The Rowley Collection
The Rowley Collection

5 books · 2 sources · 50 characters · 101 locations
← All collections

Collection settings

Edit →
StyleInk & sepia
Trim8.5×8.5 Hardcover
AgeAges 5–7
VoiceWarm

Stories in your sources

23 stories · 4 started
1856 ●●●●●
Come to Zion, Said Her Heart
Ann Jewell Rowley has waited and worked and prayed for years, and at last the day comes when she can pack up her seven children and sail away toward a promised place called Zion. She keeps one thing from the auction of everything they own — the old feather bed — and she holds it close as the ship pulls away from Liverpool.
9 people · from your sources
longingletting gohope
Create a book from this story →
Ready
1856 ●●●○○
Thomas and Jane Were Lost
Eight-year-old Jane and her ten-year-old brother Thomas are playing along the trail one afternoon when they look up and realize the whole handcart company has walked far ahead of them. They run and run, but reach a stream too wide to cross, and huddle under a rocky ledge as the sky grows dark — until, at last, a search party comes with a lantern.
3 people · from your sources
lost and foundfearbelonging
Book started · Ready for review Open the book →
Ready
1856 ●●●○○
The Biscuits That Grew
One cold night on the plains there is nothing at all to eat, and Ann Jewell Rowley finds two small, rock-hard sea biscuits at the bottom of her trunk. She puts them in a pot, covers them with water, asks God to bless them, and sets the lid on — and when she lifts it again, the pot is full. Her whole family kneels in the snow and gives thanks.
3 people · from your sources
faithmiraclesenough
Book started · Approved · ready to print Open the book →
Ready
1840 ●●●○○
The Day the Gospel Came
A gentle missionary named Wilford Woodruff walks miles through the green English hills to reach a farmhouse called Mars Hill, where William and Ann Jewell Rowley welcome him inside and listen all night to the most wonderful story they have ever heard. By the end of the week, their hearts are changed forever.
3 people · from your sources
welcomewondernew beginnings
Book started · Ready for review Open the book →
1856 ●●●○○
The Wagons Came Through the Snow
The handcart company has almost stopped moving. People are too cold and hungry to sing anymore. Then, far away in the white swirling dark, little Mary Hurren hears the creak of wagon wheels before she can see a single light — and then the rescuers are there, and the men weep, and the children dance in the snow.
3 people · from your sources
rescuenot forgottenjoy
Create a book from this story →
1841 ●●●○○
Grandpa Stands at the Door
One dark night, an angry mob comes to drag Elder Woodruff away from the Rowley home, and Grandfather William steps outside alone to face them, saying they will have to go through him first. Grandmother Ann locks the doors and prays until morning.
3 people · from your sources
courageprotectionfaith under fire
Create a book from this story →
1881 ●●●○○
Smoke From the Chimney
While Noah stands at the front of the church speaking, he glances out the window and sees smoke rising from the brand-new house he has just built — because Louisa and her sons have moved the family in, right then and there, on a Sunday morning. The story is told from Louisa's gentle, determined point of view: she knew the home was meant for her children, and she did not wait.
2 people · from your sources
homebelongingquiet courage
Create a book from this story →
1888 ●●●○○
Ernest Exile Born on the Road
John Rowley and his three wives and eleven children are traveling south through the desert toward a new home in Mexico — water barrels strapped to the wagon, signs along the road counting the miles to the next well — and somewhere along the way, in the little Arizona settlement of Pima, a new baby boy is born. They name him Ernest Exile, to remember the journey.
2 people · from your sources
journeyhopenaming
Create a book from this story →
1856 ●●●○○
Elizabeth Wakes Daniel Wells
Young Elizabeth Rowley, just arrived in the Salt Lake Valley after pushing a handcart across the plains, moves into the Wells household to help nurse her frostbitten brother John back to health through the long winter. She works steadily, quietly, caring for John one small task at a time, until the morning he is finally well enough to travel.
2 people · from your sources
healingsteadinessnew beginnings
Create a book from this story →
1856 ●●●○○
John's Hair Froze to the Ground
Sixteen-year-old John Rowley has been pulling a handcart for months. One frozen evening he carries children across an icy river, and by the time he reaches camp his clothes are stiff and crackling. He lies down in the snow to rest — and cannot get up. A captain shakes him awake, and his mother warms him slowly back to life.
2 people · from your sources
endurancerescuea mother's warmth
Create a book from this story →
Show 13 more stories
1868 ●●●○○
Sarah Jane Carries the Baby
Five-year-old Sarah Jane is left in charge of the younger children while her parents go to the celebration at the Social Hall across the street. When baby Edwin will not stop crying, she wraps him up, marches across in the dark, and carries him straight to the party — and right into the arms of Aunt Rebecca, who has cake.
2 people · from your sources
responsibilitybraveryfamily
Create a book from this story →
Ready
●●●○○
Ann Sews On, and On
After her husband William dies and leaves her alone with seven small children, Ann Jewell sits down with her needle and thread and begins to sew — gloves, smocks, stockings — anything that will keep her family fed. Her oldest daughter Louisa works beside her, and the boys carry bricks, and somehow, day after day, they are all still there.
4 people · from your sources
hard workkeeping togethera mother's love
Book started · Ready for review Open the book →
