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– From the Relief Society Magazine,
April 1933

“Can you help me?” “Yes, dear.” What could be more comforting than to read those words in response to a plea sent to Catherine Hurst, She Who Knows Everything Right and Useful, in the Young Woman’s Journal!  More of her steady advice, this time from 1918:

—oooOooo—

Please give me the estimate of bridal linen required. – La Von.

There is a new booklet just out, “The Bridal Linen,” describing the amount of linen required, new and original ways of marking, embroidering, etc. Price, 6 cents. Can be obtained from Needlework Bureau, Ladies’ Home Journal, Philadelphia, Pa.

—oooOooo—

“Dewdrop.” – To correct the brittleness of your finger nails, try rubbing with vaseline or olive oil, nightly. To promote the growth of the eyebrows rub with vaseline.
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Chapel-building had a relatively late start in Mormondom. Other than the Kirtland and Nauvoo temples, there were no gathering places dedicated to worship (unless you count the groves and temporary boweries) in the New York or Ohio or Missouri or Nauvoo periods of church history. The Seventies had their Hall in Nauvoo, a log building designated a “tabernacle” was built during the Iowa passage, and once in Utah more formal tabernacles were built in some communities, particularly for stake use, but ward chapels or meetinghouses came later. These ward buildings tended to be called “halls” at first, and served for everything – worship, schools, social centers – all in the same main room, which was often the only room beyond a small vestibule, if one existed. Some larger wards, chiefly in Salt Lake City at first, built “social halls” under separate roofs from their “assembly halls” – only gradually did these two large rooms come together under the same roof.

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The Relief Society sisters were treated to a lesson on health and hygiene in July 1914 that suggests a few ways their world and ours are different:

THE BATH

Reference has been made to the internal cleansing of the body by the elimination of waste products. The external care of our earthly tabernacle must not be overlooked. Bathing should be given frequent attention. It is important not only as to our health but from an ethical standpoint. The Bath is most essential. Have you ever experienced the discomfort of sitting in public assemblies near some one who did not bathe or change underwear with sufficient frequency?

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This isn’t really a Keepa post, unless someone has a comment or finds a family connection that I can’t guess at. I just ran across this program in my aunt’s things (she’s the Evelyn M. Taylor named as being on a “foreign” mission to North California), and wanted to put it where Googling family historians would unexpectedly be able to find it.

Riverview Ward was in Pioneer Stake, on the west side of Salt Lake City. Bishop D. Arthur Haycock became secretary to a number of church presidents.

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Samuel Whitney Pincock, “Whit” as he was known by his friends, was born December 31, 1887, near Sugar City, Idaho. (He was named for his maternal grandfather, Samuel Whitney Richards, an early apostle  leader who’s been a subject of a few posts here. [See comment 10 for clarification.)

He spent his boyhood helping out on the family farm. As a teenager, he and his brothers homesteaded a piece of property nearby, which required them to “prove up” the ground by building a house there. Supplies were hard to come by in those days – even lumber was scarce – but timber was plentiful in the nearby forests. So that winter, the three brothers set to work cutting and hauling trees. The following summer they built a sawmill and cut all the boards and most of the shingles they needed.

He was 29 and single when United States declared war on Germany in April of 1917. (more…)

Lesson 36: The Glory of Zion Will Be a Defense

Isaiah 1-6

Purpose:

(Adapted:) To help class members understand what brought about the downfall of ancient Israel, and to consider the applicability of that experience to modern Israel.

Lesson Development

We will begin our study of the prophecies of Isaiah today by going much farther back in the history of Israel, to the days when the Lord, through Moses, presented the Law to Israel under which they would live and through which they would fulfill the covenant God had made with Abraham. The children of Israel are just about to enter the Promised Land, full of enthusiasm and commitment to serve God faithfully, the Lord warns them what will happen to them many generations in the future. Let’s read Deuteronomy 4:25-28:
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While being chiefly an historically themed lesson, this lesson for the Sunday Schools held on 5 August 1934 does address the same general purpose as this year’s lesson: to focus on Isaiah’s prophecies of the coming of Jesus Christ and his mission, together with our obligation to preach the gospel He taught. Also included is the chapter from Ezra C. Dalby’s Land and Leaders of Israel recommended in the lesson.

Isaiah. The Prophet Who Said, “Send Me”

Isaiah in telling us of the call that came to him to serve our Heavenly Father in trying to teach His people to leave off their sinning said: “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I: send me.” Isaiah 6:8.

