Personal Clerk of Brigham Young Diaries Found
Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2007 5:53 am
I lurk here a lot and usually don't say much but thought it strange that nobody has mentioned this yet on the board.
http://www.abc4.com/content/specials/as ... 2961c71fa2
It will be interesting to see what these Diaries have to say.
http://www.abc4.com/content/specials/as ... 2961c71fa2
It will be interesting to see what these Diaries have to say.
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - It's being called one of the most important discoveries of LDS documents in recent times.
Since 1869, they've been in the possession of a once prominent Mormon family, friends of Brigham Young.
And they, reportedly, were written by John Varah Long.
Ken Sanders, a rare book dealer says, "John V. Long was the equivalent of a 1850's rock star."
This is because in mid-19th century Utah, John Varah Long was Brigham Young's personal clerk.
Long took the LDS President's dictation, recorded his sermons and even wrote about him for the Deseret News.
Historian Will Bagley says, "Long is part of this very, very talented group that made Brigham Young's success possible."
And now, the long lost words of John V. Long may at last be revealed.
Diaries believed to have been written by and once belonging to Long have now surfaced.
Sanders calls these diaries a once in a century type discovery.
Written in a nearly extinct 19th century short-hand, these notes could provide rare, up close glimpses into the life and beliefs of Brigham Young.
Bagley says, "These are lost treasures. These are Brigham Young and his colleagues speaking in the raw."
And if these apparent lost Mormon diaries weren't dramatic enough, there is much more to John Varah Long’s story.
There is mystery as well.
After a decade of loyal service, John Varah Long and Brigham Young had a falling out - some say over a business deal.
Long gets a stern letter from the LDS Church - one accusing him of conduct unworthy of a saint and summoning him to appear.
Sanders says, "It wasn't a polite request. You are hereby commanded to appear before the high council on this and that date to answer charges."
Long and other family members are then ex-communicated.
And just a few years later, (it is said) John V. Long - the 42 year old former confidant of Brigham Young - is found near the corner of West and North Temple.
In what condition was Long found? "Dead," says Sanders. "He's found drowned in a ditch in a few inches of water."
Historian Will Bagley says - according to family legend - John Varah Long was last seen in the company of Wild Bill Hickman, a man known as a “Destroying Angel” and an associate of Orrin Porter Rockwell.
Bagley doesn't hesitate calling Long's untimely death, "a murder mystery."
Bagley says, "He simply knew too much. He had been too close to the inside. He knew too much about the church's dirty laundry and he knew where the bodies were buried."
138 years after he died, John Varah Long is now coming back to life.
Soon, his papers and the diaries will be sold, perhaps for as much as a million dollars.
Ken Sanders says the time is long overdue "...to set the record straight to find out the truth. wherever that leads us. And until the diaries have been properly transcribed, we're not going to fully know," says Sanders.
But, the trouble is, translating them has been a slow process.
One that has been partially translated does deal with an interesting Brigham Young sermon about the Civil War.
But, as these diaries are translated over the next few weeks, ABC 4 will keep you posted on what they say.