Interview with Wilford Woodruff Cannon

Wilford Woodruff Cannon was interviewed on January 20, 1969 in Cooper Rest Haven in St. George, Washington County, Utah by Fielding H. Harris, a representative of Voices of Remembrance Foundation. He related his personal history of living in various parts of Utah and Nevada.

FH:Would you please give your [full] name?

WC:[My name is] Wilford Woodruff Cannon.

FH:[What is] your birth date?

WC:[I was born] November 20, 1880.

FH:What is the place of your birth?

WC:[I was born in] St. George.

FH:What was your father's name?

WC:[His name was] David H. [Henry] Cannonis name wHHis

FH:[What was] your mother's [full] name?

WC:[Her name was] Rhoda [Ann] (Knell) [Cannon].

FH:[That is spelled] K-N-E-L-L. What do you remember from your early childhood?

WC:I grew up here in St. George and, like other [children], I attended [the] district school. In the good old days, once a month the teacher would [hand out] a little bill [for the students to take] home to [their] parents and they would pay the bill. I was in [the] second or third grade before they introduced [the] public school [system]. There were little one-room school houses all around 00:02:00town. Until I was [in the] fifth or sixth grade I attended these one-room school houses around town. After maybe the sixth grade, we had a central school up in the top floor of the courthouse. I went there a couple of years. Then we met in the basement of the [St. George] Tabernacle from then [on] until I finished the eighth grade.

In 1899, I went to Cedar City [Iron County, Utah] to attend the Branch Normal 00:03:00School. When we went up there, we had to take "Old Dobbin" and the shay. It took us three days to get to Cedar City [from St. George]. We took a team [and] two of my sisters and I went up and rented an apartment in Cedar City. We took a lot of our provisions from here with us. While I had that team up there I went to the canyon and brought down a load of coal. I went out into the sticks and [picked up] some wood. My two sisters and I kept warm that way.

The next winter the three of us went up to BYU [Brigham Young University] in Provo [Utah County, Utah]. We went around through Modena [Iron County, Utah]. We took a train from Modena and went to Provo. We rented an apartment there and 00:04:00attended school that winter. George [Henry] Brimhall was the head of BYU that year. I enjoyed BYU quite a little. I wanted to study engineering, so the next winter I went up to the University of Utah [Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah]. They had just moved out on the hill where they are now the [previous] fall. They only had three buildings at the university then. I stayed there four years [and studied] mining engineering. As soon as school was out, I left and 00:05:00went out in the sticks to do [work in the] mines.

FH:Would you tell how you [were] named?

WC:When I was born, President Wilford Woodruff was president of the St. George Temple. My father was his assistant. When I was born, father carried me down to the temple and President Wilford Woodruff was in hiding at the temple because of polygamy. He took me in his arms and gave me his name and a blessing when I was eight days old. That is [recorded] in father's diary.

FH:That was on November 28, [1880]. During [your] years [at] school, were there 00:06:00some teachers [who] need to be mentioned?

WC:George [Henry] Brimhall was president of BYU. He was about the most outstanding man I ever knew. If something had gone wrong in school, he could make everybody think they were [responsible]. Oh, he was a prince of a fellow [and] he was one good teacher. I liked a lot of them. [Nathaniel] "Nate" Baldwin 00:07:00was head of the Baldwin [Radio Company]. He taught some of the science subjects. He was a quite outstanding fellow. I really liked "Nate." Josiah [Edwin] Hickman was a seminary teacher. The subject that winter was church history. He was well posted [informed] on church history and I enjoyed his class very much. N. L. Nelson was head of the English department. I took English [classes] under him. I 00:08:00always enjoyed N. L. Nelson.

FH:You had two years at Branch Normal School, one year at BYU and four years at the University of Utah. You were a mining engineer. Not many people in your day had that much education.

WC:Not too many.

FH:Where were you baptized?

WC:[I was baptized] in the St. George Temple.

FH:Was that a great honor?

WC:Yes.

FH:Were you active in The Church [of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] meetings when you were growing up?

WC:Yes. I was president of the Deacons' Quorum when I was a deacon. I don't know 00:09:00whether I was a priest or just a teacher before I went away to school. I can't remember whether they ordained me a priest or I was just a teacher.

FH:Did you attend Primary, Sunday school and MIA [Mutual Improvement Association]?

WC:Yes. I was going to say I was president of the MIA, but that wasn't until after I came back.

FH:What do you remember about your father?

WC:My father was really an outstanding man. He was the greatest lover of horses of anybody you could ever think of. He always used to say, "If a man came along 00:10:00and said his name was Cannon and you wondered whether he was any relation of ours, let him get in bed on a dark night and then tell him there is a beautiful horse down the road a mile. If he wouldn't get out of bed and walk a mile in the dark to see a good horse, he was no relation of ours." [Laughter] He always had a lot of horses around. He was very proud of his horses. He always had a stallion [and] liked good horses. He had, of course, driving horses. He had one that was standard bred and [the horse] turned out to be [very] fast.

President [Anthony Woodward] Ivins was here in St. George [before] he went to Mexico. This horse that father had that I [said] was fast was a nice one. President Ivins gave him twenty-four cows and calves for that horse. [The horse] was shipped out of the country afterwards. We always called him "Fleet Foot." A fellow by the name of [Benjamin Franklin] "B. F." Saunders used to buy cattle and horses [when he] came through [here]. He bought him ["Fleet Foot"] from President Ivins and took him out of the country [area]. After he [bought] him, he [named] him "Alopene" and made almost a world record as a trotter after he [went] to Denver [Colorado].

Father had a pair of [horses] that went together. The horse we called "Fleet Foot" he sold for twenty-four cows and calves and the mare he sold to Jim Andrews for twelve cows and calves. Both [horses were] taken out of the country [area].

FH:What else, besides his love of horses, do you remember about your father?

