The most interesting single chapter in this collection of letters which appeared originally in the Philadelphia Daily Evening Bulletin is the last, “In Search of a Soldier” (pp. 188–204). Here the editor, who is presently Associate Curator of the National … Continued
The authors are eminently qualified to write on the subject of the handcart migration. A lifetime of research in western history has provided them with the general background for this account, and, as descendants of Utah pioneers and of one … Continued
This interesting book, first published in 1874 in a limited edition, is now made available to a wider audience through the efforts of the Tanner Trust Fund, and the University of Utah Library, under the general editorship of Everett L. Cooley—reprinted as a part of the series on “Utah, the Mormons and the West.” Twelve Mormon Homes meets the series’ stipulations that their publications should “have intellectual appeal as accurate history and . . . emotional interest as good literature” in an admirable way. It presents a valuable historical picture of home and community life in several Utah towns visited by Elizabeth and Thomas Kane in the course of a trip with Brigham Young from Salt Lake City to St. George in December 1872. In addition, it gives important insights into the character and personality of Brigham Young in his declining years, and a view of polygamy through the eyes of a cultured Easterner, who was much opposed to the practice, but sympathetic to those who practiced it—especially the women.
Although Latter-day Saints were instrumental in discovering the California gold that led to the 1849 gold rush, as a people they remained in the Great Basin due to counsel from Brigham Young, who felt raising crops would ultimately bring more wealth than searching for gold. However, Young allowed several young men to be called on gold mining missions for the Church. Their journal entries describe their challenges and their success and their eventual founding of the Hawaiian Mission.
Eleanor McLean and her husband, Hector, first encountered Mormonism in San Francisco. Though Eleanor was interested in joining the Church in 1851, Hector threatened violence if she did; she finally received his written permission and was baptized in 1854.
Later that year, Parley P. Pratt arrived in San Francisco, having been called to preside over the Pacific mission. The Pratts and Eleanor became acquainted when Eleanor helped care for Elizabeth Pratt, and in turn the Pratts helped Eleanor as Hector made her domestic life difficult, which included sending their children to live with Eleanor’s parents in New Orleans.
Eleanor eventually separated from Hector and later married Parley as a plural wife in Salt Lake City. She tried to regain custody of her children from her parents, but Hector managed to entangle them in legal issues and ultimately murdered Parley outside of Van Buren, Arkensas.
The tales of hardship and privation endured by the first Mormon colonists who went to Mexico read like those of frontiersmen everywhere. They spell out most painfully hunger, scant clothing, wretched dwellings (scarcely adequate for beasts), disease without medicine, sickness without doctors, labor unremitting, none of the amenities of civilization. Even the simplest elements of living were sometimes almost nonexistent. This article contains many anecdotes from the daily lives of the Chihuahua colonists, revealing their resilience and perseverance until the Mexican Revolution forced them to abandon their community.
On September 30, 1847, Charles Root Dana, who had been sent on a fund raising mission to the East by Brigham Young, got off the train in Washington, D.C. For the next month he worked diligently in the capital city to enlist support for his fellow Mormons, asking for “Liberal donations commensurate with the suffering circumstances of an afflicted and oppressed people.” If the Washington campaign was a success at least in arousing strong support from prominent individuals, it was largely due to a sympathetic friend Dana met the day after his arrival. This was General Duff Green, the father of Dana’s landlady and a figure of considerable reputation. This article reproduces a letter General Green sent to Dana on November 2, 1847, in an attempt to persuade the Mormons to settle in Santo Domingo. Green’s letter is of particular interest because he casually assumes that the Mormons wanted to become an independent and sovereign nation.
Rummaging through the contents of a rarely disturbed old trunk in her basement, Maxine G. Daynes of the Salt Lake Monument Park First Ward picked up a framed family photograph. Thinking that the gold frame might serve a better purpose, she emptied its contents. When the cardboard backing was removed from the photograph, out fell a neatly folded piece of old paper. Opening it and quickly scanning the four small pages of scrawled handwriting, Sister Daynes discovered it to be an original letter written by Wilford Woodruff, grandfather of her husband, Byron Woodruff Daynes.
Penned in slightly faded brown ink, the letter is a farewell message to Emma Smith Woodruff, a plural wife. Patiently Sister Daynes and other family members deciphered Elder Woodruff ‘s sometimes difficult handwriting, then researched in Church history to discover the threatening circumstances which prompted Elder Woodruff to dash off this hurried goodbye.
Utah pioneers have not been known for their humor, but Keep-A-Pitchinin, one of the West’s first illustrated journals and humor periodicals, testified to a warmer, more human side than had been seen of the Mormons in Utah. Led by publisher and editor George J. Taylor, eldest son of John Taylor, Keep-A-Pitchinin, was written by distinguished men of talent, usually under pseudonyms. The journal’s consistent victim was the Godbeite “New Movement” that had begun to divide members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah. In addition to working against the Godbeite movement, it also served as a humorous relief when emotions ran high about immediate and local concerns, such as polygamy, the U.S. Census, the Danites, and even a Relief Society work project. The Keep-A-Pitchinin was characterized by satire, sarcasm, puns, and “spelling and grammatical gaucherie,” as were popular in nineteenth-century humor. The periodical gleefully satirized the ultimate downfall of the Godbeites, but declined after the demise of the “New Movement” because the journal no longer had a sustaining purpose.
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.
