FIRST HAND ACCOUNTS

JOSEPH SMITH, JR.

The Book of the Law of the Lord – August 23, 1842

“While I contemplate the virtues and the good qualifications and characteristics of the faithful few, which I am now recording in the Book of the Law of the Lord, of such as have stood by me in every hour of peril, for these fifteen long years past. . . . There are a numerous host of faithful souls, whose names I could wish to record in the Book of the Law of the Lord; but time and chance would fail. I will mention therefore only a few of them as emblematical of those who are to numerous to be written. But there is one man I would mention namely Porter Rockwell, who is now a fellow-wanderer with myself— an exile from his home because of the murderous deeds and infernal fiendish disposition of the indefatigable and unrelenting hand of the Missourians. He is an innocent and a noble boy; may God Almighty deliver him from the hands of his pursuers. He was an innocent and a noble child, and my soul loves him; Let this be recorded for ever and ever. . . ”

ELIZABETH D. ROUNDY

Extract from a letter to President Rudger Clawson. Roundy interviewed Rockwell for his life story, the only time Rockwell was ever known to do it.

Orrin Porter Rockwell was a pioneer from the day that Joseph received his first vision or visitation by holy beings; from his own statement made to me in 1875 when he came to me to write the history of his life. He stated that Joseph Smith's father and mother used to come to his father's house and tell his parents of the wonderful things that were being revealed to their son Joseph. He said he used to watch for their coming and plead with his mother to let him stay up to keep the pine torch burning as that was the only means they used to illuminate their dwelling. When they spoke of getting means to print the Book of Mormon Porter determined to help, and as he had no other way he went after his day's work was done and picked berries by moonlight and in the early morning and sold the berries and gave Joseph the money to help with the printing. He also gathered wood [and] hauled it to town and sold it and used the means for the same purpose. No man loved Joseph the Prophet more than O. P. Rockwell. He was not one having the advantage of education but his heart was devoted to the cause of truth. He would not have hesitated to have given his life for Joseph at any time. He accompanied Joseph with others when he went to Washington to ask for redress of President Van Buren; also went with Joseph and Hyrum when they started to come West. He was sent by Joseph to his wife Emma with a message and through that some brethren went with him to see the prophet and patriarch and persuaded them to return, which he always spoke of with regret and manifestations of grief.

Brother Rockwell was fearless and daring to the extreme in trying to mix with the mobocrats and find out their plans and thus try to frustrate their plans and protect the people.

He was chosen to come with the first company of pioneers and by the historic records account, he must have done much and served his brethren faithfully as hunter, scout, and messenger and when Indians stole their horses Porter Rockwell was one selected with others to go after them. On May 6 twenty days after they were on their journey President Brigham Young lost his spy or field glasses; they searched diligently but could not find them. The next day Porter went back six miles and found them and restored them to President Young.

Orrin P. Rockwell was selected one of the 42 men of Brother Orson Pratt's advance guard and was sent back occasionally to report to the brethren the progress they had made and the new route had been found. Some years after, he was in California and met there the widow and daughters of Don Carlos Smith the brother of the prophet Joseph. When he saw her he she was just recovering from typhoid fever in consequence of it her hair had all fallen off. Porter wore his hair long, as he said the prophet told him that if he wore his hair long his enemies should not overpower him neither should he be overcome by evil. He had no gold dust or money to give Sister Smith so he had his hair cut to make her a wig and from that time he said that he could not control the desire for strong drink nor the habit of swearing. This was his own statement to one and I have no doubt but it was true. 

President Young speaking in the Farmington Meeting House, in speaking about mining and referred his hearers to O. P. Rockwell and said Pres. Young [of] brother Porter Rockwell "I have never known [him] to lie."

Orrin P. Rockwell died in Salt Lake 9 June, 1878 after spending over forty years with this people and being a pioneer from the first having done a good work and let us hope is reward will be as he used to say when he thought anything good, "all wheat."

HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, VOL 1

"The Church of Jesus Christ," organized in accordance with commandments and revelations given by Him to ourselves in these last days, as well as according to the order of the Church as recorded in the New Testament. Several persons who had attended the above meeting, became convinced of the truth and came forward shortly after, and were received into the Church; among the rest, my own father and mother were baptized, to my great joy and consolation; and about the same time, Martin Harris and Orrin Porter Rockwell. 

BRIGHAM YOUNG, JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES, 19:37

Orin P. Rockwell is an eyewitness to some powers of removing the treasures of the earth. He was with certain parties that lived nearby where the plates were found that contain the records of the Book of Mormon. There were a great many treasures hid up by the Nephites. Porter was with them one night where there were treasures, and they could find them easy enough, but they could not obtain them.

