Date of Graduation

12-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in History (PhD)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

History

Advisor/Mentor

Whayne, Jeannie M.

Committee Member

West, Elliott

Second Committee Member

Starks, Trish

Third Committee Member

Holland, Edward C.

Fourth Committee Member

Baugh, Alex

Keywords

Biography; Conversion; Healing; Latter-day Saints; Missionary; Mormon

Abstract

This dissertation is a study in the backgrounds, Latter-day Saint conversions, and ministries of two early nineteenth-century women: Ann Cottam Dawson in Lancashire, England and a woman known simply as Terii on the island of Tubuai in the Austral Islands (now French Polynesia). Because these two women did not leave behind diaries, this study relies upon evidence such as missionary diaries, newspapers, church records, vital records, genealogical records, sermons, and even a mutiny narrative. The discussion is organized in three parts: Dawson’s biography, Terii’s biography, and a comparison of the two. Both women fed and housed the missionaries, performed women’s blessings of healing in their surrounding communities, and, despite church leaders sponsoring their passage, the two never left their native islands.

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