Source Note

Brigham Young, Journal, 28 September 1844–3 February 1846; handwriting of John P. McEwan, Evan M. Greene, and John D. Lee; Brigham Young Office Files. CR 1234 1. Church History Library. Salt Lake City, Utah.

Brigham Young’s first office journal is a red leather, hardcover book measuring 6 × 4 × ¾ inches (15.24 × 10.16 × 1.9 cm). A 3/8 × 4 1/8-inch hand-cut slip of white paper was pasted onto the spine. In black ink it reads, “Lieut. Genl. Brigham Young 1844 5 6.” There are remnants of other, likely earlier, paper pastings on the spine. The bound volume contains white pastedowns and two matching flyleaves at the front and back of the book. On the front inside pastedown is an early archival sticker for the Historian’s Office Archives. The front inside flyleaf has the following text written on it: “Lieu^t Gen^l Brigham Young’s Journal.” The text block consists of 193 cream-colored leaves. There are 386 pages. Each page contains seventeen manufactured blue lines, though these lines are often faded and, in many cases, invisible. Pages are numbered in handwritten ink beginning on page 1 and ending on page 124. These pages contain written text, except pages 80–96, which are numbered but contain no other text. The handwriting of McEwan, Greene, and Lee recording Young’s activities is primarily in black ink, though a few entries are in blue ink and some edits and corrections are made in graphite. There are no page numbers after page 124. There are 255 blank pages from the last journal entry to the book’s index. That four-page index begins on page 380 and was apparently compiled at a later date by staff of the Church Historian’s Office.

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Editorial Note

Outside of the journal entries, the only miscellaneous or undated text in Brigham Young’s Office Journal appears in a four-page index on pages 380–83. This index is not comprehensive but gives a sense of the topics and people referenced in the office journal. The index was apparently created by staff of the Historian’s Office of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, likely after the Saints arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. Perhaps not surprisingly given the events of the office journal period, the most written about and therefore most indexed topics had to do with the mob and the Nauvoo temple. Each page of the index has the word “Index” written in the top center of the page; only the first instance of “Index” will be reproduced here. The text notes below provide the full and proper spelling of misspelled names when known.

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Index.

Anointings 98, 99, 101, 121, 124.

Babbitt A.W.[1] 103.

Backenstoss Sheriff[2] 41, 48, 53.

Benbow Br.[3] 23.

Bernhisel J. L.[4] 103.

Brigham (little) 98.

Burning Houses 48, 49.

Carn Joseph 53.

Clark miss C. C. 99.

Clover Lot 44.

Dream 32 32.

Fippen Isaac[5] 71, 72

Ford Gov. Thos. Letter 5, 6.

Foulk Br. 41.

Fulmer John S. 103.

Gaulter L.[6] 25.

Going West 51.

Government Vs. Mormons, 116.

Harden Gen.[7] 115.

Haywood J. L.[8] 103.

Herring Joseph. 17, 21, 22.

Indians 17, 21, 22.

Likeness Taken 13, 35.

Loveland C.[9] 65.

Lynne L 25.

Markham S.[10] 62.

Mecham E.[11] 40.

Miller Geo. 56, 63.

" H. W.[12] 103.

" R.[13] 118.

Mobbers 47, 48, 49, 52, 56, 62.

Nauvoo House ++ 26, 103, 113.

" Legion 1.

Otis Mosis[14] 21, 22.

Pratt O. 77.

Redfield Sister, Death of 36.

Richards Jenetta " " 14, 15.

Seventies 2, 3.

Smith W^m 61.

Strang 118, 119,

Temple 13, 60, 75, 77, 97, 103, 113, 123.

Toronto Joseph 14.

War Preparations for 64 &c

Woolley John 99.

Young B. Letter to 5, 6.

Notes

[1] TEXT: Almon W. Babbitt.

[2] TEXT: Jacob B. Backenstos.

[3] TEXT: John Benbow.

[4] TEXT: John M. Bernhisel.

[5] TEXT: Isaac Phippen.

[6] TEXT: Lewis Gaulter.

[7] TEXT: General John J. Hardin.

[8] TEXT: Joseph L. Heywood.

[9] TEXT: Possibly Chester Loveland.

[10] TEXT: Stephen Markham.

[11] TEXT: Edward Meacham.

[12] TEXT: Henry William Miller.

[13] TEXT: Reuben Miller.

[14] TEXT: Spelled Moses Otis in the journal; see p. XXX herein.