I will tell you a story which will be marvelous to most of you. It was told me by Porter, whom I would believe just as quickly as any man that lives. When he tells a thing he understands, he will tell it just as he knows it; he is a man that does not lie. He said that on this night, when they were engaged hunting for this old treasure, they dug around the end of a chest for some twenty inches. The chest was about three feet square. One man who was determined to have the contents of that chest, took his pick and struck into the lid of it, and split through into the chest. The blow took off a piece of the lid, which a certain lady kept in her possession until she died. That chest of money went into the bank. Porter describes it so [making a rumbling sound]; he says this is just as true as the heavens are. I have heard others tell the same story. I relate this because it is marvelous to you. But to those who understand these things, it is not marvelous.

JOURNAL OF SARAH M. POMEROY

It was quite an exciting time just then [in 1843]. The Prophet had been falsely accused of an attempt to murder Governor Boggs of Missouri. Porter Rockwell, a firm friend of Joseph, had been kidnapped and taken to Missouri as an accomplice, and was about to have his trial. Joseph requested my father to lend him a hundred dollars to pay the lawyer who defended Porter Rockwell, and father freely counted out the money.

  "This shall be returned within three days, if I am alive," said the Prophet, and departed.

  My aunt, Father's sister, was quite wrathful. "Don't you know, Thomas," said she, "you will never see a cent of that money again. Here are your family without a home, and you throw your money away."

  "Don't worry, Katie," Father replied, "if he cannot pay it, he is welcome to it."

  This conversation was held before us children, and I thought seriously about it. Would he pay it, or would he not? But I had strong faith that he would.

  The day came when it was to be paid—a cold, wet, rainy day. The day passed. Night came—9 o'clock, 10 o'clock, and we all retired for the night. Shortly after there was a knock at the door. Father arose and went to it, and there in the driving rain stood the Prophet Joseph.

  "Here Brother Thomas, is the money." A light was struck, and he counted out the hundred dollars in gold.

  He said, "Brother Thomas, I have been trying all day to raise this sum, for my honor was at stake. God bless you." 

HISTORY OF JOSEPH SMITH BY HIS MOTHER, LUCY MACK SMITH

On the sixth of May, 1842, Lilburn W. Boggs, ex-governor of Missouri, was said to have been shot by an assassin. And, in consequence of the injuries which we had received, suspicion immediately fastened itself upon Joseph, who was accused of having committed the crime.1 But, as he was on that day at an officers drill in Nauvoo, several hundred miles from where Boggs resided, and was seen by hundreds, and, on the day following, at a public training, where thousands of witnesses beheld him, we supposed that the crime being charged upon him was such an outrage upon common sense that when his persecutors became apprised of these facts, they would cease to accuse him. But in this we were disappointed, for when they found it impossible to sustain the charge in this shape, they preferred it in another, in order to make it more probable. They now accused my son of sending O. P. Rockwell into Missouri with orders to shoot the ex-governor, and, from this time they pursued both Joseph and Porter with all diligence, till they succeeded in getting the latter into jail in Missouri. 

"NILES NATIONAL REGISTER" NEWSPAPER,
BALTIMORE, MARCH 25, 143 

A few short months ago, it was heralded through this State that Porter Rockwell was the individual who attempted to murder ex-Governor Boggs, of Missouri. It was confidently stated that Joseph Smith was accessory before the fact. The thing was swallowed as a precious morsel by the enemies of Mormonism. It was iterated and reiterated by the public journals, and the general expression of a certain class was that Mr. Smith ought to be hung; there was no doubt of his guilt; he was one of the most inhuman, diabolical, dangerous, and malignant persons in the universe; and when a requisition was made for him by the Governor of Missouri, it was considered worse than "arson" or "treason" that he should be acquitted by the legal authorities of this State, under habeas corpus; and afterwards, when Porter Rockwell was taken, it was exultingly stated that they had got the scoundrel, and that he would now receive the due demerit of his crime. How stands the matter when it is investigated-investigated by a Missouri court? The following will show:
The last Independence Expositor says:-"Orin Porter Rockwell, the Mormon confined in our county jail, some time since, for the attempted assassination of ex-Governor Boggs, was indicted by our last grand jury for escaping from our county jail some time since, and sent to Clay county for trial. Owing, however, to some informality in the proceedings, he was remanded to this county again for trial. There was not sufficient proof adduced against him to predicate an indictment for shooting ex-Govornor Boggs, and the grand jury therefore did not indict him for that offense."

