2 Thus Far

I did not know when I left that I should be called to come thus far.

—Phebe Crosby Peck

Mormonism proffered its converts a unique religious experience in comparison with the other accepted religions of the nineteenth century. Though Mormonism grew from the religious environment of the first half of the nineteenth century it was far from typical in its message and movement. When Phebe Peck converted to Mormonism in 1830, she did not expect the consequences of this decision would so drastically change her life. “Thus far” describes the many unexpected changes in her life: the physical movement of The Church of Jesus Christ from New York to Ohio to Missouri and eventually on to Illinois in a short number of years and the doctrinal evolution and progression introduced by Joseph Smith that Phebe would be asked to accept. These elements defined a religion distinctive in the American religious landscape that only those with a deep commitment and abiding faith could accept.

The American Revolution was the impetus for a major democratization of Christianity in America.¹ This democratization permeated all aspects of political and social life and expanded the sphere of those who believed they could think and act ^[17] for themselves. The revolution incited a passion for equality never before thought possible. The centrality of equality gave man hope in the potential of common individuals to perfect themselves and society.² In the realm of religion, it was no longer only those with a theological degree who could offer religion to the populace; the common man inspired by the Spirit could gain ascendancy. By 1820 evangelicals no longer promoted “patient Passivity” but a proactive seeking of God.³ This Christian populism offered to all visions of both individual and collective self-respect and confidence and in turn permanently changed the religious landscape.

The religious cosmology that materialized linked the sacred and the profane and provided a sacred structure of meaning for the whole of society.⁴ Though not all believed in organized religion, this sacred structure motivated Americans to change their society for the better. Politics, society, and the economy were all sacred, as was the human potential to create a perfect society. As a belief in God ruled, many sought out religion undefiled. Many believed in a return to the purity of the church as Christ established. Scores of people formed informal groups and labeled themselves as seekers. Seekers sought out the authority, ordinances, and organization of the church established in New Testament times.⁵ Though initially for many this was an ideal, many believed that their own sect had accomplished the return. Joseph Smith was a product of this atmosphere ^[18] and played a unique role in the expansion of democratic religious thought in America during the nineteenth century.

For women in the nineteenth century, religion was a central part of their life experience. It was not merely a decorative addition to their lives but the encompassing motivation. As American Historian Elizabeth Fox-Genovese explained, “Religion has afforded American women their most important source of strength, purpose, and identity.”⁶ Continuing earlier trends of high percentages of female church membership, in the nineteenth century women made up a majority of churchgoers.⁷ While the religious cosmology of the time affected all in a different manner, women went to church.⁸ Though there was a select group of women preaching throughout the country, in general the role of most women was that of “backbone” of the church.⁹ They were the integral support of the church but invisible in matters of church leadership. Women’s role in leadership was extremely disproportionate to membership in the first half of the nineteenth century. ^[19]

Susan Juster argued that religion provides the context for the transformation of the role of women in nineteenth-century America.¹⁰ The beginnings of a market economy and the dissolution of the apprentice systems fractured the traditional corporate family economy and created major changes in the lives of women. As they began to be separated from their domestic duties, their focus and roles changed.¹¹ Mary Ryan maintained that as the market created the middle class, the primary focus of the family transitioned from that of an authoritative father to a loving mother. Subsequently, the mother’s role gradually transitioned from a focus on household production to the socialization of children.¹² As their household responsibilities changed, they were afforded greater time to focus on things other than temporal subsistence. These changes in the economic and social order caused many to question their identity and purpose as women. Through the development of a market economy, some women and their families reached a higher level of material comfort with greater opportunities, but also a narrower set of roles.¹³ Others became industrial workers and experienced a degree of autonomy never before experienced. Religion, in particular, afforded women an opportunity to establish their identity despite changes in familial, social, and economic relations. ^[20]

