Daniel Browett Harris

Aaron Johnson Company (1850), Age 1

Daniel Browett Harris was named after his uncle, Daniel Browett (the brother-inlaw of his father), who was killed in California leading the Sutter's Fort Mormon Battalion members over the pass near Donner Summit when they were ambushed and he and two other fellow trail scouts were killed by Indians, at a place called Tragedy Spring, California. Tragedy Spring was a settlement in Amador County, California, and it was named after the above incident which occurred on June 27, 1848. Supposedly their bodies were burned by the Indians and later their names were carved on a large tree by a spring in this location.

Here is some information from Wikipedia about this tragedy:

A company of former Mormon Battalion soldiers were looking for a route over the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range from California to Utah through Idaho for soldiers returning from the Mexican-American War. Daniel Browett, president and lead scout of the Browett-Holmes Company, decided to ride out and scout a possible route, against the advice of the rest of the company. He was accompanied by Ezrah Allen and Henderson Cox. The three were robbed and murdered, supposedly by Digger Indians, who axed, shot and mutilated the scouts with arrows.

By July 1, when the scouting party had not returned, the company began to search for them. The three scouts were found buried at a location between Sly Park and Lake Valley, El Dorado County, California, that became known as "Tragedy Spring." The grave site is located in the U.S. Forest Service Tragedy Spring picnic ground west of Silver Lake. It is situated on a hillside near the entrance to the picnic site. The grave is a rock cairn that has been cemented in place with an attached plaque commemorating the loss of three men. The burial site became a Daughters of Utah Pioneers monument in 1967.

• Residence: Davis county, Davis, Utah Territory - 1850