After finishing Harry I needed something to read that would be a departure. Franz asked me to read the journals of his great great somebody or other, Martha Spence Heywood. So, not thinking this would be very interesting, picked it up. I was wrong! They are so interesting! She tells of her early membership in the church, her efforts to get with a group going West, her time in the wagon train, then arriving in Salt Lake and later Settling in Nephi. What is interesting is that she is so feminist for her time, an Irish lay preacher, single. We always hear these romantic stories of hardship and faith on the trail, well she felt the other people in her group were horrible - talks of their plotting to upset her. The teamster tells her at one point that "I might go to Hell for all he cared, was not worth the rope that would hang me, that he had never before been as insulted by anyone as he had been by me for the last 600 miles". She talks of her husband to be as a good man but not interesting. She gives the inside scoop on polygamy, and expresses her concern that such young women be required to spend all their time rearing children and keeping house. She enjoyed more intellectual pursuits. Very interesting stuff here. After being sealed as a third wife to Heywood, the following day she is given a ring by another man who tells her he wanted her and they go off to a ball together and this is all okay. Still reading. I'll update later. The book is Not by Bread Alone and is one of the most important journal accounts of a pioneer polygamous woman.
Friday, 10 August 2007
Perhaps not a beauty...
After finishing Harry I needed something to read that would be a departure. Franz asked me to read the journals of his great great somebody or other, Martha Spence Heywood. So, not thinking this would be very interesting, picked it up. I was wrong! They are so interesting! She tells of her early membership in the church, her efforts to get with a group going West, her time in the wagon train, then arriving in Salt Lake and later Settling in Nephi. What is interesting is that she is so feminist for her time, an Irish lay preacher, single. We always hear these romantic stories of hardship and faith on the trail, well she felt the other people in her group were horrible - talks of their plotting to upset her. The teamster tells her at one point that "I might go to Hell for all he cared, was not worth the rope that would hang me, that he had never before been as insulted by anyone as he had been by me for the last 600 miles". She talks of her husband to be as a good man but not interesting. She gives the inside scoop on polygamy, and expresses her concern that such young women be required to spend all their time rearing children and keeping house. She enjoyed more intellectual pursuits. Very interesting stuff here. After being sealed as a third wife to Heywood, the following day she is given a ring by another man who tells her he wanted her and they go off to a ball together and this is all okay. Still reading. I'll update later. The book is Not by Bread Alone and is one of the most important journal accounts of a pioneer polygamous woman.
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5 comments:
True stories of the Mormon front, eh? Not a bad idea. It's nice to know that not all of the people on the trail were awesome and faithful and kind, but that some of them were creeps. It's also nice to know that I had some cool ancestors.
Please tell me she ran off with the guy who gave her the ring, and that they settled into a nice, monogamous marriage and lived happily ever after. Or I will be very sad.
I would like to read that when you are done, if I may. Sounds like a good read.
Christie...you will be very sad, for she stayed with our relative and was moderately happy. It is a good read though, very interesting and insightful.
The name doesn't ring a bell, but I will ask. Someone jsut spoke in our ward about women sufferagests(?) and how many early church women were quite active in womens rights. I loved hearing that there was such forward thinking in the early church. It is all very inspiring!
Reading this book has made me realise that just as there are Mormons with many different personalities, perspectives, political views etc. today so there were back then too. Nothing has changed really. We are still individuals, not always agreeing, but the bottom line being that we all believe in the Gospel.
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