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For background, see here
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Our great-grandparents’ idea of humor, published in the church magazines of 1908:

The Wizard

Some years ago an expedition from the University of Pennsylvania was sent to one of our Southern States for the purpose of observing a solar eclipse.

The day before the event one of the professors said to an old [man] belonging to the household wherein the scientist was quartered:

“Tom, if you will watch your chickens tomorrow morning you’ll find that they’ll all go to roost at eleven o’clock.”

Tom was, of course, skeptical; but at the appointed hour the heavens darkened and the chickens retired to roost. At this the [man’s] amazement showed no bounds, and he sought out the scientist.

“Perfesser,” said he, “how long ago did you know dem chickens would go to roost?”

“About a year ago,” said the professor, smilingly.

“Well, ef dat don’t beat all!” was the [man’s] comment. “Perfesser, a year ago dem chickens wa’n’t even hatched!”

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Radio Program Presented Sunday, Jan. 4, 1934

Announcer: As we near the close of another Sabbath, we bring you again the radio service of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the seventh of a series presenting the hymns of the “Mormon” people. Tonight’s broadcast comes from the famous Tabernacle, through KSL, Salt Lake City.

The spirit of song has always been with God’s people. I quote: “As we turn back the pages of our Bible we find that from the time the foundations of the earth were laid, when the morning stars sang together and the sons of God shouted for joy, down through the stream of time to the apocalypse, the Bible itself is one grand song service. Again and again its pages are brightened by the beautiful verses of song. Many a spiritual thirst has been quenched by the songs of Miriam and the “refreshing water of the Psalms.”

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Here’s a card from the September, 1929 Children’s Friend, a lick and a promise of a real post later today.

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When I put together these albums I sometimes think I deliberately lean toward the exotic and overlook the Saints who lived in prosaic ol’ Utah — so let’s start this page with a group from Sanpete County in the heart of Mormon territory:

Ephraim, Utah, North Ward
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(See here for background)

From 1959 –

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The source of these questions and answers can be found in the first installment of this series. It bears repeating for newcomers that the person(s) answering these questions is/are not identified, and that the answers given here are not necessarily current teaching. The chief value of these columns today is in seeing what issues were on the minds of ordinary Church members 60 years ago, and in noting what has changed since then, or what issues we consider modern concerns were being discussed that long ago.

Q. What does our Church teach regarding guardian angels? Does each person have one? – D.A.M., Provo.

A. Pres. Joseph F. Smith was speaking at one time regarding the visitation of angels to human beings on earth and among other things he said this, as may be found on page 436 of the book called “Gospel Doctrine”: “In like manner our fathers and mothers, brothers, sisters, and friends who have passed away from earth, having been faithful, and worthy to enjoy these rights and privileges, may have a mission given to them to visit their relatives and friends upon the earth bringing from the divine presence messages of love, of warning or reproof, and instruction, to those whom they have learned to love in the flesh. And so it is with Mrs. Cannon. She can return and visit her friends provided it be in accordance with the wisdom of the Almighty. There are laws to which they who are in the paradise of God must be subject, as well as laws to which we are subject. it is our duty to make ourselves acquainted with those laws that we may know how to live in harmony with his will while we dwell in the flesh that we may be entitled to come forth in the morning of the first resurrection clothed with glory, immortality, and eternal lives.” President John Taylor is quoted on page 131 of the book entitled “Gospel Kingdom” as saying, (more…)

My mother was born in the covenant. She was baptized at age 8. My father was a convert; I was present at his baptism in 1964. My parents were endowed and sealed in the Salt Lake Temple in 1967; my brothers and I were sealed to them at the same time. I was there. I remember. My father was sealed to his deceased parents in the Las Vegas Temple in 1990. I know. I was there. I knelt as proxy for his mother.

Kneeling with my family in Salt Lake in 1967, and kneeling with my father in Las Vegas in 1990, are some of the sweetest memories of my life. My dad and I didn’t do a lot of things together, although he did a lot of things for me. I became a genealogist because of something he sparked, and I do what I do today, including Keepa, because of those early genealogical experiences. For years I would call my father every few days to report what I had found in researching his family, and he was always as excited, as eager for the trivial details as I could hope. Every genealogist should be so lucky to have someone so eager to listen.

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Lesson 38: “Beside Me There Is No Saviour”

Our current manual’s treatment of Isaiah is spread over a half dozen lessons, each one emphasizing a different aspect of Isaiah’s prophecies – the coming of the Savior, events of the last days, etc. Manuals of the past have tended to allot one or at most two lessons to Isaiah, more often writing of him in the historical context than examining his prophecies. This lesson from 1944 goes farther than most of the old books in looking at Isaiah’s prophecies concerning the latter days, including a few concerning the Messiah, which is the focus of this lesson this year.

