E86: The Upper California

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:10)
Bryan, whenever I introduce you to people, I like to brag to them about your amazing spiritual gift. To some, it is given one, and to some, it is given another. But to Bryan Buchanan, it is given to connect your family tree, genealogy and Mormon heritage, and tell you which Mormon prophet you are related to. You think I'm kidding. You give this man a name, and he can tell you which wagging company your people cross the plains on.
Tis the stuff of legend.

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:35)
All right, you're probably leaning a bit more legend than truth.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:37)
Hush, hush. I'm trying to make a point. Let's show off your talents, Bryan. No hiding under a bushel. Let's play a game. I will tell you a random Mormon surname, and you give me the lineage. You ready?

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:48)
Boom, let's do this.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:49)
Hunter.

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:50)
Well, you've got several hunter lines. You've got Jacob Hunter, who came over with Warren Foote Company in 1850, or you've got William Hunter of the John Banks Company. Which hunter line are you talking about?

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:01)
Nerd. Roundy.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:02)
Ooh, Roundy's a good Nauvoo name. All right, also you've got several Roundies living in the Nauvoo period. You've got Shadrack Roundy, awesome name, who had lots of kids.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:10)
Okay, show off, how about Nelson?

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:12)
Which one? The William Nelson of the Nauvoo line, or there's a ton of Scandinavian Nelson?

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:17)
Okay, I've got an obscure one. This comes from my home ward. How about Greenwell?

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:21)
Oh yeah, Greenwells are interesting. Nice choice. You got a bunch of them that run around with Heber Kimble back in the day.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:26)
Woodruff.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:27)
Dude, now you're just playing softball, come on now.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:29)
Okay, Brannan.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:30)
Huh?

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:31)
Brannan.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:32)
Who are you talking about?

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:33)
Brannan, come on, Brannan, don't let me down.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:34)
I thought you were giving me Mormon last names.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:36)
Brannan, as in Mormon leader, missionary, and pioneer, Samuel Brannan?

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:42)
Uh, I went to school with Asham Brannan. Does that give me anything? I don't know who you're talking about.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:04)
Hi, this is Lindsay Hansen Park.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:06)
And this is Bryan Buchanan.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:07)
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** (2:34)
This is the tale of Mormon saints and sinners from our roots until present day.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:40)
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** (2:48)
It's the Sunstone History Podcast.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:12)
Podcast Joe Geisner has given me a lot of good historical help over the years. But one of my favorite things he's ever told me was that there were two frontier Mormon Zion's. Never forget this. There is Brigham Zion, Joe says, and then there is Brannan Zion. There's a reason why Bryan Buchanan doesn't know many Brannans in Utah, and we're going to get into those reasons today.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:34)
When you think of Brigham Zion and Brannan Zion, you really can't have one without the other.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:38)
You could even say one begets the other.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:40)
All right, before we get into competing Zion's first word from our sponsors. Plural marriage in the Nauvoo era of LDS Church history has long been a fascinating subject. To understand it fully requires one to look at it from the perspective of the man who introduced it, but just as crucial is a dive into the lives of the women he married, all of who have their stories to tell. In his 1997 award-winning study, In Sacred Loneliness, The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith, Todd Compton focused on the 33 women who he could demonstrate the Smith married, providing life stories of many who are well known and others who have been largely forgotten. In his new work, In Sacred Loneliness, The Documents, Compton returns to his subject and provides the raw materials that helped him create his original study, writings composed by the women themselves.
This volume includes many autobiographical writings, diaries and letters, with Compton providing annotations and introductory material that illuminates these crucial primary sources. This allows readers to take their understanding of this unique group of women to a new level and to drive home the fact that their lives go far beyond the novel experiment that forever links them to Mormonism's founding prophet. In Sacred Loneliness, The Documents by Todd Compton, new from Signature Books. Get it from Benchmark Books or wherever you get your books.