, and were suddenly brought into a state of destitution. But with that innate irrepressible vitality, so characteristic of Mormonism, they yielded not to discouragement, but again set to work with stout hearts and industrious hands to repair their fortunes. And as it was with them, so has it been with many Mormon pioneers. They have indeed made the desert bloom, but its thirsty soil has been moistened by their tears, and their weary sighs have stirred in pity the leaves of the lone mesquite. But now the dawn begins to appear - the beginning of the end approaches; and soon shall the words of Father Jacob be fulfilled, and the seed of his beloved son possess the land he gave him.