The Pugmire Faith: The Cumberland Blacksmith and the Mountain Meadows Massacre

On being handed an ancient family Bible in 2017, David F Houston was intrigued by the unusual surname inscribed on an inside page and set out to find information about the family. His research led him to a man who was born in Cumbria in the north of England at the very end of the eighteenth century; a man who began a career as a local blacksmith but who gave up everything to convert to Mormonism. A man who travelled across the world in his search for spiritual belonging, but found himself involved in one of the worst cases of mass murder in American history. This is the true story of Jonathan Pugmire Sr; a tale of drowning, imprisonment, emigration, religion, polygamy, war and mass murder.