Correspondence and manuscripts related to John Milton Bernhisel [microform]: 1825-1912 (bulk 1850-1864) | Collections | The Huntington

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Manuscripts

Correspondence and manuscripts related to John Milton Bernhisel [microform]: 1825-1912 (bulk 1850-1864)

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Description: Microfilm of miscellaneous manuscripts and letters related to John Milton Bernhisel. The reel contains an autobiography of Bernhisel by an unknown author; a variety of letters and certificates primarily addressed to Bernhisel, including on his appointment as President of the Board of Examination Doctors (1864), his election as a delegate to Congress (1851), his certificates of election as delegate (1853, 1855, 1861), recommendations of appointment for "several officers sent the President" (1850), a recommendation for appointment of governor, secretary, and chief justice of territory (1850), a letter concerning room in the council house for federal offices (1847), a copy of a letter to the President concerning appointment of office for Utah (1850), a letter concerning pay for the territorial secretary (1855), a letters concerning an advance to Marshall Heywood for costs of the Territorial Commission (1854), a letter concerning the cost account of the Territorial Library (1855), a letter "concerning bids for and gifts to the Utah Library of Book, etc." (1850), a letter concerning the erection of the capitol building, probably at Fillmore, Utah (1854), a letter concerning the building of the Utah Penitentiary (1859), a letter concerning the military road from Bridger's Pass to Salt Lake City (1859), a protest against the Cullen Bill concerning polygamy (1870), a letter concerning pay for Dr. Bernhisel as territorial agent by Stephan A. Douglas (1850), newspaper clippings and a letter from Brigham Young (1850), a letter concerning the use of camels for transporting army stores (1852), a letter concerning the use of camels in the west (1852), a printed Appellant's Statement of the Case and Argument in Bernhisel vs. Daniel R. Firman (1874), a letter from Millard Fillmore and some assorted calling cards (1853), a printed obituary for Bernhisel (1881), 5 letters from Bernhisel to his wife Elizabeth (1862), a letter to Brigham Young (1850), an unsigned letter regarding property in Alabama (1825), a speech at a family reunion in Lewiston, Utah (undated), and the text of "Dr. John Milton Bernhisel: Utah's First Delegate to the National Congress," a paper read at the Genealogical Society of Utah by David M. Bernhisel (1912).

