Mountain Meadows Witness

Book excerpt: Philip Klingensmith (b. 1815) was born in Pennsylvania to Philip Klingensmith and Mary Anderson. His ancestors were German Lutherans who settled in Pennsylvania in the late 1600s. Philip eventually moved to ohio where he married Hannah Creemar (1826-1891). They became members of the LDS Church and settled in Nauvoo, later moving to Utah. In Utah the Klingensmith family eventually settled in Cedar City where he was called as the bishop. In 1857 the Mormons received news of the approaching army and what became known as the Utah War started. In the fall of that year, the Mountain Meadows Massacre ocurred, wherein a non-Mormon wagon train was attacked and destroyed by Indians and Mormon militiamen. Philip Klingensmith was involved and later went with other men, including John D. Lee who was eventually tried and executed for his part in the tragedy. Philip gained the enmity of members of the Church by leaving the Church and turning state's evidence against Lee. Philip was married to three wives and was the father of twenty-four children. He and a number of his family eventually settled in south-eastern Nevada and southern Utah.