Manuscripts

History of colonization of Parowan, Iron County [microform] : 1850-1851

1 of 24

Description: Microfilm of typescript portion of Henry Lunt's journal, kept while he was serving as secretary to George A. Smith with the company that traveled from Salt Lake City to Parowan in 1850-1851. The account opens with a list of names, ages, and ranks of Mormon pioneers and officers of the party, as well as a list of provisions brought. The journal includes almost daily entries from December 7, 1850, through February 5, 1851. The entries focus on weather conditions and distances traveled, and also recall encounters with Indians, a company election held on January 17, and the setting up of camp near what Lunt called Fort Plat. Includes a table of contents and index of names.
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Date: 1850; 1851
Call number: MSS MFilm 00037
Creator: Lunt, Henry (1824-1902)

Appleton Milo Harmon's early history and journal for his travels through the United States, England, and Scotland in 1850, 1851, and 1852... [microform]: c.1842-1853

Manuscripts

Microfilm of Appleton Milo Harmon's autobiography and journal of his British mission from 1850-1853. The autobiography traces his childhood and his family's early conversion to Mormonism; their travels from Pennsylvania to Kirtland, Springfield, and Nauvoo; Harmon's 1842 mission to New York; his journey form Nauvoo to Council Bluffs and Winter Quarters, recalling the winter of 1846-1847; and detailed accounts of his overland travels from Winter Quarters to Utah and back. Some of the specific incidents he recounts include the violent backlash of "enemies" after the election of Brigham Young as Church president in 1845; the formation of the Mormon Battalion; and encounters with Indians, particularly the Omaha. The rest of the volume contains diary entries from Harmon's mission to England and Scotland. After a detailed account of his slow overland trip and ocean crossing, Harmon records his mission experiences in Manchester, Sheffield, Newcastle, Sunderland, Carlisle, Glasgow, and Edinburgh. Most of the entries focus on Harmon's attendance of Church conferences and notes on baptisms, births, marriage, and deaths. He also describes his trip to London (which included visits to the Thames Tunnel and British Museum) and sinful behavior he believed was caused by a "fever" for gold in Australia. The volume ends with an account of his return voyage to the United States in 1853.

MSS MFilm 00053

Biographical sketches and diary of Isaac Chauncey Haight [microform]: 1850-1943

Manuscripts

Microfilm of typed biographies on and diary entries made by Isaac Chauncey Haight. Opens with a biography of Haight by William R. Palmer entitled "Men You Should Know: Isaac C. Haight" (typescript of a radio talk given by Palmer over K.S.U.B. in Cedar City, Utah, on July 18, 1943); "The Old Virgin Ditch," a poem by Mable Jarvis; and a brief account entitled "Thales Haskell describes the Tragedy of death of George A. Smith fall 1860." The majority of the reel is the Biographical Sketch and Diary of Isaac Chauncey Haight, 1813-1862, a typescript copied by Brigham Young University in 1940. It includes a brief biography of Haight as well as his diary entries for his 1850-1853 mission to England (including accounts of his overland travel to and from Utah) and some various diary entries made in Utah from 1853-1862. Also includes an index of names and family photographs.

MSS MFilm 00367 item 02

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.

Image not available

Diary and autobiography of George Lake [microform] :

Manuscripts

Microfilm of the diary and autobiography of George Lake, beginning with diary entries of his mission trip to England from October 1870 to August 1871. Lake appears to have been living at Workington in Cumberland, although he frequently traveled to Newcastle and surrounding areas. The mission entries focus on Lake's attendance of Church conferences and his interactions with local Mormons, including notes on births, marriages, and deaths. The remainder of the volume is a mixture of autobiography and diary entries, and recalls Lake's move to Oxford in Round Valley, Utah, following his return from England in 1871; his flight to avoid polygamy charges in 1874; his being placed in charge of the northern division of Arizona missionaries in 1876, including a list of names of fellow missionaries; and his involvement in creating the United Order at Yavapai, Arizona, in 1877. The volume includes the text of the "last address by Gen. Joseph Smith the Prophet to the Nauvoo Legion in June 1844," followed by a brief summary of Lake's life in 1879. The final pages, in another hand, include a family record with genealogy up through about 1938 and the texts of patriarchal blessings on the Lake family in 1913.

Image not available

Journal of John McLaws [microform] : 1879-1895

Manuscripts

Microfilm of a journal kept during John McLaws' time as a member of the Allen Company at St. Joseph, Arizona, from 1879-1887 (the journal also includes some entries from 1894-1895). The journal is a record of McLaws' daily life and focuses on his activities as postmaster, sheep shearer, carpenter (particularly as a coffin maker), and teacher. He also includes financial reports from the St. Joseph United Order Company and mentions the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad's claim on the "St. Joseph upper ditch." The journal also includes a brief autobiography of McLaws from the time of his birth in 1852, as well as an epilogue which mentions his founding of the McLaws and Claswon Livery and Food Stable in 1892. Includes a detailed table of contents and index of names. Also included is a newspaper obituary for McLaws' wife, Sophia Delmar (DeLaMare) McLaws.

MSS MFilm 00115

Minutes of the meetings of the Seventies Lyceum for the Second Municipal Ward, James Bond, clerk, Great Salt Lake City, Deseret [microform]: 1851-1852

Manuscripts

Microfilm of minute meetings for the Seventies Lyceum of the Second Municipal Ward of Salt Lake City, kept from 1851-1852. The volumes contains descriptions of meetings including singing and prayers, lists of member names, and covers specific issues such as debates over violent and non-violent actions and the necessity of a female presence for immigrants in areas such as California and Australia.

MSS MFilm 00167

History of colonization of Parowan, Iron County [microform] : 1850-1851

Opening Hours

Admission Info and Tickets

You might also be interested in

Appleton Milo Harmon's early history and journal for his travels through the United States, England, and Scotland in 1850, 1851, and 1852... [microform]: c.1842-1853

Biographical sketches and diary of Isaac Chauncey Haight [microform]: 1850-1943

Letters of Hiram Dwight Pierce and related documents [microform] : 1849-1850

Diary and autobiography of George Lake [microform] :

Journal of John McLaws [microform] : 1879-1895

Minutes of the meetings of the Seventies Lyceum for the Second Municipal Ward, James Bond, clerk, Great Salt Lake City, Deseret [microform]: 1851-1852