Archibald Andrew Brown's Death

Last month, while looking through the bookshelves at the Tennessee State Library and Archives, I saw a book titled Death Notices from the Hickman County Pioneer Newspapers 1878-1893. Now, to just about anyone else that would probably call for a yawn. But , the Hickman County Pioneer was probably the primary news source for Hickman County and the northern parts of Lewis County as well. Since that includes Cane Creek, I figured the deaths at the Cane Creek Massacre would probably be in there. At the very least the death of David Hinson, a Hickman County resident would be in there.

Well, they weren't and he wasn't. It makes me wonder. What would be big enough to be considered news. I've gone back and looked at the microfilm for the Hickman Pioneer. There is a news story about it, but there are also many missing issues. The Pioneer was a weekly paper. But several of the weeks are just not there. That makes me think Nothing on the Massacre, and no obituary for David Hinson.

But I did find one on Archibald Andrew Brown. By a coincidence Arch Brown was one the mobbers identified by John Garrett. According to the obituary, he died on November 27, 1884 of Typhoid Fever. Which reminded me of the handfull of newspaper articles describing the fate of the mobbers. Some of the "fates" decribed have been gruesome. I'm not one to believe that God punishes us mortals in this life for our bad choices. I think he reserves that for the next life. So I read the "fates" of the mobbers with a healthy dose of doubt. But this is one I have been able to verify from an independent source.

Letter of Recommendation

I was looking through some documents I collected a year ago and found this one. Published on September 29 1900, the Latter Day Saint Southern Star included this letter signed by a number of those who knew the Missionaries who died at Cane Creek and knew their character.

The letter is interesting on a couple of points. First is that it refutes the claim that Elder Gibbs was guilty of the immorality of which he was accused. Specifically there was an anonymous letter in 1884 printed in newspapers around Tennessee which claimed Elder Gibbs was seducing women he had baptized and that this was the cause of the Massacre. The letter I post here is an important statement from those who would have been in the position to know the truth. (All this came back to the public attention when B H Roberts was denied a seat in congress)

The second point is far more interesting to me (since I was already pretty sure of the first point). This was not an anonymous letter. The five people listed below all lived in Tennessee at the time. In fact they lived in Lewis County, three of them lived at Cane Creek, and they all felt strongly enough about the importance of the gospel that they were willing to put their names on such a letter. Newspaper articles had claimed that every Mormon who had not left Cane Creek had renounced the LDS Church. This letter shows that there were still people at Cane Creek who believed in the restored gospel.

To whom it may concern
With the view of correcting the erroneous ideas which seem to be prevalent regarding the Cane Creek tragedy the undersigned being personally acquainted with the whole affair solemnly bear our testimony to the effect that not only was it an event absolutely uncalled for but was wholly and perfectly out of order The men who were thus called to yield up their lives for the sake of what they believed to be the Gospel were to the best of our knowledge honest upright straightforward and virtuous men Never in all our experience with them did we see anything in their characters unbecoming perfect gentlemen and true servants of their Master. The many evil reports circulated about them were to our knowledge entirely without foundation And we are forced to say that they were innocent and defenseless men martyred in cold blood.

 The mob who perpetrated the cowardly deed was composed of men who had neither respect for themselves nor regard for the rights and privileges of others. They were intolerant. They were ignorant. They were barbarious. And they premeditatedly and without the least cause committed the crime which now brands them as cowards and murderers.

Elisha Talley, Malinda Condor, Bannister Talley, Mary Ann Sealey, Wm. J. Condor

Local history research is meeting people

I went to a baptism the other day. Turns out the person's parents were well known not only in my local ward, but throughout the Stake. The Stake President stopped by, members of the high council, a past Stake President. Turns out the family had been members for a several generations. After the service I started meeting the people who had come to celebrate the momentous occation. In the midst of the conversations I met descendents of people I had been researching. I also learned a couple things I wanted to share

1. Talk to people. Introduce yourself and start a conversation. I am pretty introverted. Left to my own devices I will quite happily never say hello to a stranger. It is wonder I ever got married, let along got a date. But that is story for another day.

