History of Salt Lake City, Part 128

Author: Tullidge, Edward Wheelock
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Salt Lake City, Star printing company
Number of Pages: 1194

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Caleb W. West was appointed Governor of Utah by President Cleveland, in April, 1886, and was confirmed by the Senate on the 29th of April. Speaker Carlisle was his sponser, and the whole delegation of his State supported his appointment. He arrived in Utah on the 5th of May and took the oath of office before Chief Justice Zane on the following day.

ARTHUR L. THOMAS.

Arthur Lloyd Thomas, Secretary of Utah Territory, was born in Chicago, Illinois, August 22d, 1851. He is of Welsh descent on both sides. His father Henry J. Thomas, was born near Swansea, Glamorganshire, South Wales. The mother's name is Ellinor Lloyd. She was born at Beulah, Cambria County, Pennsylvania, and is of Welsh parents. Soon after his birth, See- retary Thomas was taken by his parents to Pitsburg and there he was edueated at the public schools of that place. In April, 1869, when Secretary Thomas was between the seventeenth and eighteenth years of his age he was appointed by Hon. Edward McPherson to a position as clerk in the House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. He remained an employee at the Capitol building until his appointment May Ist, 1879, as Secretary of Utah.

Secretary Thomas arrived in Salt Lake City, May 12th, 1879; George W. Emery was Governor of Utah at the time. In the Spring of 1880, he was appointed supervisor of census for Utah, and the same year was appointed special agent to collect the school statisties of the Territory ; also the statistics of the different church denominations, especially the Mormon Church. The manner in which he conducted this census work has been commended by the press and the people of Utah Territory and the supervisor of eensus.

In March, 1882, he was appointed by the Utah Legislature one of a committee of four to compile and revise the laws of Utah ; and was also, by the Legislature of 1886, appointed one of the commissioners to compile laws, but the measure was vetoed by Governor Murray. During the session the first Legislature after he came to Utah, he was acting Governor, all but five days of the session, and fully one-half of the session of 1882. In 1883 he was re-appointed Secretary of the Territory for four years. At various times during his terms of office he has been the acting Governor. Probably the most exciting and trying time in his exercise of the functions of the executive office was in his connec- tion with the celebrated Hopt case. This man had three times been convicted and sentenced to death for the crime of murder, but on appeal to the U. S. Supreme Court he was enabled to secure a new trial. After this third conviction and sentence Judge Hunter, and afterwards the Territorial Supreme Cour refused to grant a stay of execution and the Marshal made all arrangements for the execution. Hopt's attorneys made application to acting Governor Thomas for a respite pending an appeal to the U. S. Supreme Court. This was denied on the ground that there was nothing in the record indi- eating that complete justice was not done by the verdict and sentence. The only thing to consder was did the appeal work a stay of the execution, and Mr. Thomas said this was a judicial matter for the Executive to decide.

The refusal to grant the respite was considered by the publie as sealing the doom of Hopt ; but,

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

the day before the morning set for the execution, public feeling ran so high that the leading mem- bers of the bar appeared before the supreme court of the Territory, then in session, and submitted that it was a monstrous proposition that a man should be executed pending his appeal to the higher court; and, thus urged, at a special session held that evening, the court unanimously recommended the acting-Governor to grant a respite. When the action of the court became known there was an intense excitement throughout the city, people gathering in crowds to discuss the action of the court. Next morning a citizens' mass meeting was held at the Walker Opera House and a committee appointed to wait on the acting-Governor to protest against the respite being granted ; during which time the principal streets were thronged with people ; but Mr. Thomas de- cided that as the law granted to Hopt an appeal he was entitled to live until the appeal was heard. and granted the respite. Ilis course was at first condemned but a reaction in public feeling imme- diately followed, and his action was approved and commended by the entire press and people of the Territory.

Another notable instance was his connection with the celebrated Cannon-Campbell election case. Gov. Murray issued the certificate to Campbell. Immediately afterwards acting-Governor Thomas was served with a writ of mandamus from the Third District Court to issue a certificate to Mr. Cannon; but Mr. Thomas declined on the ground that that function of the Executive office in con- nection with the last delelegate election, had been performed by Governor Murray.

