Account of R. J. Hammer, Grandson of Austin Hammer
Reminiscence provided courtesy of Roger L. Hammer
I am on the Haun's Mill track just now. Father talked of it and would express how he felt about getting revenge. He told me that he would crawl on ice and snow for a mile to get a shot at one of that Haun's Mill mob.
Well, the opportunity came for him to kill one of the mob. It occurred while
he was in the standing army, (today it is known as the U.S. National Guard) his
company was pitching camp close to Carson City, - the time Carson was just a
little more that a stage depot. While father was busy putting up his tent, a
man came up to the captain of the company and asked him if he had any Mormons in his Company. The stranger then inquired, "Do you know if you have
any of them who had any killed at Haun's Mill?" The captain thought and then
said, "Yes, there is a man right there," pointing to father, "he can tell
you more about it; go talk to him." He came over where father was busy with
his tent and said, "Sir, did you have any of your kin-folks killed at Haun's
Mill Massacre?" "Yes," replied father, "my father and uncle. Why, what do you want to know for?" "Well," answered the stranger, I was one of the bunch that helped kill them." Father told me that his first impression was to drive the tent axe he had in his hand right through the stranger's head. But just at that moment the Lord let him see into the very inner parts of the stranger's soul, and father told me that there wasn't words that could describe the condition of this man's suffering and as father stood looking at him he said, "I've been looking all this time to find a relative of one
of those I helped kill, so that I could die at the hands of one of their relatives. Now I want you to kill me for I am powerless to kill myself, and for them I helped to kill, I hear their groans all day long. I have no rest day or night and I see their forms all night. "Father told him to go his
way. He said, "I'll not harm one hair of you head. "The poor disappointed wretch left. From that day on father did not seek any revenge for he felt that the Lord was doing a much better job of it than he could do.
John Hammer, “Reminiscence,” in Lyman Omer Littlefield, Reminiscences of Latter-day Saints (Logan, UT: The Utah Journal Company, 1888), 66-76.
Nancy Jane Hammer, "Sketch and Short History of Austin Hammer and wife Nancy Elston," cited in Alvin K. Benson, ”The Haun's Mill Massacre: Some Examples of Tragedy and Superior Faith,” Arnold Garr and Clark Johnson, eds., Regional Studies in Latter Day Saint Church History, Missouri, (Provo, UT: Department of Church History and Doctrine, 1994), 105-117.
