JOHN PACK
JOHN PACK, a prominent member of the Pioneer Company was born of
American parents in St. Johns, New Brunswick, Lower Canada, May 20,
1809. His father was George Pack and his mother, before marriage,
Philotte Greene, second cousin to General Nathaniel Greene of
Revolutionary fame. They were farmers, fairly well to do and their
children numbered twelve, five sons and seven daughters. When John was
about eight years old the family moved to Rutland, Jefferson County,
New York. There he worked on his father's farm, clearing off timber and
doing general farm labor until he was twenty-one. At intervals he
attended school and received the rudimental education common at that
time. His natural inclination was towards farming and stock raising,
and he succeeded to that degree that he finally purchased from his
parents the old homestead, managed the farm at a profit, and provided
for his father and mother in their declining years.
His early manhood was passed at Watertown, near Rutland, where on the
10th of October 1832 he married Julia Ives of that place. On the 8th of
March, 1836 he and his wife were baptized into the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter day Saints. Father and mother Pack had previously been
baptized. John sent them to Kirtland, Ohio, in 1836, and the next year,
as soon as he had sold his property, followed them, his wife and her
mother, Lucy Paine Ives, accompanying him.
He purchased a farm near the Kirtland Temple and partly built a
saw-mill, which he sold at a great sacrifice when he moved, in the year
1838, to Missouri. His parents, as well as his immediate family,
settled with him on a farm in Caldwell County, eighteen miles from the
city of Far West.
They were barely established in their new home when the mob troubles
began. One day Mr. Pack, having received word from his sister Phoebe,
residing at Huntsville, some distance away, that her husband was dead
and she and her children sick, started with his wife for that place for
the purpose of bringing the afflicted family to his own home. When near
the crossing of Grand River, a mob of twenty-five men on horseback came
from a side road, formed a line in front of and behind them, and
demanded to know if they were Mormons. They answered in the
affirmative, and were then told that they were prisoners. They were
taken by their captors several miles out of their road to a camp in the
timber, there were five hundred armed men, under the command of Sashiel
Woods, a Presbyterian minister. His men yelled like demons when their
comrades rode into camp with the two prisoners. Woods ordered Mr. Pack
to go with him and others through an opening in the bushes, at the same
time telling Mrs. Pack that she could go to a grog shop near by.
She, however, was about to follow her husband, saying she was willing
to die with him, when he requested her to remain with the horse and
wagon, assuring her that he would be back soon and that he did not fear
the mob. Seated on the ground in a circle around him, they first
examined the contents of his valise, but finding nothing by which to
condemn him as "a Mormon spy," the mob leader next demanded that he
deny that Joseph Smith was a Prophet. The prisoner refused to do so,
whereupon Woods asked some one to volunteer to shoot him. Mr. Pack then
arose and addressed the crowd in such a way as to cause them one by one
to go away, leaving him alone with their leader. A voice from the camp
called out "Let the d—d Mormon go." He and his wife were then marched
back to the point where they were arrested, and there released, the mob
jeering and yelling after them as they crossed the river, and
threatening to kill them if they returned that way.
They heeded not the threat, but returned with their sick relatives
along the same road; and though again threatened by some of the mob,
they were not otherwise molested; perhaps for the reason that Mr. Pack,
after dark, left the main road and taking the stars for his guide,
proceeded by another way to his home, where he arrived a little before
daylight. Subsequently he and his family were driven by the mob into
Far West, and were there when the Prophet with others was
court-martialed and sentenced to be shot. After the surrender of the
city,
John Pack helped William Bosley to escape, the latter being wanted by
the mob on a trumped-up charge of murder, he having been present at the
Crooked river battle.
In the Mormon exodus from Missouri Mr. Pack proceeded to Pike county,
Illinois, where he resided near the town of Perry until 1840, and then
moved to Nauvoo. When the Prophet was kidnapped by Sheriff Reynolds of
Jackson county, Missouri, John Pack, at the head of twenty-five men,
was among those who went to his rescue. He was on a mission in New
Jersey, with Ezra T. Benson, when the Prophet and the Patriarch were
murdered.
An Elder since the year 1836, he had spent three months in the ministry
in Pike county, and subsequently had filled a short mission to the
State of Maine. On the 8th of October, 1844, he was ordained a Seventy
and became senior president of the Eight Quorum, which had just been
organized. Later he was ordained a High Priest. In a military capacity
he was major in the First Regiment, Second Cohort, Nauvoo Legion,
taking rank July 21, 1843. He was commissioned by Governor Ford on the
28th of the following October.
In the exodus from Illinois, he traveled in Heber C. Kimball's company
to the Missouri river, and in the spring of 1847 left his family at
Winter Quarters while he accompanied President Young as a pioneer to
the Rocky Mountains. He was appointed major in the military
organization of the camp, and with the vanguard entered Salt Lake
valley on the 22nd of July. Next day he returned with Joseph Matthews
to meet President Young and report that the other divisions of the
company had entered and partly explored the valley. He returned with
the President the same season to the Missouri river.
Early in the spring of 1848 he made a small farm on Pigeon Creek, Iowa,
but abandoned it the same year in order to come to Utah. He was captain
of a company in President Kimball's division, which left the Elkhorn
early in June. While camped on the Horn, the Indians raided their
cattle, killing one of Mr. Pack's oxen in the river. The savages were
followed and a skirmish ensued, in which Thomas E. Ricks was shot and
left for dead, Howard Egan wounded in the wrist, and two horses shot
under William H. Kimball. Mr. Pack tried to yoke in a small cow in
place of his dead ox, when a strange ox came and tried to get into the
yoke. As no owner could be found for the animal, he was yoked in and
driven to Utah, doing excellent service all the way. Afterwards, the ox
having shed his hair, the brand U. S. was found upon him. Mr. Pack
entered Salt Lake valley (for the third time) on the 19th of October.
He settled in the Seventeenth Ward, Salt Lake City. He labored in the
canyons, and hauled logs to a saw-mill in City Creek canyon and to
Chase's mill upon the site now known as Liberty Park, thus procuring
lumber with which to build. He erected the first dancing hall in Utah,
and in this building Livingston and Kincaid opened the first store.
Later it was used by the University of Deseret. Mr. Pack also kept a
boarding house, most of his guests being gold hunters on their way to
California.
In the spring of 1849 he plowed new land in Farmington, Davis county,
and raised a crop of corn, making a water ditch on the mountain side to
ward off the crickets, which he fought daily. Later he procured eighty
acres of new land in West Bountiful, where he built another home.
Before this was finished, however, he went upon a foreign mission, and
it was his eldest son, Ward E. Pack, then but fifteen years old, aided
by the women and children, who fenced the land, plowed, drove team and
sustained the family during his father's three years absence. The
latter started upon his mission October 19, 1849, accompanying Apostle
John Taylor and Elder Curtis E. Bolton to France. He returned home in
1852.
During the year 1855 he lost most of his crop by grasshoppers, but
unselfishly shared the scanty remainder with his brethren and sisters
who had none. In 1856 he helped to settle Carson valley, which was then
in Utah, and was absent upon this mission from April till September.
While crossing the desert, at the Sink of the Humboldt river his horses
tired out, and his company having gone ahead, he and his animals nearly
perished for want of water; but by dint of perseverance he succeeded in
saving all. In 1857 he assisted in detaining Johnston's army at Fort
Bridger, and in "the move'' of 1858 camped with his family on Shanghai
Bottom, south-west of Battle Creek, now Pleasant Grove.
In 1861-1862 he procured quite a large piece of land, at Kamas, Summit
county, where he built another home. From 1861 to 1865 he was engaged
with his son Ward E. Pack and Charles L. Russell in the manufacture of
lumber; also carrying on the dairying business with his sons from 1863
to 1868. From November, 1869, to March, 1870, he was absent upon a
mission to the Middle and Eastern States. He was greatly interested in
agriculture and stock raising and from the time of the organization of
the Deseret Agricultural and Manufacturing Society, was identified with
it, doing much to promote its interests and its exhibitions, especially
in the live stock department.
