Review
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Title: Levi Savage Jr. Journal – The Hero of the Willie Handcart Company
Author: Lynn M. Hilton, PhD
Publisher: Hilton Books
Genre: Non-fiction
Year Published: 2011
Number of Pages: 146
Binding: Soft-cover
ISBN 10: 1470182351
ISBN 13: 978-1470182359
Price: $12.95
Reviewed by Heather Young for the Association for Mormon Letters
I have been interested in reading early Saints’ journals for a while. If I struggle nowadays with questions of doctrine and church policy, how was it for the pioneers, who gave everything (including their lives) for the church? The book “Levi Savage Jr. Journal: The Hero of the Willie Handcart Company” answers that question in a subtle, yet telling way
The chapters recalling the ordeal of the Willie Handcart Company, Levi’s struggles to make money, and his sufferings in the Utah territorial prison, are all told in a factual way, with only hints to his feelings regarding the situations described. The first two chapters of this book give factual background to Levi Savage’s life. They cover a synopsis of his early childhood, introduction to the church, marriages, and major life events. It includes maps, pictures and samples of his handwriting. This summary gives only facts and does not attempt to give the reader any emotional reason to care about Levi Savage. The actual journal begins with chapter three, describing his four year church mission to Burma and India. As a reader, I was hoping for descriptions of the exotic locales and customs Levi was exposed to. Alas, Levi was a true man of his times and kept his short journal entries on the topics of who his dinner companions were and his attempts at preaching. That set the tone for the rest of the book.
During the chapters recalling the ordeal of the Willie Handcart Company, his struggles to establish himself in a career in Utah and even his sufferings in the Utah territorial prison, are all told in a factual way, with little emotional information shared. It reminded me of the movie “Forrest Gump,” not because Levi Savage had an intellectual disability, far from it. He was a brilliant, hard working man. The qualities he shared with Forrest Gump were his undying belief in doing the right thing, being loyal to his family and friends and his indefatigable energy. It seemed like Levi faced his life in the same practical manner as Forrest.
After Levi protested that he thought it was unwise to undertake handcart travel so late in the season and his opinion was shot down, he resolutely took his place in the group and saved lives as tragedy struck the company. After they were rescued from the snowy mountains and arrived in the valley, Levi made no formal complaint to church leaders of the ineptitude that caused the tragedy. He accepted his fate and moved on. He did that over and over in his life, even when he felt much wronged. On Saturday, September 8, 1877, he wrote:
“I met in Council which decided that I should deliver both land and improvements to Brother A.E. Dodge. The land nor improvements is not, nor never was Brother A.E. Dodges’s but I had to comply to save my fellowship (in the church).”
Levi Savage Jr. was a Mormon during the early years of the church. He was introduced to polygamy by Brigham Young, then proceeded to marry a widow and her two young daughters, who became his second and third wives after ten years of living with them as their stepfather. He was willing to suffer in prison for the principle of polygamy as he wrote, “If I was here for a crime, I would consider this part of my life literally wasted, but as it is, I rejoice.”
A mere two years after his prison term, the church president Wilford Woodruff rescinded polygamy and Levi was forced to separate living with his polygamous wives or face going back to prison for a much longer term, with much heavier financial fines. He solved the problem by purchasing a small one-room cabin that he placed in the backyard of his home and he and his first wife used it as their bedroom so no one could accuse them of living with the other two wives who slept in the main house.
The author does an excellent job culling Levi Savage’s extensive journals, distilling them down to the gold nuggets that contain the treasures of his lived experience. By the time I reached the end of the book, I was grateful to refer back to the first two chapters with a new appreciation for the information.
The mental gymnastics that Levi lived through in his 90 years, with numerous instances where he and fellow Saints felt utterly abandoned by church leadership, with changing church doctrine and the competitiveness of survival, made Levi Savage, a simple man without high church status, a giant in my eyes.
His first wife left him when he married his second wife, then called the police when she found out he married the second wife’ daughters after raising them for ten years! Such a creep!!’ I am a descendent of his first wife
You seem to be mistaken. While he did marry the children of his second wife his first had been dead for nearly a decade by the time he remarried.