Great piece.

“I’m trying to picture a future general authority carrying around a sawed-off Enfield loaded with lead slugs” … in western Africa.

Wish we could collaborate, but I don’t think we have what you are asking for.

Was your great grandmother from Haywood Valley, Allison? Did she settle in Manassa, Colorado? I would be quite interested if you have any family history materials about her, particularly if she was associated with either of those areas, or if there were any family memories of the mission president at the time, John Morgan.

B.H. Roberts was, of course, more closely associated with the aftermath of the murders of Elders Berry and Gibbs and Martin Condor and J.R. Hudson at Cane Creek, Tennessee, and with fetching the bodies of Berry and Gibbs for burial in Utah. Bruce Crow has covered this event extensively on his blog Amateur Mormon Historian, which is listed on the sidebar.

But there is a marker where he died.

I’ll investigate further and thanks for the heads-up.

Allison in Atlanta

What a story you found again Ardis! And I can enjoy a thrill from the safety of my bedroom. Thank you for sharing your gift! Diane Peel

This experience undoubtedly prepared B.H. well for his Southern States mission and other tough places he might have had to be in as a special witness of Christ!

I get the chills every time I make a point of getting off I-75 far north of Atlanta to go to Joseph Standing’s grave maintained by the church. But that’s what drove my great-grandmother to Zion out of central Alabama and made me who I am today. A proud born Westerner sojourning in the warm, hospitable South with many missions and temples as witness to the sacrifice of those martyrs in her soil.

Allison in Atlanta

And I left a real gap in describing Roberts by forgetting to imagine him as a Southern States missionary or an Eastern States mission president. The man was a marvel from whatever angle you look.

Thanks for taking the time, all, to say that you enjoy stories like this.

I almost expected, in this new enlightened age, to see a disclaimer at the end of the post:

No bears or other wildlife, including flies and mosquitoes, were harmed during the writing of this post, or in the reality underlying the accounts, pictures or descriptions of that reality as set forth in this post.

From blacksmith, bearkiller, and hardrock miner to mission president, general authority, army chaplain, and church historian. Truly a renaissance man.