St. Francis of Assisi Church - San Francisco

My great grandfather, George Q. Cannon, a participant in the gold rush, spent the greater part of 1850 in the gold fields near Sacramento. His journal for 1850 did not begin until September 24th. On October 25th, he and some other participants in the gold rush, arrived in San Francisco as they prepared to leave for the Sandwich Islands on a mission. On October 29th, he mentions a parade through the streets of San Francisco in celebration of California being admitted as a state "into the Union." As part of the celebration, he mentions a prayer by a "Rev.------" before an oration by the "Hon Nathan Bennet" which lasted 1 1/2 hours in the "Public Square." On November 15th they boarded the ship Imaum of Muscat in preparation for their departure.

George Q. returned to San Francisco from the Sandwich Islands on August 12, 1854 and helped Parley P. Pratt prepare his autobiography. He stated, "San Francisco has altered much; new wharves and new buildings have given the place another aspect. In levelling the streets they have had great labor in blasting, excavating &c, the ground being very hilly." On September 23rd he left San Francisco to return to Salt Lake. George Q. returned to San Francisco in 1855 to print the Book of Mormon in the Hawaiian language and to publish a newspaper. He arrived in late June 1855. He finished typesetting the Book of Mormon around January 26, 1856. Just a few weeks earlier than that, on January 4, 1856, he ran a prospectus for a weekly newspaper to be called the Western Standard. The first issue of the Western Standard appeared on February 23, 1856. In December 1857, with an army advancing on Utah, George Q. closed up shop in San Francisco and returned to Salt Lake City.

At the beginning of the gold rush in 1849, San Francisco had the Mission Dolores, or the mission church of San Francisco de Asis, which primarily worked with the native Indians. It was 3 1/2 miles from the docks. The city consisted of about 450 inhabitants. With the gold rush,  San Francisco quickly grew by thousands. On June 12, 1849, the Catholic Church officially established St. Francis Parish and had a small wooden shack serving as the church. This is the church George Q. would have seen before leaving for his mission to the Sandwich Islands. There is a drawing of the church at the church website. On June 17, 1849, the first parochial mass was celebrated in California. In 1851 an adobe structure replaced the wooden one. This is the church George Q. would have been familiar with while helping Parley P. Pratt on his biography, while preparing the Book of Mormon for publication and while printing the Western Standard. On October 2, 1859, the cornerstone was laid for the new St. Francis church to be built right over the existing structure. On March 17, 1860, a Norman Gothic church with twin campaniles, was dedicated. Following the San Francisco earthquake on April 18, 1906, the interior of St. Francis Church was gutted by fire, but the outer brick walls remained entirely intact. The church was completely rebuilt using the existing brick walls and rededicated on March 2, 1919. The church is now the National Shrine of Saint Francis of Assisi and includes holy relics of St. Francis, Clare of Assisi and Anthony of Padua.

While Judy and I visited San Francisco recently, we stopped in to the St. Francis church. It is located in North Beach, now the Italian section, very close to Chinatown.

It is quite distinctive, sitting on a hill with almost a luminescent paint job and small crosses on each of the spires.

It would have been quite close to the water when built. The land extends quite a bit farther now than it did then due to ground fill. Just down the street is the landmark Transamerica building. 

The date 1849 adorns the church, the date when the first wood shack was built. 

A historical bronze plaque on the front of the church.

It is small but beautiful inside:

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Unusual Cannon Christmases - Nine Generations

1779 George Cannon, age 13, of Peel, Isle of Man, was seven months into a ten month voyage on the ship Rawlinson, from Liverpool to Jamaica and back to Liverpool again. On Christmas day, he was likely in Kingston, Jamaica, enjoying copious amounts of rum, even at that age, as sailors were want to do.

1787 George Cannon, was only three days at sea from Liverpool into an eight and a half month voyage on the ship James, from Liverpool to Jamaica and back again. He was probably enjoying the Christmas spirits, but was still close to land and having to pay careful attention to the workings of the ship. It would have been a working day.

1788 George Cannon was nine days at sea from Liverpool into a seven month voyage, again on the ship James, from Liverpool to Jamaica and back. He was a little further from land than the year before, and depending on the weather, may have had more time to enjoy the Christmas spirits.

1790 George Cannon was nine months into a three and a half year voyage of the slave ship Eliza. He was likely in Anomabu on the Gold Coast of West Africa, present-day Ghana. He may have been enjoying native spirits made from fermented coconut oil.

1791 George Cannon was 21 months into the voyage of the ship Eliza. He was likely in Cape Coast Castle on the Gold Coast of Africa, present-day Ghana.

1792 George Cannon was 33 months into the voyage of the Eliza. During the past year he had gone from the Gold Coast of Africa to deliver 119 slaves in Falmouth, Jamaica, had sailed to New York, perhaps back to Jamaica, and on Christmas day was at sea on his way back to Cape Coast Castle on the Gold Coast to purchase more slaves.

1793 George Cannon was likely back home in Peel, Isle of Man. During the year the Eliza had gone back to Kingston, Jamaica with 167 slaves and then sailed back to Liverpool, arriving in early September. Less than a month after Christmas, in January, George, flush with cash after all of those months at sea, loaned 20 pounds to his parents, Hugh and Eleanor Cannon, secured by their home in Peel.

1794 George Cannon married Leonora Callister on February 3rd in Peel and she was four months pregnant when he left in July for a voyage as first mate on the ship Good Intent. The Good Intent sailed to Angola, Africa, where it purchased slaves, then sold the slaves in Grenada and sailed back to Liverpool. The birth of George’s first child, George Cannon (who later emigrated to Nauvoo) on December 3rd, and Christmas day both occurred while George was at sea, sailing between Angola and Grenada. Surely, as he drank his grog on Christmas day, George wondered whether Leonora and his first child had survived childbirth.

1796 In June, George sailed as first mate on the ship Helen from Liverpool headed for Angola in Africa to purchase slaves and then to Barbados and Antigua in the Caribbean to sell the slaves. Leonora was five and a half months pregnant with their second child when he left and the child, Leonora (who later emigrated to Canada and married John Taylor), was born on October 5th while George was in Angola. It appears that in late November or early December, while on the Middle Passage, the Helen was captured by a French privateer, the ship Scipio (England and France were at war with each other). The Helen was later recaptured by the President Sloop, part of Admiral Harvey’s Squadron of the British Navy in the West Indies and was taken to St. Kitts. George likely spent this Christmas as a prisoner of the French, at sea, wondering if Leonora and his second child had survived childbirth and also wondering when and if he would see his family again.

