ORRIN PORTER ROCKWELL

A Portrait of Faith and Courage

Martha: Porter? Porter Rockwell?
Porter: Yes?
Martha: Well, Porter! I haven't seen you for years and years!
Porter: I'm sorry, I don't recognize you, M'am.
Martha: Oh, I suppose I have changed a great deal through the years, it has been, oh, about 50 years. I'm Martha, Martha from down the road when we were little kids in Massachusetts.
Porter: Martha? Why Martha, you have changed. How do you recognize me?

Martha: Your face has been all over the place for years, Porter, on Wanted Posters, and in newspapers. You've become quite famous in your own right. Look at this poster of you, you've got long hair and a big old beard. What happened to all of it?
Porter: Well, funny thing about that. The Prophet Joseph told me that as long as I didn't cut my hair or beard I'd be protected so I wouldn't die. There were times we could find lots of bullet holes in my vest or coat, but none ever hit me. Well, about 10 years after that promise, Agnes Smith grew very ill and she lost all her hair. She was out in San Francisco trying to recover, so I cut off all my hair and had a wig made for her. I think it made her feel better, anyway.

Martha: Sounds like you have a big heart. I heard you've been called the Avenging Angel, and also one of the Dantes.
Porter: Oh, I was never a Dante. In fact, there never were any Dantes. That was just one of the many Missourian myths about me. Well, what on earth are you doing out here, in Salt Lake City, Utah?
Martha: I heard the story of the restoration of the Gospel, and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I understand you have too, and have even helped the prophets. Did you know Joseph Smith, and Brigham Young?

Porter: Yes. Both of them. In fact all of them. Let me tell you about Joseph. We were dear friends from childhood. My family moved from Mass to NY right next to the Smith family, when I was about eight or nine, and I met Joseph then. We became best friends. He even had a limp, like me.

Martha: Limp? What happened?
Porter: Well, before we moved, I fell and broke my leg. The doc set it incorrectly, so it's two inches shorter than the other one - see here? And Joseph, he had an infection on his bone, it was a terrible mess. So that leg was stunted in growth. We were the limping buddies! I loved Joseph, he was a great man. He even baptized me into the Church. You know, it was before he baptized his wife, Emma, which I'm not sure she was too happy about. Well, I've been strong in the Church all along. Even with the persecution, I never gave up my faith.

Why, I even used to pick berries long into the night, and chop to sell firewood, so I could give money to the Church to help 'em out.
I was Joseph Smith's body guard, too - out of love for him. But you know something, on the day he was murdered by the mobs in Carthage Jail, he had asked me to not go out there to guard him - indicated to me he and the Lord had something else in mind.

And I know Brigham Young quite well, too. He asked me to help lead the Saints across the plains into the Salt Lake Valley. I was scouting out trails and watching out for Injuns, and some I times brought back some food - like a buffalo, to the wagon companies.

Martha: Porter - that's amazing! The stories I've heard of you from the newspaper reports were that you are a murderer and horribly vile. I couldn't believe that, though, from what I knew of you years ago. I just felt you have a good, straight heart.
Porter: Well, you know what I told the Vice President of the Unites States when he was in Salt Lake once? He was'a chastis'n the crowd from atop his second story balcony of the hotel about Mormonism, and he bad-mouthed me as a foul murderer. So I stepped through the crowd to where he could see me and hear me, and I yelled up to that no-good feller that "I never killed anyone that didn't need killin'". He packed his bags and headed East on the very next train, and never came back to Salt Lake City (chuckle chuckle).

Martha: I've seen newspaper stories saying they thought you tried to kill Governor Boggs back in Missouri. Is that true?
Porter: "If I'd of shot at him, he'd been dead." Nonetheless, I spent nine months in prison in Independence, on suspicion of that attempted murder. I worked on escaping from that cold prison, and did it twice through the hole running up the ceiling for the stove pipe. I only got caught because I was helping that other feller in the prison to escape, too, and he was too old and weak to make it over that fence, so I hoped back over and was a-helpin' him, which slowed me down. And then here came the sheriff, and back in I went.
The next time I was working on escaping late one night, and it took me awhile to dig out enough space to crawl through. Well, I was so tired when I finally got through, and it was a little warmer up there, so I stopped for a little touch of a nap, and I fell asleep in that upper room. They found me there in the morning, snoring away. So after that they filled in that hole with a lot of gunk, guess they didn't want time to escape through there again. It wasn't until a jury acquitted me later that I was freed.

Porter: Well - I really wasn't free, though - mobsters were still after me. I was only freed from the jail. To avoid those raucous mobsters I had to duck-about and hide-out on the back roads and trails, all the way back up to Nauvoo. My feet were cold and bloody. I tried to keep them wrapped up, but they got to be an awful mess. Was better'n being held up in that prison, though.
When I got to Nauvoo, I went right to the Mansion House, which was the home of Joseph and Emma. After being in prison and on the road for nine months I looked a terrible sight! Some of the ladies there were a screamin' at the sight of me (chuckle,chuckle). Joseph came 'round the corner, ready to cast me out, but then he stopped and looked at me right in the eye and recognized me - and gave me a big bear hug!
I stayed with Joseph and Emma in the Mansion House for a piece. In fact, I opened up a bar to raise money for the saints, there in the Mansion House, while Emma was down in Saint Louis looking for furniture. I was makin' quite a lot of money, but that didn't last long. As soon as she got back, she let Joseph know she wasn't happy about it. She said that the kind of people it would attract wasn't the kind they would want around the children, so he had me close it up right then. It was okay, though - it still beat being in that damp, lonely prison.

