Archives West Finding Aid

Helon Henry Tracy (1849-1893) was born the seventh son of Moses and Nancy Tracy in Council Bluffs, Iowa. His parents joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in 1833, and were among the converts who were driven from their homes in the state of Missouri to Illinois, and were subsequently expelled from Nauvoo in the winter of 1846. Tracy came with his parents to Utah territory in 1850, settling in Weber County in a community known as Marriott. He married Emma Maria Burdett in 1867, by whom he had fourteen children. In 1870, he married Emma's sister, Mary Jane Burdett, by whom he had seven children. Tracy was admitted to the School of the Prophets in 1871, and remained a member until the school was dismissed in 1873. He was one of forty-four missionaries called to serve a proselytizing mission to the eastern United States and Great Britain in 1881-1882. Upon his return, he married a third woman, Phoebe Ann Truelover Draper, in 1882, by whom he had three children. In 1886, Tracy was indicted and charged with polygamy and unlawful cohabitation, in violation of the Edmunds Bill of 1882. He was tried before Judge O.W. Powers in 1886, and was convicted and sentenced to incarceration. He served nearly one year in the Territory of Utah Penitentiary. While in prison, he kept a detailed account of this experiences in both a diary and a journal. There were many other brethren of the LDS church who were incarcerated at the same time, including the Apostle Lorenzo Snow, with whom Tracy shared a cell. Upon his release, Tracy continued to practice polygamy clandestinely. He died at age forty-four.