The Work and the Glory (190 page)

“If thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high.” (See D&C 121:7, 8.)

In that same letter (the letter from which sections 121, 122, and 123 of the Doctrine and Covenants are taken), Joseph summed up how he saw what was happening to them: “Inasmuch as God hath said that He would have a tried people, that He would purge them as gold, now we think that this time He has chosen His own crucible, wherein we have been tried; and we think if we get through with any degree of safety, and shall have kept the faith, that it will be a sign to this generation, altogether sufficient to leave them without excuse; and we think also, it will be a trial of our faith equal to that of Abraham, and that the ancients will not have whereof to boast over us in the day of judgment, as being called to pass through heavier afflictions; that we may hold an even weight in the balance with them” (
History of the Church
3:294).

Thy Gold to Refine
covers only nine months of history, yet it is the longest, by several pages, of all the volumes so far in this series. It is my hope that when you, the reader, have finished reading this book, you will understand why. The story could not be told in any less detail and still do honor to those who lived it.

Vilate Chambers Raile captured the essence of what these wonderfully normal and completely unassuming pioneers of the Restoration did for us:

They cut desire into short lengths

And fed it to the hungry fire of courage.

Long after—when the flames died—

Molten gold gleamed in the ashes.

They gathered it into bruised palms

And handed it to their children

And their children’s children.

As cited in Asahel D. Woodruff,
Parent

and Youth
[Salt Lake City: Deseret Sunday

School Union Board, 1952], p. 122.)

Gerald N. Lund

Bountiful, Utah

August 1993

Characters of Note in This Book

The Steed Family

• Benjamin, the father and grandfather; age fifty-three as the book begins.

• Mary Ann Morgan, the mother and grandmother; fifty-one.

• Joshua, the oldest son; thirty-one as the book begins.

• Caroline Mendenhall Steed, Joshua’s wife; almost thirty-two as the story opens.

• William Donovan Mendenhall, Caroline’s son; fourteen.

• Olivia Mendenhall, Caroline’s daughter; about three and a half years younger than William.

• Savannah Steed, daughter of Joshua and Caroline; fifteen and a half months old as the story opens.

• Jessica Roundy Griffith, ex-wife of Joshua and now married to John Griffith; thirty-four as the book begins.

• John Griffith, husband of Jessica.

• Rachel, daughter of Joshua and Jessica; six years old as the story opens.

• Luke and Mark Griffith, sons of John from his first marriage; five and three years old, respectively, as the book begins.

• John Benjamin Griffith, son of John and Jessica; three and a half months old.

• Nathan, the second son of Benjamin and Mary Ann; twenty-nine.

• Lydia McBride, Nathan’s wife; almost twenty-nine as the story opens.

• Joshua Benjamin, older son of Nathan and Lydia; seven years old.

• Emily, older daughter of Nathan and Lydia; thirteen and a half months younger than Joshua.

• Nathan Joseph, younger son of Nathan and Lydia; not yet three years old.

• Elizabeth Mary, younger daughter of Nathan and Lydia; two months old.

• Melissa Steed Rogers, older daughter of Benjamin and Mary Ann; twenty-seven.

• Carlton Rogers, Melissa’s husband.

• Rebecca, younger daughter of Benjamin and Mary Ann; age twenty.

• Matthew, the youngest son of Benjamin and Mary Ann; two years younger than Rebecca.

Note:
Melissa and Carlton (“Carl”) Rogers have children, but they do not figure prominently in this volume.

The Smiths

• *  Joseph, Sr., the father.

• *  Lucy Mack, the mother.

• *  Hyrum, Joseph’s elder brother; almost six years older than Joseph.

• *  Mary Fielding, Hyrum’s second wife.

• *  Joseph, Jr., age thirty-two as the story opens.

• *  Emma Hale, Joseph’s wife; a year and a half older than Joseph.

• *  Lucy, Joseph’s youngest sister; about fifteen and a half years younger than Joseph.

•
Note:
There are other brothers and sisters to Joseph, but they play no part in the novel. Also, both Joseph and Hyrum have children that are mentioned briefly but who are not listed here.

Others

Obadiah Cornwell, Joshua’s business partner in Independence, Missouri.

Derek Ingalls, a factory worker from England; nearly twenty-one.

Peter Ingalls, Derek’s younger brother; fourteen.

• *  Heber C. Kimball, friend of Brigham Young’s and a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Nancy McIntire, a nonmember widow living outside of Gallatin, Missouri.

Jennifer Jo McIntire, older daughter of Nancy; sixteen years old.

Kathryn Marie McIntire, Jennifer’s sister; four years younger than Jennifer.

• *  Thomas B. Marsh, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

• *  Parley P. Pratt, an early convert and a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

• *  John Taylor, an early convert from Canada.

• *  Mercy Fielding Thompson, sister to Mary Fielding Smith.

• *  Brigham Young, an early convert and a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Though too numerous to list here, there are many other actual people from the pages of history who are mentioned by name in the novel. Sidney Rigdon, David W. Patten, Sampson Avard, Edward Partridge, Amanda Smith, and many others mentioned in the book were real people who lived and participated in the events described in this work.

Key to Abbreviations Used in Chapter Notes

Throughout the chapter notes, abbreviated references are given. The following key gives the full bibliographic data for those references.

•American Moses  Leonard J. Arrington,
Brigham Young: American Moses
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985.)

