Daughters of Heaven

Links to Posts in Order

2008-01-29T19:13:00.000-08:00

I'm now revising my book, Daughters of Heaven. Below are links to the blog posts if you want to look at the trivia and comments for each chapter in the order the events described in the chapters will be for the final book.

If you would like to read the draft book as its current form, feel free to contact me via my website, megstout.com.

I'd like to express my undying gratitude to the folks who read my book between December 2006 and August 2007. You have been my angels.
________________________________________________________

Foreward: Intro and Symposium Paper
Chapter 01: Crack in the Wall
Chapter 02: The Kitchen Chamber
Chapter 03: Returning Home
Chapter 04: The Blessing
Chapter 05: Promises
Chapter 06: Brother John
Chapter 08: Letters
Chapter 09 : The World of the Dead
Chapter 10 : Tom Sharp
Chapter 11: Forgiveness, arrest, and tea
Chapter 12: Blood and Water
Chapter 13: Harcourt Manning
Chapter 14: Gustin
Chapter 15: Relief Society
Chapter 16: Proposal
Chapter 17 : Expulsion
Chapter 18: Eliza
Chapter 19: The Gems of Peru
Chapter 20: An Everlasting Chain
Chapter 22: The Test
Chapter 23: The Kiss
Chapter 24: Hell and Damnation
Chapter 25: Death and Rage
Chapter 26: Lucinda
Chapter 27: The Handshake
Chapter 28: Missionaries
Chapter 29: Revelation
Chapter 30: High Council
Chapter 31: Nonsense
Chapter 32: Invitation
Chapter 33: The Virgin
Chapter 34: Sacrifice
Chapter 34R: Revision
Chapter 35: The Hearth
Chapter 36: Jane
Chapter 37: June in Nauvoo
Chapter 38: Carthage
Chapter 39: The Tree of Life
Chapter 40: Light and Truth
Chapter 41: Proxies
Chapter 42: Birthdays
Chapter 43: Eternity and Time

070928 Facebook, Cutting, WOTF, etc.

2007-09-28T15:47:00.000-07:00

One of the cool and unanticipated outcomes of attending OSC Boot Camp is that I have gained admittance to Codexwriters.com - a private online enclave of published writers. And they are amazingly fun to read. Unfortunately, it really is a private thing, so I can't tell you any of what I've read there. You'll just have to go become a published writer and join it yourself.

But one thing codexwriters does is post a little picture by each comment. And my husband asked if I was on facebook. So I wandered over to my facebook and found a few friends. Facebook is really neat. Don't let those young folks hoard it to themselves.

So I'm playing hooky from writing a story that I plan to submit to Writers of the Future (must be postmarked NLT midnight Sunday (effectively 2300 Saturday)). The world concept occurred to me a few weeks ago, but it took a while for a compelling story to grow on me enough to write. More about WOTF later.

But now to link you to blog happiness - Jake Freivald has performed his literary surgery on one of my pieces - a bit of historical fiction derived from the life of my great grandparents. I figured out the possible tale behind the dates and published story a few months ago. Check it out at:

http://www.freivald.org/~jake/cutting_blog/2007/09/kate-and-david.html

Now of to consume food and give birth to a story.

070901 - LibraryThing (cool...)

2007-09-01T12:10:00.000-07:00

070829 Jonathan's Tale

2007-08-29T11:04:00.000-07:00

Wow - Boot camp was a great experience.

Fortunately, unfortunately, I will be choosing to take advantage of what I learned by rewriting everything that has happened so far. For most folks, that means they will want to just bow out until I'm finally done, for crying out loud. But for the few, the perserverent, I will continue to maintain this blog.

Two big changes are:

1) I will be telling part of the story from Jonathan's point of view. This will be interesting because I have realized that both Jonathan and Marietta were in a unique position relative to earlier church events. In fact, a future book or novella I plan to write covers their story during 1834-1837.

2) I will be starting this novel from the day Marietta gives birth to her daughter, Mary.

One of the big things folks at the OSC Writers Worshop online focus on is the opening of a story. You want the first 13 lines to leave the reader eager to know more. Orson Scott Card was kind enough to help me work the beginning of my stuff - I'm adding the process here for posterity to know what OSC spared them.

Meg's Book - Chapter 33 - The Vision

2007-07-22T20:41:00.001-07:00

Trivia - An established author with whom I will be attending a writing workshop (Aug 2007) shared information on writing a 1000-word synopsis of one's novel, describing the crisis and climax of the tale.

That's how I realized that the events in the chapter titled "The Virgin" were the climax of the first part of the book (Elvira's story). But I hadn't written it as a climax.

As I transformed the previous chapter to meet the structural needs of my fiction, I felt I needed to add this chapter as well.

The imagery of fire and glass, of Scylla and Charibdis, are present in scripture (Rev 15:2, D&C 130:7) and classical literature.

Meg's Book - Chapter 17 - Expulsion

2007-05-23T20:09:00.001-07:00

Trivia - The appalling thing about my decision to stick with all known historical facts in my fictional tale is that I have been able to go back and insert major events without causing major structural damage to my later narrative.

For those who do not know the fictional from the factual, the basic facts of the major characters in this chapter are true - dates, who leaves, what is published, the search party and the way they found the man they were looking for. Elvira and Jonathan didn't keep journals during this time, so while their part of the story is plausible, I certainly hope they didn't have to live what I put them through in this fiction. But what I imply about JCB is based on documents and affidavits.

Meg's Book - Chapter 12 - Blood and Water

2007-04-30T20:00:00.000-07:00

Trivia - Summer 1841 was an awful time, only to be exceeded by the summer of 1842. Joseph Smith was particularly saddened by the death of his younger brother, Don Carlos. I can't help think that Joseph must have wished that a different man had died of malarial fever...

Meg's Book - Chapter 11 add - Forgiveness, arrest, and tea

2007-04-22T20:14:00.000-07:00

Trivia - The press in Jackson County, Missouri, on which the Book of Commandments was being published was destroyed by a mob. The few books that were able to be created were from the sheets that fifteen-year-old Mary Elizabeth Rollins and her thirteen-year-old sister Caroline saved, grabbing the pages and running from the mob to hide in a nearby cornfield. The scripture I have Joseph quote is well known, but the section number and versification is as printed in the original Book of Commandments rather than what is contained in the Doctrine & Covenants today.

The June 1841 arrest of Joseph Smith appears connected with Tom Sharp's new-found animosity towards the Mormons, particularly given that the arrest occurs only a few miles from Warsaw, in the community where Elvira's sister Louisa lived in real life.

