Journal of George A. Smith
Published: 1850
Language: eng
Subjects: Mormons; Sources; Mormon pioneers; Frontier and pioneer life; History
Description: Typescript of George A. Smith's journal, kept during his travels from Great Salt Lake City to Iron County from 1850-1851. Includes a description of Smith's travels, including references to camping at Dry Creek, Utah, with John Doyle Lee; a stop at Fort Provo with a full report of provisions; the exchange of a dead ox for an Indian boy; and Captain Jefferson Hunt's joining the party on his return trip from California. Smith also reports on the camp at Parowan, including  the building of Parowan Hall, a mill, and various cabins. Smith writes of a letter he wrote to President Millard Fillmore requesting a military post on the Muddy River and notes that "we are a military people and must be...we want a military organization for Iron County."  References are made in the journal to Amasa Lyman, Anson Call, Henry Lunt, Brother Shirts, Simon Baker, and Hew Whitney ("the first native white citizen in Iron County").
Notes: Original diary owned by a daughter of George A. Smith. Copied from the original by Randall W. Lunt and donated to the Cedar City Library. Present copy submitted to the Federal Writers' W.P.A., Ogden, Utah.

All inquiries about this manuscript should be directed to the H. Russell Smith Foundation Curator of Western Historical Manuscripts.

HM 72847. The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.

Purchased from Zion Bookstore, May 5, 1965.

George Albert Smith was born in Potsdam, New York, on June 26, 1817. In 1832 he was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which had recently been established by his cousin, Joseph Smith. In 1833 George Smith and his family moved to the Church headquarters in Kirkland, Ohio, and again to Missouri in 1838. Smith accompianed the Zion's Camp expedition in 1834 and served on several missions to the eastern United States throughout the 1830s. In 1839 Smith was ordained an Apostle of the LDS Church and became a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Following the death of Joseph Smith he led a company of 30 Mormon families to Little Salt Lake, near Iron County, Utah, where the party arrived in 1851. Smith was elected Chief Justice of Iron County, served as President of the Iron County Mission, and helped found the Parowan settlement. In 1868 he became First Counselor in the First Presidency under Brigham Young, and also served as official LDS Church Historian from 1854-1857. Smith married six plural wives (Bathsheba Wilson Bigler (1822-1910), Lucy Smith, Nancy Clement, Sarah Ann Libby, Hannah Maria Libby,and Susan E. West). He died on September 1, 1875.