Lee Benson of DesNews blames MMM memory on antis ....

[_Rollo Tomasi]

Lee Benson writes a regular column in the Des News. Today's column (link below) is about the continuing coverage of the MMM (particularly the movie "September Dawn") and "why it won't die." It appears to me that he's blaming on the agenda of the anti-Mormons, and that's all they got so the MMM keeps getting raised 150 years later. I found the whole article very disgusting.

http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695205935,00.html

[_Blixa]

Disgusting or hilarious? Has he read no history of Utah under Brigham Young?

Just of the top of my head I can make quite a list attesting to the culture of violence in early Desert :

1) Circleville massacre

2) the murder of the Aiken party

3) murder of the Godbeites

4) massacre of the Morrisites

5) assasination of Dr. Robinson

6) murder of "Dummy" the deaf and dumb boy

7) Parish/Potter murders

8) various castrations (four that I know details of)

9) two women's heads that turned up (they had been accused of adultry)

10) Rosmos Anderson

11) William Hatton

12) Mr. King and Mr. Brassfield

13) murder of Olive Coombs

There's more but my books/notes are packed---everything on my list I think has explicit ties to the "Reformation."

[_Dr. Shades]

6) murder of "Dummy" the deaf and dumb boy

12) Mr. King and Mr. Brassfield

13) murder of Olive Coombs

Will you please give us a few details about these? I haven't heard about them.

[_ozemc]

I particularly thought it interesting that he writes:

For those with an agenda to attack the LDS church, the Mountain Meadows Massacre remains by far the biggest target on an otherwise almost empty range.

I think the range is quite full.

[_Runtu]

I particularly thought it interesting that he writes:

For those with an agenda to attack the LDS church, the Mountain Meadows Massacre remains by far the biggest target on an otherwise almost empty range.

I think the range is quite full.

Maybe he's talking about that game-shooting range the church runs using missionary labor and charges thousands of dollars for a visit and a shot at the big game.

[_Blixa]

6) murder of "Dummy" the deaf and dumb boy

12) Mr. King and Mr. Brassfield

13) murder of Olive Coombs

Will you please give us a few details about these? I haven't heard about them.

My books and notes are packed up, so I'll wing it and fill in the rest later---much later.

Olive Coombs is the SanBerdoo Saint who was one of those "called back" from california in the wake of the MMM. Like others on that trek she traveled through the area when the bones/bodies were still on the ground, . She was dismayed by the MMM, asked questions, apparently indicated aloud that she wanted to write on it and was murdered on her doorstep. Her murderer was found guilty, sent to prison, but pardoned soon after. You can probably find my first mention of here in an earlier post that both Moksha and Gaz found memorable.

Newton Brassfield was a 'gentile' who married a polygamous wife who had left her husband. He was murdered in broad daylight on a SLC street amid a crowd of people who saw nothing.

"King" I think is a product of my not having my external memory at the ready: Dr. Robinson's first name was King and in my haste to post I split this historical personage in two. I think. His is an intersting story, and if I remember I'll try to fill in some other details in the future.

The murder of Dummy was national news---it was carried in Harper's Weekly as an example of Mormon violence (1859 if I recall correcty). He was a deaf mute and possibly mentally impared son of a widow who used to do errands for soldiers at Camp Floyd. He was "disappeared" and after weeks or perhaps months of his mother asking after him his death came to light. He had been shot and his throat slit ostensibly over stealing money from his killer---who was cleared. I've not done a lot of research on this incident, but its of interest to me in the way it was reported as an instance of blood atonement.

Anywho, my point is that BY's reign, especially during the hysteria of the reformation, was marked by many violent incidents, to the contrary of the Desert News columnist.

Sorry for my haphazard account. I'm packing and preparing for an extended trip west for a research project and I'm at sixes and sevens....

[_Polygamy Porter]

I particularly thought it interesting that he writes:

For those with an agenda to attack the LDS church, the Mountain Meadows Massacre remains by far the biggest target on an otherwise almost empty range.

I think the range is quite full.

Like a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs!