Of Flowing Waters and Turning Wheels

Last winter, I listened as my friend Danica shared her witness that the gospel is indeed sweet in our lives. She mentioned the opening words to the hymn “Sweet is the Peace the Gospel Brings,” and as she spoke, in my mind I heard the familiar words, but with a different tune. I tried to capture the tune on a scrap of paper fished from my bag. At home that afternoon, the music pouring onto the page began to remind me of flowing waters and turning wheels as I began to wonder about the woman who wrote the comforting words.

Mary Anne Morton was born in late 1828 or early 1829 in Lancashire, England. 1 As a young woman, she embraced the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and was baptized in August 1845. Her intense feelings about the Gospel found release in poetry, and several of her verses were published by the Church newspaper in Britain, the Millennial Star. One of these poems was “Sweet is the Peace the Gospel Brings. 2 This poem describes the path of change and growth through Christ; her words glow with the light and peace she discovered in her new faith, and her excited hope for the potential that all who embrace and live the Gospel would fulfill.

Mary Anne married Thomas Durham in October 1849. By 1856, the couple had made their way from England to Iowa, where they would travel with the Martin Handcart Company to reach the Salt Lake Valley. 3 Both Mary Anne and Thomas survived the journey, and shortly after arriving in the Valley, they were assigned to pioneer the Parowan area in southern Deseret. 4 Mary Anne died September 1889, in Sevier County, Utah, and it was said of her: “She was a woman of ability and refinement and a wife and companion of whom any man could be proud.”5

The gently flowing tune taking shape on my staff paper took new meaning for me when I learned more about Mary Anne’s experience. While her lyric testimony was penned long before leaving her homeland, I wonder if she thought about her words as the handcart wheels turned round and round along the rolling Platte and the frozen Sweetwater? Did her witness of the “Spirit’s constant flame” strengthen her resolve through bitter Wyoming storms? Did her conviction that "He in Whom we all believe to us will all restore," come to mind and lips as she comforted the widowed and fatherless around her?

I would like to think that she did think and do those things.

So, in anticipation of the upcoming Pioneer Day commemoration, I offer to you a new setting of Mary Anne Morton’s “Sweet is the Peace.” (Tune name: DANICA.) 6


ADDED 7/21/2022: It has come to my attention that I and many others have mis-attributed this poem (and all other poems here and in the next post identified) to the wrong Mary Ann Morton. Please see here and here for more information about the correct Mary Ann Morton Walker.

[1] Biographical details according to genealogical records submitted to New Family Search.

[2] Several other poems by Mary Anne Morton were also published; at least five were memorialized in the 1889 hymnal used by the Church, A Latter-Day Psalmody, including an intriguing one that opens: “A Saint! And is the Title Mine?”. Only “Sweet is the Peace” remains in today’sHymns. The setting that appears in the hymnal was composed by Alfred Morton Durham (1872-1959), Thomas’ son with plural wife Caroline Pedersen Mortensen. Alfred M. Durham composed several now familiar hymn tunes, including the tunes for “They the Builders of the Nation” and “Carry On.”

[3] Both Karen Lynn Davidson, in Our Latter-day Hymns, and New Family Search, connect this Mary Ann Morton Durham to the Martin Company. New Family Search indicates that Mary Anne traveled back to Salt Lake in 1861 to receive her further temple ordinances in the Endowment House. New Family Search offers no information about death dates, and only sketchy birth information about Thomas and Mary Anne's children Elizabeth, John, and Mary Ann. They may have died young, including, perhaps, baby John somewhere on the westward journey. It is possible that Mary Anne has no living descendants today.

[4] Leroy R. and Ann W. Hafen, Handcarts to Zion, p. 297 (as reported in New Family Search).

[5] Davidson, quoting Alfred Durham.

[6] This setting omits one verse, and makes minor textual changes to update language. The changes are as follows: "no wrangling sects disturb our peace" was changed to "no doubt or fear disturb our peace"; and "on to our mark of calling press" was changed to "enduring, faithful, forward press." The first change was made because the words are unsingable without provoking unfortunate juvenile giggles now; the second because I wanted to emphasize the connection between the song and one of our pioneer forebears.

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