Item Detail
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MSS 179
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Joseph Leland Heywood Diaries
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Overland Trails - Diaries
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Heywood, Joseph Leland
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1856-1857
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Mormon pioneer who served as trustee for the property of the Mormon Church at Nauvoo, Illinois; postmaster for Salt Lake City; and U.S. Marshall for Utah. Heywood also helped to colonize southern Utah and the towns of Nephi and Panguitch.Handwritten diaries for the years 1856 and 1857. In volume 1, Heywood traveled to California on government business. He left Salt Lake City for Washington, D.C., on 22 April 1866 and gives a short description of the overland journey to Atchison, Kansas. The remainder of the volume discusses political troubles in Washington, D.C. In volume 2, after resolving his affairs in Washington, D.C. and visiting family in Massachusetts, Heywood returned to Utah via St. Louis and Independence, Missouri. Diary describes his encounters with parties of Cheyenne and Shoshone Indians. Heywood also noted the murder of Almon W. Babbitt by Cheyenne Indians in 1856. Diary mentions meeting many other travelers on the overland route. The item ends near Devil's Gate in western Wyoming.