Porter Rockwell

Porter Rockwell
Members of the Council of Fifty
March 19, 1844 (1844-03-19) – June 9, 1878 (1878-06-09)
Called by	Joseph Smith
Personal details
Born	Orrin Porter Rockwell Belchertown, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States
Died	June 9, 1878(1878-06-09) (aged 64) Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, United States
Resting place	Salt Lake City Cemetery 40°46′34″N 111°51′43″W / 40.776°N 111.862°W / 40.776; -111.862
Known For	Personal bodyguard to Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, Deputy US Marshal Known as "The Destroying Angel of Mormondom" and "Modern-day Samson"
Occupation	businessman, bodyguard, lawman, frontiersman, scout
Spouse(s)	Mary Ann Neff (1854)[1] Christina Olsen Luana Hart Beebe
Children	At least 7
Parents	Orin and Sarah Rockwell

Orrin Porter Rockwell (June 28, 1813 or June 25, 1815 – June 9, 1878) was a figure of the

Rockwell served as a bodyguard, and was a personal friend, of Latter Day Saint movement founder Joseph Smith. After Smith's death in 1844, Rockwell became a bodyguard of his successor, Brigham Young, and traveled with him and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) to the Salt Lake Valley in the present-day U.S. state of Utah.

Rockwell was born in what was known as the "Dark Corner" section of

At age 4, in about 1817, Rockwell moved with his family to western New York's Burned-over district, to Manchester and Palmyra. They became neighbors of the Smith family, who had moved there from Vermont the year before.^[5][6]

Rockwell was said to be related to Joseph Smith through a "jumble of ancestral lines" through his paternal grandmother, Irene Porter, who descended from John Porter and Ann White, "progenitors of the Mormon prophet."^[7]

Rockwell was eight years younger than Smith. While Smith was publishing the Book of Mormon, Rockwell picked berries at night and hauled wood into town to help pay for the publishing.^[8]

In 1830, at 16 years old,

On February 2, 1832, Rockwell married Luana Beebe in Jackson County, Missouri, and was endowed in the Nauvoo Temple on January 5, 1846.^[13]

Rockwell killed many men as a gunfighter, a religious enforcer, and Deputy

But he [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.[16]

English Wikisource has original text related to this article:

John C. Bennett

The Sangamo Journal published a letter by John C. Bennett, a recently excommunicated Mormon who, prior to the assassination, had served as mayor of Nauvoo, Major General of the Nauvoo Legion, and Chancellor of the University of Nauvoo.

Bennett implicated Rockwell in the assassination attempt, writing:

"In 1841, Joe Smith predicted or prophesied in a public congregation in Nauvoo, that Lilburn W Boggs, ex-Governor of Missouri, should die by violent hands within one year. From one or two months prior to the attempted assassination of Gov. Boggs, Mr. O. P. Rockwell left Nauvoo for parts unknown to the citizens at large. I was then on terms of close intimacy with Joe Smith, and asked him where Rockwell had gone? "Gone," said he, "GONE TO FULFILL PROPHECY!" Rockwell returned to Nauvoo the day before the report of the assassination reached there."

Smith and his supporters vehemently denied Bennett's account.

Rockwell was apprehended in St. Louis on March 6, 1843.^[17] In late May, Rockwell briefly escaped from the Independence jail where he was being held.^[18]

On September 30, 1843, it was reported:

"Orin Porter Rockwell, the Mormon confined in our county jail some time since for the attempted assassination of ex-governor Boggs, was indicted by our last grand jury for escaping from the county jail some weeks since, and sent to Clay county for trial. Owing, however, to some informality in the proceedings, he was remanded to this county again for trial. There was not sufficient proof adduced against him to justify an indictment for shooting ex-Governor Boggs; and the grand jury, therefore, did not indict him for that offence."^[19]

Though never indicted for the attempted assassination, Rockwell was tried and convicted of jailbreak. Rockwell was released on December 13, 1843—ten months after his arrest.^[20]

