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Show TRADE AND INDUSTRY - Utah's Early Years Saw Rapid Business Growth Raising mere existence Into comfortable comfort-able livinf waa the role of trade and industry in pioneer Utah, and seldom baa the American talent for material progress shown to better advantage. True, farmers may farm and miners snine, producing their new wealth, but unless the sugar beets become sugar, wool la woven Into cloth and metal made into pots and pans or machinery this wealth scarce deserves the name. Hera it is that trade and Industry must function and fortunate waa Utah that Its merchants and manufacturers manufac-turers included so many "builders of the state." Wheat must be ground for flour and people wanted more than unfloored log or adobe houses, so before the first settlers had been In Utah many either. I'm afraid I have missed it this time." But he was right. Gold waa discovered in California, and gold hunters, lightening their loads for the final sprint across the desert, sacrificed their mechandise in Salt Lake City selling tools costing $100 lor 125, and waistcoats bought for f 1.90 an St Louis for 40 cents. The seeds of commerce had been Sown and soon began to grow. I First Store Opene I The John Pack residence at West Temple and First North streets, first home of the University of Utah, also housed the first mercantile store in the territory. I Here Livingston A Kinkesd in IMS deposited $20,000 worth of goods QUARRYING STONE FOR $3,000,000 PROJECT Sis yean after the L D. S. pioneers reached Salt Lake valley they began construction of the temple, which required 40 year to complete. Stone wet obtained from near-by canyons, as shown here, end, at first, hauled I to the city by ox team. Simpson Huffaker planted flax at Cottonwood shortly after arriving in 17 and spun much of his product into tinen. I Governor Toung imported mulberry trees from France and by 1899 a promising prom-ising silk industry waa launched. Iron was cast in a blacksmith shop en Temple square in 1830 by John Kay, and Richard Margetts cast iron for the first cane mill here in 1895. Samael Mulliner eatablished a tannery tan-nery at Main and Second South streets in 1890, and Ira Amea. Alexander Brim. Philip Pugsley, William Jennings and John B. Winder the last two destined to loom large in Utah's commercial developmentsoon de-velopmentsoon entered the business. Attempts to make sugar from beets were launched in the early 90s. Barter System Prevailed fn those days money was scarce, some families being lucky to see $30 in actual cash during a year, and much business was done by barter. Henry Dinwoodey, who began making mak-ing hand furniture in 1858 and who later, with coming of the railroad, was to import the first furniture brought to Utah for sale, wrote of those early days: "I was always on hand for a trade and scarcely anything came amiss-lumber, amiss-lumber, adobes, beef, provisions, boots, shoes and even beet molasses and soft soap being taken In exchange. "There was no regular pay day, but whenever a man required anything I would give him an order on some tradesman with whom I kept a credit account, exchanging my goods for his. I thus enabled many of my employes to buy homes. I would trade for the land for an employe who wished to build a home and give him an order on the lumberman, adobe maker, brick-mason, brick-mason, etc., and by this means he would get his home built and repay me in labor, which payment being completed I would give him a deed for his property." Despite difficulties resulting from slow transportation methods and lack of cash in circulation, a group of mer- ICnnllmiH on Following Page .. ... ... H"j f A'- i V r -I r : '' -i . v.-;- a . . : . X A 4AxA. CI .' ' . -f - 11 v . PROMINENT IN "WHO'S WHO" OF BUSINESS LEADERS Officers and directors of Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institution in 1881. Included ere top to bottom): Left row, George Q. Cannon, Horace S. Eldredge and John Sharp. Middle row, John Taylor, W. H. Hooper, William Jennings end T. G. Webber. Right row, Joseph F. Smith, Moses Thatcher and D. O. Calder. months Charles Crismon's grist mill on City creek and a sawmill built by Archibald Arch-ibald and Robert Gardner on Mill creek were operating. Isaac Chase, John Neff and Samuel Thompson were other pioneer mill buildera But there waa an undeniable shortage short-age of food and goods in the settlement