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October 2003 - Newsletter
 
President’s Message
We have exciting speakers lined up for MHA meetings this next spring. Both Laurel Thatcher Ulrich and Dell Upton study aspects of Material Culture or Cultural Landscapes -- Laurel the value of common objects and Dell architecture and landscapes. Both provide rich avenues for the exploration of the religious lives of the LDS people, the ways they patterned their lives as they built communities, churches, and established home lives in tangible landscapes. Dell Upton says, “I see architecture primarily as a means for shaping society and culture and for annotating social action by creating appropriate settings for it, and the kinds of questions I ask have to do with the role of architecture in the social and intellectual evolution of societies and in the formation of self.”
The more urban landscape of Provo City and the rural countryside of Sanpete County will provide us with ample material to consider as we widen the focus of this conference to include an aspect of history we have neglected in the past -- material culture and cultural landscapes --along with our regular retinue of biography, social and religious history, and local history. These more traditional types of history -- social and intellectual, political and economic weave through approaches which center on culture and are contextual looking at broad currents and holistic views. Cultural landscapes represent a continuum that includes the built environment and the common objects human beings made and perhaps valued in the past.

Martha Sonntag Bradley
MHA President
Before moving to the University of Virginia a couple of years ago, Dr. Dell Upton taught architectural history at the University of California, inspiring an entire generation of historians to look at landscapes in a new way. His book, "Holy Things and Profane," is described as setting new “standards for architectural history, for the study of material culture,” and by another critic as “The finest study ever done of early American religious architecture.” The American Quarterly describes the way it portrays architecture “as the physical embodiment of a certain time, place and society.” According to one perspective, Upton’s work “builds a social history of the effect people and the built environment have on one another.” He describes this saying, “I look at the ways people physically engage the world and the way that shapes the sense of who they are, very literally their selves.”
Dr. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich is the Phillips Professor of Early American History at Harvard University. Formerly a professor of American History at the University of New Hampshire, her many publications include: "Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England, 1650-1750"; "A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard Based on her Diary, 1785-1812"; and most recently "Homespun." It is this most recent book that has the most relevancies to this conference. In "Homespun" Ulrich demonstrates how ordinary objects reveal larger themes and a picture of economic and social structures, and how material culture reveals identities, relationships, and in turn creates its own history. Richard Bushman writes of this work, “With her usual magic, Laurel Ulrich finds the world in small pieces of evidence. Slavery, Indians, international commerce, class, revolution, gentility all are woven in the fabrics she describes. Moreover, she finds these weavers, spinners, and embroiderers creating a culture of homespun later to be memorialized in the formation of American identity.”
In ways different metaphors are windows we can use to reach into the distant past, the material landscape of Central Utah promises to enrich our understanding of the Mormon past.
Plans Move Forward for Killington, Vermont
2005 Conference
During a recent trip to Killington, Vermont and Boston, Massachusetts, Larry and Alene King finalized many of the plans for the 2005 conference in Killington. The conference is designed to commemorate the 200th birthday of Joseph Smith and will be held May 26-29, 2005.

Larry and Alene report that in order to complete all the arrangements, details must be worked out at least two years in advance of any conference. Lester Corwin who lives in South Royalton, a short distance from Killington, has agreed to act as Local Arrangements chair with able assistance from Council member, Lola Van Wagenen who lives just outside of Burlington. Don Cannon, who will be MHA President during the conference, spent nine years of his career in the New England area and significantly adds to the knowledge base of putting together a meaningful conference. Susan Rugh of BYU has agreed to act as Program chair.

All in all the conference will be another once in a life time opportunity. Plan now to attend. Spread the word to friends and colleagues.


Larry, Alene King & Lola Van Wagenen
Fort Ticonderoga, New York
Notice of Forthcoming
Mountain Meadows Book
by Ronald W. Walker

The book "Tragedy at Mountain Meadows" continues to work its way toward publication. Co-authors Glen M. Leonard, Director of the LDS Museum in Salt Lake City, Richard E. Turley, Jr., Managing Director of the LDS Family and Church History Department, and Ronald W. Walker, Professor of History at Brigham Young University plan publication in 2004. The book is being issued by Oxford University Press.

