A Gentile Account of Life in Utah's Dixie, 1872-73

Gentile Account, Preface ix

Pvefuce More than a hundred years ago a book was published in New York City titled Twelve Mormon Homes Visited in Succes- sion on a journey through Utah To Arizona. It was a first-hand inside look at Mormon polygamy, at that time a national issue. The author was an astute young Philadelphia matron, Elizabeth Dennistoun Wood Kane, the wife of Major General Thomas L. Kane, a Pennsylvania hero of the Civil War and benefactor of the Mormons in the mid-1800s. Mrs. Kane was a keen observer. Her journal recorded her experiences during her family's twelve-day trip from Salt Lake City to St. George, Utah, as guests of Mormon church President Brigham Young. While enroute the party stayed with twelve Mormon families whom Elizabeth Kane described in her journal. The Kane family was visiting Utah because Thomas Kane had been ill and his long-time good friend, Brigham Young, invited the Kanes (father, mother, and two sons) to spend the winter with him in Utah's Dixie in the hope of improv- ing his health. Mrs. Kane mailed her journal entries home to her father, William Wood, a prominent New York City banker and long- ix