Customer Reviews

John Doyle Lee: Zealot, Pioneer Builder, Scapegoat

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I am pleased to be the first reviewer of this book who is not a decendent of John D. Lee, yet I, too, must give the book highest marks. While it is history, and a biography, it is as captivating as any novel, and a treat for the immagination as well as the rational mind. Full marks for the late Ms. Brooks in her ability to weave together the elements that make the man, her insight mostly derived from his own copious writings and those of his faithful wives. The result is a reasonably complete look at the complex man, faithful to his dying moments in the Church and gospel he thought he was defending, a look that includes his intimate thoughts, a sense of his apparent egotism, his devotion to his multiple families, and the role that his wives and children played in his life.

There is much that I appreciated about this book, not the least of which is the fact that Ms. Brooks did not shy away from the possibility that Brigham Young sacrificed J. D. Lee in a manner consistent with a Book of Mormon account, in which it is stated by God that "it is better that one man should perish, then a whole nation dwindle in unbelief." Lee himself implicates his "adoptive father," Brigham Young, in his farewell letter to his wives. At the same time, she does not for a moment lose the perspective of the seige mentality, the war-time thinking of both the perpetrators of the Mountain Meadow Massacre, and the leaders of the Church. Without this context, it is easy to stand in self-rightous judgement of what hindsight clearly dictates was a horrible act. With that psycho/social context, the fair-minded reader can at least admit that while John D. Lee was indeed a participant in an evil day, he was not an evil man. Far from it. Indeed, he may have paid the price with his life because he was in fact a man of high principles, and utmost regard for the God who gave him life. His faith sustained him through remarkable hardship, and sustained him in his own noble imprisonment and ultimatly his execution.

You will not be able to read this book without a strong sense of compassion for his wives, either. They were called upon to endure extreme hardship, and appear to have risen to the challenge. From their march across the plains, to the numerous times they were asked to open a new settlement, to eventually living practically alone in Navajo country to fend for themselves, even to birth children without so much as the help from an older daughter, these were women of enormous faith, incredible fortitude, and proud devotion to a man that their Church had marked as a scapegoat and sacrificial lamb.

It is likely that decendents of the Fancher Party would read this book with different emotions than I, but I found it to be highly stimulating and engaging, both to the sensitivities and the mind. It is a story of faith, of perseverence, of work and sacrifice, and ultimately betrayal by a man's dearest friends. If the book is too forgiving of Lee for his role in the Massacre at Mountain Meadows, it is only because his life was so much more than that one, dark day. The rest of his life was a labor of love, for his God, his Prophet, his friends, his wives, his children, and for the establishment of the Kingdom of God, of which he believed he was a key builder, in partnership with his God and his prophets.

The Mountain Meadows Massacre is usually recounted in one of two simple version: 1) Brigham Young ordered the assassination of innocent Gentile travellers; or 2) John D. Lee took it upon himself to do the same.

Brooks deals with the Massacre more thoroughly in her appropriately-titled _Mountain Meadows Massacre_, also available on this fine website. But the picture is incomplete without an understanding of who John D. Lee was. That picture is provided in great detail by this book, and it is sometimes startling.

Lee was not some renegade Danite chieftain. Raised on the American frontier, he joined the Mormons and became a pillar of the southern Utah community -- a church leader, the federal government's Indian farmer, and an officer in the militia. He was widely respected and reputed to have spiritual gifts of prophecy and healing.

And on the day of the Massacre, he was in a bad spot. Caught between conflicting and ambiguous military orders and facing the alternatives of killing not-completely-innocent travellers and alienating the native american population at a moment when the U.S. Federal government had declared war on the Utah Mormons, he made a tough choice.

Eventually, of course, Lee was banished for his crime, living out his last years as a ferryman with a greatly reduced family on the Utah-Arizona border. Some odd details strike you when reading Brooks' account, though:

1. There's plenty of evidence that people talked about Lee's excommunication, but in the well-kept church records, no sure indication that it actually happened.

2. Lee was a spiritually powerful man and a firm believer. Moreover, he was an intimate of Brigham Young (Young's adopted son, in fact).

3. Lee was a frontiersman through and through, one of the few Mormon pioneers (along with, say, Orrin Porter Rockwell and Bill Hickman)really equipped to deal with the harsh desert environment.

4. Lee was banished not when Brigham Young found out about the Massacre, but years later, and almost certainly in response to public sentiment.

So ask yourself this: if you were Brigham Young, and you needed to sacrifice someone to protect the church, who would it be? It's hard not to wonder whether John D. Lee's banishment was a calling. Maybe he wasn't excommunicated at all, but sent away as a visible sacrifice for the good of the community. Only a man with Lee's faith, independence and wilderness skills could be called on to make such a sacrifice.

Likewise, Lee seems to have virtually surrendered to his own execution, but it's not clear why. Was he again sacrificing himself for Brigham Young and the church? Did he feel the guilt of the Massacres and seek to atone by offering his own life?