Martha: Was that the only time you were in prison? I heard you were in prison in Illinois.
Porter: Yea, it wasn't fun. I was in prison again later, in Illinois. After the mobs killed our beloved Prophet Joseph, they kinda' settled down, thinkin' they'd stopped the Church. When they saw were were growin' anyways, well, they started harassing the Saints again, getting really bad and fierce, and destroying their homes and everything. One time I was guarding a group of Saints gathered together for safety, and a US Marshall and I were with the crowd, when suddenly a big mob of them evil men started coming over the hill on horseback. They had anger and the look of the devil in their eyes, and we all knew it was going to be a massacre for the Saints right then. The Marshall, he turned to me and said 'Port, do something to stop that mob from commin'.'
So I headed up toward the mob, pulling my rifle from where I'd stowed it under my big coat. At the front of the mob I saw Frank Worril, who had sworn to protect the Prophet Joseph while he was in Carthage Jail, but when the mobs came to the jail to get the Prophet, he was no where to be found on that fateful day. Gotta' admit I felt some anger inside for how he'd betrayed my close friend and beloved Prophet, and some pitty for the man, too. Yet I knew inside what I needed to do, so I pointed my rifle at him and shot, as if he'd been delivered into my hands by the Lord. As soon as he went down, the whole mob seemed to get scared, and they started turning right and left and high-tailing it out of there as fast as they could. That's all it took to keep all them righteous Saints safe that day.

Porter: A year or so later when the Prophet Brigham was trying to move the Saints out of Nauvoo, and heading West, the mobsters were harassing and interfering with the Saints, so much so, that it caused them a lot of heart ache and difficulty. Brigham came to me and asked if I would give myself up to the Illinois courts, hoping that would appease the mobs. He said he would get a lawyer to defend me, which he did. The mobs were appeased, and the Saints moved to a place in Iowa they called Winter Quarters.
Meanwhile, I was in jail for four months before it came to trial. During that trial, the Marshall gave testimony that Frank Worril and the mobsters were chasin' down the Saints, and he gave me the order to stop them - so I was immediately acquitted. (statue for sale in Porter's Place restaurant in Lehi, Utah - themed after Porter Rockwell and the old West)

Martha: That's a solemn story, Porter. After reading the Book of Mormon, I do understand there are times the Lord uses harsh means to bring about His righteous work. He must have blessed you to be an excellent shooter.
Porter: Yes, He's blessed me a plenty! You know, I've done my part, too - I've spent quite a deal of time practicing to shoot both a rifle and a pistol, so I gotta' say - I'm very, very good with that and His help. There was a time when I was challenged to a rifle shooting contest in Nevada. Well, it was a draw, shot for shot. So for a tie breaker, someone it the large crowd that had gathered to watch, yelled out we could settle it with pistols. Some man tossed a silver dollar up into the air, I whipped out my Colt 45 and shot it through the middle, and then shot it again - you could see it changing direction twice in the air, so the whole crowd knew I'd gotten it with both shots. Well, that other shooter just walked away - that was the end of the contest (chuckle, chuckle)! That wasn't even with my Whippit Gun, my favorite.
Martha: "Whippit gun?"
Porter: Yea, I sawed off the barrel of one of my pistols, so I could just whippit up whenever I needed. Comes in really handy!
Martha: How many people have you actually killed - if I dare ask such an awful thing!?
Porter: Well, I don't like killin'. The scriptures tell us we should never shed innocent blood. Protecting the Prophets and the Saints from evil, awful men aint shedding of innocent blood. All tell, there have only been about 24 - you know, I really don't like to do it - but at the same time, I ain't afraid to. The Lord gave me courage to do the work He wanted me to do.

Martha: I see. Well, I heard you'd married and had some kids.
Porter: Yea, back in Independence, Missouri when I was young I married a sweet little gal named Luana Beebe. In fact, it was the first Mormon wedding in Jackson County. At the time, my dad and I ran a ferry across the Big Blue. We were so happy and had five little children.
Times were still trying, though. The mobs were being really harsh on the Saints, and just wouldn't leave'em alone! One day I came home to find a small band of mobs had destroyed my whole cabin, and there sat my Luana atop a rubble pile, just in desperate tears after having been raped.
To see her in such awful turmoil and pain, well, that hurt me to the bone! That's when I started practicing shooting with my pistol and rifle all the time. At that time we moved with the Saints up to Far West, where we lived with them in peace for a short time. But then the mobsters came up there, and started being really harsh again. There was a big battle at Crooked River, where a couple mobsters were killed along with a couple Saints. That's when Governor Boggs issued the Extermination Order.
And then there was the massacre at Hauns Mill, when the mob killed our men and boys alike. The mobsters finally got Joseph, and drug him off to Liberty Jail. Meanwhile, the Saints, many of them barefooted in the snow, trekked up to Illinois.
During the time Joseph was in jail, I took him letters from home, and smuggled in a pick to try and escape with. He and the others finally escaped eight months later. Joseph named the city that we had settled in Nauvoo, Illinois.
Well - all the persecution just got too hard on Luana, especially with what she'd been through, and she moved back in with her parents not long after. A couple years after the Saints migrated to Nauvoo, she divorced me, just couldn't take it all, and I don't blame her none. Luana and the children needed a more peaceful, decent life.
(for more information on Luana Beebe Rockwell see: http://www.emilyamandarockwell.com/index_files/page39.htm and http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tolleygenealogy/provocemmap.html)

