Diary of John Boylston Fairbanks

Born on 28 April 1817 in New York to Joseph and Polly (Brooks) Fairbanks, John Boylston Fairbanks grew up in New Jersey. In 1843, at the age of twenty-five, he joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The following year John married Sarah Van Wagoner, a native of New Jersey, with whom he had eleven children. In 1844, John and Sarah joined the body of the Church at Nauvoo, Illinois, accompanied by their parents and several other family members. John worked on the Nauvoo Temple until anti-Mormon sentiment forced the family to relocate to Winter Quarters, Nebraska. In June 1847, three years after the move to Illinois, John helped lead a company of Latter-day Saints to Salt Lake City in the Jedediah M. Grant Company. John lived at Salt Lake City for four years and then moved to Payson, Utah