1798 In June, George left Liverpool as first mate on the ship Iris for Bonny, Africa (present-day Nigeria) to purchase slaves. Leonora was several months pregnant. Captain John Spencer drowned in Africa in August and George replaced him as captain. After purchasing 420 slaves, the Iris headed for Kingston, Jamaica. While in the Caribbean, Captain Cannon and the Iris captured two vessels as prizes, the North America and the Uncle Toby, one a French and the other a Spanish ship. The prizes and the slaves were taken to Kingston. Captain Cannon celebrated Christmas day in Kingston, likely a very happy day as he contemplated the substantial riches he was likely to realize from the capture of his two prizes, and a complete reversal of two years prior when he spent Christmas as a prisoner of a French privateer. Captain Cannon got back to Liverpool in April. His third child, Thomas, born in January, was likely not alive, as he died in infancy.

1799 After less than three months at home, George Cannon left Liverpool in July as captain of the Iris, this time headed for Angola in Africa. For the fourth straight voyage, Leonora was pregnant when George left home, but this time he may not have been aware of it as she was only about one month along. On Christmas day, Captain Cannon was likely in Angola. He may very well have spent the day with the captains of other slave ships, and local Portuguese and African slave traders, as was the custom, drinking and eating in celebration. George arrived in Kingston, Jamaica in August to sell his slaves and the Iris, leaking badly, was condemned. Captain Cannon had to get passage back to England on another ship, arriving in November after being gone for 16 months.

1801 Captain Cannon celebrated Christmas at home in Peel, owner of a new home, purchased in October, located at 7 Michael Street. When advertised for sale 14 years later, the home was described as a large dwelling house three stories high, with four rooms on each floor, an excellent cellar, with a stable and backyard on “one of the most convenient and pleasant streets in Peel.” His father, Hugh, had died earlier that year, so his mother, Eleanor, who lived nearby, likely spent the day with him and his family.

1802 Captain Cannon left Liverpool on September 29 as captain of the ship Minerva. On Christmas day, he was likely in Bonny (Nigeria), spending his fourth Christmas in Africa, dining with other captains and local African traders. In April, he delivered 212 slaves to Nassau, in the Bahamas and was back in Liverpool by August.

1810 William Cannon, brother of Captain Cannon, was likely killed when the ship he owned and was captain of, the Leander, wrecked on Great Manan Island in the Bay of Fundy, near Nova Scotia, in September or early October 1810. Captain Cannon may have had William’s widow, Alice, also a resident of Peel, over for Christmas that year.

1811 Leonora Cannon likely spent Christmas day at home in Peel with her family. Captain Cannon, just eight months after the death of his brother William, was killed in July in a mutiny on his own ship. Captain Cannon’s family had done very well financially, but now the breadwinner was gone. It was a time of belt tightening as well as sorrow.

1825 George Cannon, son of Captain Cannon, and Ann Callister, both originally neighbors in Peel, where they grew up, were married on October 24, 1825 in Liverpool. They were in the midst of the Industrial Revolution, and George, a carpenter, was likely lured to Liverpool seeking a job. Their first Christmas as newlyweds, was likely spent in Liverpool.

1840 George Cannon’s brother-in-law, John Taylor, arrived in Liverpool in January, having left Nauvoo at the direction of Joseph Smith, to go on a mission to England. Taylor immediately went to the Cannon home, located at 43 Norfolk Street, to introduce himself. A month later, in February, George and Ann Cannon were baptized into the LDS church and Taylor lived at the Cannon home while proselyting in Liverpool. In June, at the instigation of Parley P. Pratt, the three oldest Cannon children, George Q., Mary Alice and Annie were also baptized. Later in the year, Taylor went to the Isle of Man to preach. George Cannon and family likely spent Christmas day at home, with John Taylor, and perhaps some other missionaries. The amazing progress of the LDS church in England, and Taylor’s experiences with family and friends in the Isle of Man, were likely topics of conversation during the day.

1841 John Taylor and many of the other LDS missionaries, including Brigham Young, Heber Kimball, Wilford Woodruff, Willard Richards and Orson Pratt, left Liverpool in April to go back to Nauvoo. During the year, many ship loads of LDS converts left Liverpool to join the saints in Nauvoo, including a ship with 170 converts, which left on November 8th. George Cannon and his family were anxious to do the same and were working to save money and prepare themselves to go. Christmas day was likely spent in Liverpool with the anticipation and sorrow that this could be their last Christmas in England and the last time that they might see other family members.

1842 George Cannon, the immigrant, with his family, left Liverpool on the ship Sidney on September 18th, headed for Nauvoo, Illinois. His wife, Ann, died on October 28th off the coast of Louisiana and was buried at sea. They then took a steamboat up the Mississippi River from New Orleans to the vicinity of St. Louis where their steamboat got stuck in the ice. George rented a home in or near St. Louis where they spent their Christmas. It would have been a Christmas of many mixed feelings: much sorrow for the loss of their wife and mother, and great excitement to meet Joseph Smith and be with the Taylors and other saints in Nauvoo. In the spring, once the Mississippi opened up again, they took a steamboat to Nauvoo where they arrived on April 12, 1843, greeted by John and Leonora Taylor and Joseph Smith.

1844 On June 27, Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, were killed by a mob in Carthage, Illinois. George Cannon built the drag, kind of like a large sled, that their bodies were brought back to Nauvoo on. He also made their death masks, clipping off a lock of Joseph’s hair, caught in the plaster, and giving it to his son, David. During this time of uncertainty and hardship, George left his family in Nauvoo and traveled to St. Louis to find work. There, on August 17 he died of sun stroke. George Q. and his sister Ann, moved in with their Uncle and Aunt, John and Leonora Taylor. John Taylor was with Joseph and Hyrum when they were killed. He was shot four times and was severely wounded. He was shot in the left thigh (the bullet grazing the bone), the left hip (leaving a hole the size of a cup), his left arm (the bullet lodging in his hand) and below the left knee. Mary Alice, just age 15, married Charles Lambert on November 28 and she and Charles took care of her two youngest siblings, Angus and David. It would have been a hard Christmas that year, following the death of their father, the death of the prophet, the near-death of their uncle and the splitting up of their family. I am sure they must have questioned their parents’ decision to leave England.

1849 George Q. Cannon was on his way to the gold fields of California with a large group, including Charles C. Rich, Jefferson Hunt, Addison Pratt and Henry Bigler. Having traveled across the Mojave Desert, they were resting up at the Isaac Williams Ranch, also known as the Rancho del Chino, in what is now Chino, California. The day before Francis Pomeroy made a plum pudding, Addison Pratt shot several ducks and a curlew and they “dressed” a “bullock” and appointed cooks to make the Christmas dinner. Christmas day the “earth [was] green with grass and wild oats” and they had a dinner with “plenty of roast beef and potatoes, baked ducks and plum pooding.”