As acting-Governor he has approved of many important statutes. One of great interest to Salt Lake was the amendment to the City Charter empowering the city authorities to license and regulate the liquor traffic, which is the first amendment of the City Charter with reference to the regulation of the liquor traffic not broken by the courts.

By the Edmunds act Secretary Thomas was made ex-officio Secretary of the Utah Commission, created by this act; and subsequently by an appointment of the Secretary of the Treasury he was made its disbursing agent.

Of his immediate family it may be noted that Arthur L. Thomas, was on the 6th of February, 1872, married to Miss Helena 11. Reinburg, of Washington, D. C., daughter of Lonis and Anora Rein- burg, by whom he has a family of five children now living. Of the results of his official course durr ing his two terms as Secretary of the Territory, including the superadded functions of the com- mission, it may be observed that he has won the good will and respect of the general public and of the most intimately concerned with him in the exercise of his official duties.

JOHN T. CAINE.

John T. Caine, our Delegate to Congress, was born January 8th, 1829, in the parish of Kirk Patrick, near the town of Peel, Isle of Man All his family were natives of that island, being con- neeted with its old families. He received in his youth a fair common school education ; but he can scarcely be said to have commenced life until he came to America. Being early impressed with a desire to emigrate to the New World, feeling the limits of the old romantic island which had given him birth, and learning of the vast advantages which America afforded to the landable ambition of men starting life, he resolved to cast his destiny among the people of this grand Republic. Not as a Mormon, but simply as an emigrant to America, at the age of seventeen, he started, it may be almost said alone, being accompanied only by a cousin, two years his junior, whose life has had very little connection with his own. Ile arrived in New York early in the spring of 1846, where he remained till the fall of 1848.

It will be remembered, by those familiar with the history of the emigrations from Great Britain to this country, that about the year 1846 that tidal wave of emigration from England to this country rose, which Has since done so much to develop American industries, and indeed the American civi- lization itself. It brought over a class who are to-day known as the self-made men in every great city of the United States, and who, though not of native birth, rank among the best representatives

JOHN T. CAINE.

of this nation. Mr. John T. Caine was early among that class who felt this great emigrational im- pulse of the age ; and, as already observed, it came to him before his connection with the Mormon people.

Mr Caine, however, had not been long in America before he was brought to a thoughtful and very thorough investigation of the Mormon religion and movement. In the Isle of Man he had heard Apostle John Taylor preach, but it was the stirring events of the great Mormon exodus from Nauvoo that so strongly arrested his attention to a study of this strange people. At this time also, though young, he was investigating the complex subject of the religions and sects of the day generally ; and, being of a self-reliant turn of mind and marked individuality of character, he chose to identify himself with the Mormon people in the very crisis of their destiny. He joined the Church in the spring of 1847, just about the time when Brigham Young and the Pioneers started from old Council Bluffs on their first journey to the Rocky Mountains.

Joining the Mormons changed the whole course of Mr. Caine's life. It first led him to St. Louis, in October of 1848. There he became thoroughly identified with the Mormon work, and among other official duties, acted as secretary of the conference. While at St. Louis he married Margaret Nightingale a distant kinswoman of the illustrious Florence Nightingale, the Crimean heroine. This is the only wife our present delegate to Congress has ever had ; she is still living, has a large family, and several of her eldest sons are young men of mark.

Mr. Caine and his wife remained in St. Louis till the spring of 1852, when he left and came direct to Salt Lake City, arriving liere in September of the same year. That fall and winter he taught school on Big Cottonwood. It was during that winter he first became connected with the old Deseret Dramatic Association, which was then giving performances in the Social Hall. After awhile he was employed in the Trustee-in-Trust's office, where commenced his association with President Brigham Young, which ultimately brought Mr. Caine into first class society prominence, he being for years known as one of the President's most reliable and confidential men.

