Tag Archives: Malinda Conder

Mormon history

Relic of an Old Tragedy

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The 1884 “Cane Creek Massacre” in Tennessee took the lives of two missionaries, two local members (brothers to each other), and one member of the attacking force. The mother of the two brothers was maimed for life, and proselyting in the immediate neighborhood of the massacre ceased for a period of years.

I have blogged once about this event, and BruceC has blogged a number of times about his recent researches into (for him) local history – he has been uncovering a number of documents – including photographs – in Tennessee sources that have never been used by those writing from the Mormon perspective, and has been exploring the genealogical connections of some of those involved. If the Cane Creek tragedy is of interest to you, or if you’d like to undertake researches into your own local history but aren’t sure how to start, I recommend BruceC’s site (click on the “Cane Creek” label to pull up all his relevant posts). Continue reading Relic of an Old Tragedy →

From Our Exchanges

From our exchanges: Murder Ballads of Mormondom

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Olive Woolley Burt, “Murder Ballads of Mormondom,” Western Folklore 18:2 (April 1959), 141-156.

Olive Woolley Burt (1894-1981) used to be a very well-known name in Mormon, Utah, western, and American letters. She was a reporter or columnist both for the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News, studied at the University of Chicago and at Columbia, published fiction and non-fiction, for children and adults (from 1902, when she was just 8 years old, to 1979, when she was 85, she published something professionally every year except 1904), and contributed to church publications, like the Relief Society Magazine. Her book American Murder Ballads and Their Stories (New York: Oxford University Press, 1958) is the basis for this article.
Continue reading From our exchanges: Murder Ballads of Mormondom →