I do not know how it was discovered that Dr. Bennett had been inappropriate with Sarah Pratt, but it was discovered shortly before Orson Pratt's return from England. The use of herbs described is legitimate, although I don't know that Sarah Pratt would have necessarily 'needed' squaw mint. Dr. Bennett's use of chloroform in this chapter predates the first recorded use of chloroform to anaesthetize humans (1847) but is well after the discovery of chloroform (1831), and Dr. Bennett is noted as being a pioneer in the use of chloroform as an anaesthetic.

Chapter 10 - Tom Sharp

2007-04-14T20:27:00.000-07:00

Trivia - Students of Mormon history may recognize Tom Sharp as the editor of the Warsaw Signal, who famously called for violence against Joseph Smith in 1844, writing "Citizens arise, one and all!!! Can you stand by, and suffer such infernal devils! To rob men of their property rights, without avenging them. We have no time for comment! Everyman will make his own. Let it be with powder and ball." Joseph was shot and killed fifteen days later.

But in 1841 Tom was sympathetic to the Mormons. It is not until the 19 May 1841 edition of the Warsaw Signal (four days after the fictional encounter in this chapter) that Sharp first makes any negative comments.

Since Louisa and Wesley lived a few miles from Warsaw, it seems plausible that they knew Tom Sharp. In real history, Louisa and her husband do not end up making the trip out to Utah.

Chapter 9 - The World of the Dead

2007-04-07T10:42:00.000-07:00

Trivia - Many stories we take for granted today did not exist in their current form in 1841. Goldilocks first appears in literature in 1904, for example. And it isn't clear whether Elvira would have known the tales of the Grimm brothers. Yet stories must be told to fill time when small children are about. The myths of Greece and Rome, however, would have been known.

I enjoyed the idea that Hades suffered some punishment for stealing Persephone, although the damnation of never knowing his children is nowhere in classical literature to my knowledge. I got the idea from hearing about the men who serve on ballistic missile submarines. With their on again, off again schedules, it is apparently rare to be present for both a child's conception and his/her birth. They universally agree that they'd rather miss the birth than the conception.

Meg's Book - Chapter 8 add - Letters

2007-03-16T21:26:00.000-07:00

Trivia - For the key letter in this chapter, I convolve the soliloquoy Austin wrote about his deceased wife with the Song of Solomon and a dash of my own past experiences. In real history, John C. Bennett will shortly strike up an adulterous relationship with Sarah Pratt, wife of one of the apostles (Orson Pratt was on a mission at the time).

"Bennett went to a lady in the city and began to teach her that promiscuous intercourse between the sexes was lawful and no harm in it [Jacob Cochran's heresy], and requested the privilege of gratifying his passions;... [when the lady refused] he told her that men in higher standing in the Church than himself not only sanctioned, but practiced the same deeds... By this means he accomplished his designs; he seduced a respectable female with lying, and subjected her to public infamy and disgrace. Not contented with what he had already done, he made the attempt on others, and by using the same language, seduced them also."

Meg's Book - Chapter 6 add - Brother John

2007-03-10T16:24:00.000-08:00

Trivia - We are briefly returning to 1841 to insert some scenes that explain the events leading up to the death of Joseph Smith and the genesis of the virulent hatred of Mormons which is a theme throughout this book. This set of chapters (Brother John and A Virtuous Woman) are the first of at least two installments.

It is not a spoiler to indicate that Dr. John Bennett's behavior prior to his August 1840 baptism was scandalous. Although not the same exact kind of evil, he has pre-conversion evil in common with Saint Paul and (from the Book of Mormon) Alma the Younger and the initial male converts amongst the Anti-Nephi-Lehites.

Meg's Book - Chapter 47 - Civil War

2007-03-07T01:26:00.000-08:00

Trivia - In January 1861 the first shots of the Civil war were fired. Coincidentally, in 1861 the Church had exhausted the ability to purchase new wagons or even handcarts to carry people across the plains. So Brigham came up with the Out-and-Back or Down-and-Back scheme, whereby wagons and teamsters would travel east and pick up Saints wanting to travel west to Salt Lake City.

Meg's Book - Chapter XXXII - Handcarts and Torches

2007-03-03T19:48:00.000-08:00

Trivia - A lot happens in this chapter, but all of it is germane to the core theme of the book (Birth and Death of Mormon Polygamy). As I move away from amazingly well documented events, I am taking some liberties. I don't know that Jonathan and Elvira took in the Wellings and the Beuses, but I do know that the Church leadership took particular care to place the handcart pioneers, and it seems the large stone house would have been seen as a good refuge for some of those pioneers. The background for the Wellings and Beuses is true.

I also don't know when during 1857 Josephine died, let alone how she passed. Nor do I know that Sister Floyd was there. But Widow Floyd is the sort of person who would have been there to help (she became the first Relief Society president in Farmington).

Historical accounts paint a picture of some 30,000 people streaming south to Provo. So I presume that Elvira and her daughters were part of that migration. Given Jonathan's military background, it seems reasonable that he would have been assigned to execute the scorched earth policy, had tensions risen to the point of requiring it.

Meg's Book - Chapter XXXI - Migrations

2007-03-02T20:21:00.000-08:00

Trivia - Mormon settlements in the 1800's were based on 'assignment' rather than personal choice. Brigham Young was the master of this spreading of the Church to fill the intermountain west.

Foreshadowing the next chapter, Brigham was unapologetic that his Deseret was a theocracy. While folks in Washington were wrong to attribute malevolent motives to Brigham's behavior, it is true that Brigham was setting up a large swath of the west loyal to a religion of which he was head, separating the United States from the riches of California and the other ore-rich western states, and making full use of every fertile woman to produce baby Mormons at an appalling rate. It didn't help that there was some verbiage prophesying that one day the constitution of the United States would hang by a thread and Mormons would be there to save the day - a statement that was mere oral history until 1970 and that has been misinterpreted to imply that Mormons planned to overthrow the US government [e.g., in the introduction and much of the text of the anti-Mormon book "One Nation Under Gods" by Richard Abanes [2003]). I don't know that this misinterpretation fueled the decision by the ante-bellum United States to station a plurality of its armed forces in Brigham's territory, but it seems plausible.

Meg's Book - Chapter XXX - John Hendricks

2007-02-28T20:09:00.000-08:00

Trivia - Apparently Brigham would grant divorces relatively easily. But he would always charge the man $5.00 (vaguely equivalent to $2500 in 2007 dollars). One year he was so fed up with the number of folks who were seeking divorces that he declared from the pulpit that anyone who could hear him speak who wished to no longer be married, could consider themselves divorced [source: Michael Quinn speaking at the 1995 DC Sunstone Symposium].