2. Shut up and listen. I actually had to fight the urge to show off what I knew. It even got worse as someone would say something obviouosly wrong. But I heard a little voice in my head say shut up and listen. I'm glad I did.

For example, when Hayden Church heard the gospel from a missionary visiting Duck River, Tennessee, in 1840, he decided "if you want the purest water, go to the source" so he went to Nauvoo to meet Joseph Smith. I love that expression, but had I said "Oh I know that story" I would not have heard it told just that way.

So if you are interested in local historical research, talk to people, get them talking, then shut up and listen.

Zachariah & Phebe Evans

In the Friend on May 2007, VaLynn Grant Woolley wrote an article called “Standing Up for Faith,” I wondered about the details of the story. She gave no last names of the members. No locations to speak of other than it happened in Tennessee. It was a great story, but it was miserable not really history [no details]. So I intend to fill in some of the details. Due to copyright restrictions I won't reprint the story here. But you can read it here.

The story told of the Evans Family who lived in Tennessee through the eyes of 4 year old John. John's father, Zachariah Evans was baptized by Elder John H. Gibbs on 14 Oct 1883, the second baptism of his mission. Born on 26 July 1830 to David & Eliza Evans in Greenville South Carolina, Zachariah moved with his family to Houston County Tennessee. There he met Phoebe Murphy whom he married on 11 July 1869.

By the time they met the missionaries in the spring of 1883, they had four living children, and had recently lost twin girls. Zachariah was baptized first, followed by Phoebe a month later and the three oldest children a month after that. Their last child, born in 1885 was a boy. They named him John Gibbs Evans in honor of the slain missionary who taught them the gospel.

Four years later, as the story was told, their family forced them to leave their Tennessee home and make their way to Zion.

Lewis County LDS Church Membership in 1910

Another recent find in my research was a list of LDS Church members in Tennessee by county compiled in 1910. I noticed recently that a few stakes made such a survey of local membership at about the same time. I wonder if this was a mandate from the Church leadershipt in Salt Lake.

By 1910, the membership of Lewis County had dropped considerably. Most had either left for Colorado following the Massacre or had renounced their membership in the Church. A few remained true and their names are recorded in 1910. I added the baptism date if I could find it from other sources.

  1 Oct 1879 Conder, William James
  4 Feb 1884 Conder (Carroll), Malinda
  4 Feb 1884 Conder, Rachel Ann
12 May 1884 Conder, Lavicia Jane
27 Dec 1897 Carroll, Marshall S.
  9 Feb 1898 Carroll, Henrietta
12 Jun 1899 Carroll, George Wesley
12 Jun 1899 Carroll, Viola Anne
12 Jun 1899 Carroll, John Richard
                    Bastian Talley

Of course, if you have been reading here long you will recognize the Conder family. They left Lewis County right after the Massacre in 1884. They probably went to Perry County where James' brother lived. The home they left behind had been burned down sometime before 1895. By 1900 the whole family were living in Lewis County again. And in 1910 they appeared on the roles of the Mormon Church. James Conder would pass away in 1911. Malinda would die in 1916. Rachel never married. Visey (Lavicia) Conder married Will Haley. Their children were never baptized.

The Carroll family are all siblings, the children of John Thomas Carroll (the nephew of Malinda Carroll) and Juda Pope. John and Juda were baptized in May 1884, and were still living in 1910. For unknown reasons, John and his wife do not appear on Mormon Church records that year. The next generation after these five children also did not appear on church records. To be honest, though, I'm starting to get into the area of living people. I'm not very good at tracking living people.

Bastian Talley is the only person I haven't identified. He may be the 12 year old son of George Thomas Talley called Basha or Basty in the 1910 or 1900 Census. George was baptized in 1884 by Elder Gibbs. The next baptism would be George's brother Horace Cooper Talley in 1949.

Was Parson John Vandiver in the Mob?

Was Parson Vandiver in the mob that killed four Mormons in 1884 in an event now called the Cane Creek Massacre?

