The Children's Book: A Collection of Short Stories and Poems: A Mormon Book for Mormon Children

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Augusta Joyce Crocheron was nearly two years old when her convert parents, Caroline and John Joyce, sold all they owned and sailed from New York to California with Samuel Brannan’s expedition in 1846. After an unbearable six-month voyage, the family arrived in what is now San Francisco only to find desolate living conditions in a land at war with Mexico. The 1849 gold rush brought prosperity to the area but also the alcohol that ruined John and, ultimately, the marriage. Caroline later remarried, and in 1867 the family settled permanently in Utah. In 1870, Augusta married George W. Crocheron as a plural wife and together they had three sons and two daughters. As a writer she expressed herself in both poetry and prose, contributing regularly to Mormon journals and winning awards for two of her short stories. In 1880 she accepted the advice and aid of friends such as Emmeline B. Wells and published her collection of verse, Wild Flowers of Deseret. Ten years later she penned a volume of moral stories and poems for children called The Children’s Book. Church history enthusiasts may be most familiar with her collection of biographical sketches, Representative Women of Deseret (1884), an early attempt to recognize the contributions of Mormon women and a valuable resource for historians. [from Discoveries: Two Centuries of Poems by Mormon Women, 95-96]