A Forty Niner in Utah: Letters and Journals of John Hudson - Brigham D. Madsen - Hardcover

With a solid English education behind him, John Hudson at age twenty-two was offered a job with his uncle at an import agency in New York City. He left Liverpool in 1849, became acquainted with Manhattan, and realized that poor economic conditions portended hard times. So he convinced his uncle to finance a trip to the California gold fields. Although his destination was the west coast, illness forced a stop-over in Salt Lake City.His reprieve lengthened into sixteen months as he joined the Mormon church and taught school at Fort Utah, where he also began serving with the volunteer militia in defending against Ute Indians. He was then hired by Captain Howard Stansbury to help survey the Great Salt Lake. During this three-month exploration, Hudson kept a journal and made sketches of points of interest. Afterwards he hired out as a clerk to a local justice of the peace.Soon he was chosen to help strengthen the new Mormon settlement of Manti in Sanpete Valley, over a hundred miles south of Salt Lake City, where he again became ill and succumbed to pneumonia in December 1850. Though he died young, his writings and sketches are a significant contribution to Western history, especially for understanding early Utah.Hudson, John is the author of 'A Forty Niner in Utah: Letters and Journals of John Hudson - Brigham D. Madsen - Hardcover' with ISBN 9780941214391 and ISBN 0941214397.