Dimmick B. Huntington

Posted by Delirious

When I first was applying to join the DUP, Mom sent me some pioneer histories to review to use in my application. One of the histories was of Dimmick B. Huntington. However when I started to prepare to give his history at our DUP meeting, I couldn't find the papers Mom had given me. I did some google searches and found tons of information about him. I don't know if I wrote down all of my sources for this information, but I hope I did.

Dimmick B. Huntington

















The son of William and Zina Baker Huntington, he was born May 26, 1808, at Watertown, Jefferson county, New York. There he passed his early boyhood. He had a martial spirit and delighted in "playing soldier" and training the lads of his neighborhood. His father was a well-to-do farmer and gave his son a good common school education. When eleven years of age he was disabled for farm work , having lameness, resulting from a fever, in consequence of which he took to traveling as a peddler and tinker to earn his livelihood. He afterwards learned shoemaking and blacksmithing, the latter after living on the frontier,
.. On April 28, 1830, he married, his wife's maiden name being Fanny Maria Allen. She became the mother of seven children. In 1835 Dimick B. Huntington joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and in May of the next year moved to Kirtland, Ohio. The following summer found him in Missouri, where he passed through all the troubles that arose between the Missourians and the Mormon settlers. He was constable at Far West, and a brave and efficient officer. On one occasion he stepped between the Prophet Joseph Smith and a club that was raised to strike him. He would have died for his leader at any time, and as long as Joseph lived he was one of his most faithful friends. At Nauvoo he held various offices in the city government, and was one of those arrested with the Prophet for the abatement of the paper known as the "Expositor." Dimmick Huntington was elected coroner in Nauvoo (BH Roberts History of the church) After the murder of Joseph and Hyrum and the return of the dead bodies from Carthage, he was one of those who bore the remains of the martyrs to their earthly resting place.
Our family has a story that he and another man took a piece of Joseph's coffin and made a cane. They clipped a little of the prophet's hair and put it in the top of the cane, and put a piece of glass over it. There were 2 or three canes made. According to my understanding, the one our family inherited has been given to a museum in Utah.
He was Indian interpreter for the U. S. Government up to the time of his death, which occurred February 1, 1879, in Salt Lake City. He was a private in Co. D of the Mormon Battalion, and as such took part in the Mexican War in 1846. He enlisted July 16, 1846, and was discharged July 16, 1847.
He left Nauvoo in the exodus of February, 1846, pursued by military officers, and was obliged to separate himself from his family temporarily in order to escape. He proceeded to the Missouri river, where in July he enlisted as a member of the famous Battalion. He was in Company "D," commanded by Captain Nelson Higgins, and besides performing the ordinary duties of a soldier, served his comrades in the capacity of blacksmith. At Santa Fe he was detached with others from the main command, and sent to Pueblo, his family being with him. A child was born to him at that place, January 1st, 1847; an Indian squaw acting as midwife. started with Captain Brown for California on May 24th of that year, but only got as far as Salt Lake valley, the Battalion's term of enlistment having expired. He entered the valley twenty-one days after the Pioneers. Says he:
"Through all my travels in the Battalion, to Pueblo, back to Laramie and on to Salt Lake valley, I carried in my wagon a bushel of wheat,and during the winter of '47 slept with it under my bed, keeping it for seed. For three months my family tasted no bread. We dug thistle roots and other native growths and had some poor beef, with a little milk, but no butter. Early in the spring of '48 I rode one hundred and fifteen miles to Fort Bridger and bought a quart of little potatoes about the size of pigeon eggs, at twenty-five cents each. From these I raised that year about a bushel of potatoes, but ate none of them. I planted them in 1849 and have had plenty of potatoes ever since."
Mr. Huntington first lived in the "Old Fort," but in 1849 went to Provo and in 1850 to Sanpete to help establish colonies in those places, being chosen for this task because of his qualifications as an Indian interpreter, and because recognized by the red men as their friend. He learned to talk in the Indian tongue soon after his arrival in the mountains, and this, he says, was in fulfillment of a promise made to him by the Prophet Joseph at Quincy, Illinois, in 1839. He was Utah's first Indian interpreter and his presence was necessary at all meetings between the settlers and the savages.
