Angus M. Cannon: Cannon v. U.S., 116 U.S. 55 (1885)

Angus Munn Cannon was the grandson of Captain George Cannon, the son of George Cannon the Immigrant, and the brother of George Q. Cannon, my ancestor. He was the defendant in a court case that went to the U.S. Supreme Court which had a significant impact in the struggle between the U.S. government and the LDS Church over the issue of polygamy.

On January 20, 1885, Angus was arrested for unlawful cohabitation. On February 7^th Angus entered a not guilty plea in court. His trial began on April 27^th in front of Judge Charles S. Zane, with U.S. attorney William H. Dickson handling the prosecution. Angus was represented by Franklin S. Richards, son of apostle Franklin D. Richards, who had previously represented the Church in the court battles over the Brigham Young Estate, and later, from 1903-1908, represented Joseph F. Smith during the Reed Smoot hearings.

To set the stage, Angus had four wives at the time: (a) Sarah Maria Mousley, his wife of 27 years and mother of six of his children, four still living; (b) Ann Amanda Mousley, Sarah’s sister, married to Angus immediately after Sarah, thus the second wife and mother of ten of his children, nine still living; (c) Clarissa (Clara) Moses Mason, a widow, with two living children from a prior marriage, Angus’s wife of 10 years and mother of three of his children, one still living; and (d) Martha Hughes, who Angus married just three months before he his arrest. It is apparent that the prosecutor was not aware of Martha who lived in a separate residence. Angus was prominent in the community as president of the Salt Lake Stake, which included all of the wards in Salt Lake County, and had been for nine years. His brother, George, was first counselor to John Taylor, president of the LDS Church. Angus had been in Judge Zane’s courtroom the year before, as a witness in the polygamy trial of Rudger Clawson, an apostle.

The U.S. government had taken many steps over the years to get the Mormons to abandon polygamy, including various laws that had been enacted without much success. In 1879 the U.S. Supreme Court case of Reynolds v. U.S. struck down the freedom of religion defense relied upon by Mormons in polygamy prosecutions, but prosecutors still had to prove a marriage ceremony had taken place, which was difficult to do and a significant barrier to prosecution. In 1882 Congress enacted the Edmunds Act which made polygamy a felony with a maximum sentence of five years and a fine of $500, for marriages entered into after March 22, 1882. It also made cohabitation a misdemeanor with a maximum sentence of six months and fine of $300. However, the Edmunds Act did not define cohabitation, which became the issue in the Cannon case.

At trial there were only three witnesses, all called by the prosecution: Clara, Angus’s third wife; George M. Cannon, the son of Sarah, his first wife; and Angus M. Cannon, Jr., the son of Amanda, his second wife. 

The substance of the trial came down to one issue: Did the government have to prove that Angus had sexual relations with Amanda and/or Clara, his second and third wives, after passage of the Edmunds Act, in order to prove cohabitation? Franklin S. Richards offered jury instructions which said, yes, sexual relations were an element of the crime of cohabitation and the government had to prove that sexual relations had occurred. Judge Zane disagreed and allowed jury instructions which said that if Angus lived in the same house with Amanda and Clara and held them out, by language or conduct, or both, as his wives, he should be found guilty.

On April 29, 1885 the jury returned a guilty verdict. At a sentencing hearing on May 9^th, Judge Zane asked Angus about his intentions in the future, as it might impact the sentence he would order. Angus replied, “I cannot state what I will do in the future…I have become a [U.S.] citizen. When I did so I had no idea that a statute would be passed making my faith and religion a crime; but having made that allegiance, I can only say that I have used the utmost of my power to honor my God, my family and my country. In eating with my children day by day, and showing an impartiality in meeting with them around the board, with the mother who was wont to wait upon them, I was unconscious of any crime. I did not think I would be made a criminal for that. …[T]he consciousness of my heart is visible to the God who created me, and the rectitude that has marked my life and conduct with this people bears me up to receive such a sentence as your Honor shall see fit to impose upon me.” Following Angus’s remarks, there was vigorous applause from the audience. Judge Zane responded that since “the defendant had declined to promise to obey the law, and advise others to obey it, no leniency could be shown him.” He imposed the maximum sentence of six months in prison and a $300 fine. On June 27, 1885, the Utah Territorial Supreme Court affirmed the conviction and sentence in an opinion written by Judge Jacob S. Boreman.

By September 1885, after the number of prosecutions for polygamy and cohabitation increased dramatically because of this successful trial, the LDS Church First Presidency directed Franklin S. Richards to try and negotiate  a way out of the prosecutions. This was unsuccessful, so Richards tried to retain a former U.S. senator from Missouri, George G. Vest, to argue Angus’s case before the U.S. Supreme Court. Vest had previously argued in a Supreme Court case on behalf of the Mormons and had also worked against passage of the Edmunds Bill in the Senate. Unable to secure Vest, Franklin S. Richards represented Angus in the matter. Richards filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court on October 21, 1885 and apparently did not have to do an oral argument, at least none is mentioned.

After Angus spent six months in prison, the full term under his sentence, Angus voluntarily stayed in prison because of concern by his attorney that if he was no longer in prison, the U.S. Supreme Court would deem the issue moot and refuse to rule on the merits. The LDS Church wanted a ruling on this issue.

In mid-December 1885, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the Utah Territorial Supreme Court in Cannon v. United States, 116 U.S. 55 (1885). Samuel Blatchford wrote for the majority and was joined by Chief Justice Morrison Waite, who authored the Reynolds opinion, and Joseph P. Bradley, John M. Harlan, William B. Woods, Stanley Matthews and Horace Gray. Samuel Miller and Stephen J. Field dissented, based on their belief that proving sexual intercourse must be an element of the crime. 

By the time of the ruling, Angus had served about eight months in prison, two months voluntarily.

After this ruling which made prosecution of polygamy and unlawful cohabitation much easier, prosecutions increased dramatically. Making things even more difficult, Congress enacted the Tucker Amendment to the Edmunds Act in 1887. It: (1) Required wives to testify against their husbands by repealing the spousal immunity; (2) Allowed prosecutors to jail witnesses until trial if they suspected them of being uncooperative; (3) Added the crimes of adultery, incest and fornication; (4) Required an anti-polygamy oath of all jurors, office holders and voters, effectively eliminating many Mormons; (5). Repealed suffrage, negating womens’ right to vote; (6) Annulled incorporation of the Church as a charitable entity as well as the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company; and (7) The attorney general was directed to seize and liquidate Church holdings on behalf of the government.

By 1890, about 1,300 Mormons were convicted of crimes related to polygamy and over $100,000 in fines had been collected by the government. Perhaps the needle that broke the camel’s back, on May 19, 1890, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling in Late Corporation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints v. United States, which upheld the seizure of Church holdings by the federal government. Within a few months, in September 1890, President Woodruff issued the Manifesto which ended the practice of plural marriage by the LDS Church.

