Full Citation

Title: Layered Lives: Boston Mormons and the Spatial Contexts of Conversion

Citation Type: Journal Article

Publication Year: 2016

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ISSN:

DOI: 10.5406/jmormhist.42.2.0168

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Abstract: On June 24, 1879, an “immense throng of people crowded” on a train platform in Salt Lake City to go on a much-anticipated excursion. The event had been planned for weeks as a gesture of appreciation for the elderly Mormons, and it was of no small proportions. Just over four hundred people “over 70 years of age” filled eleven train cars for their trip to American Fork. Most of the aged who boarded the train had known the “early days”: Joseph Smith, the gathering, the mobs, the first temple, the introduction of plural marriage, the Prophet’s assassination, the power shuffle after his death, the schisms, and the ascent of Brigham Young. This generation was slowly, but surely disappearing. The event was aimed at honoring the elderly. But it was clear that the event planners also sought to capture these elderly Saints’ evaporating memories. Mormons had lost many in their search for a center, but these “old folks” were the survivors and the faithful. They had successfully navigated the path from the . . .

Url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/jmormhist.42.2.0168

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Authors: Allison, Christopher M. B.

Periodical (Full): Journal of Mormon History

Issue: 2

Volume: 42

Pages: 168-213

Data Collections: IPUMS NHGIS

Topics: Other

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