Richard Thomas Ackley: A Mormon Family's Conversion and an 1858 Overland Journal

Richard Thomas Ackley authored a first-person account of his family's conversion to the restored gospel, 'An Account of a Mormon Family's Conversion to the Religion of the Latter-day Saints.' He also kept an 1858 overland journal, 'Across the Plains in 1858,' recording his travels to Utah as a sutler at Camp Floyd during the Utah War period and describing Salt Lake City and its people in 1858–1859. His preserved writings document both a Latter-day Saint family's conversion and a faithful record of the westward gathering.