WC:He was very diligent in church affairs. He was president or assistant 00:12:00president at the St. George Temple from the time it was dedicated until he died [on December 24, 1924]. He was a great missionary [and] a very eloquent speaker on gospel subjects, well posted. He never [finished] elementary school.

FH:That wasn't unusual in his day. Did you ever go with him on any of these speaking trips?

WC:Yes, lots of them. He used to always like to take one of [his children with him] to take care of the horses. He always drove a team and buggy and would take one of [his children] along. I courted him and, as a result, he used to take me along with him. I guess I went with him more than any other member of the family because of that.

FH:Were you a favorite with him?

WC:I tried to be.

FH:Was he a polygamist?

WC:Yes.

FH:How many wives did he have?

WC:He had three wives.

[David Henry and Wilhelmina Logan (Mousley) Cannon were married January 15, 1859 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah. David Henry Cannon married Josephine Langley (Crossgrove) on October 19, 1867 in Salt Lake City, Utah. On June 20, 1877 David Henry Cannon married Rhoda Ann (Knell) in St. George, Washington County, Utah.]

FH:How many children did he have?

WC:[He had] thirty-two [children]. The first wife had ten [children] and the other two [wives] each [had] eleven [children].

FH:Was your mother the third wife?

WC:Yes.

FH:What do you remember about your mother?

WC:My mother was born in Salt Lake [City]. Her father [Robert Knell] and mother [Mary (Crook) Knell] were both born in England. They settled in Kaysville [Davis County, Utah]. When [Colonel Albert Sydney] Johnston's Army came to Utah they 00:15:00were asked to move south. They went down as far as Alpine [Utah County, Utah]. When it quieted down they went back to Kaysville. [Inaudible] Grandpa grew up and clerked in a men's furnishing store in London as a boy. He came to America, to Utah, [but] he didn't join the church until after [he arrived here]. He had a brother [who] came to Utah with him. I don't know whether they came together or not. [His name was] Benjamin Knell. My grandfather was Robert Knell [and] was the older of the two. Uncle "Ben" came out to Utah [and] was a missionary [to the] Indians. He went with Jacob Hamblin and those people. He was one of the pioneers in the little town of Pinto [Washington County, Utah]. That is just over the hill from Pine Valley [Washington County, Utah]. Grandfather was a 00:16:00bishop of the little Pinto Ward for about forty years. [My] mother grew up in Pinto. She had a sister older than she was [who] married [very] young and went to [live in] Beaver [Beaver County, Utah]. Mother went to Beaver to school with [an] aunt for a couple of years.

[My] grandfather taught school in Pinto except the [few] times he went to Beaver. Grandfather taught [her] all the [education] she ever [received]. My mother was [emotional] --.

[TAPE RECORDER TURNED OFF]

WC:[My] father was a character [and] horse crazy. If he wanted to speak highly of a lady he would say, "She is a thoroughbred."

FH:Is that what you feel about your mother? [Can] you name [your mother's] eleven children?

WC:Yes. [Eveline] "Eva" [Cannon] was the oldest and Robert [Knell] Cannon was next. He died [February 20, 1880] as a baby [when] only a few months old. Then I 00:18:00came next. There was another boy, Clarence [Cannon]. I can remember him walking around in the house. That is about all I can remember of him. He was two years or maybe two and a half [years old] when he died [November 20, 1883]. [Eveline "Eva" married Joseph Walter Webb December 18, 1907. On August 15, 1956 she married Robert Parker Woodbury.]

The next [child] was a girl, Rhoda [Knell Cannon]. She grew to maturity, married [Alma Hyrum Bryner on September 8, 1907 in St. George] and had two children. Then she died [on March 13, 1914] leaving these two children. Mother raised those two children, a boy and a girl. The boy was a funny [boy]. He didn't like to go to school. He was in the junior high school. He went to school and the teacher asked him a question. He was [a] smart aleck and said, "I greased my hair last night and it slipped right off my mind." The teacher said to him, "We don't want any smart alecks in this class. You get out of here and don't you come back until you can behave yourself." He went right home and said to his grandmother, "Grandma, I am going to California and go to work. I am not going back to school." She tried to talk him out of it but he insisted on going to 00:19:00California. When he [arrived in] California he had less than $5.00 in his pocket and had to grab the first [job] he could get. In those days, the stock quotations came in by telegraph. He [found] a job writing the stock quotations on the blackboard. [Then he became] interested in stock quotations [and began] speculating in stocks.

When he was [younger], he was the tightest, stingiest [boy] you could ever think of. If he wanted to go to a dance, he would say, "Grandma, do you [have] a dime you can give me to take my hat?" She said, "I have a half a dollar, but I don't want to break into it. If I break into it, it will soon be gone." He would borrow the dime off his grandmother. He paid her back. When he [went] to California and [started working] with the stocks, everything he [did] turned to cash. He is worth a quarter of a million dollars now. He is still down in California.

Ellie was [the] girl and she grew to maturity. After she [was] grown, she went 00:21:00to Cedar City and [became] a beauty operator. [She had a friend] from Lund, Nevada. Her people were born over in Santa Clara [Washington County, Utah]. This niece of mine and [the] girl from Lund roomed together up in the Beehive House. The church had a place for girls and these two girls [became] very chummy. [My] 00:22:00niece went to Price [Carbon County, Utah] and ran a beauty shop there.

She and this girl went to Chicago [Illinois] to operate a beauty parlor and she [became] acquainted with some fellow. I don't remember just where he was from. I don't remember the details, but this girl picked up with a boy. He was studying electrical engineering in Chicago and was coming out to visit her. He had a chum. He said, "Get your girl to get me a blind date and I will go with you." [My] niece had [a] blind date with [the] fellow who was coming out. They had 00:23:00[the] date and he stayed a couple of weeks and went back home. They started a correspondence. He came out a time or two afterwards and they did a little courting.