At the April Conference of 1854, he was called to go on a mission to the Sandwich Islands. He was gone from home two years and a half, during which time he labored on the Islands and in California, returning to Salt Lake City in the winter of of 1856-7.

Immediately on his return from the Sandwich Islands his connection with the Utah Legislature commenced, he being elected assistant secretary of the Legislative Council for the session of 1856-7 and re-elected to the same position for the session of 1857-8. For the session of 1859-60, he was elected Secretary of the Legislative Council, and re-elected to the same position for the session of I860-61.

His position as secretary of the Council brought Mr. Caine into intimate relations with Gover- nor Cumming and other Federal officers; and being a man of brain, not given to extreme views, and withal a natural leader in society, he exercised considerable influence with the Governor and his class. Indeed, it may be said that, down to the present time, few men in Utah representing the Mormon people have exercised so much influence over the best part of our Gentile population as John T. Caine.

It was just after Utah began to revive from the social " break-up," consequent of the " Utah war," that the Salt Lake Theatre rose, under the management of Clawson and Caine. Those ac- quainted with the history of our Territory will remember that, in the earlier periods, its dramatic pages were quite marked-indeed, in the second decade, really magnificent. [See Chapters LXXXIV. and LXXXV.]

During his professional visit to the States, Mr. Caine assisted in the immigration of that year. After his return he resumed his place in the management of the Theatre, and in 1867-8-9 Clawson & Caine were its lessees.

In 1870, the "more important duties of the State " called Mr. Caine into its service, and new spheres opened to him of legislator and journalist, culminating at length in his election as delegate to Congress.

Early in the spring of 1870, when the Cullom Bill excitement was at its height, Mr. Caine was was sent to Washington with the people's remonstrance and petition to Congress against that bill. At the request of Delegate Hooper, he remained with him from March till the latter part of July. the end of the session. Hooper frankly acknowledged the help, and from that time the present delegate's career was forecast in Congress.

On his return, Mr. Caine found the Salt Lake Herald had just been started by Dunbar and Sloan. He became associated with them in this journalistic enterprise, assuming control both of the editorial and business departments. The combination and the paper both soon became a marked

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

success ; an 1. to this day, the Herald his hula most important journ ilistic career in the history of modern Utah, which'began with the alvent of our riilroids, the opening of our mines, the rise of our local political parties, and the almost simult ineous birth of the Salt Lake Tribune and the Salt Lake Herald.

Mr. Caine wis a member of the justly famous State Constitutional Convention of Utah, in 1872, ( See Chapters LV, and LVI.) In the whole of the action of this convention, John T. Caine voted for the advanced measures, on the side of politie il reform, and social adjustment, and the Salt Lake Herald daily supported the work.

In 1874 our deleyite was elected a member of the Council branch of the Utah Legislature. The following yeur he mide a flying trip to Europe to recover his health. He was again in t'je Council in the session of 1876, and was re-elected for the sessions of 1880 and 1882. Ile was electe.l Recorder of Silt Like City in 1876, and was serving his fourth term in that office when he was elect . 1 delegate to Congress. He was in the State convention of 1882, and was one of the deleyites sent to Washington to present the constitution to Congress and ask for the admission. Of his election as the regular delegate to Congress from this Territory, we have fully treated in the history of our recent political campaigns.

Years ago we forecast him for service in Congress, when Utah should need her strongest avail- able min for the times. The veteran Hooper, thin whom no more sagacious politician ever went Washington, decided that Caine was the min for Utah in the crisis then pending, and an eigh- ten thous ind majority of the people of this Territory so decided.

