Biographies of George Q Cannon, Joseph F Smith provide honest in-depth portrayals

 

Observations by Doug Gibson

Last fall I read two new biographies of 19th century/early 20th century LDS Church leaders Joseph F. Smith, who served as the church's president/prophet, and George Q. Cannon, who reached the first presidency of the church and would likely have been prophet if not for an untimely death in 1901.

I wasn't planning to review either, but they were both so good that I decided to spill some ink. They represent honest biographies that address a subject's totality; the strengths that made the exceptional, committed leader, and the weaknesses, personal and administrative, that sometimes tempered goals and showed human fraility in trying to deal with familial and business pressures.

"Like a Fiery Meteor: The Life of Joseph F. Smith," by Stephen C. Tayson (University of Utah Press, 2023), is an exceptional study of the life of the LDS Church's sixth president. "Like a Fiery Meteor" is an apt description. Joseph F. Smith was an impressive man and leader. He was pragmatic, understanding that the loose adherence to the first and second manifestos disallowing polygamy had to be strengthened, even to church disfellowship or excommunication for prominent members. Smith also ushered in the beginnings of church standardization in doctrine and lessons, initiated efforts toward the church becoming an expanded business force. He also weathered harsh testimony and brutal media attacks during Reed Smoot's successful effort to be U.S. senator. And just before his death, his revelation of the afterlife has become canonized as LDS church scripture.

Joseph F. Smith was not the always kind, mellow grandfather type so often portrayed within LDS culture. Indeed, he was a man who bristled with temper and resentments, a harsh taskmaster who could only spare little time with his many children but was excessively interested in shaping their lives. He was a sentimental man, who agonized over the early deaths of children and grandchildren. Still a young child when his father, Hyrum Smith, was murdered with uncle Joseph Smith, Smith crossed the plains with his mother, Mary Fielding Smith. His entire life Smith believed his mother was treated badly by church leaders and others in Utah. She died in 1852 when he was still a young teen, and his resentments and harsh early life left an inner rage that sometimes provoked violence. Due to his temper, which included assaults, LDS church leaders took a task used often then: get the troubled youth involved in church service.

Smith, as a teenager, was sent on a mission to the Hawaiian Islands. He thrived there, learning the language, and working hard. He became the mission leader. On one occasion, the teenage mission president excommunicated nine converts after a church meeting.

The young Smith had a complex relationship, likely rooted in romance, with a Smith cousin who lived in California. She was hostile to the church but they remained in correspondence for a lifetime. Taysom's accounts of this guarded friendship and often-hostile correspondence between the pair is very interesting. She was a sounding board for Smith's bewildered frustration that most of the Nauvoo Smiths had spurned the Utah Mormons. 

Smith's first marriage was a disaster. His wife, Levira, who would likely be classified as with clinical depression and other mental afflictions, needed a husband of extreme patience and empathy. Smith was not capable of dealing with this difficult marriage. His church duties had expanded, including a mission to England. Unable to check his anger, Smith on at least one occasion beat Levira. They eventually divorced. 

F. Smith later married five wives and fathered 48 children. His personal weaknesses aside, he was a valuable administrator and leader within the church, and soon became an LDS apostle. What Taysom notes well in his biography is that despite being an orthodox Mormon who essentially distrusted the media and culture outside Utah, Smith was talented, confident and formidable enough to confront that world, to go out and talk to religious, cultural and political leaders. Smith's' energy, as well as other church leaders of that era, refute the misconception that LDS leaders in the latter half of the 18th century avoided the public eye. 

Smith abhorred any sexual immorality, and defined it like a Puritan. He was the driving force for Apostle Albert Carrington to be excommunicated for adultery while mission leader in England. He was a fierce opponent of masturbation, which must have caused a lot of teens and men heavy guilt after one of his sermons. 

If he were alive today, he'd be thrilled at the scores of temples in the world. Temple work was a particular priority of his. Smith was a magnet of hatred for anti-Mormons in the first part of the 20th century. Ending his life as a successful church president can be considered a triumph for him.

