Ezra Hela Allen: Battalion Fifer, Tragedy Spring Martyr — 'I Know the Gospel Is True' (1814–1848)

Ezra Hela Allen was born July 28, 1814, at Madrid, St. Lawrence County, New York. He married Sarah Beriah Fiske on Christmas Day 1837. Though they searched the churches and revivals of upper New York for a doctrine that would answer their questions, they found none. When Elder William Snow preached nearby, they found his teaching 'substantiated by the scriptures.' After their youngest daughter fell ill, Elders Christopher Merckley and Murray Symonds taught them further; Ezra was baptized, with two of his brothers. The daughter passed away, but Ezra found comfort in the knowledge that they would be reunited in the next world.

The family gathered to Nauvoo in the winter of 1842 and helped found the settlement of Shokoquon. At General Conference on April 6, 1843, they were 'much impressed with the discourses of Joseph Smith'; in May, Sarah was baptized by Apostle Amasa M. Lyman. After enduring malaria and the loss of an infant son, Ezra enlisted on July 16, 1846, as a fifer in Company C of the Mormon Battalion at Mt. Pisgah—'not only to serve his government and church, but the promise of pay for his family.' The long march ended at San Diego on January 31, 1847.

Released from the Battalion, Ezra was sent ahead—with Daniel Browett and Henderson Cox—to blaze a route for the Saints traveling to Salt Lake. The three men were murdered as they camped at what is still known as Tragedy Spring: they were shot and buried, and their gold, saddles, and goods stolen—likely by outlaws, not Indians as first supposed. Brethren found Ezra's home-made buckskin purse in the weeds at the site of his murder and carried it to his widow Sarah. She saved enough of the gold dust to make two rings—one for herself and one for their daughter Amoretta—and used the remainder to purchase an outfit to go on to Salt Lake City. Ezra is buried at Tragedy Spring. His autobiography concluded with a simple testimony: 'I know the gospel is true.'