He was in the first fight with the Indians at Battle Creek, March 5, 1849, and at the beginning of the action took command, in the absence of the colonel. He was also in the Indian fight at Provo, with his two sons, Allen and Lot. He accompanied Parley Pratt's expedition to Iron county in 1850, and in 1853, at the close of the Walker war, was sent by Young, superintendent of Indian affairs, to arrange a treaty of peace with that turbulent chieftain. Says Mr. Huntington:
"While in conversation with the chief in his tent, he called me to the door and directed my attention to two braves who were driving an Indian prisoner before them. I asked, 'What are they going to do?' 'Watch,' he said, and in a moment or two they shot them as a part of the traditional rites of the treaty. Walker remained peaceable until his death, and I was present at his burial, which was attended with all the traditional and superstitious observances. A consultation was held among the braves as to whether one of the chief's wives should be killed and sent to the happy hunting grounds along with him, but it was finally decided that a male Piute prisoner should accompany him. Accordingly the prisoner was buried with the chief buried alive, but only to his shoulders, and left to die at the will of 'Shinob' (God). I acted as master of ceremonies at a grand treaty between the Utes and Shoshones at Salt Lake City in 1854, and fed both tribes at my table. That treaty was never broken."
When not among the Indians, trading and interpreting, Mr. Huntington pursued the vocation of blacksmith, doing work of that description for both whites and reds. He was a great lover of martial music and did much to promote its cultivation in the various settlements. He made drums, rounded musical schools, and was drum-major of the old-time martial band, named in his honor, "Dimick's Band;" his own pride and glory, and the delight of every urchin in Salt Lake valley.
Dimick Huntington was among the first to learn the Indian language, and for years was President Young's interpreter. (Some years ago my mother gave me a copy of the dictionary of Indian terms that he wrote) When the city of Provo was first settled, it was he who took the Indian oath that the newcomers would not drive the Indians away from their fishing streams. He was called on many times to settle disputes between tribes of Indians as well as between the white people and the Indians. He shared the confidence of the Indians, and also of the pioneers and the government agents in charge of Indian affairs. It was his duty to go from town to town in the interest of the Indians, and they always welcomed him. History records many stories of this man traveling alone on missions of peace and good will. Heart Throbs of the West: Volume 1
"Pioneer Missionaries Among the Indians George Bean"
He was married in 1830, in Watertown, N. Y., to Fanny Maria Allen. She accompanied her husband in the famous Mormon Battalion march through the deserts, enduring all the hardships of a soldier's life. She was for four months without tasting bread, before her daughter Betsy Presendia was born, living on roots. When the girl was born at Pueblo, on Mexican Territory, she had no mid-wife or doctor, so an Indian squaw attended her. It is recorded that "wife of DIMMICK B. HUNTINGTON, gave birth to a child, which died Nov. 9, 1846; on the same day the twin son of CAPTAIN JEFFERSON HUNT, by his wife CELIA, died. Both the little innocents were buried in one grave" From mormon batallion records
He married a second wife, about 1853, in Salt Lake City, Ellen Sophia Jacobson. She was born in Norway, about 1826, and died in Parowan, Utah, about 1900.
He was a member of the Salt Lake City Council in the early days. He was High Priest in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He was instrumental in helping to settle and colonize the whole region south of Salt Lake City, down to St. George on the South border of the Territory. He acted as interpreter for the Indians, as a soldier of the Mormon Battalion, and he helped to secure California, Nevada, and Utah, for the U. S. He published three books for the benefit of the Snakes and Utes, (Indians.) See page 209, Vol. IV., History of Utah, by Orson F. Whitney; also History of the Mormon Battalion, by Daniel Tyler.
His funeral speech was given by Pres. John Taylor

Panoramas were extremely popular in Europe and the United States during the middle and late 19th century. Danish immigrant-artist Carl Christian Anton Christensen (1831-1912) was one of several Utah artists to capitalize on this phenomenon. He was involved with the production of at least four panoramas.
The first panorama was commissioned in 1877 by Indian interpreter and missionary Dimick B. Huntington. C.C.A. Christensen and Norwegian immigrant-artist Danquart Weggeland worked together to create a series of eleven small paintings depicting the religious history of the world from Adam and Eve to Joseph Smith. The panorama, completed in 1878, was to be used as a visual aid by Huntington as he preached to the American Indians about the sacred nature of their history. However, Huntington died shortly after the completion of the panorama and it is not known if he ever exhibited them. (I wish I could see which panorama he did!)
http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/3aa/3aa452.htm

One of Christensen's paintings: