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Mormon Midwife: The 1846-1888 Diaries of Patty Sessions
Winner of the 1997 Evans Handcart Prize, these are the complete diaries of Patty Sessions, detailing early Mormon life from Illinois to Utah.
Patty Session's 1847 Mormon Trail diary has been widely quoted and excerpted, but her complete diaries chronicling the first decades of Mormon settlement at Salt Lake City have never before been published. They provide a detailed record of early Mormon community life from Illinois to Utah through the eyes of Mormondom's most famous midwife. They also recount her important role in women's social networks and her contributions to community health and Utah's economy, to pioneer education and horticulture. Patty Sessions assisted at the births of humdreds of early Mormons and first-generation Utahns, meticulously recording the events. She had an active role in the founding of the Relief Society and health organizations. She spoke in tongues and administered spiritually as well as medically to the ill. Her diaries are a rich resource for early Mormon and Utah history.
Patty Session's 1847 Mormon Trail diary has been widely quoted and excerpted, but her complete diaries chronicling the first decades of Mormon settlement at Salt Lake City have never before been published. They provide a detailed record of early Mormon community life from Illinois to Utah through the eyes of Mormondom's most famous midwife. They also recount her important role in women's social networks and her contributions to community health and Utah's economy, to pioneer education and horticulture. Patty Sessions assisted at the births of humdreds of early Mormons and first-generation Utahns, meticulously recording the events. She had an active role in the founding of the Relief Society and health organizations. She spoke in tongues and administered spiritually as well as medically to the ill. Her diaries are a rich resource for early Mormon and Utah history.
- GenresHistoryLdsHistorical
480 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 10, 2009
This book was not what I was hoping for so I only read the first little bit. This book would be great if you want to read a day-to-day account of an LDS pioneer woman who crossed the plains. She was a midwife and I was hoping that the diary would be accounts of her experiences as a midwife, but it wasn't. She wrote in the diary almost every day but the entries typically consisted of only one or two sentences of what happened that day, i.e. felt sick today, put Mary to bed with a baby boy (which was her wording for delivering a baby). I wasn't too interested in reading this type of diary at the time so I didn't finish it.
July 26, 2008
Patty Sessions is my 4th great-grandmother. This is a really interesting volume of her diaries with great notes and a really good introduction about Patty Sessions and her family. She became a midwife while living in Maine and then used those skills as she moved across the plains as a Mormon Pioneer and in the settlement of Utah.
August 12, 2009
I was expecting more of a biography, so it took a little while to get into reading this book. It's her diaries verbatim - without the footnotes the book wouldn't have made as much sense. I did enjoy it once I got used to reading it and learned some interesting tidbits...like an emetic (something to induce vomiting) is the answer to any illness. :)
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews