Manuscripts

This is my story [microform]: 1941

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Description: Microfilm of a typescript of Sarah Frances Harris Cutler's autobiography, written in 1941. Sarah includes notes on genealogy, childhood reminiscences, her parents' experiences with persecution against Mormons in Illinois and Missouri and her father's service with the Mormon Battalion, her family's travels in California and Utah, her marriage and the births of her children, her trip to the dedication of the Salt Lake City Temple in 1893, her husband's businesses and their moves to the Big Horn Basin and Texas, her husband's death in 1934, her visits to California to visit her children, her life in Salt Lake City after 1934, and her grandchildren's military enlistments during World War II.
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Date: 1941
Call number: MSS MFilm 00131
Creator: Cutler, Sarah Frances Harris (1862-1952)(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: Microfilm of original loaned by Mrs. Frances Cutler through Juanita Brooks, November 11, 1948.
Find out more: View in the Huntington Digital Library(Opens in new tab); View in the Library catalog(Opens in new tab)

Autobiography of Sarah D. Pea Rich [microform] : 1893

Manuscripts

Microfilm of a typescript of Sarah D. Pea Rich's autobiography, copied at the Church Historian's Office by A.M. Rich in 1933. Includes a brief forward by Sarah Rich dated 1885 (the autobiography was finished in 1893). It begins with stories about Sarah's family history and her childhood in Illinois and Tennessee, and goes on to describe her family's conversion to Mormonism in 1835, of her first meeting with Charles C. Rich, experiences during her early years of marriage, mob violence against Mormons in Missouri, living in Nauvoo, her positive reminiscences on polygamy, the family's 1847 travels to Iowa, living in Mount Pisgah, traveling overland to Utah, and life in Utah during her husband's seven year mission to California. Also includes some genealogy.

MSS MFilm 00340

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A sketch of Silas Harris's life, as written by himself [microform]: c.1880

Manuscripts

Microfilm of a typescript of Silas Harris' autobiography, written in about 1880 and completed by his daughter Sarah F. Cutler sometime after Silas' death in 1897. In the autobiography Silas writes very briefly of his childhood and conversion to Mormonism, his experiences in the Mormon Battalion, his overland travels back to Council Bluffs from California, his return to Utah, his mission work, and notes on his children. The final few paragraphs were written by his daughter Sarah, and contain reminiscences of her father.

MSS MFilm 00132

History of Mary Brown Pulsipher [microform] : 1872-1880

Manuscripts

Microfilm of the autobiography of Mary Brown Pulsipher, dated 1872 and which gives a very brief account of her childhood and her family's conversion to Mormonism, spending the winter in Far West, the death of her mother near Nauvoo, the family's move to Salt Lake City, and her husband's death in 1872. In 1880 she added a more thorough account of her religious background and conversion. Following Mary's death in 1886, her son John added an account of the last years of his mother's life to the volume, focusing on her time with family in St. George and Hebron, Utah. He also transcribed some of his mother's earlier writings, including her account of an 1879 celebration of her 80th birthday and her "Farewell Address to Hebron" (1883). The last few frames include diary entries Mary's daughter Eliza Terry made during a 1907 trip to Idaho. The very brief entries focus on traveling by train to Salt Lake City and Idaho, and her return trip to Salt Lake through Brigham City, Willard, and Ogden.

MSS MFilm 00095 item 02

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Diaries of Oz Flake [microform] : 1896-1941

Manuscripts

Microfilm of the diaries of Oz Flake, kept between 1896 and 1941. The first volume is identified as Book B and was kept while Flake was living in Arizona and Utah from 1896-1899, including at Holbrook, Snowflake, Salt Lake City, Provo, Fillmore, Beaver City, Lee's Ferry, Shumway, Pinetop, and Heber. Portions of the diary (p.105-164) were kept by Flake's wife, Elsie Abigail Owens Flake. The second volume is identified as Record G and was kept following Flake's return from his southern states mission in 1900. It primarily covers his life in Arizona, including Snowflake, Ellison, Fort Apache, and Mesa, from 1900-1913, and also has a brief section kept in 1925. The final, brief volume is identified as Record J, and was kept at Phoenix from 1935-1936. The second reel contains Book K, dated 1936-1938 (the early entries begin in 1917 before skipping to 1936). It was primarily kept at Phoenix, Randolph, and on a trip to California in 1937. Reel 3 begins with Record F, which was kept during Flake's mission to Mississippi and Louisiana from 1899-1900. Book H, dated 1915-1922, was kept at Snowflake and Phoenix as well as during a mission trip to Texas. Book I is dated 1922-1935 and was kept at Phoenix, Snowflake, Salt Lake City, and on a mission trip to North Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama. The final volume is Book L, which was kept at Phoenix, Snowflake, Mesa, and Salt Lake City from 1938-1941.

MSS MFilm 00096

The story of my life as affected by polygamy [microform], 1948

Manuscripts

Microfilm of two drafts of Mary Bennion Powell's The Story of My Life as Affected by Polygamy. The first, shorter draft describes the polygamous past of Mary's family, including the plural marriages of her grandfather John Bennion, which she writes led to much unhappiness in her father's childhood, and the story of her mother's widowed mother Mary Ann Frost and her plural marriage to Parley Pratt and the monogamous marriage of her grandparents Oscar Winters and Mary Ann Stearns (Mary describes that Mary Ann, pressured by the Church, convinced her husband to enter a plural marriage with her mother Mary Ann Frost, which was quickly annulled). Much of the document focuses on "the struggle with the horror of polygamy," and particularly of Mary's hatred of her father Heber Bennion's third wife Mayme Bringhurst, who he married after "an unfortunate experience" and "ensuing scandal" between her and his brother. Mary writes scathingly of "this creature" Mayme and the disaster she brought on the family (Mary ascribes the deaths of her sisters and mother to polygamy) and that when she found out her father had married Mayme he became "a monster hideous beyond description." The second draft was written for the Sociology Department of the University of Wisconsin in 1948, to be used as "case material in a study of Mormon sex mores." The content is similar to the first draft although includes more writings on Heber's childhood, his resignation as bishop of Taylorsville over polygamy issues, Mary's indictments of the Mormon Church's approach to polygamy, and more of Mayme's infamy, including her dressing "like a prostitute" and behaving as a "kept woman." Mary concludes the draft with the note "Please, sirs, will you tell me why I can't stop hating them, after all these years." Also included are various letters Mary wrote to the University of Wisconsin regarding the project, as well as a letter to T.C. McCormick in which she enquires about libel laws.

MSS MFilm 00170

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Autobiography of Hannah Hood Hill Romney [microform]: 1922

Manuscripts

Microfilm of a typescript of Hannah Hood Hill Romney's autobiography, written in 1922. The typescript was made from the original by Jasmine Romney Edmunds in 1936. In the autobiography, Hannah covers her husband's mission to England (which began about a year after their marriage), her accompanying him to meetings as home missionaries , their decision to enter into polygamy and her relationships with Miles' other wives, their experiences in St. George and St. Johns, the births of her children and notes on their various life events, her journey to Mexico and her life in Juarez, and her subsequent travels throughout California, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah.

MSS MFilm 00147

This is my story [microform]: 1941

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Autobiography of Sarah D. Pea Rich [microform] : 1893

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History of Mary Brown Pulsipher [microform] : 1872-1880

Diaries of Oz Flake [microform] : 1896-1941

The story of my life as affected by polygamy [microform], 1948

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