The purpose of religion was to instill true faith and provide the path to salvation. Women felt the need for themselves and for their families. Their role as loving mother was to lead their families to church, which would in turn lead them to truth and salvation as they integrated religion into their lives. Women’s historian Nancy Cott points to frequent encounters with death through childbirth and socialization as to the expected female role as the most oft cited reasons behind the centrality of religion in women’s lives.¹⁴ Religious historian Barbara Welter adds to this analysis by identifying a feminization of not only church membership, but theology in the 1800s.¹⁵ Because of the increasing female influence ministers exchanged their Calvinistic god of hellfire and damnation with a more appealing meek and forgiving Christ. The heart prevailed over the head. Cott demonstrates that women were repeatedly taught that Christianity theologically provided them with opportunities to assert themselves and find a community in which they belonged.¹⁶ While men usually found such assertions in profession, women found their own assertion of self in religion. This assertion allowed them to define themselves, find their community, and order their lives and their priorities. No other institution spoke as directly to women and encouraged their allegiance as the church during the first half of the nineteenth century. ^[21]

The women who embraced Mormonism in its first decade sprang from this environment. Martha Bradley’s pioneering research analyzed over two hundred Mormon female conversion narratives to situate Mormon women in this context.¹⁷ She discovered early Mormon women did not come from “the ranks of the unchurched.” Most had been previously converted to Christianity. Closely resembling the writers of the forthcoming letters, the women Bradley examined demonstrated a “preoccupation with matter of the spirit.” She maintained that in these conversion narratives the “language of the heart” mimicked the Protestant move from the intellect to the heart. Moreover, the “stylized and formulaic” language of Mormon conversion narratives followed the same predictable shape as most nineteenth-century conversion narratives. Just as other women, Mormon women found the autonomy of the conversion process empowering. They rejoiced that God would directly reveal personal truth to them.

In the spring of 1820 amidst the excitement of revolutionary religious revival, a fourteen year-old boy in upstate New York had a transcending theophany in response to a simple prayer of faith. Joseph Smith Jr. later told of this visit of God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. In the visit they told him that none of the existing churches held the proper authority of Christ and later it was revealed to Smith that he would restore the church that Christ established during his lifetime. Later when Smith made public his calling, the women introduced in this study believed him because God likewise revealed to them personally that Smith told the truth. They believed that he was called to be a modern-day prophet with authority from God to restore a fullness of the gospel of Christ as revealed anciently. ^[22]

Historians have long debated the appeal of Joseph Smith and Mormonism. As author William Mulder articulated, “It expressed prominent traits and tendencies that were already shaping American society. It was not simply a colorful reflection of the times; it was a dynamic reworking of the diverse elements of American culture.”¹⁸ Leonard Arrington and Davis Bitton identify and develop seven distinctive elements of Mormonism that promulgate its allure: restoration of the true church, biblicism, The Book of Mormon, modern revelation, eschatology, mythic potency, and religious authoritarianism.¹⁹ The Church of Jesus Christ proffered a return of the primitive Christian church, supported its doctrines by biblical texts, introduced a newly translated, ancient American scripture that functioned as tangible evidence that Smith was not a reincarnation of prior restorationist attempts, and new directions from God for his people to further elucidate doctrines previously anciently introduced through scripture and introduce new divine understandings. Mormons were likewise steeped in ardent millennialism and other-worldly pursuits while providing a plausible description of man’s relationship to God from the beginning of time. In addition to the importance of these former elements, Mario DePillis grounded the perceived necessity of the last element of divine authority and certainty. American historian, Nathan Hatch, described this attraction:

The fact that there were so many religious voices was very bewildering, I think, for the common people. And so there was this deep questioning, what could one believe? And I think that’s where the voice of Joseph Smith did become a very certain trumpet. What he said is that he had a new word from the Lord, a new kind of revelation. Which was certain and ^[23] sure. It was the miraculous intervention in modern times, just as Christ had come in the time of the New Testament. And that made great sense to a lot of people, that amidst this cacophony of voices you had a certain trumpet that offered the reality of the supernatural today.²⁰

Similarly, religious historian Richard Hughes noted:

We find many people in the United States in the early nineteenth century looking for something that went far beyond human reason. They’re looking for spiritual power. And that’s exactly what Joseph Smith brought. . . . He had the word from God. The word from on high. No one else could make that kind of claim.²¹

DePillis asserted, for Mormons “only the restored Priesthood could save a torn and divided Christianity.”²² Smith’s “certain trumpet” initially attracted scores of converts and then, through the work of missionaries sent out by him, converts by the thousands.

