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Branches That Run Over the Wall: A Book of Mormon Poem and Other Writings

Louisa Lula Greene Richards

Louisa Lula (Lulu) Greene Richards was a pioneer feminist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in the western United States territories and states. Born in the frontier settlement of Kanesville, Iowa in 1848, she journeyed by wagon train with her parents in 1852 to Salt Lake City in the Territory of Deseret (later Utah). She began publishing poetry in prominent regional newspapers and periodicals in her early teens, and contributed hundreds of poems, songs, and hymns up until her death at age 95. Her reputation as an author led to her becoming the first editor of The Women's Exponent, and later of the Juvenile Instructor, prominent historic religious journals published for women and children by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church). As editor she traveled throughout the Intermountain West, giving lectures on enhancing pioneer women's education and literary exposure in addition to the overcoming the toils of daily life. "Branches That Run Over the Wall: a Book of Mormon Poem and Other Writings" is a collection of many of her poems, illustrating themes of the importance of family love, faith, and service in western pioneer life. (Summary by her great-grandson, Heber Nielsen)