Archives West Finding Aid

The bulk of the material in this section deals with Ivins' religious beliefs and his attempt to develop his personal philosophy within the context of the official teachings of the LDS Church. Box 1 contains his diaries, which deal primarily with his missionary experience in Japan. While in the mission field, Ivins typically wrote daily entries. After his return to the United States, the entries become more and more sporadic and his marriage to Bertha Hamblin in 1918 is the final recorded event. Boxes 2 and 3 contain Ivins' correspondence beginning with the final months of his missionary experience and ending a few weeks prior to his death in 1974. Most of the correspondence in the collection is with Ivins' friends and former colleagues at BYU and contains his thoughts on Mormon doctrine and the LDS Church hierarchy. His missionary correspondence is arranged alphabetically by correspondent, while his general correspondence is arranged chronologically. Other correspondence is organized by correspondent and chronologically within folders. The correspondence files often contain miscellaneous items such as news clippings, articles, and poetry. Also included in this section are Ivins' subject files on David O. McKay, Anthony W. Ivins, African Americans and the LDS Church, the Hatchers and Breeders Association, and race horse gambling.

This series contains writings which Ivins intended to publish. At the urging of friends and family members, Ivins set out to document his personal experience with the practice of polygamy. He began a series of sketches and reminiscences that served as the basis for three works. "Stories of My Life in Mexico," a compilation of boyhood reminiscences, was completed by the Ivins family after the death of H. Grant Ivins in 1974. This document is in box 4, folders 12-17. The second manuscript to emerge from this material, a typescript entitled "Autobiography of H. Grant Ivins, Sr.," centers on the Ivins ancestry, the lives of H. Grant Ivins' grandfathers, Erastus Snow and Israel Ivins, and the life of his father, Anthony W. Ivins through the 1897 move of the family from St. George, Utah, to Colonia Juarez, Mexico. Two versions of this manuscript are located in box 4, folders 18-21. The third manuscript, developed from personal reminiscences, is in box 4, folders 22-28. This manuscript, edited by Sterling McMurrin, describes (in the context of Ivins' experience) the nature and extent of plural marriages occurring among Mormons in Mexico between the 1890 Woodruff Manifesto proscribing any marriages not in accordance with the "law of the land" and the 1904 Smith Manifesto declaring the proscription in force throughout the church. Boxes 5 and 6 contain the unfinished manuscript of Ivins' memoirs. This manuscript relies heavily on the diaries found in box 1 and on Ivins' personal correspondence. The remainder of the material in this section concerns H. Grant Ivins' views on religion. Box 7 contains Ivins' lecture notes on the subject of religion in general and the Mormon and Eastern religions in particular. Folders 12-15 contain a fragment of an unfinished Ivins text concerning religion, entitled "Application of Life to Religion." Also included are articles written by others on subjects related to religion.