John Pack died at his home in Salt Lake City on the 4th day of April,
1885. His death was quite sudden, being due to heart failure. He left a
numerous family, being the husband of six wives—namely, Julia Ives,
Nancy Boothe, Ruth Mosher, Mary Jane Walker, Jessie Sterling and Lucy
Jane Giles—and was the father of forty-three children.
[Source: History of Utah Volume 4; By Orson Ferguson Whitney; Publ. 1904; Transcribed and submitted by Andrea Stawski Pack.]
JOHN Q. PACKARD
John Q. Packard, a descendant of Samuel Packard, who came from England
and settled in Massachusetts in 1638, was a native of Johnstown, N. Y.,
where he was born in 1822. He was educated in New York City and in 1849
went to California. At Marysville, Calif., he was engaged in business
as a merchant until the close of the Civil war, when he purchased a
sugar plantation in Louisiana and removed to that state. While thus
engaged he heard reports of the possibilities of mining in Utah and in
1875 took up his residence in Salt Lake City.
In connection with John McChrystal he located the Gemini and Godiva
mines, and was also interested in Eureka Hill properties, becoming in a
few years one of the wealthiest men in Utah. He was a bachelor and for
years made his home at the Walker House. Mr. Packard was charitable,
rarely refusing to contribute money to build school houses or buy books
for libraries. But his charity was of that kind that "lets not the left
hand know what the right hand doeth." A few years before his death he
purchased the lot where the public library in Salt Lake City now stands
and offered it to the city, with $75,000 for the erection of a library
building. The offer was accepted and the Packard Public Library is
pointed out to visitors as a monument to one of the public spirited
citizens. Mr. Packard died on October 4, 1908.
It is a common occurrence, when an old resident dies, for the
newspapers to publish his obituary under the headline—"Another Pioneer
Gone." This is sometimes not quite the truth. Old settlers there are
and always will be, considering the number of years they may live in a
community, but the real pioneers, "the men who go before," are very
few. Salt Lake City has one resident who can claim the distinction of
being a real pioneer.
[Source: Utah since statehood:
historical and biographical, Volume 1; Edited by Noble Warrum; Publ.
1919; Transcribed and submitted by Andrea Stawski Pack.]
MAURICE KING PARSONS
There are but few, if any, men in the intermountain country who are
better known in the live stock business than Maurice King Parsons of
Salt Lake City. Mr. Parsons' identification with this section of the
west covers a period of nearly fifty years and during by far the
greater portion of this time he has been prominently connected with the
cattle industry.
A New Englander by birth and a western man by adoption, Maurice K.
Parsons was born June 24, 1847, in Worthington, Massachusetts, a son of
Maurice and his second wife, Sibrina (King) Parsons. On both the
paternal and maternal sides of his ancestry Maurice K. Parsons descends
from old colonial families, whose records date back to the early
history of New England. Maurice Parsons, the father of Maurice K, was
twice married. His first wife was a Miss Clark, who bore him nine
children, named Edward C., Theopholis, Samuel, Cyrus, Frank, E. Howard,
Mary, Lucy and Nancy, of whom only two are living. E. Howard is a
resident of Pasadena, California, and Nancy is the widow of N. M.
Cleveland of Worthington, Ohio. For his second wife. Maurice
Parsons married Sibrina King, who bore him two sons, Maurice K. and
Arthur L. The latter is a resident of Los Angeles, California. In 1868
Maurice Parsons removed to Iowa, where he purchased a farm and there
resided until he and his wife were called to their final rest.
Maurice K. Parsons was reared in Massachusetts, where he spent the
first sixteen years of his life, during which time he attended the
public schools. Up to this time young Parson had no definite future
career planned, but, believing the west offered better advantages for a
young man, he concluded to go to Ohio, in which state he lived for
several years. There he was employed at different kinds of work. For
awhile he worked on a farm in Franklin county. While living in Ohio,
Mr. Parsons also continued his education by attending school at
Worthington and later at Otterbein University, Westerville, that state.
His parents having removed to Iowa during this time, Mr. Parsons
decided to pay them a visit, so, giving up his position, he went to
that state. He remained in Iowa until 1872, during which time he worked
on his father's farm, also taught school for two terms in Scott and
Clinton counties, Iowa. In the latter year he decided to seek his
fortune in the growing west and came to Utah. Here he became connected
with the Indian service as head farmer for the Indians, instructing the
red men how to cultivate their lands and raise crops. In this work he
was under the general direction of Major Critchlow. After a time he
resigned and opened a trading post on the Uinta reservation and for two
years handled the government contract to supply the Indians with beef.
At length he sold his interests along that line and purchased a ranch
in Box Elder county. Utah, acquiring this property in 1875. This
constituted the nucleus of his start in the cattle raising enterprises
in which he has met with a well merited success.
Mr. Parsons disposed of his first ranch in 1875 and removed to Salt
Lake, where he entered the postoffice as registry clerk, serving under
Postmasters J. M. Moore and J. T. Lynch. In 1878 he entered the United
States Land Office under General M. M. Bain as receiver and Major J. B.
Neil, a Civil war officer, as registrar. Mr. Parsons continued in this
capacity for five years, after which he again went into the stock
business. In 1893, in company with Abram Hanauer, he bought from Eccles
& Remington a large ranch in Mesa county, Colorado. This was the
beginning of a business association with Mr. Hanauer which continued
until the latter's death in 1911. Subsequent purchases of ranch
property by Mr. Parsons included the Keystone Ranch in Rio Blanco
county, Colorado, and still later a substantial interest in the
property of the Hillside Land & Cattle Company. The latter company
was incorporated by Mr. Parsons, Mr. Hanauer and J. Y. Rich, with Mr.
Parsons as president. Recently Mr. Parsons has disposed of his holdings
in the Hillside Land & Cattle Company.
His business career has been marked by steady advancement until his
interests have become very extensive and include various branches of
the live stock industry. He was one of the organizers and president
since organization of the Utah-Idaho Live Stock Loan Company of Salt
Lake. The growth of this company has been remarkably rapid and
substantial, and it has already taken a prominent position among the
ably-managed financial concerns of the city. Mr. Parsons is, in
addition, president of the Utah-Colorado Cattle & Improvement
Company while he also holds a similar position with the Keystone Land
& Cattle Company. He is a director of Walker Brothers Bankers, and
has been a member of the board of directors of the Columbia Trust
Company since its organization. He is the founder and directing head of
the M. K. Parsons & Company, with offices in the Kearns building.
This company carries on a general live stock business, buying, selling
and raising sheep and cattle and is outside of the other companies
referred to in connection with Mr. Parsons. He was one of the original
members of the National Live Stock Association and has been second vice
president ever since its organization.
There is no man in Utah better informed concerning cattle raising
conditions in the intermountain country. He has concentrated his
efforts in this line of business and through years of study and keen
observation he has acquired a familiarity with it that is not surpassed
by any of his contemporaries. With his mind centered upon the
development of these interests Mr. Parsons is known for his
constructive and conservative ideas and his preference for the more
permanent, if less speculative, line of endeavor.
In 1873, in Ohio, Mr. Parsons was married to Miss Harriet M. Rose, a
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Timothy Rose of Granville, that state. Mrs.
Parsons' death in 1907 at Salt Lake City left two sons and a daughter:
Edward C., born at Terrace, Utah, graduated from the Salt Lake high
school and since entering on his business career has been identified
with the stock business, besides being connected with his father in a
number of projects of this character; is also vice president of the
Salt Lake Union Stockyards and has taken an active part in the work of
making Salt Lake the important live stock market that it has grown to
be. He married Miss Sarah McChrystal, of a prominent Salt Lake family.
Arthur Rose Parsons, the older son, was born in Salt Lake City, Utah,
and received his preparatory schooling in Salt Lake, after which he
entered Lehigh University, where he took a course in mining and
metallurgy, which profession he later followed.