1850 George Q. Cannon was on the Island of Maui in the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands on an LDS mission. He spent the day reading and studying the Hawaiian language. “My thoughts naturally reverted to home and its attractions.” He thought members of the family might be “wondering where George is today.”

1851 George Q. Cannon spent Christmas with Brothers Winchester and Burnham on the Island of Maui. Christmas morning, Mr. Rice arrived from Waiehu. “We spent a very agreeable day and had an excellent Christmas dinner, but still my thought naturally reverted to home and its attractions and I could not help wondering whether I was forgotten by the folks amid the general festivities. We had in the evening a candy frolic a spirit of hilarity and mirthfulness prevailed.”

1853 George Q. Cannon was in Hanapepe, Kauai. On Christmas Eve, he “[c]ommenced reading the translation of the Book of Mormon, in company with Bros. Farrer and Kauwahi, for the purpose of correcting any inaccuracies that might be in the translation and to see that no words or sentences had been left out.” On Christmas day, “[v]isions of the enjoyments and pleasures of home floated through my mind…Bro. Wm. Farrer went to meeting at Hanapepe this morning, leaving Bro. Lewis an me here; -- our residence was the old prison house of this place, it being vacated in consequence of all the law breakers being sent to Lihue; our dinner consisted of a calabash of poi, and a dish of boiled sweet potatoes and pork. Truly it requires the spirit of the Lord to enable an elder thus to isolate himself, from all that is near, dear, and attractive to him on earth, and take up his abode among a semi-barbarous people and in an out of the way place like this, where there is no attraction, except to do the will of the Father; -- for one who has ever known the pleasures and true happiness of a life among the saints, and yet under these circumstances, I spent a very happy day,-- I preached morning and afternoon on the first principles/ I never preached better to my own satisfaction on these subjects, and, although, laboring under a heavy cold, I was blessed with strength and an abundant flow of the spirit and of the teaching; the saints appeared to be filled, and all rejoiced in the blessings of the new & everlasting covenants. Three were confirmed who had been baptized.”

1862 George Q. Cannon was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve and President of the European Mission. He was in Liverpool on Christmas day. “Arranged for a Christmas dinner for the Elders and the brethren in the office, there were present: Elders [Jacob G.] Bigler, West, B[righam]. Young Jr., John M. Kay, and Sis. Kay, Elders Bull, Shearman, Sloan, Perkes, Graham and Sister Graham, Bros. D. M. McAllister, Robert R. Anderson, Ephraim and Wm. McMillan. The dinner was excellent and did E. credit and all enjoyed themselves very heartily. In the evening we all attended tea party in the chapel, and had an excellent evening's enjoyment in listening to the singing, recitation and acting. There were two pieces performed: "The Phenomenon In a Smock Frock," and "Box and Cox." The acting of Bros. Graham and Perke's was admirable. The folks from the office were the main contributors to the evening's amusements, and I was much gratified with their efforts.”

1876 George Q. Cannon was a counselor to President Brigham Young and was in Washington D.C. as a non-voting delegate for Utah Territory in the U.S. Congress. “Took the train at 9.20 last night for New York. We put up at the St. Nicholas which hotel we reached between 7 & 8 this morning. Remained there until a little after noon, awaiting the arrival of Rudger Clawson, Bro. John W. [Young] having said that he would meet us. We then walked up Broadway and took a car to Central Park. The ground was covered with snow but there were immense crowds of people pressing to the skating pond. This was so crowded they could hardly skate and to make it still more unpleasant the ice was covered with snow. Went to Wallack's Theatre in the evening, and saw "Shaughraun" Mr. Boucicault's famous Irish comedy. The acting was very good and the scenery was very fine.”

1881 George Q. Cannon was a counselor to John Taylor and was in Washington D. C. as a non-voting delegate for Utah Territory in the U.S. Congress. “Christmas day. I spent it principally in my room reading the Books of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants. After dinner I took a walk for an hour and a quarter. Received a very interesting letter from my son Abraham, dated the 8th inst. at Berlin, Germany. He has been traveling in Germany, having left Bern about a month and a half ago, and has labored in different parts of Germany among other places, Nurnberg and Berlin. At Nurnberg 20 members were added to the Church while he was there, and to many outside he had borne his testimony and they had promised to investigate the doctrines further. The police had been after him at Nurnberg, and at Berlin the meetings are all under the supervision of the police, and if it was known by the officers that he was there in the city, he would have to march very soon or be imprisoned. The evening previous to his writing there was no officer present at the meeting, and he therefore addressed the assembly; but that morning early, a detective was around making inquiries in regard to him, he having learned by some means that a stranger addressed the meeting. He says he means to be as wise as possible, as he had no inclination to see the inside of a German prison, still he means to do his duty whatever the result may be. He expected to go to Hamburg in a few days, to assist Bro. Guhrke, who was in prison and would not be released till the 17th. He was alone so far as Elders were concerned; but he was enjoying his labors very much, and rejoiced that he had the privilege of laboring where he was, and of bearing his humble testimony to many persons. Being away from English-speaking people was an advantage.”

1884 George Q. Cannon was in Salt Lake City. “Spent the day with my family at home. We had a dinner to which I invited my sons John Q., Frank, and Abraham with their wives in which we all attended except Frank who was detained by the sickness of his child at Ogden, but promised to be down in the evening. He failed, however, for the same reason to be here. In the evening attended the theater with my wife Sarah Jane, Angus and David and saw the opera "Bohemian Girl" and enjoyed it very much.”

1885 George Q. Cannon. “The family were greatly pleased with the presents I gave them. We had a quiet day. Angus [Cannon] and myself spent considerable time conversing with Pres. Taylor whose health was not good.”

1886 George Q. Cannon was a counselor to John Taylor and they were on the “underground” due to their plural marriages. On Christmas Eve, he noted, “Our usual correspondence was attended to. In the evening my brother Angus and myself went to the city. It was a very dark night and it was with difficulty we could keep the road. We reached the Tithing Office about eight forty five where Bro. Wilcken was waiting and he drove me to my home on the [Jordan] river. I found all well.” On Christmas day, “I had a very pleasant day with my family. My son Abraham called to see me, also Bro. H. B. Clawson. I made a present to each of the children, except the four youngest, of a bible. The older ones received valuable editions, the five boys having bibles given them which I thought would answer their purpose as missionaries should they ever go out preaching. I had very serious talk with my older sons, enquiring into their secret lives and habits; to my son William, especially, I talked with very great plainness. I slept in my secret place of concealment.”

1888 George Q. Cannon was in the Utah Penitentiary serving a five month sentence for unlawful cohabitation. We do not have a journal entry for this date, but we do have journal entries for part of the time he spent in prison.