Her brother was in San Francisco [California]. His sister came out to visit him. She was a beauty operator and he [had] a chance to get her a [job as a] beauty operator on an ocean liner. She spent a year [doing this]. This fellow she had been corresponding [with] had been out a time or two and when he [arrived] here she was out on the ocean. He stopped in San Francisco as she came in. He said, 00:24:00"Now I have had enough of that. We are either going to get married or call it off." So they came here to St. George and [were] married in our house.

He went back to [the] Chicago area. I don't know if he [lived] right in Chicago. He was an electrical engineer and [became] executive vice-president of the electric company, Huen [Electric Company] that was supplying [electricity] in 00:25:00the Chicago area. [They] had two children. He is still executive vice-president of that company. I guess he draws a salary of $18,000.00 or $20,000.00 a year. They have a beautiful home. I have visited them in their home in Chicago. Their two girls are both grown and married.

[TAPE RECORDER TURNED OFF]

WC:After their mother [Rhoda Knell, the next child] was Walter Cannon. He grew to maturity here. He is the father of Senator Howard Cannon of Nevada. He died a 00:26:00few years ago [August 15, 1957]. He and his wife [Leah Sullivan were married June 9, 1909 in St. George and] had three children, two girls and [a] boy. Senator Cannon was the oldest of the three [children]. The older one of the two girls married and lives in Ogden [Weber County, Utah]. She had two children. The [other] girl and lives in California. Her husband works [in] the movie [industry].

[The oldest daughter, Eveline, married George Jay and they lived in Ogden, Weber County, Utah. They retired to St. George and both died here. The second daughter, Ramona, married Corlas Schmutz and they lived in California.

-- Added during editing by David C. Cannon, grandnephew.]

[The next child was Clara Cannon. She married Milton Burgess on September 5, 1912 in St. George. They had five children [two girls and three boys.]

The next one was my brother, [Vernon] "Vern" [Cannon]. He lives in St. George [and] is a laborer here in town. [Vernon and Ada Larsen were married July 6, 1915 in St. George.] [They] have one boy [who lives] in Las Vegas [Nevada] and the rest of his [children, a girl and two boys] are here.

The next one was Douglas [Cannon]. When World War I [began] he went in [military service]. He had graduated from Dixie College before [the war started]. He 00:28:00didn't get out of the United States [during the war]. When the war was over, he came home and went up to the AC [Agricultural College, Logan, Cache County, Utah] and graduated. He married a girl [Henrietta Amelia "Crissie" Christensen] 00:29:00from Ephraim [Sanpete County, Utah on December 23, 1925]. [She] was a graduate from Snow [College]. When he graduated, he went to Tremonton [Box Elder County, Utah] and taught school [at] Bear River High School for forty-three years -- thirty-five [years] in the same room. He taught mathematics. His wife taught in the elementary school until they pushed her off the end of the bench. They still 00:30:00live in Tremonton.

Earl [Cannon] was the next [child]. He [started] working in the [United States] Post Office [and became] assistant postmaster in St. George. Politics changed and the inspector came down to St. George and found a shortage in the books. The new postmaster had a [person he wanted] and laid my brother off. While they were making an investigation a petition went in with 700 signers asking for an investigation. They never had one [and] he was sent out anyway.

World War II [started] and he went off with the [Utah] National Guard to California. After he [was] down there, there was a shortage in the camp post office. Because of his experience, they put him in the post office in [the] San 00:31:00Luis Obispo [California camp]. He gave the postmaster here as a reference and the postmaster gave him the best write-up of anybody he ever heard of. They put him in the post office and he stayed there. When the war was over, he was still [working] in the post office. He [went to] Santa Monica [California] and stayed [there] until he retired. He [became] an inspector [for] the post office. He is still [living] down in that country [area]. It was the best thing that happened to him, I guess, because he [went to] Santa Monica and invested what he [had] and invested it well. He is a [very] well-to-do fellow now. He was married 00:32:00[toAlice Parry on July 14, 1926] before he went down there [and] raised his family [of a girl and two boys] there.

There is one more -- his name is Harold [Cannon]. He has been [a] cook [at] the Big Hand Café for more than twenty years. [Harold married Vernessa Fern Jones.] The first of the year [1969] he retired from there and is [living] here in town. [They had three boys and one girl.]

[END OF TAPE ONE -- SIDE ONE]

FH:[This] is a wonderful family. They are all people who are well respected and have good records.

WC:Yes,

FH:Were there any faith-promoting experiences in your life or your parents' lives that should be told?

WC:My father was a leader in the community all his life and always [was] very, 00:34:00very prominent in church affairs.

In the good old days here in the church, there were two parties: the People's party and the Liberal party. The People's party [were] LDS [members] and the Liberal party were [the] non-Mormons. When President Wilford Woodruff came into office as president of the church, he said to the people, "I think you ought to divide on national party lines." When they did that, President Anthony W. Ivins was in the stake presidency in St. George. He was a very, very strong Democrat and canvassed [Washington] County [for] the Democratic party. Everybody in the 00:35:00county stood up, but my dad. My dad said, "I am a Republican." He was the only one in the county [who] stood up and said he was a Republican.

For years and years, nomination on the Democratic ticket was the same as [being] elected until, finally, I came along. They wanted to run me for [Washington] County surveyor and I was elected. I was the first Republican ever elected to office in Washington County. From 1915 to 1958, every election that came up, I was the [Republican] candidate for office. In 1958 they defeated me and stopped my pay so I quit.

FH:What did you do growing up just to have fun?

WC:We played like other [children] around on the streets here. We always had a lot of horses around. If we wanted to do anything, we would get on a horse and go do it. We had a little ranch just south of Enterprise [Washington County, Utah]. We always had a few cows and calves before we [had] those horses. We bought [the] ranch and went out there until I was about thirteen years old. When I was about thirteen years old, father thought we [children] ought to do something better than cow-punching, so he sold the ranch.

