Jesse Knight was born in 1845 near Nauvoo, Illinois, the son of Newel and Lydia G. Knight, early converts to the Mormon faith. In 1850, with his widowed mother, Jesse traveled by wagon across the plains to Salt Lake City where the family remained until 1858 when orders came to move south ahead of the Utah Expedition. Jesse spent the rest of his childhood and his teen years in Provo, Utah, where he lived with his mother and later with an older brother. He worked as a teamster in most of the jobs he had and grew to young manhood in the environment of the logging camp, mining camp, and cattle town, with occasional Mormon connections. In 1869 he married Amanda McEwan and to this union were born five children, two sons and three daughters, with the first and the last children - daughters, being born in Provo and the rest on the Knight ranch in Payson, Utah. For many years Jesse Knight ranched and farmed in Payson, often herding sheep or cattle in the mountainous area of the Tintic, Utah, mining region. He became enamoured of the idea to find great wealth himself and shortly before 1890 he found a mine, the June-Bug, which he almost immediately sold. This whetted his appetite and in 1896 he, through what he believed direct inspiration from God, found the Humbug Mine. Rapidly he exploited this and other mines in the area which he acquired, and ultimately took $13,000,000 worth of ore from the mines on the Godiva Mountain, site of Humbug Mine. Until shortly before his great strike of 1896, Jesse Knight had completely avoided any connection with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but through the healing of his daughter, his faith was renewed in his ancestral faith. He felt badly about the years he had neglected his church duties and with his new-found fortune, he began to repay his Church and his neighbors the best way he could. He began his task by giving money to the Brigham Young Academy/University. Over the years almost a half million dollars was given to this institution. He assisted the Church at a critical juncture by loaning it $10,000 to pay interest on a debt. He saved several Church leaders from embarrassment and possible legal penalties by paying their debts. He founded three towns, Raymond, Alberta, Knightville and Storrs, Utah. He financed sugar companies in Utah and Alberta. He delved into irrigation companies, grain elevators, and railroads. He kept up the Provo Woolen Mills for many years. When Jesse Knight died in 1921, he left a rich heritage of service to his descendents, but little money. He had expanded and extended far beyond his financial resources to help others. Today, little if any of the fortune remains, but Jesse Knight is well remembered as a great miner, an industrialist and philanthropist—Utah's Great Commoner, he was called.

This thesis is a study of the mechanisms employed in the community building process of Hurricane, Utah. It traces the roots of the town's early settlers beginning with their arrival in southern Utah in the early 1860s through the founding of Hurricane and the establishment of its social order. This pioneering period largely ended by 1930.Hurricane's founders were the remnants of the Mormon Church's failed Cotton Mission. Original U.S. census research shows that by 1900 close to half of the mission's colonizers abandoned the challenging desert of southern Utah. The stalwarts who remained fashioned the Hurricane Canal with the expectation of economic betterment and a new life on the Hurricane Bench.Using ingrained Mormon egalitarian principles the Hurricane Canal Company proved the driving force behind Hurricane's genesis. Company leaders became the new town's leaders and cooperated extensively in the various organizations they headed. They formed a core authority group that created stability and provided public utilities and services for Hurricane denizens. In the end Hurricane produced the chance for economic improvement its pioneers hoped it would.

This thesis examines the first eighty years of Mt. Pleasant's history. Religion permeated the community affecting all areas of life, from education to the economy. This analysis will demonstrate how the characteristics described by May influenced the development of this community.

This thesis, DAVID WHITMER, A WITNESS TO THE DIVINE AUTHENTICITY OF THE BOOK OF MORMON, is an attempt to give an unbiased history of the life and religious activities of a man who spent fifty years apart from the Church he was so much an instrument in establishing. His testimony has been a considerable factor in promoting its growth and success. The title of this work was suggested by a text Mr. Whitmer wrote in the year previous to his demise; the subject, by A. William Lund, assistant Latter-day Saint Church Historian. Particular emphasis has been placed upon that phase of David Whitmer's life that touched the Church, both for good and bad, and is not an attempt to elaborate upon his life prior to the year 1829 or to give a comprehensive account of his progenitors and posterity. Nearly all those who knew him in life have long since joined him in death. My thanks to those few who yet live; their contributions have become a part of this work.