His death occurred at Las Vegas, Nevada, in March, 1915. He had for
some time been superintendent of the Deseret Power & Mill Company
and was highly regarded as a most competent man in his profession. His
death left a widow, who previous to her marriage was Miss Laura Shier,
and two sons, Edward S. and William King. Elsie, the daughter of
Maurice K. Parsons, was born in Salt Lake City and graduated from the
Salt Lake high school. She is now the wife of Walter R. Andrew of Salt
Lake and has a son and daughter, Harriet and Maurice King. Mr. Andrew
is connected with the M. K. Parsons & Company and is well known in
the live stock business.
For his second wife Mr. Parsons was married January 18, 1916, to Miss
Nellie Pearsall of Salt Lake City. They are members of the Presbyterian
Church and people of the highest worth, occupying a high position in
the best social circles of Salt Lake City. Mr. Parsons belongs to the
Masonic fraternity and in his political connections is a stanch
republican, especially supporting that party when national questions
and issues are involved. He was a member of the first liberal city
council of Salt Lake, serving under Mayor J. M. Scott, and was a member
of the last territorial legislature, having been elected on the liberal
party ticket. He has for a number of years been an interested member of
the Salt Lake City Commercial Club; since 1888 has been a member of the
Alta Club and also has membership in the Bonneville and Country Clubs.
Recognizing the call of opportunity in the west, he responded thereto
and in the intermountain country found a field of labor which has
brought him prominently to the front in business connections, while the
most envious cannot grudge him his success so honorably has it been won
and so worthily used. Mr. Parsons is a remarkably well preserved man,
both mentally and physically, and gives close personal supervision to
his varied and extensive business interests, with the ability to grasp
details that would do credit to one many years his junior. His record
should serve to encourage and stimulate others, indicating as it does
what may be accomplished through individual effort intelligently
directed.
[Source: Utah since Statehood:
Historical and Biographical Volume 2; By Noble Warrum; Publ. 1919;
Transcribed and submitted by Andrea Stawski Pack.]
HON. CHARLES W. PENROSE
In reviewing the history of any state or community there are always a
few names which stand out in bold relief on account of their owners
possessing superior ability along the line of business or in a
professional or literary way. Such names and such men increase the
importance of a city or state and add to its prosperity. Their
intelligence is a power for good in local affairs, and their keen
intellectual faculties promote not only their individual success, but
that of their fellow citizens as well. Among the men of Salt Lake City
and one who has become eminent as a writer, orator and business man,
and whose views and opinions wield a powerful influence in the
legislative halls and through that powerful adjunct to human thought
and human action—the daily paper, is Charles W. Penrose, who stands
without a peer in this whole inter-mountain region. The best efforts of
his life have been given to the upbuilding of Utah, and in fact this
whole Rocky Mountain country. So closely has his life and efforts been
linked with the history and development of Utah that it has become a
part and parcel of the State.
Mr. Penrose has been at the head of that great paper, the Deseret News,
for many years as Editor-in-chief, and under his splendid management
the paper has grown to be one of the most powerful daily papers of this
whole region. There is no man in Utah who is more thoroughly acquainted
by actual experience with all the hardships and difficulties incident
to crossing the Great American Desert by ox teams and settling in a new
and undeveloped country, than is Mr. Penrose. He is a native of
England, and was born in London, February 4, 1832. His boyhood days and
early life were spent in his native city, where his scholastic
education was received. His father was Richard Penrose, and his mother
bore the maiden name of Matilda Sims. They were both natives of
England. The senior Mr. Penrose died when our subject was a small boy,
which necessitated him making his own way in the world. At the age of
eighteen he became impressed with the doctrines and principles of the
Mormon Church and cast his lot with the fortunes of that faith, and
from that day to this he has ever been a faithful worker and brilliant
expounder of the doctrines and principles which it advocates. He must
have possessed superior ability as a speaker and teacher, even at that
age, for soon after he had united with the Church he was called and set
apart by the heads of the Church to serve as its missionary in his
native land, and ten years of his early life was spent in that
direction, and in the interests of the Church in England.