1890 George Q. Cannon was a counselor to President Wilford Woodruff. On Christsmas Eve, “I went home a little earlier than usual, hoping that by some exertion I could get my new kitchen prepared for us to have our Christmas dinner in the dining hall, but I found affairs too far behind for this.” Christmas day, “I spent the day at home and visited my family a little. Had a call from Brothers F. Armstrong and A. E. Hyde, who came to see me respecting the laying of the corner stone of the sugar factory tomorrow. They said that Bishop Cutler would be greatly disappointed if I did not come.”

1891 George Q. Cannon was a counselor to President Wilford Woodruff. “I had invited all my children and grandchildren to take Christmas dinner with me, and they were all present today excepting my son Hugh, whose wife visited me, but could not stay. My dining room was full. There were sixty five sat down to dinner, each branch of my family at a separate table. All enjoyed themselves very much. We had a beautiful Christmas tree, and it was loaded with presents for the children, and in the evening the little wax candles were lit, which made the tree very brilliant. My gardener, John Young, plays very excellent music, and we all had a dance, which kept up till about 10:30. This has been a day of very great enjoyment to me, and I think it has been to the entire family, as all expressed themselves to that effect.”

1892 George Q. Cannon was a counselor to President Wilford Woodruff. “Held Sunday School with my children this morning, after the departure of John M. Cannon and Mr. C. A. Hall, who came down and breakfasted with me. Had an interesting time with my children. At 2:00 I was at the Tabernacle. The speakers were Bro. Junius F. Wells and my son Abraham. A very good meeting. I think Abraham is improving in his speaking. He spoke with more vigor than I had heard him before. I drove around by Bro. Grant's to see his wife, and found her very low, but her mind bright and clear. This is one of the finest Christmas days I ever saw; the weather is charming.”

1893 George Q. Cannon. “Reached Salt Lake City at 3 a.m. Brother Wilcken and my son Hugh came up by daylight for me. I found my family all well, excepting Martha. Her disease seems to have settled in her left arm and it is helpless. Although I am cramped for means and unable to make the customary Christmas presents, I felt profoundly thankful that we had good health and could meet together under such favorable circumstances. I took my Christmas dinner with my wife Carlie.”

1894 George Q. Cannon. “I sat very quietly at home after visiting all my houses [on the Cannon Farm] and wishing my family a merry Christmas, until about 3 p.m. when my daughter Mary Alice and her husband came, followed by my sons John Q. and Abraham with their families. My adopted daughter Rosy was also there with her children. We spent a very delightful time together and had an excellent meal prepared by my daughter Emily. My wife Carlie had all her mother's family at her house.”

1899 George Q. Cannon was a counselor to Lorenzo Snow. This journal entry covers three days, from December 23 to 25. “I did not feel well and feared that I was threatened with a recurrence of pneumonia; so I determined to stay indoors these three days and see if a rest and keeping in the house would not help me. I felt myself benefitted by doing this. I had a very enjoyable Christmas. My family all called to see me.”

1907 Edwin Q. Cannon was serving in the Swiss-German mission in Tilsit, East Prussia (now Sowjetsk, Russia). He was staying with a married companion, Hermann Babel. They had a Christmas tree where they lived and a nice gathering with members and friends on Christmas Eve. On Christmas day they “had lots of good things to eat,” he ate dinner at Sister Onusseits and in the evening visited an investigator.

1908 Ed Cannon was serving in Leipzig, Germany. His companion was Archie Brockbank. They rented a hall in Leipzig. He got there early in the morning to decorate a Christmas tree. At noon he went to Bro. Schrodter’s in Golis for dinner and then their program at the hall began at 4 P.M. They had a program, including singing, which he participated in, then refreshments, and at the end, a short dance. The “celebration was quite a success.”

1909 Ed Cannon was serving as president of the Frankfurt Conference and living in Frankfurt, Germany. On December 23rd he “hired a Santa Claus suit for Christmas” and the elders met at 7.30 P.M. to practice. On the 24th he “worked in the hall all day.” He wrote to Luella Wareing [later his wife] after getting home. Christmas day he wrote, “Sister Wagner’s little child died the other day and was buried this morning at 8 A.M. Bro. Belnap and I and some of the saints attended the funeral and we sang ‘O Mein Vater’ and ‘Komm Heim’ and I dedicated the grave and spoke a few words to those present…Our Christmas program started at 4 P.M. and lasted until almost 7 P.M. We had over 180 grown people present 52 of them being friends [investigators]. Elders Stewart, Thompson and I ate supper at the ‘Salzhause’ then went roller skating. I took the part of “Sankt Nickalaus’ at the ‘Feier’.”

1947 William and Margery Cannon were serving in the Hawaiian Mission in Wailuku, Maui. The night before they went to a Christmas Eve program given by the Wailuku Branch. Afterwards, when they got to their car, they found “a sack of presents from the Akiu’s, and the Mokehas brought a chicken over.” Christmas day, “All of the missionaries around the vicinity of Wailuku had dinner at Afoon’s house, given by the Relief Society. Michael, just a newborn, was left “at the home of Mrs. Dutro in the evening and all went to a show. Pres and Sis Smith attended.”

1948 Marg Cannon had previously left Hawaii to go back to Salt Lake to have their second child, David. Bill was now stationed in Honolulu where he served as a counselor to the mission president, E. Wesley Smith. The day before, Bill visited his aunt and uncle, Florence and Chauncey Cannon. Then he went to his other aunt and uncle’s home, Irene and George Cannon, where he had dinner and stayed the night. Christmas morning “I found that Santa had visited leaving all of George’s kids a big pile of things. He also left me a stocking full of gadgets useful) and George and Irene gave me a Leather date book, a wallet, a box of candy, and other incidentals. They were surely kind. After noon we had the usual Turkey dinner with all the trimmings. We went for a ride in their sleek new Nash afterwards, and then I had to come back and prepare my Sunday School lesson.

1950 Edwin Q. Cannon and his wife, Luella Wareing Cannon, were in Frankfort, Germany, where Ed was president of the West German Mission. On Christmas Eve, they gathered around the Christmas tree had a prayer and Luella wrote, “Sister Zanner played ‘Silent Night’ on her flute. Again I was reminded of our son Ted, and of his first Christmas in the German Mission, at Insterburg. Ed asked Brother Wagner to read the Christmas story from St. Luke, which he did by candlelight. Brother LeRay McAllister and others sang. We had punch and cake and my homemade candy…My thoughts were of Salt Lake City and my family, and I had a touch of homesickness.” Christmas day, they “enjoyed the luxury of some relaxation in the morning.” They later enjoyed dinner at the home of some American friends, the Bernard Lewises, in Germany with the U.S. State Department. Then they attended an open house of the Norton’s.

1951 Ed and Luella Cannon were in the middle of remodeling the mission home in Frankfurt, Germany. Luella wrote, “Christmas was just another day of work, preparing meals for a big crowd in a torn-up house. We had a Christmas tree and for dinner we had a chicken pie and plum pudding.”

1952 Ed and Luella spent their third straight Christmas in Frankfurt, Germany. They had a Christmas tree on the garage of the mission home and one in a large second story window. On Christmas Eve, Luella made eight large and 13 small mince pies and crumbed bread for turkey dressing. Christmas day, the “Frankfurt missionaries came for dinner, and Clawson Cannon [Ed’s brother] also was with us for Christmas. We all went to the opera ‘Lohengrin’ in the evening.”

1970 My brother, Layne W. Cannon, was serving in the France – Switzerland Mission and was in Arles, France with Elder Gary Ballam. On December 24, Layne wrote, “Today…It is really Christmas…We went to the Marche and bought some candy for the stockings, and we went to the store and talked to our friend in the store around the corner, and she is really bugged with the fete. Her daughter is in bed with a bad leg, and she misses her husband and was really down, so I went to the Marche and bought her a turkey (a big one) and gave it to a girl to give it to her anonymously. She was cheered up the rest of the day. It was cool.” Later, “I was trying to think of something else to give to help someone else’s Christmas…That evening, we were tracting…and we decided to go get some candy for the kids at the door, and [Elder Shupe, their zone leader] told me about a family who Elder Ballam and he had tracted out earlier that day…[T] hey tracted out a family that was very poor. He asked if Santa Claus was coming, and they said, probably not, so he pulled out [some] candy and gave it to them. There were seven kids, and one sick in bed, and they went after it like crazy. He told me about that happening, and I just wanted to help them so bad. I had decided that the $50 that Tutu & Pop sent me was going to others as much as possible…I thought, and suggested to Elder Shupe, that we buy them a Christmas dinner. We went to a butcherie and bought already-cooked chickens, and two big cans of peas, and a big thing of saussison, and milk and mashed potatoes, and a lot of the chocolates and candy that we bought for the ZLs, and took it over to the place. There wasn’t anyone there, so we lifted up a curtain and the window in the door was busted, and put everything inside, and left. I really felt good about that the turkey. I wanted to give the store lady something that came from us and so we bought her some roses and gave them to her. She was really happy then. It was cool. I really had fun buying that stuff for everybody, buying the dinner and turkey and everything. We went to Soeur Moktar’s, and she and the gang were there, we sang a few songs and gave her her present…We then went to Soeur Aillaud and gave her and Frederic their presents, and they were happy. Especially Fred. We gave him a stuffed Babar elephant…Elder Trujillo gave her her interview for baptism, which he said went very well. He said she has a better testimony than most investigators…She is going to be baptized the 2nd…[W]e went home and made the rest of dinner…[W]e went to Midnight Mass, but got bored and left…I have had some cool feelings today.” The next day, Christmas day, “all I’ve felt like doing…is rest.” They went to Les Baux, a “place on top of the mountains. The wind was blowing very hard and it was cold.” They went back home and ate at Soeur Olivier’s, and went home and studied, then went out again at night and everyone was drunk…”

1971 My parents, Bill and Marg Cannon, my sister, Wendy, and I went to Europe to pick up Layne from his mission in France. We met him in Geneva where his mission was headquartered. We then traveled to Zurich where my uncle and aunt, Ted and Janath Cannon, were serving as presidents of the Switzerland Zurich Mission. The day before Christmas we traveled by van through Lucerne and then to Interlaken, a city between lakes and surrounded by the Alps. We traveled up into the mountains to the Jungfraujoch and then took a train through the Eiger, with views out onto its steep north face. We traveled back to Zurich where we spent the night. Christmas day we had a family program. We read the Christmas story in German and English, sang and had a small talent show. Marg and Bill sang the Hawaiian Wedding Song and Elder Nelson read “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” We visited a lady who lived across the street from the mission home. Layne wrote, “She had a Christmas tree with candles on it instead of lights, and candles all over.” That night we “all listened to an old tape of the family when we were younger, and the kids as they performed, and the tape of Grandfather’s [Edwin Q. Cannon] birthday in 1963…It made me want and kind of make a resolution that I would take pictures and keep tapes of the family…”

1976 I was serving in the England Birmingham Mission in Nottingham with Elder Gary Kearl. The day before we went to the Market Square to sing Christmas carols with 14 other missionaries. I had a scare as I lost Elder Kearl on the way on my bicycle and was razzed by some teenagers. I eventually found the place, but “we ended up having a large group of drunken people come down and join in with us which kind of ruined things.” Christmas day we cycled for 40 minutes, six or eight miles, to Wollaton, and had dinner with the Lowes. Sister Lowe mentioned that years before she had been tracted up by a couple of young missionaries. One was very charming and they saw her twice a week for about six months. She could not give up smoking and she lost contact. Eleven years later she was tracted up by the missionaries again. That time she readily accepted the gospel and gave up smoking. Her husband and children also accepted the gospel. “She said it was the influence of the first missionary that did it, and she said she often wished she could get a hold of him and tell him what he had done. The seed was planted, but he has not seen what it sprung. It turned out that young missionary’s name was John Preston Creer.” I knew his daughter at East High School in Salt Lake. So I wrote my sister, Wendy, who knew them, to have her tell him. We left the Lowes about 3:30 to cycle all the way back to West Bridgford and ate a “second Christmas dinner at home at Pilkingtons.”

1977 I was serving as an assistant to Pres. Eldon Callister in the mission home in Sutton Coldfield with Elder Rob Potter as my companion. From a letter to my parents dated December 26th: “I’m in Arnold, Nottingham right now, where we’ve come for Christmas. Elder Potter and I came up by train. At Nottingham II yesterday there were 13 Elders, and 10 down at Nottingham I…I spent most of yesterday at the Lewis’s home where they fed us. We spent some time singing Christmas carols…We had a mission wide Christmas seminar on Wed. where the whole mission met together at Woodsetton Chapel in Wolverhampton, and spent the day. We normally have a G.A. for it, but as Elder Brockbank is being replaced by Elder Cullimore—there wasn’t one available. The get together consisted of a mission wide scripture contest, which I conducted—then followed by 10 min. skits which each of the 10 zones produced. The zones in the missions are the Bedford, Northhampton, Newcastle, North Wales, Lincoln, Nottingham, Lichfield, Leicester, Birmingham, and then the Sutton Coldfield zone, which I’m in now. It includes the mission home, and some lower areas like Worcester, Evesham, Redditch, etc. The mission has about 196 missionaries. Also at the seminar we had a couple of speakers—Bro. Winfield, the Leicester Stake Patriarch, and Pres. Jogn Cox, a regional rep., and also Pres. of the Church Offices in Lichfield. Then we opened it up to testimonies for 1 ½ hrs. Also, we collected Christmas letters which we handed out, and stockings with fruit & candy, etc. It’s quite an enjoyable day. The mission collected 50 pence from everyone and bought the Callisters an old cuckoo clock and had it engraved “England Birmingham Mission 1977.”… We’re preparing for zone conf. which starts tomorrow, and will run for 2 wks. Tomorrow we’ll be out in North Wales.”

