Porter Rockwell

Porter Rockwell
Porter Rockwell
Born	c. June 28, 1813(1813-06-28) Belchertown, Hampshire County, Massachusetts
Died	June 9, 1878(1878-06-09) (aged 64) Salt Lake City, Utah
Resting place	Salt Lake City Cemetery 40°46′37.92″N 111°51′28.8″W / 40.7772°N 111.858°W / 40.7772; -111.858
Nationality	United States
Other names	The Destroying Angel of Mormondom
Known for	Personal bodyguard to Joseph Smith, Jr. and Brigham Young
Religion	LDS

Orrin Porter Rockwell (June 28, 1813, or June 25, 1815–June 9, 1878) was a figure of the Wild West period of American History and a law man in the Utah Territory. Nicknamed Old Port and labeled "the Destroying Angel of Mormondom", during his lifetime he was as famous and controversial as Wyatt Earp or Pat Garrett.

Biography

Marker on the Mormon Walking Tour in Independence commemorating the house where Rockwell is accused of shooting Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs. Boggs who was from Independence moved to the house on the original City of Zion plot after he left office and the Mormons had been evicted from Missouri. The steeple of the Independence Temple by Temple Lot is visible in the trees at the top of the hill. The marker is in a cleared patch on the sidewalk to the left of the blow up of it.

Orrin Porter Rockwell was born on June 28, 1813 in Belchertown, Hampshire County, Massachusetts to Orin and Sarah Rockwell. He was baptized into the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on April 6, 1830 at Fayette, New York. He married Luana Beebe on February 2, 1832 in Jackson County, Missouri, and was endowed in the Nauvoo Temple on January 5, 1846.^[1] A member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he served as a loyal personal bodyguard to both Joseph Smith, Jr. and Brigham Young. Separating fact from legends, folklore and myths concerning Rockwell is difficult for historians, in large part because Rockwell was only semi-literate and kept no personal diary.

He had the distinction of being the subject of a direct prophecy by Joseph Smith. After spending eight months in jail on charges of attempting to assassinate former Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs, a filthy and emaciated Rockwell traveled to Nauvoo, where he crashed a Christmas party at Joseph Smith's home. When his identity was confirmed, Smith was moved to say, "I prophesy, in the name of the Lord, that you — Orrin Porter Rockwell — so long as ye shall remain loyal and true to thy faith, need fear no enemy. Cut not thy hair and no bullet or blade can harm thee.".^[2] The promise echoes that given by an angel to the parents of the Biblical Samson.^[3]

Rockwell was a character of contrasts. On one hand he was said to be generous to a fault, even to strangers. For example, upon hearing of a widow who was balding from typhoid fever, he gave up his famous long hair to make the woman a wig. (The recipient of the hair was Agnes Coolbrith Smith Pickett, widow of Joseph Smith's brother Don Carlos, and mother of Ina Coolbrith, who grew up to be Poet Laureate of California.)^{[citation needed]}

On the other hand, he was reputed to have killed many men as a gunfighter, as a religious enforcer, and Deputy United States Marshal. It is said that Porter once told a crowd listening to United States Vice President Schuyler Colfax in 1869, "I never killed anyone who didn't need killing".^[4]

Porter Rockwell was that most terrible instrument that can be handled by fanaticism; a powerful physical nature welded to a mind of very narrow perceptions, intense convictions, and changeless tenacity. In his build he was a gladiator; in his humor a Yankee lumberman; in his memory a Bourbon; in his vengeance an Indian. A strange mixture, only to be found on the American continent."^[5]

Rockwell was accused of attempting the assassination of Lilburn Boggs, the former governor of Missouri, who signed Executive Order 44 on October 27, 1838 known as the "Extermination Order" evicting Mormons from Missouri by violent and deadly means. The order was governor's response to the 1838 Mormon War and to what Boggs termed "open and avowed defiance of the laws, and of having made war upon the people of this State... the Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the State if necessary for the public peace—their outrages are beyond all description." The order was not formally rescinded until 1976.

A grand jury was unable to find sufficient evidence to indict him, convinced in part by his reputation as a deadly gunman and his statement that he "never shot at anybody, if I shoot they get shot!... He's still alive, ain't he?" Rockwell denied involvement in oblique terms, stating that he had "done nothing criminal". Some Mormons saw the assassination attempt positively: An anonymous contributor to The Wasp, a pro-Mormon newspaper in Nauvoo, Illinois, wrote on May 28 that "Boggs is undoubtedly killed according to report; but who did the noble deed remains to be found out."

Also at about this time, John C. Bennett, a disaffected Mormon, reported that Smith had offered a cash reward to anyone who would assassinate Boggs, and that Smith had admitted to him that Rockwell had done the deed. He went on to say that Rockwell had made a veiled threat against Bennett's life if he publicized the story. Joseph Smith vehemently denied Bennett's account, speculating that Boggs — no longer governor, but campaigning for state senate — was attacked by an election opponent. Mormon writer Monte B. McLaws, in the Missouri Historical Review, supported Smith, averring that while there was no clear finger pointing to anyone, Governor Boggs was running for election against several violent men, all capable of the deed, and that there was no particular reason to suspect Rockwell of the crime.

