Reed Smoot

David Gessel Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 Reed Smoot represented Utah in the United States Senate for thirty years, longer than any other Utah senator past or present. He was the first native-born Utahn to establish a national political reputation and was also the only Mormon apostle to serve in the U.S. Senate. During his senatorial career, Smoot served concurrently as …

Arthur Brown

Linda Thatcher Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 Arthur Brown, attorney and U.S. Senator, was born 8 March 1843 on a farm near Schoolcraft, Kalamazoo County, Michigan. When he was thirteen years old his family moved to Yellow Springs, Ohio, so that his sisters could attend Antioch College, one of the first to admit women on an equal basis with men. Arthur …

Orrin G. Hatch

Mary PeachUtah History Encyclopedia, 1994 Orrin Hatch was born on 22 March 1934 in Homestead Park, Pennsylvania. He is the great-grandson of Jeremiah Hatch, who founded what is now Vernal, Utah. He is married to the former Elaine Hansen of Newton, Utah, and they have six children. Hatch received a B.S. degree in history from Brigham Young University in 1959. …

Frank E. Moss

John S. McCormick Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 A moderate Democrat, though personally more liberal than his constituents, Frank E. “Ted” Moss was a three-term U.S. Senator who served from 1959 to 1977. He was born in Holladay, a suburb of Salt Lake City, on 23 September 1911, the youngest of seven children of James E. Moss, a well-known secondary-school educator, …

Arthur Vivian Watkins

Patricia L. Scott Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 Arthur V. Watkins was born in Midway, Utah, 18 December 1886. Vivian (as he was known by his family) was the first of six children born to Arthur and Adelia Gerber Watkins. Educated in Utah public schools in Midway and Vernal, he entered Brigham Young Academy prep school at age of seventeen. Three …

Abe Murdock

David C. Gessel Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 Orrice Abram (Abe) Murdock, Jr., represented Utah as both a U.S Congressman and a U.S. Senator during the New Deal era. Murdock was born in Austin, Nevada, on 18 July 1893 to Orrice A. and Cinda Robinson Murdock. He was raised in Beaver, Utah, where he attended Murdock Academy. He later studied law …

William H. King

John Sillitoe Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 William Henry King was born in Fillmore, Utah, on 3 June 1863, the son of William and Josephine Henry King. After attending the Brigham Young Academy and the University of Deseret, King was called on an LDS mission to Great Britain from 1880 to 1882. He received a law degree from the University of …

George Sutherland

Nancy J. TaniguchiUtah History Encyclopedia, 1994 George Sutherland’s distinction as Utah’s only U.S. Supreme Court justice capped a long and distinguished legal and political career. Born on 25 March 1862 in England, he immigrated to the United States with his parents in 1863. By the 1870s, although disaffiliated from the Mormon Church, the family had settled in Utah. From 1879 …

Thomas Kearns

Miriam B. Murphy Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 Thomas Kearns was born in 1862 in Oxford County, Ontario, Canada, to Margaret Maher and Thomas Kearns. He moved with his Irish immigrant parents to a farm in Nebraska and there obtained a grammar-school education. The development of mining in the West drew him in 1883 to Park City, Utah, where he worked, …

Frank J. Cannon

Kenneth Godfrey Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 Frank J. Cannon was born 25 January 1859 in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was the oldest child of George Q. and Sarah Jenne Cannon. His father, an apostle and polygamist, was called into the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints early in Frank’s life. He attended the Fourteenth …