Secretary of State Legislative acts, resolutions, and memorial journals, i 1850-1911.

These journals were kept by the Secretary of Utah Territory, and later the Secretary of State, as a record of the official copy of the acts and proceedings of the legislature. Keeping the record of the official acts of the legislature was a duty assigned to the Secretary's Office by the Organic Act which created Utah's government in 1850 ["An Act to Establish a Territorial Government for Utah," Sect. 3 (Sept. 9, 1850) in Acts, Resolutions, and Memorials passed by the First Annual, and Special Session of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Utah, Brigham H. Young, printer, Great Salt Lake City, Utah 1852, p. 28]. Usually what has been recorded in the journals is an exact copy of what was finally published as the Laws of Utah after each legislative session. After statehood in 1896, a copy of the published version of the laws was pasted into the journals to replace the handwritten copy.

After Benjamin Ferris assumed his duties as Secretary in October 1852, volume two in theseries was opened. Succeeding secretaries evidently then used volume one as a place to record other data pertaining to the legislature. Between 1852 and 1855 several lists of officials entitled to receive copies of territorial laws, a list of individuals elected to serve as members of the legislature in 1854, a list of elected county officials of 1855, and a list of other states which had mailed Utah a copy of their laws, are all recorded following the acts passed before May of 1852. Journals for the sessions of 1886, 1888, and 1890 are missing from the series. After 1911, separate journals were no longer kept, although final copies of all individual acts, resolutions and memorials of the legislature were still kept on file by the Secretary of State.