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CHAPTER XI.
The Danites, or "Destroying Angels."
The Danites were an organization in the Mormon church. Its existence was stated by Bill Hickman in his confession made to me. He gave me the names of more than a score of its active members, among whom were a number of reputed notorious Danite assassins. He stated that the members were bound by their covenants to execute the orders of the priesthood, and that when a direct order or intimation was given to "use up" anyone, it was always executed by one or more of the members, according to the circumstances of the case. That such an organization existed is conclusively shown by the numerous mysterious murders which were never investigated by the executive officers of the Territory, or any attempt made to prosecute the guilty parties. The Mormon sermons, the confessions of Hickman and Lee, and numerous other circumstances made plain its existence. Hickman confessed to me that he personally knew of thirteen persons having been murdered, some of them by him, and others by various Danites; that at one time he murdered a man by the name of Buck at the personal request of Brigham Young. Hickman's statement of this affair in his published confession is substantially the same as given to me, in fuller detail, and is as follows:
BILL HICKMAN."A messenger came from the city and told me I was wanted at Brigham Young's office immediately. I mounted my horse and was in town in an hour, and went to Young's office. He asked me if I had `seen the boys.' I asked him What boys?' and he answered `George Grant and William Kimball.' I told him I had not. I then told him I had got word to come to his office, and wished to know what was wanted. He answered, `The boys have made a bad job of trying to put a man out of the way. They all got drunk, bruised up a fellow, and he got away from them at the point of the mountain, came back to this city, and is telling all that happened, which is making a big stink.' He said I must `get him out of the way, and use him up.' He told me to go and find the boys, meaning Generals Grant and Kimball, both being acting generals in the militia at that time, and arrange things with them so as to have him taken care of. I found them, and they told me 0. P. Rockwell [a notorious Danite], with a party, had made a bad job and wanted help, and I had been sent for to wind it up. Said they, `did Brigham tell you what was up?' I told them he did, and had sent me to them to arrange things. They told me they had things fixed: that when the party to which this man belonged first came into the Territory, all had stopped twelve miles north of the city, and remained several weeks in the neighborhood where George Dalton lived; that Dalton was in town, and they had got him to see this man (whose name I never heard, only he was called `Buck') and take him home with him, for he had confidence in Dalton. They said Dalton understood it, and they were waiting for me to come and meet him on the road. They then hunted up Dalton, and told him they had things all right now. Dalton was to leave town a little before sundown and pass the Hot Springs, three miles north of the city, and take the lower road, on which there was not much travel, and I was to meet him. I was to know his team because both of his horses were white. All being arranged, and the sun about an hour high, I got my horse, and the question was then asked how many men I wanted to go with me. I told them I did not want anyone. Thy said I must have somebody, and I told them I would take a man that was standing by, by the name of Meacham. They got him a horse, and we went to the place appointed, and just at dark the wagon came. We called it to halt. The man, Buck, got a shot through the head, and was put across the fence in a ditch. A rag was hung on a bush below the place. We returned to the city to General Grant, as per agreement, and found him at home with General Kimball, 0. P. Rockwell and somebody else, whose name I do not recollect now. They asked if all was right, and I told them it was. They got spades, and we all went back, deepened the ditch, put him in and buried him, returned to Grant's, took some whiskey, and separated for the night. The next day Kimball and I went to Brigham Young, told him that `Buck' was taken care of, and there would be no more stink about his stories. He said he was glad of it."
I remember distinctly that Hickman in relating that occurrence to me, said that Buck, when he was shot, sprang out of the wagon, and while he was struggling on the ground, Meacham dismounted and drove his bowie knife twice into his body. He was up to this event the sole survivor of the Aiken party, who were murdered by Porter Rockwell and his ever-ready assistants at the "point of the mountain" on the road to Lehi.
The church influence which made the perpetrators of the Mountain Meadows massacre fiends, evidently made the Danites fiends also. Among the many heartless murders committed by the Danites was that of Jesse P. Hartley, published in Hickman's confession as follows:
"Hartley was a young lawyer who had come to Salt Lake City the fall before, and had married a Miss Bullock of Provo, a respectable lady of good family. But word had come to Salt Lake (so said, I never knew whether it did or not) that he had been engaged in some counterfeiting affair. He was a fine looking, intelligent young man. He told me he had never worked any in his life, and was going to Fort Bridger or Green River to see if he could not get a job of clerking or something that he could do. But previous to this, at the April Conference, Brigham Young, before the congregation, gave him a tremendous blowing up, called him all sorts of bad names, and saying he ought to have his throat cut, which made him feel very bad. He declared he was not guilty of the charges. I saw Orson Hyde looking sour at him, and after he had been in camp an hour or two, Hyde told me he had orders from Brigham Young, if he (Hartley) came to Port Supply, to have him used up. `Now,' said he, `I want you and George Boyd to do it.' I saw him and Boyd talking together; then Boyd came to me and said, `its all right Bill, I'll help you to kill that fellow.' One of our teams was two or three miles behind and Orson Hyde wished me to go back and see if anything had happened to it. Boyd saddled his horse to go with me, but Hartley stepped up and said he would go if Boyd would let him have his horse. Orson Hyde said `let him have your horse.' which Boyd did. Orson Hyde then whispered to me, `now is your time; don't let him come back.' We started, and in about half a mile we had to cross the canyon stream, which was mid-side to our horses. While crossing, Hartley got a shot and fell dead in the creek. That evening, after supper was over, Orson Hyde called all the camp together and said he wanted a strong guard on that night for that fellow that had come to us in the forenoon had left the company. He was a bad man, and it was his opinion that he intended stealing horses that night. This was about as good a take-off as he could get up, but it was all nonsense. It would do well enough to tell, as everyone that did not know what had happened believed it."
