Murder in Salt Lake City - April 6, 1866
Squire
Newton Brassfield was a "Gentile" who came from Austin,
Nevada, to Salt Lake City. He made the acquaintance of, and soon married, a Mrs.
Mary Emma Hill, (March 27), plural wife of Elder Archibald N. Hill, then absent
on a mission in England. No steps were taken to secure a divorce for Mrs. Hill,
Mr. Brassfield or his advisers holding,
doubtless, that her marriage to Hill had no legal status. There was an attempt
made on the part of the newly wedded pair to remove the goods from the residence
of Mr. Hill, occupied by the woman; legal resistance through the police was made
to this act by the friends of the absent husband; there were threats of violence
and the drawing of a pistol upon the officers by Brassfield;
the offender was arrested and a charge made against him both for larceny and for
assault with intent to kill; on these charges he was released by giving bail.
Then followed the effort of Mrs. Brassfield
by writ of habeas corpus procedure to secure custody of the children by the
former husband, and while this case was pending in court, Brassfield,
when about to enter his hotel in company with Captain J. K. Hosmer, United
States marshal, some person stepped out of an alleyway, shot him and ran off,
pursued and fired at by a policeman in the vicinity, but the slayer escaped
without being recognized. About forty-five minutes after he was shot, Brassfield
died.
The
act of violence produced a sensation in Salt Lake City. Judge Elias Smith of the
Salt Lake county probate court--which then had criminal as well as civil
jurisdiction, and was then in session--called the grand jury into court and gave
them a special charge "to use all diligence and take every necessary step
to bring the offenders" in this and some other recent cases of street
violence to the bar of justice, "that the majesty of the law might be
enforced." The Gentile population raised a subscription reward of $4,500
for the arrest of the slayer of Brassfield,
but neither this nor the efforts of the grand jury elicited any information. The
quality of this act was variously viewed by the community. By the
non-"Mormons" generally who, of course, had no regard for the sanctity
of the plural marriages allowed by the Latter-day Saint Church, Brassfield
was justified in marrying Mrs. Hill; indeed it was regarded as a meritorious
act; and his taking off characterized as a case of "Mormon blood
atonement." On the part of the Latter-day Saint community, who held plural
marriages to be as sacred as monogamic marriages, the act of Brassfield
was of the same quality as if he had invaded a monogamic home and taken from it
the wife of an absent and undivorced husband. This is clear from the remarks of
President Young during the general conference of the church which opened four
days after the shooting of Brassfield, and
the editorial comment of the Deseret News. Brassfield
was also accused by a Provo correspondent of the Salt Lake Daily Telegraph with
already being a married man when he went through the ceremony of marriage with
Mrs. Hill; that he had a wife in Kansas; and that Mrs. Hill was not the first
woman he had caused to leave her husband.
The
following is important evidence in the case:
Provo City, April 12th, 1866.
Editor
Telegraph:
Dear
Sir :--There seems to be considerable excitement over the
Brassfield case. For the satisfaction of those who were not
acquainted with Brassfield before he came to
Utah, I will say to them that Mrs. Hill was not the first woman he caused to
leave her husband. Brassfield was a married
man and has a wife in Kansas, whom he has been away from several years.
I
was acquainted with Brassfield before he
came to Utah, and told him before and after he came here how men were expected
to conduct themselves while here, and cautioned him particularly not to tamper
with any man's wife or daughter while he was here, for if he did the probability
was he would get into trouble.
Yours,
etc., (Signed) "W. D. R."
The
business partner of Brassfield denied this
statement in a communication to the Telegraph; but the editor of that paper in
acknowledging the request for the publication of the denial, stated that
"from the assurance in a private note" accompanying its Provo
correspondent's published communication, asserting that proof was on hand
"if required" as to Brassfield's
status, said--"We cannot reasonably abate our confidence in the statement
of our Provo correspondent." The
community could not fail to be as divided with reference to this charge and the
denial of it--and by the same line of cleavage--membership or non-membership in
the "Mormon" church--as in relation to the quality of the act of Brassfield's
marriage. But if the charge of
bigamy against Brassfield was true, then his
act of marriage with Mrs. Hill was all the more reprehensible and was seduction
under the false pretension of marriage. Brigham
Young undoubtedly accepted the information that had come from Provo as true, and
therefore in a somewhat noted dispatch to General Sherman--noted later--so
characterized Brassfield's conduct.
It
added to the aggravation of the case that it was but one of a number of similar
cases; and had been suggested as a regular policy in order to break up the
"Mormon" plural marriage system. Mr. Bowles of the late Colfax party
had suggested that the soldiers at Camp Douglas illustrated the way in which
"polygamy will fade away." "Two companies," he writes,
"who went home to California last fall (1864], took about twenty-five wives
with them, recruited from the Mormon flocks. There are now some fifty or more
women in the camp who have fled [?] thither from town for protection, or been
seduced away from unhappy homes and fractional husbands; and all or nearly all
find new husbands among the soldiers." "Our bachelor stage-driver out
of Salt Lake," said Mr. Bowles later, "who said he expected to have a
revelation soon to take one of the extra wives of a Mormon saint, is a
representative of the coming man. Let the Mormons look out for him."
The
Brassfield incident, as already stated,
attracted wide attention outside of Utah and especially in government circles.
