• Home
  • Theodore McKean family record book

Theodore McKean family record book

Theodore McKean (1829-1897)

L. Tom Perry Special Collections is pleased to announce the availability of a new digitized collection: Theodore McKean family record book (MSS SC 1990). This item is a handwritten record book that documents the genealogy of the McKean family. It also includes a short autobiography of Theodore McKean. He describes his youth, his conversion to the Mormon faith, and his various business affairs.

The LDS Church History Library also holds papers related to Theodore McKean, all of which have also been digitized.

Theodore McKean (1829-1897) was a Mormon businessman, politician, and militia leader who lived in Salt Lake City, Utah. McKean was born on October 26, 1829, in Ocean Township, New Jersey, to Washington McKean and Margaret Wallin Ivins. On April 12, 1847, he married Mary Page Gulick, and together they had eight children. On November 27, 1851, he was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In 1853, Theodore traveled alone in the Anthony Ivins Company to Utah. In 1857, he returned to New Jersey to pick up his family and bring them to Utah. Theodore and Margaret began their journey across the plains on June 1 at Westport, Missouri, in a mule-drawn carriage. Theodore was named a captain of a single-family company, consisting of his wife and three children: Sarah (8), Mary (5), and Theodore (1). The McKean’s arrived in Utah on July 22, 1857, settling in Salt Lake City.  In Salt Lake City, McKean was a businessman and served as a Utah territorial marshal, city councilman, and counselor in the bishopric in the Salt Lake City Sixteenth Ward.

In 1869, Theodore was called on a proselytizing mission to the United States. On May 11, 1875, he took a second wife, Elizabeth Ann Emery, and together they had 14 children. That October, Theodore was called on another mission to the Southern States. In July 1891, at the age of 61, he was called once again on a mission to the British Mission.

Theodore McKean passed away in Salt Lake City, Utah, on July 9, 1897.

Recent Posts

Archives