He was a preacher, teacher, and leader in the Navajo Nation. Harold Drake, Sr., was born Christmas Day 1922 in Paiute Canyon, 20 miles southeast of Navajo Mountain, a large laccolithic dome that straddles the Utah/Arizona border on the Navajo Indian Reservation. Four days after Christmas, medicine man Richard Drake carried his premature son out of the hogan to give …
Marriner Eccles
(1890–1977) Eccles built First Security Corp., the nation’s first multibank holding company, which laid the foundation for a business-financial empire that continues to be the leading support of public service projects in Utah. His farsighted monetary policies caught the eye of President Franklin Roosevelt, and Eccles became one of the architects of Roosevelt’s New Deal efforts to end the Great …
Albert Sidney Johnston
Scott NielsonUtah History Encyclopedia, 1994 Albert Sidney Johnston was born in Washington, Kentucky, on 2 February 1803. He was educated at Transylvania University and then at West Point, where he graduated in 1826. Johnston impressed people with his intelligence and demeanor, and, consequently, he managed to climb the ranks rapidly. He served in the army for many years, and saw …
Lantie Jesse Eldred
Provoans received many benefits from this merry-go-round man. Born February 25, 1870, in Gardner, Illinois, to Florence Potter and Jesse Eldred, Lantie Jesse Eldred was orphaned at age 12. He bought a merry-go-round when he was 22 years old and headed west. In California he developed a successful carnival until the 1906 earthquake disrupted business. Before long Eldred and his …
Alf Engen
Jodi Hullinger Utah Encyclopedia Alf Engen was born in 1909 in Stenberg, Norway, the first-born son of a famous skiing father, and was subsequently reared to ski. Although a native Norwegian, Engen emigrated to the United States in 1919 and ultimately settled in Utah in 1948. This move proved to be very beneficial to Utah—Engen’s reputation as a world-class skier …
Philo T. Farnsworth
(1906 – 1971) Inventor of the television, Farnsworth’s eventual influence on Utah was as significant as his influence on the rest of the world. TV transformed daily life. A native Utahn educated at BYU, Farnsworth was only 21 when, with a camera, synchronization system and receiver, he produced the first operational all-electronic television system.
Anne Marie Fox Felt
“Everybody’s child is mine,” this youth club founder said. The Kiwanis-Felt Boys and Girls Club, 440 South 900 East, traces its beginning to two boys adrift on the streets of downtown Salt Lake City and schoolteacher and businesswoman—Anne Marie Fox Felt. Marie, as she was called, was born in Salt Lake City on July 24, 1900, to Jesse M. Fox …
Thomas Kearns
Miriam B. MurphyUtah 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, prospected, …
John Dennis Fitzgerald
This noted author of young adult books created the Great Brain. John Dennis Fitzgerald was born in Price, Utah, on February 3, 1906, to Thomas and Minnie Melsen Fitzgerald. His father had a pharmacy degree but engaged in a number of business ventures and served on the Price Town Council for four years. John graduated from Carbon High School at …
John F. Fitzpatrick
(1888 – 1960) Legendary newspaper publisher who guided The Salt Lake Tribune between 1924 and 1960, softening the paper’s traditional harsh anti-Mormon rhetoric. He was part of a powerful civic triumvirate with LDS President McKay and Salt Lake Chamber head Gus Backman.