Transcript for Juanita Brooks' Correspondence, 1961
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new address rayomond college university of the pacific- stockton, calif
The University of Kansas City
Kansas City 10, Missouri
February 7, 1963
COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES
Mrs. Juanita Brooks
98 U Street
Salt Lake City, Utah
Dear Mrs. Brooks,
I appreciated your letter of November 8 and had hoped to answer it before now. I have been quite busy but intend to indulge myself in personal correspondence before things begin in full-swing again.
I realize the truth about your statement concerning the harm that disharmony can do to children who don't care a rap about the issues, But, I also know the intellectual and psychic harm that can come to someone who is indoctrinated to believe that doubt is sinful. I went through painful self-castigation because I felt that my doubt was somehow related to lust and I had no one to turn to. Perhaps this is why several years of my college experiences were spent in fighting the logic and evidence of professors who had no institution to defend. I know now that when I make a moral decision, I must stand behind the consequences. I can't foist the tragic consequences off onto an unavailable god. more now, but the tragic consequences I feel more honest and honorable despite comments that have been made about the quality of my character. I try not to have paranoid feelings, but I am not blind.
I would prefer to have my children raised creedless than saddled with an ossified theology; dubiously defensible in the 19th century and almost without excuse in the 20th. The heavy institutional hand was felt most keenly when my wife, in severe distress over my defection sought the "help" of Hugh B. Brown. You know the tragic situation when a Mormon husband carried his wife's salvation with him during his defection. Even here (or especially here) the Mormon church fails to be charitable. In order to maintain the myth of stability of temple marriages, they refuse divorces (again,'God's will' desensitizes them), condeming women to miserable anguish over their soul's salvation. President Brown told her that my defection was only a temporary, young man's revolt (how could he know?) and that if she kept the faith and set an example, I would soon realize the error of my ways. How is that for advice? Now, I wonder if he has carefully examined such an important conclusion. Do you suppose that he has made an honest study about the rate of return of academicians who find Mormonism no longer acceptable in the light of further information? Such information would be critically important for an overall counseling pattern. You can well imagine that secular counselors must modify the importance of the husband's role in her soul's salvation if she is to remain a good mother in the same house with a defected husband. It seems to me that other doubts must enter her mind if she is not to have pity and/or contempt for the wretch of a man who cannot see the higher light.
I cannot share your hope that there is something salvagable in the Mormon Church for thoughtful people who feel that doubt is a necessary quality for the moral person. The desire of the "leaders" to maintain the status quo is tragically immoral in this day and age where new problems require a sturdy review of older solutions.
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February 7, 1963 -2- Mrs. Juanita Brooks
But enough of this. I might be coming through Salt Lake. Perhaps I can meet you then.
Sincerely your friend,
- Boyd Mathias
(BYU Studies)
- S. I read where Klaus Hansen is now at Wayne State University. I don't think that Klaus Hansen goes here. Perhaps he goes to the University of Kansas, up the river.
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St. George, Utah
October 7, 1965
Dear Boyd Mathias:
Thank you for your letter written so long ago, but stating facts as true now as then. I think that you have done the best thing. Perhaps as your children mature, they will see and follow the logic of your thinking, or some of them will.
My problem is similar, but in reverse. My Mother is 88, and a devout, unquestioning member. While I do not trouble her greatly with arguments, I do refuse to go to the Temple on the ground that my work is for the living and not the dead, and besides, I'm "sealed" to the wrong man!
I'm enclosing these two items. You've no doubt seen the prospectus of the DIALOGUE. I wonder, trying to follow a middle road and not alienate any, if they will not lose both liberals and conservatives.
With the idea of "Mormon Historians" I'm also at variance. Why not attempt to be just an Historian? That's challenge enough. Why should a being a Mormon have to modify working at history?
The only advantage in identifying myself as a member is that the Institute and Seminary people occasionally ask me to speak to their students. I have protested so much and pointed out instances of the "re-writing of Mormon history during the l870 and 1880 —first to defend and prove polygamy and to perpetuate the myths of the Three Witnesses and also the Three Nephites—that I am suspect in the local group.
And now lately our great swing in re-writing again, when Nibley does the biographies of the leaders, naming only ONE wife.
I must not get started at this. I write only to say Thanks for introducing me to The Deputy and the basic moral problem underlying it, not only for the Pope but for the leaders and laymen of all religions.
I hope you find happiness and success in this new undertaking.