Meg's Book - Chapter XXIX - Of Mice and Men

2007-02-27T19:02:00.000-08:00

Trivia - There are a couple of scenes which I intend to include in the book that you haven't read yet. One of these deals with Melissa Lott becoming one of the wives of Joseph Smith after the events of August 1843. It was only recently that I realized Melissa got to the valley several days before Jonathan, and that Melissa's father was the un-named individual who told Mary Fielding Smith she was unprepared to travel west and would be nothing but a burden on the company. Mary predicted that she would reach the valley before this un-named individual (Cornelius Lott), and by the intervention of God, her prediction came true.

My muse originally objected to me calling the fort "the Old Fort." He was right. It was in researching the fort in response to his objection that I discovered the details about its sod construction, the damage the spring rains did to the structure, and the tales of the rodent infestations, where the movement of the rodents would cause the floors and walls to shake, there were so many of them. In the aftermath of the recent Brood X emergence (of 17-year locusts), Fairfax county experienced a striking increase in the local rodent population. So all the pieces were in place to connect the rodents with the cricket plague of May 1848.

Meg's Book - Chapter XXVIII - The Wagon Trail

2007-02-22T18:10:00.000-08:00

Trivia - Men from the discharged Mormon Battalion were the first to notice gold in the mill race at Sutter's Mill. And during the several months during that initial period of time, Jonathan wrote nothing in his journal...

It is from Jonathan's Mormon Battalion journal that I predominantly formed my image of him as a quiet, simple, good man. That and the description of how his wife mourned his death.

Meg's Book - Chapter XXVII - Salt Lake Valley

2007-02-21T15:41:00.000-08:00

Trivia - This story about the 'nutty meal' is not well known at all. I had heard it as a child, but never read about it anywhere in the histories. It was only years after I decided to write about my female forebears that I finally allowed myself to read Sam Taylor's The Last Pioneer, about John Taylor. And there I found the story of the nutty meal.

This chapter was updated to include more about what Elvira may have experienced and thought as she entered the Salt Lake Valley.

Meg's Book - Chapter XXVI-D - Winter Quarters

2007-02-17T21:40:00.000-08:00

Trivia - The cemetery on the bluff is still there, and the statue "Tragedy at Winter Quarters" stands on the third to fifth graves in the sixth and seventh rows of the old cemetery [http://www.avardfairbanks.com/sacred_works/winterquarters/index.html]. Lucy's grave is located at the foot of the plaque listing the names of those known to be buried in the cemetery.

Hyrum's widow, Mary Fielding, was the only adult amongst Joseph Smith's parents, siblings, and in-laws to leave Nauvoo and join with the Saints in Utah. Her son and grandson would each become Prophet and lead the 'Utah' church. I've portrayed the events of the night Jonathan helped moved the bodies of Hyrum and Joseph as documented by Susa Y. Gates. Except I don't know that Joseph suffered recurring nightmares as a result of what he saw that morning [http://jfs.saintswithouthalos.com/Reprints/sygmoths/03.htm].

Meg's Book - Chapter XXVI-C - Iowa

2007-02-13T03:25:00.000-08:00

Trivia - Brigham Young sent Elder Tom Little to preside over the church in the east and to go to Washington to petition for help. Elder Little was assisted by his friend, 24-year-old John Kane, son of a well-known federal judge and associate of President Polk. They originally proposed the Mormons be granted contracts to build blockhouses and forts along the Oregon trail.

When they arrived at DC, they heard rumors of the war with Mexico. At Kane's urging, Elder Little wrote a letter to Pres. Polk suggesting that, though the Saints were loyal Americans, the government's refusal to assist them could "compel us to be foreigners." Polk knew many of the Saints were in fact British, and was concerned that they would align themselves with British interests in Oregon. Initially President Polk proposed that the five hundred Mormon men march all the way to California before being formally recruited into the Army, but the urgency of the situation changed over the weeks that followed to the point that President Polk was willing to irritate anti-Mormons in Missouri and Illinois by enlisting the Mormons immediately.

Meg's Book - Chapter XXVI-B - Eternity and Time

2007-02-07T07:20:00.001-08:00

Trivia - Once upon a time Mr. Right was engaged to the beautiful daughter of an apostle. But it was during the depression, so Mr. Right made the decision to delay marrying his beloved.

Then one day Mr. Right received a note where his beloved told him she had married another man. But hope lived in Mr. Right's heart, because the husband of his beloved was not a church going man. So, while the beloved had married another, she was not sealed to her husband.

In time Mr. Right married, but his wife died in childbirth. Mr. Right took his daughter to the beloved and begged her to be the mother of his child. But the husband of the beloved advised against it, because the beloved was herself the mother of many children and recovering from a dire illness.

The decades passed and still the beloved lived and still the man she was married to refused to take her to the temple. So hope continued to burn in the heart of Mr. Right. In his old age, Mr. Right knew that he was dying. He bared his soul to the wife of his maturity and told her of his love for his beloved. "If my beloved is willing to marry me, will you free me for time so that I can become her husband?" And the wife of Mr. Right agreed. But when Mr. Right put his proposal to the beloved, he learned that his hope had been vain. For the beloved was unwilling to leave her husband for Mr. Right.

Mr. Right died. And eventually the husband of the beloved died. And one year after their grandfather's death, the grandchildren of the beloved came to her. Grandmother, we want you to be sealed to our grandfather, they said. And so the beloved was sealed to her husband of over 60 years.

The month before the beloved died, her grand-daughter asked the truth about Mr. Right. For the grand-daughter was a nosy so and so who liked to know the truth of things. Thus it was that the grand-daughter obtained the dying testimony of the beloved that Mr. Right's intentions were innocent, merely kind words from an old friend.

Meg's Book - Chapter XXVI-A - Birthdays

2007-02-01T20:00:00.000-08:00

Trivia - Elvira and Jonathan really did receive the endowment in the Nauvoo temple on Dec 23, 1845 - Joseph Smith's birthday. And Widow Bell really did receive her endowment on Dec 25, 1845. I don't know that Elvira knew Widow Bell, though. That's the fun of fiction.

Meg's Book - Chapter XXVII - The Old Fort

2007-01-30T20:05:00.000-08:00

Trivia - I had been told the story of the nutty meal, but had no idea it was a story of one of my ancestors. I thank Sam Taylor for writing that down in his book on John Taylor ('The Last Pioneer', aka 'Militant Mormon'). I also came across a contemporary account from 1850 [http://www.hollowtop.com/finl_html/amerindians.htm] that expands the understanding of what was going on.

