John M and Zina B Cannon Household Family Life by BCE

John M. & Zina B. Cannon Household Family Life

Hand-written notes by Beatrice Cannon Evans recovered May 2011, by Wayne
Cannon Evans, her son.

Father supplied the family of the former apostle, John W. Taylor’s family, with groceries during his long illness and I am told by one of the family he settled $500 of his debts after his death.

One of the things he told mother when he proposed to her was that he was already supporting a family and intended to continue to do so.  It was a family of his cousin, six children I think, of Cousin Mina Mousley who was divorced.  They lived in an Adobe house on 21^st South, east of Seventh East and he continued this supported for many years.

 Stayner Richards told a story at the time of father’s death.  He said a man was driving some cattle along a certain residential street, a not uncommon practice at that time.  The animals got out of hand and trampled all over a newly planted lawn.  The outraged owner dashed out yelling threats of a law suit for damages.  He demanded to know whose cattle they were.  The driver replied they were John M. Cannon’s.  The man’s tone changed at once.  He said “John M. Cannon’s cattle can run all over my lawn.

He [Father] had a half brother who was an alcoholic; and in addition to the help he gave his family (cooperating with his brother), he sent him out on a cattle ranch in the key towns of Jackson Hole country in Idaho or Wyoming.

It may be well to report that this man later in life overcame his weaknesses and was an influence in guiding others to do so.

 He started his practice in the Constitution Building across Main Street from ZCMI but most of his law practice was in the Templeton building.  It was there we children loved to go to witness parades from the little railed balcony outside the window.

He officed in the Templeton Building where the Kennicott Building now stands.

Following this he practiced alone. He took Lorraine Bagley and Jedadiah Stokes into his office for a time but they were not partners.

Luella Young and Katie Hall were his secretaries early in his practice.  For six years prior to 1913 Winnie Richards, now Mrs. Raymond J. Ashton, was his secretary.  When Winnie left at the time of her marriage in 1913 he was still in the Templeton Building.  I do not know just how soon after that he moved to offices on the street floor of the Hotel Utah in an office with George M. Cannon and Taylor Brothers Real Estate. 

By that time he was doing little law business besides friendly charitable services to people in trouble.  His financial interests were largely with the Bennion Livestock Company and their interests in some real estate investments.

Mrs. Ashton cannot say too much in Father’s praise.  She says that next to her own father she could confide in him more than any man.  His integrity and his fairness were superlative.  She says no one will ever know the extent of his giving to those in trouble –and not just in little things but in big ways.   She wondered that he made a living.

She recalled how on Saturday mornings he took his boys up to Warm Springs for a swim and then went to the bakery for goodies which they ate for lunch in the office.

In Canada father had three large grain ranches, one at about 4 miles north of McGrath, where we stayed the summer of 1905, one near Raymond and another near Sterling.  There were ups and downs in this dry farming business and after some bad times father sold out.

Probably the most important thing about this [ranching] venture was the way he used it to help people.  It was spoken of as John M. Cannon’s reformatory.  Some were helped just as needing employment but others were alcoholics.

I think there was prohibition in Canada at that time. Some had other difficulties.  Among them were some of Utah’s most prominent families.

Besides those employed on the ranch he brought another family to Canada.  This man was the son of one of the most prominent early leaders of the church.  Father said he “picked him up out of the gutter.”  How figurative this was I never knew.  To my child’s mind, it suggested a lurid picture of a man lying in a street-side gutter.  At any rate, he rented a home in Forest Dale for him and his family and he gave him work around our place.  Later he bought a farm for him and moved him to Canada when he became a model gardener.

When I traveled for the Primary General Board in Utah and Idaho before I was married, I met people who said. “John M. Cannon was the best friend I ever had,” or “he once did me a great favor when I was up against it.”

William A. Morton was an Irish convert who lived in Forest Dale.  He had a large family and was never well off financially spending much time for the church.  I met his daughter Ruth who told me that once when she or her mother was carrying a quart of milk home, John M. Cannon met her and asked why she was buying milk that way for a large family.  She replied it was the only way they could afford it.  Father made them a gift of a cow which they could pasture on a vacant lot.

