Lydia Knight’s History

The life of Lydia Goldthwait Knight: born in Sutton, Massachusetts, in 1812 and raised in western New York; her first marriage, to Calvin Bailey, and its sorrow; her conversion; her marriage to Newel Knight in November 1835; the Colesville Branch and the persecutions in Missouri; Nauvoo and the exodus; Newel’s death, leaving her “alone in an Indian country” with seven children; the wagon journey to the Salt Lake Valley in 1850; and her later years as a teacher and homemaker.

Lydia, Newel, the Prophet Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, Brigham Young and the book’s other speakers each have a voice. Chapter V prints in full the patriarchal blessing that Joseph Smith Sr. gave her, read in his voice; her own words from her diary and her testimony about plural marriage (Chapter XII) are read in hers.

The title page reads “Lydia Knight’s History. The First Book of the Noble Women’s Lives Series. By ‘Homespun.’ Juvenile Instructor Office, Salt Lake City, Utah. 1883.” The preface, signed “The Publisher,” says the book opens “a new series of books… designed to contain various items of interest and instruction from the lives of our noble sisters.” Project Gutenberg’s record names Susa Young Gates as the author.

The book has no chapter titles; the short ones on the page are ours. The author’s narration and the publisher’s preface are read by two voices. The transcription prints straight quotation marks, which are shown as typographic ones; apostrophes that stand for the first two digits of a year (’48) are corrected, and the Project Gutenberg transcriber’s note (inconsistent spellings are retained as printed) is left out.

Text produced for Project Gutenberg by Mariah Averett, Mormon Texts Project Intern (released August 17, 2014).