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Thomas Henry Cartwright

Biographical Sketch of Thomas Henry Cartwright
on Wednesday June 03 2009
by The Editors

in MMM Militiamen > Other MMM Militiamen
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Thomas Henry Cartwright, his personal and family background, and his involvement in the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

Thomas H. Cartwright (1814-1900)

Biographical Sketch

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Thomas Henry Cartwright was born in December 1814 in Lancashire, England, the son of Thomas and Jane Cartwright. He converted to Mormonism in the 1840s. In 1844, he married Jane Allen, the daughter of Robert Allen and Jane Allen. In 1849, he immigrated to America and crossed the plains in a wagon company to Utah Territory.

Their children: Joseph Henry b. March 6, 1845, m. Sarah Ann Grimshaw; Mary, m. John Matthews; Thomas Henry, m. Sarah Wardley; Caroline, m. William Anderson; Cedaresse C., m. Marcus L. Shepherd; Jane, m. Hyrum Baldwin. Family resided in Iron and Beaver counties, Utah.

Settled in Iron county, 1850, and followed the trade of blacksmith and made the first plows in Iron county, as well as the first woolen carding machine in southern Utah. He was a member of the high priest's quorum.

His son, Joseph Henry Cartwright was identified as a "[m]inuteman in [the] Utah militia."

In 1857, Samuel Cartwright, 42, was a private in the Fourth Platoon attached to Company D led by Captain Joel White and the company was attached to Major Isaac C Haight's 2nd Battalion. Benjamin Arthur was the sergeant of the platoon. Cartwright was in one of the detachments of Cedar City militiamen that rode to Mountain Meadows during the week of September 7-11. He probably arrived on Tuesday, September 8. His role in the final massacre is not known with certainty although it seems likely that he was among the Cedar City militiamen who guarded the emigrant men as they left their wagon circle and marched toward the north end of the valley.

In 1859, Judge John Cradlebaugh's arrest warrant listed Cartwright and he was also mentioned in T.B.H Stenhouse's Rocky Mountain Saints, published in 1873. In 1875, during the first Lee trial, witness Samuel Pollock identified Cartwright as one of his companions on the march from Cedar City to Mountain Meadows. He was also listed in John D. Lee's Mormonism Unveiled, published in 1877, and William Bishop's list of "assassins" appended to it.

References: Esshom, Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah, 797; Lee, Mormonism Unveiled; Lee Trial transcripts; Seegmiller, The History of Iron County, ; Shirts and Shirts, A Trial Furnace: Southern Utah's Iron Mission, ; Stenhouse, Rocky Mountain Saints, ; Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Appendix C.

Further information and confirmation needed.

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