during 1848. Boiled rawhide and roots were not particularly palatable; wild rose " leavea were poor substitute for tea; facilitiea fur weaving homespun clothes were so limited women longed for "rtore calico," and even farm tools were scarce. When things looked blackest. Heber C Kimball, Brigham Young's first counselor and right-hand man, rose in a public meeting to prophesy; "Within a short time "states" goods will sell here chesper than in St. Louis or New York City." Disbelief shone in the faces of his listeners, and. sitting down. President Kimball admitted: "1 dont believe It I brought across the plains from Inde-penlence. Inde-penlence. Mo. Brigham Young wanted the colony to be self-sufficient, however, and no effort was spared to promote home industry. Amasa Russell built a machine for carding wool on Mill crerk in 1 Disbelieved Dis-believed to be the first mill of its kind on the Pacific slope. Importing the necessary mschinery from St Louis, Shadrach Holdaway opened a small woolen mill at Provo in 1891. Reddin A. Allred raised cotton in Salt Lake valley in 1891, but the first cotton fabric was not manufactured in Utah until 1R95. and then from cotton grown in the Santa Clara valley. By 189T Zadoc K. Judd had a machine ma-chine cotton gin. Brigham Young built a cotton mill at St. George in 186s. the citisens cooperating co-operating to dig a canal for water to run the machinery, and shortly later Erastua Snow established a factory oa the Rio Virgin. -9 Stores Soon Marked City (Continued from Preceding Pag chant "builders" of Utah g rew to prominence. prom-inence. William Nixon wai known as the "father of Utah merchants,' and if he was deserving of the title he had a nock of whlcn tie could be proud In the Walker brother. William Jennings, A. O. Smoot, Horace S. Eld-redge, Eld-redge, John Sharp, William H. Hooper, David O. Carder, Lorin Farr of Ogden and others. TL'tah's "Merchant Prince' "Merchant prince" of the group was Mr. Jennings, whose entire fortune was invested in three wagonloads of groceries gro-ceries when he reached Salt Lake City in 1852, but who eight years later bought Solomon Toung's $40,000 dry goods stock to become the territory's leading merchant. The shrewdness which made him a successful business man was demon atrated in 1861 during a tilt with the Overland Mail company. He contracted to supply 75,000 bushels bush-els of grain about all the surplus the territory had to the company or forfeit for-feit $3000. When Mr. Jennings began buying JEDEDIAH M. GRANT I Salt Lets City's first mayor grain, however, so did the Overland Mail, and knowing this competitive buying would make It impossible for him to fulfill his contract, he forfeited the $3000 voluntarily but continued to buy grain. At the season's end. the mail' company com-pany still needed grain and Mr Jennings Jen-nings owned it. He made his i $3000 back and a neat profit before he was through. He supplied poles for the overland telegraph line, became a banker and broker in 1863, became Interested in woolen mills, owned the first steam flour mill in Utah, and in 1864 made easterners realize Utah was "coming along" by buying a $250,000 traintoad of goods for his Eagle Emporium. Mr. Jennings was the first toi lease his store and sell his stock to the Z. C. M. L on its organisation and was for a time vice president and superiatend-ent superiatend-ent of this widespread cooperative enterprise, en-terprise, j He became mayor of Salt Lake City In 1882, opening Liberty park luring his administration. f Th pioneers had been in the valley little more than 10 years when Horace a Eldredge and William H. Hooper showed their faith In the prosperity of the city by purchasing $150,000 worth of goods and paying $80,000 to freight the shipment across the plains. I Some Idea of the transportation dif- Coatlnoed oa Poltowlns Pftso) i I ABRAHAM O. SMOOT Most influential at Prove . - , .r- V ...... h . - ' . ' ' , ' " ' f ' " , , . f .'"- ' . ' ' ... Freighters Surmounted Difficulties ,xmtlnu4 from Preceding Pace) ficultlea encountered by these early-day early-day merchants can be taken from the experience of Mr. Eldredge and Hiram B. Clawson, later to be the first superintendent super-intendent of the Z. C. M. I. They bought a trainload of goods in 1865. but the wagons were late starting west from Missouri, were snowed in and the goods did not reach Salt Lake City until a year after they had been ordered. or-dered. Luckily, tastes- and styles changed lower in 1864 than in 1937. Mr. Hooper was an adept financier and in 1869 he, with Mr. Eldredge and Lewis S. Hills, organized what became the Deseret National bank. Mr. Hooper succeeded Mr. Clawson s Z. C. M. I. superintendent in 1873 nd four years later became president, while Mr. Eldredge was superintendent -from 1876 till 1881 and from 1883 to 1888. Famed Brothers The Walker Brothers organized Utah's first bank in 1839, seven years after they arrived here with their widowed wid-owed mother in a covered wagon drawn by a steer and a heifer with an Indian pony for lead horse. The four brothers Samuel S.. Joseph R., David F. and Matthew Henry were "natural merchants." They founded found-ed their famous mercantile firm at Camp Floyd in 185 and with supplies purchased on evacuation of the camp moved to Salt Lake City in 1861. They became interested in the famed Emma mine. Invested in real estate and enjoyed en-joyed almost phenomenal success. Another aet of brothers who launched their careers here in the 80s, laying the groundwork for one of the largest mercantile institutions in the west, were the Auerbachs Frederick BIRTHPLACE OF PRESIDENT HEBER J. GRANT OF THE L 0. S. CHURCH Main street home of Jedodiah M. Grant, first mayor of Salt Lai City and father of President Grent. which was torn down to male way for the first Z. C. M. I. building. Note the Salt Lale theater, finest structure of lind in the I west, in the background. without any one of them possessing J25 in ready means, built at Provo the largest wood manufacturing plant south of Salt Lake City. Provo's leading business man in territorial ter-ritorial days was Abraham O. Smoot, who was Salt Lake City's second mayor, may-or, serving from 1837 till 1866. He was later mayor of Provo a dozen years, and although his public duties In each city at times kept him busy from 6 a. m. till after dark, he was never paid a dollar for his services. Intensely interested in home industry, indus-try, he always wore homespun clothes, and for more than 25 years was the financial backbone and leader in both spiritual and temporal affairs at Provo. When Brigham Young academy was swept by fire and became indebted 1100,000 for a new building, Mr. Smoot Lakers la January 10, 1870 the daje Brigham Young drove the last spike of tee Utah Central railroad so that trains could puff into this city from the main line at Ogden. Utah had long tought for a transcontinental transcon-tinental railroad line and with that accomplished other lines were soon under un-der Construction. Sponsored by Brigham Young, Joseph! Jo-seph! A. Young, George Q. Cannon. Dansrl H. Wells, Christopher Layton, LeGrand Young. D. O. Calder. William Jennings, John W. Young. John Sharp, Feramorz Little, George Swan and others oth-ers (the list reads like a Utah Who's Who groundwork was laid for the present-day system of rail communication communica-tion in the state. First railway shipping business in the state was founded at Corinne by - I its mayor, merchant and banker, John William Guthrie, who sent Box Elder and Cache county eggs and butter to the Paciifc coast. Utah's frontier appearance began to disappear as contractors such as Elias Morris, Samuel L. Evans, Henry L. A. Culmer and James Moyle improved streets and built substantial business and public buildings. As a young man, Mr. Morris fell 35 feet from a acaffold to the pavement, pave-ment, revived and 15 minutes later went back up the ladder to build a new scaffold. The same determination to "carry on" made him one of Utah's most en- i terprising citizens, as is evidenced by the fact that he not only directed the building of nearly a dozen smelters to Continues on Following Pgt I :.v.v ' z V;... personally assumed responsibility for the debt. With John Sharp and Robert T. Burton Bur-ton he built the Wasatch woolen mills in Salt Lake City in 1867, and after moving to Provo kept up his work, helping to found the Provo woolen mills. Provo Lumber Manufacturing and Building company. First National Bank of Provo. and In the church meve to combine mercantile interests, the first store was at Provo and he headed it as president. Logan had its Moses Thatcher, a leading figure in Utah history; William Wil-liam Bowker Preston and Charles Wilson Wil-son Nibley; Brigham City its Oliver Goddard Snow; southern Utah its Anthony An-thony W. Ivins, and every other section sec-tion of the state its own local leaders, powerful personalities in the upbuilding upbuild-ing of the state. Railroad Cauaeel Revolution With the railroad, Utah's economic life was well nigh revolutionized. No only could Utah obtain the best products of the east and west easily, but it should ship its goods to them. All branches of business benefited except a few local industries, such as that of papermaking. which could not compete with products shipped in by train, and much attention was given improving intrastate transportation and communication. Days of the covered wagon and stage coach were ending. It is well known the golden spike linking the two coasts by rail was driven at Promontory point May 10. 1869. but of equal importance to Salt LORIN FARR Mayor of Ogden 22 Years H., Samuel H. and Theodore R The store of F. Auerbach Brother opened In 1864 and two years later Samuel Auerbach arrived to Join the firm. In 1836, Feramorx Little was carrying carry-ing mail between Utah's capital and Missouri, at times making only eight miles a day and subsisting on parched corn and raw buffalo meat, but 20 years later he began his first of three terms as Salt Lake City's mayor. He was first to dam the Jordan river and rake irrigation water from it. built the state penitentiary, operated five sawmills and the Salt Lake House, a leading hotel, and was superintendent of the Utah Central and Southern railroads. Ogden Attracted .Many Ogden was particularly fortunate in early days in attracting many men who became business leaders of the state. Lorln Fair, who In 1830 was sent to Ogden by Brigham Young to "locate end take charge of the northern counties." coun-ties." was mayer of the city for 22 years. Then there was David Harold Peery. the Confederate soldier who settled in Ogden in 1866, owning a half interest in a threshing machine, but left a $750.-000 $750.-000 estate on his death in 1901; Fried-rich Fried-rich Johann Kiesel, who in 1873 established estab-lished the first exclusively wholesale grocery business in Utah and in 1889 became the first non-Mormon mayor of Ogden; John Scowcroft, who built his bakery and confectionery into one of the largest wholesale houses of the west; Charles Woodmansee, Sidney Stevens. William Driver, Thomas Wil-kins Wil-kins Jones. Chauncey W. West, John E. Dooly, who was president of the Utah National bank of Ogden more than 23 years, and others. Ambitious spirit of Utah's pioneer usiness men was typified by the Cluff brothers David. Moses, Benjamin, William W. and Harvey who in 1860, i ! HEBER C. KIMBALL Brigham Young's "right hand men" mm the Missouri river. He waa president for many years of the Utah Stat Agrl-cultural Agrl-cultural college board of trustees. Also prominent In chamber of com-merce com-merce activities and its president in 1890 was Fred Simon, originator of the Utah Loan and Building association. associa-tion. Then there was George Montgomery Scott, the hardware man who in 1890 became Salt Lake City's first non-Mormon non-Mormon mayor; Joseph Edward Taylor. Tay-lor. Utah's pioneer undertaker; Frank Knox, banker; Alfred Solomon, first to Introduce machinery for shoe manufacture man-ufacture in Utah; Thomas Georgo Webber. George Stringfellow, Louis Cohn, August Wllhelm Carlson. Francis Fran-cis Armstrong, the lumber operator and banker who was mayor of Salt Lake City from 1888 till 1890 ... to mention only a few. Obviously, such a treatise as this, because of space limitations, can hit only the high spots. For every "builder" of Utah mentioned men-tioned here there were doxens of men, each contributing his bit to the making mak-ing of a better state. ! Utah had thousands of such Citizens and the fact that they did not shin in the public eye detracts not one bit from their accomplishments. They were good fathers and husbands, hus-bands, good Utahns, and good Americans, Ameri-cans, than which no more caa be asked. THE WIDELY KNOWN WALKER BROTHERS Pioneer bankers and outstanding business men war these lour brothers (left to right) Sharp S.. Joseph A.. David F. and Matthew H. Walker. From the painting by J. Will Oewson. Sugar Beets Cave Rise to Big Industry (Continued from Preceding Psge handle Utah ore, built the basement story of the L. D. S. temple and several business buildings, but also launched a tannery, foundry, aoap factory, cement ce-ment company, quarry, sugar factory, and helped to build the city's gravity sewer and the city and county building. The overland telegraph line was completed across Utah in 1861. and 30 years later Amos Milton Musser, superintendent of the Deseret Telegraph Tele-graph company, reported that 800 miles of telegraph line were being used in the territory. Mr. Musser introduced both the telegraph tele-graph and telephone to Salt Lake City. First telephonic communication in Utah, however, was established in 1879. whei. the George A. Lowe company at Ogden strung a line from its store to the warehouse. Ogden, too, had the first switchboard. Twentieth century "necessities" made their appearance as "luxuries' In the later yeara of Utah's territorial history, years in which many enterprises enter-prises still operating were launched. Street cars provided Salt Lakers transportation in 1872, a gas works waa built the same year and in 1880 electric lights became a reality. From the '50s Utahns had been interested inter-ested in sugar making, and finally Christian August Madsen and Arthur Stayner succeeded In their saccarine experiments, so that in 1891 granulated beet sugar was made at the Lehl Sugar factory, first plant In the world to make sugar from beets grown by irrigation. irri-gation. Under the guiding hand of Thomas R. Cutler the sugar industry conquered its myriad problema and took a promi-i.ent promi-i.ent place In the atate'a industrial picture. Even in the days when sugar had to be hauled into Utah by ox team and aold as high as $130 a bag. an infant candy-making industry was started, and Henry Wallace is credited with being the first to make confections with power machinery. William D. Startup of Provo, Leon Sweet. W. H. Williams and J. G. McDonald of Salt Lake City and Robert Murdock of Logan also were prominent in the early history of the industry. p "- ' v ; . I; I ' ' :- r :.: 'h i Isaac N. Pierce and his associates organised the first vegetable caaning company In the Intel-mountain territory terri-tory at Ogden in 1888, but canning in those days, when even the filling and soldering of the can tops was.doae by hand, was far more laborious than in. . 1937. Boyd Park opened his Jewelry business busi-ness in 1871; the brothers John C. and Heber S. Cutler launched itheir clothing business in 1877; Bennett Glass and Paint company began operating oper-ating in 1880; Hewlett brothers began making jams and jellies In 18871 and in 1890. with George Y. Wallacj and Ellas Morris as moving spirit, the only plant west of the Mississippi river manufacturing Portland cement was put in operation in Parley's canyon. That same year the Salt Lake Pressed Brick company launched commercial com-mercial manufacture of clay building materials. Prominent In development of a new Industry and what was to be a world-famed world-famed resort was Nephi Willard Clayton, Clay-ton, j He, with G. Henry Smell. James Jack and Jere Langford, organized the Inland Salt company in 1899 and built the first refinery to utilize Great Salt lake's supply, but he left this business in 1892 to construct and manage a health and pleasure resort at the lake. Arguing that Salt Lake City Bad a I future, Mr. Clayton convinced the other sponsors a pavilion worthy of New York City or London should be projected. He won his point. Spencer Clawson suggested the name "Saltair," Mr. flnell recommended the structure be oriental in style, and a resort costing cost-ing nearly $500,000 before the railroad and all waa finished rose from the lake waters. Even before this, however. Salt Lake City had advertised Itself to the entire nation when the newly organized chamber of commerce sent- out an exposition ex-position car containing an exhibit of Utah products under the charge of Henry l A. Culmer, an excellent artist as well as a business man, in 1888. The car visited 60 cities In three months, entertained 200.000 visitors and resulted in distribution of 50 tons of Utah literature. Culmer, a well digger as a young man, ended that career when a pebble dropped 208 feet down an untimbered well he was digging and struck him on the head. He proved himself one of the state's most versatile citizens, however, by succeeding at many things. His Utah Miner was the first mining publication in the lntermountaln west. First president of the chamber of commerce was William S. McCornlck, the farm boy who became head of the largest private banking concern of its time between the Pacific coast and . LORENZO SNOW President and able) financier of the L P. S. church |