Ken Driggs, the author of “The Prosecutions Begin: Defining Cohabitation in 1885” Dialogue 21 (1988), pp. 109-125, from which most of the information in this article was obtained, gives his opinion that it was the Cannon decision, not the Reynolds decision, which had the greatest impact in ending the practice of polygamy, because it paved the way for successful prosecutions.

But aside from the importance of the Cannon case, which I was unaware of, I was fascinated by the look inside the polygamous household which the facts of the case provide.

After passage of the Edmunds Act, legal counsel for Angus offered to prove that Angus abided by that law and did not have physical relations with his plural wives, or at least Clara, but continued to support them and take meals with them. In this light, Angus’s marriage to Martha Hughes, only a few months before his arrest, after the effective date of the Edmunds Act, becomes more interesting.

The house owned by Angus was located at 246 First South in Salt Lake.  

It was divided into three apartments, one for each of the three wives that lived there. Each apartment had an adjoining parlor and dining room and a separate kitchen located at the back of the house. A hall ran through the ground floor and each of the three apartments opened on to the hall. Clara’s parlor and dining room were located on the east side of the hall. Amanda’s parlor and dining room were located on the west side of the hall. The location of Sarah’s parlor and dining room was not given. Angus ate all meals with each family every third day, or twice a week. On Sunday he had breakfast with Clara and her family, dinner (the main meal, at midday) with Sarah and her family, and supper (the evening meal) with Amanda and her family.

The second floor had four bedrooms, with two bedrooms on each side of a hall. Clara used the bedroom in the northeast corner which had two beds. She shared the bedroom with her three year old daughter through Angus, her 23 year old daughter from a prior marriage, and two orphaned children, both girls, ages 10 and 12, children of her niece who left them to Clara when the niece died. Amanda used the bedroom in the southwest corner. She slept there along with her eight children still living at home. Angus used the bedroom in the southeast corner and Sarah must have used the bedroom in the northwest corner, along with her four children. Before passage of the Edmunds Act, Angus alternated sleeping in the bedroom and bed of each wife. After the Edmunds Act was passed, Angus’s attorneys offered to prove that he intended to live the law and did not occupy the rooms or beds or have sexual intercourse with at least Clara, and presumably Amanda, as well. However, he continued to eat with them, support them and allowed them to occupy the separate apartments.

Following his prison sentence, it is clear Angus continued to have relations with at least three plural wives. Martha Hughes, whom he married three months before his arrest, bore him three children, one of which was born after the trial and before the U.S. Supreme Court decision. On March 11, 1886, less than four months after the Supreme Court decision, Angus married Maria Bennion and fathered three children. A year later, on March 21, 1887, he married Johanna Cristina Danielson and fathered one child with her, which died in infancy.  The Cannon Family Historical Treasury, edited by Beatrice Cannon Evans and Janath Russell Cannon (published by George Cannon Family Association, 1995), which also provides information for this post, notes that these wives lived on the “underground” in an attempt to avoid prosecution.

Daniel in the Lion's Den

When I was young, my mother and father would read to me and my siblings after we climbed into bed with them in the mornings. I remember many books, Sounder, The Yearling, Where the Red Fern Grows, and particularly stories from a children's version of the Bible. They are memories I cherish, a time I felt safe and loved. Centered above my parents' bed at that time was an oil painting of Daniel in the Lion's Den painted by my mother.

Many years later, after I was married and visiting my parents, I told Mom that there was only one thing I really wanted of theirs after they died, and that was her painting of Daniel in the Lion's Den. That painting embodies so many cherished memories: being read to as a child, their love for me, my mother's skill as an artist, and my love of the Bible stories, particularly of the Old Testament, as taught to me by her. Then she taught me another wonderful lesson. She walked over to that painting that hung on her wall, pulled it off and handed it to me. She said, "It's yours." The painting now sits above my side of our bed.

As a trusts and estates lawyer, I have used that story many times to illustrate to clients one way of dealing effectively with tangible personal property with their children: give it away before they die.

I was teaching a Gospel Doctrine lesson in Sunday School recently and took the painting as the topic was the writings of Daniel in the Old Testament. Afterwards I called Mom and asked her what she could remember about the painting. It was about 1957, the year I was born. Mom, and her good friend, Helen Wiscomb, were taking an oil painting class from a woman instructor at a community college. Mom loved religion and was intrigued by a picture of Daniel she saw somewhere, perhaps from one of the church magazines. The painting was copied from a similar picture, as was a another painting she did at the time, of an egg and feather.

Judy at 50: You're Only Getting Better

Judy is celebrating her 50th birthday. In keeping with the one of the themes of this blog, I would like to recount some of the fun outdoor experiences we have had together. One of my favorite pictures was taken at Trail Camp, over 12,000 feet, near the base of Mt. Whitney in the Sierras. 

It was a three day backpacking trip with Andrew and two of his friends.

What a thrill to share the mountains I love with the person I love. I'll never forget what she said, with tears in her eyes, as we sat in a beautiful meadow next to a snow-fed stream: "Bob, you never told me it was this beautiful." That caused me to see the area with new eyes and greater appreciation and is one of my favorite experiences in the outdoors. It was also a special treat to stand with her on the summit of the tallest mountain in the contiguous U.S., particularly because she was so excited to be there.

I would say that Mount Whitney probably has to be the crowning achievement of our outdoors experiences together. We are all smiles in the parking lot at Whitney Portal.

But this was not a one hit wonder. She has done other fourteeners, both before and since. With our entire family, we climbed White Mountain, a 14,000+ foot mountain in the White Mountains across the Owens Valley from the Sierras.

Judy resting at the summit.

This trip also included some exploration in the nearby Bristlecone Pine Forest, home of the Methusalah tree, one of the oldest trees in the world (4,841 years).

And just last year, the day before our 30th anniversary, we climbed Mt. Elbert, the second tallest mountain in the contiguous U.S. (and the tallest mountain in Colorado).

I wasn't doing well physically that day, dealing with some altitude sickness, but it was still wonderful to spend some time in beautiful Colorado and to see how excited Judy was to be there. The aspens were changing color and the air was crisp and cool.

She fell in love with Colorado as I have.

You get a whole different view of the world in the high country.

Judy has been to the top of Mauna Kea, the tallest mountain in Hawaii at 12,796 feet. She didn't enjoy that one so much. She had altitude sickness and it was windy and very cold.

She got close to the summit of Mount Humphreys, the tallest mountain in Arizona. But it started to thunder and lightening and she took Andrew and Sam to a lower elevation. And she has climbed to the summit of many of our local mountains including Mount Baldy, Mount Baden-Powell, Mount San Jacinto and Mount San Bernardino, at least twice.

and

We need to get her to the top of Mount San Gorgonio and she'll have done the major peaks in Southern California. Another significant mountain she has climbed twice is 11,749 foot Mount Timpanogas outside of Provo, Utah. It is one of our very favorite hikes. Below, with her brother Dave in the summit hut.

And investigating some of the beautiful wildflowers along the way.

Last year we visited Peru and Machu Picchu.

Judy made it to the summit of Huayna Picchu, the tall mountain in the background of the ruins below.

