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 21st 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 21st
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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