The Brief and Brilliant Life of John Thomas Geary

An engaging and provocative history of John Thomas Geary, a London lawyer who left everything he knew to travel to the American West in the 1850s. Geary went from a life of privilege and ease in Victorian England to a rough-and-tumble experience settling the unexplored Utah Territory. This biography carefully documents Geary’s life as he learns difficult lessons and overcomes many obstacles. John Thomas Geary stood at the crossroads, looking toward the mountains. The landscape couldn’t be more different than his British birthplace and he paused to find a connection to this bleak view. Utah Territory in the dead of winter did not feel welcoming. But he had made his choice. It took John and his wife, Sophia, the better part of three years to make it across the American plains to Great Salt Lake City and he intended to make it his home. When John arrived in Utah in December, 1856 he was 33 years old with two small children. John and Sophia came to the remote desert for religious reasons - they were Mormon emigrants following their prophet. They left England and their extended families behind, knowing they would never see them again. It seemed both a privilege and an immeasurable price to pay for their beliefs.