LETTER TO THE PROPHET JOSEPH FROM SHERIFF REYNOLDS 

WHILE ROCKWELL WAS IMPRISONED

April 7th, 1843

Sir:-At the request of Orrin Porter Rockwell, who is now confined in our jail, I write you a few lines concerning his affairs. He is held to bail in the sum of $5,000, and wishes some of his friends to bail him out. He also wishes some friend to bring his clothes to him. He is in good health and pretty good spirits. My own opinion is, after conversing with several persons here, that it would not be safe for any of Mr. Rockwell's friends to come here, notwithstanding I have written the above at his request; neither do I think bail would be taken (unless it was some responsible person well known here as a resident of this state). Any letter to Mr. Rockwell, (post paid) with authority expressed on the back for me to open it, will be handed to him without delay. In the meantime he will be humanely treated and dealt with kindly, until discharged by due course of law.

Yours, etc.,

J. H. Reynolds

LIFE OF THE PROPHET JOSEPH SMITH BY GEORGE Q. CANNON

Among the many prophecies of this period was one concerning Orrin P. Rockwell, who had been captured, imprisoned and maltreated in Missouri. There seemed no human possibility of Porter Rockwell's deliverance; his murder was decreed before his arrest; and no one of the brethren would be permitted to enter Missouri to assist him with advice or bail, under penalty of death. And yet on the 15th day of March the Prophet publicly declared: "In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I prophecy that Orrin P. Rockwell will get away honorably from the Missourians."

EDITORIAL FROM "THE NAUVOO NEIGHBOR"

The name of this individual is, no doubt, familiar to most of our readers. He has obtained some celebrity in the world also, not for his reputed virtue, but for his supposed crimes.

It will be recollected that he is the person who was basely and falsely implicated, along with Joseph Smith, as the reputed [would be] murderer of ex-Governor Boggs, while Mr. Smith was charged with being accessory before the fact. A vexatious lawsuit was instituted against Joseph Smith, wherein he was charged with the above-named crime; and finally, after many attempts of the governor of Missouri to get him into his power, was acquitted by the United States Court for the district of Illinois,

Stories of murder and blood were circulated from Maine to Missouri; they were iterated and reiterated by the newspapers of the whole Union, and painted in the most glowing colors that human ingenuity could invent. Mr. Rockwell was branded as a murderer, and Joseph Smith as accessory before the fact, without any other evidence than a story fabricated by some of our generous politicians, engendered in falsehood by hearts as dark as Erebus for religious and political effect.

This demagoguery and political corruption has caused an innocent man to be immolated in a Missouri dungeon for upwards of eight months, without the slightest evidence of his guilt, or even the most remote evidence of crime leading to his committal. He was taken without process, and committed to jail upon mere supposition, and finally acquitted without any shadow of proof having been adduced from beginning to end. This is the way that Missouri treats freeborn American citizens, and they can obtain no redress.

Mr. Rockwell arrived here on Monday night, and has given us some of the details of his history since he was first taken in Missouri to the present time; and we can assure our readers that it will "a tale unfold" relative to that state, which even many of those who have been driven therefrom will find it difficult to believe that there did exist such monsters in human shape.

JOURNAL OF WILLARD RICHARDS

Jan 5    Heard Decision of Judge Pope.

[In a letter to Gen. Bennett]

We live in a country of news and new things, & when we can get nothing new, sometimes use the old over again so we can get nothing new, sometimes use the old over again so we will take Missouri once more for by intelligence just received, she has succeeded in capturing our friend O.P. Rockwell and is holding him custody to await trial for the shooting of Boggs. We are assured of his innocence, and shall offer him no exertion to give him a fair trial & procure his acquittal. Rockwell was imprisoned in St. Louis jail on the 6th inst and remanded from there to Jackson County on the seventh . . . Query whether the trial shall be before the judiciary of Mo. Or on Habeus Corpus before the U.S.C.C.? We have some evidence here, to show that J.C. Bennett is actuated by malice & revenge, and he is the principal witness – it is necessary to destroy his testimony in the case . . . . Gen. Smith is anxious that you should appear at the trial, and wishes me to inform you of the fact, believing your testimony in the case to be of the utmost importance; which, together with your united energies will be sufficient to break down all prejudice, destroy all intrigue, & insure an honorable acquittal discharge . . . . Rockwell is innocent & must be saved.

HISTORY OF THE CHURCH VOL. 6, BY JOSEPH SMITH JR.

A large party supped at my house, and spent the evening in music, dancing, &c., in a most cheerful and friendly manner. During the festivities, a man with his hair long and falling over his shoulders, and apparently drunk, came in and acted like a Missourian. I requested the captain of the police to put him out of doors. A scuffle ensued, and I had an opportunity to look him full in the face, when, to my great surprise and joy untold, I discovered it was my long-tried, warm, but cruelly persecuted friend, Orrin Porter Rockwell, just arrived from nearly a year's imprisonment, without conviction, in Missouri. 