I don't know, but I know this: if you're interested in Mormon history, Utah history or even the history of the American West, you should read this book.

I could not put this book down until I had finished it cover to cover. It is a gripping narative that is historically accurate. (None of the criticisms I have heard change the nature of the story at all.) She draws on primary resources and was often able to obtain documents no one else could. Her analysis, especially of Lee's second trial, is very insightful.

I was surprised to learn that the group of 12 or so men known as the "Misouri Wildcats" who were probably the target of the massacre had parted with the Francher company the day before the the first Indian raid and hence escaped being in the massacre.

I am not a descendant of John D. Lee.

All the elements of classic dramatic tragedy are alive in the story of John D Lee and the Mountain Meadows Massacre - a telling, complicated, and chilling 35 year saga. This is truly one of the most powerful individual tragedies in American History.

Juanita Brooks, a powerful brave Mormon woman, said "nothing but the truth can be good enough for the church to which I belong". This biography of John Doyle Lee is part of her work to fulfill her belief. Her story is compelling and powerful, but suffers from some significant weaknesses in my view which I will describe after I "briefly" (sorry) relate the story of this tragedy. But on the whole, I highly recommend this book as a part of learning about this incredible occurence in the American West.


THE TRAGEDY

Lee converted to the Church of Latter Day Saints in the late 1830's. He had witnessed first hand the bloody conflicts between LDS communities and the "Americans" around them in Missouri and Illinois and had defended his community from the attacks of the "Gentiles". He had mourned the murder of his beloved profit Joseph Smith. Lee had played a major role in the migration of the "Mormons" from Missouri and Illinois in 1847 and 1848 and the settlement of Utah. He became the trusted and adopted son of Smith's successor, Brigham Young.

Over the next 10 years Lee became one of the richest men in southern Utah, a powerful and respected member of the Latter Day Saints, a community leader, builder, pioneer with a large and prosperous family. But then all the forces of a true tragedy began slowly to converge on the fields of a place named "Mountain Meadows" in southwestern Utah.

The "Saints" had been attacked by the larger American community and had become "outcasts". They had moved beyond the immediate power of the American Nation and had settled in a difficult land. They worked hard to build their communities and society and were proud of their hard-earned accomplishments. They were deeply committed to their faith and Church. Their views were of the "fire and brimstone - Old Testament" variety. They firmly believed the "End Times" were eminent.

The Utah LDS church and civil society was extraordinarily hierarchical. The "Saints" believed their leadership spoke directly on behalf of God - an assumed infallibility that would have been the envy of any Medieval Catholic Pope. They intended to build their vision of "God's society" in the wilderness and desired nothing more from the United States than to be left alone until the Second Coming of Christ, at which time they would take their rightful position as the new "Chosen People".

But the American Republic was young, brash, and expanding - and infused with the populist democratic ideal (at least for white folks). The US - Mexican War ended in 1845 and added California, Texas and the New Mexico-Arizona territories to the Union. Gold was discovered in California in 1848-1849. One of the largest migrations in history saw thousands of Americans moving across the plains and mountains to get to California and Oregon. And right in the middle were the Mormons of Utah. The society from which the Saints had escaped a few years earlier was now on the march through their domain.

The hierarchy of the LDS resisted Federal control. Brigham Young and his associates informed the American government that they were not obligated to obey federal law with which the disagreed, and they would decide for themselves which federal officers would be allowed to exert federal authority in the territory.

In 1856 John Fremont, the first Republican candidate for President, ran on a platform that promised to "prohibit in the Territories those twin relics of Barbarism - Polygamy and Slavery". The Democratic President elected instead of Fremont - James Buchanan - won with 45 percent of the vote in a 3 way election. Buchanan realized the country could be sliding toward Civil War. He was offended by Mormon "treason", and saw an opportunity to divert the nation's attention from the "irrepresible conflict" over slavery by focusing on Mormon treason and polygamy.

During this time the LDS church experienced a religious "Reformation". The Saints were challenged to renew their deep commitment to the Church and to root out the "Apostates" among them. The forces of God and Evil were increasingly at War, and the Saints had to be "purified" to face the doomsday events immediately before them.

In the summer of 1857 Buchanan ordered the army to discipline the Mormons in Utah. General Albert Sydney Johnston, soon to be one of the Confederacies most important generals, commanded the "Army of Utah". The Army that had recently defeated Mexico and greatly expanded the Republic was on the march against LDS domination of Utah. LDS leaders mobilized thousands of members of their militia to be prepared to oppose the Army. Brigham Young and his followers were preparing for war.

Right at this point, 250 emigrants known to history as the "Fancher Party" left Arkansas in April 1857 bound for California. Over a dozen family groups and many individuals comprised a loosely organized group of several wagon trains that crossed the plains and rolled into Salt Lake City in August 1857.

While they were on the trail a beloved and very important "Saint" - Parley Pratt - had been murdered in Arkansas by the first husband of one of his several wives. This news was reported in Utah newspapers in July 1857. The news "devasted the Saints and aroused sentiments of anger and grief" (see Bagley book below). Then, one month later, a wagon train of people from Arkansas arrived in Salt Lake City.

What happened from the time the Fancher Party left Salt Lake in mid-August until they camped at Mountain Meadows in early September is highly disputed. There are dozens of stories ranging from severe anger by Mormons towards the emigrants to aggressive disdain of the Mormons by the emigrants, including an alledged poisoning of a spring.

All these and several other threads came together in the Mountain Meadows from Monday 9/7/57 through Friday - another infamous 9/11 in American History. Early on Monday morning the emigrants were attacked by a combined group of Mormons and Native American allies. Subsequent investigations determined that on Friday, 9/11 the Mormons convinced the emigrants to surrender, in exchange for which the Mormons would lead the emigrants back to a town and safety.

Instead, after they surrendered, well over 100 emigrants were murdered in cold blood in a 30 minute slaughter. Only a few children survived. The Mormons believed they were too young to remember enough about the Massacre to be witnesses in the future, although several reported late in their lives that "you can never forget the horror". Also, Mormon doctrine held that such young children were by nature "innocent" and killing them would be a "mortal sin".

The man who convinced the emigrants to surrender to the Mormons was John D Lee.

John Lee was put by fate in the middle of an extremely ambiguous and terrible crisis in which he had to choose. His choice led to his being the immediate leader of the largest slaughter experienced by any wagon train in American History.

Did Lee make that choice on his own; was he the "highest" member of the LDS church who had "blood on his hands"? Or, was he following the orders of "God's representative on Earth" - his adoptive father Brigham Young? Or was the truth somewhere in the middle?

Just as this tragedy slowly built over 15 years, it slowly unwound over the following 20 years. For a short time Lee remained one of southern Utah's most influential men. But then nature and his society began to work on John D Lee. Step by step Lee lost his wealth and position, until he was cut off from the LDS Church. But he still followed its orders to go to a desolate but beautiful outpost called Lonely Dell to operate a Ferry on the Colorado River in Arizona at the southern reach of the Morman kingdom - today named as "Lee's Ferry" on the map.

Then, he was arrested, stood trial and was convicted for the Massacre. On March 23, 1877, Lee stood again at the Mountain Meadows, shook hands with those around him, and then was shot in the heart by a firing squad.

John Doyle Lee was the only person who faced legal justice for the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Was this justice? Or was Lee made a Scapegoat by the LDS Church? If so, did the LDS leadership sacrifice Lee to protect their own skins, or to save the Church?

Or, to use a more contemporary phrase, "What did Brigham Young know, and when did he know it?"

THE BOOK

Juanita Brook's biography of Lee tells in detail the story of his life, and weaves it into the fabric of the terrible tragedy of Mountain Meadows. You get a real feel for the man and his times, and how he lived his life. Lee was energetic, responsible, industrious, difficult, committed - and Brooks tells the story well.

HOWEVER, much of the "larger context" I described above is missing from this book. For example, there is no discussion of the effect of the American Civil War that began 4 years after the Massacre. Surely the most powerful event in 19th century America had some affect on this story. In fact, the War was so powerful and all-consuming that it appears to have prevented the federal government from effectively pursuing its investigation of the Massacre and bringing those responsible to justice.

Brooks wrote another book - the Mountain Meadows Massacre - that explored this larger context. A more recent book - Blood of the Prophets, Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows - by Will Bagley adds more contextual detail to Brook's Massacre book.

To really get a full appreciation for this complex tragedy, you need to read both this biography of Lee and preferably Bagley's broader book. I give Brook's book "only 4 stars" because much of this broader context is missing, but in fairness her book's goal is to tell the "inside" story of John D Lee's life.

Hat's off to Mrs Brooks - what an incredible work! For ANYONE at all interested in the history and life of John D. Lee this is a must read.

The book is a great book if the reader is interested in the early years of the LDS church. As a member of the LDS church I found it very insightful. It is more insightful on the every day history of the church and the struggles of the members than it was on just John Lee. By insightful I mean tidbits of policy, history, the way things were handled, and changes in the church sinnce then that as members today we never hear of. Juanita Brooks through much research tells the story and pulls no punches for the LDS church or against the LDS church.

John Doyle Lee is my great great great great grandpa and i live near the moutain meadow massacre(wich was just redone by the lds church sat.) neat huh. (p.s my dad has the original book by Juanita Brooks in 1961) im just starting to read it. I think its very iteresting. and im proud to be realated to him!

I loved this book!!! This man is my fourth great grandfather and I am extremely proud of him especially after reading this book. I thank Juanita Brooks for her hard work and incredable insight. I have also done some searching and have found her accounts to be the most accurate. I would and do recommend this book to others.