According to Michael Homer and Massimo Introvigne, Maria Ward was the pseudonym for Elizabeth Cornelia Woodcock Ferris, the wife of Benjamin G. Ferris, who was Utah Territorial Secretary between 1852-53. This widely published anti-Mormon author claimed to base her accounts on personal experience in Utah Territory. See \"\'The Great Polygamy Hotel\': Sherlock Holmes, Farandoul, and the Popularization of Mormon Stereotypes in Nineteenth Century Fiction\"