MMFF 
Dave McEwen, of Kidder, Missouri, and Judy Vilmer, of Polo, Missouri, point out the rock wall running along the south edge of the former Jacob Haun property.
Right photo by Mary Diane Forsythe, 2002
One of those killed was not put in the well. His name was Lewis. He was on the fence and thought he was out of reach away on the side hill. Rockholt had a long-range rifle and said he could make him get off that fence. He shot him through the shoulder, and he died the same night and was buried on his brother's farm (David Lewis) on the south side of the creek and about twenty steps from where Frank White now lives. (Two years) later, his bones, at the suggestion of the county court, as removed to the cemetery.... The well where the bodies was put in was from fifteen to eighteen feet. Just digging. It was never walled up. There was about three feet of dirt on the bodies.
Benjamin Lewis, brother of David, was found about three hundred (300) yards from the shop by some women who had concealed him during the attack. He lived only a few hours after being removed by his brother to his home.
Charles Ross, Temple Lot Suit, 1893, 267-68
There was another man I was acquainted with who was in that fight, for he shot a man by the name of Lewis, across the creek on the top of the hill; and he was there the next summer after the fight, and walked out on tip of the hill and showed me where he shot the man, where he stood when he fired the shot, and where the man was that he shot. He shot this man Lewis from the fence on the other side of the creek and two years afterwards his remains were taken out of the field and buried, for he was not put in the well with the rest of them.... They were put in the well, for the next spring when it thawed out it stunk like an old dead horse. It was a twelve-foot well and eighteen of these Mormons were put in there. Afterwards I helped fill the well up. I call it the grave too. It smelt so bad and annoyed me so much, for it was within ten steps of my door.
During the magnetometer scan in late July 2002, Dave McEwen led a small party to the far south edge of the Haun parcel. The rock wall runs from the west up the side of "Escape Hill." Two or three courses of what may have been a higher rock wall are still visible. Benjamin Lewis must have been sitting on the wall higher up the hill- in order to have been shot from the field north of the stream. Local sources suggest in earlier days the wooded area south of the stream was cleared.
Back to Haun's Mill Map