The ranch afterwards turned out to be a very profitable little place. It was just a small ranch. I was the last one of the family to ever have anything to do with Calf Springs [Creek, near Enterprise]. He [our father] had a little farm and we all worked on the farm in the summer and went to school in the winter. 00:37:00Some of us went on to college and some of us didn't. All of mother's children graduated at least from Dixie College. After the [son] who taught for forty-three years, [Douglas] graduated from the AC, he used to go to summer school [to] keep up. I think he never did get more than a bachelor's degree, though. I don't think he [went] beyond a bachelor's degree, but all of them [received] a bachelor's degree. "Vern" didn't [because he] wouldn't go to school. He said, "Anybody [who] would go to school was too lazy to work." He 00:38:00never did go to school.

FH:You have done quite a bit of reading in your life. Do you enjoy reading?

WC:Yes. I think I read more than anybody else here in this institution now. I take an evening paper, The Deseret News, every night. I take several magazines [and] read Newsweek every week. I take the Improvement Era and one or two other magazines. I do quite a lot of reading. I can't do anything else.

FH:It's a nice thing you can read.

WC:I think I am quite fortunate. Now, [when] I read very long, the words tend to 00:39:00run together and I have to give it up. So I can't read as much, but I try to keep up pretty well.

FH:Tell about your courtship and marriage.

WC:I went up to Salt Lake [City] to school. I will have to tell you a little experience I had. When I first went up to Salt Lake [City], Salt Lake County was all one stake. Uncle Angus [Cannon], my father's brother next older than he, was president of the stake. As I said, Cannons are all horse crazy. He used to drive around before there were automobiles to every place with a team and buggy. I 00:40:00lived with Uncle Angus the four years I was in Salt Lake [City]. One day we were out in one of the little towns -- I can't remember just which one. It was further south than Murray [Salt Lake County, Utah].

FH:[Was it] Midvale or South Jordan [in Salt Lake County]?

WC:There wasn't any Midvale in those days. They didn't call [the areas] that in those days. There was Sandy [Salt Lake County, Utah] and Draper [Salt Lake County, Utah]. It doesn't matter. We were down there and we stopped at one of the bishop's places. He came out and we sat in the buggy. The bishop said, "Brother Cannon, I have been thinking of going into the saloon business. Men 00:41:00will patronize those places and there is money to be made at it. I think I just as well be making some of that money as anybody." This was in the days of the open saloon. Uncle Angus patted him on the back and said, "Capital idea, brother, capital idea. In connection with it, I would start a whore house. You have a wife and four daughters. I would prostitute that wife and four daughters. Men will patronize those places and it is easy money. You just as well be making a little of it as anybody." He spoke to his horses and drove on. I looked back and as far as I could see the man was standing there with his mouth open about like that. He said, "I guess he will start in the saloon business alright." [Laughter]

FH:[Laughter] [That] was a good answer.

WC:I thought so. Uncle Angus was that type of fellow. A spade was a spade with 00:42:00him. I lived with him all those years.

Over on the west side of Salt Lake [City] there used to be a Cannon Ward. That took everything south of what we used to call Tenth South [Street]. It is about Thirteenth South [Street] now. Uncle Angus's family moved down into [the] Cannon Ward. Uncle George's family was in Cannon Ward and it was named for Uncle George's family. Uncle George [Cannon] had a whole army of wives and children. When he died, he left twenty-one living sons. He had five houses down there just 00:43:00over on the east side of the Jordan River.

One winter, while I was living with Uncle Angus, he bought a home down in Uncle George's neighborhood and we lived there. When I [moved] down there, there was a family by the name of Anderson [living there]. My wife's family was living down in this Cannon Ward. They lived just on the west side of the Jordan River in what they called the New England Subdivision. It was a subdivision down from Poplar Grove. It was right down there south. My wife's folks [Mads Peter and 00:44:00Maren Christine (Sorensen) Andreasen] lived down there. We all went to [the] Cannon Ward [to] church. They had the whole area from Poplar Grove clear down [and] it was all Cannon Ward.

We used to have church at six o'clock in the evening on Sundays. One [Sunday] night when church let out, it was too early to go home. The [youth] wanted to do something else. We were all going home. My wife was an Anderson [Andreasen]. She was going off and there was quite a bunch of us going someplace else. They 00:45:00wanted her to go. She said, "No, if I go home now I will have company. If I go later, I will have to go home alone." I said, "Oh, come on, go. I will see that you don't have to go home alone." So she went along with us. We went to one of Uncle George's homes and spent the evening. She said, "You don't know where I would take you or you wouldn't say that." I said, "Oh, it doesn't matter where I take you. I will see that you get home alright." Over on [the] west side of the river in the spring the frost was going out of the ground and the mud was about shoe-top deep. Anyway, I took her home.

Another Sunday it was dark [when] I [went] out to her place. I had a hell of a time to get out there [when] my [galoshes] fell off. One of her brothers brought me some rags and tied my [galoshes] on and I came back home. The next Sunday one of her friends and we were in Salt Lake [City] fussing around, and she said, "Let's go over to Anderson's." This cousin of my wife suggested that, so we went over to Anderson's to visit. That kind of started us out. [On] March 17th the elders had a little celebration for the Relief Society. [The cousin] and I went 00:47:00out there a day or two before. I asked this girl if she would go to the dance with me -- the March 17th party. I said, "I don't dance." In those days a girl wouldn't go to the dance alone no matter what. So I went with her to the dance. That started our courtship. I courted her five years before she would marry me.

FH:It didn't happen very fast.

WC:I didn't have the price of a marriage license. [Laughter] I [was] out of school in 1906 and went right to Nevada. We did most of our courting by 00:48:00correspondence. I would come home occasionally. Before I went [to] Nevada, I went up to Eureka [Juab County, Utah] to work at the old Sioux [Con] Mine. When I went there, [the] Sioux [Mine] was just getting started. We struck ore shortly after I [arrived] there. I dug into the ore there. Stock [for the] Sioux [Con] Mine was selling at $.25 a share the day we struck ore. It went to $3.00 [a 00:49:00share] on one call. I stayed there and worked.

