E104: Daily Life in the WQ

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:42)
Sometimes our dreams go unfulfilled.
Now hang on just a minute. This actually isn't headed toward some grand sweeping insight into anything. It's much less exotic. Nerdy even. Mr. Bryan over here was very excited for the journals of George F. Richards to be published online. Technically, he's mid-excitement since they're still coming out. Slowly but surely.
When they did publish the first part, he was rewarded with his actual entries. Monday. Put my plow together and plowed in the afternoon with one team. Tuesday. Started plowing with three animals. Wrote home. Wednesday.
Plowed all day.
Thursday. Ditto, ditto, ditto, ditto. Yeah, you heard it right. George's day was so sexy that he just had to put four double quotes, meaning I did the exact same GD thing I did yesterday.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:40)
It's true. I'll have you know, I still read every word though. I joked with a friend of the podcast, Rob Jensen, that if ever an expert on Lucerne farming and Tawila is needed, I can now qualify. These are the sacrifices we make for you listeners. What did Bryan Adams say?
There we go. Really appreciate you spelling your name the correct way also, guy.
Here's the deal. Everyday life isn't always full of councils of 50 or anointed quorums or even cracker soup. That's why they call it everyday life. So then, what did it look like in Winter Quarters? What was your average Leonora or Louisa up to?

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:57)
Hi, this is Lindsay Hansen Park.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:59)
And this is Bryan Buchanan.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:01)
Bringing you the story of Mormonism from the shadow of the Everlasting Hills, straight out of Zion. This isn't your grandpa's Mormon history.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:28)
This is the tale of Mormon saints and sinners from our roots until present day. Saddle up.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:34)
Gird your loins, lock your hearts, and pay your tithing, because we're bringing you the story of Mormonism in all its paradisiacal glory.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:42)
It's the Sunstone History Podcast.
Hold on to your cure alums and cue mums for just a second, though, because first we need to hear from our friend's signature books. George Q. Cannon is generally acknowledged as second only to Brigham Young as the most visible leader of Mormonism in the mid to late 19th century. He became Young's protege and was an influential first counselor in the first presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for almost 25 years, serving with presidents Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff and Lorenzo Snow. Known as the spokesman for the kingdom, Cannon was the central political figure of the church, not only serving as Utah's territories delegate to Congress for 10 years, but also as chief political advisor and long-term editor of the Deseret News.
Cannon helped shape doctrine, church governance and administration during a period of significant change, defending and promulgating plural marriage both before and after the 1890 Manifesto. He was at the center of business life in Salt Lake City, serving as president of the largest publishing house, banks, a railroad, mining companies, electric companies and other businesses. Though Cannon was loved and revered by his people, controversy sometimes touched his life and family.
George Q. Cannon, politician, publisher, Apostle of Polygamy by Ken Cannon, knew from signature books. Get it at Benchmark Books or be forced to wear a neckbeard for time and all eternity.
Daily life in Winter Quarters, eh? I accept your challenge. Now, we do need to remind ourselves of one thing right here, because Winter Quarters is at the same time a place, it's the main camp, but we also use it as a relative term for this transitional period. The Winter Quarters period involves several way stations and a lot of what we think of as Winter Quarters is actually traveling from one of those places to the next. As a result, this episode and the next will kind of blend together.
Okay, let's set some ground rules for today. We're gonna do our most bestest to narrate things from the perspective of women. It's not gonna be particularly easy because there aren't a ton of available diaries, certainly not published and not even unpublished ones. Well, never said it was going to be easy. We only said it would be worth it. Game on. As the Mormons leave Navu, remember, it's still winter. This isn't Oregon Trail winter on an orange or green screen on the Mac in the computer room. This is the real thing. They're in wagons or tents, and Gore-Tex is just a twinkle in Wilbert Gore's eye in the spirit world.
You might not be a big city wagon or even tent expert, but I think you can imagine in your mind's eye when I say that there's not a lot of room in either of those. Eliza Partridge, who won the Post-Joseph Smith lottery by marrying Amos Aliman rather than, say, Heber Kimball, noted they had three of them in one bed due to those aforementioned space concerns. Not like the William Clayton program, smart guy. They're just kind of mushed into one bed.