William Harrison Maughan missionary journal

William Harrison Maughan (1834-1905)

L. Tom Perry Special Collections is pleased to announce the availability of a new digitized collection: William Harrison Maughan missionary journal (MSS 4109). This journal was kept by Maughan from February 1875 to July 1876 while serving a mission in England for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1874 to 1876. It describes Maughan’s sickness in England and his efforts to preach to the people, including family members and other ministers. The journal ends in July 1876 and has some details about Maughan’s return to the United States.

William Harrison Maughan was born on May 7, 1834 in Alston, England, to Peter Maughan and Ruth Harrison. In 1841, when he was approximately seven or eight years old, Maughan immigrated to the United States with his family. They first moved to Kirtland and then Nauvoo seven weeks later. In Nauvoo, Maughan heard the Prophet Joseph Smith speak and it had a lasting impression on him for the rest of his life. Maughn accompanied his father to explore for coal at Rock Island to add to the supply at Nauvoo, Illinois. He and his family left on the trek to Salt Lake City and arrived on September 17, 1850.

Maughan married Barbara Morgan on December 25, 1853, in Tooele, Utah, and they had eleven children together. He also had five other wives: Euphemia Nibley, Rachel Ann Barnes Woodward, Mary Jane Lloyd, Margaret Wilson Nibley, and Elizabeth Brice Hill. On November 12, 1859, Maughan was called as a the bishop of the Wellsville Ward in Cache Valley, Utah, and he kept this office for approximately forty years. On June 25, 1900, he was released as bishop and ordained as a stake patriarch. From May 1875 to July 1876 he served a mission to England and presided over the Birmingham conferences. Like many other polygamists during this time, he was also imprisoned and served a jail sentence for a few months because he had multiple wives.

He died on August 29, 1905, in Wellsville, Utah.