A recorded 1857 sermon by Brigham Young shows that "blood atonement" (murdering apostates) was once an accepted practice in Utah: "Will you love your brothers or sisters likewise, when they have committed a sin that cannot be atoned for without the shedding of their blood? Will you love that man or woman well enough to shed their blood?" [Journal of Discourses 4:219; Deseret News 6:397]

One of the more interesting accounts of fleeing Utah is in a biographical sketch of Mark H. Forscutt by Roy A. Cheville:

"Mark Hill Forscutt was born June 19, 1834, at Bath, England. He was one of those persons who have been considered 'naturally religious.' When a young man, he went with some friends to hear a strange preacher with a strange message—a Latter Day Saint. It was one of those cases where 'those who came to scoff remained to pray.' ... At the age of nineteen, he was baptized in spite of the opposition of his family who immediately disowned him. He went daringly ahead in the life of the Latter Day Saints in the ministry to which he was soon called.

"On March 25, 1860, he was married to Elizabeth Unsworth. On their wedding day they left England for America. They were 'gathering' to the 'city of the Saints' in Utah. They made their way to Omaha, Nebraska, where they joined a caravan and traveled on foot to Salt Lake City. On arrival, Mark Forscutt became private secretary to Brigham Young, a position he held for four years. He saw the inner workings of the Utah church. He became heartsick and disillusioned and angry.... For safety and livelihood he joined the Fifth California Cavalry of the United States Army. Mrs. Forscutt and two small children went along on excursions into Nevada....

"Mark Forscutt left the Salt Lake City region as a matter of safety. In those days there was an extremely hostile attitude toward those who left the church as 'apostates.' By exchanging a stagecoach ticket with a soldier he came out safely without identification. Sometime later Mrs. Forscutt came east with her two small daughters on the first Union Pacific train out of Ogden for Omaha...."

The sketch goes on to tell of Forscutt joining the Reorganized church in 1965, returning to Utah for a while as a missionary for the Reorganized church, becoming a close friend of Joseph Smith III (a son of the church founder and the leader of the Reorganized church), becoming a church music leader, in 1879 preaching the funeral sermon of Mrs. Emma Smith Bidamon (who had been church founder Joseph Smith Jr.'s one and only wife), and producing the Reorganization's first hymnbook in 1889 (the earliest Latter Day Saint hymnbook had been produced by Emma Smith in 1835).

In his published memoirs, Joseph Smith III stated:

"... after the death of Brigham Young [1877]—and possibly as a partial result of the bloody Mountain Meadow massacre [1857] and its publicity [in 1877 John Doyle Lee was executed for the murders]—there ensued a change in the administrative policies of the Mormon Church, and the Danite band was put out of existence."

"... Mr. Fennimore was the photographer who took the pictures that appeared in some articles about the trial and execution of John D. Lee. These pictures included the scene at Mountain Meadows where the massacre of 1857 occurred when a large party of immigrants was killed and their stock stolen—ostensibly by Indians. Inquiry under the auspices of the United States Government traced the crime to white men belonging to the Mormon Church, of whom John D. Lee was but one, though evidently made the scapegoat in crime for the whole party."

There is a 2004 movie "Burying the Past: Legacy of the Mountain Meadows Massacre", 86 minutes, a documentary feature about the tragic 1857 immigrant massacre in southern Utah, available in VHS and DVD.

The Memoirs of President Joseph Smith III (1832-1914), Herald House, Independence, Missouri, 1979.

"... the people of Nephi under the reign of the second king began to grow hard in their hearts, and indulge themselves somewhat in wicked practices, such as like unto David of old, desiring many wives and concubines, and also Solomon his son ..."

"... thus saith the Lord: 'This people beginneth to wax in iniquity; they understand not the scriptures, for they seek to excuse themselves in committing whoredoms because of the things which were written concerning David and Solomon his son. Behold, David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable before Me!' saith the Lord; wherefore, thus saith the Lord: 'I have led this people forth out of the Land of Jerusalem by the power of Mine arm, that I might raise up unto Me a righteous branch from the fruit of the loins of Joseph; wherefore, I, the Lord God, will not suffer that this people shall do like unto them of old.' Wherefore my brethren, hear me and hearken to the word of the Lord: 'For there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife, and concubines he shall have none; for I, the Lord God, delighteth in the chastity of women, and whoredoms are abominations before Me!' "

How the church that Joseph Smith Jr. founded moved from such plain statements to the sort of polygamy practiced by Mormons in Utah is strange. Due to false accusations by enemies of the church, the 1835 book Doctrine and Covenants, with the endorsement of Joseph Smith Jr. and other leaders, had included an official church statement on marriage. One sentence read: "Inasmuch as this church of Christ has been reproached with the crime of fornication, and polygamy: we declare that we believe, that one man should have one wife; and one woman, but one husband, except in case of death, when either is at liberty to marry again."

Yet, Mormon harems in Utah became a reality. In the memoirs of Joseph Smith III (1832-1914), who, beginning in 1860, served as president of the Reorganized church, are poignant accounts of his encountering plural wives during his missionary trips through Utah.

"I was once invited to [cousin] Joseph F.'s. He received me kindly as I arrived, and we chatted for a little while before supper was announced. ... To me the situation in which I found myself seemed very strange. For the first time in my life I was permitted to see thus at close range the domestic relations of a polygamous family and the actual operation of a doctrine which had long been unspeakably repulsive to me. The very fibers of my being seemed to cry out in protest, and so strong was my prejudice and antipathy that I seemed to feel almost physically ill as I contemplated the scene. There, at one board sat a complacent man, surrounded by three wives and a large number of children ... The women did not take much part in our conversation. I thought I detected upon the countenances of two of them, evidence of some distress of mind, and possibly, regret, as if they were conscious that the opinions I would form of their family relations were not likely to be very complimentary to them."