These words were previously posted, in 1999, but are not in the DT, and there's no "birdie" on the post showing that it's been harvested. This is the song I mentioned in my previous post.

I have made some minor adjustments to the words as previously submitted, to conform to Utah Phillips' singing on a CD I have.

JOHN D. LEE by Bruce U. Utah Phillips

Here's news come to the city about a wagon train,
Here's news come to the city about a wagon train,
How men and all their families by John D. Lee was slain.

Brigham Young sent out a runner, bid Squire Wells to come (2X)
"Go down in yonder country and see my justice done."

He gathered up a posse--a dozen men or more (2X)
They tracked across the desert to the Colorado shore.

No sooner they crossed over than John D. Lee was found,(2X)
Down in the Indian village, the squaws were camped around.

The horses from Missouri were found in his corral, (2X)
The Squire read him guilty, the facts we find here tell.

A wagon and a coffin--they make a heavy load,(2X)
To haul up to the meadow upon the Black Ridge Road.

Way up in Mountain Meadows they made him dig his grave, (2X)
Though loudly he protested--his life he sought to save.

The wagons they still smoldered--their ashes blew around,(2X)
In sight of this mute evidence, they shot their victim down.

Some say he was not guilty, so I have heard it said,(2X)
The deed fell to his captors, who should have died instead.

His grave is undiscovered, the grass it grows so tall,(2X)
Such was the Saints' own vengeance, on John D. Lee did fall.

The tune is that of a song related to the Civil War period, variously called Hiram Herbert or Hiram Hubbard, which told of a man wrongly convicted of murder by "the Rebels".

DRO