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The second biography is "George Q. Cannon: Politician, Publisher, Apostle of Polygamy," by Kenneth L. Cannon II (Signature Books, 2023). It is one of Signature's recent "short" biographies (fewer than 300 pages). It is a superb book that provides a lot of information on this accomplished man's life. Like Joseph F. Smith, George Q. Cannon was a leader who both embodied the orthodoxy of early Mormonism, yet fully embraced the challenges of moving forward through changes in the latter 19th century. Cannon was a skilled politician, a superb journalist, and an experienced businessman. In the latter part of the 19th century, Cannon was handling many of the duties that the current presidents could not handle, due to their advanced age.

Cannon experienced tragedy early in his life. A native of Liverpool, England, his mother died on the ship taking her and George to Nauvoo. His father later died in Nauvoo. Early church leaders were impressed with the youth, who emigrated to Utah in 1847. Before he was 20 he was sent on missions to the gold regions of California and the Hawaiian Islands. Like Joseph F. Smith, he was a hard-working efficient missionary in Hawaii who mastered the language and amazingly, translated the Book of Mormon into the native language.

Cannon proved to be a natural writer, reporter, editor and publisher. He presided over the British mission and edited The Millennial Star. He also edited The Juvenile Instructor and other pubs. He oversaw the early Deseret News. He was also an accomplished diplomat and politician, serving as a territorial delegate in Washington D.C., and lobbying cultural and political powers to soften their stances against the young Mormon church, particularly on polygamy. 

He would lose on his efforts to soften blows against polygamy. He would lose his territorial seat, and eventually go into hiding as a fugitive. He would serve a short time in prison as a convicted polygamist. Prior to his incarceration, Cannon II relates an escape attempt after Cannon was located by marshals. Cannon jumped off a moving train and was badly injured.

Cannon was a fervent polygamist. He married six wives and fathered 43 children. His oldest sons occasionally caused him great stress. John Q. Cannon, a journalist and general authority, committed adultery with his wife's sister. John Q. Cannon impregnated Louie Wells. This resulted in his excommunication, divorce, and a hasty marriage to Louie. He also faced a criminal charge. Tragically, Louie, largely ignored by John Q., died soon after birthing a stillborn child. Cannon's' eldest son was later rebaptized and remarried to his former wife.

Another son, Frank, while possessing political and journalism talents, was an alcoholic and a rake. Frank, who served in political positions, was at times shielded by his father's power. Once George Q. Cannon died, Frank saw his influence diminish considerably. He later became a fierce antagonist against the LDS Church, and later President Joseph F. Smith, writing a book and lecturing against the LDS Church across the nation.

Cannon's heavy influence with church presidents Woodruff and Snow led to some criticism, although it may have been just jealousy. He was impulsive on business dealings for the church and himself. Not all succeeded, and he took criticism for some dealings. In his defense, it was a time of great anxiety. The LDS Church was in peril of financial obliteration due to legislation punishing the church for polygamy. 

Statehood was a goal for Cannon, and one way he helped was taking the LDS Church's political party, and moving members into conventional party politics, rather than the clannish LDS church party. 

In 1900, the elder statesman Cannon returned to Hawaii, 50 years after his mission. As Cannon II notes, he was greeted warmly, with love and respect. But his health was failing, and he died soon afterward in 1901.

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A postscript: In his introduction to "Like a Fiery Meteor ...," author Tayson says there are two previous biographies of Joseph F. Smith. Both, he notes, are hagiographies, "written for a casual LDS audience seeking faith-promoting portraits of LDS leaders." Taysom contrasts those two biographies with a biographical essay titled, "Before the Beard: Trials of the Young Joseph Smith." Taysom says that essay falls under the spectrum "described by biographer Oleg V. Khlevniuk as 'archival exposes.'" As Taysom notes, this is the practice of using newly released, less favorable historical documents "in such a way that only the sensationally negative aspects of the figure are revealed." As Tayson writes, "Both hagiographies and archival exposes suffer from the same malady: they tend to be one-dimensional and deeply invested in the 'morality' rather than than 'humanity' of their subjects."

Fortunately, the above biographies of Smith and Cannon avoid the tags of hagiography or archival expose. Readers are awarded with insights into their lives, their times, the families, their careers, and their humanity.

