A Trial Furnace : Southern Utah's Iron Mission (Studies in Latter-day Saint History) [Hardcover]

Morris A. Shirts (Author), Kathryn H. Shirts (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2001 | Series: Studies in Latter-Day Saint History

In April 1850, LDS Church leaders established an Iron Mission in southern Utah, where iron ore, coal and timber were plentiful. Among these first Iron County settlers were experienced iron workers from the British Isles. Between 1851 and 1858, this colony of hard-working Saints tried many smelting techniques, yielding objects such as pots,crank shafts and bells.

Despite sustained, even heroic, efforts, the iron missionaries did not succeed. Nature itself worked against them. When the iron works closed its books in 1858, some of the colonists moved away. Yet the pioneers' legacy is still visible in Parowan and Cedar City--Iron Mission townships that have survived for over 150 years.

A Trial Furnace chronicles the lives of people who transcended the practical, discovering in their wilderness crucible an inner strength and resilience more durable than the iron they came south to find.

Illustrations and index.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Morris A. Shirts earned his Ed.D. at Indiana Univeristy. He taught at Brigham Young University and at Southern Utah University, where he served as dean of the college of education. He coauthored Silver, Saints & Sinners: A History of Old Silver Reef, Utah, and was a founding member of the Mountain Meadows Monument Committee.

Kathryn H. Shirts is the daughter-in-law of Morris Shirts. After receiving her bachelor's degree in history at Stanford, she obtained master's degrees from Harvard Graduate School of Education and Harvard Divinity School, where she studied American religious history.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 523 pages
• Publisher: Brigham Young Univ Univ Pubns (May 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0842524878
• ISBN-13: 978-0842524872
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,200,014 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Trial Furnace, January 26, 2010

By 

Thomas Parkes (PRESCOTT, AZ, US) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Trial Furnace: Southern Utah's Iron Mission (Studies in Latter-Day Saint History) (Paperback)

This is a first rate paperback history of the first anglo settlements in Iron County, Utah, covering the ten-year period following initial settlement from early 1851 through 1861. Impeccably researched and documented, this volume details the initial settlements that became Parowan and Cedar City. The core chapters detail the various attempts to establish an iron industry, including details of the furnaces built and the causes of the project's eventual demise. One chapter is devoted to the Mountain Meadows Massacre, which is generally accurate given information available as of date of publication. (Unfortunately, date of publication is not given. (2001?)

The book has good maps and photographs to help the reader follow the story. Eleven appendixes provide valuable supplemental material, although Appendix 2 includes census data of questionable accuracy. e.g. The entire Ebenezer Brown family is listed, although only Ebenezer and his wife Phebe (spelled Phoebe) participated in the mission.

A complete bibliography and index are provided

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent book with otherwise unpublished Utah History, December 12, 2009

By 

F. Brent Kranendonk "BDonk" (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Trial Furnace : Southern Utah's Iron Mission (Studies in Latter-day Saint History) (Hardcover)

After reading this book several years ago, I have turned to it a number of times to clarify information that seems to have been ignored until this book was published. For example, the incredible Phebe Draper Brown, who was in the middle of all Mormon history from Kirtland to Missouri, Nauvoo, Winter Quarters, the Mormon Battalion in winning the war with Mexico (which added the whole West to the United States), the discovery of Gold at Sutters Fort, Settling the Salt Lake Valley, and donating land to Build Draper Fort and church; she is now shown to have participated in the Iron Mission, an industrial effort refine iron ore in Southern Utah.

This book is well written and shows the kinds of efforts being made by the Mormon Pioneers to build an advanced civilization, which is what really made the newly acquired West a secure and vast addition to the United States.