Between Pulpit and Pew: The Supernatural World in Mormon History and Folklore

3. “As Ugly as Evil,” and “As Wicked as Hell”: Gadianton Robbers and the Legend Process among the Mormons

40 3 “As Ugly as Evil” and “As Wicked as Hell” Gadianton Robbers and the Legend Process among the Mormons1 W. Paul Reeve On a spring day in 1874, carpenter Charles Pulsipher busied himself putting the finishing touches on a new home in the town of Hebron in southwestern Utah. Things were likely calm and pleasant as Pulsipher went about his work in this small Mormon ranching community, rooted in the south end of the Escalante Desert in Washington County. Suddenly William McElprang, the young man under Pulsipher’s charge, changed all that. McElprang “started in an instant run across the lot, jumped the fence and went up the mountain like a wild man.” Pulsipher sprinted after him, “but it was not in the power of mortals to catch him.” When McElprang’s strength finally failed, Pulsipher brought him back to town, but only “by faith in the Lord and the power of the priesthood.” Apparently McElprang had been afflicted by “evil spirits” for about two weeks. When these demons overpowered him, they caused “terrible pain most of the time” and occasionally “tried to run him wild into the mountains.” John Pulsipher, Charles’s brother, stood guard over the young man one night and described the principal spirit that possessed him as “a very stubborn dumb sort of a fellow.” However, on this particular night, “a very raving noisy spirit got possession of 1 A version of this essay was originally published in the Journal of Mormon History 27 (Autumn 2001): 125–49. “As Ugly as Evil” and “As Wicked as Hell” 41 him which when ordered to tell his name said it was ‘Suzi Borem.’” Upon learning this, John promptly rebuked Suzi and cast her out, and she “returned no more”; but the “old stubborn fellow” continued to plague McElprang until finally the townspeople gave up. They took him to Cedar City, over forty-five miles northeast, to live with his father.2 Three other young people at Hebron—Orson Welcome Huntsman, James Wilkins, and Adelia Terry—experienced similar demons on different occasions. Evil spirits were not the only problem Hebronites faced as they struggled to tame a small corner of Brigham Young’s kingdom. The town was located on the rim of the Great Basin, at an altitude of 5,400 feet, and its cool climate seemed to weaken some settlers’ resolve. Juanita Brooks, for example, recalled hearing her father remark that his boyhood home at Hebron “wasn’t exactly a paradise,” adding that “it was so cold, too cold to raise fruit and garden stuff.” Concurring, Brooks’s grandmother added, “that place was not intended to be for human beings, only cattle and sheep.”3 Because Hebron was perched on a piece of high ground where the two branches of Shoal Creek merged and the main stream curved in a big bend, the settlers suffered most from a lack of water. When Erastus Snow, apostle and leader of the Cotton Mission, looked over the selected townsite, he prophetically warned that it would be too difficult to get water there—and it was. Over the years, residents built flumes, ditches, canals, and dams, none of which proved successful at keeping Hebron irrigated. Economically, Hebron was a ranching outpost, and for any but the 2 Hebron Ward Record, 1872–97, 3:39–40, photocopy of holograph, Enterprise Branch, Washington County Library, Enterprise, Utah. Different versions of Hebron’s bout with demons have previously been published as Reeve, “Evil Spirits Plagued the Residents of Hebron, Utah” as part of the “History Blazer,” a joint project of the Utah State Historical Society and the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission; and as Reeve, A Century of Enterprise: The History of Enterprise, Utah, 1896–1996 (Enterprise, UT: City of Enterprise, 1996), 16–17; and Reeve, “Cattle, Cotton, and Conflict: The Possession and Dispossession of Hebron, Utah,” Utah Historical Quarterly 67 (Spring 1999): 148–75. 3 Juanita Brooks, Quicksand and Cactus: A Memoir of the Southern Mormon Frontier , 2nd ed. (Salt Lake City: Howe Brothers, 1982; Logan: Utah State University Press, 1992), 43. Brooks’s father was Dudley Henry Leavitt; the grandmother referred to was Mary Huntsman Leavitt. W. Paul Reeve 42 core families who relied upon livestock for their living, it offered little inducement to stay. Battles over land, death by neglect, the enticements of non-Mormon mining towns, power conflicts, family feuds, fires, and floods also conspired against Hebronites. Despite this...