Parson John Hunter Vandiver (Vandever?) is identified in Belnap’s journal, though not as one of the vigilantes. He met with the Elders on March 9th 1880 and preached against them then. He is also in John H Gibbs’ journal. Gibbs and Vandiver got into a verbal argument. He appears in the Hickman Pioneer, under the name J. H. Vandeveer as preaching at Indian Creek the Sunday before June 13th 1884. He appears in John Nicholson’s discourse as John Clayton Vandiver as the primary mover of the Red Hot Address. He also appears in a list of Lewis county marriages as solemnizing more than one marriage under the name John H Vandiver. Plus he shows up as the first postmaster at Hohenwald (with Ruben Mathis as the first mail carrier).

It has been speculated that Vandiver was one of the vigilantes. George J. Woodbury made this claim in an interview with Deseret News. Mormons in other areas who experienced persecution often found ministers leading the way. In addition, Vandiver was at the front of anti-Mormon verbal attacks. But all this falls short of an actual accusation. In the same article we find this note.

John Vandiver, one of the mob, who was a rather noted Baptist preacher in that region and did all he could previous to the massacre to stir up a murderous feeling, by going around the country reading the villainous "Red Hot Address" published in the salt Lake Tribune to his congregations, was last year excommunicated from his church for rape, but was afterwards reinstated on declaring publicly to his congregation that the victim of his outrage was as much to blame as he was. Since then he has been preaching away as hard as ever, with undiminished popularity.

Another article describes the "news" from a lady who had lately arrived from the area of the Massacre.

The sister gave me some interesting details concerning the mobocrats. It appears that Parson Vandever, the person referred to in Elder Nicholson's lecture, the leader of the mob, and the person who catechised Elder Jones upon religious questions, has gone crazy and is a complete mental wreck.

John Vandiver was actually from Lawrence county, just south of Lewis County, where he was also a Baptist minister. He was married to Martha Roberts and they had two children, William and Martha. By 1880 his children have grown up he has moved to Hohenwald where in 1883 he marries a widow by the name of Mary Ann Hinson. I haven't figured out how she is related to the rest of the Hinsons in Lewis County. That would explain his association with the Hinsons.

According to Vandiver family records he died in 1931 at the age of 105. If for no other reason than his age, I would love to see that documentation. I'm not saying I doubt the family, but it is rather incredible.

Cane Creek Membership list

Below is a list of members (and possible members) of the Cane Creek Branch before it dissolved following the Massacre. Where I have identified the baptism date I have included it. Where I do not know the baptism date, I have estimated it but with a "?" where I am unsure about the exact date. The names with an "*" after them had emigrated to Utah or Colorado prior to the Massacre. In total I have 49 names. Twelve had already left Tennessee leaving me with 37 possibly at the Massacre.

According to the Utah Journal, the branch had 31 members at the time of the Massacre, 22 of which were baptized by Elder Gibbs. If I drop off the six I think were baptized in 1882 but for which I do not have a clear baptism date, my numbers match. The problem is I know there were more. At the very least, Lizzie Garrett, if not a couple more. So the list still needs work.

Anyway, if we add the unbaptized children of the member families plus at least one family who were just visiting (the Webbs). It starts to look like quite a crowd of people who were probably there on the day of the Massacre.

