Item Detail
-
17594
-
0
-
0
-
English
-
Diary
-
Mormon Diaries, Journals, and Life Sketches (Transcriptions) [Microfilm]
-
Washington, D.C.
-
Library of Congress
-
Reel 12, Item 12
-
"Farm work. Poor health. Wrote letters and poetry. Some discouragement. Blames "his Satanic Majesty." Sense that life is drawing to a close, 1860. References to lies about himself. Work in mill. Much puttering around the house. Has a store. Rowdies demand liquor, one drawing a knife. ("I caught hold of a Shovel which lay near at hand and drew it up and told him if he came any nearer I should knock him down with it.") Lonesome, depressed. Printing shop established. Issued Huntsman's Echo. Fled into hiding on Grand Island when heard that he would be arrested, possibly for selling whiskey to Indians (denied) or for having Margaret for housekeeper. Great sense of persecution. Forgives enemies, does not wish revenge. Worked on Huntsman's Echo, ("a paper published at this place by my Brother.") Sold goods to emigrants. Trip to Omaha to buy outfit. Encountered "the first company of handcarts." Author's brother, William Johnson, had store in Florence. Set out for Utah, August. Arrival in Salt Lake, 5 October 1860. On to Iron County, where found farm and property in bad shape. Repaired house. Departure for the Virgin River, 17 December. Explored area, bought house and lot from son. Return to Parowan. Hard work, bad weather, poor health. Copied journal from "manuscripts." Jealousy among the women ("which is apt to be the case when a new one comes into a family.") Summary of activities in early 1861: established house, farm, and molasses mill in Virgin City. Notes arrival of "missionary families." Called by Erastus Snow to build sawmill on North Creek. Very sketchy, 186264. Indian trouble, 1865. Hard words from Erastus Snow ("he censured me very highly and said things that I dont feel to mention") led author to leave North Creek and move to Virgin City, 1866. Floods, late 1867. Move to South Ash Creek near Toquerville, 1868. Kirtland Camp anniversary celebration, 1868. Trip to Salt Lake, 1870. Temple work. Second anointings. Family meeting at St. George, December 1870. Ordained patriarch. Family stock ranch established, failed. Sawmill on Sevier River. Much traveling from place to place. Survey for settlement at Hillsdale. Work on farm at Bellevue, 1873. Explains lack of education of children. Conference at St. George; main message was to leave Pioche alone. Poem: "To My Wives," one stanza for each. Poetry becomes quite frequent. Baptized son at age eight, 1874; predicts that "he is to become a printer and publisher not only of my Books but many others brought forth by the Saints." Entries more infrequent. Family organized into "the Sons of Joel," 1875. Several references to expectation of imminent "last days." Reference to "my Seventy Sixth Birth day Review, which is recorded in another Book." Call to gather up his family and colonize them in Arizona, 1879. Death of little son, Jeremiah. This call later revoked by Brother Snow, "who decided that I had pioneered enough and was to old to make a new Settlement in a new country." Terrible drought. Much preaching. Denounced U.S. Government's prosecution of polygamists. ("I think this Nation will beat the antideluvians or Sodomites for Seduction prostitution and Whoredom.") Deplored disobedience of family members. Sent pamphlets to Congress in Washington. A few pages missing for 1881. Holograph in very poor condition." [Abstract from Davis Bitton's Guide to Mormon Diaries and Autobiographies, 1977]