Carolyn Wright Snow (1917-1946) was 12 years old when she gave this talk in the Detroit Branch, Michigan.
I live in Royal Oak, one of the city suburbs in what is known as Greater Detroit. When my parents moved to Royal Oak ten years ago, Mormonism was, in that locality, little known and less approved. In fact, some members of our family were told that the people did not desire our religion brought into the community and especially the schools.
The family of my present teacher of history became interested in our Relief Society and other church functions, and when our history text required a report on Mormonism, my teacher said to the class, “Carol Snow is a little Mormon and can therefore, perhaps, give us the most correct report on the subject in hand. Carol, how much time do you wish?”
I replied, “I think I can cover the subject in an hour.”
I was accordingly assigned an hour for the subject on the following day.
I thought the students would be most interested in the story of the westward hike of the pioneers under leadership of Brigham Young, but soon discovered that they wanted to know all about the story of Mormonism from its beginning, so I started with the story of the boy prophet, his desire to gain knowledge, the discovery of the plates, showing pictures of the hill Cumorah and the Sacred Grove. I told of the Vision, the organization of the Church and then led my audience with the Saints to Kirtland, Ohio, describing the temple and explaining the purpose of its erection.
Many questions were asked about the dimensions and appearance of the plates, of the engravings thereon and of their translation. I was thankful indeed for the technical knowledge I had obtained of the plates and facts connected with their translation, from my Sunday School teachers, and for the opportunity I had had conducting meetings and discussions in our home night programs, so that I could keep that large class in order while still allowing them the freedom of speech and asking questions to the subject.
From Kirtland we journeyed to Zion’s Camp, a description of the rise and fall of beautiful nauvoo, organization of the Camp of Israel with its hardships blazing the trail westward.
The incident of the lone grave of Pioneer Rebecca Winters, marked by a wagon tire, and of the Pacific Railroad monument to her memory, with pictures of the same, was most interesting to them, as was also the description of entrance into the Salt Lake Valley, mentioning the outstanding characteristics of the Prophet Brigham Young, Orson Pratt and my grandfather Erastus Snow.
I told of the great project of irrigation as introduced by Brigham Young, fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah in making the “waste places to blossom like a rose,” concluding with the prophecy of Joseph Smith in 1842, that the Saints would continue to suffer persecution but that they would build up a great commonwealth in the midst of the Rocky Mountains, and become a mighty people.
I responded to three different requests to present this subject to the history classes of the Royal Oak Junior High School, each of one hour duration.