Finally, my wife was pregnant and I was still working [there]. I didn't have much of a job. It was 1907. [Inaudible] You don't know, but a panic came in 1907 and the mines closed down. If you had [any] money you couldn't draw it out of the bank. They were carrying house certificates and that sort of thing. Before they struck ore, the management of the Sioux Con [Mine] said, "You will have to take stock for pay or we will have to shut down the mine. We will give you 00:50:00one-third cash and two-thirds stock." I didn't have much of a job and I had the baby coming. I stayed there and took stock for my pay. They finally struck ore and things skyrocketed.

Then a snowstorm came [and] the roads were closed. You couldn't get through the country [area]. My wife was getting ready [to deliver]. She was going to Salt Lake [City] to be confined. We were living right up at the mine. She wanted to leave things in shipshape before she went away. She was going home, but this snowstorm came. I was working [the] night shift and when I came off shift at two 00:51:00o'clock in the morning her water had broken and it scared the dickens out of us. The roads were all blocked between there and Eureka. We were two or three miles out of town at the Sioux [Con] Mine. We had a telephone and I called a doctor in Eureka. He came up as far as he could [on] horseback. He left his horse and walked on over [to our house].

When he [arrived] he said, "You are going to have a baby before night. We will have to have a nurse." I said, "Can you get one?" He said, "I don't know. I [know of] one, but I don't know how she will get here." He called [her] and she 00:52:00came on horseback as far as she could, then she had to walk on over to the mine. She came and things went along alright. She [my wife] called her mother. The next day, her father and mother took the train and came out to Eureka. Meanwhile, the road from Mammoth [Juab County, Utah] around to the Sioux [Con] Mine [had opened, so] they went to Mammoth. I [had] a livery stable outfit bring them on over to the mine. They brought a girl with them and she stayed with my wife. [Her] father and mother stayed there about a week and then she [the girl] went home and things went along alright.

[The] stock I worked for went from $.25 [a share] to $3.50 [a share]. It paid a 00:53:00million dollars in dividends in less than a year. It skyrocketed and [inaudible] out a little. We got along and stayed there.

FH:Where did you get married?

WC:We [finished] school in 1906 and [on June 20,] 1907 we [Wilford Woodruff and Marie Kathren (Anderson) Cannon] were married in the Salt Lake Temple. In 1907 I went out to Nevada [to work] for [the] Boston [and Nevada Copper Company]. That is when I met this woman [who] wanted to know whether [inaudible] children. I 00:54:00came home. We had a party, and before my wife was up and going, I went back to the mine to Nevada. In those days, they kept a woman in bed ten days or two weeks before she was up stirring [around]. I had a good job [and] I couldn't leave it [except for] only a little while. I came home and before she was [up] stirring [around] I went back to the mine. The next time I saw that baby he could walk.

I came home for ten days or such and went back. I was out in the country [area] 00:55:00-- not right in Ely [Nevada], but in that area. I went back and forth. Damn it, she came out to the mine where I was when the baby could walk. She could take the Nevada Northern Railway and go around and get to Ely on the train. There were no roads in the country [area] then and no automobiles. She came out where I was and spent a couple of weeks and then she [went] home. I didn't see her again for a year. I came back to Salt Lake [City] and visited her.

Finally, when the second baby was born, I came home while the baby was born. Then I went back on the job. She came out in Nevada where I was and visited with me ten days, or such a matter, and then she [went] home. I didn't see her for a 00:57:00year. When I came back to Salt Lake [City], the baby was big enough to talk to me and said he was papa's boy. I tried to make friends with him and didn't have much luck. When I wanted to sleep with his mother, he was right in bed on one side and he crawled out on the other [side]. He wouldn't make friends with me. I said to my wife, "I am never going back [to the mine]." I quit the best job I ever had. I hadn't saved anything. We were just working to get money to [buy] bread to [have] strength [enough] to work. That is all there was to it.

I made a little money out of the stock that I [had] worked for and we invested it down here in St. George in a little farm. When the baby wouldn't make friends 00:58:00with me, we said, "We will go to St. George." We had to scratch [make do] off the poor folks head, but we were together anyway, [so] we picked up and came down. That was 1913. We [have] scratched off [the] poor folks heads ever since, but we have been together.

FH:Did you have five children?

WC:Yes.

FH:Tell about those children.

WC:The oldest one, the one that was born up at Eureka, was a girl. She grew to maturity. Her name was Marie [Cannon]. That was my wife's name. That was the only name up there, so we called the baby Marie. We stayed around Eureka for 00:59:00four or five years then after she was born. I worked in Eureka and we existed. Then I went back to Nevada [to work].

FH:Tell what happened to Marie.

WC:She grew to maturity. When she was grown, she wanted to be a nurse. She went up to the LDS [Latter-day Saints] Hospital [in Salt Lake City] and trained as a nurse. She graduated and [started] practicing. She married a fellow by the name 01:00:00of Cecil [Lee] Haycock [on June 3, 1929].

As she was growing up, she had typhoid fever and it left her with bad kidneys. She had trouble all her life. The doctor said to us as she was growing up, "If she gets married and gets pregnant, if she doesn't have the best of care, she will never make it." After she graduated as a nurse, she came back to St. George and married this Cecil Haycock. He was a pretty good fellow, but he was just a laborer. He worked for a construction outfit. He [became] a foreman [for] the construction outfit. He worked up at Zion [National Park] when they were 01:01:00building the lodge there. Then he went down to Grand Canyon [National Park] and worked on the lodge there. Then he [went] up to Bryce Canyon [National Park] and was working there.

She [became] pregnant and [was] sick. His people were raised out in Panguitch [Garfield County, Utah]. When the stampede came on the Snake River [Idaho] project, his family went up there. His dad worked up there. [Later], his dad 01:02:00moved down to St. George here. When she [became] sick at Bryce Canyon, he went back. His father and mother lived in Burley, Idaho and [they] went up there. She [became] critically ill. I was here and her husband telegraphed us that she was critically ill. We got in the car and drove up there. I [received] the telegram at five o'clock in the afternoon and before ten [the morning of] the next day I was in Burley, Idaho. But she died before [that] night [November 14, 1929]. We 01:03:00brought her here and buried her. She had this premature baby. They had him in an incubator for quite a long time [in] Burley, but he finally made it and grew to maturity.

