Archives West Finding Aid

John L. Traughber (1854-1908) was born 23 November 1854 in Carroll County, Missouri, to John Logan Traughber Sr. and Ellen Keziah Ross. Traughber was a school teacher and farmer. He was self-educated and an avid reader. He is most well-known for having received some William E. McLellin papers from McLellin's widow in 1884. After obtaining the McLellin collection, Traughber began writing a book about the LDS Church and doctrine. Traughber married Mattie Elmira Felkins on the 1st of January 1888 in Taney County, Missouri. They had nine children: Earl Augustine, Lucilla Ellen, Albert Ross, Louis Edgar, Charles Orville, Beulah Elenor, Grace Eulah, John Ernest, and Harmon Otis. In 1901, Traughber became ill and offered to sell the William E. McLellin Collection to a Salt Lake City minister, Theodore Schroeder. Schroeder declined the offer. Then in 1908 Traughber sold McLellin's missionary diaries from 1831 to 1836, as well as four notebooks and a copy of the 1833 Book of Commandments for fifty dollars to the LDS Church. Traughber's illness progressed and on the 8th of December 1908 he passed away in Doucette, Tyler County, Texas. When Traughber passed away he left his children and widow penniless. However, Traughber had left his family with his research on the LDS Church and the William E. McLellin Collection. Traughber never completed his book. He had spent over twenty years researching the LDS Church religion, and had a manuscript over three hundred pages. Traughber's widow did not want her late husband's work to go to waste. She tried to have his work published in the Salt Lake Tribune in 1910, but was unsuccessful. After her death in 1954, the William E. McLellin Collection and Traughber's own documents fell into the possession of Traughber's youngest son, Otis. H. Otis Traughber sold the collection to the University of Utah in 1995.