Meg's Book - Chapter XXVI - Winter Quarters

2007-01-29T20:49:00.000-08:00

Trivia - You know that phenomenon that happens when you are watching a clip online, then it just stops? Well, this chapter is a bit like that. The good stuff has stopped and you just have a sketchy summary.

My plan had been to entertain you with the good chapters written earlier while I worked on the stuff that hadn't been written yet. But at least one of you (muse mine) persuaded me to spend real time effort, so the chapters after Joseph's death are still somewhat uneven. Some are fully realized, but others are sketchy or not even written yet.

So, do we wait for me to:

a) write the chapters real time, or

b) go ahead and post what I have, attempting to flesh out the bones of the plot before coming back to write it 'right.'

Meg's Book - Chapter XXV - Proxies

2007-01-28T14:19:00.000-08:00

Trivia - I first realized the Nauvoo procedure for proxies while reading Compton's "Sacred Loneliness," although he never explicitly explains the procedure. I had previously wondered what the story was behind Mary Leamon Bell marrying Hezekiah Peck on 4 Feb 1846 (figuring there was a good story because I wanted there to be a good story). Based on the information from Compton, I formed a hypothesis which proved true when I was able to view the film of the original records in Salt Lake City.

Meg's Book - Chapter XXIV - Light and Truth

2007-01-27T20:39:00.000-08:00

Trivia - Today I was searching out the meaning of the name Elvira - I had known what Lucy stood for. Among the various meanings I found were:
- The temple of God
- Blond
- Truth
- Fair
- White
Before the chapter just ended with the baby getting born and them naming her Lucy Elvira.

Meg's Book - Chapter XXIII - The Tree of Life

2007-01-26T19:36:00.000-08:00

Trivia - In November 1844, Emma had a baby boy who she named David Hyrum. Eliza Snow wrote a poem in honor of David, mourning that the child would never know his father. And Emma really did ask Jonathan and three of Joseph's other pallbearers to do her a favor and move/fix her bee house sometime during the fall/winter of 1843. And Elvira will have a child in October 1845.

Meg's Book - Chapter XXII - Carthage

2007-01-26T04:00:00.000-08:00

Trivia - The grief of many of Joseph's widows is documented - either by themselves or by others. Unfortunately (or fortunately for my creative license) Elvira's actions and reactions are not documented. The frame in which this chapter takes place is factual. For example, I don't know if Elvira had a nightmare about Joseph's body being dragged through the streets, but Jonathan was one of Joseph's pallbearers and helped bury Joseph and Hyrum in an alternate location expressly to avoid any possibility of vandalism. Emma's weeping and cries on entering to view her husband's body and Mary Fielding Smith's silence are also documented, except it is not documented that Emma apologized.

Meg's Book - Chapter XXI - June in Nauvoo

2007-01-24T20:09:00.000-08:00

Trivia - All dates and events and quotes in this chapter are straight from the history books. In this version I allude to earlier events that I will probably write up as full chapters later, but I hope I've given you enough to infer what has happened (particularly with Thomas Sharp). I also intend to expand the last chapter to include a conversation between Elvira and Joseph about what it would have meant if Jane had been willing to be sealed to Joseph and Emma as a daughter (or to Joseph as a plural wife).

Meg's Book - Chapter XX - Jane

2007-01-19T18:41:00.000-08:00

Trivia - Joseph Smith did not indicate that there was any bar against the blacks. In fact, he ordained one black man to be an elder in the church, bestowing on him the Melchizedek Priesthood. And Emma did ask Jane Manning (James) to become sealed to Joseph and herself as a daughter. The possibility that Emma intended something more than adoption as a daughter is my fiction. If Jane had been known to be adopted as Joseph's daughter or sealed to him as a wife, it seems possible that the priesthood ban would not have occurred. As it was, a significant part of the fear some harbored against Mormons was due to their block voting and abolitionist tendencies. Almost twenty years before the Civil War, Joseph suggested as part of his candidacy for President of the United States (he wouldn't have expected to win, merely to inject ideas into the national debate) that the Union raise funds to purchase the freedom of southern slaves, contending that this would be less costly than the Civil War, which he anticipated ten years earllier on December 25, 1832, prophesying "wars...will shortly come to pass, beginning at the rebellion of South Carolina, which will eventually terminate in the death and misery of many souls...behold, the Southern States shall be divided against the Northern States... slaves shall rise up against their masters, who shall be marshaled and disciplined for war..." On April 10, 1861, Brig. Gen. Beauregard, in command of the provisional Confederate forces at Charleston, South Carolina, demanded the surrender of the Union garrison of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. Garrison commander Anderson refused. On April 12, Confederate batteries opened fire on the fort, which was unable to reply effectively. At 2:30 p.m., April 13, Major Anderson surrendered Fort Sumter, evacuating the garrison on the following day. The bombardment of Fort Sumter was the opening engagement of the American Civil War.

Meg's Book - Chapter 25Z - Revision

2007-01-18T02:42:00.000-08:00

Trivia - Todd Compton (author of Sacred Loneliness) originally didn't think Elvira and Joseph had consummated their sealing, as I recall from my e-mail correspondence with him. Then I pointed out the record left by Elvira's daughter, Phoebe, which I've referred to here several times. I understand Compton now thinks Elvira was intimate with Joseph.

Didn't know I was so persuasive...

Meg's Book - Chapter 26 - The Hearth

2007-01-16T20:08:00.000-08:00

Trivia - One of the literary structures found in the Bible (and most of the Book of Mormon) is chiasmus - where there is a list of things stated and then is repeated in reverse order. I can't claim to be formally injecting chiasmus into the book, but there are a number of places where earlier events resonate with later events. This chapter allows me to inject three such events - the kiss on the fingers, the sleeping on the floor, and failing to love fully enough. It also gave me the chance to let Jonathan overtly mourn for Marietta and to let Elvira fully realize her culpability in the torment Jonathan has been experiencing.

Meg's Book - Chapter 25 - Sacrifice

2007-01-15T12:17:00.000-08:00

Trivia - The Scovill bakery really existed, and when you visit Nauvoo today, they pass out cookies when you tour the bakery.

Meg's Book - Chapter 24 - The Virgin

2007-01-15T08:30:00.000-08:00

Trivia - The Veggietales version of the story of David and Bathsheba is great. It's called "King George and the Ducky." I highly recommend it.

Meg's Book - Chapter 23 - Invitation

2007-01-13T15:06:00.000-08:00

Trivia - Hyrum Smith read the revelation on the New and Everlasting Covenant to the Nauvoo Stake High Council exactly one month (8/12) after it was received (7/12/1843).

