Journal Kept by Christian N. Lund, Danish Immigrant and Elder in the Church of Latter Day Saints, 1910-1921

Mt. Pleasant, 1921. Limp leatherette journal measuring 6 ½ x 4 inches, 170 pages. Some chips to spine, fine contents. Near Fine. Christian N. Lund was born in Norway in 1846 to Mormon parents, and immigrated to the United States in 1869, first arriving in Salt Lake City and eventually settling in Mt. Pleasant, Utah. He was a member of the Constitutional Conventions held in 1882 and 1887 in Salt Lake City, a member of the Legislature in the House in 1890 and City Council in 1894 and was appointed bishop in 1890. He did missionary work in the Pacific Northwest in the 1870s and in Scandinavia in the 1890s, presiding over missions in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. He served as bishop of the two Mt. Pleasant wards during a period when they were the largest wards in the church. He died in 1921.

Offered here is a journal Lund kept as an alphabetical index to religious ideas, with additional ruminations and philosophical musings included, intended possibly as a keepsake for a family member as it was passed on to one of his grandsons following his death, per an inscription inside. The entries track themes such as "Astronomy" and "The Jews" through the Old and New Testaments and Book of Mormon, and are intended to weave the sources together into a single resource on religious themes. The facts that Lund highlights range are interesting and as a group the entries would be of interest to scholars of Mormon thought during the period. It is also interesting which other subjects Lund chooses to write about, such as transcribing verbatim an article written about the transatlantic cable in 1921 just months before his death. In another section he lists per capita consumption of "Intoxicating Liquors," comparing it to other vices such as tobacco, jewelry, patent medicine and chewing bum. One page ranks the ways in which the Church of Latter Day Saints differs from other churches. Some of the lists refer to LDs-related subjects using the prefix "FOL," which raises the possibility that the volume served as his own reference for works held at the LDS archive that he had researched.

Overall the volume gives an interesting synthesis of contemporary secular and religious themed entries, with Lind's interest in statistics and numbers permeating the volume and providing information on his personal philosophy. It would complement Nielsen's autobiography and journals for scholars interested in his life and thought.