The most interesting and important place in the world is where a man lives. His home becomes the finest place on earth regardless of its merits in relation to other habitats. After years of residence the history of the country takes on reality and significance and a long acquaintance reveals elements of romance and adventure that enhance ones love of his surroundings. This is one of the reasons for this thesis topic. During a young impressionable life the stories of Indians, trappers, pioneers, rustlers and polygamist, have been constantly a part of the environment of the author. Long trips in the mountains hunting, fishing, camping, and logging have added to this feeling of veneration and fondness for the country. Others have written many of these early events down but a complete synchronization does not appear in any one place. Added to the fondness for the region is a genuine feeling that here is a peculiar chapter in western American history that has not been completely written. This section of Idaho has been entirely neglected by most historiographers. Even the reports of the Territorial Governors were silent on the settlement and conquest of this region. Whether this neglect has been purposefully or innocently done is not fully clear.

The purpose of this study was to determine as far as possible the extent of the subject-matter preparation of full-time seminary teachers in the areas of Book of Mormon, Old Testament, New Testament, and Church history and doctrine. Answers to the following questions were sought: 1. How many semester hours of college credit have the teachers received in the areas of Book of Mormon, Old Testament, New Testament, and Church history and doctrine? 2. To what extent have the Standard Works been studied by the teachers? 3. How many books which were considered to be basic sources have been read by the teachers? 4. What were some of the other experiences that contributed to the teacher's preparation in subject matter? 5. What evidence of yearly growth, as indicated by semester hours of college credit received and books read, was shown by the teachers during their first five years of teaching? Also sought was a standard of comparison that could be used to make a meaningful evaluation of the data gathered.

The Church News supplement to the Deseret News has been part of the Salt Lake City newspaper for over fifty years. It has evolved from a weekly eight-page tabloid religious section of the daily newspaper to a weekly magazine of feature articles, photographs, editorials and news of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. An historical study of the Church News has not been done previously. Hence, the intent of this study is to observe how the Church News has served its purposes and goals over its history. The study briefly outlines how the publication has developed and will serve as a springboard for further independent studies in the various areas of interest such as Church News editorials, circulation and advertising. The following study is not intended to be an empirical, scientific analysis of the Church News. Research began with no preconceived notions of outcome or hypotheses. It is designed as a descriptive historical overview of the Church Section of the Deseret News.

This thesis is a project which investigates the science of stylometry and wordprints; the analysis of writing style characteristics. The focus is placed on reexamining a wordprint study done by Wayne Larsen and Alvin Rencher wherein the Book of Mormon was analyzed against texts by those who are purported to have written it. The difference in this study from the first was that new wordprint definitions were developed using a junction grammar program created by Eldon Lytle, the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon was employed as the base text, the phrase "it came to pass" was deleted and the texts used in analysis were divided into narrative and discourse groups and analyzed separately.The results of the thesis show conclusively that the idea of wordprints being able to identify uniqueness in authors is indeed valid. The tests on the control groups show this. This was then applied to the Book of Mormon authors and a test made which was significant; indicating that no one individual could have authored the text. This was true not only for the wordprint as defined in the Larsen/Rencher study, but for each new definition derived from the junction grammar program. Other tests were performed which showed that Joseph Smith could not have authored any part of the Book of Mormon.

This study examines the impact of religiosity on coping in a group of Mormon (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) youth. Longitudinal data were gathered from detailed questionnaires administered to 2852 male and female adolescents in 1990 and 1993. Coping was conceptualized as four general dimensions (self-concept, public activities and service, deviance and future plans). Religiosity was also conceptualized multi-dimensionally (religious belief, public religiosity, private religious behavior, and religious experiences). Multiple regression analysis was used to investigate the unique effects of each of the dimensions of religiosity on each dimension of coping. It was hypothesized that religiosity was positively related to coping. More specifically, it was hypothesized that public religiosity would have the greatest impact on community service, while private religious practices would most strongly influence deviance and future plans, and that religious belief and religious experiences would have the strongest impact on the self. Results from the study failed to confirm the hypothesis. While private religiosity moderately impacted future religious, educational and career plans among these youth, the results indicated that the impact of religiosity on the other dimensions of coping was negligible. Limitations of the study and possible reasons for these results are discussed.

The writer's reason for making this study is a felt lack of taste and a general misunderstanding and misuse of the visual arts in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She is convinced that art, generally considered as a matter of personal taste, is actually a matter of professional judgement. A characteristic of our time is the "do-it-yourself" trend and to make up ones own mind about everything without any consultation of authorities and also a loss of feeling for integrity in productions of the human mind and hand which broke down the fences against kitsch and opened up the way, not only into man's environment, but also into his thinking. May the reader find in this study a help towards a better understanding and a greater awareness of the problem of kitsch.