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John Milton Bernhisel letter to Franklin Pierce
Manuscripts
Letter to President Franklin Pierce from John Milton Bernhisel, written while he was serving in the U.S. House of Representatives. Bernhisel writes to Pierce of public opinion in Utah, particularly regarding the Territory's desire to retain Brigham Young as governor. Bernhisel praises Young, noting that he possesses "the entire confidence of the people." He continues that "respecting Governor Young I would...refer your Excellency to...Stephen A. Douglas of the United States Senate." Bernhisel continues that Utah would like to see Zerubbabel Snow kept as Associate Judge, and that Seth M. Blair remain as United States Attorney for the district of Utah, and mentions Blair's original recommendation from Sam Houston. The letter is unsigned and appears incomplete.
mssHM 23782
The Deseret News and Utah, 1850-1867 [microform], 1949
Manuscripts
Microfilm of Arlington Russell Mortensen's doctoral thesis from the University of California, Los Angeles, entitled "The Deseret News and Utah, 1850-1867," written in 1949. The preface to the paper notes that "in addition to being a history of the birth and early years of a western newspaper, this study proposes to examine significant events and conditions in pioneer Utah as reflected in the pages of its oldest newspaper." The paper is divided into six sections: Genesis and Early Problems, News Gathering and Later Editors, Federal Relations 1850-1856, The News and the Utah War, Federal Relations 1859-1867, the Breaking of Isolation, and Zion Grows. Includes bibliography.
MSS MFilm 00185
Letters of Hiram Dwight Pierce and related documents [microform] : 1849-1850
Manuscripts
Microfilm of typescript letters from Hiram Dwight Pierce to his wife Sarah Jane Palmer, letters from Sarah to Hiram, notes from the Geneva Gazette, portions of Pierce's 1850 diary, and biographical notes and anecdotes by his grandson. The first few frames are of extracts of the Geneva Gazette from 1848-1849 recounting gold digging in California, specifically mentioning the Ontario Trojan Band and the Rensselaer County Exploring Company. The next portion of the film is entitled "Letters of a Forty-Niner, Hiram Dwight Pierce of Troy, N.Y. to his wife, Sarah Jane Pierce." The letters, written from March 1849-October 1850, recount Pierce's experiences traveling to California and digging for gold in the Maricopa area. Pierce gives detailed descriptions of sailing along the coast of Florida to Havana on the mail steamer Falcon; of stopping in New Orleans; of departing Chagres, Panama, on the steamer Orus, traveling across the Isthmus, and staying for several weeks in Panama while waiting for the Falcon to return (he eventually sailed to San Francisco on the Sylph in late July); of his stay in San Francisco, where he reflected on his religious convictions and noted the plurality of cultures around him ("You cannot name a County or an Island that is represented with all their peculiarity of dress and custom," he wrote to Sarah, "Some of them most ridiculous in the extreme"); mining for gold at Mormon Island in August 1849; going to Maricopa in January 1850 ("I have felt very uneasy about being 7 1/2 months from home and yet having done nothing for myself worth naming," he lamented); of gold mining at Washington Flat and Long Canyon; and of returning to San Francisco in October 1850 and planning his voyage home. The next portion of the microfilm is entitled "Letters of Sarah Jane Pierce to her Husband, Hiram D. Pierce," and includes several letters Sarah sent to Hiram from May 1849-August 1850, mostly recounting conditions at home. The "Story of Grandfather's Diary" by Pierce's grandson Warren Travell (son of his eldest daughter Elvira) gives biographical notes on Pierce, an account of finding his diary, and an anecdote on Pierce's homecoming in 1851. The "Diary of H.D. Pierce" is incomplete, and although it includes some brief daily entries from about 1850, it mainly consists of extracts such as the prices of goods in California ("Forty-Niner Prices") and a list of people named in the original diary. The microfilm ends with an 1849 letter from Geneva Gazette writer George R. Parburt (who went by the pseudonym LUOF) to Gazette editor S.H. Parker, which recounts Parburt's voyage of the ship Sylph and a brief account by physician James L. Tyson of conditions in the gold fields in 1850.
Correspondence, photographs, and manuscripts related to the Rich family [microform] : 1854-1908
Manuscripts
Microfilm of photographs, letters, and typed manuscripts primarily related to Joseph Coulson Rich and Ann Eliza Hunter Rich. The first 48 frames of the microfilm include various photographs of Rich family members. The correspondence, consisting of 90 pieces, includes a letter from Charles C. Rich to his sons (1854); 19 letters from Edward Hunter to Joseph and Ann Eliza Rich dated 1872-1883; 5 letters from Sarah D. Pea Rich to Joseph C. Rich and James Brown dated 1859-1861; 6 letters from Ann Hunter to dear sister (1851), Hannah Pauley (1854), Annabell Cowperthuik (1857), and Edward Hunter (1848); 50 letters from Joseph C. Rich to his sister Sarah Jane Rich (1855-1868), mother Sarah D. Pea Rich (1855-1887), father Charles Coulson Rich (1861-1870), grandfather Joseph Rich (1862), the President of the Derby Conference 1862), wife Ann Eliza Rich (1868-1885), father-in-law Edward Hunter (1869-1872), daughter Susanna L. Rich (1884-1893), and son Eddie C. Rich (1884); and one letter from Edmund Hood to Joseph C. Rich (1872). The correspondence was written in Utah, San Bernardino, Kentucky, New York, Illinois, Idaho (including while Rich was working at the Crawford and Rich law firm), and during Joseph Rich's mission to England. The rest of the film consists of various typescripts, including Paris, Idaho, by Standley H. Rich; Joe Rich's Account of Launching His Steamer on the Bear Lake; Pioneer Joseph Rich, 1786-1866 by Zule R. Cole (1948); Copy of a Record Written by Edward Hunter; Early Days in Bear Lake Valley by S.H. Rich; Will of Charles Coulson Rich; Health Report of the Charles Coulson Rich Family by Dr.Edward I. Rich; Joseph C. Rich citizenship certificate; and Funeral Services Held Over the Remains of the Hon.Joseph C. Rich (1908).
MSS MFilm 00342
Diary of Martha Spence Heywood [microform] : 1850-1856
Manuscripts
Microfilm of a typescript of Martha Spence Heywood's diary, kept from 1850-1856. It begins when Martha was living in Kanesville, Iowa, after joining the Mormon Church and while waiting to travel westward. She gives a brief account of her baptism in Canada and sojourns with various Mormon families in New York State. She also recounts her travels to St. Louis in 1849 and teaching school in Springville. Martha departed with the Joseph Heywood company for Utah in 1850 and gives a detailed account of the company's journey across the plains. The majority of the diary recounts in detail Martha's life in Nephi, Utah, from 1850-1856. She writes personal and insightful insights on polygamy (shortly after her marriage to Heywood she wrote "Tis rather trying to a woman's feelings not to be acknowledged by the man she has given herself to and desires to love with all her heart"), the birth and raising of her children, her illnesses from childbirth, the death of her daughter Serepta Maria from measles in 1856, her loneliness in Nephi (she wrote that she "could not bear" to be left alone by her husband and taught school in 1854 since it was "of much benefit to me as the activity ... and its responsibility prevented lonesomeness that otherwise would have been disagreeable"), and politics within the Mormon settlement at Nephi. She also writes of Indian troubles, including Mormons killed by Indians in 1853, and of the discovery of two bodies dressed in United States livery who were shot to death in November 1852. Martha also writes frequently of her acquaintances in Nephi, visits by Brigham Young, and a variety of other domestic concerns.
MSS MFilm 00161
Autobiography of John Powell [microform]: c.1849-1901
Manuscripts
Microfilm of the autobiography of John Powell. Powell begins by recalling his early life in England, including his conversion to Mormonism and his mission to Stratford in 1849. He then describes his family's immigration to the United States, sailing from Liverpool to New Orleans on the ship Ellen. The family rented a room in St. Louis, and Powell describes the sickness and poverty that prevented them from starting for Salt Lake City until 1856 (in the interim he mentions his mission to Calhoun County in 1855). He describes the family's overland journey to Utah, including meeting with Indians near the Platte River. Once in Utah Powell joined the Utah Territorial Mormon Militia, and he briefly describes his experiences in Echo Canyon in 1857. The rest of the autobiography focuses on Powell's life in Fillmore, Utah, and includes references to his work on the settlement at Deseret, his furniture store in Fillmore, his trips to St. George in 1877 and 1884, and his time in the Utah Penitentiary after pleading guilty to unlawful cohabitation in 1889. Also included in the volume are descriptions of Powell's visions and dreams; copies of letters; transcriptions of blessings and articles from the Deseret News; and transcribed texts of the Constitution of the State of Utah, The Edmunds Bill (also known as the Edmunds Anti-Polygamy Act of 1882), the Declaration of Principles from the People's Convention (1882), and the Origin and Destiny of Women by John Taylor (1897). The volume ends with lists of local births, deaths, and blessings given; some Powell family genealogy; and a list of the residents of Fillmore in 1858.
MSS MFilm 00066 item 02