Orrin Porter Rockwell
** First published in the March 1973 issue of GUNS Magazine. **
When Orrin Porter Rockwell died in 1878, the Church of the Latter-Day Saints was eulogizing him as a devout patriarch, while anti-Mormons were busy acclaiming him as a killer of unsuspecting travelers, church members and apostates.
As the tales progressed, it became increasingly more difficult to separate the fact about the “Danite Chief” from the fantasy. From the year 1855 until his death, Rockwell’s name was synonymous with mysteries and terror, luridly described in dime novels of that day. Prejudiced accounts have been written by both sides, but now a serious effort has been made to relate only verifiable facts.
One of Rockwell’s favorites, the “Avenger Barrel” 1860 Colt Richards conversion 44 Army Model.
Rockwell On Trial
At the time of Rockwell’s death, June 9, 1878, he was on trial with Sylvanus Collect; both charged with the murder of the Aiken Brothers in 1857. Such charges were never considered until after the death of Rockwell’s protector, Brigham Young, in 1877.
Brigham Young’s grave was hardly covered when Rockwell was denounced and charged with the murders which had occurred some twenty years prior. The case was essentially this: In the fall of 1857, a party of six people came into Utah from California, planning to go East.
They were detained for proper clearances. When they were permitted to leave, they had apparently changed their minds about going East, and went south to Lehi, then to Nephi, some 80 miles south of Salt Lake City. Here they hired Rockwell and Collect to lead them. They were never heard from again. Of the six, one lone survivor made it to Nephi where he died after accusing Rockwell and Collect of the murders.
The bodies of the five were later found in an abandoned well. Rockwell and Collect were defended in Provo, Utah, by the first president of the Brigham Young Academy and later Mayor of Provo, Utah, Mr. Warren Dusenberry. Due to Rockwell’s death in June, the court acquitted Collect on October 18, 1878.
Orrin Porter Rockwell was born in Beldher County, Massachusetts, June 28, 1813. Earliest known records are his crossing of the Erie Canal and joining the Mormons when he was 17. In order to appreciate some of Rockwell’s activities and temper one’s judgment of him with some degree of understanding, one must be aware of the vicious persecution he witnessed as a youth in Ohio and Missouri.
He saw men, women, and children, openly flogged under the direction of Lt. Governor Lilburn Biggs. He and all his associates we, driven from their homes; first from Jackson County, then three years later, from Clay County, Missouri.
He was a witness to the mob massacre of the Mormons at tragic Haun’s Mill, where bodies of children were hurled against the mill proper. It would seem reasonable, after such incidents, that one would feel like being his own protector if he were to survive.
Rockwell encouraged the foundation of the Danite society after his brother was clubbed nearly to death, his wife’s hair was pulled out by the roots, his brother-in-law inhumanly whipped, and an attempt was made to openly rape his sister Electa. The last straw came when his home was burned down for the third time. The secret society, “The Danites” was organized by the brethren in September of 1842, and was to continue until 1872.
One of a pair of Metropolitan .36 caliber Navy Revolvers given to Rockwell by Brigham Young.
Origin Of The Danites
Basis for the group’s name came from Genesis 49:16-17. “Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent by the way of adder in the path that biteth the horse heels so that his rider shall fall backward.”
This was the second formal charge ever leveled at Porter Rockwell. The first was in March, 1843, when he was charged with the attempted murder of the Lt. Governor of Missouri, Lilburn Boggs.
Rockwell spent nine terrifying months in the Missouri jail. His accounts of the brutality are almost unbelievable. Rockwell’s statement that persuaded a reluctant jury to exonerate him was, “Had I shot at Boggs, he wouldn’t be alive today.”
This certainly had a ring of truth in it, for it had been a matter of prophesy that the “Destroying Angel” would act on his designs. It was from this incident that Rockwell was given the title of “The Destroying Angel.” Boggs, as a matter of record, was shot with an unmarked German four barrel percussion pistol stolen from a local shop and abandoned at the scene. Twenty years later, Rockwell confided in three of his brethren that he did the shooting and it was his damp load that failed.
Original barrel length compared with a typical “Avenger Barrel” on the Colt Richards conversion of the 1860 Army Model. Characteristic of all “Avenger Barrels” is the strange and unique mounting of a front sight.
Who Be You?
William Swartzel divulged in his early writings that the sign of a brother in distress was clapping the right hand to the right thigh and then raising it quickly to the right temple, the thumb extending behind the ear. The password was “Who be you,” the acknowledgement, “Anama,” meaning friend.
Once a man had embraced the mysteries of the Daniters, he was then a “Man of God and a Son of Thunder.” The oath itself was lengthy, and closed with the binding of oneself to the brotherhood with a penalty of shedding their own blood, an oath Porter would not have taken too lightly. Even though Rockwell was a distant cousin of the fireside student, Abraham Lincoln, he never learned the basics of reading or writing.
