Devotional- "Chimney Rock ....or Meeting BF Owen?

Jena was suppose to do the devotional last Thursday, but because she was sick, I became a last minute substitute for her.  I told the zone before our meeting started that I felt like I should have sent out an email telling people that Jena wasn't doing it so they could sleep in if they wanted to.

Since we are in the weeks before the Root Tech, I decided to talk about family history.  I started by sharing a Roots Tech ad:

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/eng/event/rootstech-2022

It can be found on the churchofjesuschrist.org website at that url.

Then I showed a short video about family history and temple blessings--It was a bit cheesy but our zone liked it and many people said they were going to share it with their families--

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/video/2018-01-0020-spiritual-dynamite?lang=eng

This can also be found on the Church site under Gospel Media- Spiritual Dynamite

Both of these are short, around a minute each.

Then my presentation-- I used PowerPoint so I will share the photos and my comments:  This story will be familiar to those who have read the blog in past years since I wrote about it soon after it happened:

In 2017, Elder Hall, Jena and I had gone to Nauvoo and decided to drive back following pieces of the Mormon and Oregon Trail. Some of Gary's relatives traveled down the Mormon Trail but my relatives followed the Oregon Trail to the Willamette Valley in western Oregon.  I was fortunate enough to have a transcription of my maternal great-grandfather, Benjamin Franklin Owen's journal which he had kept during the trip. The actual journal is held in the Lane County Historical Museum. Also I had a copy of a long poem written by John Hamilton McClure called "How We Came To Oregon". He had cross the plains as a young boy and wrote this poem in the later part of his life.   He is my maternal great-great

uncle, brother to Jane McClure who later in Oregon became the wife to Benjamin Owen. 

 

While in Nauvoo, I had reread these writings to highlight some of the locations that they mentioned along the way.  Chimney Rock was one of those locations so I pulled them out to read what they had written while we were standing at this very spot.

Because we are historians, here are some of the markers which have been placed at the spot over time.

First a part of the poem by my great-great uncle....

From John Hamilton McClure’s poem:

"We saw "chimney rock" a very great sight
For it stood a column of wonderful height
The top had been broken and so tumbled down
And lay there, scattered, all over the ground."

Next slide had these two photos side by side (PowerPoint doesn't let me copy the slide exactly--or at least I don't know how to do that.)

Now my great grandfather’s journal:

 

"June 11"----and then I started to cry.  In all of my planning for our trip and my review of the journal in Nauvoo and in the months before--I didn't make the connection.  My great grandfather made this entry on June 11 and there we stood 164 years later ON JUNE 11!!! It couldn't have been more perfect and being unplanned and unnoticed until that very moment as I began to read was so overpowering and I cried (and even as I type this I am crying again.) It was a powerful moment and one I will never forget. "June 11 Traveled til about 1 Oclock and came in Sight of Chimney Rock. One of Nature's great curiosities, days drive, about 18 M's & camped."

 

They then stayed in camp on Sunday, June 12, as was his custom and those he traveled with.  

Then he wrote:

"June 13  We passed the Chimney Rock about 10 Oclock But drove on to within a Short distance of Scotts Bluff and camped, day's drive about 16 Ms."

 

For us, traveling down modern highways and in a gas-powered vehicle--we made the journey from seeing the Chimney Rock to being there in a short 20 minutes or so.  Regardless, he and we had first seen the Chimney Rock on June 11.  I have never met my great grandfather.  He died in 1917.  My grandfather, Robert, was his 12th child out of 15.  My grandpa passed away when I was four, so I have only a few memories of him.  But at the moment, standing at the Chimney Rock, I felt them all close with me (a feeling that lasted the rest of the journey) and I felt like I will recognize them someday in the future when I leave here (earth) and travel to where they are and somehow...I felt like B. F. and Jane knew that I was there to walk near where they walked and to honor them as their great-granddaughter.  This place now is holy ground for me.

My final slide had these three photos arranged in a nice layout..... 

...with this scripture

“And he shall turn the heat of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers,”  Mal. 4:6    (artfully over the dandelion photo)

And I said:   

Truly my heart was permanently turned to my fathers.  His temple work and that of his family has already been done, but because of those feelings on that day—I feel a kinship with all of my family who has proceeded me and I also feel an increase tie to my descendants and urge to leave my stories for them.  I didn’t cross America on the Oregon Trail but I have also lived a life of adventure and trials and maybe some day 164 years from now, one of them may be standing in a place I stood—whether figurally or actually --and just maybe something I wrote might make a difference in the life of one of those precious family members.

The End!!