Trusting in Smith’s “more sure word of prophecy” meant more than church attendance and membership in church aid societies. It meant giving all to follow God’s chosen, Smith, whether he introduced new doctrine or announced a new place of gathering.²³ Though all could not accept all doctrine, those who remained faithful were drawn to Smith and his Church by the idea of his divinely appointed authority and his divine mission to introduce a fullness of God’s doctrine.²⁴ Conversely the majority of ^[24] those who persecuted Smith, whether nonbelievers or one-time believers, often persecuted him because of the doctrines he introduced.²⁵

Those who gathered in a New York farmhouse in April 1830 to organize the Church of Christ believed that Smith was a prophet, that the Book of Mormon was a historic record of the ancient inhabitants of the Americas, and the Church was the same church that Christ originally established. They did not believe that Joseph had already received the complete word of God, but as a prophet he would continue to learn as revelation taught “line upon line and precept upon precept.”²⁶ The next ten years would bring a whirlwind of transitions for the small group of believers.

Missionaries would proclaim Smith’s message throughout New York, New England, and the frontier.²⁷ Soon the members on the frontier in Ohio outnumbered those in New York.²⁸ Within six months the persecution in Palmyra, Colesville, and Fayette, ^[25] New York, reached an apex, and Joseph received a revelation from God directing them to remove from New York to a new Church headquarters in Kirtland, Ohio.

Amidst a population surge in Kirtland, the Church began to flourish. Smith taught the people that once they believed, they should then gather together with the other Saints. Kirtland became the first place of gathering and the number of Saints eventually surpassed the number of other residents in the town and the vicinity.²⁹ Even those who were not able to gather wished to be with the main body of the Saints to profit from the brother and sisterhood there. Nancy Richards Pierson, a married sister of several church members, lamented to her sister, “Were I a single person, as you are, [I] think I should have seen Kirtland before now.”³⁰ Nancy’s sister Rhoda likewise revealed to her brother Levi, “I long to be numbered one among you. Is there not a spot of earthe a little spot near you that I can have? When I see the shanties around Sister N., house I think how desirable one would be in Zion to a palace here.”³¹ Once in Kirtland, the Saints enjoyed solidarity. Shortly after her move to Kirtland, Sally Parker penned to those left behind, “I long to see you all fer [for I] cant disscribe my felings altho I am contented. I niver have wish my self back. for I think it is the will of the lord wee should com to this place.”³²

In Kirtland the church population expanded as did new doctrine. Sixty-five canonized revelations elaborated and enlarged the principles and policies of the new ^[26] Church.³³ The Word of Wisdom—a health code—the creation of a first presidency, a cooperative economic program known as the law of consecration, and many other important doctrines were revealed during the Saints’ time in Ohio.³⁴ The Saints were consistently tutored through revelation to increase their knowledge. Through Smith the Saints learned that “the glory of God is intelligence” and to put the principle into practice.³⁵ Schools of various types were established by the Saints in Kirtland. The School of Prophets and the School of the Elders initially prepared missionaries to teach doctrine and then expanded to include theological subjects. Despite the poverty of the Saints, a variety of other classes taught a wide spectrum of subjects to educate the Saints in their pursuit of intelligence: a “select school” for young ladies was taught by Eliza R. Snow, several schools teaching elementary subjects, the Kirtland School (similar to the first high school in the United States), a Hebrew course, and several other specialized classes.^{36 [27]}

With the great influx of members and doctrines, all would not remain devout. Some were quickly disillusioned because Smith or the Church did not meet their preconceived idea of what a prophet or a church should be. Some left the Church because Smith played with children after receiving revelations, because of a misspelled name in a revelation, or because someone’s horse died on a trip to Missouri. One left because he walked all the way to Missouri as a missionary, and he did not receive the gift of tongues after his arrival. Some of these who left the Saints began to cause difficulties for the Church through the print media and word of mouth.³⁷ Their efforts and those detractors outside the Church combined to cause rumors and the threat of violence.³⁸

While the majority of the persecution in Ohio was verbal or in print, rumors caused action more than once. On an early Saturday morning in March 1832, Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon were dragged from their beds by an irate mob and then beaten, tarred, and feathered. The principal cause of the mobbing was the introduction of doctrines included in the vision recorded in section 76 of the Doctrine and Covenants.^{39 [28]} Another was a rumor that several families of the mobbers were to follow Smith to Missouri, and in several cases women planned to permanently leave their husbands.⁴⁰

Earlier in 1831 a small group of Saints who had originally removed from persecutions in Colesville, New York, to Thompson, Ohio, moved on to Jackson County, Missouri. Jackson County was declared through revelation to be the center place of Zion. Joseph Smith declared that there the Lord would establish his people.⁴¹ Although new converts among the Missourians were few, the Saints were joined by missionaries, members, and other new converts from Ohio. By 1833 the Saints made up one-third of the county’s population.

The Saints did not meld into Jackson County society. The Mormons were mostly from New England, and they were quite distinct in their appearance and actions. Almira Mack Scobey Covey, an 1830 convert and author of two letters included in this study, provides a description:

When I speak of the Missourians I mean the old Inhabitants which are mostly southern people, and their living is mostly bacon and dodgers; perhaps you may be as ignorant about the dodgers as I was, but I will tell you what they are. They are a sort of Johnny cake made of corn meal, this They eat in prefferance to wheat which makes it much better for our eastern people which like wheat best.^{42 [29]}

The differences extended further than eating preferences. The Mormons believed through revelation that Jackson County was Zion and that the Lord would grant them those lands. They were not particularly diplomatic in their relations with the non-Mormons and kept to themselves both politically and economically. They were a burgeoning political power, and the long-time citizens of Jackson County grew restless.⁴³ Some of the leading citizens united against the Mormons and in July 1833 called for their removal from the county. When the Mormons would not accept their threats, a mob formed and moved to the Saints’ print shop in Independence. They thrashed the press, spread type across the streets, scattered and burned the revelations that were in the process of being printed, and tarred and feathered Bishop Edward Partridge and member Charles Allen in the public square.⁴⁴ Skirmishes between the Saints and the settlers continued over the next several months, and by the first of November the attacks reached a nadir, and the beleaguered Saints could no longer struggle. They deserted their homes and sought refuge across the river in Clay County.⁴⁵

Once expelled, the Mormons worked to rectify the situation through the courts. The governor, Daniel Dunklin, responded that he could restore them to their properties, but once restored he could not promise protection. The Saints did not believe that they ^[30] could maintain themselves and their lands without additional help. Although a contingent of over two hundred from Kirtland led by Joseph Smith came to “redeem Zion,” at the end of their nine-hundred-mile trek, Smith received a revelation which prohibited them from fighting to win back the lands of the Saints. Most of the expedition, called Zion’s Camp, returned to Kirtland to continue the work of the Saints there.

In late 1832 and early 1833, even as troubles persisted in Missouri, Smith received a revelation commanding the Saints to build a temple “unto the Lord” in Kirtland.⁴⁶ Though their numbers were few and they were impoverished, they expected to move ahead. Polly Johnson Angell, an 1833 convert, remembered Smith teaching the women as they aided the completion of the Kirtland Temple, “Well, sisters, you are always on hand. The sisters are always first and foremost in all good works. Mary was first at the resurrection; and the sisters are now the first to work on the inside of the temple.”⁴⁷ By March of 1836 the temple was prepared for dedication. In total, the impoverished Saints contributed between forty and sixty thousand dollars and innumerable hours to finish the structure.

Prior to the Saints’ removal to Kirtland the Lord promised them through revelation that they would be “endowed with power from on high.”⁴⁸ The Saints overextended themselves building the temple and believed that in return they would ^[31] receive a surge of blessings and knowledge from God. The months preceding and immediately following the Kirtland Temple was known as a “season of Pentecost” to the Latter-day Saints. Visions, the presence of angels, speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, and prophesying were all common. Lorenzo Snow, a later Church president and brother to Eliza R. Snow—one of the women of this study—noted that the Spirit was poured out in “copious effusion.”⁴⁹ Lovina Fairchild Wilson, an 1836 convert and included in this project, wrote, on 5 April 1836:

I had feast to the Lord and it was a blessed meeting—we had prophesying, speaking with tongues, interpretation of tongues to the astonishment of many present. I can only hint at [the] grandure and sublimity of the scene. Suffice it to say the blessings of the Lord was there in very deed.⁵⁰

Despite the spiritual outpouring after the temple dedication, within a year Kirtland was a very different place. In the summer of 1837, several of Smith’s closest associates met to declare him a fallen prophet. The group included David Whitmer, John Whitmer, and Warren Parish. These members had many philosophical disagreements with Smith and decided that they must preserve the Church as it was originally introduced. Though many problems made themselves manifest, two in particular promulgated the most unrest. Generally the failure of the Kirtland Safety Society and Anti-banking Company (a joint-stock company that Smith and Rigdon began in order to release some of the Church’s assets and promote a cash flow essential to continued growth) in conjunction with the national economic panic of 1837 and extreme inflation in Kirtland were cited as ^[32] primary reasons for the problems.⁵¹ While the bank did fail, the leading apostates were not among the greatest investors in the Society, disallowing a purely economic motive for their apostasy. A more comprehensive explanation yields its own irony. The same democratic impulse that prepared Joseph Smith to be accepted and even sought after as a prophet remained with many of the Protestant converts. However, his opponents believed that the Church was becoming too rigid in its hierarchical organization. In contrast, they believed that the Church establishment should remain open and democratic.⁵²

In the next year, 10 to 15 percent of Church membership left.⁵³ Kirtland was soon a place of sadness for the faithful followers of Smith. Sally Parker demonstrated her shock in the betrayal of many of the leaders. In reference to John Boynton, one of the leading apostate apostles, she explained, “He appeared to be a man of God and now he is turned like a Dog to his vomit.”⁵⁴ As Hepzibah Richards bemoaned to her brother William, “At present people are more composed; but the voice to this people, or to the honest in heart is, ‘Get ye out of this place’—and multitudes are preparing to flee. Some ^[33] are going almost without any preparation.”⁵⁵ In another letter just after leaving Kirtland, Hepzibah described her comfort in leaving the “dismal den”:⁵⁶

I care not how soon I am away from this place. I have been wading in a sea of tribulation ever since I came here. For the last three months we people have been tempest tost; and at times the waves have well nigh overwhelmed us; but we believe there will yet be a way of escape. . . . A dreadful spirit reigns in the breasts of those who are opposed to this Church. They are above law and beneath whatever is laudable. Their leading object seems to be to get all the property of the Church for little or nothing, and drive them out of the place. The house of our nearest neighbor has been entered by a mob and ransacked from top to bottom under pretence of finding goods which it is thought they had stolen themselves. An attempt has since been made to set the same house on fire while the family was sleeping in bed. We suffer from fear but we hope these days of suffering will not always last. For myself I have been less unhappy through all these disquieting scenes than I was last summer. Then I carried a steady burden which seemed almost to heavy to be borne.⁵⁷

Amidst a fog of persecution, in January 1839 Smith and Rigdon hurriedly left Kirtland for Missouri.⁵⁸ The main body of Saints left with a group they called Kirtland Camp, but Missouri would not be the respite Smith envisioned. Many of the dissenters also removed themselves from Kirtland and followed the Saints to Far West, Missouri. Meanwhile there were problems in Missouri prior to Smith’s arrival. The members of the Missouri presidency of the Church were rejected for misuse of Church funds and selling ^[34] off the lands in Jackson County when the Lord had dictated otherwise.⁵⁹ Other prominent leaders also became disillusioned, including Oliver Cowdery. It was not enough for the dissenters to leave the Church; they wanted to disillusion the rest along with them. Desdemona Wadsworth Fullmer described her continued commitment and the mocking of it by some of those who had left,

Olover Coddery <Cowdery> with others would say to me are you such a fool as still to goo to here Joseph the fallen prophit. I said the Lord convinced me that he was a true prophit. and he has not toled me that he is fallon yet.⁶⁰

In December of 1836, Alexander Doniphan, the state representative from Clay County, proposed the creation of a large northern county for the Mormons. Many Mormons had already begun to settle in Ray County, and through Doniphan’s proposal the legislature created Caldwell and Daviess counties primarily for the settlement of the Mormons. There were two major Mormon settlements in northern Missouri, Far West and Adam-ondi-Ahman, surrounded by a number of other settlements.⁶¹ Far West was the headquarters, and it quickly flourished.