20 Jun 1879 Blanton, Burwell*
20 Jun 1879 Blanton (Tatum), Emily*
20 Jun 1879 Whitewell, Susan Palthena*
21 Sep 1879 Talley, Elisha Freeland
21 Sep 1879 Talley (Hudson), Barbara Ellen
1 Oct 1879 Conder, William James
1 Oct 1879 Lancaster, John M.
22 Nov 1879 Lancaster, Rachel*
22 Nov 1879 Lancaster (Talley), Sarah Elizabeth
28 Jan 1880 Talley, Leona
28 Jan 1880 Depriest, James Houston*
28 Jan 1880 Depriest (Talley), Margaret Eisabel*
28 Jan 1880 Depriest, Thomas Walker*
28 Jan 1880 Depriest (Talley), Margaret Ellen*
8 Feb 1880 Depriest, Pleasant W.
8 Feb 1880 Depriest (Talley), Martha E.
20 Jun 1880 Lancaster, Elizabeth
? Sep 1880 Whitwell, John Marshall*
? Sep 1880 Whitwell, Osce Jackson*
12 Dec 1881 Westbrook, John Douglas*
? ? 1882 Bastin, J. Tom
? ? 1882 Talley, James "Poole"
? ? 1882 Talley (Lancaster), Sarah Elizabeth
? ? 1882 Shaw, Lavina*
? ? 1882 Banks, [Brother]
? ? 1882 Garrett, Elizabeth C
30 Jan 1884 Lancaster, Jesse Witfield
3 Feb 1884 Winters, William
4 Feb 1884 Conder (Carroll), Malinda
4 Feb 1884 Conder, Rachel Ann
4 Feb 1884 Hudson, John Riley
6 Apr 1884 Talley (Morehead), Eliza "Lies"
20 Apr 1884 Sealy, William
20 Apr 1884 Sealy (Talley), Mary Ann
20 Apr 1884 Winters (Hudson), Lucretia
20 Apr 1884 Winters, L. Catherine
20 Apr 1884 Turner, Nancy "Josie"*
11 May 1884 Talley, Andrew Jackson
11 May 1884 Willis, William
11 May 1884 Willis, Fanny Martha Angeline
12 May 1884 Conder, Lavicia Jane
12 May 1884 Conder, William Martin
12 May 1884 Winters, Lewis Sherman
12 May 1884 Winters, Joel
12 May 1884 Talley, George Thomas
25 May 1884 Carroll, John Thomas
25 May 1884 Talley, Banester "Bash"
26 May 1884 Carroll (Quillin), Sarah Jane
26 May 1884 Carroll (Pope), Juda Clemant

Confessions of a Mormon History Geek

Hi, my name is Bruce and I am a Mormon history geek. [Hi Bruce] I got excited when I heard the Joseph Smith Papers were going to be published. My favorite Christmas present was a copy of Making Sense of the Doctrine and Covenants by Steven C. Harper. I have willingly spent many lunch hours at the Tennessee State Archives in front of a microfilm reader looking at newspapers printed over a hundred years ago, in the hope of finding a previously unknown reference to Mormons. The last daytrip I took my family on was to the site of the Cane Creek Massacre where four Mormons were killed while attending church in 1884. If you think I should get a life, my wife would heartily agree. [OK, that’s not really true. My wife is very supportive. But let’s not allow the truth to get in the way of a good story.]

Mormons love their history. Maybe it has something to do with identifying our ancestors for temple work. Maybe it’s because historical events define us as being different from other churches. The apostasy and the restoration are historical event s. The truth of the Book of Mormon rests on its being a genuine (if incomplete) history. And it doesn’t stop there. We believe in the literal resurrection of Christ. That Adam, Noah and Abraham were real people. Our religion is joined at the hip to the real world. Everything is spiritual, even our history.

But I’m not a real historian. I’m more like the football fan that plays in the Elders’ Quorum Thanksgiving morning mudbowl game. I’m an amateur. To make up for what I don’t know I troll Mormon History Blogs. My personal favorite is Keepapitchinin. It is well written but not over-my-head academic like [an unspecified blog I try to read and understand]. Plus it doesn’t have the drama going on at [a different unspecified blog I read only sometimes anymore]. I’d be embarrassed if someone tried to compare me to Juanita Brooks or Leonard Arrington. In fact, I have two secret fears when it comes to Mormon history.

My first fear is that the next time I ask for some rarely used manuscript kept locked up in the climate controlled vault the archivist is going to look me in the eye and “know” that I’m not a real historian. In that moment I will be judged “not worthy” to gaze upon the secret knowledge and I’ll hear the words “no book for you” just like the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld. Of course it has never happened. But it might.

