A Trial Furnace : Southern Utah's Iron Mission (Studies in Latter-day Saint History) Rating :
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
A Trial Furnace
By Thomas Parkes
This is a first rate paperback history of the first anglo settlements in Iron County, Utah, covering the ten-year period following initial settlement from early 1851 through 1861. Impeccably researched and documented, this volume the initial settlements that became Parowan and Cedar City. The core chapters detail the various attempts to establish an iron industry, including of the furnaces built and the causes of the project's eventual demise. One chapter is devoted to the Mountain Meadows Massacre, which is generally accurate given information available as of date of publication. (Unfortunately, date of publication is not given. (2001?)
The book has good maps and photographs to help the reader follow the story. Eleven appendixes provide valuable supplemental material, although Appendix 2 includes census data of questionable accuracy. e.g. The entire Ebenezer Brown family is listed, although only Ebenezer and his wife Phebe (spelled Phoebe) participated in the mission.
A complete bibliography and index are provided
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.An Excellent book with otherwise unpublished Utah History
By F. Brent Kranendonk
After reading this book several years ago, I have turned to it a number of times to clarify information that seems to have been ignored until this book was published. For example, the incredible Phebe Draper Brown, who was in the middle of all Mormon history from Kirtland to Missouri, Nauvoo, Winter Quarters, the Mormon Battalion in winning the war with Mexico (which added the whole West to the United States), the discovery of Gold at Sutters Fort, Settling the Salt Lake Valley, and donating land to Build Draper Fort and church; she is now shown to have participated in the Iron Mission, an industrial effort refine iron ore in Southern Utah.
This book is well written and shows the kinds of efforts being made by the Mormon Pioneers to build an advanced civilization, which is what really made the newly acquired West a secure and vast addition to the United States.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.A Trial Furnace: Southern Utah's Mission
By Joan Lewis
Excellent & comprehensive history. My ancestors were early settlers in the Iron Mission. This book helped me to understand what they had to face on a daily basis. Well written!
Product Description
In April 1850, LDS Church leaders established an Iron Mission in southern Utah, where iron ore, coal and timber were plentiful. Among these first Iron County settlers were experienced iron workers from the British Isles. Between 1851 and 1858, this colony of hard-working Saints tried many smelting techniques, yielding objects such as pots,crank shafts and bells.
Despite sustained, even heroic, efforts, the iron missionaries did not succeed. Nature itself worked against them. When the iron works closed its books in 1858, some of the colonists moved away. Yet the pioneers' legacy is still visible in Parowan and Cedar City--Iron Mission townships that have survived for over 150 years.
A Trial Furnace chronicles the lives of people who transcended the practical, discovering in their wilderness crucible an inner strength and resilience more durable than the iron they came south to find.
Illustrations and index.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #1312976 in Books
- Published on: 2001-05
- Original language:English
- Binding: Hardcover
- 523 pages
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