JOURNAL OF SARAH STODDARD (1805-1846)

A diary written by Sarah Stoddard about some of the experiences of her son Charles Stoddard while he served as a houseboy for Joseph and Emma Smith when they lived in Nauvoo, Illinois

December 1843 

Charles had a dreadful experience last night. Porter Rockwell escaped from jail. He was taken there on mistaken identity of the prophet. When the sheriff finally discovered the mistake, he kept Porter in jail to teach him a lesson, so he said. Many months he was unjustly held. They gave him very meager fare, mostly just bread and water. He was terribly thin and weakened; his hair was long and matted with filth and his body swarming with lice. Not once did they give him anything with which to clean himself, but left him to stench in his own dirt. Charles said the prophet cried when he saw Brother Rockwell and he hugged him in spite of his condition like he was a beloved child. Charles and Brother Richards helped to clean Brother Rockwell after they had burned the rags he had one time called clothes. They had a terrible time with his hair; it was so snarled and filthy. They had decided the best thing to do was to shave his head but the prophet intervened and then he promised Brother Rockwell that as long as he did not cut his hair our enemies would have no power over him. Porter Rockwell is an uncouth man, even vile of tongue but the prophet discerns men for what they are inside and though Charles says he reprimands Brother Rockwell at times for his bad language he still loves and respects him and trusts him as much as he does anyone, even the apostles. 

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MATILDA LOVELESS

I often saw Joseph and his wife, Emma, at meetings or walking and riding in their carriage with Porter Rockwell as a coachman on their way to Joseph's farm passing by our house. 

HISTORY OF THE CHURCH VOL. 6

While at Hamilton's (the tavern/hotel at Carthage where Joseph's group stayed during the court proceedings) Chauncy L. Higbee offered some insulting language concerning me to Orrin  P. Rockwell (and was knocked senseless), Rockwell had resented Higbee's language nobly as a friend ought to do.

JOSEPH SMITH III

.... extending my hand, (Rockwell) shook it warmly, put an affectionate arm around my shoulders, and said, with much emotion, "Oh, Joseph, Joseph! They have killed the only friend I have ever had!" He wept like a boy. We spoke but little, for even then an air of suspicion had crept abroad in the city, and whoever was friendly to my mother or her family was under surveillance. I tried to comfort him, but to my astonishment he said, "Joseph, you had best go back. I am glad you came to meet me, but it is best that you are not seen with me.  It can do me no good and it may bring harm to you."

EXTRACT OF A LETTER

Superscribed to Newel K. Whitney, dated Philadelphia, December 1, 1842, where he had gone to escape the hands of those who sought his life in Missouri.

DEAR BROTHER JOSEPH SMITH-I am requested by our friend Orrin Porter [Rockwell] to drop a few lines informing you that he is in this place. His health is good, but his spirits are depressed, caused by his being unable to obtain employment of any kind. He has applied in different parts of the city and country, but all without success, as farmers can get persons to work from sunrise till dark for merely what they eat. He is most anxious to hear from you, and wishes you to see his mother and the children and write all the particulars, how matters and things are, and what the prospects are. I pity him from the bottom of my heart. His lot in life seems marked with sorrow, bitterness and care. He is a noble, generous friend. But you know his worth: any comments from me would be superfluous. He will wait in this place until he hears from you. Please write immediately, as it will be a source of great comfort to him to hear [from you].

If Joseph is not at home, Brother Whitney will be kind enough to write. He says every other one he has come across has been afraid of their shadows, but he watches them well. He comes to see me every day, and I keep him a close prisoner! But he does not complain of my cruelty, or being hard-hearted, but, when with me, seems resigned to whatever punishment I may see proper to inflict: but he takes it in good part. Answer this as soon as received.

Yours truly,

S. ARMSTRONG,

for Orrin Porter [Rockwell].

WILFORD WOODRUFF JOURNAL

The camp had a prayer meeting in the morning and met again for public meeting. President Young, with the Quorum of the Twelve and a few others went into a valley of the hills and prayed according to the order of the priesthood. Porter Rockwell and Brother Carrington watched to see that no Indians came upon us. We had a good time. A heavy shower appeared, but most of it went around us and there was but little rain where we were. 

JOURNAL OF WILLIAM CLAYTON

A feeling for exciting interest appeared to prevail throughout the camp, they having heard and read so much of the mad ferocity of buffalo when hotly pursued, and knowing that all the hunters were inexperienced in regard to hunting the wild buffalo . . . 