Review: Frank J. Cannon: Saint, Senator, Scoundrel

 

Is there even a statue of Frank Jenne Cannon in Ogden, Utah? Maybe a photo somewhere in a city or Weber County building, or perhaps Union Station, a passion of Frank Cannon's? After all, he was the fellow who helped create today's Ogden Standard-Examiner newspaper (still kicking -- barely -- as the largest Utah -- sort of -- daily newspaper still printing its paper). He was the Standard's first firebrand editor. I am proud of having wrote editorials in a newspaper Frank once penned them for,

He was one of Utah's first U.S. senators. Before that, he was a territorial representative to the U.S. Congress.

His talents for patience, diplomacy, coupled with his Utah elite name, enabled him to travel back east, whether to New York City or Washington D.C., and negotiate with U.S. presidents and congressmen over touchy issues, from how hard Congress would hammer the territory of Utah, which Gentile judges would sentence Utah polygamists, and also the fate of Utah's impending statehood.

When the man spoke in public, he would fill halls beyond capacity. In between bouts of drunkenness, LDS Church leaders pressured him to finish ghost-writing assignments, including "The Life of Joseph Smith," a book credited to his father.

Frank J. Cannon is buried in Ogden. As Val Holley notes in his superb biography of Frank J., "Frank J. Cannon: Saint, Senator, Scoundrel," The University of Utah Press, 2020, his death in 1934, at 74, attracted only a few plaudits, most notably from early Ogden journalist Olin A. Kennedy, who noted that "more than any other man," Cannon "negotiated [the] truce that led to peace between Mormons and Gentiles here in Utah," records Holley.

During the last score years of his life, Utah political and ecclesiastical leaders had other words to describe Frank. They included "unspeakable," "vile," and even "Son of Perdition," a quote allegedly from LDS Church President Joseph F. Smith. 

Frank J. Cannon was born in 1859 to George Q. Cannon and his polygamous wife, Sarah Jenne Cannon. He married in 1878, to Martha Brown, of Ogden. It would last until her death in 1909. Although Frank, a graduate of Deseret University at 19, impressed with his skills in writing, persuasion and business acumen, he was prone to alcoholic binges and, soon after his marriage, adultery. He seduced an immigrant servant woman, impregnating her. The baby was eventually adopted to a relative family. 

Holley doesn't gloss over Frank's problems with inebriation. The alcoholic binges, likely fueled from business, political and family/ecclesiastical stress, were frequent enough that Frank's family, notably half-brother and business partner Abram, would have to search for him through Salt Lake City red-light districts, including brothels. 

In the book, family father and leader George Q. Cannon is pictured as an authority figure, spending little quality time with his sons, preferring to lecture and counsel them through letters. It's fair to wonder if the emotional absence of a father figure contributed to his sons' dysfunctions. Besides Frank, an older, more-favored half-brother, general authority John Q. Cannon, seduced his own wife's sister. The affair ended in tragedy when the woman, Louie Wells -- briefly married to the temporarily excommunicated and divorced John Q. -- suffered a miscarriage and later died. 

Half-brother Abram, who eventually became member of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles, followed his father in embracing polygamy. One of the reasons was dad's desire to make sure a deceased son would have an eternal marriage beyond the grave. This kind of stress, including overwork, likely contributed to Abram's early death at 37, from meningitis. He had recently taken a fourth wife, notes Holley.

Although his adverse antics were frequently lamented -- and later in life re-emphasized by his former allies -- Frank largely escaped any long-term ecclesiastical sanction in the first half of his life. Frankly, his talents were needed by the territory of Utah and its dominant faith. He had an abundance of knowledge and eloquence that often impressed financiers and politicians. The LDS Church of the latter half of the 19th century faced real, and frightening possibilities of losing all its economic capital as well as imprisonment of its leaders. 

Over a period of a decade plus, Frank contributed to a gradual reduction of congressional punishment towards Utah. Accomplishments included easing judicial pressure on the state, helping the First Manifesto against polygamy occur and convincing Washington D.C. powers that Utah was ready to be admitted as a state. These happenings, chronicled in detail by Holley's meticulous research, were not easy accomplishments. They were frequent setbacks, including the capture of family patriarch George Q. Cannon. In the biography, Holley details a hare-brained scheme to rescue George Q. via a holdup on a train. Fortunately, the plan never reached a felonious stage. 

Frank was an opponent of polygamy, accurately believing that its eradication was the key to Utah's acceptance. The church's failure to stick to its Manifesto promises for a generation would be integral to his eventual disaffection with church leaders, his criticism of, and excommunication. 