No one knew how much he gave away.  Roy Huron? Free, who lived in the ward, told one of my brothers that he came around our place selling apples and father bought his whole load telling him to deliver them to the widows in the ward.  Relief Society helped but there was no Church welfare plan nor government aid like there is now. 

In our wash house, there were two huge metal cans which father filled annually with sacks of flour.  We used flour from this but had much of it left at the end of the year at which time it was distributed to the needy and the cans were refilled.

These were great and small examples which could be multiplied by hundreds.  My brother, Paul recalls when he was a small boy he was delivering milk to a neighbor when Roy Free stopped him and asked him to give him some milk.  The puzzled child replied that he had to deliver it to the neighbor.  Mr. Free replied “Well, if you won’t give it away you are not John M. Cannon’s son.”

Loyalty to church authorities:

One of the very hard things which came into father’s life was told to me by Uncle Heber Bennion.  Father’s mother told me also.  I am certain he would not have talked about it.

Father,  along with others, some of whom were in high positions in the church, made an investment together.  In some way this thing turned out badly and everyone was left with a large indebtedness..  The others stepped aside leaving father to shoulder it alone.  He spent years in his early married life paying all of it without publicizing the news of those who deserted him.  Yet no word of criticism of anyone in authority in the church was tolerated in our family.

Grandpa, Angus M. Cannon was the same way. Frank Y. Taylor who had a wide acquaintance in the church said that this loyalty to church authority was talked and practiced more in the Cannon Family than any family of his acquaintance.

Father was very close to his Uncle George Q. Cannon.  During the first year of their marriage, when father and mother occupied an apartment by the state capitol building site, Uncle George sometimes dropped in unannounced for a visit or lunch.  Mother loved him and he made her feel so at ease.

Father was his legal adviser and later he made him administrator of his estate which was a very large one.  He wanted to leave father as one of his sons in his will but father refused to accept it.

One of the very pleasant and memorable things of my youth which came through his law practice was through his being Attorney to the Old Salt Lake Theater.  We had choice seats in the dress circle besides some home productions.  The Theater at that time largely featured traveling companies including the best things of the day.  There I saw Maude Adams, the Barrymore’s, E. H. Sothers the Mantels? Otis Skinner, Henry Miller and nearly all the Broadway stars of the day.  This was before the movies took over.

Someone said of father that he not only loved his neighbor as himself he loved him better than himself.  At any rate he treated others better.  And we truly had no desire to be better off than they.  In his patriarchal blessing given by uncle Israel Bennion it says:  (blessings not found)

I remember once in my high school days I was invited by a friend, the daughter of a widow, to visit for a few days in her country home.  I was about to be dressed in a very old silk dress.  At that time there was no rayon.  We usually wore silk or wool on Sundays and cotton or wool for school.  Father stopped me at the door speaking sharply “Do you mean to say you are going to wear that?  Will your friend be wearing silk?”  I suddenly realized she would not.  I changed my dress in a hurry.

Father was very fond of candy.  He took pleasure in bringing us treats from Franklin’s, Salt Lake’s finest ice cream and confections store or Bracks? Bakery.  Sometimes, much to mother’s disappointment, he would awaken us on their return from the theater to give us some choice bit of candy.

In his earlier years his homecomings were gay and jovial.  He would wake up mother who was inclined to be quiet and not too demonstrative, pick her up and swing around and give her a big hug and kiss.  In his later years the edge was taken off his agility by the numerous responsibilities he carried and as his illness grew upon him he was inclined to be quiet-tempered though always openly apologetic for such an outburst.

At Forest Dale was a branch of Sugar House Ward and we met in Brigham Young’s old farmhouse which stood at the rear of the large two story red brick house of George M. Cannon and was owned by him.  It was a large two story building with a gabled roof and was in the shape of a double of Greek cross with a porch running all the way around it.  This porch was wonderful place to play. The house had a basement with a dirt floor and a well in it which sometimes overflowed making a pond in which Uncle George’s older children floated in washtubs.

