Lot Smith: Mormon Pioneer and American Frontiersman
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- $24.99
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- $24.99
Publisher Description
Lot Smith: Mormon Pioneer and American Frontiersman is the comprehensive biography of Utah’s 1857 war hero and one of Arizona’s early settlement leaders. With over fifty years of combined research, mother and daughter co-authors Carmen R. Smith and Talana S. Hooper take on many of the myths and legends surrounding this lesser-known but significant historical figure within Mormonism.
Lot Smith recounts the Mormon frontiersman’s adventures in the Mormon Battalion, the hazardous rescue of the Willie and Martin handcart companies, the Utah War, and the Mormon colonization of the Arizona Territory. True stories of tense relations with the Navajo and Hopi tribes, Mormon flight into Mexico during the US government's anti-polygamy crusades, narrow escapes from bandits and law enforcers, and even Western-style shoot-outs place Lot Smith: Mormon Pioneer and American Frontiersman into both Western Americana literature and Mormon biographical history.
Customer Reviews
Well-documented history
As an avid reader, an explorer of my own family history, and an English teacher who taught writing skills, I read with amazement and awe the well-documented history entitled Lot Smith Mormon Pioneer and American Frontiersman. Any student of history (and shouldn’t we all be?) will be amazed, astounded, and blessed by understanding Lot Smith’s history of being part of the Mormon Battalion, being a major figure in keeping Johnson’s Army from taking over the Utah Territory, being part of the rescue party for the Martin and Willey Handcart Companies, being a negotiator – and a friend – to the Indians, and settling parts of Utah and Arizona. The early history of the American West cannot be complete without understanding Lot Smith’s contribution to that effort.
The research, the writing, and, indeed, the love that brought Lot Smith’s story to life is to be acknowledged and applauded. Not one fact remains unverifiable. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in history, the settlement of the west, the Mormon Exodus from Nauvoo, or the challenges experienced by early pioneers.
-Maureen Miller