Newel Knight Jr. (1901-1918)
The Parting of the Ways... Click here to read story.......
This story by Newel K. Young was published in the Juvenile Instructor
in January 1919, less than three months after the untimely death
of Newel’s son “Kay” who carried his father’s formal name. The
story is set on events and scenes experienced by Newel while
he sojourned in Mexico during the period 1890-1911. It is
a story filled with allegory. Because of the timing of
Newel Jr.’s death to the horrible flu epidemic of 1918;
because he had left home to a destination unknown by his
parents – an act influenced by his boyhood peers; and because
of the many references in the story to the challenges presented
to youth in achieving a sound and moral education, it is most likely
that the characters and events in this story are to be understood as representing
other things and symbolically expressing a deeper, spiritual, moral, and political meaning to
Newel’s Mormon Mexico experiences and his subsequent performance as a thoughtful and sensitive
father and Educator in the States. ---Robert Newel Reynolds, Littleton, Colorado, 2009