William Aden

 

William Aden was born and raised in Paris, Henry Co., Tennessee. After attending school he decided he wanted to become an artist. His desire was to paint the panoramic landscapes he had heard and read about in the Rockies and the deserts of Utah and Arizona. He headed west in 1856 and traveled all around Utah painting and sketching. Summer 1857 found him in Provo where he took a temporary job painting scenery backdrops for the Provo Playhouse. When the Baker/Fancher wagon train came through Provo, he decided it was time to move on and he joined up with them and go to California.

During his youth in Tennessee, a Mormon Missionary by the name of Elder William Laney had come to Aden's town to proselytize. While Elder Laney was speaking in a local hall, young Aden and a couple of his friends decided to pull a prank. They had a small black powder cannon that they set up behind the hall where Laney was speaking and discharged it. Upon hearing the loud report of the cannon, Elder Laney, thinking he was being attacked by an anti-Mormon mob ran from the hall and up the street where he was stopped by William Aden's father. Aden's father apologized for his son's actions and invited Elder Laney to visit his home where he stayed for the duration of his visit in Paris.

As the wagon train passed by Parowan, William Aden went into town. There he recognized one of the townspeople as being the same Elder William Laney who had stayed with his family earlier. They renewed old acquaintances and Laney invited Aden to his home for dinner. Aden spent the night with the Laney's and told them of the poor state of the families in the wagon train because of the reluctance on the part of the Mormons to sell food and supplies to them. As he left the Laney's the following morning, he was presented with a large bag of onions to take to the emigrants.

A few days later a group of "Danites" or "Avenging Angels", under orders from Col Wm. H. Dame, and led by his son-in-law Barney Carter, called Elder Laney out of his home and beat him senseless for "furnishing food to a man who has been declared an outlaw of the Church." Laney's head was bashed in with a club and he was left for dead. He survived, but never fully recovered from the beating.

On the third night of the siege it was decided that someone should go for help. As Aden had been in Cedar City before and knew people there who could be trusted he volunteered to go. He was accompanied by another (maybe 2) unnamed man. As they approached Leachey Spring, where the militiamen were assembling for the massacre, they ran into William C Stewart and another man. They proceeded to relate their harrowing tale and plead for assistance but were answered with gunfire. William Aden was killed by a shot in the back as he attempted to flee. Another of the trio was killed also but the third managed to escape and returned to the wagon camp.

The emigrants now knew without a doubt that their attackers were white men as well as indians.