Soon as the heard commenced galloping off, the hunters followed in pursuit at full gallop and soon closed in with them. At this time I got my glass and rested it on Brother Aaron Farr’s shoulder, determined to see as much of the chase as possible. I soon discovered O. P. Rockwell ride into the midst of the herd which then appeared to number over 200 . . . Porter was soon enveloped in the cloud of dust caused by the heavy tramp of the buffalo on the dry sandy ground, but in a very short time the herd began to separate and scatter in every direction . . . The hunters closed in on the first party and commenced their fire, especially at rest, and determined to keep to her until they killed her, except Porter, who as soon as he had wounded her, left her with the hunters and pursued some of the rest.

O. P. Rockwell said he had heard it said that a buffalo could not be hurt with a ball shot at his head, . . . he determined to satisfy himself . . . made choice of a large and very furious bull . . . gaining a little in advance came right in front within about a rod of him and discharged his rifle pistol which struck the center of his head, but with no other effect than to make it smoke a little, some dust fly and the raving animal shake savagely.

The brethren . . . succeeded in dropping him and laid him dead at their feet. . . .  the meat looks nice.

LOT SMITH

Rockwell and I were good friends, on the following basis; I did as I pleased and he, regularly, damned me for it. When we arrived within sight of the camp, I discovered a herd of cattle numbering about fourteen hundred head on the bottom lands below. We were on the bluff. I told Porter we would take those cattle. He said that was just like me. The stock was left there as a trap laid on purpose to catch me. The troops had found out what a dam fool I was and that I didn't know any better than to put my foot into that kind of a trap. The willows were full of artillery, and the minute I exposed myself among the stock they would blow me and my command higher than Gilderoy's kite. I told him to sit down and I would go and take the cattle myself. He replied very roughly that he would see me in "limbo" first, and that he had waited forty years for such a chance, and now I wanted to spoil it. While he stopped to survey the situation with the glass, I started down the bluff, only about one-third of the men being able to keep up as we rushed down the steep descent. Porter came on in a terrible rage, swearing at me for going so fast, and at the men for being too slow. He wanted me to wait for them all to catch up. There was however, no time to wait. We had to run about two miles to reach the cattle, and by the time we got to them the guards had yoked up teams...We intercepted them, unyoked the cattle and turned their heads the other way...The Mormon boys then gave a shout.... The Army guards were frightened as badly as the cattle and looked as pale as death. They came to me and asked me if we were going to take the stock. I replied that it looked a little as if we would. Captain Roupe, the head wagon master was with this company of guards and appeared to be as badly scared as any of them......We returned to where his men were, they made what appeared to me at the time a most singular request. They wanted to know if I would give them their arms back. As we hadn't seen their arms, this request led to an inquiry, when we found that on seeing us coming down the bluff, so much like a lot of wild men, they threw their guns away, some one saying if we found them unarmed we would spare their lives. I told the men they could go and get their guns as we had all we wanted.... about fifteen of our men came back over the bluff where they were following the cattle...thinking that Porter and I had got into a flight. When they found us all right, they returned...to camp. Rockwell told Roupe to tell Colonel when he got to camp that we had commenced in earnest, and would kill every man of them if he didn't liberate his prisoners...They were the worst frightened men I ever saw.  As we rode along in the darkness together, he (Rockwell) thoroughly enjoyed reflecting upon the events of the day. He would repeat what he had said to the guards and chuckle to himself over their discomfiture until his sides ached. Rockwell went in with the cattle, very much to my regret. I never found many men like him. I think our officers were afraid that he and I could not get along together. But we could.

JAMES JEPSON, "MEMOIRS AND EXPERIENCES,"
MANUSCRIPT, 9-10

While most Saints moved to the Rocky Mountains by traveling overland from Nauvoo, a group of Saints from the eastern United States traveled a sea route on the ship Brooklyn under the leadership of Sam Brannan. Brannan had continuously pushed Brigham to move the Saints to California but Young wouldn’t listen. Brannan told those Saints with him that they would sail around South America to California and then travel east to the Rockies, a much less physically arduous journey. However, when they arrived in California, Brannan convinced those who traveled with him that Young would surely keep moving west to California. Even when news reached them that the Saints had settled in the Rockies as planned, the majority of the Brooklyn’s passengers remained in California under better circumstances. Bent on greed, Brannan, as their trusted leader, collected tithes and offerings for the Church but kept all for himself thus becoming one of the wealthiest men in the State. Porter traveled on a semi-annual basis to collect tithes from the many outreaching settlements in all directions from Salt Lake City. When the time came to go to California, Porter reached Sam Brannan's saloon in Sacramento to collect tithes, a great deal of which was gold which Brannan had levied against LDS miners for tithing. When Brannan flatly refused to surrender a single ounce of dust, Rockwell produced a hogleg as a persuader. "Sam, we come for the Lord's money." Needless to say, Rockwell left with a great deal of Brannan’s wealth. Upon hearing of Porter's success, one journal recorded, "When the fear of God has left a mans heart, that is when you send men like Porter Rockwell to drive the fear back in again."

