One hundred and fifty years ago a small family with a poor wagon, pulled by an ox and a milk cow, limped down Emigration Canyon and into the Salt Lake Valley. Due to the weakness of their team, they had been forced to part ways with their family and friends in the Oregon-bound Whitworth wagon train.

My name is Jeff Richins and I am a descendent of that small family. By telling and retelling stories of their lives, my dad instilled in me a deep respect for their courage, their faith and their sacrifice. So, naturally, I wanted to pass on this love to my children. But I could see that I was not achieving the same success my dad did. Maybe I wasn’t as good at telling stories. Or maybe it’s because Super Mario® is being chased by a giant Hornswagle and immediate attention is required. For some time I have felt a gentle nudge to retell the story of Edmund and Mary Ann Richardson in a way that my children would grow to love them.

After the Trial of Your Faith is a historical novel, following the lives of Edmund and Mary Ann Richardson from Vermont to Salt Lake City, and eventually on to Manti, Utah. It chronicles experiences they had on the trek west, their frontier life among Indians and Mormons, and their conversion to the church. But mostly, it is a story of a loving Father, nurturing and growing His children through trials and love until they become something greater than they ever imagined. It is a snapshot of the way he grows us!

I have chosen the format of a historical novel for several reasons. First, I wanted to become more intimate with them—to feel their courage, sense their discouragement and loss, and exult in their triumphs. But more importantly, I wanted to engage my children in the lives of their fathers in a way that biographies often do not. At first, I was nervous about stepping on Aunt Annie’s toes and didn’t want to take away from her great work, Charles Edmund Richardson, Man of Destiny, but I have felt her blessing in this effort.

I have felt inspired as I have worked on this book—both the kind of inspiration of being unable to type fast enough as the words were poured into me, and the kind of inspiration that is frustrating, and comes from rewriting and re-rewriting.

As I was finishing up the rough draft, I sat with my family and read the book out loud, a little each night. I watched as my children were shocked and tickled and horrified and amazed. "Those were our grandpas and grandmas? Wow!"

If this book does nothing more that that, nothing more than kindle a spark of love for their great-great-great grandparents...it will be worth all the effort. "The hearts of the children have turned to their fathers..."

This is not a fantasy book. There are no fictional characters and the stories are not made up. Besides Aunt Annie’s tremendous book, I have cited over fifty other credible sources as I researched the surrounding experiences of Edmund and Mary Ann. Though I have added scenes and dialog for story flow, the story, the experiences, and the characters are all true.

It wasn’t until I was almost finished with the manuscript, that family members informed me that this August 2003, is the sesquicentennial of the Richardson’s arrival in the Salt Lake Valley. So, in commemoration of their life—altering detour, and the endless impact it effected in our lives, I would like to make this book available to the family.

May your heart be turned,

Jeff Richins