My second fear is that people will find out I don’t really know that much about church history. Oh sure, I know a few things. Mostly stuff I found out when someone tried to shake my testimony by revealing some deep dark secret from church history. I could almost feel their disappointment as I would say “Really? That’s so cool!” Of course, the details I would dig up would never match the story I was just told. Well, almost never matched. Presentation is everything. If you’ve heard that I tell my kids about an elf named “Claws” that sneaks into our house at night once a year to hide black rocks in the clothes of my naughty children, you might not want to visit my home next Christmas.

So what is your fascination with Mormon History? Does it consume your life? Do you lose sleep at night worrying that Marlin K. Jensen will be released as Church Historian and we will go back to the days of ”some things that are true are not very useful”? Do you fret over having missed the in-person crossfire between Will Bagley, Forrest Cuch, and Richard Turley about the Mountain Meadows Massacre? [They were actually very polite] You know who you are. Stand up, tell us you first name, and say “I am a Mormon History Geek.”

[Bruce has been playing at historian since before high school. He prefers the word “amateur” to geek.]

James Walter Eardley

James Walter Eardley was born in Salt Lake City, Utah on December 1st, 1854 to James Eardley and Zurviah G. Fuller. On October 30th, 1878, he married Catherine Adella Woolley. Catherine was born in Salt lake City on July 31st 1857 to Samuel A Woolley and Catherine E. Mehring. They had a son, Roscoe W. Eardley, before James was called to serve a mission to the Southern States.

James Eardley officially began his mission on October 11th, 1880, but didn’t leave Utah until after November 23, 1880. His wife would give birth to their second son Walter H. Eardley on August 6th, 1881 while James was on his mission.

James spent much of his early mission west of Nashville, working in and around Henry County, Tennessee. His first companion was Richard C. Camp. He also worked with Daniel R. Bateman, Hyrum Belnap, Thomas Merrill, William O. Beesley, and B. H. Roberts. In the later part of his mission he worked south of Nashville including in Cane Creek and Shady Grove.

On July 22nd, or perhaps the 29th, in 1882, James baptized a 14 year old girl named Mary Belle Bryant. Mary was born on August 29, 1868, Williamsport, Tennessee to William D. Bryant and Sallie E. W. Church. William had been a member of the Church since 1875. And although I can’t find a baptismal date for Sallie, her father had been a member since 1871 and her mother since 1879.

He later encouraged her to come to Utah. She worked for the family and became a second wife in [February 20th] 1888, two years before the Manifesto [in 1890]. (Jessee)

James and Catherine had four more children. Villette F. Eardley (1883), Mehring V. Eardley (1886), Catherine A. (1889), and Carol A. Eardley (1895) all born in Salt Lake City.

James was well respected by Mary Belle’s family. In 1898, her brother, Robert Emmons Bryant, named his first child, a girl, Eardley Belle Bryant after James Walter and Mary Belle Eardley.

James eventually moved to Oregon with his second wife. Catherine Adella and her children stayed in Salt Lake City. ... The reasons for the change have not been passed along but there has always been a family tradition that the plural marriage was a trial for Catherine Adella. (Jessee)

James and Mary had three children.
-Myron Whitney Eardley (1894) Whitney, Idaho
-Walter Bryant Eardley (1895) Whitney, Idaho
-David William Eardley (1904) Baker, Oregon

In Baker Oregon, James went into the lumber business.

[He] was ordained a High Priest Sept. 29, 1912, by Franklin S. Bramwell, and ordained [the] Bishop [of the Baker Ward, Union Stake, Oregon] April 3, 1921, by Rudger Clawson (LDS Biographical Encyclopedia, vol. 4, p. 654), a position he held at least until 1930 when his biography was published.

On his 83rd birthday, December 1st, 1937 James W. Eardley passed away in Baker, Oregon.

Josie Turner's Baptism

When Elder Jones, who survived the Cane Creek Massacre gave a newspaper interview about his involvement, he described what he considered to be the start of the trouble.

