by Addie Spaulding Stowell
This is a historical novel. While the names of the leading characters are the creations of the author, it deals in the main with movements of the Latter Day Saint Church from its inception to the time the Saints were forced to abandon their homes and property in Independence, Missouri, in 1833.
The story is full of human interest. It records pioneer life with its struggles against soil and climate for a living, of religious devotions and persecutions, and of deeds of neighborliness and social conflict.
It carries a message of conviction and spiritual experience which enables the reader to understand what there was in the latter-day message to keep its adherents faithful even unto death.
The action centers largely around the John Lane and Zack Adkins families, with plenty of conflict provided by the families of Lem Rivers and Sam Evans. Hetty's tantalizing indifference to Luther Adkins' attentions and proposals of marriage finally are justified by the entrance of the right man at the right time and place.
The story does not end happily for all, for it is colored by the unhappy realities of the sad days of July, 1833, in Jackson County, Missouri. It finds Brent and Hetty kneeling on the Temple Lot to consecrate their lives and that of their posterity to the rebuilding of the walls of Zion.