During the entire time thit Hon. John. T. Cune has been in Congress efforts have been made by the minority party of Utah to secure legislation which would deprive the majority party of the political control of the Territory and to procure more stringent measures against the practice of po- lygimy. The most important of these anti-Mormon mesures is the new E:lmunds' Bill, which is now pending in the House of Representatives. Mr. Caine has been indefatigable in his efforts to dlefeat the en ictment of these unconstitutional and oppressive laws. He has several times appeared before the committees of Congress and made able arguments in defense of his constituents and to correct the misrepresentations of their enemies. During the present session of Congress, Mr. R. N. Baskin (who was sent to Washington by the anti-Mormons of Utah), assisted by Miss Kate Field and others, appeared before the Judiciary Committee of the House and made lengthy argu- ments in favor of the pending bill ; Delegate Came on his side replied in an effective speech and conducted an able defense of his people. Mr. Caine is himself a monogamist, as his present po- sition as Utah's Delegate in Congress would show ; but he understands the faith and religious in- tegrity of his people. To him, as to them. the marriage system of the Mormon Church is essen- tiilly a religious institution, an'l, therefore, though himself a monogamist, he consistently maintains the religious rights of the Mormons as American citizens. In fine it may be truthfully said, that in the IIon. John T. Caine, the people of Utah has an efficient and courageous representative who has dared to defend an unpopular enuse and justify the conscientious lives of his people.

Hs. Eldredge

HORACE S. ELDREDGE.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY. SKETCHES FROM HIS LOG BOOK AND REMINISCENCES OF EARLY DAYS.

From the records of our old family Bible, -- which in those days was more frequently used than of late,-I learned that I was born on the 6th day of February, 1816, in the town of Brutus, Cay - uga County, State of New York, where I was tenderly nurtured by kind and indulgent parents, until I was eight years old, when death called my mother to another sphere. From early influences and moral training, both by precept and example, I began, at an early age, to reflect much and con- sider the necessity of preparing for a future state in order to again meet a pious mother who had gone before. The watchful care of my eldest sister and a pious aunt who, at this time was one of our household-I well remember her frequently leading me to Sabbath school and church-still cul- tivated in me the principles of morality and a desire to be associated with good and honorable peo- ple ; and at the age of sixteen, to the great satisfaction of my friends, I united myself with the Bap- tist Church. But after study and reflection, I found I could not subscribe fully to the Calvan'stic doctrines of effectual calling, total depravity, the final perseverance of the Saints, etc. However, 1 continued my connection with them until the Spring of 1836, when, for the first time, I heard a ser- mon from an Elder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which prompted me to a further investigation, and I became convinced that it was the only true order of religion that ex- isted : for it was the exact pattern of the Apostolic Church. In taking this step it is needless for me to say that I was much opposed by real friends and persecuted by pretended ones ; but, disregard- ing both, I resolved to take that course that would best satisfy my own conscience-"Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the children of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season."

During the summer of 1836 I married and settled on a farm near Indianapolis, in the State of Indiana, with every prospect before me of the enjoyment of a quiet and happy life. But feeling desirous of associating myself with the people with whom I had thus become identified, I sold my farm and in the fall of 1838, started, with the most of my effects, for the State of Missouri. 1 wended my way towards the northwestern portion of the State, and stopped at Far West, then the county seat of Caldwell County, where I purchased two hundred and thirty acres of land and a comfortable house and lot in town, trusting, by prudence, industry and economy, to secure a com- fortable living and a permanent home. But it appears that my anticipations were not to be real- ized ; for difficulties and jealousies, both in political and religious questions, soon arose between some of our people and other settlers; and the Mormons, in some settlements in upper Missouri. were forbidden to vote or to come to the polls to exercise their franchise. This finally resulted in a very serious quarrel on an election day in an adjoining county. Thus started, the difficulty was not easily quelled, as the feud was encouraged and the spark thus ignited fanned by hireling priests and political demagoges until it became very serious, and finally culminated in the exterminating order of L. W. Boggs, then Governor of the State of Missouri. Scores of our people were then ruth- lessly murdered, women ravished, and helpless women and children turned out of doors in the bleakness of a severe winter, and added to all, our prophet and several other leading men were in- carcerated in prison. But these atrocities have been publisbed to the world ; and it is not a pleas- ant theme for me to write about; but I would mention that about twelve thousand of our people were banished from the State to seek refuge in a more congenial clime.