Sincerely,
Juanita Brooks
- Boyd Mathias
Raymond College
University of the Pacific
Stockton, California
95204
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St. George, Utah
October 6, 1956
State Board of Education State Capitol
Salt Lake City, Utah
Gentlemen:
I understand that Mrs. Mary Morris Phoenix is being considered as an English Teacher at the Dixie High School in St. George, and asked if I would write my evaluation of her
I have been asked to write you my opinion of Mrs. Mary Phoenix as a prospective teacher of high school English at the Dixie High School in St. George. I am very happy to do this.
I had Mrs. Phoenix /Mary Morris/ in my classes during her junior and senior years of high school. She was a superior student, a voracious avid reader, a perceptive one, with a most unusual memory and an appreciation not common in a high school student. Later she had a class in Great Books as an extension course from the University of Utah with me.
I think feel that Mrs. Phoenix is competent
This change from the grades to senior high school should be good for all concerned. While I am sure that Mrs. Phoenix is an excellent teacher of small children, I believe that she iw; ; appeal more to the more mature ones.
I heartily approve of this
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- Boyd Mathias
RAYMOND COLLEGE
UNIVERSITY OF THE PACIFIC
Stockton, California 95204
Mrs. Juanita Brooks
346 N. Main
St. George, Utah
STOCKTON
SEP 2
PM
1965
CALIF
Books ordered
Hochhuth Rolf-
The Deputy
Grove Press #1889 95¢
The Strom over the Deputy, ed Eric Bentley
Grove press #8292-95¢
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346 North Main, St. George, Utah
October 7, 1963
To Brother Earl Olsen or
Lauritz Peterson
LDS Church Historian's Office
47 East South Temple
Salt Lake City, Utah
Dear Brethren:
Do you have in your files any biographical information on Nathaniel Thomas Brown? I should like very much to find
Date and place of birth
Parents, if possible
Name of wife or wives
Death date, exact.
Brother Andrew Jensen in the Historical Record says that he was shot in Council Bluffs in early 1848, but does not indicate by whom or the reason.
If you have anything, I'd appreciate it if you would fill in on this page and send it in the enclosed envelope.
Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
Juanita Brooks
According to Andrew Jensen's L.D.S. Biographical Encyclopedia he was accidentaly shot in February 1848 at Council Bluffs, other than that we have no further information on him.
Thank you
Historians Library
ds
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Juanita Brooks
346 North Main
St. George, Utah
SALT LAKE CITY
OCT 16
6 PM
1963
UTAH
LDS Church
No information
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346 North Main
St. George, Utah
December 7, 1963
Mr. Andy Nelson
Morgan, Utah
Dear Friend Andy:
Thank you so much for sending the records of your father, Waldemar T. Nelson. I have been looking through them, and find them very interesting indeed.
I do feel that we should have a one-page summary of the life of your father, that we might get this detailed part into focus—that we might better understand what we read.
For example: I begin with the earliest volume here on March 20, 1888, without knowing whether or not Waldemar is married or single, how many children he has, if any, or exactly where he is living. Soon I discover that February 15 is his birthday, and your note on the front tells me that he came to America in l86l, when he was seven years old. From this I conclude that he is 34 years old when this record begins, (born in 1854.)
Could you provide a brief biographical summary:
Date and place of birth --- Date and place of death
Date of marriage to his first wife --- her name
date of her death if she died early
Names and ages of her children
Date of second marriage and name of wife
Names and ages of their children—deaths too, if possible
A brief summary of his activities.
I conclude too that he lives near the village of Morgan, perhaps a few miles out—in what direction? How far from Ogden, which seems to be a shopping center? What is the Iland to which he refers often?
I'm being very awkward about this, I know. What I'm hoping, Andy, is that you will give some additional information from which we may prepare an introduction to these volumes. For my record as well as for yours, I will summarize what I have:
1 volume, paper bound in brown 5 x 11 1/2 inches, unnumbered pages covering the dates March 26, 1888- June 15, 1894; information typewritten on the outside of front cover.
1 thin, alphabetized day book, mottled paper cover with top torn off, covering June 14, 1894- December 19, 3 1/2 x 7 inches
1 plain paper cover, alphabetized, 4 1/2 x 10 inches, covering Dec. 20, 1894 to February 13, 1896.
1 brown cardboard cover, 3 3/4 x 6 1/4 inches covering February 14, 1896 to July 15,1899.
1 larger brown cover 5 1/4 x 11 1/4 From April 27, 1909-February 18, 1913
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I shall have these reproduced on microfilm and placed at the Utah State Historical Library, 603 East South Temple, Salt Lake City, and also in the Western Collection at Princeton University. I shall also ask about possibilities from both of providing you with a photostat or zerox copy.
Thank you again for sending these. I hope to hear from you soon.
Sincere good wishes
Juanita Brooks