Rockwell was reportedly a leader together with Ephe Hanks and Bill Hickman of the Danites, a Mormon vigilante group sworn to exact blood vengeance. Stewart Durham writes, "The most notorious Danite was Ephe Hanks, who went against Joseph Smith's wishes and started the Danites, on his own."

It was Porter's fame as a "mountain man" that attracted the explorer Richard Francis Burton to him. In 1860, on his trip across America to the west coast, Burton stopped to explore Salt Lake City and its environs. He stayed with Bishop Lysander Dayton (from Ohio) in a village near the city one evening and Dayton invited Porter Rockwell to dinner. Porter sent for a bottle of Valley Tan Whiskey and he and Burton drank shot for shot into the night with Porter outlining steps that Burton should take for safety during his passage to Sacramento. Porter advised Burton to carry a loaded double-barreled shotgun, sleep in a "dark camp" (unlit, miles from where supper was cooked), to never trust appearances, and to avoid the main trail, where "White Indians" (so-called because they were white robbers who disguised themselves as Indians to pass off blame) preyed on travelers.^[6]

Rockwell died in Salt Lake City, Utah of natural causes on June 9, 1878.^{[citation needed]} He was buried at Salt Lake City Cemetery.

Grave marker of Orrin Porter Rockwell

Legacy and influence

Porter operated the Hot Springs Hotel and Brewery at the southern end of the Salt Lake Valley, in an area known as "Point of the Mountain." The former site of the hotel is now on the grounds of a state prison. A nearby stone marker commemorates the spot.^[7]

It was rumored that Rockwell had been a member of the same Masonic lodge in Nauvoo as had Smith and many of the early Mormon leaders. However, the only record of his having ever attended is that he was present for one meeting, and no records indicate his ever having been actually made a member.^{[citation needed]}

Films

Rockwell was the primary subject of the 1994 film Rockwell,^[8] in which he was portrayed by Randy Gleave.

Rockwell has also been portrayed on screen by John Carradine in the 1940 film Brigham Young,^[9] by James Coburn in the 1995 TV-movie The Avenging Angel,^[10] and by Gyll Huff in the 1995 Trent Harris film Plan 10 from Outer Space.^[11]

In 2010, a documentary called Stories from the Life of Porter Rockwell was created by Issimo Productions, which includes historical re-creations of events from the life of Porter Rockwell as well as interviews with scholars and historians, including John W. Rockwell, great-great-grandson of Porter Rockwell.

References

1. ^ http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/1,1249,400008518,00.html
2. ^ Harold Schindler, Orrin Porter Rockwell: Man of God, Son of Thunder (Salt Lake City, Utah: University of Utah Press, 1966), 108-9.
3. ^ Heroes and Heroines: Orrin Porter Rockwell - The Friend - May 2004 - lds.org
4. ^ Biographer O.J. Hollister in the Life of Schuyler Colfax, page 342
5. ^ Fitz Hugh Ludlow, 1870
6. ^ The City of the Saints, 1862, Burton, Richard, 191, 448-449
7. ^ "Mary Ann Neff Rockwell Biography"
8. ^ Porter Rockwell at the Internet Movie Database
9. ^ Porter Rockwell at the Internet Movie Database
10. ^ Porter Rockwell at the Internet Movie Database
11. ^ Porter Rockwell at the Internet Movie Database

Further reading

Biography portal

• Rockwell, John W. and Borrowman, Jerry. Stories from the Life of Porter Rockwell. Covenant Communications, Inc., 2010, Hardcover. ISBN 978-1-60861-005-1
• Dewey, Richard Lloyd. Porter Rockwell: A Biography. Paramount Books, 1986, Hardcover: 2nd edition, 1988. ISBN 0-9616024-0-6
• Durham, Stewart. The Smithsonian Guide to Historic America. Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 1990. ISBN 1-55670-105-5
• McLaws, Monte B. “The Attempted Assassination of Missouri’s Ex-Governor, Lilburn W. Boggs,” Missouri Historical Review, 60.1 (October 1965): 59.
• Schindler, Harold. Orrin Porter Rockwell: Man of God, Son of Thunder. University of Utah Press, 1966: Paperback, 1993. ISBN 0-87480-440-X

External links

• Rockwell biography from Utah History
• "Did Orrin Porter Rockwell Shoot Lilburn Boggs, Governor of Missouri?"

Persondata
Name	Rockwell, Porter
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1813
Place of birth	Belchertown, Hampshire County, Massachusetts
Date of death	June 9, 1878
Place of death	Salt Lake City, Utah