Most of the partitions were removed on the main floor making a large hall suitable for church meetings.  It was also use for many dances and other parties besides ward functions.  My earliest memory of Sunday School was there with father as superintendent.  Before the organization of Granite Stake, this was part of Salt Lake Stake of which Angus M. Cannon was president.  After the organization of the Granite Stake with Frank Y. Taylor as president, Ruben Miller was first counselor, and father was his counselor until the time of his death.

The Stake at that time was very large.  It extended from Liberty Park on the north to include Grant Ward south of Murray and Hunter Ward west of Granger to Cottonwood and East Mill Creek on the east.  These wards were visited regularly by the stake presidency and all by horse and buggy travel.  Father was usually responsible for the conveyance.

In my early memory the Waterloo street car terminated at 21^st South and, I think, fourth east.  That was the nearest one and father habitually rode horseback to his office. His horse was kept for the day in a livery stable.  I recall running to meet him and being lifted up into the saddle with him.

Mother drove a horse and buggy into the city on her infrequent trips there.  A drive either into the city to listen to band music or to the county on the summer evening was frequent recreation.

Wilson McCarty was the son of Charles McCarty, an old friend of fathers who was buried near him in Wasatch Lawn.  Wilson was ambitious to become a lawyer but his father disapproved of the profession, believing it difficult for one in that profession to be a completely honest man.  Wilson reminded him that John M. Cannon was a lawyer where upon he relented finding no fault in him.

Frank Evans of the Evans family of Coalville, Utah, an old friend of mine, told me of an incident  connected with father which he said had a great influence on him in his practice of the law.  Inevitably, Mr. Evans was for many years council for the poultry industry of United States and lived in Washington, DC.  His book on law for corporations is referred to as the bible of corporate law.  Later he was legal counsel for the Church but then it was when he was a young lawyer in Coalville, acting as Prosecuting Attorney for Summit County, that he first met father.

Old Mr. Mecham lived on his homestead where the [sheep] counting corrals are a couple of miles or so below the bridge with the gate on the Weber ranch.  The Bennion sheep sometimes trespassed on his property and he was very hard to deal with about it.  Mother’s half brother Alfred was chosen as most even tempered and peacemaking to go  and deal with him.  But the old man drew a gun on him and in self defense Alfred grabed the gun and wrenched it from him, injuring him in so doing.  Mecum brought suit against him and the case came to Frank Evans as Prosecuting Attorney.  Father went to Colville and talked with Evans.  He explained the kind of man Alfred Bennion was and said he was in no sense a menace to society and no good would come from putting him in prison.  A fine was settled on and John M. Cannon paid it out of his own pocket.

In father’s later years we always had our summer outings on the Weber ranch but before that he usually took us somewhere in the canyons.  We had a place at one time at Mountair, a branch of Parleys Canyon, noted at that time as The Old Arm Chair.

I recall time spent Summers at a place I think called Granite, near the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon.

When Milton or Paul was the baby we camped out in tents with Uncle Edwin Bennion’s family, Frank W. Taylor’s family and John W. Taylor and some of his family near the river where the old saw mill was on the Weber.

 When I was about 14 we spent a couple of weeks with Uncle Edwin Bennion’s family on their ranch near Cleveland and Grace Idaho.  Besides horses and boating on the Bear River they had hot springs where I was introduced to swimming.

Then began our regular summers on the upper river.  At first we camped with Uncle George M’s family in a grove of pines and spruces near the river just west of where the counting corrals are on the old Mecham place.

Next we lived at the Larabee house where the headquarters of the Howells ranch now is. It was a frame house of two large rooms and one attic.  We slept in tents and again Uncle George M’s family camped with us which always added to our fun.

 Adele had a talent for entertaining and kept things lively by promoting candy pulls and bonfires.  Father always rounded up horses enough from the sheep camp for horseback trips.

