John Doyle Lee
| John D. Lee | |
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| Member of the Council of Fifty | |
| 1844 – March 23, 1877 | |
| End reason | Released due to age |
| Utah Territorial Legislature | |
| In office | |
| 1858 | |
| Political party | unknown |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
John Doyle Lee September 12, 1812 Illinois Territory, United States |
| Died | March 23, 1877 (aged 64) Mountain Meadows, Utah Territory, United States |
| Resting place | Panguitch City Cemetery 37°48′57.96″N 112°24′56.88″W / 37.8161000°N 112.4158000°W |
| Spouse(s) | Agatha Ann Woolsey Nancy Bean Louisa Free Sarah Caroline Williams Rachel Andora Woolsey Polly Ann Workman Martha Elizabeth Berry Delethia Morris Nancy Ann Vance Emoline Vaughn Woolsey Nancy Gibbons Mary Vance Young Lavina Young Mary Leah Groves Mary Ann Williams Emma Louise Batchelor Terressa Morse Ann Gordge |
| Children | 56 |
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 convicted as a mass murderer for his complicity in the Mountain Meadows massacre, sentenced to death and was executed in 1877.
John Doyle 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 Latter Day Saint Movement, and was the adopted son of Brigham Young under the early Latter Day Saint Law of Adoption doctrine. In 1839, Lee served 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 nineteen wives (at least eleven of whom eventually left him) along with sixty-seven children.
Lee was allegedly a member of the Danites, a vigilante paramilitary group, although this claim has been disputed. Lee was also an official scribe for the Council of 50, a group of men who in the days of Joseph Smith Jr. and Brigham Young, worked together to provide guidance in practical matters to the church, specifically concerning the move westward out of the established areas United States of America in the east to the Rocky Mountains. After Smith's death, Lee went with Brigham Young and church 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.
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