Description

A Cry of Distress

In 1850, President Brigham Young stood up in the Bowery in Salt Lake City and called for volunteers to join Elder George A Smith of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and settle the Little Salt Lake Valley—Parowan. Among those volunteers was John Calvin Lazelle Smith. On May 8, 1851, John moved his family to Parowan. The city was granted a charter, a fort was built, and in 1852, John was called as Stake President.

On the night of February 7-8, 1854, an event occurred long remembered in Parowan’s history. There are differing accounts of the experience, but all are remarkably similar.

In 1854 John was presiding over the small settlement of Parowan, Utah…a town only four years old. It consisted of a fort with walls five feet thick at the base and gates that closed at sundown. With much work the little settlement already boasted a flour mill, a carpenter shop and a tannery. Most of the members of the colony were young and capable of extreme hardship. JCL was in his early thirties and his wife in her twenties.

One February night they had a bright fire burning in the hearth, although Calvin had gone to bed, tired from his long day at the flour mill. Sarah was setting bread to rise when she heard a cry of distress. She woke her husband who said it was probably a coyote or an Indian, but then the cry came again. JCL quickly dressed and went to gather neighbor men for support as they searched for the source of the cry. They wrapped warmly and, taking guns, followed the sound. Not far from the fort they found a man almost buried in a snowdrift. He was completely exhausted. He was carried to the Smith home for Sarah had already built up the fire and heated water. The man was undressed and placed in Sarah’s big white bed. When he revived, he told them he was Captain John C. Fremont sent by the federal government to discover a new route to California but his company had been overtaken by heavy snows. His men had been reduced to eating their horses and mules and their last meal was a dog given them by an Indian. The surviving men were huddled in a canyon five miles back.

Sarah nursed Captain Fremont all night and with the morning light, JCL and a rescue group went to find and bring in the other men. They hitched ox teams to sleighs loaded with quilts and food. The half-frozen men were brought to the fort and each was placed in a home for care where they were nursed back to health. When they were fully revived, the company was outfitted with horses and supplies and continued their successful trip to California.

This was Fremont’s fifth and final journey of exploration of the West. Fremont promised to remember the Mormons with favor, but in 1856, he became the republican candidate for President of the United States whose popular platform was the abolishment of the twin relics of barbarism—slavery and polygamy. Moreover, Fremont asked animals and supplies of the citizens of Parowan and promised to pay for them, along with compensation for the room and board they received while they recuperated—none of which were ever received.

Sources:
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/memories/L1D8-MF2
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5510&context=etd