Holley covers well the power struggle between Frank and his father, George Q., to become a Republican U.S. senator in 1896. Frank was the favorite for the seat. His father, backed by LDS Church leadership, ran a coy, shadow campaign, falsely denying he wanted the position. In a long struggle, Frank outlasted the wishes of dad and the First Presidency, winning appointment from the Legislature.

The cycles of partisan power had prevented his election to the House -- as a Republican -- a few years earlier, although he briefly served there just prior to becoming a senator. His nearly three-year tenure in the Senate was rocky. Although his pro-silver politics and opposition to a single gold standard was popular, Holley writes that his opposition to a trade bill that favored sugar interests sunk his popularity in Utah. Frank's attempts to grow a "Silver Republican" party were not successful and he was not re-elected in 1899, although his seat would remain vacant until 1901. He eventually became a Democrat.

George Q. Cannon's death in 1901 initially reinforced Frank's Mormon faith, which he had severely tested with criticisms of church leaders, including Heber J. Grant. Holley notes that his tithing was far, far more impressive than his long church-reinstated brother John Q's offerings, for example.

Yet his break with the church was imminent. The ascendency of Joseph F. Smith as president, as well as clandestine LDS polygamy despite two Manifestos, hastened his withdrawal. He also opposed Mormon apostle Reed Smoot's election to the U.S. Senate. During a short tenure as editor with the anti-Mormon Salt Lake Tribune, Frank's harsh editorials against the LDS Church leadership, notably Joseph F. Smith, led to his excommunication. It was an ugly split, one that contributes to Frank's diminished status in history today. 

In 1909 his wife Martha died. Soon after he married her younger sister, May. That union lasted until his death. 

He would move to Denver, work as a journalist. He used his skills there to help bring down a corrupt municipality and prevent a corrupt mayor from becoming a U.S. senator. He later moved further in muckraking, with Mormonism as his target. He co-authored two books. The more successful was "Under the Prophet in Utah," which led Frank to a several-year success on the lecture circuit, condemning Mormonism, its prophet, and extolling Christianity as a solution to the nation's ills. The book even led to a Broadway play, "'Polygamy."

During this period of anti-Mormon activism, Frank would occasionally be followed and challenged by LDS missionaries and other church leaders while on the lecture circuit. He became a permanent major villain within the church. Nevertheless, he was a still popular draw when he visited Utah to lecture or promote his books, which were also serialized in magazines.

The final dozen years of his life were quieter, although he still retained enough prominence to appear before Congress and lobby presidents for a pro-silver policy. Bimetallism, silver, was likely his biggest passion. Late in life he pitched a plan to revive China's economy through a massive loan of silver to that nation. He advocated silver policies in writing up to his death, notes Holley.

A promising business venture in ores, including lead, was hampered by the Great Depression. His once fervent faith in Christianity cooled during the Roaring 20s. Holley recounts that late in life Frank considered himself an agnostic. Two of his three children died before him; his son months before his own death. Holley surmises that Frank's death from an abdominal condition may have resulted in part from grief over his son's death. 

I have omitted much of Frank's business ventures in this review. They do involve a substantial portion of Holley's research. They vary from bookselling ventures with his brothers to newspaper startups and acquisitions, as well as frequent times Frank represented the Mormon leadership in business. He encountered businesspeople of principle as well as charlatans. He invested in power companies, as well as fads including "liquid air" and "vapor light." He published books and invested in a planned film adaptation of "Under the Prophet in Utah." It turned out to be a scam that landed the swindler a felony conviction.

Holley accurately presents the paradox that was Frank J. Cannon. He's a difficult man to judge. Perhaps we shouldn't. He was imperfect in morals, and in his anger exaggerated claims against the faith he had once espoused. But, as Holley notes, his detractors exaggerated his claims, and withdrew any merit he had earned. Frank J. Cannon was also accurate in a chief charge -- that church leaders were not truthful -- for a long time -- in repudiating polygamy. 

It's well past time that Frank J., the scoundrel of the Cannons, get some notice for his many achievements. Holley's biography is a valuable, interesting read. Maybe it will lead to a statue for Frank J. (You can buy the biography via Amazon here).

-- Doug Gibson

Enjoy the Cal Grondahl cartoon below.