The Best of the Frontier Guardian

The Frontier Guardian was published in Kanesville, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, from 1849 to 1851. The newspaper was started by Orson Hyde, who used it to maintain contact among the Latter-day Saints and to help keep them focused on their ultimate destination in the West.

However, the Guardian’s content reflected the diverse culture of the region. The paper covered local, national, and international news. Information about the westward trek—mostly to the Salt Lake Valley and to the California gold fields—appeared in every issue, and those who traveled west had various religious affiliations.

The Guardian is a window into this way station for westward emigration, and the newspaper illuminates the religious, social, economic, and political aspects of this frontier community.

The Frontier Guardian connected the Latter-day Saints in Kanesville and recorded their experiences. Including people of all faiths, the newspaper highlights miners, politicians, business owners, and newspaper subscribers, alongside Mormon emigrants, missionaries, and dissidents. Even newlyweds and the deceased emerge from the Guardian’s columns in Black’s annotations, the sum total bringing rich human texture to this period of constant movement.

—Jill Mulvay Derr,
co-editor of Eliza R. Snow: The Complete Poetry