In the early days of my experience in Utah, I frequently had cases which required me to go to the city of Provo, and when attending court there I lodged at Mr. Bullock's hotel. Having heard of the murder of Hartley, and that his wife was a sister of Mr. Bullock, I asked him on one occasion, while stopping at his hotel, whether what I had heard respecting the murder of Hartley was true. He stated that Hartley had incurred the displeasure of Brigham Young, who at a public meeting had used strong language against Hartley, and had ordered him to leave the speakers stand; that on account of the charges made by Brigham, which Bullock said were not true, Hartley was put under the ban of the church, and decided to change his residence. He joined the company of Judge Appleby, and while leaving the Territory was murdered by Hickman. I asked Mr. Bullock if the matter had ever been investigated by the executive authorities, and he said it had not been, although it was generally known that Hickman had committed the crime. I also asked him why he had not instituted proceedings against Hickman. He shook his head significantly and replied, "Don't press me for an answer to that question."
The following account of the murder of Hartley, given by his wife thirteen years before the confession of Hickman, is contained in Mrs. Mary Etta V. Smith's book entitled, "Fifteen Years Residence with the Mormons," pages 309-310, and is as follows:
"I married Jesse Hartley knowing he was a Gentile in fact, though he passed for a Mormon; but that made no difference with me, because he was a noble man and sought only the right. Being my husband, he was brought into close contact with the heads of the church, and thus was soon enabled to learn of many things he did not approve of, and of which I was ignorant though brought up among the Saints, and which if known to the Gentiles would have greatly damaged us. I do not understand all he discovered, or all he did; but they found he had written against the church, and he was cut off, and the prophet required as an atonement for his sins that he should lay down his life; that he should be sacrificed in the endowment rooms, where such atonement is made. This I never knew until my husband told me - but it is true. They kill those there who have committed sins too great to be atoned for in any other way. The prophet says if they submit to this he can save them, otherwise they are lost. Oh, that is horrible! But my husband refused to be sacrificed, and so set out alone for the United States, thinking that there might be at least a hope of success. I told him when he left me and left his child, that he would be killed; and so he was.
"William Hickman and another Danite shot him in the canyons, and I have often since been obliged to cook for this man when he passel this way, knowing all the while he had killed my husband. My child soon followed his father, and I hope to die also, for why should I live? They have brought me here, where I wish to remain rather than return to Salt Lake where the murderers of my husband curse the earth, and roll in affluence, unpunished."
John D. Lee, in his confession, stated:
"When the Danites - or Destroying Angels - were placed on a man's track, that man died - certain, unless some providential act saved him. The church authorities used the law of the land, the laws of the church, and Danites, to enforce their orders and rid the community of those who were distasteful to the leaders. And I say as a fact, that there was no escape for anyone that the leaders of the church in southern Utah selected as a victim. It frequently happened that men became dissatisfied with the church and tried to leave the Territory. The authorities would try to convince such persons that they ought to remain, but if they insisted on going, they were informed that they had permission to do so. When the person had started off with his stock and property, it was nearly always the rule to send a lot of Danites to steal all of their stock and run it off into the mountains, so that in the majority of cases the people would return wholly broken up, and settle down again as obedient members of the church."
Many apostates have made similar statements to me, and before the completion of the Union Pacific railroad it was very hazardous for an apostate to leave the Territory with his family and property. In his confession, Lee states with particularity eight or nine murders which he knew were committed by the Danites. and some of the victims had their throats cut. In the excavations made within the limits of Salt Lake City during the time I have resided there, many human skeletons have been exhumed in various parts of the city. The present City cemetery was established by the first settlers. I have never heard that it was ever the custom to bury the dead promiscuously throughout the city; and as no coffins were ever found in connection with any of these skeletons, it is evident that the death of the persons to whom they once belonged did not result from natural causes, but from the use of criminal means, and therefore the victims were not given a Christian burial. That the Danites were bound by their covenants to execute the criminal orders of the high priesthood against apostates and alleged enemies of the church is beyond question.
That such an organization existed is shown by the sermon of Orson Hyde, before quoted in which he referred to the "shepherd and his sharp-toothed dogs"; also in the sermon of Brigham, before mentioned, in which he said:
"If men come here and do not behave themselves, they will not only find the Saints, whom they talk so much about, biting their horses heels, but the scoundrels will find something biting their heels. I wish such characters would let the boys have a chance at them." * * *
Evidently reference is here made to the Danites. How many murders were secretly committed by that band of assassins will never be known, but an estimate may be made from the number mentioned in the confessions of Hickman and Lee, and the number of human skeletons which have been exhumed in Salt Lake City, the possessors of which were evidently murdered and buried without a knell, coffin, or Christian ceremony.
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