Mountain Meadows Memorial
“The book will have the advantage of the largest collection of primary and secondary sources yet used on the topic,” said Turley. “Our purpose is to consult all resources, wherever they may be found, whatever their content.” Pursuing the goal of comprehensiveness, researchers for the book have collected material throughout the United States, and according to Turley, he and his co-authors still want more. “We continue to look for additional items,” he said, “and invite anyone having relevant diaries or records unavailable in repositories to let us know. We are convinced that there is important material still out there.” Information may be sent to Brian Reeves, (Telephone: 801-240-5488), Church Archives, 50 East North Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84150-3800.
The hope of "Tragedy at Mountain Meadows" is to provide the “cultural catharsis” that only full disclosure of facts can provide, says co-author Glen M. Leonard. “It is not enough to collect facts, the story must be honestly told in a balanced and evenhanded way.” Leonard, Turley, and Walker have recently presented papers on the topic of the Massacre at the Mormon History Association and the Mountain Meadows Association. Leonard and Turley are also slated to present papers at this year’s annual meeting of the Western History Association at Fort Worth, Texas in October.
Mark Scherer Elected
JWHA President

Mark A. Scherer, MHA Council member, was elected President of the John Whitmer Historical Association September 27, 2003. Mark lives in Independence, Missouri and is currently the Community of Christ historian and coordinator for their Church Heritage Team. Included in his responsibilities as church historian are teaching in the Graceland Master of Arts in Religion program at the Community of Christ seminary, gathering oral histories, and supervising the church’s archives, museum, artifacts management program, and jurisdictional history program. He enjoys exploring and making sense of the past, reading, playing golf, and being with his family. He and his wife Rita have two sons, Brett and Bryan.

Past MHA President Jan Shipps also was elected President Elect and will succeed Mark in 2004. Our congratulations to Mark and Jan.

Mark Scherer
Who’s doing What!
John Whitmer Historical Association Conference, 2003
Through the weekend of September 25-28, 2003, the John Whitmer Historical Association met in Excelsior Springs, Ray County, Missouri, at the Lake Doniphan Retreat Center. Centered in the geographic context of the Far West era of church history, the conference theme was “Mormon Response to the Culture of Violence on the American Frontier.” The conference explored the many facets of violence on the American frontier, as the Mormons were both victims of, and contributors to, the hostile environment.

Several MHA members participated in the conference including Jan Shipps on “Telling the Whole Story of Mormonism;” A panel by William Hartley, Steven LeSueur, Alex Baugh, and D. Michael Quinn discussing “Missouri Mormon Danites;” H. Michael Marquardt on “Judge Austin A. King’s Preliminary Hearings: Joseph Smith and the Mormons on Trial;” and Todd Compton on “The Wrong Indians: Jacob Hamblin and Mormon-Navajo Violence.”

On Saturday afternoon, nearly 100 conference attendees took a bus tour to the Battle of Crooked River site, the Charles C. Rich and Pierce Hawley properties, and Haun’s Mill historic site. At these locations conferees observed geography and heard site papers that offered a clearer understanding of the difficult circumstances of both life and death that the early saints encountered in those times.


Charles C. Rich Cabin
Awards Presented:
Special Award to Dan Vogel for the five volume “Early Mormon Documents,” published by Signature Books.
Best Article Award to D. Michael Quinn for his article on “National Culture, Personality and Theocracy in the Early Mormon Culture of Violence,” published in the 2002 Nauvoo Conference Special Edition, John Whitmer Historical Association Journal.
Best Book Award to Will Bagley for his book, “Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows,” published by the University of Oklahoma Press.
Lifetime Achievement Award to Richard P. Howard for his significant contribution to a large body of work characterized by sound scholarship and his encouragement to others to engage in historical research.

Richard P. Howard receiving JWHA’s Lifetime Achievement Award from Awards chair Bill Russell
Sunstone

The Salt Lake Sunstone Symposium was held August 13-16, 2003 at the Sheraton City Centre Hotel. Under the direction of Dan Wotherspoon, Sunstone Executive Director, over 800 people were in attendance to the four day conference. Included in the many presentations given were several on Mormon history such as:
  • “Conflict in the Quorum: Orson Pratt, Brigham Young, Joseph Smith” a panel of John Hatch, Michael J. Stevens and H. Michael Marquardt reviewing Gary Bergera’s book by the same name.
  • “The LDS Church and Community of Christ: Clearer Differences, Closer Friends” by William D. Russell.
  • “The Man Behind the Discourse: King Follett – ‘One of Those Who Bore The Burden’” by Joann Follett Mortensen.
  • “The Quorum of the Anointed” by Devery S. Anderson
  • “National Culture, Personality, and Theocracy in the Early Mormon Culture of Violence” by D. Michael Quinn.
  • “The Dead Lee Scroll: A Forensic Analysis of the John D. Lee Scroll” by George Throckmorton and Steven Mayfield.
  • “William Hooper Young and the Murder of Anna Pulitzer” by Ardis Parshall.
Other sessions that may be of interest to MHA members were tributes to Stan Kimball and Dean May: “Celebration of a Joyful Soul” by a panel of Maureen Ward, Douglas Bowen and Curt Bench; “Dean May: ‘Just Born Friendly’” by Judi Dushku and Colleen McCannell.

