Maurine Carr Ward, former editor of Mormon Historical Studies, published by Mormon Historic Sites Foundation (2000–6) and Nauvoo Journal (1989–99), was an independent family and LDS researcher when this was written. She was editor and author of Winter Quarters: The 1846–1848 Life Writings of Mary Haskin Parker Richards, for which she received two awards; the first Handcart Prize awarded by the David W. and Beatrice C. Evans Biography Award Committee at Utah State University for a work of merit, by an emerging author, that enriches our understanding of Mormon Country, and the Francis M. and Emily Chipman Award for Best New Book at the Mormon History Association meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. She also authored several articles in Mormon Historical Studies and was on a committee to research and write Hyrum Stake of Zion: The First One Hundred Years, April 28, 1901–December 8, 2002.