PRAIRIE AND MOUNTAIN SKETCHES  BY MATTHEW C. FIELD

(A FRIEND OF ROCKWELL’S CELLMATE, WATSON,  WHOM THEY VISITED WHILE IN MISSOURI)

He is a man of fair proportions and good looks, apparently about twenty-eight or thirty. His eye has in it something between cunning and insanity, but your look in vain for any indication of the desperate and determined villain. He was laughing joyously during the whole period of our visit and replied in a merry and nonsensical manner, which we were told had made him ever since his arrest; whether assumed or not, it may, perhaps, be difficult to determine. One of our companions from St. Louis who was present on the occasion bears the precise cognomen of the Mormon Prophet, Joseph Smith, and we presented him before Rockwell as the "Great Latter Day Saint," Junior, at which the Mormon prisoner laughed prodigiously; but his cunning, roving eye was scanning intently everybody present, as it seemed clear that there was no soul in the merriment he affected. He was heavily ironed and when we moved to go, he quietly descended to his cell with his only companion, Watson. The Mormons, who were supposed to have been gathered about Independence, to effect the release of this man, have either dispersed or are carrying on their operations so secretly as to excite no attention, for little mention is now made of the subject. 

JOURNAL OF GEORGE W. BEAN

(Bean Served with Rockwell many times over a 25 year span in missionary work among the Ute Indians, paired together by Brigham Young himself)

Orrin Porter Rockwell, as I knew him, was a diamond in the rough. It was great to know his inner self. His honest loyalty to church, country and friends was deep and lasting. He abhorred deceit and intrigue as did I. He knew the need and power of prayer, and did I. He was above average height, quick in movement, with strong arms and chest, and grey eyes--cool and searching. He was always well armed since his Nauvoo experiences, although the Prophet Joseph told him to wear his long hair and he would never be killed by an enemy. He held to that promise and on many occasions when he stayed over night with me, my wife Elizabeth would plat or braid his hair and Porter would comb it into a flair next morning, which emphasized his high forehead, and his aristocratic air. He raised thoroughbred horses and drove a fine team.... His mouth was expressive of his moods, whether jovial, reckless, worried, or pleasant....His humor made his stories click. In our missionary work, he was humble and earnest. We spent many years of dangerous and worthwhile service together in teaching the Red Men the Gospel of Jesus Christ and of their origin and duties, and in aiding the officials of Government to subdue and punish outlaws.

FITZ HUGH LUDLOW

...Next to Brigham Young, he [Rockwell] was the most interesting man and problem that I encountered in Utah. His personal appearance in itself was striking.... very strongly made; broad across the shoulders, and set squarely on the legs. His arm was of large girth, his chest round as a barrel, and his hand looked as powerful as a grizzly bear's. His face was of the mastiff type, and its expression, fidelity, fearlessness, ferocity. A man with his massive lower jaw, firm mouth, and good-humored but steady and searching eyes of steel blue, if his fanaticism takes the Mormon form, must infallibly become like Porter Rockwell. Organization and circumstances combine to make any such man a destroying angel.... I was familiar with most of them from the biblical examples.... Out of this mass of conflicting and particular angels I had abstracted an ideal and general angel; but when I suddenly cam on a real one, in Porter Rockwell, I was surprised at his unlikeness to my thought. His hair, black and iron streaks.... He was very obliging in his manners; placeable, jocose, never extravagant when he conversed, save in burlesque. No one ignorant of his career would take him on sight for a man of bad disposition in any sense. But he was the most terrible instrument, which can be handled by fanaticism; a powerful physical nature welded to a mind of very narrow perceptions, intense convictions, and a changeless tenacity. In his build he was a gladiator; in his humor, a Yankee lumberman; in his memory, a Bourbon; in his vergeance, an Indian. A strange mixture, only to be found on the American continent.

BRIGHAM YOUNG, REGIONAL CONFERENCE, FARMINGTON, UTAH

When General Conner came here, he did considerable prospecting; and in hunting through the Cottonwoods, he had an inkling that there was gold there. Porter, as we generally call him, came to me one day, saying, 'They have struck within four inches of my lode, what shall I do?' He was carried away with the idea that he must do something. I therefore told him to go with the other brethren interested, and make his claim. When he got through talking I said to him, 'Porter, you ought to know better; you have seen and heard things which I have not, and are a man of long experience in this Church. I want to tell you one thing; they may strike within four inches of that lode as many times as they have a mind to, and they will not find it.' They hunted and hunted, hundreds of them did; and I had the pleasure of laughing at him a little, for when he went there again, he could not find it himself.