After several seasons there, father built a large home which stood where the Loren Moench house now is.

Father hired loggers from down the canyon to get out the big timbers but he supervised the building of the place himself with all of us getting a hand in on lathing and shinglIng.  The house had a living room 20 by 40 feet with a huge fireplace, a dining room about 25 feet long, a kitchen, bath and two bedrooms downstairs, and four bedrooms upstairs.

We had gay times there with a house full of company.  Unfortunately, father did not live long to enjoy it.  We use it several years following his death and after (most of) the ranch was sold to David P. Howells, husband of Adelle Cannon Howells, George M Cannon’s oldest daughter.   (We retained) 40 acres including the ranch house site, the meadow to the south and all the land along the river where father had built a home for me when I was sick.

We rented the big house to the Howells for a number of seasons and later sold it to them, at David P. Howells request, the house site and the meadow were turned over to the Howells with the home.   (Mother retained) 20 acres along the river.

Father bought treats lavishly to celebrate occasions.  Bananas then were not a common item of daily fare, and he would buy a stem of them.

It doubtless seems strange to those not living at the time and many who did, that some men of good standing in the church should have been married in polygamy after the 1890 manifesto advised or declared by President Wilford Woodruff against its further practice.

Father had been reared to respect – in fact, revere the principle of polygamy as being the one to which he owed his existence in this world.  He grew up accepting it as a way of life.  He also had witnessed his father’s struggle with two loyalties –that of loyalty to his country and to his religion, and seen him choose the latter when they were conflicted.  People in the Church at that time were used to seeing revisions of the law that were in conflict with their religious principles.  Many people did not take the Manifesto seriously. Some men in high positions in the Church never did accept it.

In the time of Brigham Young and after him, men were called, or advised, to marry plural wives, and some men still in authority gave such calls following the Manifesto.  Father and mother felt secure you in their monogamous happiness.

 Father told me the call came to him like a thunderclap.  He had been reared to respect and accept the advice of those in authority and I’m sure he felt obliged to do so [then] though he never did tell who involved him.

 Two of the Apostles, John W. Taylor and Mathias F. Cowley were dropped from their position for persisting in promoting and upholding plural marriages. If father did wrong in this, President Joseph F Smith must not have held him personally to blame or he would not have continued to uphold him as he did in his position in the Granite Stake Presidency.  Also, he was one of the speakers at his funeral services and praised him and the highest terms.  If he did wrong he was deceived.

 President Smith said in part: 

“I have seen him placed in extremely embarrassing conditions financially; I witnessed tasks placed upon him by those who had the right to advise and counsel that very few men, if there was any man, that would have had the courage to undertake and carry out as brother John M. Cannon did.  He never shirked a duty.  He never shrank from any request made of him by his superior officer.  But, I am only repeating what has already been said of him.

“What a prize his blessed family has gained by their association with this man!  What a crown of Glory awaits them in his glorified and endless association!  Faithful as the sun to them. faithful to his wives and his children.  Good and true to his brethren and to the poorer, the needy, the sick and the afflicted.”

In 1900 he married Margaret Perart Cardall, divorcee with three children who lived in Forest Dale.  Polygamists were advised to take three wives and later he married Harriet Neff of East Mill Creek.

Father’s later years held some sadness.  He was overburdened with the support of his very large family and was continually driven by his urge to help others.

Mother said the necessity for secrecy about his actions was a great trial to him. He was naturally so open and forthright in his nature.

He became nervous and somewhat quick tempered, and lost most of the gayety  of spirit so characteristic of his earlier life.  He developed stomach ulcers which led to cancer.  When he first was ill he would leave office worries for a trip out to the ranch and would feel better.  He particularly enjoyed an outing with Uncle “Teddy” (Edwin Bennion)  who was always so cheerful and optimistic.

I had a long a nervous illness and he and took me, Effie and my little sister, Anne to California for a winter’s stay.  He remained with us, however, for only a short time and returned to his worries leaving me and Effie there.  He continued to become worse and his cousin, Dr. William T. Cannon took him east to the Mayo Clinic where Dr. Cannon had studied. 