In 1861 he came to America, crossing the Atlantic Ocean in an old
sailing vessel, and the Great American Desert by ox team to Utah. He
first took up his residence in Farmington, Davis County, and later
settled in Logan in the Cache Valley, where for a time he engaged in
the mercantile business. In the early part of 1865 he was again called
to serve on a mission in Great Britain, laboring three and a half
years, during which time he had charge of several different
conferences. Besides his many other duties he wrote a great deal for
the Millenial Star, the Church organ of England. He also took an active
part in assisting in the emigration of the Church people to this
country.
On his return to Utah he again entered the mercantile business in
Logan, in which he continued until he took charge of the Ogden
Junction, a daily paper which he assisted in establishing and which he
successfully conducted for seven years. During his residence in Ogden
he served in the City Council for seven years, and was also High
Counselor of the Stake of Zion in that County. He also served one term
in the Territorial Legislature, from Weber County. In the fall of 1877
he located in Salt Lake City and entered the editorial department of
the Deseret News, and served in that department for a number of years.
In 1884, he was again called to serve on a mission to the British Isle,
traveling in the interests of his Church in Scandinavia, Germany,
France and many other of the European countries, at the same time
.doing a great deal of writing for the Deseret News. On his return home
he was persuaded to go to Washington, D. C, in 1887-88, in the
interests of Statehood. He- spent two winters in the National Capital,
using his best efforts and influence to secure Statehood for Utah, and
while his work and influence did not result at that time in securing
the admission of Utah as a State, yet it did later on, when in 1896 the
State was admitted. From 1892 to 1894 he had editorial charge of the
Salt Lake Herald, and through his able and efficient management the
paper was put on a solid footing.
After severing his connection with the Herald he was appointed
Assistant Church Historian, which position he ably filled up to January
1, 1899, when he took hold of the Deseret News as Editor-in-chief.
Under his able management the News is year by year increasing in
circulation, until today it has no peer in this whole intermountain
region. It has been under the present management of The News that the
new Deseret News building has been constructed. The structure is a
splendid six-story building, located on the southwest corner of Main
and South Temple streets. It is built of red sandstone, a product of
Utah, and it is conceded by all that the Deseret News building is the
handsomest, most substantial and finest business block in the city or
State, being thoroughly fire-proof.
Mr. Penrose has been thrice married, and by two of his wives is the
father of twenty-eight children, and at the present date is grandfather
of thirty-seven and great-grandfather of one.
In political affairs Mr. Penrose has been a' staunch Democrat ever
since that party was- organized in this State. In 1882-84 he was
elected a member of the Legislature from Salt Lake County. However, on
account of the position e fills with the Deseret News, he takes no
active part in politics, as the News has always been a strong
Independent paper. Before the two National parties were organized in
this State Mr. Penrose took an active and prominent part in the
original People's Party, having served as a member of the Territorial
Constitution Committee from 1872 to 1882, and in fact he has been alive
to every issue, political, business or ecclesiastical, which has been
for the building up of the great State of Utah. He has passed through
all the different branches of Priesthood in the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter Day Saints, and is at the present time and has been for years
past one of the Presidents of the Salt Lake Stake of Zion, being First
Counselor to President Angus M. Cannon.
Mr. Penrose has indeed led an active life from the time he was a boy up
to the present time. His life has been an aggressive one; scarcely a
moment has been spent in idleness. He has traveled in every part of the
State in the interest of the Church—and the same may be said during his
active political career. By his long and most honorable career in this
State he has won and retained the respect and confidence of all classes
and creeds, among the people of this whole country, and whether in
private, public or business life, he is ever a most courteous and
pleasant gentleman.
[Source: Portrait, Genealogical
and Biographical Record of the State of Utah; Publ. 1902 By The
National Historical Record Co., Chicago; Transcribed and submitted by
Andrea Stawski Pack.]
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