Just recently she went on a desert adventure with me to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. She did put a condition on the trip - we had to stay in a hotel, no camping. It was worth complying with the condition to have her companionship. She humored me and all my plant photographs, getting into the act herself. She even capped off the experience when she discovered a large western diamondback rattlesnake along the trail we were hiking.

Now that the kids have left the nest, I am looking forward to more adventures with my sweetheart. Happy birthday Sweetie. I love you!

Unusual Cannon Christmases - Nine Generations

1779 George Cannon, age 13, of Peel, Isle of Man, was seven months into a ten month voyage on the ship Rawlinson, from Liverpool to Jamaica and back to Liverpool again. On Christmas day, he was likely in Kingston, Jamaica, enjoying copious amounts of rum, even at that age, as sailors were want to do.

1787 George Cannon, was only three days at sea from Liverpool into an eight and a half month voyage on the ship James, from Liverpool to Jamaica and back again. He was probably enjoying the Christmas spirits, but was still close to land and having to pay careful attention to the workings of the ship. It would have been a working day.

1788 George Cannon was nine days at sea from Liverpool into a seven month voyage, again on the ship James, from Liverpool to Jamaica and back. He was a little further from land than the year before, and depending on the weather, may have had more time to enjoy the Christmas spirits.

1790 George Cannon was nine months into a three and a half year voyage of the slave ship Eliza. He was likely in Anomabu on the Gold Coast of West Africa, present-day Ghana. He may have been enjoying native spirits made from fermented coconut oil.

1791 George Cannon was 21 months into the voyage of the ship Eliza. He was likely in Cape Coast Castle on the Gold Coast of Africa, present-day Ghana.

1792 George Cannon was 33 months into the voyage of the Eliza. During the past year he had gone from the Gold Coast of Africa to deliver 119 slaves in Falmouth, Jamaica, had sailed to New York, perhaps back to Jamaica, and on Christmas day was at sea on his way back to Cape Coast Castle on the Gold Coast to purchase more slaves.

1793 George Cannon was likely back home in Peel, Isle of Man. During the year the Eliza had gone back to Kingston, Jamaica with 167 slaves and then sailed back to Liverpool, arriving in early September. Less than a month after Christmas, in January, George, flush with cash after all of those months at sea, loaned 20 pounds to his parents, Hugh and Eleanor Cannon, secured by their home in Peel.

1794 George Cannon married Leonora Callister on February 3rd in Peel and she was four months pregnant when he left in July for a voyage as first mate on the ship Good Intent. The Good Intent sailed to Angola, Africa, where it purchased slaves, then sold the slaves in Grenada and sailed back to Liverpool. The birth of George’s first child, George Cannon (who later emigrated to Nauvoo) on December 3rd, and Christmas day both occurred while George was at sea, sailing between Angola and Grenada. Surely, as he drank his grog on Christmas day, George wondered whether Leonora and his first child had survived childbirth.

1796 In June, George sailed as first mate on the ship Helen from Liverpool headed for Angola in Africa to purchase slaves and then to Barbados and Antigua in the Caribbean to sell the slaves. Leonora was five and a half months pregnant with their second child when he left and the child, Leonora (who later emigrated to Canada and married John Taylor), was born on October 5th while George was in Angola. It appears that in late November or early December, while on the Middle Passage, the Helen was captured by a French privateer, the ship Scipio (England and France were at war with each other). The Helen was later recaptured by the President Sloop, part of Admiral Harvey’s Squadron of the British Navy in the West Indies and was taken to St. Kitts. George likely spent this Christmas as a prisoner of the French, at sea, wondering if Leonora and his second child had survived childbirth and also wondering when and if he would see his family again.

1798 In June, George left Liverpool as first mate on the ship Iris for Bonny, Africa (present-day Nigeria) to purchase slaves. Leonora was several months pregnant. Captain John Spencer drowned in Africa in August and George replaced him as captain. After purchasing 420 slaves, the Iris headed for Kingston, Jamaica. While in the Caribbean, Captain Cannon and the Iris captured two vessels as prizes, the North America and the Uncle Toby, one a French and the other a Spanish ship. The prizes and the slaves were taken to Kingston. Captain Cannon celebrated Christmas day in Kingston, likely a very happy day as he contemplated the substantial riches he was likely to realize from the capture of his two prizes, and a complete reversal of two years prior when he spent Christmas as a prisoner of a French privateer. Captain Cannon got back to Liverpool in April. His third child, Thomas, born in January, was likely not alive, as he died in infancy.

1799 After less than three months at home, George Cannon left Liverpool in July as captain of the Iris, this time headed for Angola in Africa. For the fourth straight voyage, Leonora was pregnant when George left home, but this time he may not have been aware of it as she was only about one month along. On Christmas day, Captain Cannon was likely in Angola. He may very well have spent the day with the captains of other slave ships, and local Portuguese and African slave traders, as was the custom, drinking and eating in celebration. George arrived in Kingston, Jamaica in August to sell his slaves and the Iris, leaking badly, was condemned. Captain Cannon had to get passage back to England on another ship, arriving in November after being gone for 16 months.

1801 Captain Cannon celebrated Christmas at home in Peel, owner of a new home, purchased in October, located at 7 Michael Street. When advertised for sale 14 years later, the home was described as a large dwelling house three stories high, with four rooms on each floor, an excellent cellar, with a stable and backyard on “one of the most convenient and pleasant streets in Peel.” His father, Hugh, had died earlier that year, so his mother, Eleanor, who lived nearby, likely spent the day with him and his family.

1802 Captain Cannon left Liverpool on September 29 as captain of the ship Minerva. On Christmas day, he was likely in Bonny (Nigeria), spending his fourth Christmas in Africa, dining with other captains and local African traders. In April, he delivered 212 slaves to Nassau, in the Bahamas and was back in Liverpool by August.

1810 William Cannon, brother of Captain Cannon, was likely killed when the ship he owned and was captain of, the Leander, wrecked on Great Manan Island in the Bay of Fundy, near Nova Scotia, in September or early October 1810. Captain Cannon may have had William’s widow, Alice, also a resident of Peel, over for Christmas that year.

1811 Leonora Cannon likely spent Christmas day at home in Peel with her family. Captain Cannon, just eight months after the death of his brother William, was killed in July in a mutiny on his own ship. Captain Cannon’s family had done very well financially, but now the breadwinner was gone. It was a time of belt tightening as well as sorrow.

1825 George Cannon, son of Captain Cannon, and Ann Callister, both originally neighbors in Peel, where they grew up, were married on October 24, 1825 in Liverpool. They were in the midst of the Industrial Revolution, and George, a carpenter, was likely lured to Liverpool seeking a job. Their first Christmas as newlyweds, was likely spent in Liverpool.

