John Whitmer Historical Association meeting

It was a really good conference and I was delighted to meet some of these people from the church's web board there. One was a man named Leon from the church's web board. He walked up to me the second day and said, "Are you the Margie from the church's web board?" I admitted I was. We had quite a discussion. I had a name tag on that gave my name.

The first session I attended was "Like Two Crazy Aunts in the Attic: Anti-Polygamy Stereotyping and Mormon Efforts to Distance Itself from it's Polygamous Past" A very conservative LDS, Craig Foster, presented that paper. It was very informative. Although the LDS practiced polygamy in the 19th century, they now want to distance themselves from the practice...primarily because of the FLDS, who are constantly in the news with negative publicity. People tend to mix their church up with the FLDS.

Next I attended "The Genetic Ethnicity of Joseph Smith, Jr." presented by an Italian LDS, who was working on his PHD in genetics. That was interesting but very technical. It proved that the family of Joseph Smith the founder of that movement came from Scotland instead England, as had been assumed.

At noon, there was a panel of women who shared their experiences with calls to the ministry for women. They were Barbara Howard, Marge Troeh, Stassi Cramm, Becky Savage, and Gwendolyn Hawks-Blue. Kris Judd moderated that group.

Afternoon I chaired a session with Richard Behrens called "Stephen Mack: Fur Trader, Early Illinois Settler and Nauvoo Observer" and that was followed by a paper by Michael Humiston on "Indian Tribes and the Restoration: Will They Ever Meet?"

The next session I attended was "The Community of Christ in Africa" with Bunda Chibwe. The business meeting and dinner followed that one.

Then first thing Saturday morning, they really began to get interesting. There was a panel discussion on George Smith's book, "Nauvoo Polygamy: But We Called it Spiritual Marriage". The panel was made up of Craig Foster, Richard P. Howard, Linda King Newell, and Brian Hales. That was a very interesting discussion. The two conservative LDS were very critical of the book and Linda Newell King and Richard Howard were very impressed with it. George's rebuttal was interesting too. Many of their complaints were direct quotes from Joseph Smith.

Then from there another panel composed of chair, Barbara Walden : Linda Newell King (who co-wrote Emma Smith: Mormon Enigma), Jan Shipps and Madelon Brunson discussed the development of the writing experience of Linda and Val's book. There were question and answer times after all these presentations.

Next, an update on Alice Lundgren, who is in prison for life for the Kirkland murders of the Avery family that her husband committed. Jeanne Murphey, who is a sociologist wrote this paper. She is the incoming president of JWHA. That was fascinating!

Following those papers, we took tours of the area. I took a tour that took us to the Steamboat Arabia Museum. That was utterly fascinating. I recommend that to anyone in the area.