We held several meetings on Cane Creek since that time, and at one of them, about four months ago, an intelligent young lady was baptized. This attracted much attention, and about two hundred persons came from different parts of the country to see if it could really be true that she was about to espouse so despised a cause as 'Mormonism.' Her father had been a friend to us, though inclined to infidelity; he never opposed her being baptized in the least. We baptized four others at the same time, and this was no doubt one of the chief causes of the bitter enmity against us. Several threats were made after this occurred.

Two weeks subsequently we had another meeting published, but the Saturday night before it occurred, the mob burned down our meeting house, ...

I had always wondered how I would identify this young lady, but had not had any luck. Now, with some additional notes from the John H Gibbs Collection, and the fixed date of the meeting house burning down, I have it. This young lady was Nancy Josephine Turner, or Josie as she was called.

Mr Turner always considered education as very important. He even built a school house for his children to attend. And when they were older, he kept a second house in Hohenwald for his children to live at when they attended school there. And Josie was indeed intelligent. After Josie went to Utah, she was valedictorian at Brigham Young College in 1890.

Mr Turner never joined the church even though he was very much a friend. When the Massacre drove other friends of the saints to leave Tennessee, the Turners went to Oklahoma, not Utah, probably because he felt he would not be welcome for the same reason he was never baptized.

It is nice that the pieces of the puzzle are starting to fall together.

A Public Debate

On May 15, 1881 in Shady Grove, Tennessee, Elder Hyrum Belnap was challenged to a public debate by Reverend J. M. Moulton, a Campbellite minister. According to Belnap, Elders were encouraged to avoid public debates since they would lead to mob violence if the minister found himself beaten. During this first meeting Reverend Moulton treated Elder Belnap and Spence kindly so they concented and set a date for the public debate three weeks later on July 5th & 6th

On the day of the debate Elder Belnap records what happened.

July 5. After breakfast we went out in a nice little grove, the place where Reverend J. M. Moulton and I were to have a public debate. This is just on the line between Hickman and [Maury] Counties. Brother Treadway here introduced us to Squire Frierson, the gentleman who had been chosen chairman of our debate, “Does the Bible Sustain the Doctrine Taught by the Latter Day Saints?”

At 10:00 o’clock the chair called order and I took the stand and affirmed the subject, proving same from the scriptures. Rev. Moulton took the negative, read nothing from the scriptures, but resorted to abuse of the Mormons from reports he had heard. Said that the Mormons were not the only people who believed in revelation. Spoke of Mohammed. I objected, as we were to confine our proof from the Bible. The chair sustained the objection. This very much excited the gentleman and he was unable to collect himself until his time was up. An adjournment was taken until 3:00 o’clock.

At 3:00 o’clock order was called and I opened, proving each assertion [from] the Bible as I went along. The woods were just full of people form all over the country. They seemed very much interested. This gave us an opportunity to read from the scriptures the principles of the gospel to the people, also to show them Biblical proof of the divinity of the Book of Mormon.

As the Reverend Moulton arose he began reading parts of the scriptures, part of one verse and part of another, making them read as he desired. Then he would explain what this and that meant, not allowing the scriptures to speak for themselves, as I did. Then he resorted to sarcasm and abuse as if he were fairly going mad. At the close I tried to get him to let us continue the same subject that evening, but he declined.

July 6. At 10:00 o’clock we were again at our post. This day the subject was, “Is the Doctrine of the Christian Church (to which he belonged) in Accordance with the New Testament?” He affirmed this subject. Moulton showed forth repentance and baptism by immersion. O. K., but he stopped here. It was my privilege to show that this was a small part of the gospel taught in the New Testament.

At 3:00 o’clock he acknowledged that I had explained the gospel principles correctly as Jesus taught them, but there had now come a more excellent way of perfection. In my answer, it was the opportunity of my life to show the people the acknowledgement of the Reverend that Jesus taught one doctrine for salvation and that my friend Moulton had another, then put the question squarely, which plan should we follow, the one given by Jesus or the more excellent way taught by man, even the Reverend himself. Here compared the two doctrines and stated to them that they could all follow the Reverend Moulton, if they chose, but as for me I preferred to follow Jesus Christ and the plan of salvation taught by him. The judge did not call me when the time arrived. The people were so interested they seemed to have forgotten and I must acknowledge that the Lord blessed me as He never had before with language to express myself and with the spirit of testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. At night I came over with W. Hunt

Elder Belnap did not record any mob violence at Shady Grove following the debate.