1840 George Cannon’s brother-in-law, John Taylor, arrived in Liverpool in January, having left Nauvoo at the direction of Joseph Smith, to go on a mission to England. Taylor immediately went to the Cannon home, located at 43 Norfolk Street, to introduce himself. A month later, in February, George and Ann Cannon were baptized into the LDS church and Taylor lived at the Cannon home while proselyting in Liverpool. In June, at the instigation of Parley P. Pratt, the three oldest Cannon children, George Q., Mary Alice and Annie were also baptized. Later in the year, Taylor went to the Isle of Man to preach. George Cannon and family likely spent Christmas day at home, with John Taylor, and perhaps some other missionaries. The amazing progress of the LDS church in England, and Taylor’s experiences with family and friends in the Isle of Man, were likely topics of conversation during the day.

1841 John Taylor and many of the other LDS missionaries, including Brigham Young, Heber Kimball, Wilford Woodruff, Willard Richards and Orson Pratt, left Liverpool in April to go back to Nauvoo. During the year, many ship loads of LDS converts left Liverpool to join the saints in Nauvoo, including a ship with 170 converts, which left on November 8th. George Cannon and his family were anxious to do the same and were working to save money and prepare themselves to go. Christmas day was likely spent in Liverpool with the anticipation and sorrow that this could be their last Christmas in England and the last time that they might see other family members.

1842 George Cannon, the immigrant, with his family, left Liverpool on the ship Sidney on September 18th, headed for Nauvoo, Illinois. His wife, Ann, died on October 28th off the coast of Louisiana and was buried at sea. They then took a steamboat up the Mississippi River from New Orleans to the vicinity of St. Louis where their steamboat got stuck in the ice. George rented a home in or near St. Louis where they spent their Christmas. It would have been a Christmas of many mixed feelings: much sorrow for the loss of their wife and mother, and great excitement to meet Joseph Smith and be with the Taylors and other saints in Nauvoo. In the spring, once the Mississippi opened up again, they took a steamboat to Nauvoo where they arrived on April 12, 1843, greeted by John and Leonora Taylor and Joseph Smith.

1844 On June 27, Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, were killed by a mob in Carthage, Illinois. George Cannon built the drag, kind of like a large sled, that their bodies were brought back to Nauvoo on. He also made their death masks, clipping off a lock of Joseph’s hair, caught in the plaster, and giving it to his son, David. During this time of uncertainty and hardship, George left his family in Nauvoo and traveled to St. Louis to find work. There, on August 17 he died of sun stroke. George Q. and his sister Ann, moved in with their Uncle and Aunt, John and Leonora Taylor. John Taylor was with Joseph and Hyrum when they were killed. He was shot four times and was severely wounded. He was shot in the left thigh (the bullet grazing the bone), the left hip (leaving a hole the size of a cup), his left arm (the bullet lodging in his hand) and below the left knee. Mary Alice, just age 15, married Charles Lambert on November 28 and she and Charles took care of her two youngest siblings, Angus and David. It would have been a hard Christmas that year, following the death of their father, the death of the prophet, the near-death of their uncle and the splitting up of their family. I am sure they must have questioned their parents’ decision to leave England.

1849 George Q. Cannon was on his way to the gold fields of California with a large group, including Charles C. Rich, Jefferson Hunt, Addison Pratt and Henry Bigler. Having traveled across the Mojave Desert, they were resting up at the Isaac Williams Ranch, also known as the Rancho del Chino, in what is now Chino, California. The day before Francis Pomeroy made a plum pudding, Addison Pratt shot several ducks and a curlew and they “dressed” a “bullock” and appointed cooks to make the Christmas dinner. Christmas day the “earth [was] green with grass and wild oats” and they had a dinner with “plenty of roast beef and potatoes, baked ducks and plum pooding.”

1850 George Q. Cannon was on the Island of Maui in the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands on an LDS mission. He spent the day reading and studying the Hawaiian language. “My thoughts naturally reverted to home and its attractions.” He thought members of the family might be “wondering where George is today.”

1851 George Q. Cannon spent Christmas with Brothers Winchester and Burnham on the Island of Maui. Christmas morning, Mr. Rice arrived from Waiehu. “We spent a very agreeable day and had an excellent Christmas dinner, but still my thought naturally reverted to home and its attractions and I could not help wondering whether I was forgotten by the folks amid the general festivities. We had in the evening a candy frolic a spirit of hilarity and mirthfulness prevailed.”

1853 George Q. Cannon was in Hanapepe, Kauai. On Christmas Eve, he “[c]ommenced reading the translation of the Book of Mormon, in company with Bros. Farrer and Kauwahi, for the purpose of correcting any inaccuracies that might be in the translation and to see that no words or sentences had been left out.” On Christmas day, “[v]isions of the enjoyments and pleasures of home floated through my mind…Bro. Wm. Farrer went to meeting at Hanapepe this morning, leaving Bro. Lewis an me here; -- our residence was the old prison house of this place, it being vacated in consequence of all the law breakers being sent to Lihue; our dinner consisted of a calabash of poi, and a dish of boiled sweet potatoes and pork. Truly it requires the spirit of the Lord to enable an elder thus to isolate himself, from all that is near, dear, and attractive to him on earth, and take up his abode among a semi-barbarous people and in an out of the way place like this, where there is no attraction, except to do the will of the Father; -- for one who has ever known the pleasures and true happiness of a life among the saints, and yet under these circumstances, I spent a very happy day,-- I preached morning and afternoon on the first principles/ I never preached better to my own satisfaction on these subjects, and, although, laboring under a heavy cold, I was blessed with strength and an abundant flow of the spirit and of the teaching; the saints appeared to be filled, and all rejoiced in the blessings of the new & everlasting covenants. Three were confirmed who had been baptized.”

1862 George Q. Cannon was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve and President of the European Mission. He was in Liverpool on Christmas day. “Arranged for a Christmas dinner for the Elders and the brethren in the office, there were present: Elders [Jacob G.] Bigler, West, B[righam]. Young Jr., John M. Kay, and Sis. Kay, Elders Bull, Shearman, Sloan, Perkes, Graham and Sister Graham, Bros. D. M. McAllister, Robert R. Anderson, Ephraim and Wm. McMillan. The dinner was excellent and did E. credit and all enjoyed themselves very heartily. In the evening we all attended tea party in the chapel, and had an excellent evening's enjoyment in listening to the singing, recitation and acting. There were two pieces performed: "The Phenomenon In a Smock Frock," and "Box and Cox." The acting of Bros. Graham and Perke's was admirable. The folks from the office were the main contributors to the evening's amusements, and I was much gratified with their efforts.”

1876 George Q. Cannon was a counselor to President Brigham Young and was in Washington D.C. as a non-voting delegate for Utah Territory in the U.S. Congress. “Took the train at 9.20 last night for New York. We put up at the St. Nicholas which hotel we reached between 7 & 8 this morning. Remained there until a little after noon, awaiting the arrival of Rudger Clawson, Bro. John W. [Young] having said that he would meet us. We then walked up Broadway and took a car to Central Park. The ground was covered with snow but there were immense crowds of people pressing to the skating pond. This was so crowded they could hardly skate and to make it still more unpleasant the ice was covered with snow. Went to Wallack's Theatre in the evening, and saw "Shaughraun" Mr. Boucicault's famous Irish comedy. The acting was very good and the scenery was very fine.”

