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John Mills Whitaker papers, 1847-1963

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Whitaker, John Mills, 1863-1960
Title
John Mills Whitaker papers
Dates
1847-1963 (inclusive)
Quantity
22.25 linear feet, (45 boxes and 1 oversize folder)
Collection Number
MS 0002
Summary
The John Mills Whitaker papers (1847-1963) consist of daily journals, correspondence, and business and professional papers, among other materials, relating to John Mills Whitaker (1863-1960). Whitaker was an educator, horticulturlist, politician, and LDS Church leader.
Repository
University of Utah Libraries, Special Collections
Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library
University of Utah
295 South 1500 East
Salt Lake City, UT
84112-0860

Telephone: 8015818863
special@library.utah.edu
Access Restrictions

Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.

Some original items have been removed and placed in Reserve. Access must be given by the Manuscripts Curator and by appointment. An archivist must remain with the items if being used. Photocopies are available in the collection for research use.

Languages
English
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Biographical Note

John Mills Whitaker was born on 16 October 1863 in Centerville, Utah, to Thomas William Whitaker and Elizabeth Oakden Mills Whitaker. His youth was spent at Centerville and Ogden working with his father in farming and carpentry. He attended the University of Deseret during the 1880s and married Ida Taylor in 1886. He worked for the Salt Lake and Fort Douglas Railway and helped organize the Utah-Western Railway Company. Whitaker served in various capacities in the LDS Church, including several missions. He was a teacher and promoted the teaching of young people. He was responsible for the development of the LDS seminary system. John Mills Whitaker died on 2 April 1960.

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Content Description

The John Mills Whitaker papers (1847-1963) consist of the personal and professional papers of Whitaker. Included are significant memos, notes, and researched materials; and miscellaneous personal items and newspaper clippings, all collected over a period of some seventy years. There are his own original journals in shorthand and longhand, dating 1878 to 1959; the journal he compiled and authored from his shorthand notes during the years of his retirement from active work, 1947 to 1955; and the second journal of his father, Thomas William Whitaker, 1849-1886.

Whitaker's most significant materials are concerned with his business as the secretary of John W. Young and the building of the Salt Lake and Fort Douglas Railway; as secretary of the Salt Lake and Eastern Railway; his seminary teaching, much of which evolved into the Latter-day Saint seminary program; the establishment of a Free Public Library which later became the Salt Lake Public Library; and his activities during the depression with unemployment in church and state, which marked the beginning of the ward, stake, and general welfare program of the Latter-day Saints Church.

The journal of Thomas W. Whitaker gives a short resume of his early life, and more specifically after he joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in San Francisco, California, in 1849. He went on a church mission to Tahiti soon thereafter. On his return he joined LDS Church members in San Bernardino, where he built a home for Charles C. Rich and Amasa Lyman and did other work for the Church. In 1856, he moved to Centerville, Utah, at the request of Rich to handle his business at home. Much of the journal expresses his ardent feelings for the Church and his concern for the Saints in the importance of their living the gospel to the fullest.

Addenda to the collection includes diary transcriptions and photocopies and some oversize materials.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

The library does not claim to control copyright for all materials in the collection. An individual depicted in a reproduction has privacy rights as outlined in Title 45 CFR, part 46 (Protection of Human Subjects). For further information, please review the J. Willard Marriott Library's Use Agreement and Reproduction Request forms.

Preferred Citation

Collection Name, Collection Number, Box Number, Folder Number. Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

The inventory to this collection often does not list each individual folder. This was done at the discretion of the original processor.

Separated Materials

Photographs and audio-visual materials were transferred to the Multimedia Division of Special Collections (P0276 and A0145).

Acquisition Information

Purchased from John Mills Whitaker in 1958.

Additional gifts made by the family in 1969.

Purchased from Orrin Schwab Books in 2013.

Box 44 was purchased from Benchmark Books in 2017.

Processing Note

Processed by Elva C. Dean in 1969 and by others in the 1990s.

Box 43 was processed by Roger V. Paxton in 2017.

Box 44 was processed by Betsey Welland in 2019.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Finding aid created by Elva C. Dean, Roger V. Paxton, and by Betsey Welland.
1969 (last modified: 2018 and 2019)

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