"Wild Bill" Hickman

William "Wild Bill" Adams Hickman was the son in law of George Fredrick Burckhartt who is known for being a Missouri State Legislator, judge, and is sometimes credited with designing the Missouri State Seal. He was the son of Edwin Temple Hickman and Elizabeth Adams Hickman, and was born April 16, 1815 in Warren County, Kentucky, and moved with his parents when he was four years old to Missouri. His family first settled in Old Franklin, Missouri. They then moved southwest of Huntsville, Randolph County, Missouri on Silver Creek. According to Hickman's autobiography there were only about 12 to 15 families in the county at that point. His father started the first grist mill in the county on his farm between Silver Creek and Huntsville, and it was still very much a wilderness. When William was 15 he was sent to the home of George Frederick Burckhartt close to what is now Old Milton in order to get an education. This is how he met his first wife Elizabeth Bernetta Burckhartt.

Bernetta was his school teacher, and he said in his autobiography, she was "the prettiest black eyed creature that ever lived." The two of them eloped when William was 17 and Bernetta was 19 on April 12, 1832. The tale told by Burckhartt descendants is that Bernetta tied a string to her big toe and dangled the other end out the window when she went to bed at night. When she felt a tug on it she went out the window, and joined William. They then rode to the next town and got married. The families had opposed the marriage, and it initially caused a rift. Nonetheless, William took to teaching, and had 75 students. At the end of the school year, his father gave him 320 acres, and William and his wife Bernetta began to acquire property east of Burckhartt Fields as well. This farm was near the Randolph and Monroe County line close to what is now Highway 24. It was on the old stage road from Paris, Missouri to Huntsville, Missouri. Mormons on their migrations from Kirtland, Ohio to Caldwell County, Missouri would pass by there from 1834 to 1838. The Zion's Camp camped at his farm in 1834, and it is said that this was William Hickman's first encounter with Mormons. Not everyone was so welcoming. Bernetta’s brother, Greenlief Burchardt is said to have been hostile to the group, and this lead to a disagreement between him and his brother in law William. William challenged his brother-in-law to a fistfight. It is not said if the fight took place, but as a result of Hickmans’s defense of the Mormons, the Mormons convinced William and Benetta to be baptized. It is not known if there is any truth to this as according to William Hickman in his autobiography he was not baptized until 1839:

"Some eight or ten months after I was married, I joined the Methodist Church, which my wife belonged to when we were married. I lived a quiet and religious life, making theology my principal study. I investigated every religious belief I had ever heard of and among the balance Mormonism, which I had supposed was trivial and trashy, but soon found I was mistaken. I continued to investigate it for two years. I lived on the road which the Mormons traveled from Kirtland, Ohio to Western Missouri, and had almost daily opportunities to talk with them. Being thorourghly convinced they were right, I joined them in the spring before they left Missouri (1838). This was a great task for me. I had a good standing in Society; the Mormons were very much disliked by the Missourians, and there was much sorrow expressed by friends and relatives for my joining them."

He became a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints in 1838, sold his farm for a low price, and moved first to Hancock County, Illinois, and then into Nauvoo, Illinois. There he was baptized in 1839 by John D. Lee. He served as Joseph Smith's bodyguard and took part in the fighting in September, 1846 in defense of Nauvoo. Eventually, he left Nauvoo and arrived in Utah in 1849, and it was there where his name would be made. He served as Brigham Young's bodyguard, and in 1854 Brigham Young made Hickman sheriff of the newly formed Green River County. In his time there he would serve as tax collector, tax assessor, and deputy federal marshal. In August of 1854, he was elected representative to the State Legislature for the district. Hickman took part in the Utah War serving as a Lieutenant. He and his men destroyed army wagon trains, rustled the cattle of non-Mormons, and put to torch Fort Bridger. It was during the war Hickman murdered the mountaineer Richard Yates, a crime which would lead to his downfall.

During the war and after, Hickman supposedly committed several murders on the orders of Brigham Young. There is some doubt about this as the accounts of many of these are questionable. William Hickman was part of the Jordan Silver Mining which was organized Sept. 17, 1863, and was the first mining company in Utah. He also helped fight some of the Native American tribes during the 1860s. In 1863, according to Hickman's autobiography, he made his break with Brigham Young. At that point he began having problems with other Mormons, mostly ruffians like himself. At one point he was arrested, and found innocent. He then traveled to California and elsewhere before finally returning to Utah. In 1868, he was excommunicated, reportedly after refusing to commit an assassination. The reasons were as unclear then as they are now.

"Wild Bill" practiced polygamy as was the custom of the Mormons prior to Utah's statehood. In addition to his first wife Bernetta he had nine other wives. He is said to have fathered 35 children. Following his excommunication all his wives except Bernetta left him. In August of 1871, Hickmam was arrested for the murder of Richard Yates. While awaiting trial, he wrote his autobiography " Brigham's Destroying Angel: Being the Life, Confession and Startling Disclosures of the Notorious Bill Hickman, Danite Chief of Utah," In it he confessed to several other murders. Some doubt these claims, some doubt the autobiography was written by him, but there is some evidence he committed some of the murders spoken of in the book. He was held in Fort Douglas while awaiting trial guarded by the army as the government feared for his life. Charges were not pressed against Hickman as the government hoped he could serve as a witness for the case they were building against Brigham Young. He was eventually released and nothing came of the case against Brigham Young. Having accused Brigham Young of ordering assassinations, and confessed to numerous murders, he was shunned by Mormons and non-Mormons alike. Some of his family changed their names, or moved to other states to escape the stigma of being related to him. He eventually moved to Wyoming where he died August 21, 1883 due to “diarrhea and old bullet wounds.”