Butch Cassidy (2 page)

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Origins

The noted American outlaw who came to be known as Butch Cassidy was born Robert LeRoy Parker on April 13, 1866, in Beaver, Utah. His origins and boyhood were atypical of most bad men: he was born into a loving and devoted Mormon family and raised to be loyal and honest. While family influences always remained strong, the attraction of the church diminished in a dramatic fashion.

Cassidy’s parents, Maximillian and Ann Parker, were Mormons, as were their parents. Maximillian was the son of Robert and Ann Hartley Parker, English immigrants who encountered a variety of hardships and trials as well as successes in their new Utah homeland.

Robert and Ann Hartley Parker were both born in Burnley, Lancashire County, England. Robert was well educated according to the standards of the day. He took up weaving as a trade and in a short time became quite accomplished. He met his future wife, Ann, in a textile mill.

In 1836, Robert Parker was first exposed to the tenets and rituals of the Mormon church. The organization’s missionaries to England had been conducting seminars on the relatively new denomination. Robert regularly attended the meetings, quickly became convinced it was the one true church, and joined. Ann was not as enthusiastic as Parker about the “Saints,” as the members called themselves, but, employing their philosophy, he worked hard to convince her it was the only way to get to heaven. Because she loved him she listened to his ideas about the new church. She grew proud of Robert’s passion and commitment. With his encouragement, Ann converted to the Mormon faith despite the wishes of her parents. Shortly after her baptism in 1843, she and Robert were married.

One year later, Robert and Ann gave birth to a son they named Maximillian. During the next eleven years, five more children were born to the Parkers, and the family eventually moved to the town of Preston in Lancashire County, located just a few miles west of Burnley.

Across the Atlantic Ocean in America, the Mormon church was experiencing serious difficulties. As a result of numerous conflicts with the dominant Christian denominations, some of them physical and violent, the Saints had been driven from their settlements and forced to find homes elsewhere. As they moved westward, they were likewise challenged. It was often made known they were not wanted. In some cases, they were attacked and their homes burned. Some of the Saints were even killed.

Eventually, under the leadership of the self-anointed prophet Brigham Young, the Saints journeyed to and settled in the valley of the Great Salt Lake in what would eventually become the state of Utah. Following the initial phase of settlement, Young sent word to the church’s missionaries in England, Denmark, and Sweden to encourage tradesmen to come to America and assist in the building of what he perceived would be the new Mormon empire.

Robert Parker contemplated the invitation to go to America, weighing the advantages and disadvantages. He knew if he heeded the call to the mission, he would sorely miss England, his relatives, and friends, but his commitment to the church was strong and growing.

Meanwhile, Robert’s job at the textile mill in the nearby town of Preston provided ample support for his family. For a time, young Maximillian, still a mere boy, was put to work in the mill. Unlike his father, Maxi, as he was called, hated the work. The drudgery and tedium of the repetitious tasks was not at all to his liking. One day, to the embarrassment of his father, Maxi simply walked away from the job. Though punished severely by the elder Parker, young Maxi refused to return to the mill.

By this time, Robert Parker was an elder in the Mormon church and the head of a small mission in Preston. After lengthy deliberation and prayer, he ultimately decided the best thing for him and his growing family was to heed the call from Brigham Young and go to America. His skills as a weaver would be invaluable, and he was convinced the move would provide opportunities for his children they would not have in England.

Robert sold his home, his furniture, and his small herd of cattle to raise the price of boat fare to America. On March 22, 1856, the entire Parker family boarded a ship, the
Enoch Train
, for the United States. With the Parkers were approximately 530 other Mormon immigrants, all ultimately bound for the region of the Great Salt Lake in Utah. The passage took five weeks. The ship finally arrived in Boston on April 30. Maxi was twelve years of age when he first stepped onto the shores of his new country. Following a trip to New York City, the group of Mormons boarded a train for Iowa City, Iowa, arriving May 12.

At Iowa City, the immigrants became part of a group historians have since labeled the Handcart Pioneers. Here, they spent approximately one month in preparation for the long trip across the plains and mountains. Generally, wagon trains had been the normal mode of transporting groups of people to California and points in between. For reasons not entirely clear, leader Brigham Young was convinced simple handcarts would be faster and easier than wagons. These large, two-wheeled wagons were fitted with a pair of long poles that extended forward. A Saint would position himself or herself between the poles, strap on a harness similar to one designed for a mule, lift, and pull. Young reasoned that few of the Saints had enough money to purchase teams of oxen or mules. He also assumed and claimed they knew little about how to handle such animals. Furthermore, Young did not want the members of his flock spending their savings on what he considered expensive wagons and stock. He told them they needed to carry their savings with them to their destination.

A large number of the handcarts were hastily constructed with green, unseasoned wood and poorly fashioned for such a long and rugged journey. As the lumber dried out in the arid environments of the West, many wagons broke apart, forcing migrants to abandon precious belongings along the trail and take only what they could carry on their backs.

The first group of Handcart Pioneers, some 274 strong, departed Iowa City on June 9. The second group, called the MacArthur Company, left two days later and included 221 Mormons, among them the Parker family. While Robert pulled and young Maxi pushed the cart, the rest of the family walked alongside. In that manner they covered hundreds of miles across unfamiliar terrain.

Late on the afternoon of July 1, the Parker family experienced disaster. As the adults of the MacArthur Company set up camp for the night and prepared dinner, the children scattered throughout the adjacent countryside to play. A sudden thundershower, however, sent them hurrying back to camp. As the Parker children gathered near the family cart in the pouring rain, Ann Parker noticed that Arthur, the fourth child, was missing. None of the other children remembered seeing him and a search was undertaken, one that extended well into the night and most of the following day. In spite of the missing child, the leader of the company, Elder MacArthur, ordered the party to pack up and continue their journey.