After he graduated from high school, he wanted to go to BYU to school. He was planning on that [and] sent [us] word he was going to BYU. His father had a sister [in] Burley and she [had] raised him. When he was in high school, he 01:04:00borrowed one of her boy's cars. He wrecked that car [and] it took all the money he had saved to go to Provo to fix that car. He wrote me a letter and said he couldn't go to school at Provo that winter; he would have to wait.

I wrote him a letter [telling him to] come to St. George and go to Dixie [College]. "You can get as much information at Dixie as you could [at] BYU. If you will come down I will take care of all of your necessities and some of your wants. But make your wants few and far between." I sent him a ticket to come 01:05:00from Burley to St. George. So he came down and lived with us [and] graduated from Dixie College.

We had one boy [Wilford "Bill" Woodruff Cannon, Jr.] and he [became] a mortician and [had] the [Cannon] Mortuary here. This boy came down here and worked with my son and wanted to be a mortician. He went to California and graduated as a mortician.

[END OF TAPE ONE -- SIDE TWO]

WC:I would like to tell about this individual [my grandson]. I am quite proud of him [Clair Haycock]. While he was going to school in St. George, there was a service station right across the street from us and he worked [there]. He 01:06:00[became] quite a good service station attendant. After he graduated as a mortician, he came back home. There was a Rube Winterrose up in Cedar City. He was a mortician there and had a tremendous business. He said to me, "Tell your grandson if he would like to come here and go to work for me, I will give him a small wage and interest in my business. I have two boys, but neither one of them 01:07:00is interested in my business. If he comes, I will give him a small wage and interest in my business so when I retire he can take it over."

He went to work for Rube Winterrose in Cedar City. Rube was right generous with him. He would give him $10.00 now and $20.00 some other time and $50.00 some other time, but nothing regular. He didn't have anything. He kept saying, "Don't you think we ought to have a contract? If you die, where do I get off at?" Rube said, "Don't you have any confidence in me?" He said, "Every confidence in the world, but I have to have some assurance. I have to have a contract so I will know if anything happens to you where I will get off at." He kept talking about it, but they never did get under contract.

The [boy became] uneasy [so] he picked up and went to [Las] Vegas. He couldn't get a job in a mortuary, but he [took] a job in a service station. Because of 01:08:00his experience [in St. George], he [became] a right good service station attendant for the Standard Oil Company. He worked up to be head of one of the big companies down on the strip in [Las] Vegas. Then there was a vacancy in the office and he applied [for the position]. They sent him to California to learn the business. He came back home and went to work in the office. While he was 01:09:00there, the company took over the distribution of gas and oil. They piped the gas into Las Vegas and decided to turn it over to a distributor. There was only one man ahead of him. He retired and they gave the distribution of gas and oil in Las Vegas to this grandson of mine. He took it over [and] is still there. He is the biggest Standard [Oil Company] distributor in the country. There are only two in the United States [who] do a bigger business then he does. [There is] one distributor in Los Angeles [California] and one in Phoenix [Arizona who] do a 01:10:00bigger business than he.

He [received] a prize last year for showing the most growth of anybody in the system. They sent him to Hawaii on a thirty-day trip, he and his wife. They paid all their expenses -- picked [them] up in Las Vegas, took [them] to Hawaii and brought [them] home. They even paid a babysitter for their family while they [were away]. Now it isn't uncommon for him to sell 1,000 cases of oil in a month. He does a tremendous business. He has three big trucks and four drivers, besides himself, to distribute gas and oil in Las Vegas area.

He married a girl [Colleen Jolley, daughter of Ben Jolley] from over in Washington [City, Washington County, Utah]. If he had asked us to pick a wife for him we couldn't have been better pleased than we are with her.

FH:Was this the family of your first child [that you were telling about]?

WC:Yes. That was the only child she had. He has three children now, two girls and a boy. The oldest girl is seventeen [years old], one [next girl is] fifteen [years old] and the boy [is] thirteen [years old]. They live in [Las] Vegas.

FH:Tell about your second child.

WC:The second child used to distribute The Deseret News in St. George with [a 01:12:00cousin] Howard, the senator. They had the whole town and they used to do it on horseback. As I said, we are all horse crazy. Before my boy was big enough to get on a horse, I [had] a horse for him. He used to distribute the papers [on] horseback. He got a better horse. He got to the point where he had a thoroughbred [horse] that he used to deliver papers on. He was delivering papers in town one day and some [children] had had a swing on the sidewalk. [There was] a box on the gate post and he was leaning over and putting the paper in the box. The dog ran after the horse and the horse [became] caught in the swing and threw 01:13:00[the] horse, boy and all. [It] killed the boy when he was sixteen years old.

FH:What was his name? That was a hard [situation] to take.

WC:Yes. [His name was] Alma [Anderson Cannon]. He was sixteen years old when that happened. [He died March 22, 1926.]

FH:Who was the next one?

WC:The next one is a boy. He is Wilford Woodruff, Jr. He grew to maturity. He [found] a job with Pickett Lumber Company here in town. They did what mortuary work was [done at that time]. He [began] working with them and decided he would 01:14:00like to be a mortician. He talked to me about it. Mortuary work kind of gives me the shivers. I couldn't figure anybody would want to do that. I said to him, "Go down to California. If you have to get a job, [find] a job in a mortuary. If you have to work for nothing [inaudible] yourself. Let's see whether you want to be a mortician or not." He went down there to mortuary college and graduated. He came home on a visit and said, "I am more convinced than ever that I want to be a mortician."

