Archives West Finding Aid

The Mary Susannah Sumner Fackrell Fowler and William Fowler diaries [photocopies and typescripts] (1854-1900) consist of a total of three diaries. William Fowler's diary was written in 1854 and 1855 and records his mission to Glouchestershire, England, for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The original diary was written in Pittman shorthand, but a typescript is available. In it, Fowler jots down daily details: what he ate for breakfast, how many people he baptized, and how many miles he walked in a day, for example. The connection between William Fowler and Mary Susannah Fackrell Fowler is unknown. Her diaries for the years 1899 and 1900 are useful for the descriptions of daily life in central Utah. Although the exact town where Mary Fowler lived is never made clear, it may have been Helper, as she mentions visiting the nearby towns of Castledale, Centerville, Huntington, Orangeville, Price and Nine Mile Canyon, St. George, Scofield, Sunnyside, and Wellington. The diary provides information on home remedies for various illnesses, ranging from headaches to smallpox. She also discusses attitudes toward health and disease and the community-wide resistance to vaccination and medical treatment. In between illnesses and their cures, her time was spent on household chores: carding and spinning, making clothes, shoes, and rugs, cleaning and cooking, making soap, and baking bread.