1881 George Q. Cannon was a counselor to John Taylor and was in Washington D. C. as a non-voting delegate for Utah Territory in the U.S. Congress. “Christmas day. I spent it principally in my room reading the Books of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants. After dinner I took a walk for an hour and a quarter. Received a very interesting letter from my son Abraham, dated the 8th inst. at Berlin, Germany. He has been traveling in Germany, having left Bern about a month and a half ago, and has labored in different parts of Germany among other places, Nurnberg and Berlin. At Nurnberg 20 members were added to the Church while he was there, and to many outside he had borne his testimony and they had promised to investigate the doctrines further. The police had been after him at Nurnberg, and at Berlin the meetings are all under the supervision of the police, and if it was known by the officers that he was there in the city, he would have to march very soon or be imprisoned. The evening previous to his writing there was no officer present at the meeting, and he therefore addressed the assembly; but that morning early, a detective was around making inquiries in regard to him, he having learned by some means that a stranger addressed the meeting. He says he means to be as wise as possible, as he had no inclination to see the inside of a German prison, still he means to do his duty whatever the result may be. He expected to go to Hamburg in a few days, to assist Bro. Guhrke, who was in prison and would not be released till the 17th. He was alone so far as Elders were concerned; but he was enjoying his labors very much, and rejoiced that he had the privilege of laboring where he was, and of bearing his humble testimony to many persons. Being away from English-speaking people was an advantage.”

1884 George Q. Cannon was in Salt Lake City. “Spent the day with my family at home. We had a dinner to which I invited my sons John Q., Frank, and Abraham with their wives in which we all attended except Frank who was detained by the sickness of his child at Ogden, but promised to be down in the evening. He failed, however, for the same reason to be here. In the evening attended the theater with my wife Sarah Jane, Angus and David and saw the opera "Bohemian Girl" and enjoyed it very much.”

1885 George Q. Cannon. “The family were greatly pleased with the presents I gave them. We had a quiet day. Angus [Cannon] and myself spent considerable time conversing with Pres. Taylor whose health was not good.”

1886 George Q. Cannon was a counselor to John Taylor and they were on the “underground” due to their plural marriages. On Christmas Eve, he noted, “Our usual correspondence was attended to. In the evening my brother Angus and myself went to the city. It was a very dark night and it was with difficulty we could keep the road. We reached the Tithing Office about eight forty five where Bro. Wilcken was waiting and he drove me to my home on the [Jordan] river. I found all well.” On Christmas day, “I had a very pleasant day with my family. My son Abraham called to see me, also Bro. H. B. Clawson. I made a present to each of the children, except the four youngest, of a bible. The older ones received valuable editions, the five boys having bibles given them which I thought would answer their purpose as missionaries should they ever go out preaching. I had very serious talk with my older sons, enquiring into their secret lives and habits; to my son William, especially, I talked with very great plainness. I slept in my secret place of concealment.”

1888 George Q. Cannon was in the Utah Penitentiary serving a five month sentence for unlawful cohabitation. We do not have a journal entry for this date, but we do have journal entries for part of the time he spent in prison.

1890 George Q. Cannon was a counselor to President Wilford Woodruff. On Christsmas Eve, “I went home a little earlier than usual, hoping that by some exertion I could get my new kitchen prepared for us to have our Christmas dinner in the dining hall, but I found affairs too far behind for this.” Christmas day, “I spent the day at home and visited my family a little. Had a call from Brothers F. Armstrong and A. E. Hyde, who came to see me respecting the laying of the corner stone of the sugar factory tomorrow. They said that Bishop Cutler would be greatly disappointed if I did not come.”

1891 George Q. Cannon was a counselor to President Wilford Woodruff. “I had invited all my children and grandchildren to take Christmas dinner with me, and they were all present today excepting my son Hugh, whose wife visited me, but could not stay. My dining room was full. There were sixty five sat down to dinner, each branch of my family at a separate table. All enjoyed themselves very much. We had a beautiful Christmas tree, and it was loaded with presents for the children, and in the evening the little wax candles were lit, which made the tree very brilliant. My gardener, John Young, plays very excellent music, and we all had a dance, which kept up till about 10:30. This has been a day of very great enjoyment to me, and I think it has been to the entire family, as all expressed themselves to that effect.”

1892 George Q. Cannon was a counselor to President Wilford Woodruff. “Held Sunday School with my children this morning, after the departure of John M. Cannon and Mr. C. A. Hall, who came down and breakfasted with me. Had an interesting time with my children. At 2:00 I was at the Tabernacle. The speakers were Bro. Junius F. Wells and my son Abraham. A very good meeting. I think Abraham is improving in his speaking. He spoke with more vigor than I had heard him before. I drove around by Bro. Grant's to see his wife, and found her very low, but her mind bright and clear. This is one of the finest Christmas days I ever saw; the weather is charming.”

1893 George Q. Cannon. “Reached Salt Lake City at 3 a.m. Brother Wilcken and my son Hugh came up by daylight for me. I found my family all well, excepting Martha. Her disease seems to have settled in her left arm and it is helpless. Although I am cramped for means and unable to make the customary Christmas presents, I felt profoundly thankful that we had good health and could meet together under such favorable circumstances. I took my Christmas dinner with my wife Carlie.”

1894 George Q. Cannon. “I sat very quietly at home after visiting all my houses [on the Cannon Farm] and wishing my family a merry Christmas, until about 3 p.m. when my daughter Mary Alice and her husband came, followed by my sons John Q. and Abraham with their families. My adopted daughter Rosy was also there with her children. We spent a very delightful time together and had an excellent meal prepared by my daughter Emily. My wife Carlie had all her mother's family at her house.”

1899 George Q. Cannon was a counselor to Lorenzo Snow. This journal entry covers three days, from December 23 to 25. “I did not feel well and feared that I was threatened with a recurrence of pneumonia; so I determined to stay indoors these three days and see if a rest and keeping in the house would not help me. I felt myself benefitted by doing this. I had a very enjoyable Christmas. My family all called to see me.”

1907 Edwin Q. Cannon was serving in the Swiss-German mission in Tilsit, East Prussia (now Sowjetsk, Russia). He was staying with a married companion, Hermann Babel. They had a Christmas tree where they lived and a nice gathering with members and friends on Christmas Eve. On Christmas day they “had lots of good things to eat,” he ate dinner at Sister Onusseits and in the evening visited an investigator.

1908 Ed Cannon was serving in Leipzig, Germany. His companion was Archie Brockbank. They rented a hall in Leipzig. He got there early in the morning to decorate a Christmas tree. At noon he went to Bro. Schrodter’s in Golis for dinner and then their program at the hall began at 4 P.M. They had a program, including singing, which he participated in, then refreshments, and at the end, a short dance. The “celebration was quite a success.”

