Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.); West (U.S.) -- Social life and customs
On the 2nd of April Brassfield was shot dead by some person who escaped
without detection. The assassination occurred as Brassfield was about to
enter his hotel, and caused the situation to become still more acute, as
it was the general impression that the act was committed by order of the
Church authorities. So far as I could learn, Brassfield was not a man of
exalted character, and any marriage under like circumstances might have
been followed by similar results, had it occurred in another community.
Reports were circulated that two other similar attacks upon Gentiles had
been made within a period of three weeks, but it seemed difficult to
ascertain the facts, except that in neither case did the shots prove
fatal. Late in the night of October 22nd, immediately after it occurred,
I was informed of the assassination of Dr. King Robinson, a gentleman
who had been assistant surgeon at Camp Douglass, but had later
established an office in the city. Dr. Robinson was a personal friend of
the Reverend Norman McLeod, who at one time was a chaplain in the army,
but in the year 1866, and at the time of our arrival, was in the service
of the Congregational Home Missionary Society in Utah, and had
established in that year the first church other than Mormon that was
ever planted in that territory. McLeod had purchased a lot for his
mission. Thereon he built a small adobe structure, which was named
Independence Hall, securing the money for its construction chiefly in
California, and in this new building he vigorously preached in
opposition to Mormonism. Dr. Robinson became superintendent of the
Sabbath School connected with the new church. He married a Miss Kay, an
estimable young woman of a prominent family that had apostatized from
the Mormon Church. Prior to this time the doctor took possession of
certain ground in the neighborhood of the Warm Springs near the city,
which he assumed to be part of the public domain. Pursuant to orders of
the city council the Marshal destroyed the building that Robinson had
erected upon the ground. Other property belonging to Robinson was
subsequently destroyed by a gang of disguised men. These facts were
currently reported and generally accepted in the city.
It was only two days later, on a bright moonlit night, that the doctor
was summoned to attend a young man who (it was alleged) had broken his
leg. When a few hundred feet from his door Robinson was shot down. He
was assisted to his home by passing friends and soon expired. The
murderer was never brought to trial, and, so far as I could learn, no
effort was made even to apprehend him.
The situation during the next three or four days was ominous. General
Connor was no longer in command at Camp Douglass, which commanded the
city. Squads of men gathered on the street corners and in more retired
places and discussed affairs in subdued but earnest tones. There was a
prevailing belief that men who had been outspoken in opposition to
Mormonism were marked.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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