A mining camp doctor, he ran wild rivers and explored Antarctica. Russell G. Frazier claimed that he was predestined both by ancestry and early upbringing for the adventuresome career be enjoyed as a mining camp physician, river runner, and Antarctic explorer. One of his ancestors, he said, was John Paul Jones, and another was one of George Washington’s officers who …
CHIEF POCATELLO STRUGGLED TO SURVIVE ON UTAH’S NORTHERN FRONTIERW. Paul ReeveHistory Blazer, February 1995 Chief Pocatello came to be known in the 1860s among Mormon leaders, Indian agents, and army officers headquartered in the Salt Lake area for his exploits as the head of a so-called outlaw band of Indians. Although the Shoshones under Pocatello’s lead did terrorize settlers and …
Lavina Christensen Fugal was named America’s Mother of the Year in 1955. Born September 9, 1879, in Pleasant Grove, Utah County, to Danish immigrants Anna Katrina Jensen and Jens Christensen, Lavina attended local schools and helped with farm chores. She graduated from Brigham Young Academy but turned down a scholarship to the University of Utah because she did not have …
Margaret S. Bearnson Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 John Wesley Powell was born 24 March 1834 at Mount Morris in western New York state. His parents moved to Illinois, where he was educated at Wheaton and Oberlin colleges. He became interested in botany and geology at an early age, and began geological work with a series of field trips, including a …
She cared about people of every race and creed. Born August 5, 1890, in Jackson, Tennessee, to Fosh Elliott and Ann Elizabeth Copeland Grimes, Nettie was a teacher and an accomplished musician who had never ventured outside her native state until her marriage in 1914 to William Gregory. Also a native Tennessean, he had taken up permanent residence in Salt …
FELLOW TRAPPERS CALLED ETIENNE PROVOST “THE MAN OF THE MOUNTAINS”Jeffrey D. NicholsHistory Blazer, August 1995 Although he does not have the wide recognition of Jim Bridger or John Colter, Etienne Provost was considered by his contemporaries as one of the most knowledgeable, skillful, and successful of the mountain men. Provost gave his name (phonetically) to the Provo River and the …
He became one of the most famous lyricists of the Broadway stage. Music came into Otto Harbach’s life at an early age. One of his first memories was of his mother’s singing. Later, when his brothers started a small orchestra, he learned to play his father’s violin and joined them. He was born in Salt Lake City on August 18, …
S. Matthew Despain and Fred R. GowansUtah History Encyclopedia, 1994 Jedediah S. Smith was a trailblazer, brigade leader, and partner in two fur-trading companies whose travels took him throughout Utah and the West. Born in 1799, he was the first American after the Astorians to cross west over the Continental Divide, rediscovering South Pass; the first to cross overland to …
Gibbs M. Smith Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 Born in Gavle, Sweden, on 7 October 1879, Joe Hill, also known as Joseph Hillstrom and Joel Hagglund, was an American labor songwriter and martyr who was executed in Salt Lake City on 19 November 1915. He immigrated to the lower east side Bowery section of New York City via Ellis Island in …
(1910-2008) Fifteenth president of the LDS church, under whose leadership the church has experienced record worldwide growth, temple construction and secular visibility as it sweeps into the 21st century.