Published in the 1870s, this account of Mormon families and their homes offers historical insight into Mormonism and life in the fledgling communities of the era. Presented as a kind of travelogue through the states of Arizona and Utah, this book recounts the appearance and status of various settlements founded or occupied by adherents of the Latter Day Saint movement known as Mormonism. Life in these areas was vastly different in the 19th century; many families prepared their own food, owning livestock and growing crops near their homes. The lands described are vast and picturesque, and the people were often hardy and tough in the face of everyday adversities. Elizabeth Wood Kane intersperses her observations of the locales with the tenets of Mormonism, including the tendency of early Mormons to practice polygamy. Snippets of dialogue between the residents of these lands constitute short vignettes of everyday life, allowing the reader to picture the existence, concerns and daily routines in the villages. Mormon congregations and meetings, whereby residents discuss matters of God as well as local issues, are likewise recounted.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1874 edition. Excerpt: ... manites, fellow-descendants of Israel, * like themselves, though under a curse, they felt bound to adopt them into their families and treat them like their own children. Therefore, it was a costly purchase that Wah-ker invited them to make; and on this occasion, Decker and his comrades bought what the Indians had brought of other wares, such as dressed skins and ponies and Mexican saddles, but declined the human goods. Wah-ker then produced a shivering little fouryear-old girl, whom he insisted on their buying. He asked an extravagant price, " because he had brought her so far; away from the Santa Clara country." Her "board" could not have cost the hero much, for he used to picket his little captives "to a stake by a rope around their necks," and for days at a time they had literally nothing to eat more than was afforded them by "the run of their teeth" among the undergrowth within the length of their tether. *" Those are the ten tribes, which were carried away prisoners out of their own land in the time of Osea, the king; whom Shalmaneser, the king of Assyria, led away captive And he carried them over the waters, and so came they into another land. They took this counsel among themselves, that they would leave the multitude of the heathen, and go forth into a further country, where never mankind dwelt. That they might there keep their statutes, which they never kept in their own land. Then dwelt they there until the latter time."--II. Esdras, xiii. 40-46. The Mormons were willing to pay a rifle, and even to throw in a blanket to boot, but explained that they honestly had no more goods with them than were left on the trading-ground. On this, Wah-ker became enraged, and seizing the child by her feet, whirled her in the air, dashed...

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1874 Edition.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1874.

Until his death in 1877, Brigham Young guided the religious, economic, and political life of the Mormon community, whose settlements spread throughout the West and provoked a profound political, legal, and even military confrontation with the American nation. Young first met Thomas L. Kane on the plains of western Iowa in 1846. Young came to rely on Kane, 21 years his junior, as his most trusted outside adviser, making Kane the most important non-Mormon in the history of the Church. In return, no one influenced the direction of Kane's life more than Young. The letters exchanged by the two offer crucial insights into Young's personal life and views as well as his actions as a political and religious leader. The Prophet and the Reformer offers a complete reproduction of the surviving letters between the Mormon prophet and the Philadelphia reformer. The correspondence reveals the strategies of the Latter-day Saints in relating to American culture and government during these crucial years when the "Mormon Question" was a major political, cultural, and legal issue. The letters also shed important light on the largely forgotten "Utah War" of 1857-58, triggered when President James Buchanan dispatched a military expedition to ensure federal supremacy in Utah and replace Young with a non-Mormon governor. This annotated collection of their correspondence reveals a great deal about these two remarkable men, while also providing crucial insight into nineteenth-century Mormonism and the historical moment in which the movement developed.