Open to public research.
It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain any necessary copyright clearances.
Permission to publish material from the John C. Anderson journal must be obtained from the
Donated to Special Collections and Archives by the Cache County Government.
This item can also be viewed online as part of an Overland Trails digitization project by Brigham Young University. To view this item digitally see:
John C. Anderson journal, 1866-1879. (COLL MSS 143). Utah State University. Special Collections and Archives department.
John C. Anderson was born August 1835 in Woodford County, Kentucky. During the Civil War, Anderson served as a major in the Confederate Army. After the war in 1866, Anderson traveled from St. Louis, Missouri to Virginia City, Montana, both to scout the area for possible business venture and to visit his brother Robert Anderson, who was operating a ferry on the Snake River at Eagle Rock (now Idaho Falls, Idaho). Later that same year, John returned to the East and opened a bagging and cotton tie firm in St. Louis and shortly thereafter opened a business entitled John C. Anderson & Company in New York City. However, with the economic depression of the early 1870s, Anderson returned to Eagle Rock and opened a general store with his brother which later grew to become the Anderson Brothers Banking Company, reportedly the first bank established in Idaho. Although the Anderson brothers' bank offered financial services, it was not officially chartered until 1898. With the death of John's brother Robert in 1906, John retired from the banking business and returned to the eastern states. John C. Anderson died in August 1913.
This collection contains the 1866 diary of John C. Anderson which documents his journey from St. Louis, Missouri to Virginia City, Montana and back. Anderson's diary documents his travels and experiences while crossing the plains into the Rocky Mountains and contains detailed information about early Eagle Rock (modern-day Idaho Falls, Idaho). His diary is both descriptive and reflective and also contains numerous illustrations. In addition to Anderson's 1866 diary, this collection contains a second transcribed and edited version of his original 1866 diary. Although Anderson's reasons for creating the second diary are not stated, it is believed that Anderson created the edited version in hopes of selling it to a publisher. However, the second diary was never published.
Anderson's 1866 diary was transcribed and published in 1973 by Glen Barrett. See: Barrett, Glen, Mackinaws Down the Missouri, Utah State University Press, Logan, Utah, 1973. See USU SC&A's call # 917.8 An23.
Arranged in numeric sequence according to box and folder.