Autobiography of George Washington Brimhall [microform] : c.1888-1889 | Collections | The Huntington

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Manuscripts

Autobiography of George Washington Brimhall [microform] : c.1888-1889

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Description: Microfilm of a typescript of George Washington Brimhall's autobiographies. The first part, entitled History and Biography of the First Part of the Life of George Washington Brimhall, includes anecdotes about Brimhall's childhood and young adult life in New York state, including stories about his family's lumber freighting business. The account ends with his travels through the Northeast in the late 1830s and his eventual settling in Knoxville. The second part, entitled A True History and apparently begun at Spanish Fork, Utah, on December 15, 1888, primarily recounts Brimhall's experiences in Utah. It begins with an allegorical description of his family life in Illinois and his call west. Brimhall then recounts volunteering with Zadok Knapp Judd to help found a new colony (probably the Iron Mission near Parowan); encounters with Indians near in the area of Sevier; his service in the state legislature; continuing famine conditions and hard winters; experiences in Ogden, Cedar City, and Salt Lake City; being sent to colonize Grafton, in Kane County near the Rio Virgin, in 1864; difficult travel conditions and his reluctance to relocate to St. George and Spanish Fork; 1873 Indian peace treaty negations involving Judge John Cox and Chiefs Poikneapah, Ungutsup, and Tamerat; and his treatment for Brights Disease in San Francisco 1877. The accounts end in 1889.

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