2000 Judy, Rachael, Sam, Andrew and I were in Paris, France, picking up Rachael who had just spent a semester there with BYU study abroad. We were staying in a hotel in Versaille. Judy brought small red stockings for our hotel room and we read the Christmas story from the Bible. We ate lunch at Le Madrigal on the Champs Elysees and walked through the Cathedral of Notre Dame where they were having a Christmas mass.

2004 Sam was serving in the Poland Warsaw Mission in Wroclaw, Poland. After talking with us for several hours on the telephone, he and his Polish companion, Elder Pawelczyk, met with Tomek at the local meeting house, eating and chatting.

2005 Sam was serving in Zabrze, Poland. We talked with him quite awhile on the telephone. Three days later Sam wrote his last email to us before returning home. “I feel a love for the Polish people that I hope will never leave me…a piece of my soul and heart shall always claim Polish soil…This is the last correspondence that you shall receive from Elder Cannon, and the last I shall write while still enjoying the mantel of a missionary of the Lord. Emotions are strong now and at the surface as I contemplate this fact.”

2006 Our daughter Rachael and her husband Nate Hutchings, were living in Tokyo, Japan. Judy was in Tokyo for the birth of Savannah, our first grandchild, in December. Judy came home to Redlands for Christmas, but Rachael and Nate spent Christmas in Tokyo with Savannah, as new parents.

GQC: Prison Journal

George Q. Cannon kept a diary while in the penitentiary. It was written in ink in a small leather-bound notebook and was found among his effects at his death. It starts with September 17, 1888 and ends on December 12, 1888. He was released from prison on February 21, 1889.[1] The entries that follow are from his prison journal.

September 17, 1888 (Monday):

The carriage which Bro. C.H. Wilcken had provided (one of the finest barouches of Grant Bro’s. & Co.) and driven by Bro. Chariton Jacobs, and which had carried Bro’s. F. S. Richards, LeGrand Young, C. H. Wilcken and myself from the Gardo House[2] to the Court Room, was accepted by Marshal Dyer to carry me to the Penitentiary. He and myself occupied the hind seat and Bro. Wilcken sat in front of us….The conversation on the way out was quite free and unrestrained and I enjoyed the ride. The Warden, Arthur Pratt was at Provo. Mr. Jenney and Mr. Doyle, turnkeys, the first outside, the second inside were at their posts, and I was introduced to them. The Marshal showed me through the main building which contains the cells and explained the method of opening and closing them. He spoke about my having my bed in the corridor, which is open and roomy, but thought I had better have a cell in which to keep things. He assigned me No. 120 on the end of the row on south and close to the lavatory. I told him and the other officials including the Warden whom I saw upon his return) that I did not wish them to grant me favors that would embarrass them by calling forth attacks from our enemies. I preferred sleeping in my cell, wearing the prison clothing and conforming in other respects to the rules of the prison. I would like the privilege of sending out and receiving manuscript. This the marshal said I could do. The brethren and the Marshal then left me…Bro. Wilcken brought an iron bedstead and a wire and woolen mattress; but they filled up the cell. By putting the wire mattress on the floor and making the bed on the floor, I did very well. We had supper at 5 p.m. The brethren bought me a pint of milk. We had oatmeal mush…At 6:30 p.m. all the prisoners, except those engaged in special duties, were required to come in the building. There are three tiers of cells, one above another. Those who are in the two lower tiers are soon locked in their cells; but the upper tier where I am is occupied by ‘trusties’ and our cells are not closed till about 8.45 p.m. The Warden gave me the privilege of keeping my cell door open if I so wished, a privilege which I accepted. Light are permitted in the cells – candles – as long as the occupants choose I suppose. There is a large lamp burning all night; it throws light in the cells. At nine o’clock p.m., at three taps of the bell, all conversation and noise must cease. I forgot to mention that, before the cells are closed of a night, a guard passes in front of all the cells and counts the prisoners, who stand at the door of their cells. There are two occupants to a cell as a rule, and as there are 120 cells, 240 prisoners can be accommodated. The cells are iron, 5 feet by 7 feet, and the front, including the door, is iron lattice-work. The prisoners sleep on strips of canvass, stretched lengthwise in the cells, one above another and fastened at each end by leather straps. After being slept in, they assume a trough-like form, and are not comfortable the brethren say. A mattress helps the sleeping very much, as it has a tendency to level up the hammock. Brothers A. N. Hill and his son Samuel and Bro. W. J. Parkin were sentenced to-day and came out to the penitentiary. The first had 50 days and a fine of fifty dollars; the second had 60 days and a fine of [omitted] and the third had fifty days and fifty dollars. Quite a contrast between these sentences and those inflicted by Judge Zane. When these brethren arrived there were loud yells of ‘fresh fish’ heard all over the yard; this being the mode of salutation with which all new arrivals at the penitentiary are received. I escaped this reception, a fact that was commented upon by the brethren. My arrival created a sensation among the prisoners, especially among the brethren. They gathered around me and were desirous to know all that had occurred. I made full explanations…It is two years and six months to the day, since the time I should have appeared in Judge Zane’s court and two years and seven months to the day since I was put under $45,000 bonds.

