Samuel Cazier
An Incident In His Life As
Sheriff of Juab County, Utah1

Compiled & Edited By Carol Cazier Reynolds
 

Governor Shaffer arrived in Salt Lake City on the 20th of March, 1870. It is not too much to say that he came prepossessed with great prejudice both against the people of Utah and the Latter-day Saint Church leaders. The large influence of President Brigham Young was a constant source of annoyance to the governors and other United States officials in Utah. It entered into common parlance that ‘so and so was governor of the territory, but Brigham Young was governor of the people.” “Never after me, by G—d! shall it be said,” boasted Shaffer, on receiving his appointment, “that Brigham Young is governor of Utah;”2 and he came to Utah determined to make this assertion good.

On arriving in Utah the governor was immediately surrounded by a horde of hungry office seekers, disappointed by the failure of the Cullom bill which would have place nearly all the offices of the territory within the gift of the governor; and he would have supplied them with the much needed occupation to keep body and soul together. “The governor took quarters at the boarding house of William H. McKay, of whom he spoke ‘as an old friend.’” Says George A. Smith, counselor to President Young . . . The governor was most unfortunate in the selection of his headquarters; that this is true, and that the comments of Mr. Smith on the governor’s course and surroundings are just, it is only necessary to show that the place was headquarters of a set of highway robbers, of whom the proprietor of the “boarding house” was chief. On the night of the 23rd of October, 1870, the stage coach from Pioche, Nevada, was robbed about four miles north of Chicken Creek [formerly known as the town of Juab] (between Levan and Nephi) in Juab county. The treasury box of the Wells Fargo & Co., was broken open and emptied, the registered mail sack taken and the passengers robbed of about $1,500. Three men perpetrated the daring robbery. The matter being reported at Nephi the sheriff of Juab county, Mr. Cazier [Samuel], organized a posse and the day following the robbery captured the perpetrators of it, who turned out to be William H. McKay, late proprietor of the “Revere House,” where the governor made his headquarters; one St. Ledger, “a man about town,” in Salt Lake City, and one Heath, formerly a United States soldier. “St. Ledger turned state’s evidence, and told where they had hidden a part of the plunder, and it was recovered. As showing the zeal of Brigham Young in his efforts to put down and at once stop anything of the kind, I might mention that as soon as the facts of the robbery were made known in Salt Lake City his people were notified by telegraph for five hundred miles to turn out – young men and old men and dogs – and also to bring into requisition the services of the Indians to track the villains, but on no account to fail in apprehending them. The response was the immediate capture of the robbers.” The money taken by the robbers was all recovered.3 The robbers were turned over to the United States officials. St. Ledger turned state’s evidence, and was released; Heath escaped, and McKay was tried in the United States court, convicted and sentenced to five years imprisonment. This was the first mail coach robbery that occurred in the territory. The happy conclusion of the whole incident made it pretty clear that “Utah,” as remarked by one of her prominent citizens, was not a healthy place for road agents.”

This McKay’s “boarding house” became the headquarters of the “ring” during a great part of Shaffer’s brief administration. There a hungry horde of office seekers surrounded his excellency [sic] so continuously that it was weeks before an ‘old citizen” could give his excellency any correct understanding or appreciation of the actual conditions, wants, and situation of the people he had come to govern.4

The governor attended the annual conference of the church, held that year from the 5th to the 9th of May.5 His excellency had received a formal invitation from President Young to attend and he was present on the stand at one of the meetings, and invited to address the people, but declined the honor.



Samuel Cazier
1831-1910
 


President Brigham Young


Under the Cullom bill as it passed the house the United States marshal was authorized to appoint a deputy in each of the judicial districts; the United States district attorney was authorized to appoint an assistant in each of said districts; the governor was made inspector of the jails and other prisons of the territory, to make rules for them, remove the wardens and keepers, and appoint others, “as often as, in his opinion, the public good shall require”; also by section 23 the governor was authorized to appoint all probate judges, justices of the peace, judges of all elections, notaries public; all sheriffs in said territory were to be appointed by the governor and were subject to removal by him. (See Cullom bill as it passed the house, in Deseret News, weekly, of March 30th, 1870). In view of the proposition to throw all the appointments into the hands of the governor, the number of expectant anti-“Mormon” men who had flocked to Utah was considerable.

