Orem Library

The saga of the Benjamin Steed family begins in the fall of 1826 with their move from Vermont to Palmyra Township in upstate New York in search of better farmland. In Palmyra, they meet a young man named Joseph Smith and are caught up in the controversy that swirls around him.

Covering the years 1836 to 1838, this volume finds the Steeds involved in both remarkable and turbulent events in Church history. Nathan accompanies Parley P. Pratt on a challenging mission to Upper Canada. Jessica, Joshua's ex-wife, feels compelled to return to Missouri, where the Church seeks a new haven in an area known as Far West. Meanwhile, Joshua - ever restless and ambitious, yet haunted by the misdeeds of his past - travels to Savannah, Georgia,...

This installment finds the Steeds (all but their daughter Melissa and her family) happily reunited in Far West, Missouri, only to be thrown into a maelstrom of intense and tragic events: the election-day battle at Gallatin; the siege of DeWitt; the Battle of Crooked River; the issuing of Governor Bogg's extermination order; the Haun's Mill massacre; the fall of Far West, the incarceration of the Prophet Joseph Smith; and the expulsion from Missouri....

Many books have been written about Joseph Smith. This one the result of Truman Madsen's deep love for the Prophet and years of research illuminates specific facets of Joseph Smiths greatness, and is now enhanced with beautiful illustrations from well-known LDS artists. The topics discussed include Joseph Smiths First Vision, his personality and character, his spiritual gifts and attributes, his varied trials, and his last months and martyrdom. This...

Beginning in the 1830s, at least thirty-three women married Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism. These were passionate relationships which also had some longevity, except in cases such as that of two young sisters, one of whom was discovered by Joseph's first wife, Emma, in a locked bedroom with the prophet. Emma remained a steadfast opponent of polygamy throughout her life.

The majority of Smith's wives were younger than he, and one-third...

When Benjamin Steed and his family move to upstate New York in the early 1800's, they unwittingly settle in a town divided along religious lines. After their new hired help, Joseph Smith, turns out to be at the center of the uproar, each member of the Steed family must come to terms with their own beliefs in the face of heavy persecution.

"This text assembles ... the great majority of Joseph's first-person journal entries which are scattered throughout the seven-volume ... History of the Church ... edited by Church historian B.H. Roberts."

Ezekiel Johnson feels like he is losing his family-one by one. It is the 1820s, and years earlier, Ezekiel had fled his abusive stepfather and his loving, yet browbeaten mother-promising he would never return. He vowed that when he had a family they would be bound together in freedom, happiness, and love. But now this strange new Mormon religion seems to have captured the hearts of his wife and children-in spite of the rumors that surround it and...

Founder of the largest indigenous Christian church in American history, Joseph Smith published the 584-page Book of Mormon when he was twenty-three and went on to organize a church, found cities, and attract thousands of followers before his violent death at age thirty-eight. Richard Bushman, an esteemed cultural historian and a practicing Mormon, moves beyond the popular stereotype of Smith as a colorful fraud to explore his personality, his relationships...

Biographical anecdotes and teachings of the Presidents of the LDS Church from Joseph Smith to Gordon B. Hinckley.