1909 Ed Cannon was serving as president of the Frankfurt Conference and living in Frankfurt, Germany. On December 23rd he “hired a Santa Claus suit for Christmas” and the elders met at 7.30 P.M. to practice. On the 24th he “worked in the hall all day.” He wrote to Luella Wareing [later his wife] after getting home. Christmas day he wrote, “Sister Wagner’s little child died the other day and was buried this morning at 8 A.M. Bro. Belnap and I and some of the saints attended the funeral and we sang ‘O Mein Vater’ and ‘Komm Heim’ and I dedicated the grave and spoke a few words to those present…Our Christmas program started at 4 P.M. and lasted until almost 7 P.M. We had over 180 grown people present 52 of them being friends [investigators]. Elders Stewart, Thompson and I ate supper at the ‘Salzhause’ then went roller skating. I took the part of “Sankt Nickalaus’ at the ‘Feier’.”

1947 William and Margery Cannon were serving in the Hawaiian Mission in Wailuku, Maui. The night before they went to a Christmas Eve program given by the Wailuku Branch. Afterwards, when they got to their car, they found “a sack of presents from the Akiu’s, and the Mokehas brought a chicken over.” Christmas day, “All of the missionaries around the vicinity of Wailuku had dinner at Afoon’s house, given by the Relief Society. Michael, just a newborn, was left “at the home of Mrs. Dutro in the evening and all went to a show. Pres and Sis Smith attended.”

1948 Marg Cannon had previously left Hawaii to go back to Salt Lake to have their second child, David. Bill was now stationed in Honolulu where he served as a counselor to the mission president, E. Wesley Smith. The day before, Bill visited his aunt and uncle, Florence and Chauncey Cannon. Then he went to his other aunt and uncle’s home, Irene and George Cannon, where he had dinner and stayed the night. Christmas morning “I found that Santa had visited leaving all of George’s kids a big pile of things. He also left me a stocking full of gadgets useful) and George and Irene gave me a Leather date book, a wallet, a box of candy, and other incidentals. They were surely kind. After noon we had the usual Turkey dinner with all the trimmings. We went for a ride in their sleek new Nash afterwards, and then I had to come back and prepare my Sunday School lesson.

1950 Edwin Q. Cannon and his wife, Luella Wareing Cannon, were in Frankfort, Germany, where Ed was president of the West German Mission. On Christmas Eve, they gathered around the Christmas tree had a prayer and Luella wrote, “Sister Zanner played ‘Silent Night’ on her flute. Again I was reminded of our son Ted, and of his first Christmas in the German Mission, at Insterburg. Ed asked Brother Wagner to read the Christmas story from St. Luke, which he did by candlelight. Brother LeRay McAllister and others sang. We had punch and cake and my homemade candy…My thoughts were of Salt Lake City and my family, and I had a touch of homesickness.” Christmas day, they “enjoyed the luxury of some relaxation in the morning.” They later enjoyed dinner at the home of some American friends, the Bernard Lewises, in Germany with the U.S. State Department. Then they attended an open house of the Norton’s.

1951 Ed and Luella Cannon were in the middle of remodeling the mission home in Frankfurt, Germany. Luella wrote, “Christmas was just another day of work, preparing meals for a big crowd in a torn-up house. We had a Christmas tree and for dinner we had a chicken pie and plum pudding.”

1952 Ed and Luella spent their third straight Christmas in Frankfurt, Germany. They had a Christmas tree on the garage of the mission home and one in a large second story window. On Christmas Eve, Luella made eight large and 13 small mince pies and crumbed bread for turkey dressing. Christmas day, the “Frankfurt missionaries came for dinner, and Clawson Cannon [Ed’s brother] also was with us for Christmas. We all went to the opera ‘Lohengrin’ in the evening.”

1970 My brother, Layne W. Cannon, was serving in the France – Switzerland Mission and was in Arles, France with Elder Gary Ballam. On December 24, Layne wrote, “Today…It is really Christmas…We went to the Marche and bought some candy for the stockings, and we went to the store and talked to our friend in the store around the corner, and she is really bugged with the fete. Her daughter is in bed with a bad leg, and she misses her husband and was really down, so I went to the Marche and bought her a turkey (a big one) and gave it to a girl to give it to her anonymously. She was cheered up the rest of the day. It was cool.” Later, “I was trying to think of something else to give to help someone else’s Christmas…That evening, we were tracting…and we decided to go get some candy for the kids at the door, and [Elder Shupe, their zone leader] told me about a family who Elder Ballam and he had tracted out earlier that day…[T] hey tracted out a family that was very poor. He asked if Santa Claus was coming, and they said, probably not, so he pulled out [some] candy and gave it to them. There were seven kids, and one sick in bed, and they went after it like crazy. He told me about that happening, and I just wanted to help them so bad. I had decided that the $50 that Tutu & Pop sent me was going to others as much as possible…I thought, and suggested to Elder Shupe, that we buy them a Christmas dinner. We went to a butcherie and bought already-cooked chickens, and two big cans of peas, and a big thing of saussison, and milk and mashed potatoes, and a lot of the chocolates and candy that we bought for the ZLs, and took it over to the place. There wasn’t anyone there, so we lifted up a curtain and the window in the door was busted, and put everything inside, and left. I really felt good about that the turkey. I wanted to give the store lady something that came from us and so we bought her some roses and gave them to her. She was really happy then. It was cool. I really had fun buying that stuff for everybody, buying the dinner and turkey and everything. We went to Soeur Moktar’s, and she and the gang were there, we sang a few songs and gave her her present…We then went to Soeur Aillaud and gave her and Frederic their presents, and they were happy. Especially Fred. We gave him a stuffed Babar elephant…Elder Trujillo gave her her interview for baptism, which he said went very well. He said she has a better testimony than most investigators…She is going to be baptized the 2nd…[W]e went home and made the rest of dinner…[W]e went to Midnight Mass, but got bored and left…I have had some cool feelings today.” The next day, Christmas day, “all I’ve felt like doing…is rest.” They went to Les Baux, a “place on top of the mountains. The wind was blowing very hard and it was cold.” They went back home and ate at Soeur Olivier’s, and went home and studied, then went out again at night and everyone was drunk…”

1971 My parents, Bill and Marg Cannon, my sister, Wendy, and I went to Europe to pick up Layne from his mission in France. We met him in Geneva where his mission was headquartered. We then traveled to Zurich where my uncle and aunt, Ted and Janath Cannon, were serving as presidents of the Switzerland Zurich Mission. The day before Christmas we traveled by van through Lucerne and then to Interlaken, a city between lakes and surrounded by the Alps. We traveled up into the mountains to the Jungfraujoch and then took a train through the Eiger, with views out onto its steep north face. We traveled back to Zurich where we spent the night. Christmas day we had a family program. We read the Christmas story in German and English, sang and had a small talent show. Marg and Bill sang the Hawaiian Wedding Song and Elder Nelson read “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” We visited a lady who lived across the street from the mission home. Layne wrote, “She had a Christmas tree with candles on it instead of lights, and candles all over.” That night we “all listened to an old tape of the family when we were younger, and the kids as they performed, and the tape of Grandfather’s [Edwin Q. Cannon] birthday in 1963…It made me want and kind of make a resolution that I would take pictures and keep tapes of the family…”

