HISTORICAL NOTES
Warning!
The historical background below contains spoilers for At the Journey's End.
With one exception (noted), everything below is found in the book's notes section but in a slightly different order and format. But the notes were not included in the audio version, so those "readers" may find the background helpful.
19th Century Marriage
American Indians
Baptism Policy and Procedure
Book of Mormon Editions
Honeymoon Trail
Joseph Smith
Proxy Policies Then and Now — Not Included in Published Notes.
Real Stories Inspiring Fiction
Sam Harvey Lynching
Snowflake, Arizona
St. George Temple
Warren Johnson Family
19th Century Marriage
Marriages of convenience and necessity were common in this era. Living as a single woman was extremely difficult, especially if widowed and left with children. While Maddie's early view of marrying Edward must seem unromantic to twenty-first century readers, to her contemporaries, it was her notion of wanting to marry only for love that might have seemed silly and impractical.
About ten years prior to the story, diamonds became widely popular—and much more available—for wedding and engagement bands, so Edward may well have been able to get one for Maddie.
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American Indians
Geronimo was active during this period in Arizona, and other Native Americans and their tribes also lived in the area. History records many skirmishes between settlers and Indians which began for a variety of reasons, including intense emotions and confusion when government land was given to settlers and later returned to tribes. Several accounts exist of settlers—sometimes traveling the Honeymoon Trail—being attacked and sometimes killed by Indians.
The most tragic event I found related to Nathan Robinson, who died of a brutal shooting at the hands of some Apaches, then had his body dumped in a river and partially covered with rocks. Robinson wasn't traveling the trail at the time of his death, although the attack on Roland is based somewhat on these types of events. However, they generally happened farther south. To my knowledge, few, if any, skirmishes occurred at Lee's Ferry, and none are recorded after July 1883.
A common misconception is that Native Americans don't grow facial hair. While some grow none, others do. It is common, however, for Native Americans grow less than their European counterparts. Abe had much less of a beard than many men, but it's likely that after his travels he would have had arrived in Snowflake with some growth.
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Baptism Policy and Procedure
In my research for the first part of Abe's story in House on the Hill, Church historian Susan Easton Black explained some history to me in a personal e-mail. She indicated that during the era of Abe's childhood, it was common for children to be baptized without official interviews or other procedures that are in place today, and that Abe probably would have been baptized as a child regardless of his beliefs. That element played a part in the previous book, and of course had to play out in this one.
Re-baptism was practiced periodically as well, such as when the Saints first arrived in Utah and at other occasions when they wanted to renew their covenants. As a result, Abe's baptism as an adult would not have violated procedure, and as it stands, his baptism became a moment for him to actually make the covenants he had come to desire.
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Book of Mormon Editions
The editions of the Book of Mormon described in the book are accurate, including the size, color, shape, and so on. Ben gives Abe the 1879 edition, which was edited by Orson Pratt. According to BYU professor Royal Skousen, who has extensively studied every edition of the book, the 1879 edition also included, “Major changes in the format of the text included division of the long chapters in the original text, a true versification system (which has been followed in all subsequent LDS editions), and footnotes (mostly scriptural references).”
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The Honeymoon Trail
Much of the information I based this story on came from Arizona's Honeymoon Trail and Mormon Wagon Roads by Norma B. Ricketts. Until 1931, the trail, which started where many roads converged at Sunset Crossing, was generally referred to as the “Mormon Wagon Road.” Will C. Barnes renamed it the “Honeymoon Trail” in an article he wrote for Arizona Highways, and the name has stuck ever since.
According to Ricketts, Barnes's article talked about his cattle ranch from where he could watch Latter-day Saints traveling to the St. George Temple, camping together and enjoying themselves despite the difficult trek. While he was not a Latter-day Saint, he had great respect for the Saints who braved the journey to the temple because of their beliefs. Barnes served as a model for Murray York.
While most of my characters are not based on real people, to create character names, I often combined some of my favorite first and last names from individuals whose stories appear in Arizona's Honeymoon Trail and Mormon Wagon Roads. As such, similarities may exist between real settlers' names and those in the book, although they are coincidental and not intended to reflect people from history.
The only actual residents of Snowflake that appear in the novel are Bishop Hunt and his wife, and any words or actions given them are invented. He served as bishop in the area for over three decades and regularly performed marriages in his parlor.
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Joseph Smith
According to Church History in the Fulness of Times, Joseph Smith used crutches for three years following his leg surgery and “sometimes limped slightly thereafter” (page 23). When he was tarred and feathered, the same volume reports that, “[The mob] tried to force a vial of acid into his mouth, which chipped one of his teeth, causing him thereafter to speak with a slight whistle” (page 115).
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Proxy Policies Then and Now
Current Church policies for doing temple work on behalf of the dead require a one-year waiting period from the time of death.
Over the course of several months, I consulted several sources about this issue. All agreed that the policy would not have existed in the 1880s, but none could tell me when it was established. My efforts to get an answer with the Church History Library didn't pan out before the book went to press.
However, a few months later, a few weeks after it went to the printer, I received a lengthy email from the Church History Library with an answer to my query. According to the researcher who investigated for me, there is no evidence of the one-year policy existing prior to 1966. While I assumed my story was accurate, it was nice to get confirmation that Caroline would have been able to do temple work for Florence right away.