Anyone desiring a tape on these or any other session can contact the Sunstone office at 801-355-5926 or carol@sunstoneonline.com.
Keokuk Conference Commemorates 1853 LDS Outfittings
(by Bill Hartley)

Mormon Immigrant Camp, Keokuk, Iowa
More than 100 historians, history buffs, local citizens, and LDS Church members from Nauvoo participated in a June 27-28, 2003, Lee County History Symposium based at Keokuk, Iowa’s Holiday Inn Express. (Keokuk is about 12 miles south of Nauvoo and across the river.) The conference featured history papers, a small wagon train, and dedication of 3 new historic markers and a pavilion with history displays. Events were designed to commemorate the sesquicentennial of the 1853 Mormon encampment at Keokuk.
In 1853, the LDS annual emigration outfitted at Keokuk rather than in the Council Bluffs area. From April-through-July, 2,548 Saints, almost all Europeans, formed into 10 wagon trains there, using 360 wagons. Among them was the first large company of Scandinavians journeying to Zion. While camped at Keokuk, the emigrants helped construct the city’s streets.
Dr. Loren Horton delivered the Friday night keynote address, “Iowa in 1853–the Context for the Encampment.” Three BYU professors presented papers: Dr. Fred Woods discussed “Mormon Maritime Migration from England to Keokuk in 1853”; Bill Hartley told about “Mormons Crossing the Plains to Salt Lake City in 1853,” and Dr. Susan Easton Black shared fascinating insights about Keokuk attorney James M. Wood, who was a legal counsel for Joseph Smith. Des Moines Register artist Matt Chatterley shared information about artist Frederick Piercy, who was in the 1853 Keokuk encampment, wrote about it, and drew it for his now-famous book, "The Route from Liverpool to Great Salt Lake City (1855)." Three LDS members from Nauvoo did presentations: Joseph Johnstun, about the 1846 daguerreotype of Nauvoo; Mike Tripp regarding Isaac Galland and LDS in Iowa, and Shalisse Johnstun about women on the Mormon Trail. Local historians presented insights about religions in Keokuk at the time (Doug Atterberg), Mark Twain and Keokuk (Jack Meister), and early currencies in Iowa Territory (Tom Gardner). Some of the papers are being published in the fall issue of Mormon Historical Studies.
Mid-afternoon on Saturday three covered wagons and a Nauvoo brass band rolled from Rand Park to Triangle Park, where an historic marker/wayside panel about “Mormon Immigrants’ Camp, 1853” was dedicated. Activities then moved 7 miles north to Montrose’s Riverfront Park, where two new wayside panels were dedicated: “Fort Des Moines, 1834-1837,” and “Mormon Settlements in Lee County, 1839-1846.” Then, 3/4 mile north of Montrose, a new pavilion, with a fine view of Nauvoo, was dedicated in Linger Longer Park. It contains panels telling about Nauvoo and about the LDS trek to Utah.
The Mormon Historic Sites Foundation helped support the commemoration and fund the historic markers (and, in the spirit of 1853 Saints, helped Keokuk install curbing at Triangle Park). Bob Clark, representing the foundation, participated in the events.
Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought
The board of Dialogue has announced the appointment of new editors for their journal. Replacing Neal and Rebecca Chandler, whose term has expired, are Karen Marguerite Moloney and Levi S. Peterson.
Western History Association
The annual Western History Association Conference was held October 8-11, 2003 in Fort Worth, Texas. The conference theme is “The Boundless West: Imagery and Popular Culture of the American West.”
Under the direction of MHA Council Member, Brian Cannon the Mormon History Association sponsored a session entitled, “The Principle of Plurality: Mormon Polygamy in Nineteenth-Century Utah”, chaired by Thomas G. Alexander, Brigham Young University. Kathryn Daynes presented on “Forging Mormon Society: Polygamy and Assimilation.” Lowell “Ben” Bennion, Humboldt State University, presented on “Polygamy’s Contribution to ‘Utah’s Best Crop’ in Cedar City, 1860-1880.” Finally, Sarah Barringer Gordon, University of Pennsylvania, presented on “Legal Process and Punishment: Criminal Prosecution of Polygamists in Utah Territory.” B. Carmon Hardy, California State University, Fullerton, provided comment on these papers.
Also presenting papers were Richard E. Turley, Jr., William P. MacKinnon and Glen Leonard under the banner of “American Violence and the Mountain Meadows Massacre.” The session was chaired by Jan Shipps with Richard Maxwell Brown as Commentator.
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