2011
Journals from the Past
July 2011


“Journals from the Past,” Friend, July 2011, 24–25

Journals from the Past

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historic journals

On these pages you can see four journals that were kept more than 150 years ago by early pioneers. By looking carefully at them, you may get ideas of what you can write in your own journal. Try to write in your journal as often as you can. Then when you grow up and have your own children, you can share some things from your journal so they can know what you were like when you were their age!

Thomas Bullock

Thomas Bullock kept the official journal for the first group of pioneers who traveled to the Salt Lake Valley with Brigham Young in 1847. Brother Bullock made lists. He wrote the names of every person who traveled west with him. From this list we know exactly who was on that trek.

Luke Johnson

Here is a picture of Luke Johnson’s journal. He also traveled with Brigham Young as the company doctor. In those days, a doctor had to make the medicines he used to help people get well. He wrote the recipes for his medicines in his journal.

Appleton Harmon

Two ideas of what you could put in your journal come from Appleton Harmon’s journal. You can see that he put down the dates of when he wrote. That’s very important. Always put the date so you won’t have to wonder about when you wrote something. Appleton also sketched what he saw as he traveled west.

Eliza R. Snow

Eliza R. Snow was the first secretary of the Relief Society. She wrote about what happened at meetings she attended in a special book. Because she did this, we know what happened at the very first Relief Society meeting. Sister Snow wrote poems in her personal journal, including the lyrics for 10 of the hymns in our hymnbook.

Illustrations by Jared Beckstrand