Local history
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History of the AmericasA Remarkable Curiosity
Dispatches from a New York City Journalist's 1873 Railroad Trip
by Jerald T. Milanich
Collected in this volume for the first time are Cummings's portraits of a land and its assortment of characters unlike anything back East. Characters like Pedro Armijo, the New Mexican sheep tycoon who took Denver by storm, and more prominently the Mormon prophet Brigham Young and one of his wives, Ann Eliza Young, who was filing for divorce at the time of Cummings's arrival.Although today he is virtually unknown, during his lifetime Cummings was one of the most famous newspapermen in the United States, in part because of stories like these. Complete with a biographical sketch and historical introduction, A Remarkable Curiosity is an enjoyable read for anybody interested in the American West in the latter half of the nineteenth century.
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Biography: generalEmma Lee
by Juanita Brooks
Now in its eighth printing, Emma Lee is the classic biography of one of John D. Lee's plural wives. Emma experienced the best and worst of polygamy and came as near to the Mountain Meadows Massacre as anyone could without participating firsthand.
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Religion & beliefsHistory Of Louisa Barnes Pratt
The Autobiography of a Mormon Missionary Widow and Pioneer
by ed. S. George Ellsworth
Volume 3, Life Writings of Frontier Women series, ed. Maureen Ursenbach Beecher In her memoir, and 1870s revision of her journal and diary, Louisa Barnes Pratt tells of childhood in Massachusetts and Canada during the War of 1812, and independent career as a teacher and seamstress in New England, and her marriage to the Boston seaman Addison Pratt. Converting to the LDS Church, the Pratts moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, from where Brigham Young sent Addison on the first of the long missions to the Society Islands that would leave Louisa on her own. As a sole available parent, she hauled her children west to Winter Quarters, to Utah in 1848, to California, and, in Addison's wake, to Tahiti in 1850. The Pratts joined the Mormon colony at San Bernardino, California. When in 1858 a federal army's march on Utah led to the colonists' recall, Addision—alienated from the Mormon Church after long absences—chose not to go. Mostly separated thereafter (Addison died in 1872), Louisa settled in Beaver, Utah, where she campaigned for women's rights, contributed to the Woman's Exponent, and depended on her own means, as she had much of her life, until her death in 1880.
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Biography: historical, political & militaryMormon Midwife
The 1846-1888 Diaries of Patty Sessions
by Donna Smart
Volume 2, Life Writings of Frontier Women series, ed. Maureen Ursenbach Beecher Patty Session's 1847 Mormon Trail diary has been widely quoted and excerpted, but her complete diaries chronicling the first decades of Mormon settlement at Salt Lake City have never before been published. They provide a detailed record of early Mormon community life from Illinois to Utah through the eyes of Mormondom's most famous midwife. They also recount her important role in women's social networks and her contributions to community health and Utah's economy, to pioneer education and horticulture. Patty Sessions assisted at the births of humdreds of early Mormons and first-generation Utahns, meticulously recording the events. Shed had an active role in the founding of the Relief Society and health organizations. She spoke in tongues and administered spiritually as well as medically to the ill. Her diaries are a rich resource for early Mormon and Utah history.
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Religion & beliefsMormon Healer & Folk Poet
Mary Susannah Fowler's Life of "Unselfish Usefulness"
by Margaret Brady
Mary Susannah Sumner Fackrell Fowler, 1862-1920, lived in the village of Orderville, Utah, which was named for the Mormon communitarian system practiced there. She married Henry Ammon Fowler in 1880 and moved in 1888 to Huntington, Utah. They had eight children, and Henry took a second wife, becoming a polygamist. Mary was not well known outside her community, but she led a remarkable life of selfless service. Folklorist Margaret Brady, intrigued by a photograph and part of a diary, set out to piece together who Mary Fowler was, using fragmentary materials, including Mary's diary, poetry, and essays; her husband's journals; a grandson's biography of her; records of organizations in which she was active; and oral narratives passed down through descendants. The life Brady reconstructed was shaped by shared values concerning community and by Mary's conviction of the importance of social interconnections. Mary's work as a nurse, healer, and midwife, grounded in traditional medicinal practices, extended her reach widely among her neighbors. She was an active leader in LDS Church and other organizations for women. Her folk poetry, written in culturally accepted forms, allowed her to examine, critique, and celebrate the values of her community. Brady brings to this reconstruction an eclectic, interdisciplinary approach. Drawing on reflexive ethnography, Brady emphasizes her own involvement with her subject and with the multiple discourses that, in combination, give her access to Mary Fowler's identity. She encourages her readers to collaborate in piecing together the meaning of Mary's life, reading her autobiographical texts and others in juxtaposition with Brady's understanding of that life; participating in the construction of Mary Fowler's "self" through her poetry, life writings, and community service, and thereby experiencing the interconnectedness she so prized.
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Local historyThe Mormon Trail
Yesterday and Today
by William Hill
Back in print, this essential reference for readers interested in the Mormon Trail is part history, part resource book, part guide and photographic essay. It includes an historical introduction, a chronology, excerpts from trail diaries, along with maps, over 200 then-and-now photos, and descriptions of major museums and displays along the trail. By the author of previous volumes on the Oregon, California, and Santa Fe trails.
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Local historyCultures In Conflict
A Documentary History of the Mormon War in Illinois
by John Hallwas & Roger Launius
Cultures in Conflict offers students of history an invaluable source of documents regarding the history of the Mormon presence in Illinois. Few local histories are so academically sound. —Illinois Times Hallwas and Launius have compiled and written the most balanced and thorough account yet of the events and circumstances that led to the forced Mormon exodus from Nauvoo following the mini civil war that erupted in Illinois during the 1849s.