Many references exist that mention the early Allen and Wheelock pepper-boxes, obtained through Elder Cyrus Wheelock, a close relative of the manufacturer, Thomas P. Wheelock. It was with such a weapon that Joseph Smith defended his life at the Carthage Jail shortly after the inception of the “Danites.”
Rockwell was very close to Joseph Smith and usually not a shout from his side. He even gave up his first wife for Joseph when she insisted on a choice between them. Rockwell was known to be the killer of the Carthage militia leader, Lt. Frank Worrell, who had participated in the murder of Joseph Smith, but he was never charged. Rockwell migrated to Utah in 1847, as Brigham Young’s bodyguard and general protectorate.
No specific mention of any weapon that Rockwell owned or used exists before mention of a brace of Navy pistols being given to him by Brigham Young. These he obtained from speculators coming through the territory selling arms. The Navy percussion revolvers were not Colts, but Metropolitan revolvers.
Only one has survived or is known of the pair, No. 3558, a truly fine old Metropolitan. As these were available to the public and were not under military contract, they were probably easier to obtain than other manufacturer’s arms. Also noteworthy, is a reference in Harold Schindler’s writings to a cropped Colt Navy revolver No. 168,832, used by Rockwell.
What was probably the first “Detective Special,” the “Avenger Barrel” 1860 Colt .44 percussion Army Model.
The Avenger Barrel
As government harassment increased, Rockwell discarded any display of arms and innovated perhaps the first “Detective Special.” First on record is a 1860 Colt Army Model, 44 caliber percussion, with the barrel cropped shorter than two inches. Such barrels have become known as “Avenger Barrels” and are typical of other Danite guns, such as William Hickman’s and Anson Black’s, infamous in their own biographies as associates of Porter Rockwell.
Mormons, as a group, never displayed holstered weapons of any type. Other than the weapons in the hands of the Danites, weapons were stored and locked in an arsenal.
Another arm examined that purportedly belonged to Orrin Porter Rockwell was a Colt factory conversion of the Pocket Pistol of Navy origin, 38 Caliber, type 6, the rarest and most desirable of all the pocket conversions.
At another archive, a 44 CF Colt Richards conversion of the 1860 Army was examined. The cropped barrel bore the professional stamping “J.B.,” which according to the curator is believed to be the work of Jonathan Browning who migrated with Brigham Young to Utah in 1847 and set up shop making grinders, plows, and mills, out of wagon rims. Browning probably modified some of the early arms that found their way into the territory.
The “Avenger barrels” examined are definitely the work of a craftsman and not a period basement mechanic. All are old and a sight to see; scarce collector’s items surviving in excellent condition except for the crushing indignity of a “cropped barrel.”
Rockwell, with his penchant for “short barrels,” was known to have used a 10-gage double barrel shotgun with cropped stock and barrels, worn under the waistcoat and suspended by a shoulder strap which was connected to the gun by a swivel located at balance point when gun was loaded. Thus when the coat was opened, the barrels would rise ready for business.
Danite Lieutenant Anson Black is said to have used this Colt conversion of the Navy Pocket Pistol, type 6; converted to .38 metallic cartridge.
Two Masters — God And The Devil
As Utah became settled and feelings moderated, Rockwell turned his attention to mining claims and ranching in the west mountains. He was a man who was said to have two masters “God and the Devil” enjoying his whiskey in large doses. He was married three times and had 13 children.
The Salt Lake Tribune’s headline just 36 hours after Rockwell’s death read: “Porter Rockwell the Chief of the Danite Band Shuffles off in a Stable and Cheats the Hangman of a Worthy Candidate.” The article further stated that he killed many travelers for their “booty,” enemies of the church, or those who dared wag their tongues about Zion.
The editorial stated that he committed over 100 murders, none of which he ever divulged. He and his activities had been the subject of controversy even while he lived.
On the evening of June 9, 1878, Rockwell staggered into an office he maintained in the Colorado Stables, in downtown Salt Lake City and died from congestive chills and violent vomiting. The hastily summoned physician mentions the attempt of “mouth to mouth resuscitation” in his account of the death.
The most interesting gun examined was a 1875 Remington Frontier Army Model. A very early Remington, serial 128, in the early issue of 44 Remington (not 44-40), made without a lanyard ring, original ivory grips and nickel finish. The gun came from Rockwell’s ranch in Tooele County, and was passed onto his heirs just prior to his death when he had virtually retired from the protectorate service.
Upon his death, almost 1,000 persons filled the 14th ward assembly rooms to hear Joseph F. Smith, a member of the council of 12 apostles, offer the eulogy. “Porter had his little faults,” he said, “but his life on earth, taken altogether, was one worthy of example and reflected honor upon the church. Through all his trials he had never once forgotten his obligations to his brethren and his God.”
The Salt Lake Tribune stated “It was a fitting tribute from one outlaw to another.” That controversy will only be settled in heaven.