1976 I was serving in the England Birmingham Mission in Nottingham with Elder Gary Kearl. The day before we went to the Market Square to sing Christmas carols with 14 other missionaries. I had a scare as I lost Elder Kearl on the way on my bicycle and was razzed by some teenagers. I eventually found the place, but “we ended up having a large group of drunken people come down and join in with us which kind of ruined things.” Christmas day we cycled for 40 minutes, six or eight miles, to Wollaton, and had dinner with the Lowes. Sister Lowe mentioned that years before she had been tracted up by a couple of young missionaries. One was very charming and they saw her twice a week for about six months. She could not give up smoking and she lost contact. Eleven years later she was tracted up by the missionaries again. That time she readily accepted the gospel and gave up smoking. Her husband and children also accepted the gospel. “She said it was the influence of the first missionary that did it, and she said she often wished she could get a hold of him and tell him what he had done. The seed was planted, but he has not seen what it sprung. It turned out that young missionary’s name was John Preston Creer.” I knew his daughter at East High School in Salt Lake. So I wrote my sister, Wendy, who knew them, to have her tell him. We left the Lowes about 3:30 to cycle all the way back to West Bridgford and ate a “second Christmas dinner at home at Pilkingtons.”

1977 I was serving as an assistant to Pres. Eldon Callister in the mission home in Sutton Coldfield with Elder Rob Potter as my companion. From a letter to my parents dated December 26th: “I’m in Arnold, Nottingham right now, where we’ve come for Christmas. Elder Potter and I came up by train. At Nottingham II yesterday there were 13 Elders, and 10 down at Nottingham I…I spent most of yesterday at the Lewis’s home where they fed us. We spent some time singing Christmas carols…We had a mission wide Christmas seminar on Wed. where the whole mission met together at Woodsetton Chapel in Wolverhampton, and spent the day. We normally have a G.A. for it, but as Elder Brockbank is being replaced by Elder Cullimore—there wasn’t one available. The get together consisted of a mission wide scripture contest, which I conducted—then followed by 10 min. skits which each of the 10 zones produced. The zones in the missions are the Bedford, Northhampton, Newcastle, North Wales, Lincoln, Nottingham, Lichfield, Leicester, Birmingham, and then the Sutton Coldfield zone, which I’m in now. It includes the mission home, and some lower areas like Worcester, Evesham, Redditch, etc. The mission has about 196 missionaries. Also at the seminar we had a couple of speakers—Bro. Winfield, the Leicester Stake Patriarch, and Pres. Jogn Cox, a regional rep., and also Pres. of the Church Offices in Lichfield. Then we opened it up to testimonies for 1 ½ hrs. Also, we collected Christmas letters which we handed out, and stockings with fruit & candy, etc. It’s quite an enjoyable day. The mission collected 50 pence from everyone and bought the Callisters an old cuckoo clock and had it engraved “England Birmingham Mission 1977.”… We’re preparing for zone conf. which starts tomorrow, and will run for 2 wks. Tomorrow we’ll be out in North Wales.”

2000 Judy, Rachael, Sam, Andrew and I were in Paris, France, picking up Rachael who had just spent a semester there with BYU study abroad. We were staying in a hotel in Versaille. Judy brought small red stockings for our hotel room and we read the Christmas story from the Bible. We ate lunch at Le Madrigal on the Champs Elysees and walked through the Cathedral of Notre Dame where they were having a Christmas mass.

2004 Sam was serving in the Poland Warsaw Mission in Wroclaw, Poland. After talking with us for several hours on the telephone, he and his Polish companion, Elder Pawelczyk, met with Tomek at the local meeting house, eating and chatting.

2005 Sam was serving in Zabrze, Poland. We talked with him quite awhile on the telephone. Three days later Sam wrote his last email to us before returning home. “I feel a love for the Polish people that I hope will never leave me…a piece of my soul and heart shall always claim Polish soil…This is the last correspondence that you shall receive from Elder Cannon, and the last I shall write while still enjoying the mantel of a missionary of the Lord. Emotions are strong now and at the surface as I contemplate this fact.”

2006 Our daughter Rachael and her husband Nate Hutchings, were living in Tokyo, Japan. Judy was in Tokyo for the birth of Savannah, our first grandchild, in December. Judy came home to Redlands for Christmas, but Rachael and Nate spent Christmas in Tokyo with Savannah, as new parents.

Isaac Sine and Marist Football

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to travel to San Diego to see my nephew, Isaac Sine, play football. Below, Isaac, number 48, chats with a teammate on the sideline.

He plays for Marist, a private school in Poughkeepsie, New York, with a mascot that is the Red Fox. Marist was playing my law school alma mater, the University of San Diego (the Torreros).

Isaac, a freshman, plays special teams: kickoffs and punt coverage. He is also a reserve linebacker and hopes to get more play at that position next year.

Marist is in the Pioneer League which includes Butler (Indiana), Campbell (North Carolina), Davidson (North Carolina), Dayton (Ohio), Drake (Iowa), Jacksonville (Florida), Morehead State (Kentucky), Valparaiso (Indiana) and the University of San Diego. I was blown away to learn that this conference was so geographically large. What fun to get to travel to Florida and California, as well as North Carolina and the Midwest.

Isaac and the team arrived in San Diego on Thursday and got to visit Sea World and stay at the Marriott. Afterwards, we had a chance to go out to dinner and I noticed that the cute, young waitress was paying extra attention to our table. I would like to believe it was because of me, but I suspect it had something to do with the 6 foot 3 blonde hunk sitting with me in the booth.

Marist lost a very close game that was decided by a touchdown with about a minute left. Isaac has a scholarship to Marist and it sounds like it has great academics. What a great experience he has to travel and play football. I'm excited that we have a family member that plays football.

Judy and Food

Today, Judy and I are celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary. Consistent with a regular topic on this blog, one of the things I love and appreciate about Judy is her willingness to try new foods. I have a reputation for eating weird things, but Judy has always been right there as a willing participant as well (at least until a few days ago when she refused to eat some durian. Consequently, our children have been exposed to a variety of foods in ways that I believe have enriched their lives.

I went through some of our family scrapbooks recently and was intrigued by some of the references to food over the years:In September 1979, Judy had her first married experience with unusual food when, on our honeymoon, while at Bear Lake in northern Utah, we went rabbit hunting. I shot two cottontail rabbits. One had some sort of boil, so we didn’t eat it, but Judy cooked the other one (we had a kitchen in our condo at Sweetwater Resort) and we had it for dinner.

While living in San Diego, while I went to law school, we occasionally went to Point Loma Seafood and purchased live local (spiny) lobsters. We brought them home, got a large pot boiling, and boiled the lobsters. We also purchased smoked fish (salmon and tuna mostly) from Point Loma. Over Thanksgiving weekend in 1985, we cooked Dungeness crabs and a spiny tail lobster. In the picture below, Rachael and my mother look at them before we dig in.

On at least one occasion we had a Vietnamese vendor selling seafood door to door. We purchased a dozen or more very large clams which Judy used to make some wonderful clam chowder.

We loved to drive to Ensenada, Mexico and visit the dock where we purchased locally caught seafood. We particularly loved the shrimp and bags of cooked crab claws. There was also a French restaurant in Ensenada we loved to eat at, El Rey Sol, where we took many guests, including my grandmother, Tutu, and my parents. I particularly remember some prime rib, with a French/Mexican twist (like exotic carne asada), that was amazing.

For Christmas one year, in San Diego, Judy cooked a large goose. She has also done it at least one other time since.

Our next door neighbor, on Cambridge Ave in Redlands, was Dale. He occasionally gave us a venison roast which Judy cooked in a crock pot and we had for dinner. He also made a wonderful cooked bean recipe known as “Dale’s Beans,” which had about 15 types of beans and spicy sausage. Judy made that wonderful recipe on many occasions.

In April 1989 on a car trip with the kids, while in Second Mesa, Arizona, we bought and tried Hopi piki bread, made of blue corn and chamisa ash (the ash of a sage-brush like plant). It was a blue pastry-like roll with a corn tortilla flavor. In Acoma, New Mexico, we tried fry bread cooked by the Acoma Indians, much like a scone. Near Espanola, New Mexico, we bought a bunch of dried red chili peppers and a cob of blue corn, then ate an authentic New Mexican lunch at Ranch O Casadas, including hot sopaipillas with honey and chimichangas with very different red (which we didn’t like) and green (which we loved) sauces.

In April 1990, the family camped at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Southern Arizona and then visited Puerto Penasco (Rocky Point) on the Gulf of California in Mexico. We ate at Costa Brava, near the ocean, and had a seafood dish including shrimp, squid, octopus, scallops, clams, mussels and fish, mixed together in a tangy sauce. We also bought a pound of large shrimp from the dock which we took back to our campsite and barbequed for dinner.

In May 1990, Judy, Rachael and I attended the Renaissance Pleasure Faire in Devore and had quail, artichokes with mayonnaise and butter, a Turkish sandwich with lamb and peppers and a venison sausage sandwich with onions and peppers.

At the end of May 1990, after a visit to Dinosaur National Monument, we ate at Diamond Hills Café in Vernal, Utah where I had lamb and Judy had lamb stew. In early June 1990, we had buffalo burgers in West Yellowstone, Montana.

In September 1990, after a visit to Capital Reef National Park, we stopped in Loa, Utah for some smoked trout and then went to a cheese factory where we bought blue, Swiss and Monterey jack cheese. We ate slices of cheese and smoked trout in the car.

In the fall of 1990, we purchased some Maine lobster and had a lobster feast. Below, Sam, Andrew and Rachael each hold a lobster prior to their hitting the pot.

In the summer of 1992, I killed a 5 foot long rattlesnake in our canyon. I brought it home and Judy baked it in the oven for our consumption. In the picture below, Rachael chews on a piece.

While on vacation in central California, we purchased an ostrich egg from a farm somewhere near Buellton. We brought it home and made scrambled eggs out of it. The kids loved it and we ate the entire thing at one sitting.

Kasey Haws has provided us venison on several occasions, after successful deer hunts in Idaho. Judy crock pots it in a way that makes it quite good.

Gregg Palmer, knowing of my interest in different kinds of game, has been a great source of unusual meat. He had a friend that shot a bighorn ram in the Whitewater area after drawing a rare bighorn sheep hunting permit. Gregg brought us a small roast which Judy put in the crock pot and cooked. We ate part of it and also shared part with Gregg and Jim Sullivan, another source of unusual game for us. Gregg also brought us a javelina (collared peccary) roast from a javelina he shot while bow hunting in Arizona. As with the ram, Judy cooked it in a crock pot and we ate it as a family and also shared some with Gregg and Jim. Gregg also provided us with a pronghorn antelope roast and steaks, which Judy cooked, and some barbequed iguana which his Mexican farmworkers brought back with them from Mexico. The iguana was a great hit in the family and all of us would have loved more if it had been available.

Before marriage, Rachael did a study abroad in France. We took the family to visit her and bring her home. While there we were blown away by the wonderful French bread, cheese and crepes. After getting home, Judy purchased a crepe pan and cooked crepes on many occasions, trying new combinations. She also regularly buys Bursin cheese in our local grocery store, and baguettes, something we were introduced to in France by Rachael.

Rachael and Nate lived in Memphis for three or four years. We had an opportunity to visit them on a number of occasions. They introduced us to Memphis barbeque and we dined at such fabulous venues as B.B. King’s on Beale Street (where we also tried fried pickle), Le Rendezvous, Corky’s and the Commissary. We also traveled with them to Missouri to eat at Lambert’s – home of the throwed rolls and enjoyed frog legs and fresh rolls smothered in butter and sorghum. Rachael and Nate also introduced us to Thai food for the first time in Memphis and it has since become one of our favorites.

Rachael and Nate then moved to Japan for several years. We had an opportunity to travel with them in Japan, and then also to China and Thailand. Our love for and appreciation for Japanese, Chinese and Thai food increased tremendously. While in Japan we ate sushi just outside the Tsukiji Market and had such delicacies as fatty tuna and abalone.

And udone.

Rachael also made arrangements for us to go to a restaurant that served only horse which turned out to be one of our all time favorite meals. In China we ate camel (see the picture below) among other less exotic but wonderful dishes.

We were also introduced to very spicy Szechuan food and I learned that Rachael has a higher heat tolerance than I do (and mine is pretty high).

We also had a wonderful crepe with egg and spicy hot sauce, near the Great Wall (jian bing), which we have been trying to duplicate ever since.

Frozen Chinese pancake is now a staple in our freezer. Frozen Chinese pancake is now a staple in our freezer.

Andrew’s move to UCLA has also broadened our palettes. Andrew read The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollen and got into food foraging and mushrooms. We have now tried several different types of mushrooms and salads Andrew has made from foraged weeds in our canyon. His friend, Lauren, has also introduced us to some fun ethnic restaurants in Los Angeles, including a wonderful Ethiopian restaurant where we ate without utensils, using only injera bread (see the picture below), several Japanese restaurants, a Vietnamese restaurant, and Indonesian restaurant and a Bulgarian restaurant.

Judy did little or no cooking before we met and is now one of the best cooks I know. She is known among our friends as a dessert expert and her desserts, as well as other dishes, are usually the first items to disappear at a potluck.


Judy is particularly renowned for her desserts, particularly anything with chocolate. She has a signed print of a large women prostrated on a bed with the caption, “Happily Dying of Chocolate” underneath. Cakes, pies, cookies and brownies and many other items are regularly prepared. One of her signature creations, as a special treat for me, has been German chocolate cake. However, this cake has about 6 layers, each separated by chocolate frosting or the distinctive German chocolate filling, a very thick outer layer of chocolate frosting and a top that is smother with German chocolate filling.



She collects recipes and regularly tries new recipes she finds in magazines, on-line or from friends. In fact, she put together a family cookbook with recipes collected from family members. If she likes the recipe she keeps it, and if not, it finds the round file. We have had a few stinkers over the years, but that has been more than made up by some amazing dishes. She truly has added spice to my life and the life of our children, family and friends.