Meg's Book - Chapter 22 - Nonsense

2007-01-10T20:09:00.000-08:00

Trivia - I had the chance to discuss what starts to happen in this chapter with my Mom, who is visiting, before actually writing it. She was hesitant until I explained that Elvira's daughter wrote that her mother testified to the broad situation dealt within in this chapter. She wrote about it in the 1930's, but the daughter was considering marriage (~17) when she would have heard Elvira testify to this. It is also entirely consistent with the family stories.

For a fun true ghost story, check out http://forums.fox.com/foxsytycd/messages?msg=11865.5210. Gemm14 is my mother (I am Pearl_Mama - the mother of the oldest of my mother's grandchildren, or 'gems').

Meg's Book - Chapter 29 - High Council

2007-01-09T19:55:00.000-08:00

Trivia - At this time in the history of the Church, the Nauvoo Stake Presidency and High Council were considered more important that the apostles.

Meg's Book - Chapter 28 - Revelation

2007-01-08T16:24:00.000-08:00

Trivia - When I was going through expanding certain sections of the book, I came across D&C 132:51. Now, I'm sure that verse was in my scriptures when they were printed, and I'm sure I've read D&C 132 many times. But it had never hit me what that verse meant in the context of the events that had occurred by July 1843.

Meg's Book - Chapter 27 - Missionaries

2007-01-06T22:20:00.000-08:00

Trivia - I had no idea this event had occurred when I started writing the book in November 2006. I had no idea the dinner at Nauvoo with Reynolds and Wilson had occurred when I wrote the story about the crack in the wall.

Meg's Book - Chapter 26 - The Handshake

2007-01-04T20:21:00.000-08:00

Trivia - The oral history indicated Elvira had been Joseph's wife first and only became Jonathan's wife after Joseph's death. But the public ceremony linking Jonathan with Elvira occurred 1 Dec 1842. Worse, the affidavit Elvira swore out about her sealing to Joseph gives a date in summer 1843. I tried to find a set of circumstances that fit these facts and was unable until I learned that Emma was sealed to Joseph just days prior to the date of Elvira's sealing to Joseph. This was the key to understanding what reason could lead to the late date of the sealing to Joseph (i.e., following marriage to Jonathan and lagging the sealings of other women (e.g., Eliza, Sis. Cleveland, Sarah Whitney) by almost a year).

Meg's Book - Chapter 25 - Lucinda

2007-01-03T06:47:00.000-08:00

Trivia - Lucinda is a variation of Lucy, which means "Light." It is also the name of the Roman goddess of childbirth.

Meg's Book - Chapter 24 - Death and Rage

2007-01-02T14:13:00.000-08:00

Trivia - Eliza Snow wrote in her journal on 11 Feb 1843:

"Took board and had my lodging removed to the residence of br. Holmes."

Meg's Book - Chapter 23 - Hell and Damnation

2007-01-01T09:16:00.000-08:00

Trivia - I've not introduced any actual characters in this book who were not real people. As much as possible, even when I have made things up, I live withing the constraints of the documented universe.

Meg's Book - Chapter 22 - The Kiss

2006-12-31T08:44:00.000-08:00

Trivia - During early December 1842 a merchant traveled from Quincy, Illinois, to Nauvoo to investigate the prophet Joseph. Joseph spent the entire day talking with the man, who agreed to be baptized that very day. Joseph went out and hacked a hole in the ice covering the Mississippi River near his home and the man (Joseph Leland Heywood) was baptized by Orson Hyde. Check out the bottom of p. 42 of the Aug 2006 Ensign [http://tinyurl.com/ykbeqs] (Couldn't think of any other trivia that wasn't a spoiler).

Meg's Book - Chapter 21 - The Test

2006-12-30T11:21:00.000-08:00

Trivia - I was going to include something in this chapter about the death of Leonora's youngest child based on what is said in Sam Taylor's book about John Taylor (The Last Pioneer). But Leonora's child doesn't die until Sep 1843 - almost a year after the events depicted in this chapter.

Meg's Book - Chapter 20 - An Everlasting Chain

2006-12-29T14:14:00.002-08:00

Trivia - The poem in this chapter was written by Eliza in her journal on 18 September. Todd Compton presumes this poem is in honor of Elvira's engagement to Jonathan. From the imagery in the poem and the "mutual vows" language, I think my interpretation is also valid.

Meg's Book - Chapter 19 - The Gems of Peru

2006-12-29T14:14:00.001-08:00

Trivia - The poem described in this chapter was actually written by Eliza Snow and published in the newspaper one day before Eliza left Sarah Cleveland's home. Elvira really was the one Emma sent to invite Eliza to live at the homestead. And Oliver Snow did invite his daughter to come live with him at Walnut Grove.

Meg's Book - Chapter 18 - Eliza

2006-12-27T06:41:00.000-08:00

Trivia - Eliza provided an affidavit in later years that she was 'sealed' or married in late June 1842. By mid-August, then, she could have been in the early stages of pregnancy as described here.

Meg's Book - Chapter 16 - Proposal

2006-12-27T06:39:00.000-08:00

Trivia - Sarah Holmes wrote about running to warn Joseph Smith about strangers. And Joseph would do just what I've described here.
A huge amount is known about the women who Joseph approached about joining with him in the New and Everlasting Covenant. And yet that is still so little that we must interpolate what really happened. There was a Gustin who writes to Joseph in November 1842 sending his particular regards to Elvira, and Dr. Bennett was suspicious of Joseph's activities, even if there is no proof he was himself in love with Elvira.

Meg's Book - Chapter 15 - Relief Society

2006-12-27T06:36:00.000-08:00

Trivia - Emma Smith had her next child approximately 9 1/2 months after the formation of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo.

Meg's Book - Chapter 14 - Gustin

2006-12-25T21:03:00.000-08:00

Trivia - We know there was a Gustin Books who knew Elvira and wrote to Joseph Smith asking to be particularly remembered to Elvira.

Meg's Book - Chapter 13 - Harcourt Manning

2006-12-24T21:34:00.000-08:00

Trivia - Harcourt is a French name meaning "fortified farm." Manning means "Son of Man," which is one of the names of the Messiah. I only learned this a couple of days ago - when I wrote this chapter, I just pulled the name out of thin air. The story Elvira tells in this chapter is a variation of a tale my mother used to tell us. When I was a girl the story was staged as a "Road Show" where the Egyptian nurse sings to the princess:

Just you listen, Nefreyet,
So you never will forget.
There is but one choice in life.
You must either be an old maid or... a wife!

