List of Black Hawk War Veterans Made for the Years 1866 and 1867

List of Black Hawk War Veterans Made
for the Years 1866 and 1867

For the most part, the Indians and the settlers got
along well during the first two decades after the arrival of the settlers.  But, it is impossible for two peoples, with
such different cultures, to come together without difficulties.

In early 1865, when Congress, belatedly[1] decided
to normalize land titles in Utah, the differences came to a head, and from April 1865
to September 1872, Utah's Black Hawk War, the longest and most serious Indian-White
conflict in Utah’s history, was carried out. The first three years
were the most intense. The Records show that during the War, 72 settlers and at
least 122 Indians were killed and that the War caused the destruction of thousands
of dollars of property and cost the territory at least $1,121,037. [2]

Mt. Pleasant Relic Home

The final peace treaty was signed in Mt. Pleasant in 1872, at the home of Bishop W. H. Seely (currently, the Mt. Pleasant Relic Home.)

In an attempt to obtain
some recompense for members of the Nauvoo Legion from the U. S. government, George A. Smith[3]
had a list made of the men who had served during the years of 1866 and 1867. It
was ignored by Congress. However, it preserved a record of the names of those
who served.

   

 

Medal for Black Hawk War Service
Awarded to Andrew Beckstrom^[6]of Mt. Pleasant in 1905        

Medals^[1] of Honor for service during the “Indian
Wars” were authorized by the State of                

Utah on 9 March 1905[2], The Utah Legislature         

 also
approved pensions for this service in 1909.

             On 4 March 1917, Congress also approved a Pension
Plan^[3],
for veterans or their survivors^[4]

of “Certain Indian Wars”.

          The following sections[5]
give the name, rank, pay grade and assignment of the men of Mt. Pleasant who served during the Black Hawk War during 1866 and 1867.

---

[1] Gottfredson, 345

[2]
This was 40 years after the start of the Black Hawk War and after most of its
veterans had passed away.

[3] Longsdorf, 139

[4] Gottfredson, 350, Indicates that Sen. Reed Smoot got
the bill amended so that it covered the services of Nauvoo Legion Troops

  who were technically in Church service.

[5] L. Tom Perry Special Collections at BYU on line at
https://archive.org/stream/indiandepredatio00utah#page/80/mode/2up.

[6] Andrew Beckstrom was a veteran of the Black Hawk War
and is the great-grandfather of Betty  G.
Woodbury   

         

 

Excerpts From Andrew Madsen's Journal

In this segment we learn about water disputes, a post office,  the calling for stone cutters and freighters for the building of the Salt Lake Temple, others being called to St. George to raise cotton.

October 31st 1860 our little baby named Hanna Louisa, took sick and died being a little over one year old.

.............

December 4th,the great noted Indian Chief Arropine, died  in Sevier County.

During this year marked improvements were made in the way of schools.  We had better regulations in governing our affairs, more complete organizations were affected in the Church and A. B. Strickland acted as Church Recorder.

..............

Early in the spring of 1861, my brother, Mads and myself erected a house for him upon his city lot, which house was one of the first white dobes ever built in the city.  The house has since been somewhat remodeled and still stands as a landmark of early days.

A post office was established and Wm. Morrison was appointed postmaster.  He was also Assessor and Collector for the city.

David Candland moved down from Salt Lake City on a spring east of the cemetery.  The people objected because of the scarcity of water and later a compromise was made and twenty acres of land in the field was purchased and given to him in exchange.

In June, Bishop Seely applied to President Brigham Young for the privilege of expending a portion of the tithing fund in building a road north through Thistle Valley and Spanish Fork Canyon, which would shorten the distance to Salt Lake City and the freighters and settlers would then not have to go by way of Nephi.

July 16th, a reply was received from President Brigham Young granting Bishop Seely permission to appropriate $4,000.00 of the tithing fund for the building of the proposed road and for the erecting of good substantial bridges over the river.  After receiving this reply a number of men were at once put to work on the road in order that it might soon be completed.