SIR RICHARD FRANCIS BURTON

Porter Rockwell was a man about fifty, tall and strong, with ample leather leggings overhanging his huge spurs, and the saw-handles of two peeping revolvers peeping from his blouse. His forehead was a little bald and he wore his long grizzly locks after the ancient fashion of the U.S., plaited and gathered up at the nape of the neck; his brow puckered with frowning wrinkles contrasted curiously with his cool determined gray eyes, jolly red face, and well touched up and laughing good-humored mouth. He had the manner for a jovial, reckless, devil-may-care English ruffian . . . After a little preliminary business about a stolen horse, all conducted on the amiable; he pulled out a dollar, and sent a boy to the neighboring distillery for a bottle of Valley Tan. The aguardiente was smuggled in under a cloth, as though we had been receptacles in a Moslem country, and we were sassed to join him in a "square drink," which means spirits without water. The mode of drinking was peculiar. Porter, after the preliminary sputation raised the glass with a cocked little finger to his lips, with the twinkle of the eye ejaculated ‘Wheat!’ that is to say ‘good,’ and drained the tumbler to the bottom: we acknowledged his civility with a ‘here's how,’ and drank Kentucky-fashion, which in English is midshipman's grog.

Of these ‘square’ drinks we had at least four, which however, did not shake Mr. Rockwell's nerve, and then he sent out for more. Meanwhile he told us his last adventure, how when ascending the canyon he suddenly found himself covered by two long rifles; how he had thrown himself from his horse, drawn his revolver and crept behind a bush, and how he had dared the enemy to come out and fight like men . . . When he heard that I was preparing for California he gave me abundant good advice--to carry a double-barreled gun loaded with buckshot; to "keep my eyes skinned," especially in canyons and revines; to make at times a dark camp  . . . and never to trust to appearances in Indian country . . . I observed that, when thus speaking, Porter's eyes assumed the expression of an old mountaineer's, ever rolling as if set in quicksilver.  For the purpose of avoiding ‘White Indians,’ the worst of their kind, he advised me to shun the direct route, which he represented to be about as fit for travelling as hell for powder magazine.

GLYNN BENNION; DESERET NEWS, 

SATURDAY OCTOBER 29th, 1938

This article is dedicated not to the spokesmen of the Church, but to those inarticulate ones who gave of their peculiar talents for pioneering to the limit of human endurance and faithfulness in the gathering and establishing of the mob-driven Saints in a faraway refuge in the mountainous deserts of the West. It is written in the feeling that the debt of gratitude to our Mormon scouts has never been fully paid. 

There is a proneness to suppose that such men were not thinkers. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Indeed, a greater degree of exactness was demanded of their mental processes than of those of the preachers. They had to be right or they and their charges would have drowned in the rivers they had to cross or frozen to death in the blizzards they had to face. The preacher’s ideas might become shaded by the popular mental malady of the times and the discoloration not become fully apparent for years; but the pioneer’s guess was apt to be overtaken by disastrous fact in less than five minutes.

I have a feeling that perhaps the greatest service these scouts rendered the Church was not so much the actual things they did, as the feeling of security their presence inspired in less experienced members. Anyone who has night-herded cattle on the range knows something of the suddn thundering disaster that can come at midnight upon a spooky bunch of young cattle that do not know wehre they are going, and how it relieves the strain of anxiety on the cowboy to know that scattered amongst the easily scared two-year-olds are some older, more level-headed cattle that have been over the trail before.

. . . So I find myself leaning toward the conviction that the presence of fearless men who were at home in the deserts and mountains, for whom the wilderness had no terrors, had no less a steadying effect on the main body of emigrants than the actual help they unselfishly gave in assisting their less hardy brethren to work out their own security in the new land.

One of the most outstanding of these pioneer scouts because of his unusual natural ability as frontiersman, his colorful personality, his faithfulness and his almost unbelievable endurance, was Orrin Porter Rockwell.

This man, because of his task as a peace officer in the days when outlawry was rampant all over the west and when Utah would have became infested with bad men, had it not been for just such determined, straight-shooting sheriffs as Rockwell, has come to figure in ant-Mormon literature as a murderer for loot at the behest for Brigham Young. So persistently has this killer aspect been held up that even some Later-day Saints have thoughtlessly accepted it as the true picture. Only recently an article by one of our writers appeared characterizing Rockwell as the “notorious Orrin Porter Rockwell,” a “mild desperado” who lived out on the desert among “renegade whites.”

