Simpson Montgomery Molen (1832-1900) was born in Jacksonville, Illinois. His family moved to Camp Creek, near Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1845. After the Latter Day Saints prophet Joseph Smith was murdered in the following year, the Molen family left for Salt Lake City. In 1854, when he was 22, Molen left on a mission to the Hawaiian Islands and stayed there for four years. In the spring of 1876 he went on a second mission to Hawaii, accompanied by his wife, Jane Hyde Molen. This mission lasted three years and three months. his wife's diary, covering the period 18 May 1876 - 12 February 1877, has been microfilmed as PMB 527

The diary describes part of Molen's first mission to the Hawaiian Islands. It is followed by an account of his life copied from Vol.IV of Orson F. Whitney's History of Utah.