September 18, 1888 (Tuesday):

At 5 o’clock a.m. the guard came along in front of the cells and tapped at the doors of the ‘trusties.’ When they were dressed the doors of the cells were opened and they marched off Indian file, to their labor. At six o’clock a bell was rung a number of times and we had to arise and dress. In the corner of every cell there is a recess in which a galvanized slop bucket with a cover stands. On the bucket is painted in large figures the number of the cell. Smells from this recess ascend through a ventilating shaft…This slop pail is for the night use of the occupants of each cell. At 6.30 a.m. the bell taps and every cell door is opened and from each is borne the ‘dunnigan’ as this vessel is called and is carried down outside and emptied. It is then rinsed out and is left in the yard till night. After this the prisoners are left to occupy their time, performing their ablutions, walking, as they please till breakfast time. When the taps of the bell are heard the prisoners march in Indian file into the dining room, where they stand on each side of the table until the bell taps, then they sit down. There are several tables in the room and there are waiters to each. All who do the work are prisoners. Through not understanding the best way I, twice to-day, had to sit among the ‘toughs’ as they are called. This name is applied to all who are committed for other crimes and offences than for violating the Edmunds-Tucker law. I am told there are 22 of them here, either convicted of murder, or awaiting trial for that crime. There are about 100 ‘toughs’ and to-day about 50 of our people for living with their wives. The ‘toughs’ are a most desperate lot of human beings, and the manner in which they profane the name of Diety is awful to the ears of the Saints. No knives and forks are permitted…The brethren have improvised knives out of spoon handles and other scraps of metal they have got hold of and made wooden forks. Spoons are permitted. Breakfast this morning consisted of meat swimming in soup gravy in a tin plate, with some small potatoes in their jackets and about two thick slices of bread…I do not drink either coffee or tea…At supper, at 5 p.m., we hade a plate of mush and tea and bread. I have ordered milk like the other brethren and Bro. Winslow Farr has helped me to butter at each meal, which as I am not much of a meat eater, I have appreciated.

September 19, 1888 (Wednesday):

…Bro. John Squires shaved me and insisted on cleaning my shoes. I worked at my Life of Joseph. I also had a good walk in the yard before and after breakfast and conversed with several of the brethren about their cases and their feelings and testimonies. Bro. Wilcken and my son Abraham visited me, and brought me a nice vessel for my butter and also some butter, and a stone pitcher for my milk, and some peaches. They also brought a wire cot and woolen mattrass better suited, because of being narrower, than the bed I have this latter they took back. I was permitted to converse with them half an hour…I was measured this morning by Bro. Burgon, one of the prisoners, for my prison suit. In the afternoon…had a visit from Brothers James Jack and O. P. Arnold. They brought me a small box of cigars for Mr. Doyle, the Turnkey, and a bag of grapes. When a visitor comes with permission to see a convict the Turnkey outside informs the guard on the walls, who shouts the name aloud. This is taken up by the convicts and the whole place resounds with the name of the person desired. If more than one is asked for then all the names are called out. There is a line plainly marked in the yard which is called ‘the dead line.’ This must be crossed in the face of a guard on the wall armed with a Winchester rifle. The rule is for the convict, who crosses the dead line to go to the gate, to throw up his hand as a signal to the guard on the wall, who responds. The inside gate is opened from the outside. When the convict whose name has been called opens that gate, he finds himself between that and the outside gate. They are three or four feet apart. Then the janitor opens the outside gate and the prisoner emerges into the passage way. There is still another gate to pass through; but in the daytime it stands open. In a small wooden building the visitor sits awaiting. All the conversation must be in the hearing of a guard. No writing must pass without his examination of it. Nothing is permitted to be carried in without undergoing scrutiny. I am told that I can go outside and read the local daily papers, but they must not be taken inside. Semi-weekly papers, or weeklies, are the only ones admitted.

September 20, 1888 (Thursday):

…I spent time to-day on my Life of the Prophet. Bro. Franklin S. Richards was brought out to-day by Bro. C. H. Wilcken. He had a long private conversation with me in the Warden’s Office concerning the plots of my enemies. Nelson and C. C. Goodwin of the Tribune had been before the Grand Jury to give testimony…against me with the hope to get me indicted for adultery. The most of my wives had been got out of the way. Bro. Richards desired my views respecting my wife Carlie giving testimony to show she was my legal wife, having been married to me subsequent to the death of my wife Elizabeth. He left me till to-morrow to think about it.

September 21, 1888 (Friday):

Had another visit from Bro. F. S. Richards and another private conversation with him. I told him to keep Carlie from giving evidence if it could be done without injury to my case; but if it appeared that matters would be worse if her evidence should not be forthcoming then for her to be produced and go before the Grand Jury…My sons Frank and Abraham spent half an hour with me. I told them of a plan I had to get up a work in which the judicial proceedings of the Courts for the past three years would be set forth. I desired them to take it in hand as soon as convenient after the Life of the Prophet is completed…[T]he Grand Jury visited the penitentiary. About six or eight of them called upon me…I worked very hard to-day at the MS of my Life of Joseph.

September 22, 1888 (Saturday):

…Warden Pratt invited me out to his office to read the daily papers sent to me. He remarked that anything I wanted in the shape of food &c. would be permitted to come in to me.

September 23, 1888 (Sunday):

I sponged off with a wet towel this morning in my cell…At 3 p.m. there was religious service held; a Swedish minister did the preaching. He read his discourse from MS. I am told it was much better than the average discourse from the ministers, Methodist and Episcopalian, who come here. The subject was the resurrection of the Savior. The singing was by a choir, composed with one exception, of our people, and was led by Bro. Lorenzo Waldron. The organ was played by a colored boy who is sent here for rape.

September 24, 1888 (Monday):

My visitors to-day were my son Abraham…I worked all my spare time at my Life of the Prophet Joseph. A new order was issued to-day concerning the closing of the cells on the tier where I was. They were closed at 6.45 p.m. instead of 8.45 p.m. Eight of the brethren were released this morning…

September 25, 1888 (Tuesday):

Brother C. H. Wilcken and Charles Nibley came to see me to-day. I was kept very busy preparing MS for my Life of the Prophet Joseph. The brethren are all very kind in bringing me articles that I need.

September 26, 1888 (Wednesday):

My son Abraham and Bro. Webber came to see me to-day. Prepared MS for my Life of Joseph.

September 27-30, 1888 (Thursday to Sunday):

…My cell has seemed a heavenly place and I feel that angels have been there. I have had visitors each day – Bro’s. C. H. Wilcken, H. B. Clawson, Wm. Budge, F.S. Richards, Le Grand Young, my sons Abraham, Franklin, wife and son, and Hugh…and a Real Estate Agent named Glassman who came with Brother Grow to see me about some disputed land over Jordan, the title of which is in Pres. B. Young’s estate….On Sunday I opened a Bible Class at 9 o’clock. There were fully 60 brethren present and a number of the other prisoners. We read the first five chapters of Matthew and then I asked Questions concerning what we had read. We opened and closed by singing and prayer. A most delightful spirit prevailed and I felt – and this was the general feeling – that great good would be done by keeping this up. At 2 p.m. we all had to repair to the dining room to attend religious services. Professor Talmage and Bro. C. H. Wilcken and two other brethren and three sisters had come from the City to hold meeting. The singing was very delightful and caused the tears to come to my eyes. Brother Talmage delivered an interesting discourse.

