SALT LAKE CITY—The Church Historian’s Press today published fifteen years of additional entries from the journals of George F. Richards, who served as an apostle in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1906 to 1950.

The newly released material, dating from March 1915 through December 1930, documents Richards’s time as president of the European Mission during World War I, his appointment as Salt Lake Temple president, and his continued service as an apostle for the church. His record of such assignments offers insights into early twentieth-century church history and provides biographical information for this important apostolic leader.

At the time of Richards’s appointment as president of the European Mission in June 1916, the “Great War” was raging across Europe. He was instructed not to take his family overseas until it was safer to make the voyage. Richards wrote in his journal that the assignment “broke up my wifes feelings and the children cried with her.” He also wrote, “It is pleasing to the Lord that we love one another so it can not be an offense that we sorrow at parting.”

When Richards crossed the ocean in August, German submarines were a constant threat to merchant ships, though passenger boats were ostensibly safe. “My present feelings,” he recorded in his journal, “are that our people should not imperil their lives by travel to or from England on belligerent ships. I could not conscienciously advise it after my experiences of this trip.” The night before landfall, Richards slept poorly due to “the anxiety & fear of submarines.” But he arrived in England safely and attended meetings the same day he disembarked.

Upon his arrival, Richards found that the practicalities of war upturned many norms. “These are war times when women do men’s work. . . . We are trying to employ our women in officering our auxiliary associations, doing branch teaching, praying and preaching in the meetings &c.” He also utilized sister missionaries effectively: “During the past three months we have called, set apart and issued missionary certificates to about 270 lady missionaries. These are doing good work. . . . I feel very much encouraged in my work thus far and believe the Lord has inspired these new movements of woman’s work in the Church.”

Richards’s wife, Alice, remained home for most of her husband’s mission. Richards paid tribute to Alice, whom he frequently called “mother” in his journal, in an April 1918 journal entry: “I bought a silk hand bag and registered it to Mother for a birth day present which comes on May 14th. . . . She is the mother of fifteen children and grandmother to nineteen. She is one of the best women alive. As wife and mother she is ideal. It is now more than twenty months since I bid her good bye and started for this country to preside over the European Mission. She is conducting the affairs at home in a highly satisfactory manner and her love of me rings true as ever. I thank the Lord for her and may He bless her for ever.” Five months later, Richards confided in his journal, “Absence from wife and children is the most and severest trial” and recorded at the end of 1918, “I dreamed that I held my wife in a loving embrace and when I awoke I was hugging myself.” After the armistice of 11 November 1918 effectively ended the war, Alice was finally free to leave Salt Lake City and join her husband in early 1919. Upon reuniting after 31 months, Richards simply noted in his journal, “It was one of the happiest days in my life or hers.” When Richards arrived home in summer 1919 after three years of service, his “grand reunion” with his children and grandchildren was a “most happy time.”

In 1921, Richards began yet another major assignment: that of Salt Lake Temple president. His work in the temple dominated his time and is documented in his journal. Richards near daily spoke of working at the temple “as usual.” He oversaw volunteer ordinance workers and facilitated the smooth operation of the sacred ordinances that occurred in the edifice. During 1924 the temple showed signs of wear, and Richards’s record reports that it underwent some cosmetic remodeling. For example, “We had about three or four sq. yds. of plaster removed from the west wall of the Garden room this morning. It was coming loose from the wall & falling off. We have the painters at work also the upholster, and the cleaners &c.” The work of ensuring the sacred nature of the temple never ended. But Richards found comfort in the work. “Stormy dark day,” he commented one October morning, “but all is bright and pleasant in the Lord’s house.”

Richards’s journal is a remarkable source for early twentieth-century church history and Richards’s own life. In 1916, Richards commented on his journal: “These are anxious times Fire floods, war & rumor of wars every where afloat. I do not mention these things often in my journal. History will reveal the facts better than I can.” Later that same year, the constant effort to keep up with his journal became too much: “I find I have been writing more in detail of my work in my journal than is necessary and to save time I intend to cut shorter my journal history for it is doubtful if it will ever be made use of.” Eight years later—still writing in his journal almost daily—he commented again on the purpose of his autobiographical writing: “I think that from this time forth I shall write in my journal with the thought that it may sometime be read by someone other than myself.” Richards’s dedication to his journal brings insight, inspiration, and accuracy to those wishing for a glimpse into the life of an early twentieth-century Latter-day Saint apostle.

The transcripts of the journal are available at churchhistorianspress.org/george-f-richards.

About the Church Historian’s Press

The Church Historian’s Press was announced in 2008 by the Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Joseph Smith Papers was the first publication to bear the imprint. The press publishes works of Latter-day Saint history that meet high standards of scholarship. For more information, visit the Church Historian’s Press website.