Isaiah – Poet, Prophet, Statesman

The Greatness of the Man. – Isaiah was one of the greatest men of all time. Certainly none of the prophets of the Old Testament, so far as we can tell from their writings, was greater than he. In the first place, Isaiah had great natural gifts, which were disciplined and sharpened by the best education that his time afforded. He was blessed with fine judgment and insight together with the courage to defend to the uttermost a cause he knew to be right. Secondly, he possessed great spiritual intuition and insight which made him a marvelous and ready instrument in the hands of Jehovah, whom he loved and served with all his heart. Isaiah thus combined earthly and heavenly wisdom to an unusual degree. All these gifts he of course used for the benefit of his fellow men. Valeton gives the following tribute to him:

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For background, see here
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Prepare to guffaw — Here’s to the joke page of the 1940 Juvenile Instructor:

Economy

“What are the prices of the seats, mister?”

“Front seats one shilling, back seats six-pence, and program a penny.”

“I’ll sit on a program, please.”

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Vincent Musaalo, Through Some Miracle Not Yet Clear to Me: The Nightmare of Living Under the Dictatorship of Idi Amin … and Surviving. 2010. Self-published. $12.95 through Amazon.com.

I will never forget that fateful evening of January 25th, 1971. I was in the kitchen scrunched over my math homework mother had given me when I heard the huge explosion that shattered our world. The impact was so powerful that it knocked me to the ground where I lay stunned for several minutes. I was terrified, my heart thumping as loudly in my ears as the screams and gunfire outside. I had just managed to stand up when a second wave of mortar blasts knocked me down face-first on the kitchen floor amongst the clattering pots and pans which had been hanging on the ceiling.

So begins this memoir of Vincent Musaalo’s childhood and youth in a Uganda terrorized by the dictator Idi Amin, and the action barely pauses throughout the 157-page book. For those of us whose awareness of Uganda is limited to Last King of Scotland and 30-year-old memories of the Israeli rescue of hostages held at Entebbe airport, Through Some Miracle provides some sense of the history and landscape of Uganda and a sense of the goodness of its people. The author does this simply and briefly and in a way that leaves the reader understanding and caring about a few brave souls who stood up for justice in their nation, and the helpless masses who could not.

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Several readers have expressed interest in food history and authentic recipes from the past, so I thought you might enjoy this picture of a full dinner, described as “My Favorite Dinner” and contributed to the Young Woman’s Journal by Edith Rossiter Lovesy (1875-1965), of Salt Lake City’s Liberty Stake and a member of the YLMIA General Board.

MENU

Cream of Celery Soup
Saltine Wafers
Dill Pickle, Lettuce Garnish
Rolled Rib Roast Beef
Yorkshire Pudding
Franconia, or Browned Potatoes
Brown Gravy
Corn Fritters
Crisped Lettuce, Cream Dressing
Boston Brown Bread
Cheese Balls
Pumpkin Pie, Whipped Cream

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Orrilla Northway was born 13 June 1795 at Granby, Connecticut, the daughter of James Northway and Achsah North. She married Josephus Rose of Granville, Massachusetts, on 19 September 1813  and had at least one child, Samuel. After Josephus’s early death, she married Lyman Higley of Simsbury, Connecticut, on 7 January 1825. Their five children were Harriet, Oliver, Virgil, Ezra Marvin, and Addison. The couple moved to Columbia County, Wisconsin at some point, where Orrilla died on 30 June 1884.

That’s a sterile little biography, isn’t it? Most of us know no more about our ancestors than this, and the boringness of it all is usually why we hide from Great Aunt Edna at family reunions, because we know she’ll want to tell us in excruciating detail about her latest discovery of a date in the life of someone whose name we barely know.

The biography gets a little more interesting upon discovery of a Higley family history (Mary Coffin Johnson, The Higleys and Their Ancestry: An Old Colonial Family. 1896):

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Elders David O. McKay and Hugh J. Cannon on their around-the-world tour of LDS missions, 1921:

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For links to other parts of this series, see this chart.

For a statement on the unofficial nature (i.e., personal interpretation for discussion purposes, not necessarily representative of church doctrine) of these lessons, see this notice.

Dealing with Religious, Social and Economic Questions and Their Solution.

