Little is known about the soldiers of Johnson’s Army sent to Utah in 1858 to quell what turned out to be a non-existent “Mormon Rebellion.”
Little is known about the soldiers of Johnson’s Army sent to Utah in 1858 to quell what turned out to be a non-existent “Mormon Rebellion.”
In “The Unknown,” Discovery Road, the educational TV series produced by the Mormon Pioneer National Heritage Area (MPNHA), tells their story.
The soldiers stayed three years in what became known as Camp Floyd, “observing” the Mormons but during that time left a lasting mark on the town of Fairfield, Utah County, and the surrounding area. While there was no conflict, soldiers died and were buried during those years. Since the Army did not have any cemeteries, they were buried by their comrades in arms in a makeshift cemetery on camp property.
While records were kept of the dead and the fact they were buried in the camp cemetery, no records were made of which graves held the remains of specific soldiers. Today, the landscape is spotted with scores of graves carrying nothing more than the word “Unknown” on their headstones.
“The Unknown” then shifts gears to focus on David and Ann Bona, 1853 Mormon emigrants from Swansea, Wales, who, a er nine years in Spanish Fork, Utah, le for California, never to return.
In this episode, their descendants Charlene Heaton and Renè Bona Clarke, who are cousins, follow the route of the family, along the way encountering the story of stagecoach driver Charlie Parkhurst, a woman who disguised herself as a man to pursue the life she wanted.