Orders had been given to disband the remaining volunteers at Camp Douglas, but
upon the report of the Brassfield homicide
reaching the east, and the rumors of subsequent excitement "threatening an
outbreak," the order was countermanded until regular troops could relieve
them; "the government at the same time, by telegraph dispatches, assuring
the people [i. e. the Gentiles] that they would be protected in their lives and
property to the full extent of its power."
Sensational telegraphic reports were sent east over the affair, and an hysterical effort made to create anti-"Mormon" sentiment with an appeal for military protection for non-"Mormon" federal appointees, and Gentiles generally, as is witnessed by the following telegram sent to General P. E. Connor, then in New York. Associate Justice McCurdy, it will be seen, had performed the Brassfield-Hill nuptials:
Telegram to General Connor
Brigadier General P. E. Connor
Metropolitan Hotel, New York:
I
married S. N. Brassfield to a Mormon woman,
on the 28th ultimo. Brassfield
was assassinated on the night of the 6th instant. I have been denounced and
threatened publicly. Government officials here have telegraphed to the secretary
of war to retain troops here until others are sent to relieve them. Call on
secretary of war, learn his conclusions and answer; I feel unsafe in person and
property without protection.
SOLOMON
P. MCCURDY
Associate Justice Supreme Court, U. T.
Telegrams
Between General W. T. Sherman And Brigham Young
General
Sherman, on the 10th of April, sent the following dispatch:
A
telegram comes to me from responsible officers that four men styled `Gentiles,'
have been murdered by Mormons, and that there is apprehension of further danger
from this class. By `Gentiles' I understand American citizens not of your
religious belief. I am bound to give protection to all citizens, regardless of
religious faith, and shall do so. These murderers must be punished, and if your
people resort to measures of intimidation those must cease. All of our people
must have equal rights within the limits of our national domain. I know little
or nothing of the causes of local trouble in Utah, but it is well for you to
know that our country is now full of tried and experienced soldiers who would be
pleased at a fair opportunity to avenge any wrongs you may commit against any of
our citizens, even in that remote region. I will soon have regular troops in
Utah, and on the road leading there, when I hope we will receive reports on
which to base accurate opinions, and I send you this message, not as a threat,
but as a caution that a sensible man should heed.
[Signed] W. T. Sherman
Major General Commanding Department
To
this Brigham Young sent the following reply:
Great
Salt Lake City, April 11, 1866.
Major General W. T. Sherman, St. Louis:
Sir
:--Your telegram of yesterday is at hand, and contents duly considered. The
reports that have reached you are not reliable, satisfactory evidence of which I
will telegraph you as soon as the testimony of reliable gentlemen, not
`Mormons,' can be had, say within twenty....... B. Young."
And
the next day this was sent:
Great
Salt Lake City, April 12, 1866.
Sir
:--I am under many obligations to you for your kindness in telegraphing me
respecting reports which have reached [you] from this place, as it affords me
the opportunity of stating facts.
As
nigh as we can learn there have been telegrams sent from here to the east which
have not been reliable. Your telegram gives us some idea of their purport. There
have been no such assassinations as alluded to in your dispatch. On March 17th a
soldier shot a gentleman named Mayfield, and a Mr. Brassfield
came home and seduced a `Mormon's' wife, and was shot on the street by some
unknown person; but neither I nor the community at large knew any more about it
than an inhabitant of St. Louis. Citizens who are not of our faith do not suffer
from intimidation here. In no other communities could men pursue the course many
do here without experiencing the vengeance of a vigilance committee. The
outrageous slanders they have circulated against us would have provoked such an
outbreak elsewhere.
There
are a few speculators here who are anxious to make it appear that American
citizens' lives are in danger through religious fanaticism, hoping thereby to
have troops sent here to make money out of contracts. Gentiles lives are as safe
here as `Mormons,' and acts of violence occur more rarely in this city than any
other of its size in any of the new states or territories.
B. Young."
Citizens
Of Utah To General Sherman
"Major
General Sherman: Sir :--We the undersigned residents of Great Salt Lake City,
and not members of the Mormon church, have read the above telegram of Mr. Young,
and freely certify that we fully believe that citizens of every class, who
simply attend to their own business, are as free from intimidation and as fully
respected in their rights in this city as in any part of the United States.
[Signed]
"W. Willard Smith, lieutenant colonel 6th U. S. V., commanding Camp
Douglas; Captain E. J. Bennett, C. S. Vols.; N. S. Ransohoof & Co.,
merchants; Ellis & Bro., merchants; J. B. Kimball, merchant; Bodenburg &
Kahn, merchants; Walker Bros., merchants; F. H. Head, superintendent Indian
affairs; Nounnan, Orr & Co., bankers; J. H. Jones, merchant; J. G. Hughes,
representative of Holiday & Halsey, bankers; J. W. Calder, late captain N.
C. Vols.; M. G. Lewis, ex-assistant adjutant general U. S. Vol.; Stebbins &
Co., merchants."
General
Sherman To Brigham Young
Sir
--Your dispatch is received and I am much gratified at its substance and spirit.
[Signed]
"W. T. Sherman." Major General Commanding Department."
Comprehensive History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 1830 - 1930, B. H. Roberts Comprehensive History of the Church, Volume 5, Chapter 130. The Colfax Party In Utah - The Brassfield Homicide - General Babcock's Report On Conditions In Utah.
NOTE:
Squire Newton Brassfield's brother, James F.
Marion Brassfield was killed by Sioux Indians while crossing the plains in 1861.
Their father, Dennis Michael T. Brassfield served in the Tennessee Militia
during the war of 1812.