Protecting the Family in the West : James Henry Martineau's Response to Interfaith Marriage
Journal of Mormon History
Fall 2010
36
no.4
Salt Lake City, UT
Mormon History Association
2010
1-17
"Though his affections were wide, the case of his daughter and his dear friend show that the theology and priorities of this typical Utah pioneer consistently centered on the eternal consequences for his wives, his children and himself.... This case study suggests that, for the sincerely religious at the turn of the century, enriching and protecting the family were the defining issues in how an individual handled religious and cultural difference. The meticulous Martineau diary thus reflects the fundamental place of personal interfaith attitudes in the individual Mormon and family experience of the nineteenth-century American West." [From author's conclusion]