Porter: Well, many years later, in Salt Lake City, I married a beautiful lady named MaryAnn Neff. Life felt better, then, and we were sealed together in the Prophet Brigahm's home. Sadly, though, she died giving birth to our fifth child. People rummored that in the Nauvoo Temple, where I was an ordinance worker, I'd been sealed to the wife of Amos Davis, too - but that's rubbish! You can search the temple records and there ain't no record at all of something so ridiculous. Anyway, later on I married my sweet housekeeper, Kristina Olsen. We were sealed in the temple, too, and we had five children, too.
Martha: Wow - 15 children! What a brewd! That must have been wonderful, and quite busy, too.
Porter: Well - 17! There were two little Indian children that needed a home and good food, so we'd adopted them in with us, too. They all made life good, you know!

Martha: Well, since you've been in here in Salt Lake City, what have you been doing?
Porter: Well, let me tell ya'. I was appointed here to be the deputy Marshall. The first one, and then Marshall - and I've been Marshall here ever' since. Most of the time it's quite, yet sometimes I'm busy chasing horse-thieves and hooligans. Every one I've ever gone after, I've caught - not that I'm braggin' up myself.

You know, once, when the President of the United States sent out Johnston's Army, to put down that 'supposed' rebellion against the United States, I went out and met the army. That was before they got to Utah Territory. To detain them for a while I ran off their horses and mules, harassed the troops (chuckle, chuckle), and I single-handedly held 'em off, whilst they finally figured out there wasn't an uprising in Salt Lake City after all. So the army marched right on through the Salt Lake Valley, and up through Cedar Valley, and stayed there a couple of years, establishing Cedar Fort. They never did bother the Saints again the whole time they were out there.
One time there was a nine-year old boy far outside of the city proper, on a ranch not too far from mine just south of the future "Grantsville", that was dying with a really high fever. Nowadays they're callin' that fever Tuberculosis. A rancher came and got me because they couldn't find a doctor in the area. I went out there, and gave him a blessing, and gave him some water to drink. The next morning, I found out later, he'd pulled right out of that fever and was getting better really fast.
I've actually like being Marshall. The people here are good, and things have been rather serene.

Martha: Oh, it's wonderful you are here protecting the Saints, and helping make life peaceful here. It has been calm and pretty much normal for years.
Porter: Yea, it is quite peaceful and normal out here now. In fact, I'm heading to the theater in the Colorado Stables on State Street tonight with one of my daughters. I gotta' spend time with my family while I can, I'm 65 years old now, and not getting any younger. Fact, I've been feeling a little tired anymore.
Speaking of spending time with family, it's time I've gotta' be heading now - it's been great seeing you again, Martha. Do take care, and keep the faith!
Martha: Good bye, Porter Rockwell, you take care, too - you good man of faith and courage!

(Bronze statue in front of Rockwell business park in Bluffdale, Utah, at the south end of the Salt Lake City metropolis.)

Martha: The Salt Lake Tribune published a notice that the following day Orrin Porter Rockwell died from a heart attack on June 9, 1878, of which he suffered the previous night. His internment is in the Salt Lake City Cemetery, at about 500 South in SLC.

He will always be remembered as a great man of faith, righteousness, and courage.

Inscription on the grave internment marker for Orrin Porter Rockwell "Port", in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.

"Orrin Porter Rockwell"

"Born June 28, 1813

at Belcher Mass.

Died June 9, 1878

He was brave & loyal to his faith,

True to the prophet Jos. Smith,

a promise made him by the

prophet by obedience. It was

fulfilled."

Port Rockwell ran the Rock Point Brewery Hotel at the "Point of the Mountain" in Utah - a location along I-15 between the Salt Lake City metropolis and the Utah County area of cities. A monument has been erected at the Bluffdale exit, in a small grove of trees, from some of the bricks from that hotel. It has been said that some of the Pony Express riders stayed in that hotel during the 18 month period it ran.

Porter Rockwell maintained a ranch here in Government Creek, Utah. These pictures were obtained from the blog of a decendent at: http://rockwellroundup.blogspot.com/2008/10/day-at-porters-ranch-at-government.html. Decendants are encouraged to post their comments and join in at this site.

The cabin of Porter Rockwell has been moved to

Eureka, Utah,

where a visitor center has been established.