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Real Stories Inspiring Fiction
While reading Honeymoon Trail provided lots of ideas and inspiration, only two stories directly influenced the novel:
The first is about George Vernon Leavitt, an infant who grew gravely ill with pneumonia and was expected to die. His parents, who lived in Lehi, Utah, had the desire for him to be sealed to them. After a priesthood blessing, his health improved considerably, and the family was able to make the trip to the St. George Temple. Little George wasn't sick a single day of the arduous and long journey. The family was sealed, and they went home. Within weeks of their return, baby George relapsed. This time he passed away. His story inspired my portrayal of Clara's experience of illness, recuperation long enough to receive temple blessings, and her eventual relapse.
The other story was the timing of Abe's baptism, inspired by Abel Alexander DeWitt, who came through Utah on his way to California. He met the Mormons and fell in love with Margaret Miller Watson, whom he married. He was baptized two weeks after the wedding and declared he did it that way because, “I didn't want anyone to think I joined the Church to get the girl.” In 1879 he helped settle Arizona.
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Sam Harvey Lynching
Unfortunately, Sam Harvey really was lynched in Salt Lake City on August 25, 1883. The men who responded to the incident arrived thinking it would be a relatively simple arrest of a drunk for public disturbance. The most thorough account I found was written by Harold Schindler of the Salt Lake Tribune; this account is found in his collection of Utah history articles, In Another Time. I used this for my main source about the lynching.
While some of the specific details of the event were invented for the novel, the basic facts are correct: the murder of Bishop/Marshal Burt at the pharmacy, Wilcken and Elijah Able restraining Harvey (Abe was not there, of course), Wilcken being shot in the arm, the crowd following the wagon to the city hall, Sam being beaten inside when word of the murder reached the officers, Sam being dragged out into the jailhouse yard and, finally, lynched in the nearby stable shed.
Not mentioned in the scene is the further role of Officer Salmon. During the mob's chaos, W. H. Sells, a prominent Utahn, drove past in his buggy. He got out, unaware that Harvey had already died, and insisted the crowd leave Harvey's fate up to the courts. The mob responded with anger, rushing forward to string Sells up beside Harvey. Officer Salmon quickly grabbed Sells and locked him in a jail cell for his own protection. According to Schindler, the Herald (presumably The Daily Herald) reported that Salmon's quick thinking saved Mr. Sell's life. The mob didn't disperse until the mayor confronted them as they dragged Harvey's body onto State Street.
While some people claim that Harvey's gruesome death was due solely to anger over his killing a beloved bishop, other accounts seem to point to his race as playing a role, and that's obviously my position. There's a good chance that had he not been black, he would have lived long enough to face a judge and jury for his crime. In addition, he most likely would have been buried in the cemetery instead of beside it.
It is important to note that Church leaders were vocal in condemning anyone involved with the lynching.
In early drafts, I used the full name of Elijah Able and referred to him as Brother Able. But when my readers became confused between Able and Abe, I decided to refer to the former as simply Elijah or Brother Elijah.
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Snowflake, Arizona
Snowflake was known for its interest in the theater and performances. Since school festival-type events were common in the period in other locations, I assumed that they would have been particularly popular there.
The railroad through the upper half of Arizona was newly completed at the time Abe rode it from California. As a side note, the California city of Waterman is now known as Barstow.
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St. George Temple
The story behind the St. George Temple dome and tower is accurate, including the lightning strike and the rebuilding of the dome and tower—much taller, like Brigham Young originally wanted them. The renovation was completed in May 1883, just a few months before Clara would have entered the city and seen the temple for the first time.
For details about the St. George Temple, I relied heavily on History of the St. George Temple, a thesis written by Kirk M. Curtis at Brigham Young University. Many people were called to settle St. George, often based on their professions. In his thesis, Curtis lists those professions and how many of each were called. I found no medical personnel included. However, a doctor who also had carpentry experience made sense to me, so I took the liberty of giving Charles and Miriam Willis a call to settle the area because of his background.
Information about the temple lot's boggy soil and the cannon used as a pile driver on volcanic rock is found in many sources, including the thesis. According to Curtis, the water drainage system is still in place. Napoleon's abandoned cannon is on display at the St. George Temple visitors center.
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The Warren Johnson Family
Warren Johnson was the ferryman at Lee's Ferry most of the time that it was in operation. Eventually the family had twenty-one children between his two wives, Permelia and Samantha. The family members' names and ages at the time of this story are accurate, but their personalities and actions portrayed are purely out of my imagination.
The baby that Samantha carried at the time the Hamptons arrived turned out to be yet another girl. Samantha ended up with four more children, two boys and two girls. Permelia later had three more boys.
The story of the Johnson family's later tragedy has been mentioned numerous times in General Conference, so it may be familiar to some readers: In May 1891, a family came through Lee's Ferry after losing a child to diphtheria. They interacted with the Johnson children and infected them.
In spite of the Johnsons' intense fasting and prayers, several children succumbed. Before the end of May, a five-year-old son, Jonathan, died. In mid-June, young Permelia (then nine) and Laura Alice (seven; the newborn in this book) died within four days of each other. Melinda (then fifteen, nearly eight at the time of the novel) also became ill. She held on until July, when she passed away.
Permelia, Warren's first wife, was the mother of all four children who died. She had previously lost a son at birth, making five of her ten children who did not reach adulthood. Miraculously, baby Joseph Smith Johnson (also Permelia's) who was about two months old when the family was exposed, survived, living to 1975 and the age of 84.
Some accounts indicate that there wasn't a good camping location on the north side of Lee's Backbone. However, the Hampton party was small, and with the events of the story, it made sense to have them camp on the north side of the ridge, so I took the liberty of putting them there both on the night Roland died and again on the second trip as they journeyed back to Snowflake.
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