The Captivity of Olive Oatman
MASSACRE ON THE ARIZONA MESA
The Journey West
It was 1850. Roys Boise Oatman was 41 years old and looking for God. Mormon founder, Joseph Smith, was assassinated just six years before only 20 miles from the Oatman residence in LaHarpe, Indiana.
It was a tough time to be Mormon. There was much dissent among the practitioners, and plenty of men in line to replace Smith as the church leader.
Roys decided to follow John C. Brewster in pursuit of a promised land at the confluence of the Gila and Colorado Rivers in present-day Arizona. Brewster called it “The Land of Bashan” and claimed that God gave him this location in a vision. Here, the Oatman family planned to pioneer a new Mormon gathering place.
The trip was more arduous than anticipated. Brewster declared that “The Land of Bashan” was actually in Socorro, NM. There was no need to suffer through 600 more tumultuous miles. Some members of the wagon train took this for truth and settled with Brewster right there in New Mexico.
Roys took charge of the remaining wagoneers. He insisted they push through rugged terrain and all manner of bad weather. Thirty wagons traversed the perilous Santa Fe Trail, stopping at Maricopa Wells. Members of the Pima and Maricopa tribes greeted them. They had…
