Book Recommendation - Heaven's Ditch
Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2017 3:29 pm
I read an interesting book, Heaven’s Ditch by Jack Kelley, a while back and while I’ll add it to the books thread, I thought I’d give it some visibility here.
The basic premise of the book is that it is a historical non-fiction look at the building of the Erie Canal, but about thirty pages in I was immersed in the history of upstate New York – Masons, Joseph Smith, Millerites, restorationism, you name it. I remember sitting by the pool, turning the book over to read the dust jacket thinking, what is this thing I’m reading? Then I noticed a promotional blurb by Richard Bushman. So it’s totally okay for Mormons to read.
Overall, I would characterize the book as a colorful non-fiction sketch of life and events of the early nineteenth century in upstate New York. Because it is the history of the region, and not one particular event, it was a different kind of look at the Mormon story. There was so much going on in the area – a fantastic engineering feat, economic prosperity, masonic and anti-masonic politics, religious fanaticism (and not just Mormon), the temperance movement, the beginnings of women’s suffrage. It gave a very good look at the kind of world Mormonism emerged in. It also gave a very candid history of many troubling aspects of Mormonism not usually discussed: treasure seeking, stone in the hat, Kirtland bank, polygamy/polyandry, etc.
Some things that were new to me:
1. Although I was familiar in concept of the Second Great Awakening, reading about the different circuit preachers and their backgrounds, lives, competing congregations gave a whole different outlook to what I had been taught as a child that “it was a time of religious excitement.” I don’t think that’s something that we have a very good concept of at all today, how religious excitement could be that all-consuming. The “religious excitement” seemed like “civil rights” excitement of the mid-twentieth century – a cultural and societal force that forever changed the direction of progress, the nation, etc.
2. Masons and their influence on politics. I had no idea it was such a big deal.
3. Lucinda Morgan Harris. Okay, I know that name, but even as I read the book it never clicked that the later wife of Joseph Smith was in fact the wife of an extremely prominent anti-mason. Since reading the book I’ve looked into her somewhat, and I am surprised to find a lack of information, speculation or correlation to her marriage to masonic Joseph Smith and anti-mason Morgan Harris. What was she thinking to have her first husband (the father of two of her children) murdered/disappear for his anti-masonic beliefs and then to later marry a man who performed secret masonic rituals? What did she think of masonry? Did she make peace with it? On the other hand, it seems interesting to note that Lucinda’s first two husbands were twenty years older than she was – Joseph Smith was closer to her own age.
A great quote from the book re: Joseph Smith:
“In a sense, Joseph Smith was a man who never grew up. Or rather, he was a man with a knack for drawing from the well of youth long into adulthood. He loved games, loved make believe. He traveled to a nearby town in Illinois where he bested the strongest man in the village in “stick-pulling,” and threw the best wrestler. He played baseball and took up fencing. Whether meeting with the president of the United States or with Indian chiefs, he made his life a fantastic adventure.” (Kelly, 228)
There’s a youtube video of the author speaking at the New York Society Library . I haven’t listened to the entire thing as the audio isn’t great, but I did catch an interesting bit around the hour mark where in describing the burned over district he says, roughly, “Joseph Smith was like a sponge for everything that was going on…”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=de_9kJdF9IY
Both of the above quotes are, I think very descriptive and accurate characterizations of Joseph Smith.
Anyway, it was an interesting read - I never would have read it had I known what it was about, but I think it gives a very good picture of the time in which the LDS church was founded.
The basic premise of the book is that it is a historical non-fiction look at the building of the Erie Canal, but about thirty pages in I was immersed in the history of upstate New York – Masons, Joseph Smith, Millerites, restorationism, you name it. I remember sitting by the pool, turning the book over to read the dust jacket thinking, what is this thing I’m reading? Then I noticed a promotional blurb by Richard Bushman. So it’s totally okay for Mormons to read.
Overall, I would characterize the book as a colorful non-fiction sketch of life and events of the early nineteenth century in upstate New York. Because it is the history of the region, and not one particular event, it was a different kind of look at the Mormon story. There was so much going on in the area – a fantastic engineering feat, economic prosperity, masonic and anti-masonic politics, religious fanaticism (and not just Mormon), the temperance movement, the beginnings of women’s suffrage. It gave a very good look at the kind of world Mormonism emerged in. It also gave a very candid history of many troubling aspects of Mormonism not usually discussed: treasure seeking, stone in the hat, Kirtland bank, polygamy/polyandry, etc.
Some things that were new to me:
1. Although I was familiar in concept of the Second Great Awakening, reading about the different circuit preachers and their backgrounds, lives, competing congregations gave a whole different outlook to what I had been taught as a child that “it was a time of religious excitement.” I don’t think that’s something that we have a very good concept of at all today, how religious excitement could be that all-consuming. The “religious excitement” seemed like “civil rights” excitement of the mid-twentieth century – a cultural and societal force that forever changed the direction of progress, the nation, etc.
2. Masons and their influence on politics. I had no idea it was such a big deal.
3. Lucinda Morgan Harris. Okay, I know that name, but even as I read the book it never clicked that the later wife of Joseph Smith was in fact the wife of an extremely prominent anti-mason. Since reading the book I’ve looked into her somewhat, and I am surprised to find a lack of information, speculation or correlation to her marriage to masonic Joseph Smith and anti-mason Morgan Harris. What was she thinking to have her first husband (the father of two of her children) murdered/disappear for his anti-masonic beliefs and then to later marry a man who performed secret masonic rituals? What did she think of masonry? Did she make peace with it? On the other hand, it seems interesting to note that Lucinda’s first two husbands were twenty years older than she was – Joseph Smith was closer to her own age.
A great quote from the book re: Joseph Smith:
“In a sense, Joseph Smith was a man who never grew up. Or rather, he was a man with a knack for drawing from the well of youth long into adulthood. He loved games, loved make believe. He traveled to a nearby town in Illinois where he bested the strongest man in the village in “stick-pulling,” and threw the best wrestler. He played baseball and took up fencing. Whether meeting with the president of the United States or with Indian chiefs, he made his life a fantastic adventure.” (Kelly, 228)
There’s a youtube video of the author speaking at the New York Society Library . I haven’t listened to the entire thing as the audio isn’t great, but I did catch an interesting bit around the hour mark where in describing the burned over district he says, roughly, “Joseph Smith was like a sponge for everything that was going on…”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=de_9kJdF9IY
Both of the above quotes are, I think very descriptive and accurate characterizations of Joseph Smith.
Anyway, it was an interesting read - I never would have read it had I known what it was about, but I think it gives a very good picture of the time in which the LDS church was founded.