I had purchased my land, secured my title and placed the same on record, having traced the title to a legitimate entry from the Government of the United States. I felt that I had a right to pro- tection in life and property, never having violated any law that would deprive me of the same ; but as it was frequently stated by some of the Missourians, there was no law for Mormons in that State, and no one that professed to be a Mormon was allowed to remain unless he would renounce his re- ligion. I therefore left in the month of December and returned to my friends in the State of In- diana. I will here state that I still hold the titles to my land in Missouri, having never received the first dollar for them. The most of our people moved into the State of Illinois, where they found a

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

temporary asylum, while our Prophet, Joseph Smith, and several of his friends and brethren, were held in prisons in the State of Missouri. After his escape from prison, and during the summer of 1839, he purchased a townsite and a quantity of land on the Mississippi River, at a point formerly called Commerce-afterwards Nauvoo-where our people commenced to gather, and in the fall of 1840 proceeded to build a temple. During the fall I, with my little family, moved to Nauvoo, to again unite my destiny with this persecuted people. I was present when the first ground was broken for the erection of the temple in Nauvoo, and assisted in its erection until it was completed, in the spring of 1846.

I was in our exodus from Nauvoo in the spring and summer of 1846, and remained at " Winter Quarters " during that year, where we commeneed building log cabins and rude huts to winter in; and on the 20th day of November I got my little family under the first and only roof that had sheltered them since the early spring.

Much hardship, privation and suffering were also endured by our people during the two winters we remained at Winter Quarters. There I buried two of my children, and many others were called to mourn the loss of friends who fell vietims to privation and want, for in that new and uncultivated country but few of the comforts of life could be obtained for either love or money.

In the spring of 1848, I joined the company of President Brigham Young who, with about five hundred teams, and Heber C. Kimball with another company of about the same number, started on their second Pioneer trip for our new home in the mountains, hoping to enjoy a season of rest, at least for a short time, far from our perseeutors. We arrived in Salt Lake Valley on the 22d day of September, having been over four months on our way, living in tents and wagons. Many of the families that came in this scason were compelled to live in their tents and wagons during the long and tedious winter that followed ; for the season being far advanced when they arrived, they were not able to build. The timber and lumber for building had to be obtained from the mountains, which were early filled with snow, rendering it impossible, with our worn out teams, to penetrate them and obtain building material.

Notwithstanding the various difficulties and disadvantages labored under, however, and trying circumstances that we were called to pass through, during the first season, in which the crickets came and destroyed our crops, we felt to take courage, relying upon the Lord, and believing that he would sustain us as he had hitherto done. Being nearly on a level as to worldly goods, we could sympathize with each other and were willing to extend a helping hand to the weak ; and as we di- vided with the destitute, none could perish with hunger; but if that selfishness which characterizes many communities had been indulged in and encouraged, the suffering would have been great. During the summer of 1849, our agricultural prospects were more encouraging, and on the 24th of July-the anniversary of the entrance of the Pioneers into the valley-we had a grand celebra- tion and a general harvest feast at which all were invited to participate. Long tables being set in the Bowery and loaded with the rich products of the valley, all were made welcome, and there being many strangers present who were on their way to the gold mines of California, it was a day to be remembered by those present. Being myself one of the committee of arrangements and marshal of the day, I had plenty to do ; but it gave me pleasure to see so happy an assemblage of people after all we had passed through,

In speaking of myself, the first winter after I arrived in this valley I was appointed marshal of the Territory, and assessor and collector of taxes; and as it was necessary for us to effect and keep up a military organization for our protection, I was appointed to take charge of the Ist brigade of in- fantry and received there a commission of brigadier-general of the militia.

Being desirous to encourage agriculture and taking great pleasure in that pursuit, I commenced a small farm in the country, which has since been a source of great pleasure as well as small profits, enabling me to better provide for the wants of a family. I also built a comfortable residence in the city, and moved into it in the spring of 1852, this being the first comfortable house we had enjoyed since we left Navvoo in the spring of 1846.

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History of Salt Lake City, Part 128

Author: Tullidge, Edward Wheelock Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Salt Lake City, Star printing company Number of Pages: 1194

Author: Tullidge, Edward Wheelock
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Salt Lake City, Star printing company
Number of Pages: 1194