Microfilm of the third volume of George W. Laub's diary, identified as Journal of St. George and covering the years 1874-1877. The inside of the front cover is inscribed "journal prefaced & bound in this city [Salt Lake City] 1858" and notes that the volume belonged to George W. Laub of Logan, Utah, in 1916. The first page of the diary includes an incomplete entry on the Civil War. The second page picks up on January 1, 1874, when Laub was living in St. George. He writes throughout of working at a cart house, doing agricultural labor, hauling lumber, selling livestock, working on the Santa Clara ditch, visiting Pine Valley and Diamond Valley, camping along the Santa Clara River, and working on the St. George Temple. Laub often attended the Tabernacle, where he listened the George A. Smith and Brigham Young, who spoke of the necessity of building a temple, as well as discussing the inscription for a monument stone to Joseph Smith to be placed at the Kirtland Temple (January 11, 1874). Laub also writes of interaction with Navajos in Pine Valley and with what he describes as "Lamonites of the Sebech Nation" (March 1875), and worries about the state of affairs in the United States, writing that he continually reads in the newspapers of "fires, murders, shipwrecks, and treachery of all kinds," as well as violence between former slaves and the "white population" in the South (1875). The diary ends in August 1877. Included at the end of the volume is some family information. All inquiries about this item should be directed to the H. Russell Smith Foundation Curator of Western Historical Manuscripts at the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA. Microfilm. San Marino, Calif. : Huntington Library Photographic Dept., 1948. 1 microfilm reel : negative 35 mm. Forms part of the Manuscripts Department's Mormon file, c.1805-1995. George Laub Lee (1814-1880) was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. His father died when George was eight, and he was sent to live with a man named George Weydler. Laub received a limited education and went into carpentry. He was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1842, and soon after traveled to Pittsburgh, where he met Joseph Smith, and then on to Nauvoo, Illinois. In 1845 he was adopted by John Doyle Lee as his "sealed son," and both Laub and his wife Mary Jane took 'Lee' as their surname. Following the expulsion of the Mormons from Illinois and Missouri, the Laubs traveled with Lee to Utah. Laub spent most of the rest of his life in and around Salt Lake City and St. George, Utah.
Laub, George, 1814-1880 Smith, George Albert, 1817-1875 Young, Brigham, 1801-1877 St.George Temple {Saint George, Utah} Frontier and pioneer life--Utah Mormon cities and towns Mormon pioneers Mormons--History--19th century Mormons--Utah--History--19th century Navajo Indians Diamond Valley (Washington County, Utah) Pine Valley (Utah)--History Saint George (Utah)--History Washington County (Utah)--History 1874-1877 1877 Diaries Utah 19th century. (aat)
Source
Mormon Manuscripts at the Huntington Library Mormonism and the West, Huntington Digital Library
Provenance
Microfilm of original loaned by Mrs. Leah Cheever through Juanita Brooks, January 22, 1948.
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