John Doyle Lee

John Doyle Lee (September 6, 1812 – March 23, 1877) was an American pioneer, and prominent early member of the Latter Day Saint Movement in Utah. Lee was later excommunicated from the Church and convicted of mass murder for his complicity in the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre. He was sentenced to death and, in 1877, was executed by firing squad at the site of the massacre.

Early Mormon leader

Lee was born on September 6, 1812, in Kaskaskia, Illinois Territory, and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1838. He was a friend of Joseph Smith, founder of the church, and was the adopted son of Brigham Young under the early Latter Day Saint law of adoption doctrine. In 1839, Lee served as a missionary with his boyhood friend, Levi Stewart. Together they preached in Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. During this period Lee converted and baptized "Wild Bill" Hickman. Lee practiced plural marriage and had 19 wives (at least eleven of whom eventually left him) along with 56 children.

Lee was a member of the Danites, a fraternal vigilante organization. The Danites were first organized in Caldwell County, Missouri, during the Mormon War. Lee was also an official scribe for the Council of Fifty, a group of men who provided guidance in practical matters to the church, specifically concerning the move westward out of the established areas United States in the east to the Rocky Mountains. After Smith's death, Lee went with Brigham Young and other Latter Day Saints to what is now Utah, and worked towards establishing several new communities there. Some of those communities included Lee's Ferry and Lonely Dell Ranch, located near Page, Arizona. A successful and resourceful farmer and rancher, in 1856, Lee became a United States Indian Agent in the Iron County, Utah, area, where he was assigned to help Native Americans establish farms. In 1858, Lee served a term as a member of the Utah Territorial Legislature, and following church orders in 1872, Lee moved from Iron County and established a heavily used ferry crossing on the Colorado River, where the site is still called Lee's Ferry. The nearby ranch was named the Lonely Dell Ranch and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, together with the ferry site.