After packing his wagon, Robert Parker sent his family along with the others and remained alone to continue the search for his son. Just before parting, Ann handed her husband a red shawl, telling him that if he found the child he was to wave it so she would know he was all right.

For two more days, the Handcart Pioneers trudged westward. Ann Parker constantly scanned the trail behind them searching for sign of her husband and son. At night she prayed and cried, fearing the two had been captured or killed by Indians.

On the evening of July 5 after camp was made and dinner served, Ann Parker walked to a low knoll where she knelt and prayed. When she had finished and rose to return to camp, she detected something moving in the distance far to the east. Though it was dusk and the light was dim, she recognized her husband’s gait. As she squinted into the distance, she saw another figure, this one smaller and wrapped in a red shawl, walking alongside Robert. It was Arthur. Her prayers had been answered.

On July 15, another handcart company departed Iowa City for the valley of the Great Salt Lake. In this company was the Gillies family, originally from Scotland but most recently from England—Robert and Jane and their four children Moroni, Daniel, Christina, and Annie. Like the Parkers, the Gillies family converted to the Mormon faith while residing in England. As with the MacArthur Company that departed over a month earlier, this one faced similar tedium and the dangers of the long journey, including drought, Indians, and the deterioration of the poorly constructed handcarts. The company in which the Gillies traveled also ran low on food, and eventually each member was rationed less than one-half pound of flour per day.

The MacArthur party of English, Danish, and Swedish converts crossed the Missouri River during late August 1856. Men, women, and children alike had long since tired of walking and pulling their belongings in the handcarts. They were also tiring of the fare; biscuits or corn bread and salt pork comprised almost every meal. As the hopes of the travelers flagged, Elder MacArthur tried to keep their spirits up, telling them the promised land of the valley of the Great Salt Lake was not far away.

The party with which the Parkers traveled was still a long way from their goal when it was struck by October snowstorms along the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. By the time they reached South Pass in Wyoming, blizzard-like conditions accompanied by temperatures well below zero and deep, nearly impassable snow drifts severely hampered travel and were responsible for a number of deaths. Of the approximately three thousand members of the church who undertook the 1,300-mile journey from Iowa City to the valley of the Great Salt Lake, at least 250 perished along the way.

Robert and Ann Parker, along with their children, survived the terrible weather and continued their journey, walking and pulling their cart to Utah along with the surviving Mormon faithful. Eager to help, young Maximillian, still only twelve years old, did more than his share. On September 26, 1856, following over one hundred days of toil, they finally arrived at the valley of the Great Salt Lake. Seven members of the MacArthur Company died along the trail.

An oft-told tale relative to the Parker journey overland to Salt Lake City has the elder Parker dying. In
The Outlaw Trail: A History of Butch Cassidy and His Wild Bunch
, originally published in 1938, Charles Kelly wrote, “Being one of the strongest men in the party, he was given a position well in the lead, where he helped break trail through deep snowdrifts.” Kelly goes on to relate that the “strenuous exertions on behalf of his starving and freezing family finally sapped his strength, and one bitter cold morning he was found dead in his blankets, almost within sight of the warm valley of the Green River.”

Kelly’s yarn is characteristic of what many people think they know about Butch Cassidy’s origins. This tale, while certainly a dramatic and somewhat romantic one, lacks anything to do with the truth. Poorly researched publications such as Kelly’s have continued to generate misunderstanding relative to the lives and times of American outlaws in general and Butch Cassidy in particular.

A few weeks after completing their journey to Salt Lake City, the Parkers moved to a new settlement called American Fork, located approximately twenty-five miles to the south. Here, Robert Parker taught school for a time. Since there was a need for weavers, the church eventually encouraged him to move to the town of Beaver, some 175 miles south-southwest of Salt Lake City, where he went to work in a woolen mill, putting his weaving skills to good use. For a time, according to some researchers, young Maxi worked in the mill but, as in England, despised the tedium. As before, he ran away.

Since winter was well under way in southern Utah and the Parkers had no time to construct a suitable cabin, they moved into a dugout. Life for the family that winter was miserable as the thatched, dirt roof leaked and rainwater and snowmelt poured into the pitiful dwelling. Many times, water collected on the floor and turned it into mud.

Some time later, the Gillies family, having successfully completed the long journey to Salt Lake City, was also assigned to Beaver. The church determined that Robert Gillies’s skills as a carpenter and cabinetmaker were sorely needed in that region.

When he grew older, young Maximillian was later appointed by the Mormon church to help guide additional wagon trains from St. Louis, Missouri, to the valley of the Great Salt Lake. He also worked for a time as a mailman. It has also been written that he served for a time in what has since come to be called the Black Hawk War, a series of skirmishes between Mormons and a loose confederation of Utes, Paiutes, and some Navajos led by Chief Black Hawk.

Being residents of the same small town, it was inevitable that Maxi Parker would meet Annie Gillies. Though her real name was Annie, Maxi called her Ann. Ann was described as “a pretty, charming lass,” and she and young Maxi soon became friends and playmates.

In 1865, when Robert and Ann Parker were sent by the church to help operate a new cotton mill constructed in Washington, Utah, Maxi stayed behind. According to his daughter Lula Parker Betenson, Maxi “had eyes only for Annie and wasn’t about to take chances on losing her.” The two were married on July 12, 1865. The first of thirteen children, Robert LeRoy Parker, destined to become the most famous member of the family, was born on April 13, 1866, according to Parker family documents.