Stories of Jerusha Smith Peirce and Call's Fort

In 1855, Call's Fort was located on the frontier of Mormon settlement six miles north of Brigham City. Travel from Salt Lake City required a slow two-day trip on the seat of a wagon. On many evenings, William and Jerusha Peirce could see the glow of Shoshone campfires from their home.
 
Jerusha was no ordinary person. She was the daughter of Hyrum Smith, brother to the Prophet, Joseph. She had a front-row seat to many events in early church history, including the settlement of Nauvoo, the martyrdom of her father and uncle, the arduous trek to the Rocky Mountains, and the founding of Salt Lake.
 

Jerusha Smith Peirce.

She was born in 1836 in Kirtland, Ohio, but her mother, Jerusha Barden Smith, died when when she was just twenty-one months old. Her father then married Mary Fielding, who subsequently raised her.
 
In her old age, Jerusha would call her family together into the main room of their log home and tell stories of her youth. The first years of Nauvoo were relatively peaceful, but these were followed by years of events that would traumatize her the rest of her life, even giving her nightmares.
 
She told a story about the evening when the bodies of Hyrum and Joseph were brought back from Carthage. The mob had vowed that they were coming to get the head of the Prophet and burn Nauvoo. Naturally, the whole town was on watch and they had lookout points from where they were to beat on drums if they saw the mob.
 
Sure enough, the drums began to beat. Terror filled the town. Lightning filled the air, dogs began to bark, and everything seemed to be in chaos. The family was afraid, not knowing what to do. As Jerusha told the story she said, “We saw a cloud forming over our heads. It was just a small one, but it started to grow and grow until it filled the sky. It moved over the river, seeming to take water out as it did. When it was over the heads of the mob, down poured a torrent of rain, soaking them to the bone and destroying their ammunition. Despite their best efforts, they were forced to turn back.”
 
Of all the experiences in Jerusha's life, this was the most powerful and humbling. She had, “seen the power of the hand of the Lord in that cloud that day, doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.”
 

Monument to Call's Fort along Utah State Route 38.

The fort was named after Anson Call who built it in 1855.

As with most of the other Saints, Jerusha moved to the western frontier of Utah. The trip was arduous and she did a lot of walking, especially near South Pass, Wyoming, which seemed to go on forever.
 
She was 12-years old when they arrived in Salt Lake in 1848. They lived in a small adobe home. Mary Fielding died four years later. At age eighteen Jerusha married the neighbor's son, William Peirce. The two made their home in Call's Fort.
 
Anson Call built the fort in 1855 to serve as protection against the Indians. The fortress was 120 feet square, with walls eight-feet high and three-feet thick. I'm not sure if the Peirce family lived inside the fort. Many other similar forts were built across the Mormon settlements during this same period, although most were short-lived and some only served to stockade cattle. The name, however, stuck, and the settlement was called Call's Fort for the next fifty years until it was changed to Harper Ward.
 
I try to imagine what it was like to live in a log cabin in such a remote location. Much of the interaction with the Shoshone must have been good because it is reported that they traded with settlers in Brigham City. But on the other hand, there still had to be conflict. Two completely different cultures were clashing. The Indians now witnessed as Mormons were using their water, and cattle eating their grass. From the Mormon point of view, they probably feared attacks or loss of property from the Natives. Either way, it was a delicate situation. The standing order for the settlers was to leave the Indians alone.
 
One evening when William Peirce was out of town, his son, Hyrum Robert, decided to try out his new sling shot. He chose one of the Shoshone men as his target! With his new contraption in-hand, he whirled it in the air, and when he let loose, the rock flew and smacked the Indian's face. He must have been pretty close because blood gushed from the man's eye. Rightly terrified, the boy ran for home and confessed to his mother.
 
He hadn't been home long when two Indian men appeared at the front door of the cabin. They asked to take the boy so they could deal with him. Somehow Jerusha convinced them to let her deal with him to their satisfaction.
 
One of the men made a switch from a willow branch. Hyrum was tied face-down on the bed with no shirt. Jerusha then began to whip her son's bare back. She continued to do so until the two Indians were satisfied. When they left she untied her son and collapsed in tears. Hyrum wore those scars all the days of his life.
 

Old stone home a couple miles south of Call's Fort.

It is still relatively simple to image what Call's Fort may have looked like. The area still has a rural flavor to it with a lot of farm land, although there is almost nothing left of the old settlement. Along the highway to Honeyville there is a monument on the roadside made from rocks from the fort. It gives a brief history of the settlement and states that it is erected on the southeast corner of the fort. Behind the monument is a vast field.
 
Just half a mile from the monument is Call's Fort Cemetery. It is a peaceful place upon the foothills of the mountain. The grounds are spacious with several old headstones. One reason I love cemeteries is because they are often the only surviving relic in a world where the old is continually being replaced with the new.
 
On June 26, 1912, Jerusha passed through the veil and joined her father and husband. Her half-brother, President Joseph F. Smith spoke at her funeral and commented that she never had an unkind word for anyone at anytime. Other speakers included Apostle Joseph Fielding Smith, Patriarch Hyrum G. Smith, and Bishop David A. Smith. Her grandson, Eli Thomas Peirce, drove the team of horses that pulled the funeral wagon to Call's Fort Cemetery where she was buried. ♠ 

Gravesite of Jerusha Peirce at Call's Fort Cemetery.

Call's Fort Cemetery in Box Elder County, Utah.

Sources Used

Alligood, Pamela Peirce. “Jerusha Smith Peirce.” Hyrum Smith Family Association, hyrumsmith.org/wp-content/uploads/2000/02/jerusha.pdf.

Jeppsen, Dennis. “Jerusha Smith Peirce.” Pioneer, 2014, pp. 24–26.