My Mom Just Made My Day!

It wasn't her excitement over the Keepa post for her Mothers Day gift. She reminded me that Mothers Day was a week away when I thought it was tomorrow. (Thanks, Mom) It was when I wheeled her into the garage for the shade while we waited for Dad to open the car to help her get in from the chair.

"Where did you get those plants?" She asked.

In Prison for Polygamy

President George Q. Cannon, seated center, George C. Wood, my Great-Great-Grandfather behind 
Pres. Cannon over right shoulder next to prison guard James A. Doyle in civilian dress.
Utah Territorial Prison, November 1888.

I've been working on a family history project with a cousin to transcribe the prison diary of our 2nd-Great-Grandfather, George C. Wood.  (My confession, unlikely to lead me to prison, is that I'm way behind on my part of the task. But as I haven't heard from my cousin for some time, she must be too. I'll get on it.)

It is an absolutely amazing story that is difficult to fathom. George C. Wood needs to have a book written about him which I may get to someday if I can get organized besides figuring how to get it past the family censors. It isn't really that scandalous - at least not by Utah family history standards. 

States' Rights Stink!

I admit that isn't very moderate, but it is passionate. And it wasn't me who came up with it.  Here's the quote: 

Moved by Joseph Smith, That every man in the meeting who could wield a pen write an address to his mother country. Carried.

Mayor [Smith] read the Memorial to Congress. The State rights doctrines are what feed mobs. They are a dead carcass --a stink, and they shall ascend up as a stink offering in the nose of the Almighty.

HIstory of the Church, Vol. 6 p. 95.

When I wrote my piece on Joseph Smith and States' Rights that was published in the Salt Lake Tribune a few months back, I didn't use the strongest quotes available. Brother Joseph was understandably incensed over the persecutions of the Saints by the State power of Missouri and the failure of the United States to provide any redress. His interpretations of the Constitution were rather strongly worded: