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Show ! I Biography of The Late G. W. Thatcher i The following review of the ' useful and honorable life of the late George W. Thatcher was : authorized by that gentleman jsome years before his death: I Geo. W. Thatcher was born in 1840 near Springfield. Illinois, j Moved with his parents to Nau-voo Nau-voo in 1844. to Council Bluffs in 11346 and to Utah in 1847. In j j 1849, Mr. Thatcher went with j his parents to California and re- i turned to Utah in the fall of 1857 j ; m time to take part in the can- paign, known as the "Utah VYar,"j in 1857-8. I.i 1858 he went with ( .Indian Agent Faruey, accompa-j I tried by an escort 1'vymCainp! . em rau'.vtiy lr.ii:; 0-:it;:i iiuriu. ! vvhk I) w;.k e: .V-.-'te-'l. Vm.I U I :..;r'-iii-; tl.o sulio vcar, tillitur t , tiiission tlit-re' a nd returned ir 1'72. On his i t'turn lie eniraged with Z. C. Al. I.. Salt Lake Citv in the wholesale dry goods de partment. j In .1874 John W. Young, Geo. I VV. Thatcher and Heber EJ. Kimball Kim-ball organized a corap-my, o' ! which Mr. Thatcher was vict- president, and built the Utah j Western road to Tooele City, lay ling the foundation of the great bathing resorts. Garfield and Lake Point. Mr. Thatcher was a member of the Sa;t Lake City council. In 1875 he was appointed appoint-ed superintendent of the Utah i Northern Railway Cc, and came to Logan to take charge of the road, the terminus of which was then at Franklin In 1877 Mr. Jay Gould bought the Utah & Northern railroad for the Ur.ion Pacific Ry. Co. and Mr. Thatcher j was elected by the board of directors dir-ectors of the U. ' P. as its superintendent, super-intendent, continuing with it until 1883, during which period the Utah & Northern road was builtthrough to Garrison, Mont., and during this period, also, ir, connection with his brother, had large contracts for getting out ties and timbers for the Central ! Pacific, Union Pacific and Utah Western railroads, in addition to which, having purchased the interest in-terest of the heirs of Ezra T. Benson in the Union Flouring mills, he remodeled and refitted it up, as a merchant mill. Mr. Thatcher also organized the uauiMLi 2ijLi:-t: ei i iiciieiit:.Ji jjlu. F.ankiiag companv' tin 1883, and was made its president. He is a!.-;o a director of the First National Nat-ional Bank of Ogden and holds stock in several other banks, i In 1889 he, associated with I others, organized an electric j light onrpany for Logan and ; was elected its president. Mr. Thatcher was appointed with Franc is Aruistrong, ihias Jloi-ris, Amos Howe and Arthur ! Stayner to visit San Fratteiseo ! and the Pacific coast for the par-j par-j pose of . investigating th(s'boet j.--ugar industry rvA artc-rw: rds I to look into the ijiattei ot-rne j manufacture of sugar from the (sugar cane, and it was on their j report and x ecom rnendation that : the sugar plant at Lohi was built and he was a member of the first (board of directors of the Utah S u g ar co m p any. Mr. Thatcher was one of the organizers of Utah and a director of the Home Fire Insurance com-i com-i pany ot Utah and a director of I the same. He is one of the trustees trus-tees cf the Brigham Young Trust company. He has been a mem-i mem-i ber of the High Council of Salt 1 Floyd, to make treaties with the ; Shoshone, Bannock and Piute Indians, re-establishing the over-! land maii routs between' Salt; Lake City and Nevada, which j the Indians had destroyed, going j as far west as the Sink Hum j I boldt. Came to Logan in 18C0, I returned to Sak Lake and en j j gaged as one of the riders of the : I great "pony express' carrying dispatches across the c ontinent t in that year. j 1 la IhOZ he wascaHed out by the government, in company with, ; other:., to r.'.-establish the over-jland over-jland njail route, under the coin-i coin-i lua'x! of General KonertT. Bur-! Bur-! ton, the Indians having destroy -led the same, frota Fort Bridge)-; Bridge)-; to Deer Creek', a distance of 500 i miles. On his return he engag-!ed engag-!ed with President Brigham Young to take charge of his mill and farm, also saw mills in Big; Cottonwood canyon, afterwards ! taking charge of his supply stores; he then engaged with Joseph A. Young to build the toll road down Parley's canyon, Parley 's Park and Silver G reek j to VVanship, taking charge of the 1 road and Mr. Young's mills. This was in 1865. lnjl868-9 in connection with John W. Young, he took large contracts from the Union Pacific Ry. Co. for grading grad-ing and getting out ties, for the construction of the Union Paci-' Paci-' fie road. He then came to Cache valley and engaged with President Presi-dent Young to fence his land of some ten thousand acies. known now as the Brigham Young Co!-1 lege farm. He then, engaged in j merchandising in Logan withi his father ana brother, purchas-1 ing the interest of W. 11. Sherman Sher-man in the business here, which was afterwards made a branch house of Z. C. M. I., and -in 1870 hp. returned to Salt Lake City. 1 j Lake and Ca.cne staues for a I number of years and also of the i L. D. S. territorial board of edu-' edu-' cation as wed as one of the trustees trus-tees of the B. Y. college of Logan Lo-gan . Mr. Thatcher has, during the active, life he has led, been prominently identified with the principal enterprises of the ter- ' ritory, such as banking, railroad-j ing, milling and manufacturing, merchandising and co-operative : institutions. For the past few years Mr. Thatcher has resided in Logan, directing the affairs of his various enterprises. He was one of the incorporators of The Deseret National bank In the spring of 1871, in connection con-nection with John W. Young and Mr. Joseph Richardson of New York City, he came to Logan for the purpose of organizing a company com-pany to build the Utah & North - |