●●○○○
Louisa Moves Into the House
Noah has just finished building a beautiful new house in Huntington, and Louisa knows she must be quick. One Sunday morning while Noah is at church giving a talk, Louisa quietly has her sons carry every stick of furniture across town and move the whole family in — and when Noah looks out the chapel window and sees smoke rising from the chimney, he can hardly speak.
2 people · from your sources
homea mother's determinationquiet humor
Create a book from this story →
●●○○○
Laura Said 'I Don't Know'
A marshal is in town asking questions, and Louisa tells her youngest daughter Laura to go to the store but to say only 'I don't know' to anyone who asks her anything. Sure enough, the marshal spots little Laura and fires question after question — and every single time, Laura answers, 'I don't know.'
2 people · from your sources
braveryfamily loyaltyquiet cleverness
Create a book from this story →
●●○○○
Alice Wanted a Doll
In the little settlement of Kanab, Alice and her sister Louise each long for a doll at Christmas — but there is only enough for one, and so neither girl gets one. Alice learns to tend the calves, pull the weeds, glean the wheat, and find her happiness in the work of her own hands and the warmth of her family around her.
2 people · from your sources
contentmentlonginglearning
Create a book from this story →
●●○○○
Laura Doesn't Know
When a stern marshal stops little Laura on her errand to the store and asks her question after question — who is your father, where do you live, what is your name — Laura answers every single one the same way: 'I don't know.' The marshal stomps off in disgust, and Laura skips home with her package.
2 people · from your sources
clevernessloyaltysmall heroes
Create a book from this story →
●●○○○
They Made a Home in the Hill
Ann Jewell and her son Samuel arrive in Nephi with almost nothing — no house, no furniture, barely a place to sleep — and so they find a slope of earth, dig a room right into it, and put a front on it. That winter, in a home smaller than a closet, the Rowleys make it theirs.
2 people · from your sources
home-makingstarting overenough is enough
Create a book from this story →
●●○○○
John Builds a Water Wheel
John Rowley has a plan: if he can build a great water wheel thirty feet tall, with a wooden flume running water from the ditch all the way to the top, he can grind plaster from the hillside and earn enough to care for his family. He and his boys work for days building it, and on the morning the water finally rushes down and the wheel begins to turn, everyone cheers.
1 person · from your sources
buildingingenuityhard work
Create a book from this story →
●●○○○
Quiet in the Cellar
When a warning signal ripples through the frontier settlement, Louisa quickly and silently guides all her children down through the trap door in the floor into the cool darkness below, whispering to them to be still and brave. The children hold each other in the dark, waiting for Mama's face to appear again at the top of the stairs.
1 person · from your sources
couragewaitingsafety
Create a book from this story →
●●○○○
Pay Your Tithing, John
John Rowley stands at his mill, worrying that he cannot afford to tithe his wheat this hard year — until a quiet voice inside him says simply, 'Pay your tithing, John.' He listens. He loads his wagon. And when he arrives at the bishop's barn, something wonderful and unexpected is waiting for him.
1 person · from your sources
faithgenerositytrust
Create a book from this story →
●●○○○
If You Save a Penny
In her small log house in Huntington, Louisa gathers her children close and shares the little sayings she has lived by all her life — about pennies and prayers, about saving and sharing, about doing the best you can. The children listen, and when they grow up, they still hear her voice.
1 person · from your sources
wisdomfamilylistening
Create a book from this story →
●●○○○
The Hat Made of Straw
Louisa and her daughters gather straw, braid it into long flat ribbons, sew the ribbons round and round into hats, and then bleach them white with burning sulphur before trimming each one with ribbons of pink and blue. On the day the hats are finished, each girl puts hers on and stands a little taller.
1 person · from your sources
makingpridemother and daughters
Create a book from this story →
●●○○○
Butter, Come to Me
Louisa's children spend a long afternoon at the tall butter churn in the cellar, lifting and dropping the dasher until their arms ache, singing their little song to coax the butter along. When the milk at last turns thick and golden, the whole family celebrates together.
1 person · from your sources
patiencehomesmall joys
Create a book from this story →

Books you're making

5 books

Sources

+ Add sources

Cast

50 people

Locations

101 places
+ 85 more places found in your journal →
The years of your family's story, mapped from the sources — births, deaths, journeys, and the events between, each grounded in the journal's own words. Handy for checking a book's period: who was born yet, who had passed.

Key objects

89 objects
+ 73 more things found in your journal

Style references

0 uploaded

These set the art style — the linework, palette, and overall look the illustrator matches on every page. They do not tell it what a specific place, person, or object looks like. To make a real house, face, or heirloom appear correctly, add its photo in the Locations, Cast, or Key objects bible instead — each has a “real photo” slot the pages actually draw from.

No style references yet. Add sample art, a sketch, or a painting whose look you want every page to match. (For a specific place, person, or object, use its bible's real-photo slot instead.)

Art style

ink
✓ Locked · this style is canon for every future book in the collection