Once I too was young and fair,
I wore ribbons in my hair...
I refused to be a bride.
Now there's no one at my side.
There're no children in my arms.
I've forgotten all my charms.

Won't you listen, Nefreyet...

Meg's Book - Chapter 5 - Promises

2006-12-23T08:23:00.000-08:00

Trivia - During a Jewish passover seder, an extra place is set for Elijah. At a certain point in the seder, the youngest child is sent to the door to see if Elijah is there. Passover is understood by christians to be a foreshadowing of Christ's sacrifice and atonement, which christians celebrate on Easter. The date (April 3, 1836) on which Joseph Smith said Elijah restored the power to bind families together occurred on Easter. (http://www.carnaval.com/easter/)

Meg's Book - Chapter 4 - The Blessing

2006-12-22T14:56:00.000-08:00

Trivia - The blessing described in this chapter really happened. However, I have no idea who looked at whom and what people may have thought. Most of the other blessings described in this book are fiction.

Meg's Book - Chapter 3 - Returning Home

2006-12-21T20:53:00.000-08:00

Trivia - Austin Cowles was devastated when Elvira's mother died. He wrote a soliloquoy in 1826 shortly after the death of his wife:

"I remember the hour when she consented to be mine... that tender scene when our affections were known to be reciprocal... then did we each wish ourselves the first victim to the stroke of death rather than survive and wail each other's loss... [When I sleep] my Love appears to bathe my grief and to comfort me. She appears as she was and my sorrow is turned to joy. I forget that I am wretched... and all is well. But when sleep is departed... my tears burst forth again. I rise and fall on my knees and look towards him that smote me..."

Meg's Book - Chapter 2 - The Kitchen Chamber

2006-12-21T20:24:00.000-08:00

Trivia - When I first wrote this chapter, I didn't realize that Emma had a two-month old baby herself, so was available as a wet nurse for little Mary. This gave me the opportunity to go back and edit these scenes to make sense with Emma nursing.

Meg's Book - Chapter 1 - Crack in the Wall

2006-12-21T18:36:00.000-08:00

Trivia - I started writing this book on November 1, 2006, as part of National Novel Writing Month (www.nanowrimo.org). By the first page I realized that I was going to have to make up a lot more than I had ever imagined when the book was just living in my head or in various web postings. The story Elvira tells the children is in part due to the fact that Elvira was known for her stories, but mostly was part of a desperate attempt to meet 50,000 words by the end of November.

Meg's Book - Foreward - Intro and Symposium Paper

2006-12-21T18:26:00.000-08:00

Trivia - I had written and presented this paper in 1995. During early November 2006 a conversation reminded me of the paper. I thought of including the paper at the end of the book, after the "About the Author" blurb. My rationale was that it would help people understand the book if they knew who I was. And this paper reflects timestamped real-time reactions on my part to a relatively stressful situation.

The crapshoot

2006-09-21T11:31:00.000-07:00

I went to Peter K's farewell luncheon today - Peter has been the deputy program manager in IWS5 and is leaving to work in the National Security Personnel System (NSPS).

I presented Peter a mini-submarine made from short-bread cookies 'welded' together with white chocolate and filled with peanut M&M candy. It was fun, and I think his kids will really appreciate it. It's vaguely immoral to take delight in destroying actual submarines, but it is acceptable to take delight in destroying (and consuming) cookie submarines.

I have been thinking of putting in for Peter's former position and was given the chance to provide CAPT R a quick summary of my past. He seemed delighted and strongly encouraged me to try for it. Without knowing what the competition is, he can make no guarantees, but at least I am confident that he'll end up with a great deputy, even if it isn't me.

Sealings by proxy

2005-10-11T06:11:00.000-07:00

This is text of an e-mail I wrote to a correspondent that lays out in brief my thoughts about Elvira and how her interaction with Joseph may have been the catalyst for the sealings of spouses across time.
_________________________

FWIW, given that you do have attitudes on the subject (versus ladies who somehow have not realized it ever happened), I thought you'd be interested in Elvira Annie Cowles.

Compton has a whole chapter on Elvira in his "In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith." She was Relief Society treasurer and the nanny to the Smith household in Nauvoo. Compton chose to ignore the family histories (that she was Joseph's wife and only became Jonathan's wife after Joseph's death) because there was not contemporary documentation and they conflicted with documented fact (that Joseph performed the civil marriage ceremony between Jonathan and Elvira in Dec 1842, six months before she claimed she had been sealed to the prophet (bless Brother Jenkins for compiling these affidavits while they could still be had)).

What I belief happened was that Elvira was the first (and apparently only) early woman to accept the New and Everlasting Covenant who deferred to Emma. So, I believe she accepted the Covenant in her heart, but refused to enter into it with Joseph until after Emma had done so. This would explain all the extant facts as well as the family history. This would also make Jonathan Holmes the first man to be promised reunion with his deceased wife in eternity. Though Jonathan and Elvira never explicitly explained this, there was a later and parallel situation that was documented (between Sarah Ann Whitney and Joseph C. Kingsbury in what Brother Kingsbury called a "pretended marriage" [Compton, p. 351]). If only the walls of the Mansion House could speak. We would then hear of the whispered confidences between Elvira and Eliza Snow, that led to the first poem about the New and Everlasting Covenant:

September 18, 1842

Conjugal, to Jonathan and Elvira

Like two streams, whose gentle forces
Mingling, in one current blend -
Like two waves, whose onward courses
To the ocean's bosom tend -

Like two rays that kiss each other
In the presence of the sun -
Like two drops that run together
And forever are but one,

May your mutual vows be plighted -
May your hearts, no longer twain
And your spirits be united
In an everlasting chain.

Jonathan (assuming I am correct) would be so unified with his beloved Marietta, dead from a mob attack on Nauvoo in Aug 1840 (the same month Joseph revealed the doctrine of baptism for the dead).

Elvira would some day be so unified with the Prophet Joseph (she was sealed to Joseph in life just one week after Emma entered into the New and Everlasting Covenant).

[These relationships were solemnized in the Nauvoo temple in 1846.]

While Joseph lived, the public marriage of Jonathan and Elvira was (I believe) understood by them to be merely the formalization of the levirate promise Jonathan had made Joseph - to care for Elvira after Joseph's death. Elvira (notably fertile, based on later evidence) appears to have honored six months mourning after Joseph's death before consummating the levirate marriage to Jonathan.