•By Their Fruits  Jeanine Fry Ricketts, comp. and ed.,
By Their Fruits: A History and Genealogy of the Fry Family of Wiltshire, England, and Their Descendants, Including the Allied Lines of Harwood, Ramsden, Toomer, Thruston, Bosen, and Maddox
(Salt Lake City: Privately published, n.d.)

•CHFT 
Church History in the Fulness of Times
(Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1989.)

•Far West Record
Far West Record: Minutes of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830–1844,
ed. Donald Q. Cannon and Lyndon W. Cook (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1983.)

•HC   Joseph Smith,
History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
ed. B. H. Roberts, 7 vols. (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1932–51.)

•HR   Milton V. Backman, Jr.,
The Heavens Resound: A History of the Latter-day Saints in Ohio, 1830–1838
(Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1983.)

•JD
Journal of Discourses,
26 vols. (London: Latter-day Saints’ Book Depot, 1854–86.)

•LHCK   Orson F. Whitney,
Life of Heber C. Kimball
(1888; reprint, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1992.)

•Mack Hist.  Lucy Mack Smith,
History of Joseph Smith by His Mother,
ed. Preston Nibley (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1954.)

•MFS Don Cecil Corbett,
Mary Fielding Smith: Daughter of Britain
(Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1966.)

•Persecutions   B. H. Roberts,
The Missouri Persecutions
(1900; reprint, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1965.)

•PPP Auto.   Parley P. Pratt,
Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt,
ed. Parley P. Pratt, Jr. (1874; reprint, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1985.)

•Redress 
Mormon Redress Petitions: Documents of the 1833–1838 Missouri Conflict,
ed. Clark V. Johnson (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1992.)

•Restoration Ivan J. Barrett,
Joseph Smith and the Restoration: A History of the Church to 1846
(Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1973.)

When through the deep waters I call thee to go,

The rivers of sorrow shall not thee o’erflow,

For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,

And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,

My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply.

The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design

Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.

.   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .

The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose

I will not, I cannot, desert to his foes;

That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,

I’ll never, no never, no never forsake!

—From “How Firm a Foundation”

Chapter 1

   Mary Ann Steed stepped out onto the small porch, slowly and carefully shutting the cabin door behind her. For a moment she stood there, letting the early-morning sunshine bathe her face, feeling the warmth of it on her skin, even though it was not yet six o’clock. Then, stepping quietly so as not to awaken those sleeping inside, she moved off the porch and out toward the front gate. She crossed the road to the split-rail fence that enclosed the pasture across from the cabin and for a moment watched the two milk cows that stood there. They gave her an inquiring look. Their udders were full to the bursting and the two animals were anxious that someone should come and relieve them.

She turned around and leaned against the rail, letting her head tip back. Off to the west a row of starchy white cumulus clouds lined up unevenly, ready to start their race eastward. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. A gentle breeze still carried the freshness of the night. The heat and humidity of the previous three days had softened somewhat, and the Missouri prairie seemed glad for the temporary respite.

Behind her, a meadowlark began its chirping, lilting cry. She opened her eyes and turned, trying to spot it. Mary Ann had once heard Lydia tell her children that if you listened very carefully to a meadowlark’s song, you could hear him singing the words, “Caldwell County is a pretty little place.” As Mary Ann listened now, she smiled. The rhythm of the words did perfectly fit the bird’s song. She sang along softly the next time the bird burst forth.

She straightened and turned back to face the cabin, pushing down a momentary twinge of guilt. She should be starting breakfast. It wouldn’t be long before the Steeds were up, and they would be hungry. All twenty-three of them! Her mouth pulled into a wry expression. Twenty-three. That’s how many were here now, if you counted Derek and Peter Ingalls as part of the family—which everyone did, especially now that Derek and Rebecca were talking about marriage in the spring.

Twenty-three!
Nine of them were children under the age of ten, and two of those were infants less than six months old. And all were crunched into two one-room cabins that were crowded even without extra guests. Nor was it as though they could turn to their neighbors for help. Tomorrow was the Fourth of July. Not only were the Saints going to have a grand celebration of the nation’s birthday, but Joseph had announced that they were also going to lay the cornerstones for a new temple in Far West. With the temple in Kirtland lost to the enemies of the Church, that news was greeted with great joy. Now virtually every Latter-day Saint within a radius of a hundred miles had come to town to be present. Far West was like Bethlehem on that first Christmas. Every home had two or three families crammed into it. There was not a vacant lot that wasn’t filled with tents or wagons or both. Not only was there no room at the inn, there was no room anywhere!

Not that Mary Ann would have had it any other way. She reached up and touched her face, remembering a few nights back when she had stood in front of the mirror and gazed at her reflection. She would be fifty-two years old in October. The lines were starting to show around her eyes and mouth, and the first touches of gray were spreading through her hair. She was starting to look more and more like a grandma. It had come to her then, there in front of the mirror, with a clarity so sharp it hurt, how fortunate she was. Many a frontier woman never lived to see forty, let alone fifty. Childbirth, disease, accident, and sometimes just the sheer exhaustion of trying to survive took a heavy toll on the women of America. How many women had she known personally who had never had the privilege of living to see their grandchildren? She could count a dozen or so easily. No doubt those women would gladly have accepted the extra work that came with feeding and housing twenty-three people if those twenty-three were family.