BOOK REVIEWS
COWBOY APOSTLE:
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The Diaries of Anthony W. Ivins, 1875β1932
318
E D ITED
BY
EL IZ A B E T H
O.
ANDER SON
Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2013. xli + 689. Cloth, $125
Anthony W. Ivins (1852β1934) was a lot of things: cowboy, explorer, rancher, actor, husband, father, Indian agent, attorney, mayor, legislator, businessman, colonizer, and ardent Democrat, as well as an LDS (Mormon) mission president in Mexico, apostle, and First Presidency member. His diaries canβt and donβt cover any of this activity very deeply. But they do give the reader a fuller understanding of the breadth of Ivinsβs work and, more importantly, of the cultures and times that he influenced and that influenced him. For this we owe a large debt of gratitude to the editor, Elizabeth Anderson. She has painstakingly transcribed, proofread, and annotated the diariesβthe originals housed at the Utah State Historical Society. The volume includes a helpful introduction, maps and photos, a transcription of Ivinsβs Record Book of Marriages, his son Grant Ivinsβs essay on βPolygamy in Mexico,β andβfor an unexplained reasonβthe 1896 remarks of U.S. Representative Clarence E. Allen of Utah on Mormon polygamy. Ivinsβs work as leader of the Mexican colonies forms the heart of the book. In Mexico, he bought land and surveyed extensively for settlements. He arranged for roads, water, and telephone lines. He worked with the Mexican government, sometimes smoothly and sometimes in frustration: in 1898 the constant βannoyances,β βdisapointments [sic],β and βhumiliationβ from officials so aggravated him that he announced his readiness to enlist if the United States went to war (193). He formed friendships with powerful men, such as military leader Emilio Kosterlitzky, whom he con-
strained from killing an innocent young man (185β86). He prospected for minerals, inspected mines, and visited widely scattered congregations, organizing them, speaking to them, and managing internal conflicts. In all of these endeavors, he traveled widely by rail or horseβcamping or, if sleeping in hotels, often tormented by bedbugs. And, of course, he married couples who came to Mexico to form polygamous unions away from the reach of U.S. law. Unfortunately, the diaries donβt shed much light on post-Manifesto polygamy or even on Ivinsβs thoughts about it. He simply doesnβt mention polygamy as such but only notes encounters and marriages in passing. Lovers of the land can appreciate the sections detailing an exploring trip to Mexicoβon assignment from the LDS churchβwhen Ivins was a young man. In addition, accounts of ranching on the Arizona Strip and in Utah, with references to such places as House Rock Valley, Kane Springs, Pipe Springs, and Mount Trumbull, and Ivinsβs numerous accounts of traveling, hunting, and camping give a sense of how closely he was connected to land. More maps and more detail in the maps would have greatly enhanced these geographical aspects. The diaries also cover his early years in community life and politics in St. George, Utah, and his later years as a high LDS church official. As he grew older, however, his diary entries tended to focus on the content of meetings, which he detailed to a surprising extentβeven noting in some cases the number of minutes occupied by each speaker. Ironically, part of his duty as an apostle was to investigate Mormons who had married plural wives in violation of the 1904 Second Manifesto. Throughout, the editor is careful to guide the reader and make the reading journey as comfortable as possible. She translates various bureaucratic Spanish words; provides additional information taken from journals where
