Henry William Bigler: Soldier, Gold Miner, Missionary, Chronicler, 1815-1900 (Western Experience Series) Rating :
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mormon battalion soldier
By DRYWASHER-BILL
Everyone in the LDS Church is told to keep a diary for posterity, yet only a few people do. Henry Bigler did and his words about the march westward, the goldfields of California, and the treks eastward to Utah are some of the most prized words of the pioneers, mormon and non-mormon alike. He describes things how they were, not some romantic notion or dream. If only more people like H Bigler had written down a few chapters, we could have lived the moments through their words. Actually a few people have written their memoirs of the gold country, but Bigler's writings are readable and enjoyable. For another story about the West, it may pay the reader to find a copy of Alfred Doten's Journal. The sad part about that one is the posterity sought to remove some of the morally or politically 'incorrect' passages, and part of Doten's record was deliberately messed up or destroyed. But diaries and journals provide posterity with the truth about how things were, and the reader gains a glimpse and understanding about circumstnces that cannot be gained by any other means.
Product Description
Henry Bigler was one of several Mormon Battalion veterans employed by John Sutter, under James Marshall's supervision, to construct the mill that was the site of the California gold discovery. As it turned out, Henry diligently kept the most immediate and accurate record of the event, which historians have since used to determine the official date of discovery January 24, 1848. Bigler kept many journals and observed or participated in other significant events in early Mormon and western history, from the Mormon exodus out of Nauvoo through western trail-blazing with the Mormon Battalion to proselyting in mid-nineteenth century Hawaii. But with the exception of brief fame in California after his diary account became known, Bigler led a life of obscurity and poverty. Time has brought him additional posthumous fame, though, as the personal records he kept have become widely used by historians seeking sources on a variety of western history topics. By providing much context on the history that Bigler lived and wrote, and by carefully reconstructing the experience of one average, devout, frontier farmer and missionary, Bishop tells much about run-of-the-mill nineteenth-century Mormon lives that biographies of the famous, powerful, or elite may not be able to convey.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #1817620 in Books
- Published on: 1998-09-01
- Original language:English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.35" h x5.43" w x.47" l,.58 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 200 pages
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