The Elizabeth Pickett Tolman diary offers a remarkably intimate look into the life of a plural wife in the last decades of the nineteenth century. More of an autobiographical narrative than a daily record, the volume captures Elizabeth's struggle to rectify her religious beliefs with her personal feelings:

"I could hardly think it possible that the husband with whom I had lived so happy and loved so dearly better than life itself any other sacrifice it appears to me could have been made with less heartache was I to share that husband's affections with another sometimes I was inclined to think Lord why was such a principle revealed but it is all right we shall get our reward when the Lord shall make up his jewels."

Elizabeth's account indicates that this internal conflict and despair plagued her for the rest of her life. Her heartache is displayed eloquently in the final pages of the diary which consist of poems and prose she authored with titles like "To One Who Will Understand" and "Heart Sighs."

Elizabeth mentions a number of notable events in her 200-page, handwritten journal. One is the construction of the St. George LDS temple, which Ammon helped to construct. She also talks about laws enacted to end the practice of polygamy, and how the prosecution of those laws affected her family. Elizabeth even references the assassination of president James A. Garfield. These reflections will interest any researcher examining the practice of polygamy or life in late-nineteenth century Utah and southern Idaho.