A Study for the Quorums and Classes of the Melchizedek Priesthood. 1917-1918.

By Dr. Joseph M. Tanner

XXIV – Race Suicide

Theory. – This subject is apparently as old as the human race. It has rested in the past as it rests in the present, upon the relative conditions of production and consumption. Theoretically, and argumentatively, it may be said that if the normal increase of human life went on without decimation by war or disease, the world would find it difficult to produce from all its known agencies the amount required for the sustenance of the human race.

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“In our last issue there appeared an article wherein tea and coffee are given as parts of menus that were served by different girls at their luncheons.

“It was our full intention to substitute lemonade, chocolate, or some grain drink, but through an oversight it was allowed to appear in its original form.

“We sincerely trust that our girls will take no advantage of this oversight and will in no wise feel that they are excused thereby in a failure to observe the Word of Wisdom.”

– “Editorial,” Young Woman’s Journal, July 1902

While it is easy to find early 20th century series of lessons and articles aimed at women and girls, teaching them what it meant to be a Mormon woman and how to dress, behave, talk, eat, walk, socialize, dance and travel, it is far more difficult to find similar lessons instructing men in their personal responsibilities and individual duties outside of the formal duties of the priesthood.

Instead of personal instruction, formal lessons for men, young and old, tended to be intellectual: they discussed political, social, and religious topics far more than personal or family subjects. One example of such a series of lessons was published in 1917-1918, of which this post is the preface.

The published articles were intended for discussion, not instruction. There is no claim that the positions presented reflect Mormon doctrine or belief in any way. The author had to occasionally remind men who objected to his political views that they were free to disagree, but to disagree with evidence and reasons. Disagreement was to be used to encourage reasoning and logical thinking.

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Companies of immigrant converts traveling to Utah prior to the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 had many experiences in common. They had to get to the embarkation points in Iowa, Missouri, and Nebraska; they were met by immigration agents who helped them overcome obstacles in preparations for the journey; and then all had to endure the seemingly endless overland trek, subject to storms, heat, dust, hunger, sickness, and even death.

Immigration, though, from the standpoint of church leaders in Salt Lake City, was a constantly evolving physical and financial challenge to accommodate an ever increasing number of new Saints. The initial companies of the late 1840s had to be very self sufficient. It took time for Brigham Young to work out the best way to move the hundreds, then thousands, of Great Basin-bound church members and new converts. The Perpetual Emigrating Fund (PEF) is pretty well documented and known. Less is generally understood about arguably the most successful pre-railroad immigration plan, the down and back companies.

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Lesson 34: “I Will Betroth Thee unto Me in Righteousness”

Hosea 1-3; 11; 13-14

Purpose

To help class members understand that the Lord is loving and merciful and will forgive us when we repent and return to him.

LESSON DEVELOPMENT

Attention Activity

Every Sunday the Tabernacle Choir opens its broadcast by singing a hymn written by Parley P. Pratt:

The morning breaks; the shadows flee;
Lo, Zion’s standard is unfurled!
The dawning of a brighter day
Majestic rises on the world.

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Lesson 37: “Thou Hast Done Wonderful Things”

The numerous Isaiah lessons (nos. 36-40, more than are devoted to any other prophet and any single book other than Genesis) in this year’s manual address specific prophecies or doctrinal ideas found in Isaiah. Other recent Old Testament manuals (since the late 1970s) also take a doctrinal approach, but this is a departure from earlier decades where manual after manual addresses Isaiah – if at all – chiefly in the historical context of what was happening to the Kingdom of Judah. This pair of lessons from Ezra C. Dalby’s seminary text Land and Leaders of Israel (Salt Lake City: Department of Education, 1933) is typical of that approach. Even while taking the historical and biographical perspective, none of these lessons consider the possibility that our book of Isaiah may be a composite of the lives and ministries of two or more prophets (the acknowledgment in one of these lessons that the chronology of Isaiah is “very difficult to follow” is as close as it comes).

Isaiah, the Patriot Prophet

Lesson Text: Isaiah 6:1-8; 5:1-12.
Song.
Responsive Reading: Isaiah 5:13-24.
Prayer by Student.
Memory Text: ”Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.” – Isaiah 6:87.

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For background, see here
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Scratching the Record

“Your daughter talks a great deal, doesn’t she?”

“Yes, I think she must have been vaccinated with a phonograph needle.”

Honest Judgment

“Now, Professor, your candid opinion of my voice.”

“Ah, mees, if you possessed in ze upper register what you lack in ze lower, your future would be assured.”

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