The cancer had spread and was considered beyond the possibility of elimination through operating.  In April Effie and I returned from California.  Father suffered on severely until his death on January 16, 1917.  He refused pain- killing drugs until the very last believing he would have a better chance of recovery “to fight my children’s battles for them.”  Sterling our youngest was a year-old the day of father’s burial.

The Granite Stake Tabernacle, which father had helped build and where he still presided in the Stake Presidency, was the logical place for his funeral services but it was under repair.  The Assembly Hall on Temple Square was offered.  Mother disliked taking the service away from home so it was held in the Forest Dale meeting house with throngs of people unable to get into the building.

He was buried in the Wasatch Lawn which was a project he had assisted in promoting.

Father felt that he was leaving his family comfortable. His property was already divided in the names of his three wives so that way there was no question.

 He preferred not to have his assets in Life Insurance.  He said he didn’t want his family to the waiting for him to die.  But the unforeseen happened.  His investments were largely  in the same kind of property – ranches, farms and livestock and the Bennion Livestock Company which was mothers chief property which was run currently on the loans from the bank.

Soon after his death and following the First World War there, was a sudden drop in the prices of livestock.  Many heretofore successful cattle and sheep men went bankrupt.  There were no government’s subsidies for them to fall back on at that time.  Mother lost almost her entire holdings in the Bennion Livestock Company including the Weber Ranch.

To hear father pray in our family prayers where we all knelt down together was an experience to remember.  There was a fervor in his voice which penetrated and thrilled one.  There was power and absolute faith in it.  Also, we used to say we got the news through the individuals he prayed for. There was one thing he asked that I never heard from anyone else.  He would say “may our sleep be refreshing and our dreams instructive and rise up in the morning full of energy and strength.”  I am sure he lived very near the Lord in the guiding of his life.

 He carried a soft leather bound copy of the Doctrine and Covenants in his back pants pocket.  I have the copy.  It is dog-eared and worn.

Another memorable thing in our family was our family meetings.  This idea, since picked up for the Church as a whole was, I believe, started in Granite Stake by President Frank Y. Taylor and, I suppose, his counselors.  I seem to remember a promise made by President Taylor that if people would be faithful in keeping this night, they would not have their children go astray from the Church.

Father employed Margaret Summerhays to meet with us and teach us to sing.  She ultimately gave it up as a bad job.

 At the family meetings we served our dinner dessert for the meeting or continued on.  Father sometimes brought home some special treat in the way of a dessert which we ate at the conclusion of the meeting.  Mother usually prepared some lesson or reading for the occasion.  One thing which I remembered as being particularly adapted to the varied ages of the family was the story of Jacob Hamblin.  Jesus the Christ by Talmage, The life of Parley P. Pratt, My first Mission by George Q. Cannon and Leaves from my Journal by Wilford Woodruff and others from faith promoting stories.

[“Insert  when telling about 2381 South Seventh east home.”]

One of the happiest circumstances of our lives in the Seventh East home was the companionship with the family of Uncle George M. Cannon on the north and Uncle Milton Bennion who lived on the south of us.  In Uncle George’s family Jeanne was my most intimate companion and Nora was Lenore’s.  Besides this, the older children and Marian’s music were assets for us all.  The Bennion children were younger though Claire was chummy with Lenore and the boys were companions to our numerous boys.

Father and mother taught us that we were only stewards of the earthly possessions and would be held responsible to God for how we use our means.  While they both abhorred shoddy things and bought a good quality, they both felt it was not right to spend for show.  Neither of them would buy extravagantly for appearance.  In fact it was sometimes difficult to get mother to spend on herself what we really felt she should.

President Joseph F. Smith used father has a confidential aid on various occasions.  He was sent on a mission to negotiate for property in which the Church had an interest.  At another time when the church was having trouble with its Colonies in Mexico, he was sent there on a confidential mission.  He did not speak of it at the time.  Mother told me afterwards.

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