Autobiography and diaries of Joab Collier [microform] : 1874-1905 | Collections | The Huntington

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Manuscripts

Autobiography and diaries of Joab Collier [microform] : 1874-1905

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Description: Microfilm of Joab Collier's autobiography, written in about 1905, and two diaries covering 1874-1875. In the autobiography Collier recounts his father's death in a coal mine in 1856, living with his mother on her earnings from a cotton factory, moving to Yorkshire to work in a wool factory after the cotton factory was closed during the American Civil War, attending parish school in Newton (he left at age 13 to work in the factory full time, and describes his work schedule there), starting for the United States in 1869 and arriving in Utah in 1870, working on the railroad in Draper in 1871, returning to school and working herding sheep in 1873, living with Dr. R.M. Boyers and his family, meeting Theodocia at a dance, briefly attending Brigham Young Academy, various livelihoods including agricultural work and sheep herding, and of beginning to raise bees in the 1880s. He also describes specific memories such as the wedding of Prince Albert of Wales in 1863 and trying to pay back a $36 loan his mother took out on arriving in Utah. The 1874 journal was kept while Collier was living with Dr. Boyers, and the entries focus on his work in a store, going to dances, buying livestock and picking up coal, and attending religious meetings. The 1875 journal focuses on Collier's social activities, including his courtship of Theodocia. Some portions of the diary were written in the Deseret alphabet.

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