B. H. Roberts
Comprehensive History of The Church of Latter-day Saints



Governor John W. Shaffer
(1827-1870)


. . . I journeyed through Utah on a Southern Express stage, and it was my misfortune to be a passenger on the mail coach what was waylaid by road agents and robbed. The robbery took place four miles from Chicken Creek Station, where we had had supper at 10 o’clock, and were traveling slowly, as the night was quite dark. When ascending a slight grade – about 12 midnight – the horses were brought to a sudden halt by, “Stop those horses, driver.” “Hands up, or we’ll blow the top of your head off.” “Click, click,” we knew that sound and appreciated the situation. A revolver and carbine pointed into the stage. None of us armed. “Come out, gentlemen; hands up as you step out of the coach.”

We put up our hands “for the time being.”

The robbers then sacked the Wells-Fargo Express treasure-box from Pioche City, then secured and cut open the United States registered letter mail-bag, taking its contents. Then they gave their attention to us.

One villain came up to us and went through our pockets, relieving us of all our coin, whilst the rest of them stood at the coach and horses’ heads with weapons covering us.

It was not pleasant looking into the muzzles of double-barrelled [sic] shot-guns and carbines.

We made no resistance, hence they relieved us soon, and nobody was hurt.

They allowed us to again enter the stage, and then said, “Drive on.” The driver drove on, and we left them behind us in the dark.

And just here let me pay a tribute to the Mormons as detectives. At our next station we reported matters, and at once parties started out in pursuit, unstimulated by the offer of a large reward, &c. They had with them a good trail-dog, and before 7 o’clock that same morning had captured all the robbers, and the same day delivered them to the Sheriff of Provo, who had them at once sent undercharge of the Assistant United States Marshal to this city. The names of the villains were DeKay [sic], St. Leger, and Heath.

(Latter-Day Saints’ Millennial Star, “A Gentile In Utah”, from the New York World, No. 1, vol. xxxiii, January 3, 1871, p. 4)

John Wilson Shaffer
Republican Governor Utah 1870
 

Shaffer was born in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, but little else is known of his early life. An officer in the Union Army, he was active in Republican politics in Illinois before Ulysses S. Grant named him governor of Utah in 1870. He was determined to carry out Grant’s policy of putting down “rebellion” in the territory. He lobbied vigorously for congressional passage of the Cullom bill which would prevent polygamists from holding public office or serving on juries. It did not pass. Shaffer also dismantled the Nauvoo Legion as a military force. This led to conflict with other officials. He died suddenly in Salt Lake City the year of his arrival. Following rites of the Masonic order, his body was sent to Illinois for burial.

Chicken Creek is East of Levan, Utah
Near Reddick Canyon
In Juab County


Telegram No. 1

STAGE ROBBED – “The stage from Pioche was robbed about four miles north of Chicken Creek, at 11 o’clock last night. Wells, Fargo, & Co’s treasure box was broken open and emptied, the registered mail sack was taken, and the passengers robbed of about fifteen hundred dollars in coin. Judge McCurdy was one of the passengers. Judge Bigler started the sheriff with a posse of men to reconnoiter.”
This is probably the same band who have been operating in Idaho and Montana and who have now extended their field of operations to Utah.

(reported in The Deseret News, November, 2, 1870, vol. XIX, p. 1)



Telegram No. 2

“At about eleven o’clock last night a coach from south, 8 miles south of this city, was ordered to halt by three robbers, one of them seized the horses, at the same time levelling [sic] a shot gun on the driver. There were five passengers, three men and two little girls, from Pioche in the coach, they were ordered to get out. Their arms were taken from them, one of the robbers guarding the passengers while another plundered the coach. While doing this he threw out the blankets, and told the passengers to wrap up the little girls, and not let them take cold. He found fault with the mail company for not furnishing lights.”

(reported in The Deseret News, November 2, 1870, vol. XIX, p. 1)

 


[1] The first part of this history is taken from Roberts, B. H., Comprehensive History of The Church of Latter-day Saints, Vol. 5, ch. CXXXVII, p. 327-330.

[2] Tullidge, Edward W., History of Salt Lake City, SLC, Star Print Co., 1886, p. 480.


[3] Millennial Star, vol. xxii, pp. 3-6. This incident is described in the New York World by one of the victims of the robbers, who gives high praise to the “Mormon” officers who captured the outlaws and recovered the booty. See excerpt at left and on page 4.

[4] Deseret News, vol. xxxiii, Nov. 2, 1871, said, “Since his [Governor Shaffer’s] sojourn in our midst he has kept himself aloof, almost entirely, from the people, he being seldom seen in public on any occasion.” The News also says that this was largely due to the governor’s state of ill health [he soon passed away, during this his first year of serving as governor of Utah – 1870].

[5] The annual conference met in the tabernacle, in Salt Lake City, on the 6th of April, but after one session adjourned until the 5th of May. This action was taken owing to the gallery, then in course of erection in the tabernacle, not being completed, and the absence of President Young in the southern settlements.