User:Cstickel(byu)/sandbox/Death in 19th Century Mormonism-Notes2

The Tomb of Joseph - The Disciple as Witness: Essays on Latter-day Saint History and Doctrine in Honor of Richard Lloyd Anderson (Black, 2000)✅

 * The bodies of Joseph and Hyrum Smith were buried in secret (p.38) ✓
 * Later, Joseph's corpse was moved at the request of Emma Smith into an unmarked grave (p.38) ✓
 * The exact burial place was forgotten, but in 1928 Joseph's remains were found, along with Hyrum and Emma's, and moved to marked graves (p.38-39) ✓
 * Smith built a tomb, which he named the "tomb of Joseph," intended to house his body and those of his family members, but Joseph was not buried there (p.39) ✓

Rhetoric and Ritual: A Decade of "Woman's Exponent" Death Poetry - Journal of Mormon History (Turley, 2006)✅

 * The death poetry found in 19th-century editions of the Woman's Exponent reflect the common fascination with death present in Victorian culture (p.55) ✓
 * The poems also reflected the commonality of death - the likelihood of personally encountering it in the 19th-century (p.55) ✓
 * Even in the late 1800s, "over a third of children born in Utah never reached adulthood" (p.56) ✓
 * 67 out of 400 poems published in the Woman's Exponent during its first decade of existence dealt with death (p.56) ✓
 * Instead of focusing on the perpetuity of the soul, LDS eulogies and death poems often concentrated on the departed being at rest or asleep (p.63-64) ✓
 * The Saints looked to their doctrine of the plan of salvation for comfort when a loved one passed away or, simply, when the difficulties of life seemed too hard to bear (p.65) ✓
 * The death poems sometimes expressed the pain of grief (p.74) ✓
 * Some expressed desires to join their loved ones in death (p.75) ✓
 * "Funeral rites" done as a community allowed the mourners to feel part of a larger whole of "faithful sufferers" (p.76) ✓
 * Speakers at funerals usually included a man possessing the Melchizedek priesthood (p.76) ✓
 * For leaders in the Church, funeral attendees typically included the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve (p.77) ✓
 * LDS women wrote death poems to feel the kind of community support that LDS men felt during funerals (p.76-77) ✓
 * Eulogies almost always included references to scripture, whether formally quoted or paraphrased (p.78) ✓

Elders' Journal of the Church of Latter-day Saints (July 1838, p. 43)✅

 * Another question asked if Mormons could raise the dead, and the answer given was: "No … but God can raise the dead through man, as an instrument." (p.43) ✓

Journal, December 1842–June 1844; Book 3, 15 July 1843–29 February 1844 (p.121)✅

 * Willard Richards recorded in "President Joseph Smith's Journal" that, at the funeral of General James Adams, Smith taught that "All men know that all men must die. What is the object of our coming into existence, then dying and falling away to be here no more? This is a subject we ought to study more than any other, which we ought to study day and night." (p.121) ✓

"To Lie in Yonder Tomb": The Tomb and Burial of Joseph Smith - Mormon Historical Studies (Johnstun, 2005)✅

 * Joseph and Hyrum Smith's "mock burial" occurred at the Old Nauvoo Burial Grounds (p.176) ✓
 * They were actually buried in the basement of the Nauvoo House (p.177) to protect the bodies from mobs (p.178) ✓
 * To Smith, it was important that he be buried with his family, so that they could be together for "the morning of the first resurrection" (p.177) ✓

Glimpses Beyond Death's Door: Gospel Insights into Near-Death Experiences (Brent L. and Wendy C. Top, 2005)✅

 * And Brigham Young optimistically remarked: "I can say with regard to parting with our friends, and going ourselves, that I have been near enough to understand eternity so that I have had to exercise a great deal more faith to desire to live than I ever exercised in my whole life to live. The brightness and glory of the next apartment is inexpressible." (p.118) ✓

The Near-Death Experience: Why Latter-day Saints are So Interested (Top)✅

 * Citation info: https://rsc.byu.edu/life-beyond-grave/near-death-experience
 * Near-death experiences of Church leaders such as George Albert Smith, Jacob Hamblin, and George Brimhall were published in Latter-day Saint periodicals such as the Elders' Journal, Relief Society Magazine, Improvement Era, and Juvenile Instructor (p.15 in doc)✓

What's on the Other Side? A Conversation with Brent L. Top on the Spirit World - Religious Educator (Jensen and Top, 2013)✅

 * Joseph Smith himself lost many close family members to death, including his own young children ✓
 * Both Brigham Young and Orson Pratt taught about the afterlife extensively ✓

Deaths in Early Nauvoo, Illinois, 1839-46, and in Winter Quarters, Nebraska, 1846-48 - Religious Educator (Ivie and Heiner, 2009)✅

 * The most prominent disease in Nauvoo was malaria due to the swampy landscape ✓
 * Children often died from whooping cough, meningitis, scarlet fever, and convulsions ✓
 * Once the Saints embarked on their trek west, malnutrition presented a new set of health challenges, such as noma. The 1846 Nauvoo War forced them out of the city before they could prepare sufficient food for the journey ✓

"Yet I Must Submit": Mormon Women's Perspectives on Death and Dying 1847-1900 (Savage, 1995)✅

 * Death was a common occurrence during the 19th century, particularly for infants and children. The majority of women lost at least one child as an infant (p.2-5) ✓
 * Settling Utah presented health challenges such as sufficient nutrition and healthcare, but it also protected the Saints from Eastern epidemics such as cholera and smallpox (p.6) ✓
 * LDS women used both their religious beliefs and the support of their community to grapple with death and dying (p.14)
 * Like most other American Christians at the time, the Saints focused on striving to live a life worthy of a glorious afterlife, complete with family and friends (p.17) ✓
 * Because they believed baptism by proper authority - found only in the Church - was necessary for salvation, members expressed anxiety for their loved ones who had not yet joined the Church (p.18-19) ✓
 * Unlike other 19th-century parents, most Mormons did not emotionally distance themselves from their newborns. A common practice at the time was to refrain from naming a child until it was certain that he or she would survive infancy; this was rare among Latter-day Saints, particularly because of their belief in eternal families (p.34-35) ✓
 * Because there were no professional morticians on the Utah frontier, women washed and prepared bodies for burial (p.48) ✓
 * It was typical for family and friends to visit the person on their deathbed, particularly when their end was near (p.57) ✓
 * Deathbed rituals, such as "dedicating" the person to God shortly before their departure from the world, were frequent (p.59-60) ✓
 * The dying would traditionally use this time to distribute their remaining possessions to loved ones (p.60) ✓
 * Limited medical knowledge required the body to be "observed overnight" (p.62) ✓
 * The purpose of this "traditional wake" was "to insure that no sign of life was missed" (Bush, p.27) ✓
 * Local chapters of the LDS women's organization, the Relief Society, would spearhead the planning of the funeral (p.62) ✓
 * The women would also assist by preparing the body for burial, sewing clothes for the corpse, and feeding the family of the deceased (p.63) ✓
 * Burial was a community effort (p.63) ✓
 * Support from the community was, in fact, expected (p.51-66) ✓
 * Specific burial traditions were very important to the Saints, such as dressing the deceased in all white and, for mothers and babies that died during childbirth, placing the infant in the mother's arms (p.67-68) ✓
 * "Mormon funeral services were similar to contemporary protestant funerals where the community gathered at the church home or graveside to sing hymns pray and listen to sermons." (p.73) ✓
 * Processions and the dedication of the person's grave were important traditions (p.75-76) ✓
 * Church members were buried facing east so that they would rise "to meet Christ at his second coming" (p.76) ✓

Mormon Funeral Sermons in the Nineteenth Century (Bitton)✅

 * 19th-century Mormon funeral sermons most often cited the deceased's strength in the face of hardship and loyalty to the Church ✓
 * The eternal nature of family units were also emphasized ✓
 * Scripture from the Bible, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants "was often included in a sermon without any reference to its source." ✓
 * Certain passages were easily recognized by the Saints at the time ✓
 * Mormons placed these scriptures "in the context of the restored truths of an all-encompassing gospel plan of salvation." ✓
 * Quoting the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants during funeral sermons increased in popularity after 1850 ✓

Brigham Young's Burial - Gerner's Weekly (1 Oct 1877)✅

 * Brigham Young requested that his funeral attendees not be dressed in mourning clothes ✓
 * A wide array of Church leaders were in attendance ✓
 * A new song was sung, and the funeral procession accompanied the body to the burial place: "on a hill overlooking the [ Salt Lake] valley." ✓