My Account

Voice from the Dust
19 May 2020

Voice from the Dust

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Darren Parry is the chairman of the Northwest Band Tribal Council of the Shoshone Nation. On January 29, 1863, the U.S. Army attacked and killed 250 to 500 Shoshone people encamped at the Bear River, near present-day Preston, Idaho, in what was later named the Bear River Massacre. Parry tells how the Native American perspective of this history as he learned it from his ancestors has been ignored but deserves to be represented and respected. Part of the cause of the massacre was that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints settled in Shoshone land, consumed scarce resources, and complained to the army when the Shoshone took food. Despite that animosity, many surviving Shoshone joined the Church about ten years later and eventually chose to assimilate into a changing community. Parry shows how we can remember and honor the past but not let a tragic past prevent us from success in the future.

Lot Smith
20 Apr 2020

Lot Smith

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This extensive biography of prominent pioneer and Latter-day Saint Lot Smith was written by mother-daughter team Carmen R. Smith and Talana S. Hooper. Both have had previous interest and experience in writing history: Carmen Smith was awarded the Utah Historical Quarterly Editor’s Choice for her 1978 report on the rediscovery of the Mormon Battalion’s Lost Well, and Talana Hooper has published several family histories and compiled and edited a history of the people of Central, Arizona.

The Mormons and the Donner Party
6 Aug 2019

The Mormons and the Donner Party

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Campbell’s articles informs us that, although there was no direct connection between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Donner Party, it is interesting to note that one of the larger families in the party was LDS, and that other members of the Church were instrumental in obtaining relief for the stranded group, and participated in the first successful rescue attempt, and that members of the returning Mormon Battalion were the first to reach the scene of the disaster and were instructed by General Kearny to bury the remains. Then, too, it should be mentioned that the Donner Party pioneered the route that LDS Pioneers used to enter the valley of the Great Salt Lake.

The Dilemma of a Pernicious Zion
6 Aug 2019

The Dilemma of a Pernicious Zion

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Mormon history and letters are replete with accounts of the conversion and immigration of the faithful to Zion and of their lives of hard but repaying labor settling the desert territories under the strong yet benevolent leadership of the Prophet Brigham Young. Difficulties, though sometimes belittled, were more than compensated for by the spiritual satisfaction gained through contributing to the building of Zion in the last days.

Such accounts glow with religious joy and testimony, and rightly so; for those saints who actually achieved the latter-day vision and followed it with all their hearts enjoyed a reward greater than any but themselves can know. Theirs was a great joy and belonging. But what of those among these early immigrants to Zion who did not catch the eternal vision. For such as these “Zion” brought not peace, but instead, the sword.

Reuben Miller, Recorder of Oliver Cowdery’s Reaffirmations
6 Aug 2019

Reuben Miller, Recorder of Oliver Cowdery’s Reaffirmations

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One of the spectacular events of Latter-day Saint history unfolded as Oliver Cowdery walked into a conference session in progress at Council Bluffs in 1848 and was personally escorted to the stand by his friend Orson Hyde. No one in the group seems to have been more impressed than Reuben Miller, who at the same meeting had made his own public reconciliation with the Church. While Cowdery’s return itself is abundantly attested, no historical source but the Miller account adequately reveals Oliver Cowdery’s public testimony upon his return to the Church.

The Bridge
6 Aug 2019

The Bridge

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This article examines a little-remembered piece of history that connects early members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with Abraham Lincoln. In 1856, the steamboat Effie Afton crashed into a much-contested and newly completed railroad bridge over the Mississippi River. A lawsuit ensued, and Abraham Lincoln, who at the time was one of the premiere lawyers on the frontier, along with Norman Judd and Joseph Knox, defended the bridge owners. This, one of Lincoln’s most celebrated cases, had an impact on immigrating Mormons, for whom railroad bridges made westward travel considerably easier.

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