Porter Rockwell

Marker on the Mormon Walking Tour in Independence commemorating the house Rockwell was accused of shooting Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs.

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Boggs, from Independence, moved to the house on the original City of Zion plot after he left office and the Mormons were evicted from their homes and lands in Missouri by his Missouri Executive Order 44. Rockwell was exonerated of all charges related to the attempted murder of Boggs.

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The steeple of the Independence Temple by the Temple Lot is visible in the trees at the top of the hill.

Rockwell was accused of attempting the assassination of Lilburn Boggs, who was the governor of Missouri who signed the Executive Order 44 on October 27, 1838 known as the "Extermination Order" evicting Mormons from Missouri by violent and deadly means. The order was the governor's response to the 1838 Mormon War and to what Boggs termed "open and avowed defiance of the laws, and of making 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 Executive Order was in effect until 1976.

A grand jury was unable to find sufficient evidence to indict Rockwell,[8] convinced in part by his reputation as a deadly gunman and his statement he "never shot at anybody, if I shoot, they get shot! ..."[9] Rockwell denied involvement, stating he "did nothing criminal". Some people saw the assassination attempt positively: An anonymous contributor to The Wasp, a pro-Mormon newspaper (although not an official church publication) in Nauvoo, wrote on May 28 "Boggs is undoubtedly killed according to report; but who did the noble deed remains to be found out." After investigators questioned Smith about these accusations and Rockwell's involvement, Smith denied it could be Rockwell. Asked how he could be so confident. Smith replied. ... "He's still alive, isn't he?" [10]

Also at about this time, John C. Bennett, a disaffected Mormon, reported Smith offered a cash reward for the elimination of Boggs, and Smith admitted Rockwell did the deed. He went on to say Rockwell made a veiled threat against Bennett's life if he publicized the story. Smith vehemently denied Bennett's account, speculating Boggs, while campaigning for state senate, was attacked by an election opponent. Mormon writer Monte B. McLaws, in the Missouri Historical Review, supported Smith, answered, while there was no clear finger pointing to anyone, Boggs was running for election against several violent men, all capable of the deed, and there was no particular reason to suspect Rockwell.[11]

Following Smith's death, Rockwell followed Brigham Young and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) to Utah. In 1849, Rockwell was appointed as deputy marshal of Great Salt Lake City, and remained a peace officer until his death. He was well-known for his endurance, loyalty, and relentlessness.[2]

Rockwell 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".

Rockwell's fame as a "mountain man" attracted the explorer, Richard Francis Burton.[12] 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.[13]

Rockwell died in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, of natural causes on June 9, 1878.[14] He was buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery. At the time of his death, Rockwell had been a member of the LDS Church longer than anyone living.[2] His epitaph reads:

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.[15]

Grave marker of Orrin Porter Rockwell in Salt Lake City Cemetery.

At Rockwell's funeral, apostle Joseph F. Smith, nephew of Joseph Smith and future church president, spoke the following about Porter:

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.[16]

Rockwell served as a loyal, personal bodyguard to both Smith and later to 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.

Rockwell had the distinction of being the subject of a direct prophecy by Smith. After spending eight months in jail on charges of attempting to assassinate Boggs, Rockwell traveled to Nauvoo, appearing unannounced at a Christmas party at Smith's home. After his identity was confirmed, Smith was moved to say:

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.[17]

The promise echoes one given by an angel to the parents of the Biblical Samson.[2]

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,[18] and mother of Ina Coolbrith; she became Poet Laureate of California.

Rockwell killed many men as a gunfighter, a religious enforcer, and Deputy United States Marshal. According to legend, Rockwell told a crowd listening to United States Vice-President Schuyler Colfax in 1869, "I never killed anyone who didn't need killing", a quote used by actor John Wayne in a movie decades later.[19]

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.[20]