The morning of September 16, 1845, Lieutenant Frank Worrell of the nearby Carthage militia was shot and killed by Rockwell after refusing an order to stop by non-Mormon Sherriff William Backenstos.^[21][22] Worrell had been the sergeant of the guard at Carthage when the Smiths were assassinated.^[23]

Following

On April 21st 1851,[24] a group of Goshute confiscated some horses that had invaded their territory near Benson Grist Mill. General Daniel H. Wells sent a posse led by Rockwell to pursue the Goshute. They lost the trail of the Goshute that had taken the horses and encountered another group of 20 or 30 people belonging to the Ute tribe, whom they took prisoner but did not disarm. When some of the captured Goshute tried to escape, one was shot by Custer, a non-Mormon member of the posse. Custer was then shot by one of the Native Americans, who was in turn shot by another posse member. All but four or five prisoners escaped, those that didn't escape were executed by Rockwell on April 22nd.^{[25]: 11–12}

Rockwell operated the

Rockwell's fame as a "mountain man" attracted the explorer, Richard Francis Burton.^{[27] [citation needed]} In 1860, on his trip across America to the west coast, Burton stopped to explore the Salt Lake City area. He stayed with Lysander Dayton in a village near the city, and Dayton invited Rockwell to dinner. Rockwell sent for a bottle of Valley Tan Whiskey, and he and Burton drank shot-for-shot into the night, with Rockwell outlining steps Burton should take for safety during his passage to Sacramento. Rockwell 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 disguised as Indians to avert blame) preyed on travelers.^[28] In 1857 Rockwell participated in the Aiken massacre, which was a murder of several travelers at the direct order of Brigham Young.^{[29]: 470 [30][31]}

Rockwell died in

He was brave and loyal to his faith. True to the Prophet Joseph Smith. A promise made him by the prophet. Through obedience, it was fulfilled.[33]

At Rockwell's funeral, which was held at the Salt Lake City 14th Ward school house, apostle Joseph F. Smith, nephew of Joseph Smith and future church president, spoke the following about Rockwell:

They say he was a murderer; if he was, he was the friend of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, and he was faithful to them, and to his covenants, and he has gone to Heaven and apostates can go to Hell ... Porter Rockwell was yesterday afternoon ushered into Heaven clothed with immortality and eternal life, and crowned with all glory which belongs to a departed saint. He has his little faults, but Porter's life on earth, taken altogether, was one worthy of example, and reflected honor upon the church. Through all his trials, he never once forgot his obligations to his brethren and his God.^[34]

However, not all reactions to Rockwell's death were positive. On June 11, 1878, the Salt Lake Tribune stated, "Porter Rockwell is another of the long list of Mormon criminals whose deeds of treachery and blood have reddened the soil of Utah, and who has paid no forfeit to offended law."^[35]

Rockwell fathered 21 children with three different wives. He had the distinction of being the subject of a direct

I prophesy, in the name of the Lord, 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.[36]

The promise echoes one given by an angel to the parents of the biblical Samson.^[8]

Rockwell, at one time, cut his hair. After hearing of a balding widow with typhoid fever, he offered his famous long hair to make a wig. The recipient of the hair was Agnes Coolbrith Smith Pickett, widow of Smith's brother, Don Carlos.^[37]

The Porter Rockwell Trail is a walking trail that spans Lehi, Draper, White City, and Sandy.^[38]

Two statues of Rockwell exist: one near the old site of his Hot Springs Hotel and Brewery near the Utah State Penitentiary, the other in Lehi, Utah, off of Main Street behind.

In 1971, the restaurant "Porter's Place" was opened on Lehi Main Street but later in 2018, it moved to Eureka, Utah, and eventually closed permanently.^[39]

Three comprehensive biographies have been written about Rockwell. Orrin Porter Rockwell: Man of God, Son of Thunder by Harold Schindler, Porter Rockwell: A Biography by Richard Lloyd Dewey, and Stories from the Life of Porter Rockwell by John Rockwell.^[40]

Rockwell's life was examined on The Dollop, a comedic podcast that examines American history, in episode #74.

Rockwell's life was examined again on Let Them Fight: A Comedy History Podcast, which examines violent people throughout all history, in episode #120.^[41]