REPRESENTATIVE
WOMEN OF DESERET,
A BOOK OF
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES,
TO ACCOMPANY THE PICTURE BEARING THE SAME TITLE.
COMPILED AND WRITTEN BY
AUGUSTA JOYCE CROCHERON,
Author of "WILD FLOWERS OF DESERET;"
AND DEDICATED TO
The originals of this Picture and Book, their co-laborers in the
Church, and every true heart that will receive
their testimonies.
O, Spirits dear! Ye light the path
That else were lone and dim;
I follow where your sainted feet
Lead onward, up to Him,
And hear above life's discords, still,—
Your heav'n inspired hymn.
SALT LAKE CITY:
PRINTED BY J. C. GRAHAM & CO.
1884.
INTRODUCTORY.
In presenting this picture, REPRESENTATIVE WOMEN OF DESERET, beforethe public, an explanation may be appropriate that the object may berightly understood. The picture is intended to represent the Latter DaySaints Women's Organizations rather than to draw attention to thoseintellectual gifts and acquirements which in this connection are butsecondary to the spiritual or missionary labors of those represented.As in Salt Lake City is the head of these organizations, so thesespiritual laborers were selected by the precedence they hold.
Throughout our Territory, indeed beyond, are many as sincere andfaithful, noble women, well deserving of every honor contained herein,but there is of necessity a limit in the present work and that whichwould have been a pleasure to the author became an impossibility atthis time, but it is the purpose in due season to present another workwhich will be of interest to our people.
It is not the purpose of the compiler of these sketches to present acomplete history of the subjects of the picture, to which this book ismerely an accompaniment to acquaint the many who are strangers to themwith their labors and their virtues, to show as it were, what mannerof people these "Mormons" are. To do full justice to the originalswould require more space and ability than are mine. But if the eyesof the stranger may thereby be opened to a knowledge of their purity,integrity and faith in God, their heroic firmness and the trials theyhave endured without wavering in allegiance to their cause; if any maybe convinced that this people are in earnest and in the right, andthat God is with them; if they can realize that for men, Mormonism isnot a cloak, a subterfuge and a selfish system; that our women are notfrom the dregs of civilization, led and controlled by stronger mindswithout a knowledge within themselves for their course, it will prove ajoy and delight, a sweet return for my humble but earnest efforts. O,that these truthful testimonies falling upon hearts that are as blocksof ice toward us, might, like burning bullets melt their way therein,until, like Joseph's brethren, they should weep for injuries these haveborne!
And to the young of our people, if this work shall cause them toappreciate their honored parents more by the nobility they have proven;if it shall cause them to weigh the object for which these sacrificeswere endured against the poor temptations of the present time; if theyshall question themselves, shall my parent's sacrifices count fornaught? shall their example and their labors be lost on me? their hopesmeet disappointment? If that command, "honor thy father and thy mother"shall prevail, and the sweet testimony of the Holy Spirit convince andstrengthen t