As Compton notes, "Elvira's story stands out from those of most of Smith's other wives... Elvira's experiences with polygamy were not traumatic, as far as is known" [p. 557]. Perhaps this is because she alone, of all the outstanding and faithful women who helped birth the New and Everlasting Covenant into the world during the Nauvoo era, obeyed the law of Sarah and deferred to Joseph's first wife.

It is fitting that Elvira's grand-daughters, Eliza Roxie Welling and Rhoda Welling, were the women whose 1901 polygamous marriages to Apostle John Whittaker Taylor (himself a third generation polygamist) were the focus that led to the final 1904 disassociation of plural marriage from the New and Everlasting Covenant.

Three new apostles were called 1906, of whom David O. McKay was the most junior. It's not even clear the men he and his fellows were called to replace were John W. Taylor, Matthias F. Cowley, and Abraham O. Woodruff (in order of seniority: all were post-manifesto polygamists). He probably replaced Marriner W. Merrill (polygamist, died Feb 1906). So it would be a stretch to explicitly state that David O. McKay was called to John Whittaker Taylor's spot. But Elder McKay certainly exemplified the modern era of the New and Everlasting Covenant.

Thank you for your response. I hope this information is interesting to you.

Meg Stout
Annandale, VA

Development of the Theology of Eternal Marriage

2005-10-08T12:09:00.000-07:00

I read time and again how Joseph Smith received revelation on the New and Everlasting Covenant in 1831. In the naive view of church history, people seem to suppose that the 14-year-old Joseph understood every principle and doctrine from his vision in the grove in 1823.

I posit that Joseph didn't understand what God was asking him to do in a sufficient way until near the end of his life. Joseph's great legacy is the binding of the entire family of mankind together through temple covenants. This is the work foretold since the time of Adam, and specifically mentioned by Malachi 4:5,6. (The parable of the olive grove which touches on this from Jacob 5 is clearly known to Paul per his discussion in Romans 11:16-24).

Recall that Joseph didn't even understand and preach baptism by proxy on behalf of the deceased until August 1840. I put forward that he did not comprehend the proxy sealing of deceased spouses into the covenant until fall 1842.

I'll grant that Joseph knew in 1831 that this work must be accomplished - somewhat the way a young child comprehends that they must someday learn a profession, marry and become a responsible citizen or in the way Lewis and Clark understood there were mountains and large bears while the were still living in the east, before their cross-continental journey.

Joseph saw a vision in the Kirtland temple in 1836 where he saw his brother Alvin in the celestial kingdom. This was clearly a vision of some future time, since he also saw his parents in the vision, and they had not yet died. If you read the account of that vision (D&C 137), there is no mention of proxy baptism on behalf of the dead. There is merely a confirmation that those who died without being baptized in this life can still somehow attain celestial glory.

In 1840 the apostles were, for the most part, in Europe. In August of that year, Joseph preached at the funeral of one of the saints and proclaimed the doctrine of baptism for the dead, a doctrine Paul incidentally alluded to in his defense of the literal resurrection of the dead in 1 Cor 15 (see verse 29). Most modern saints think of Nauvoo prior to Joseph's death as a peaceful haven, mosquitos and malarial fever notwithstanding. But in August 1840 the saints in Illinois were attacked. Of particular interst to this discussion is the destruction and burning of several homes to the south of the Nauvoo business district during a savage rain storm.

Jonathan Harriman Holmes, a shoemaker and dear friend of Joseph (wasn't every saint so regarded?) returned home to find his wife, Marietta, and children, Sarah (3) and newborn Mary Emma, being sheltered by neighbors. The Holmes dwelling had been burned to the ground. Marietta and Mary Emma died a few days later.

When Joseph learned of the tragedy, he invited his friend, Jonathan, to live in the Smith home - a two-story log cabin. Jonathan took on additional duties as one of Joseph's bodyguards. Little Sarah did her part as well by running to the prophet when she spied a stranger approaching, as would all the children of the household. In addition to Joseph's own parents, wife, and children, the household included a variety of individuals Joseph and Emma had taken on or taken in. Two such were Elvira Annie Cowles, the children's nanny, and Jane Manning, the cook. Elvira was 26 and the daughter of Austin Cowles, a counselor in the Nauvoo stake presidency. Jane Manning was a black teenager who had walked to Nauvoo from Connecticut after joining the church.

Direction to construct a temple in Navuoo temple was revealed in January 1841, "For I deign to reveal unto my church things which have been kept hid from before the foundation of the world, things that pertain to the dispensation of the fulness of times." [D&C 124: 41] It seems highly probable that the first person Joseph would have talked to about the New and Everlasting Covenant would be his own wife, Emma. But there is no extant documentation of how persuasive his teaching was on what was probably the first instance in words. Certainly Emma did not accept the New and Everlasting Covenant before 1843. It was in the spring of 1841 that Joseph taught Louisa Beaman about the New and Everlasting Covenant and invited her to accept the covenant.

8 Oct 2005 - Thoughts

2005-10-08T11:33:00.000-07:00

My husband, Bryan, loves to research on detailed topics. For example, a recent passion has been the solar satellites beyond Neptune such as "planet X" and the kuiper belt. Since we live near GMU and since I am a GMU alumna, we get an annual library card which he can use to check out books on arcane topics, to supplement what he can find at the county library and the web. (He doesn't yet spend entire days at the Library of Congress - perhaps after the children are grown.)

In his pile of books borrowed from the library I found "Mormons and the Bible," an interesting but self-consciously scholarly work by Philip Barlow. Therein (p. viii) I found the following comment by A. Leland Jamison, "The historical evolution of the Mormons furnishes the most thrilling chapter in the whole chrinicle of American religion. By comparison, the adventures of the settlers in New England seem tame." [Smith, James Ward and A. Leland Jamison, eds., The Shaping of American Religion, p. 213, 1961]

So, in this thrilling chapter, where are the women? Surely, more women explicitly populate the Mormon historical landscape (proportionally) than do the pages of the Book of Mormon. (I look forward some day to finding out from Mormon why that is.) But there is not a well-developed ethnography of Mormon womanhood that spans the decades from 1930 to today. There are delightful efforts here and there. "Women of Covenant," an history of Relief Society, covers much ground in the 3 inches of papes between the covers. But despite intriguing footnotes, it is a tad too scholarly and hagiographic for my tastes.

I set about putting my ladies' stories on paper the first time in 2001 before the planes hit in September. Their stories, even green and naive as my understanding was, gave me perspective and hope in a world suddenly transformed by grief and horror. In the years since that time, I have been able to put more meat on the bones of their stories and have had time to contemplate what undocumented events could account for the extant record. I have had the satisfaction I have often experienced in my profession (I'm a physicist) of putting forward a theory and then finding the validation (in this case, documents) that showed I was right.

During this time I've also had the privilege of being the Gospel Doctrine teacher in my congregation. This has given me the opportunity to be forced to research key dates and happenings. So many things have illuminated my understanding - things it might never have occurred to me would relate to my own family history.

So - time to start writing, neh?

Lighter Fluid

2005-07-09T10:38:00.000-07:00

This past Fourth of July, we did a bit of barbecuing. (Microwaving the hamburgers just hadn't seemed sufficiently festive.)

Now, as experienced charcoal grillers are aware, one piles the brickettes tightly and douses them with lighter fluid. The brickettes are then lit and allowed to burn until each is glowing, covered with a grey blanket of ash. Finally, one spreads the glowing brickettes evenly about the grill and puts food on the grill. Under no circumstances would an experienced grill-meister re-apply lighter fluid.

I, however, am not an experienced grill-meister. I splashed lighter fluid on the coals initially, and a short five minutes later put the grill and food in place. When the food was still cool to the touch ten minutes after that, I removed the grill and food, re-applied lighter fluid, let burn for a couple of minutes, then put the grill and food back in place.

The family (and friend) dutifully ate the burgers, despite the petrochemical taste that lingered like a faint perfume. Perhaps it was only coincidental that my eldest awoke before dawn the next morning to wretch up the wretched meal.

But this whole episode got me thinking about the similarity between lighter fluid and polygamy.

The Living

2005-06-11T16:35:00.000-07:00

These ladies are still alive - and therefore names may have been changed since the question "What is your mother's maiden name?" remains a supposedly secure way of verifying someone's identity. Sheesh!

Pat Heywood - Code 30-1-2
Meg Stout - Arthur and His Sisters
Sarah Fairchild - Work in Progress

Finding Mr. Right

2005-06-11T15:30:00.000-07:00

These ladies were married to monogamous men during a time when polygamy was thinkable.

Elizabeth Houston - Permission Denied
Kate Delong - Filaria and Asafetida
Margaret Taylor - The Rose
Dicey Delong - Victor's Valentine

Fifty Years in the Wilderness

2005-06-03T15:15:00.000-07:00

These are ladies who were, in one sense or another, plural wives.

Mary Leamon, The Widow's Might
Elvira Annie Cowles, In the Presence of the Sun
Mary Bell, Hatter's Apprentice
Emma Lucinda Holmes, The Taxpayer
Sophia Whittaker, Of Crickets and Feds
Eliza Roxie Welling, Dream Girl

Converts

2005-05-22T18:09:00.000-07:00

These are women who embraced the restored gospel during Joseph Smith's lifetime, though I don't include all who fall into this category. I do tell the beginning of Sophia Whittaker's story here, although I also include her as the penultimate woman in "Fifty Years in the Wilderness."

Agnes Taylor, The Minister's Mother
Margaret Crawford, Writing on the Wall
Sophia Whittaker, Maiden of the Isle
Mary Amanda Brunnell, September Blueberries

Pre-history

2005-05-22T14:59:00.000-07:00

These are the women whose stories illustrate important themes that were pre-requisites for the restoration of the gospel.
___
Saint Margaret (circa 1066), daughter of Edward Atheling,
- The Would-be Nun
Pilgrims Priscilla Mullins and Elizabeth Walker (circa 1620),
- Across the Vasty Sea
Patriots Sarah Warren and Elizabeth Moore (circa 1775),
- Mothers of Revolution
Immigrant Lee Pei-chiu (circa 1949),
- Heiress of Xiao Ao

Who are these women?

2005-05-22T08:10:00.000-07:00

I've broken the list of my ladies into five sections.

Pre-history - These are women whose stories illustrate important 'pre-requisites' for Mormonism, even though they never were Mormons during their lifetimes. They are:
Margaret (circa 1066), daughter of Edward Atheling, the would-be nun
Priscilla Mullins and Elizabeth Walker (circa 1620), across the vasty sea
Sarah Warren and Elizabeth Moore (circa 1775), mothers of revolution
Lee Pei-chiu (circa 1949), heiress of Xiao Ao

Converts - These women embraced Mormonism or the restored gospel during Joseph Smith's lifetime:
Agnes Taylor
Margaret Crawford
Sophia Whittaker
Mary Amanda Brunnel

Fifty Years in the Wilderness - These women were involved in the practice of plural marriage:
Mary Leamon
Elvira Annie Cowles
Mary Bell
Ema Lucinda Holmes
Sophia Whittaker
Eliza Roxie Welling

Finding Mr. Right - These ladies were not plural wives, and their stories illustrate monogamy among the Mormons:
Elizabeth Houston
Kate Delong
Margaret Taylor
Dicey Delong

The Living - Self-explanatory:
Pat Heywood
Meg Stout
Sarah Fairchild

So - what's this all about, anyway?

2005-05-21T17:10:00.000-07:00

In April 2000 I got a call from Sister Evans, asking me to present a profile of an historical Mormon woman during Relief Society. When she read off a list of candidates, I recognized the name of an ancestor and jumped at the chance to talk about her.

Sister Evan's dropped off a xeroxed summary biography for Elvira Cowles, but I also accessed my own family histories and genealogical charts. By 4 a.m. I had not only prepared my 5 minute summary on Elvira, I had come to a conviction that I had to tell the story of Elvira, her daughters, and her grand-daughters. At a rational level, I worried that the stories of these three generations of plural wives would be controversial. But I felt I had been called, a sensation that recurred over time.

I expanded my study beyond Elvira to my other female ancestors. Initially I hoped that this would dilute the controversy of Elvira's experience. But as I dug deeper, I discovered intriguing tales that began to clarify the female Mormon experience over time in many dimensions. And all this in just my family.

So - I certainly have a viewpoint in writing the stories of my lady ancestors. But I have not gone cherry-picking through history to find the stuff that supports my worldview. Rather, I have thrown myself against these true stories and allowed them to lead me to understanding.

My primary audience for this is my own daughters and descendants, that they may know their mothers. But I don't mind if these stories also build understanding among others. I have yet to discover anyone for whom all these stories are comfortable. But I hope that these stories will expand your understanding of what it means and has meant to be a Mormon woman.

Welcome!

2005-05-21T11:46:00.000-07:00

For five years now the information about my lady ancestors has been brewing in my head, occasionally making it into conversations and written form. I've had a great time putting together not only tidbits from their lives, but coming to an understanding of metapatterns in Mormon history.

This blog will serve as a place for me to do the writing and honing of these stories. I welcome your thoughts!

Meg