Overview

After receiving a liberal arts education at the Munro Academy in Elbridge, New York, and a stint in the U.S.-Mexican War, James Henry Martineau spent his life as a surveyor, civil engineer, clerk, mapmaker, and pathfinder in Zion. After becoming a Latter-day Saint in 1850, Martineau went with Apostle George A. Smith to settle Parowan in southern Utah, with a commitment to building God's kingdom in the West. As a leader in the Utah Territorial Militia he conducted military drills, witnessed events surrounding the Mountain Meadows Massacre and the legal trials of its perpetrators, explored wilderness areas, submitted reports, and drew maps to record his travels throughout the entire Mormon corridor. These journals document his exploration of virgin lands in southern Utah, his laying out of townsites and farmland in Cache Valley, his participation in canal building and water projects in Arizona, and his near-death experiences while surveying rough, mountainous areas. His work for the Union Pacific Railroad through Weber Canyon and across the Salt Lake Promontory and Humboldt Desert in 1868 is one of the very few complete records of its kind.

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9781560854623

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Reviews

"""James Martineau's informative and at times lyrical diary is a treasure--an exceptionally rich record of nineteenth-century Latter-day Saint life, settlement, and belief. Martineau's career as a surveyor and scout took him into the far reaches of the western outback; he vividly described its staggering natural beauty and terrifying dangers. The privations and precarities of pioneering, the interlacing of religiosity with daily life, and the practical messiness of neighboring resound through this record. Carmack and Hatch deftly ply their professional training as historians in their interpretive essay and deeply researched notes, making this the definitive scholarly edition of Martineau's writings.""--Brian Q. Cannon, professor of history, Brigham Young University; former director, Charles Redd Center for Western Studies; past president, Mormon History Association ""This journal entry of James Henry Martineau best encircles his character and desires: 'I have not been well since [wife] Susa J. died, and have many times felt as if I might soon go too but I desire to live, not only for my family's sake--but for the kindgom of God, now that there are so many enemies and apostates who are trying to destroy us. I wish to live to help fight them, and to see the victory of the Saints' (April 1, 1874). This must-read captivates the nineteenth-century experience of Martineau's life in the Mormon corridor from Oregon and Idaho south through Utah and Arizona into northern Mexico.""--Melvin C. Johnson, retired professor, Angelina College, Lufkin, Texas; author, Life and Times of John Pierce Hawley: A Mormon Ulysses of the American West"

Author Information

"Noel A. Carmack is associate professor of art at Utah State University Eastern. He has published in BYU Studies, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, and elsewhere, and is co-editor with Karen Lynn Davidson of Out of the Black Patch: The Autobiography of Effie Marquess Carmack, Folk Musician, Artist, and Writer. Charles M. ""Chick"" Hatch was a freelance editor, demographer, and historian. He received both his BS and MS degrees from Utah State University. He co-edited, with Todd Compton, A Widow's Tale: The 1884-1896 Diary of Helen Mar Kimball Whitney, which received the Best Documentary Award from the Mormon History Association in 2004. He died in 2022."

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