“From Grave to Gay”

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It was recorded in John Chislett’s journal that the Saints went from “grave to gay.” What was the occasion?

a.      a.   The Willie and Martin Handcart companies entering the Salt Lake Valley

b.      b.   The leaving of Johnston’s army from the Salt Lake Valley at the time of the Civil War

c.      c.    The seagulls devouring the crickets

d.      d.   The arrival of the rescue teams to the Willie handcart company

Yesterday’s answer:

D   Her dead husband

October, 1856, Red Buttes, Martin Company, Elizabeth Horrocks Jackson Kingsford:   It will be readily perceived that under such adverse circumstances I had become despondent. I was six or seven thousand miles from my native land, in a wild, rocky, mountain country, in a destitute condition, the ground covered with snow, the water covered with ice, and I with three fatherless children with scarcely nothing to protect them from the merciless storms. When I retired to bed that night, being the 27^th of Oct., I had a stunning revelation. In my dream, my husband stood by me and said, “Cheer up, Elizabeth, deliverance is at hand.” The dream was fulfilled.

Stewart E. Glazier and Robert S. Clark, Journey of the Trail (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1997), 62.

Reassurance

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Despondent pioneer, Elizabeth Horrocks Jackson Kingsford, of the Martin Handcart company went to bed not certain at her chances of survival when who appeared to her in a dream and told her that deliverance was on the way?

a.                  Joseph Smith

b.                  The Three Nephites

c.                   Ephraim Hanks

d.                  Her dead husband

Yesterday’s answer:

B   Franklin D. Richards

Friday, September 12, 1856, near North Platte, Nebraska, Willie Company Journal:  This evening President Franklin D. Richards . . . arrived just before dusk in 3 carriages and 2 wagons. . .  President Richards then addressed the Saints, expressing his satisfaction at their having journeyed thus far, and more especially with handcarts, and . . .  which he knew had proved, and would prove their salvation, if they would hearken to, and diligently obey counsel to the letter. In which even, he promised, in the name of Israel’s God, and by the authority of the Holy Priesthood, that no obstacle whatever should come in the way of this camp, but what they should be able, by their united faith and works, to overcome, God being their helper. And, that if a Red Sea should interpose, they should by their union of heart and hand, walk through it like Israel of old, dryshod. On the same conditions, he promised that though they might have some trials to endure as proof to God, and the brethren, that they had the true “grit.”

Stewart E. Glazier and Robert S. Clark, Journey of the Trail (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1997), 42.

Passing the Company

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On September 12, 1856 who passed the Willie Company and promised them that they would have “some trials?”

a.                  Brigham Young

b.                  Franklin D. Richards

c.                   Willard Richards

d.                  Parley P. Pratt

Yesterday’s answer:

C   Have your name inscribed on Independence Rock

The story of the naming of the rock (Independence Rock) has only incomplete records. Lansford W. Hastings wrote in 1842: “The first party which noticed this rock was a party of American trappers who chanced to pass this way upon the Fourth of July, when, wishing to be Americans even in that secluded region of aboriginal barbarism, they proceeded to celebrate the great day which gave birth to human liberty. This they did by a succession of mountain raveling’s, festivities, and hilarities, which having been concluded, they all inscribed their names together with the word ‘Independence’ upon the most prominent and conspicuous portions of the rock, hence its name. Independence Rock thus consecrated, is destined in all coming time to stand forth as an enduring monument to civil liberty and American Independence.” Velma Linford gives this honor to Ashley’s men who camped here July 4, 1825.

Another historian wrote: “Asahel Munger, a missionary Oregon-bound in 1839, was told by Harris. . .mountain man, that the name Independence was bestowed upon it in 1830 by trappers of the American Fur Company who happened to spend the fourth of July camped in its shadow. . .  The enterprising Mormons sometimes had a man or two at the Rock who would undertake to inscribe the name and date for varying prices up to five dollars, depending on location.”

Stewart E. Glazier and Robert S. Clark, Journey of the Trail (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1997), 14.

Burning Money on the Trail

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What could you spend up to $5 for on the Mormon Trail, if you had money to burn?

a.                  Ferry across major rivers

b.                  Feed for your animals at Forts along the trail

c.                   Have your named inscribed on Independence Rock

d.                  Bets on horse races with the natives

Yesterday’s answer:

B   Watering gold miners horses

From the life of Moses Thatcher:   February 2, 1842:   Born in Sangamon County, Illinois. His family migrated to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. Two years later, touched with the gold fever, they moved to Sacramento, California, where his father operated an “eating house.”

Moses earned his keep by watering miners’ horses for as much as five dollars a drink. He also mined, extracting moss and gold from the crevices of rocks on the banks of the American River with a butcher knife and a milk pan.

Missionaries frequently visited the Thatcher home, and fourteen-year-old Moses was baptized in the Rio Puta in 1856.

Richard S. Van Wagoner and Steven C. Walker, A Book of Mormons, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1982), 367.

Little Entrepreneur

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As a young boy, what was Moses Thatcher doing that could earn him $5/ hr. easily in the early 1850s?

a.                  Selling Books of Mormon 

b.                  Watering gold miners horses

c.                   Gold mining

d.                   Lemonade stand in Salt Lake City

Yesterdays’ answer:

D   Joseph F. Smith

From the life of Joseph F. Smith:   October 17, 1901:   Set apart as president of the Church with John R. Winder and Anthon H. Lund as counselors.

Joseph F. Smith was the first president born in the Church, the only president, excepting Joseph Smith, not previously sustained as president of the Quorum of the Twelve, and the only president to have a son who also became president of the Church.

Richard S. Van Wagoner and Steven C. Walker, A Book of Mormons, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1982), 300.

The Only President Other Than Joseph Smith

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Who is the only president of the Church, other than Joseph Smith, to have not previously been the president of the Quorum of the Twelve?

a.                  David O. McKay

b.                  Ezra T. Benson

c.                   Wilford Woodruff

d.                  Joseph F. Smith

Yesterday’s answer:

B   Unruly little boys

From the life of Aurelia S. Rogers:   March 1878:   When Relief Society President Eliza R. Snow visited Farmington, Aurelia expressed concern about rowdy boys. “What will our girls do for good husbands, if this state of things continues? Could there not be an organization for little boys, and have them trained to make better men?”

Farmington Bishop John W. Hess received a letter from John Taylor authorizing a new organization in the ward. August 11, 1878, Bishop Hess set Aurelia Rogers apart as president of the Church’s first Primary Association. Though she felt “willing, but very incompetent,” she taught her charges “obedience, faith in God, prayer, punctuality, and good manners.”

Richard S. Van Wagoner and Steven C. Walker, A Book of Mormons, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1982), 256.

Why the Primary got its Start

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What was the issue that resulted in the organization of the Primary?

a.                  Too many people in the ward and not enough callings

b.                  Unruly little boys

c.                   Unruly little girls

d.                  Aurelia S. Rogers had nothing better to do

Yesterday’s answer:

A   On a mission

From the life of B. H. Roberts:   December 5, 1886:   As associate editor of the Salt Lake Herald, Roberts was preparing the daily dispatches when deputy marshals arrested him for “unlawful cohabitation.” By six o’clock he was called on a mission to Great Britain, jumped his $2000 bail, and left for Liverpool.

Richard S. Van Wagoner and Steven C. Walker, A Book of Mormons, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1982), 142.

The Day he was Arrested

B. H. Roberts

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The day B. H. Roberts was arrested for unlawful cohabitation, what was he called to?

a.                  On a mission

b.                  To be an apostle

c.                   To be a stake president

d.                  To be a bishop

Yesterday’s answer:

D   The announcement of Polygamy

From the life of Orson Pratt:   August 1852: Brigham Young selected Pratt to introduce the doctrine of plural marriage officially to the Saints at a special conference in Salt Lake City. He was also called to begin a new magazine, The Seer, in Washington, D.C. The publication would expound “the views of the Saints in regard to the Ancient Patriarchal Order of Matrimony, or Plurality of Wives, as developed in a Revelation, given through JOESPH THE SEER.”

(1870) Dr. John P. Newman, chaplain of the U.S. Senate and President Ulysses S. Grant’s personal pastor, delivered a strong anti-polygamy sermon in his Metropolitan Methodist Church in Washington, D.C. Salt Lake Daily Telegraph editor Edward Sloan proposed Newman debate polygamy in Salt Lake. Newman accepted and, when Brigham Young declined to be his opponent, settled for Orson Pratt. The extended debate was reported daily in the New York Herald. Mormon writer Edward Tullidge declared that “millions of readers followed the arguments of Dr. Newman and Orson Pratt and it is safe to estimate that quite two-thirds of them yielded the palm to the Mormon apostle.”

Richard S. Van Wagoner and Steven C. Walker, A Book of Mormons, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1982), 214.

The August 1852 Special Conference

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Why did Brigham Young call a special conference of the Church in 1852?

a.                  Opening Europe to missionary work

b.                  The start of the Perpetual emirgration fund

c.                   The cornerstone laying of the Salt Lake Temple

d.                  The announcement of Polygamy

Yesterday’s answer:

B   A dream

From the life of Jacob Hamblin:   Hamblin married widow Rachel Judd Henderson of Council Bluffs eight months later. Having dreamed that he would marry her, he knocked on her door and announced, “My name is Jacob Hamblin, I was impressed to come to your home and ask you to be my wife.” She replied, “I am Rachel Judd, and am willing to marry you, but it will be impossible for us to have children.” Hamblin responded, “My name is Jacob, yours is Rachel, we will have two sons and shall name them Joseph and Benjamin.” They also had three daughters.

Richard S. Van Wagoner and Steven C. Walker, A Book of Mormons, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1982), 109.

No Warning

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What caused Jacob Hamblin to introduce himself to Rachel Judd and ask her to marry him with no warning or without previous dating?

a.                  The Mormon Battalion was leaving

b.                  A dream

c.                   Brigham Young insisted

d.                  An angel directed him

Yesterday’s answer:

B.   Meals

From the life of J. Rueben Clark:   His father, a school teacher; remarked that Reuben “would rather miss his meals than miss a day from school.” After completing the eighth grade, the extent of educational opportunity in Grantsville, he returned to repeat the grade twice more: “I  was not quite that dull, but there was nothing to do , so I went to school in the winter time and went over the same ground.”

Richard S. Van Wagoner and Steven C. Walker, A Book of Mormons, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1982), 68.

J. Reuben Clark Would Rather Do What?

J. Reuben Clark

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J. Reuben Clark’s father said he would rather miss this than miss school. What was it he’d rather miss?

a.    Sleeping

b.    Meals

c.    Dating

d.    Watching T.V.

Yesterday’s answer:

A   Viewings at funerals

From the life of Abraham H. Cannon:   At his funeral Church authorities discouraged the custom of viewing the body: “It is needless to say to intelligent Latter-day Saints that all this is repugnant to that spirit and decorum which ought to characterize the laying away of the earthly tabernacles of those whom we have loved or respected; and the general authorities of the Church have felt called upon to exert an influence to check this evil, and have advised the Saints not to expose their dead to public view.”

Richard S. Van Wagoner and Steven C. Walker, A Book of Mormons, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1982), 43.

It Didn’t Take

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What did Church leaders try to stop in 1896 that didn’t take, going so far as to call it evil?

a.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Viewings at funerals

b.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Dedicating graves

c.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Honeymoons

d.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Public show of affection

Yesterday’s answer:

C   He wasn’t present when the blessing was given

David Whitmer was not physically present when this blessing was given. [The blessing was given by Joseph Smith Sr.].

Marquardt, H. Michael, Early Patriarchal Blessings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: The Smith-Pettit Foundation, 2007), 49.

Odd

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What was odd about David Whitmer’s Patriarchal blessing given by Joseph Smith Sr.?

a.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       He was told that he was from the tribe of the Nephites

b.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       He was told that he would leave the Church

c.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        He wasn’t present when the blessing was given

d.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       He was allowed to trade his blessing with his father

Yesterday’s answer:

D   Trying to retrieve a stolen ballot box

From the life of John William Sharp:   At the election at Sandy in August, 1874, when Robert N. Baskin ran against Geo. Q. Cannon for delegate to Congress, the Liberals took the ballot box by force from Judge Harrison; Bro. Sharp, at the risk of his life jumped into the midst of the crowd, secured the box and returned it to the judge. In return Bro. Sharp received a terrible beating from the mob, but nevertheless remained at his post all day.

Andrew Jenson, LDS Biographical Encyclopedia (Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson History Company, 1914), 320.  

Taking a Beating

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In August 1874 in Sandy, Utah, William Sharp took a beating, why?

a.                  He forgot the treats for his Sunbeams

b.                  The Missouri mob caught up to him

c.                   Trying to retrieve stolen tithing money

d.                  Trying to retrieve a stolen ballot box

Yesterday’s answer:

D   Snowshoes

From the life of Franklin Wheeler Young:   The winter of 1865-6 was a very hard one in Bear Lake valley. The snow was deep and for weeks there was no track broken from one town to another. Brother Young, acting then as a home missionary went to every town in the valley on snow shoes. In his trip through the north end of the valley, Elder James H. Hart accompanied him, and on their way from Montpelier to Paris by way of “The Hay Stacks,” they were overtaken by night, at a time when a dense fog had rested over the valley for two or three weeks, so that the sun, moon or stars were not seen, and snow covered the ground everywhere, with no dark objects outside the towns. In the darkness of the night they had turned from their course, which should have been about southwest; when all at once Brother Young saw a star shining directly ahead of them, and called Elder Hart’s attention to it, observing at the same time, “That is the north star.” Brother Hart said, “No, that is impossible, for we are going nearly south.” They stopped for a moment to discuss it, when to their great surprise the fog cleared away and allowed them to see the “Dipper,” just for a minute, when the fog closed, and shut the stars from their view. But they were convinced they had been turned around, and they now turned about, following their back tracks to where they had turned. Soon afterwards they heard a dog bark, and going straight ahead toward the sound they came to the town of Paris, very nearly exhausted. Had it not been for the opening or lifting of the fog they would have perished that night, and Elder Young has ever looked upon it as a direct miracle, or as a direct manifestation of Divine providence to save two humble Elders from death.   

Andrew Jenson, LDS Biographical Encyclopedia (Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson History Company, 1914), 98.

The Travels of a Home Missionary

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Home missionary Franklin Wheeler Young states that him and his companion used what mode of transportation during the winter of 1865-66 in the Bear Lake area of Idaho?

a.                  Horses and sleds

b.                  Oxen and sleds

c.                   Ski’s

d.                  Snowshoes

Yesterday’s answer:

C   The scripture in question was in large print

From the life of David William Jeffs:   While on this mission he labored as a traveling Elder in the East Tennessee conference. He received many great testimonies of the Gospel, and greatly enjoyed his labors and received the gifts of healing, faith and knowledge, to a marked extent. In a sketch prepared for this work, Elder Jeffs writes: “I went into the mission field with very little knowledge of the Bible, and I had to study very hard and depend greatly upon the inspiration of the Holy Ghost to guide and sustain me in my labors; I had no experience in preaching. The Lord, however, came to my assistance many times. I remember on one occasion, when defending the principles of the Gospel, I quoted a passage of Scripture that I had heard my companion repeat; the minister with whom I was conversing asked me where such a passage of Scripture was, as he had never read it in the Bible. I told him to let me take his Bible and I opened it, and there appeared, a certain verse, in very large letters which I read to him. It was the very passage that I had quoted to him. After reading the passage referred to, it did not appear any larger print that the rest of the chapter; this is one example out of many like testimonies.

Andrew Jenson, LDS Biographical Encyclopedia (Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson History Company, 1914), 51-52.  

Finding the Scripture

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While David William Jeffs was serving a mission in the Tennessee area, he quoted a scripture from the Bible to a minister to prove his point. The minister asked Elder Jeffs to show him where the scripture was in the Bible as he had never heard of such a scripture. Elder Jeffs asked for the ministers Bible, then what happened?

a.                  The Bible fell to pieces and Elder Jeffs picked up the page with the scripture in question

b.                  The scripture in question was illuminated

c.                   The scripture in question was in large print

d.                  Elder Jeffs turned and ran with the minister’s Bible since he didn’t have one

Yesterday’s answer:

A   Obtaining wood to build a boat

Monday, August 2^nd.—It was fine weather with a cool breeze from the northeast. This morning William King, George Billings and myself went into the mountains with teams for timber, with which we returned about sunset. Agreeable to previous arrangements, the two camps below commenced to move to this place. Prof. O. Pratt, Father Sherwood and others commenced surveying the ground for the city. Eight or nine men today detailed or chosen to guard our cattle during our stay here, who are exempt from all other labors. The brethren are principally engaged in plowing, planting, sawing lumber for a boat, making coal pits, preparing to make adobies, etc.

Major Howard Egan, Pioneering the West (Howard Egan Estate: Richmond, Utah, 1917) 114.

One of the Top Priorities

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In Howard Egan’s journal on Aug. 2^nd, 1847 what was one of the priorities of the Saints this day?

a.                  Obtaining wood to build a boat

b.                  Locating the temple

c.                   Prayer meeting

d.                  Sending elders on missions

Yesterday’s answer:

B   5 years and $500

Defining polygamy as a felony punishable with up to five years’ imprisonment and/or a $500 fine, the law became the basis for increased legal prosecution, and new appointees to the territory’s federal courts began in earnest a judicial crusade against polygamists. Following the lead of Church President John Taylor, many Mormon men and women went underground in an effort to elude federal marshals and nearly certain imprisonment.  Sixteen-year-old Nancy Clement Williams entered plural marriage” at a dark hour for the Saints when persecution against the principle raged on it highest.” Like others, she traveled to neighboring communities, hid out in friend’s homes, and used assumed names. Some Saints left Utah and nearby Idaho, where the “raid” against Mormons also raged. When John Taylor visited Mormon settlements in Arizona, he found similar legal persecution underway and advised Saints there to leave the county. Eventually Nancy and Fredrick Williams were among those who went to Mexico; others fled to Canada.

Women’s Voices-An Untold History of The Latter-day Saints 1830-1900 (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1982), 340.

The Maximum Sentence for Polygamy

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Even though many men served 6 month prison terms for cohabitation, what was the maximum allowable sentence for polygamy under the law?

a.                  1 year and $100

b.                  5 years and $500

c.                   4 years and $400

d.                  2 years and $200

Yesterday’s answer:

A   Marriage

From the life of Martha Cragun Cox:   I had fallen into keeping company with a young man of no very lofty ambition nor striking virtues but had agreeable manners—liked to dance and have a good time, and my family made no objection to our associations. I knew him to be a tippler of wine though I had never known him to get drunk. The fact that he loved wine and that his father was a drunkard did not disturb me much and I gave him reason to expect I would stay by him and marry him, but a conversation I had had once with McCarty on the subject of my marriage would come to me sometimes with such force that it finally took lead in my mind especially when I saw the sparkle in his eyes when he quaffed a glass of wine. McCarty had said to me at the time mentioned that if I marries a man who loved whisky as well as my father loved it I could not hope to have a posterity whose natural endowments would be equal to that even of the mediocre among men. I knew enough of the Gospel to realize that responsibility of parenthood and the condemnation I would be under in imposing this curse on my posterity. Again, I had many time said with much earnestness that if a husband ever came home to me drunken and abusive as some men in St. George did to their wives, “I would kill him.” And I fully believed that I would do it. Though I knew that no murdered could enter the celestial kingdom.

Women’s Voices-An Untold History of The Latter-day Saints 1830-1900 (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1982), 276-277.

Struggling with the Decision

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What decision was St. George pioneer Martha Cragun Cox struggling with?

a.                  Marriage

b.                  Return to Salt Lake City

c.                   Whether she should be sealed to her current husband in the newly built St. George Temple

d.                  Moving to California

Yesterday’s answer:

D   Titles to their Missouri or Kirtland properties

Missouri Saints in exile in Quincy, Illinois, through the winter of 1838-39 began to leave that place in the spring and travel seventy miles up the Mississippi River to newly selected gathering sites in Hancock County, Illinois, and Lee County, Iowa. There Church leaders had secured for the Church thousands of acres, and many Saints were trading titles to their abandoned Missouri lands or Kirtland property for lots in the area. Commerce, Illinois, rapidly became the central gathering place, and during the summer of  1839 Saints renamed the settlement “Nauvoo,” a word of Hebraic derivation signifying according to Joseph Smith, a beautiful, restful location.

Women’s Voices-An Untold History of The Latter-day Saints 1830-1900 (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1982), 117.