He graduated from mortuary college and [found] a job in a mortuary down there. World War II [started and] the manager of that mortuary had a very close friend 01:15:00[who] was a congressman from California. He [became] quite [friendly] with my boy. This friend of the mortician was a congressman from California. The war came along and my boy joined the [United States] Navy and was stationed at San Diego [California]. There was a chance for somebody to go to Washington D. C. [to] study neuro-psychiatry. There were 500 applicants for the [position], but my boy got it. The congressman got him the job. He spent five years at Bethesda 01:16:00[Naval Hospital]. After the war, he stayed there in the psychiatry ward. For a long time he just devoted his time to taking nuts home, fellows [who] were scared to death in the war.

This California congressman's office was right across the hall from a congressman from Iowa. When my boy [went] down to Bethesda [Naval Hospital, the] congressman from California went into the Iowa congressman's office and said, "I 01:17:00am bringing you a husband from California." When my boy [was] out there, he introduced him to this girl [Susan] and they finally [were] married. He came out here.

I am going to say something catty. This girl was raised with a silver spoon in her mouth. She didn't have any more idea what a dollar was worth than a child. Anything she could buy on time, she bought it. He didn't have any more idea than she did, I guess. They [were] so damned far behind [financially] that they couldn't live. They separated. He turned everything he had over to her and went 01:18:00to California. He is in California working in a mortuary and she lives here. They have four children. They are not divorced, but they have been separated for a little over a year and a half now. [They have one boy and three girls.]

FH:Is he working down in Riverside [California]?

WC:Yes.

FH:Who is the next one?

WC:The next one is a girl. She graduated from Dixie [College] and wanted to go on to college. She went up to [Utah State College] Logan [Cache County, Utah].

FH:What is her name?

WC:[Her name is] Rhoda [Maren Cannon]. She went to Logan and graduated in home 01:19:00economics, came home and taught [school]. She met a fellow from Logan during the years she [was studying for] a bachelor's degree. He [received] a master's degree in agronomy. She taught school [while he studied for] a master's degree. His special [interest was a study] of tomato plant diseases. He worked at that awhile. Finally, he decided he wanted to be a medical doctor. She was teaching school and he was an outstanding student. He [received] a scholarship, went to 01:20:00California and graduated in medicine. He came home and set up shop.

FH:What is his name?

WC:His name is Arley Flinders. [Arley and Rhoda Maren (Cannon) Flinders were married April 29, 1943.] When he first [was] out of school he set up private practice in a little town, Sunset [Davis County, Utah]. That is almost on the dividing line between Davis County and Weber County. He built up a beautiful practice there. I said to him one day, "Is your business picking up pretty well?" He laughed and said, "Why, it can't. I have every minute of every day scheduled and I turn away nearly as many patients as I treat." He decided he 01:21:00wanted to [work] in public health [and] get away from private practice. He went to California and studied public health. He came back and [was] made Ogden City and Weber County Health Commissioner. They had a little different health setup in Weber County than they do anyplace else in the state. He was made Ogden City and Weber County Health Commissioner. He was there for awhile and politics changed. The new county commissioners cut $50,000.00 off [of] his budget. They changed things all around and he said, "Take it all," and walked off.

They had a son [who] was over in Denmark on a [LDS] mission. When they stopped 01:22:00Arley's pay, they went over to Denmark and spent two or three months [traveling] around over. While he was gone, they [hired] two or three others for [the] public health [position, but] didn't have any luck. They tried to get him to take [the [position] back. He said, "No, no, I have had enough." He [found] a job at Thiokol [Chemical Company] out up there at Hill Field [Hill Air Force Base]. He is the head doctor there now.

The boy who was over in Denmark on a mission is home and is studying medicine at the University of Utah. They [Arley and Rhoda] have six children. He is the 01:23:00oldest. They had three boys and three girls. I jest him about that and he says, "What is the use of being a doctor if you can't [inaudible]." [Laughter] He is studying medicine.

The second one is a great big fellow. He measures six feet four and weighs a little over 200 pounds. He is quite a football player and BYU offered him a scholarship to play football. He is in his senior year at the BYU playing football now.

The next one was a girl. When she graduated from high school, she decided she would like to come to Dixie [College] to go to school. She came down to Dixie 01:24:00and picked up a fellow here [and] married him. He used to be an actor. He was performing on the stage here and worked his way. He made application for a chance [at a] scholarship [in] New York. He didn't make it, but he is at the university now in his senior year [studying dramatics]. He was drafted and had to serve in the [military] service. Just a couple of weeks ago he had to 01:25:00[report] to San Luis Obispo [California]. The rest of the [children] are still at home. She [Rhoda] has three boys and three girls.

[Our] next [child] is a girl [Elaine Cannon] and she married [Milton Schmutz]. She went to school at BYU [after] she graduated from Dixie College. She [lived] in the same apartment [that] my sisters and I lived in when we were up there fifty years before. She graduated from there. The one girl [Rhoda Maren who] 01:26:00went [to] Logan [was] a clothing major and the second one [Elaine] majored in foods [and] became a dietician. She took up with a boy [Milton Schmutz] from St. George. He wanted to study veterinary medicine [so] they went up to Pullman, Washington. [There was] a hospital on the campus [in] Pullman and she [became] a dietician in that hospital. While he was studying veterinary medicine, she worked and put him through college.

When he graduated, he had a friend from San Bernardino [California]. They went 01:27:00to school together. This boy from San Bernardino, [his] father set him up in veterinary medicine in San Bernardino. There was another fellow [who] already had a veterinary hospital in California. He was after one of the friends [who] graduated. This other fellow was drafted and wanted to lease his hospital while he was in the [military] service. The friend of my son-in-law leased that hospital and my son-in-law went down and carried it on for two years. It turned 01:28:00out to be a bonanza! He saved nearly $20,000.00 [during] those two years [at] that hospital. Then he decided to get a hospital [of his own].