...............

August 10th, my wife gave birth to a girl,which we named Louisa Bodel Madsen and a short time later, myself, wife and baby made a trip with our ox team to Salt Lake City where I was ordained an Elder and we received our endowments in the Endowment House.

At about this time John W. Dawson was appointed Third Governor of Utah, succeeding Alfred Cummings.  He, however, only held the position a short time and left the territory under peculiar circumstances.  Secretary Frank Fuller succeeded him as Acting Governor.

John W. Dawson
(the following comes from wikipedia)

Abraham Lincoln named him governor of Utah Territory in 1861, but he left the territory and his post as governor after only three weeks due to tensions with the Mormon residents. Dawson allegedly made "grossly improper proposals" to the Mormon widow Albina Merrill Williams, who responded by thrashing him with a fire shovel. When he offered her $3,000 for her silence, she rebuked him and he quickly abandoned Salt Lake City on New Year's Eve 1861. 

Taking a mail coach eastward, he arrived at Ephraim Hanks' Pony Express station at Mountain Dell, Utah. There, Hanks assured Dawson he was now safe. However a group of young Mormon vigilantes named Jason Luce, Martin "Matt" Luce, Wilford Luce, Wood Reynolds, Moroni Clawson,  Lot Hungtington, and Isaac Neibaur followed the retreating governor, and during a night of drinking, they plundered the governor's baggage, and attacked him, beating and kicking Dawson about the head, chest, and groin (and allegedly castrating one of his testicles). The thugs later claimed they were acting under direct orders of the Salt Lake Police Chief. Four of the youths were captured but the other three were gunned down trying to escape from police and sheriffs.

Dawson later became famous as the first biographer of John Chapman, the legendary Johnny Appleseed. Dawson's 1871 article in the Fort Wayne News Sentinel of October 21 and 23 about Dawson's childhood friend is still considered the main source for biographical information on Chapman.

He died on September 10, 1877 and was interred at Lindenwood Cemetery in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

.............

Early in the Fall David Holdaway and Washington Averett built a thrashing machine (separator) at Springville and brought it to Mt. Pleasant. P.M. Peel bought an interest in the machine and it was run for a few years.

A dispute came up among the settlers over the water, the same being settled later by President Hyde who decreed that one half of the water of Cedar Creek was to go to Mt. Pleasant and the remaining half to Spring City and that Birch Creek water should be divided likewise,one half for Mt. Pleasant and the remaining one half for Fairview.

September 8th, the following letter was received by Bishop Seely from President Brigham Young:

Bishop W.S.Seely

Mt.Pleasant

Dear Brother,

"We are preparing for assuming work on the Temple in this city. All the stone-cutters we can engage this winter will be employed this winter in preparing blocks for the building and in the Spring it is contemplated to vigorously pursue the work. We wish all stone-cutters desiring employment to report themselves and the time they will be ready to work. Teams and wagons suitable for hauling large granite blocks from Little Cottonwood will also be wanted. We propose hauling as many blocks as possible this fall and the coming winter.

Your Brother in the Gospel

(signed) Brigham Young

In response to this letter there were a number of Saints who responded. Some left toworksinglehanded while a few others went with their wagons and ox teams.

Sunday, October 28th, a call was made for people to move south into the St. George country in order that the same might become settled and also for the purpose of raising cotton. Those called from among us were: Joseph Clemens, Moses M. Sanders, Christian Widergreen Anderson, Appe Iverson, N.C. Sandberg, James Lemmen, Andrew Jensen, Peter Iverson, Oke Saulsburg and Amos Moss.

March 18th the church authorities made a call for six wagons and twenty six yoke of oxen to go down to Salt Lake City for the purpose of hauling granite stone for the building of the Temple.

April 16th,this request was complied with and the twenty six yoke of oxen were hitched to the six wagons, which were loaded with provisions. They, with six drivers and one guard on horse back, at once started for Great Salt Lake City, arriving there about one week later.