"Come Home to Kanesville" - Beginnings, the story behind the making of "Come Home to Kanesville"

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Beginnings

The Story Behind the Making of "Come Home to Kanesville" |

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Thirty-or-so years ago, while researching histories for this production, I visited old Nauvoo, the gathering place of the Latter-day Saints before their arduous trek to Kanesville. One particular bright, sunny morning, I noticed a mother with her children sitting beneath a large, spreading oak tree. Later that same morning, I passed by and saw that the woman and her children had been scraping about in the grass. Clearly distinguishable in the sod under the tree was the rectangular stone outline of an original Nauvoo home.

"This is my great grandparents' home," she explained. "My great grandfather built this house for my great grandmother. Two of their children were born here."

"They went west with the exodus?" I asked.

She nodded. "Everything they had, here at Nauvoo, at Kanesville and at Saint George is completely gone. Everything! Their Bible, their valuables, everything! All gone but two things which mark their passage through earth. These foundation stones and something our family treasures."

From a wicker bag, she drew out an old, slender piece of wood. She walked over to where the doorway had been and sat cross-legged on what would have been the front step, which was about four inches lower than the stone sill.

"A spoon?" I asked. "They left behind a spoon?"

"This isn't just any old wooden spoon," she answered. "My mother says that great grandpa sat right here, on this very step, and whittled this spoon." She held out the relic for me to see. The carving marks from the whittling knife were still visible, even though the wooden ladle had been handled innumerable times. She handed me the spoon. On the broad side of the stem were the names and birth dates of five children. and the words, 'Hold to the Rod.'

"That's to remind them ... us...," she corrected," ... to always Come Home. When great gran'ma or great gran'pa wanted one of the children, they'd send the spoon. 'Come-on-Home,' it would say. No matter how far we've wandered, we're always to know that we have a home.' "

"Would the spoon have been in Kanesville?" I asked.
"Oh, of course!" came the quick reply.

So, in a real sense, Come Home to Kanesville is the story of an old, wooden kitchen spoon.

--- Benjamin Howard
Fall of 2008