The fellow came home and he had to give up the business he had built up. He built a veterinary hospital in a little town just out of Pasadena [California] and it turned out to be a bonanza. You go down there to visit him and it wasn't uncommon to see him with 100 dogs in his hospital and other animals in proportion. I was there one day and a woman brought fifteen cats in there for him to handle. He was making $50,000.00 a year. It went to his head. He couldn't 01:29:00stand prosperity.

He [started] playing around with other women and she [my daughter] cut him off at the pockets. She [received] $750.00 a month alimony from him. When they divorced, I said, "Hang on to half of that hospital." It took her two years to get it, but she finally [received] an undivided half-interest in that hospital. I said, "Is he paying his alimony?" She said, "He has never been late a minute." She wasn't saving anything. She was spending it. She got a divorce. He married 01:30:00another woman. Finally, she married again. She married a man by the name of Harry Delaney. They are down in that country [area] now. He [her first husband] married this other woman. When they were first having their trouble, I went down to size things up --

[TAPE RECORDER TURNED OFF]

WC:-- [inaudible] something awful. They made up. After he made up, in less than 01:31:00three months he was at it again. So she cut him off at the pockets and he married the other woman. Finally, she married again.

FH:Is there another child?

WC:No. That is all of them.

FH:After [the] lifetime of experience [that] you have had, do you have counsel you could give to your descendants?

WC:Be diligent. That is the main thing. Be leaders. My [children] were fairly good leaders. The girls' husbands have both done exceptionally well. I would say 01:32:00above all be diligent and be upright.

FH:How long has it been since you lost your wife?

WC:Eighteen months ago today. [Marie Kathren (Anderson) Cannon died June 20, 1967.]

[TAPE RECORDER TURNED OFF]

FH:What caused you to lose your leg?

WC:I was an engineer and did public surveying [inaudible] for people. Some man from Santa Clara called me up one day and wanted me to come over where the black [lava] rocks are between here and Santa Clara. It is right in there. I said, "Is 01:33:00it much of a job?" He said, "No." He told me what it was and I said, "Let's wait until it cools off." This was on August 19, 1963. I went over there. When I [arrived], it was a little bigger job than I anticipated. I was hurrying as hard as I could [and] I collapsed out in the field. They gathered me up. I had my car with me and they put me in the car and I drove it home.

When I [returned] home I couldn't get out of the car. I lived right around here on Diagonal Street. I sat there in the car. I didn't go in the house and my wife came out to see [about me]. She said, "Why don't you come in?" I said, "I can't get out of this car." She called my son and asked him to come up. She told him what [had happened]. He [pulled] me out of the car and called Dr. McGregor. He 01:34:00said, "Take him to the hospital right now." So they took me down to the hospital and I was there for about ten days.

I [began to] feel better. This grandson of mine up [in] Ogden was going on a [LDS] mission. I [received] the letter. I hadn't been released from the hospital, however, but I was better. They were going to have [his] farewell up in Ogden. I said, "Doctor, can I go up to that farewell?" He said, "How could you get there? You couldn't drive." I said, "Wilford could take me in his ambulance up to Fillmore [Millard County, Utah]. Arley could come [down]. He has 01:35:00a station wagon and Wilford could put his cot in his car and I could go ride in the cot to Fillmore. They can take that cot and put it in Arley's station wagon and I could go." He said, "Well, if you will go that way you can go." So they arranged it and I went up there. Dr. McGregor said, "I will give you a letter to take to Arley," my son-in-law.

[TAPE RECORDER TURNED OFF]

WC:I went up to Ogden. The boy went on his mission. I was going to come home the next morning. My son-in-law said, "You are not as well off as when you came here. They haven't gotten to the bottom of your trouble. We have as good doctors here in Ogden as there are anyplace in the state. I think you ought to stay here 01:36:00until we get to the bottom of your trouble." My wife and I were both there. He took me right on over to the Ogden Clinic.

They went through the book from front to back. They gave me x-rays and blood tests and all that sort of things. When they [were] through, they took me down to the Ogden [McKay]-Dee Hospital. They started the other side of the book and went through it again. Finally, before they [were] through, they said, "You have tuberculosis." They took me to the tuberculosis hospital and went through the book again. That was in August and they kept me there until the latter part of 01:37:00[the] next April.

While I was there, something went wrong with my little toe on this foot. They examined that and finally said, "There is fungus growing on the bone." They took the little toe off and took it clear back to the ankle. It didn't heal. I had a hell of a time walking [inaudible], but it didn't heal. They opened it up and scraped the bone a time or two and still it didn't heal. Finally, they took me back [to the hospital] and took half my foot off [up] to about the ankle. Still it didn't heal. When I left, they said, "If that doesn't get it, we will have to take your leg off." I fussed with it until [I went] back and [they] took my leg off.

FH:Did they get rid of it?

WC:They got rid of it. I have been hobbling around ever since.

FH:Do you have a testimony of the gospel?

WC:Yes sir.

FH:Would you tell your descendants about that?

[END OF TAPE TWO -- SIDE ONE]

WC:I have been very much interested in the gospel. I don't know whether I have 01:39:00any specialty, but I have tried to live a good clean life. When I was down in Nevada I was a presiding elder in the branch there. There were just two families, I guess, besides mine. We lived in a little place they called Black Horse in Sacramento Pass just around the point from Osceola [Nevada]. I was there for five years.

My wife and I lived together [for] sixty years and we never had a heated argument. She never raised her voice at me in [those] sixty years. She never yelled at one of the [children]. Sometimes I had a little tendency to get my voice up high. When I did, she would say [something] like this, "I am not deaf. If you are talking for the benefit of the neighbors, go over there. It will take less energy." By the time she had that said, I would get my feet back on the ground and things went well.

We tried to be reasonably good Latter-day Saints. I [have been] president of the Elders' Quorum since I have been back [in] St. George. I spent fifteen years as 01:41:00a member of the High Council and visited around here as a member of the High Council. I have seen so many things --.

[END OF TAPE TWO -- SIDE TWO]