New York Times

Another useful tool for research is the New York Times Archive. At one time the NYT was the closest thing to a national newspaper the United States had.
Like some news sources today we may not always agree with the content, but it has considerable value regardless.

The Archive is free for articles from 1851-1980. It provides a .pdf file you can save to your hard drive. The search interface is fairly simple and easy to use. Give it a try. I have used it to find articles on Mormon activity in Tennessee.

Manuscript Editing

I have been asking a few of my friends who are not history geeks to read over a manuscript I have been putting together about the Cane Creek Massacre. To be honest, letting other people read it has been a painful experience. I know that sounds odd coming from a person who writes a blog, but somehow print media is different than online publishing.

The first person who read it was at one point a professional editor. I asked her to be brutally honest, and she was. It needs a bit of work. But her advice was invaluable. Among other things, I need to help the reader care about the people whose story I am telling. There are a lot of details, and a lot of people moving in and out of the story. I know who they are, but the reader probably doesn't. And my editor friend certainly didn't. She said that as she was reading it she didn't know why she should care about the various people. She knew nothing about them. They weren't real to her.

That is part of what I was afraid of, and why I haven't asked others who already know a bit about the events to take look at it.

The second person who read it was a fiction writer. She was much kinder about the problems with the manuscript, which was a little disappointing, but said some similar things. She felt I didn't give the reader a chance to get to know the people before the conflict started. I had placed biographies of each of the people involved at the back of the book. She feels that is too late. She suggested merging their individual stories into the narrative.

Do any of you have advice about writing a manuscript? Perhaps obsevations about the nuanced differences between online publishing and print media.

Are you a descendent of one of these missionaries?

Below I have listed a handful of missionaries I know served in or near Cane Creek between 1878 and 1884. They are in roughly chronological order. Some of these I have located and made copies of their journal. A few I have located and read but was not allowed to make copies. Many I haven't even started to look for yet. I know that there is a wealth of information about the people living at Cane Creek that is hidden only because we don't know about it. If your ancestor is here, I'd love to talk with you about any mission stories they might have passed down.

Edward Stevenson Jr. (Yes, the pioneer. His journals are publicly available at CHL)

Thomas S. Higham

Joseph Argyle (His journal is at the CHL. I got a copy from a member of the Argyle family)

Martin Garn - Sugar House,Salt Lake, Utah (Available at CHL but only to descendants)

Franklin Spencer - Richfield Sevier, Utah

George H Carver - Plane City, Utah (Available at CHL but only to descendants)

Lorenzo Hunsaker - Honeyville, Box Elder, Utah

Daniel R Bateman - (Does anyone know if this is this the same Daniel R. Bateman named in some of the FLDS documents?)

Hyrum Belnap - Hooper, (I have this from Belnap family Website)

George Bartholomew

Brigham Henry Roberts (I have much of what he wrote, but not his mission journal. He didn't keep one for the year 1884, but may have written about the people when he was there in 1883. Still looking around.)

Richard C. Camp

John R. Murdock

James W. Eardley

Robert S. Spence

Reynold Alexander Crump - Fort Herriman, Utah

Joshua Hawks

Joshua Taylor

William Oxley Beesley - of Provo, Utah

Joseph W. Thatcher

Joseph Ford

Alphonzo Snow

James T. Hammond

missing gap - I'm sure there are a few missionaries in 1882-83 I have not yet identified]

Thomas Hazen Merrill - Richmond, Utah

Edwin Ruthven Miles - Smithfield, Utah

Willard H Robinson

Willis Eugene Robison (online at MMD)

Henry Bronson Thompson (his mission journals for his second mission to Scotland are at U of U, I haven't found anything for his first mission)

John Henry Gibbs (4 of the 5 are online at MMD, last one at BYU)

William Shanks Berry (I have this from CHL)

William Howell Jones