Now there was nothing mild about Orrin Porter Rockwell. If he was a desperado at all he was a tough one. As for his ranch on Government Creek being a sort of robbers’ roost, that touches close to home, because my relatives, were among his closest friends and neighbors there.

If the adverse characterization of Rokcwell referred to is a thoughtless and an untrue one, then what shabby gratitude it is for a lifetime of service the sacrifice to the Church and to the prophets he loved!

For Rockwell was the trusted messenger, the faithful bodyguard, the loved friend of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. Time after time he breasted the mountain snows and icy winds of the plains to carry messages for Brigham Young to and from the “States” in such winters that no other man in the Church, except possibly Howard Egan or Ephraim Hanks could have made it through. His whalebone toughness as an endurance rider became proverbial throughout the nation. Perhaps no one, to the extent of his peculiar talents, ever offered his life more times or endured more exposure and physical suffering than did Rockwell for his Church, and all of this without thought or any material reward. 

Rockwell died before my time, so my impressions of him are second hand. But I have listened to stories about him told by my father and uncles who did ride with him, both on the range and on the trail of outlaws. I have talked with most of his old-time ranch neighbors, and all these, whether Mormon or Gentile, regarded him as an honorable, and trustworthy friend and neighbor to the law-abiding, but the implacable foe of lawlessness and a terror to outlaws.

No doubt Rockwell had his aberrations. He was uneducated, in the sense that he could not read or write. The light of the Gospel did not entirely rid his mind of the popular superstitions of his native New England. He had a weakness for alcohol that grew upon him . . . If in the performance of his duty as an officer of the law he sometimes administered short shrift to the lawless, it must be remembered that he lived in a day when officers courageous enough to make a stand for law and order were mighty few and badmen were numerous and bold.

Why glorify the vigilantes of Montana for rising up and ridding their towns of outlaws and condemn Rockwell for what was not only just as justifiable, but was also legal.

The heart is the organ of life. What does the Lord mean then, when He commands: “Thou shalt love Him with all thy heart?” What does He mean when He says: “My son, give me thy heart (Pro. 23:26).” He simply means this: “My son, give me thy life.” In other words the Lord expects us to devote that life which he has given us in service to Him. This is devotion.

. . .Therefore, in all that we do, in all that we think and in all that we are, let us give our hearts unto the Lord. This is devotion.

RICHARD S. VAN WAGONER

LEHI: PORTRAITS OF A UTAH TOWN

“Mountain Common Law” is known to have played a part in only two of Lehi’s numerous murders. The 1860 killing of Martin Oats was controversial because he was shot by the notorious Porter Rockwell, a man many Lehi citizens held in both awe and fear. While working at his Hot Spring Brewery Hotel, near the Point of the Mountain, Rockwell became involved in an argument between his employee, Bob Hereford, and Oats, a teamster who had come west with Johnston’s army in a 1858. A struggle ensued between Rockwell and Oats and Hereford left to get a weapon. The 1 February 1860 Deseret News reported that when he returned he “found Oats and Rockwell clinched, the former, knife in hand, having the latter by his beard and Rockwell holding Oats off by the hair of his head.” Seeing that Hereford was armed, Oats released his grip and Rockwell then ordered two men to “take away the madman, as he did not wish to hurt him.”

Soon after the escort returned to the hotel, Rockwell mounted his horse and started to ride towards Lehi. A short distance south, near the Camp Floyd turnoff, he encountered Oats blocking the road. The 4 February 1860 Deseret News reported that “on Mr. R. trying to pass him, Oats sprung out and seized the bridle of the mule, and renewed his knife threats. Finding remonstrance and warning of no avail and his life jeopardized, Mr. R. drew his revolver, and as Oats thrust at him he fired and killed him.”

Returning to the hotel, Rockwell informed Hereford what had happened and requested him to send some men to retrieve the body and team. He then rode back to Lehi and gave himself up to the civil authorities who held an inquest the following morning. Rockwell was acquitted – the jury being unanimous in its verdict of “justifiable homicide.”

ELDER JOSEPH F. SMITH

(Said at the Funeral of Orrin Porter Rockwell)

They say he was a murderer; if he was he was the friend of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, and he was faithful to them, and to his covenants, and he has gone to Heaven and apostates will go to hell.... Porter Rockwell was yesterday afternoon ushered into Heaven clothed with immortality and eternal life, and crowned with all the glory which belongs to a Latter-Day Saint. He had his little faults, but Porter's life on earth, taken altogether, was one worthy of example, and reflected honor on the Church. Through all his trials he had never once forgotten his obligations to his brethren and his God.