Though the Saints felt confident in their new settlements, the same incendiary issues that caused the expulsion of the Saints from Jackson County again incited the Missourians against the Mormons. In the late summer and fall of 1838 the fires of open hostility ignited. On 27 October 1838 Missouri Governor Lilburn W. Boggs issued an ^[35] order calling that Mormons be “exterminated or driven from the state.”⁶² In the record of their Missouri experience the Saints described being hunted, mobbed, beaten, jailed, women raped, and their possessions stolen.⁶³

Several of the letters included in this study tell of women’s experiences as they lived in Missouri. On the whole it was a very dark period for the Mormons. Just after the Saints were expelled from Missouri, Smith admonished them to gather “up a knowledge of all the facts, and sufferings and abuses put upon them” and to utilize the record to seek redress through the courts.⁶⁴ The Saints complied with this mandate and appealed to Congress several times. Because of this, the record of the persecutions of the Saints in Missouri is compellingly recorded.⁶⁵

None of the women included here filed specific redress petitions themselves, though several were included in the general scroll petition. But their descriptions of their Missouri experience augment the story of the multitude of Saints who did not file petitions. In total between eight and ten thousand Mormons fled from Missouri in the ^[36] middle of the winter of 1838–1839. Elizabeth Haven Barlow, an 1838 convert, lamented the Missouri experience in a letter to her sister-in-law:

O how Zion mourns, her sons have fallen in the streets by the cruel hand of the enemy and her d[a]ughters weep in silence. It is impossible for my pen to tell you of our situation, only those who feel it, knows. Between five and seven thousands men, women and children driven from the places of gathering out of the state from houses and lands in poverty to seek for habitation whose they can find them. we weep when we remember Zion.⁶⁶

Quincy, Adams County, Illinois, was eager to accept the fleeing Mormons, and many settled in Quincy and the surrounding areas secure from their persecutors in Missouri. Apart from altruistic considerations on the part of the citizens of the county, the Saints helped Adams County both politically and economically. After a brief respite, the Saints were patiently regrouped in Adams County, and then the majority moved on to Commerce, Hancock County, Illinois, under the direction of Joseph Smith. Because of the warm reception in Adams County, for many of the Saints this was not only a time to recuperate economically, but emotionally and mentally. Eight of the letters integrated into this study were written by women during this time detailing their experiences during the Missouri troubles and, more important, their own analysis of their beliefs and devotion after experiencing such horrendous ordeals. The last letter incorporated into this project was written in Commerce (Nauvoo) in 1843 by Ann Marsh Abbott as she reflected upon her Missouri experience. The preceding narrative presents the events that shaped the experience of each of the women included here.

In the years following their move to Illinois they again began to build their own stronghold where they could be in peace. But once again the peace was short lived. The Saints moved to swampy Commerce, renamed it Nauvoo, and transformed the marsh alongside the ^[37] Mississippi to the largest city in Illinois. Nauvoo meant “beautiful place” in Hebrew, and the Saints had great hopes for their new settlement. The onslaught against the Saints in Nauvoo was again incited by those who had been the closest of Joseph’s associates. This assault was magnified by a mob element from the citizens of the county, members of the militia, and a governor willing to wash his hands of any action taken. As the aggression exploded, Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were martyred in June of 1844.

The loss of Smith and his brother Hyrum was a terrible shock to the Saints. Their grief was inexpressible. Eliza R. Snow attempted to pen her feelings through verse:

Had nature’s self a heart, her heart would bleed
At the recital of so foul deed
For never, since the Son of God was slain
Has blood so noble flow’d from human vein.⁶⁷

The death of Smith would not end his work. Though several claimed authority to lead after his death, the majority of the Saints believed that the keys had been passed to Brigham Young as President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.⁶⁸ The women included here all supported Brigham Young, and those who lived through the trek across the plains finished their lives in comparative peace in the Salt Lake Valley, the new Zion.^69 [38]