October 1, 1888 (Monday):

My sons Franklin and Abraham came out and had a private interview with me this morning, this privilege having been granted by the Marshal. I gave them my ideas concerning the book which I wished to have published. My son David[3] came out with them. We were very glad to meet. Brother C. H. Wilcken also came out as usual. He brought two boxes of grapes which I had Bishop Winslow Farr and Bro. John Squires divide among the brethren.

The Preface to The Life of Joseph Smith the Prophet, Salt Lake City, Juvenile Instructor Office, 1888, is dated October 1, 1888, Utah Penitentiary. It states, "To the Author its preparation has been a loving duty. In the midst of a somewhat busy and laborious life, he has found comfort in the contemplation of this great subject. The closing chapters, detailing the final sufferings upon earth of the Prophet of God and his ever-constant brother, were finished in a prison for adherence to the principles which they taught, and for this, the Life is invested with a dearer regard. To send the work away now is like being torn from a beloved companion when most the solace of his friendly presence is needed."

October 2, 1888 (Tuesday):

I wrote Topics &c. for the Juvenile Instructor this morning. I had many visitors in the afternoon…[including] my son Abraham, my brother David and my brother Angus’ wife Amanda…I learned that Bro. John Squires has been pardoned by President Cleveland. My brother David [who] surrendered to the deputy, Marshal McGeary, had been tried before Commissioner Jordan at Silver Reef – there were five witnesses in the case – and he had been acquitted. This was good news…

October 3, 1888 (Wednesday):

It is very gratifying to be told, as I have been a number of times that my coming here had been productive of good in the improved feeling there is manifest on every hand. My coming has been a comfort to the brethren here. There has been so much talk of concession, and Brother Caine’s speech in Congress, to the effect that ‘polygamy is a dead issue,’ that some of the brethren scarcely knew what to think. My coming here has had a good effect on this account, if upon no other, it proves that the leading men are willing to suffer but not to concede. Brother Joseph Thurber, who has been here longer than any of the brethren - 21 months - says last Sunday was the best Sabbath he has seen in the penitentiary. Others remarked the same.

October 4-5, 1888 (Thursday to Friday):

These are visiting days. At 9 o’clock three bells are rung and we all had to go into the prison, so that we would be at our cells when called. The visitors have two hours during which they can come in the forenoon and two hours in the afternoon. Each visitor or party of visitors can only remain half an hour. The interviews take place in the dining room and there is more liberty allowed there than upon other occasions; that is, the guards did not stand and listen to all that was said. Brother Arthur Stayner spent half an hour with me on each of these days conversing upon the manufacture of sugar. On Thursday he was followed by Bro. Geo. Stringfellow whose kindness in calling so often in 1878 to see Brothers Brigham Young, A. Carrington and myself when imprisoned for contempt of court by Judge Boreman, I shall not forget.[4] At the close of my talk with him Bro. C. H. Wilcken came with Sister Roueche, also Bro’s. John Morgan and M. F. Cowley. I…told Brother Morgan I wished the Sunday School Union or particularly Brother Geo. Goddard and he would procure us an Organ for our Sunday School and worship in the Penitentiary. I was called to-day as one of the pump police. Their duties are to pump water with a force pump out of the well in the yard to the cistern in the top of the building. There are six assigned to this duty each day and they are kept busy. Bro. Mark Burgess proffered to do my share at pumping. Several others did also. I felt much obliged to them and accepted him as a substitute with the expectation of paying him.

October 6, 1888 (Saturday):

I had a call from Bro. J.L. Townsend of Payson and arranged to have articles, illustrated, on Botany written by him for the Juvenile Instructor. Bro. C. H. Wilcken also made a visit as usual. Bishop H. B. Clawson called and had private conversation, by permission, with me…

October 7, 1888 (Sunday):

The new organ came out yesterday afternoon, and the Warden, Mr. Arthur Pratt, gave me the privilege of holding Sunday School in the dining room. The officials are very kind and accommodating and our people are surprised at the favors granted. Contrary to usual custom the floor of the dining room was washed last evening instead of this morning, so that it might be ready for us. Including myself there were 81 present at school this morning. I divided them into four classes and gave one to Bishop Winslow Farr, to F. C. Boyer, and Saml H. Hill and to myself. I spent about 45 minutes explaining what we had read. Mr. Putnam of the Episcopal Church came out to hold services in the afternoon. He went through the forms, reading prayers, and responses were made by a lady and young man whom he brought with him. His discourse was a very weak effort.

October 8, 1888 (Monday):

Had calls to-day from…my cousin Joseph J. Taylor and Bro. C. H. Wilcken.

October 9, 1888 (Tuesday):

…Had calls from…my son Abraham…

October 10, 1888 (Wednesday):

Bro. C. H. Wilcken brought out a wagon load of my children to-day. I was greatly pleased to see them, though sorry to find that Read has been and still is quite sick, suffering from fever. There were Lewis, Rose, Annie, Emily, Brigham, Read, Joseph, Sylvester, Preston, Carl, Mary and Ether Davey. William also came and brought with him Emma Wilcken, a daughter of Bro. C. H. Wilcken. Brother H. B. Clawson also came out and had a private interview with me. Since Bro. John Squire’s departure, he having been pardoned, I have been shaving in the barber’s shop in the yard, in which two of the convicts do the shaving. I am to pay them so much a month, according to the number of times they shave me. They use my razors, soap, &c. I get a bath once a week. The man who keeps the bath rooms in order is quite accommodating and lets me bathe when the rush is over. Shaving and bathing at regular times are compulsory. If these rules and the cleaning of the cells were not strictly enforced the condition of affairs in the prison would soon be unbearable, for some of the prisoners would soon become filthy.

October 11, 1888 (Thursday):

…Twelve of the brethren came in on Tuesday evening from Judge Judd’s court at Provo…I had a very pleasant visit with Bro. Will. A. Dougall and his wife, Maria; the latter a daughter of Pres. B. Young. She brought me a beautiful bouquet, which I afterwards gave to a typhoid patient…My son Frank[5] called and had an interesting conversation with him concerning the book I wish written and published concerning the administration of the Edmunds-Tucker law. Afterwards had private conversations with Bro. F. S. Richards and C. H. Wilcken…I wrenched my knee this morning in bed - the knee that I sprained some years ago and that I hurt when I fell off the train - and I suffer pain in it when I walk.

October 12, 1888 (Friday):

Had conversation with Mr. Doyle, the Turnkey on our principles and bore testimony to him concerning their divine origin. Had a visit from Brothers John Henry Smith and Heber J. Grant…Bro. Saml H. Hill received the sad news of the death of one of his sons, 11 years old, of dyptheria. He was permitted to go to the funeral services accompanied by a deputy marshal…

October 13 to 19, 1888 (Saturday to Friday):

…On Sunday I held Bible class and was called out to see Brothers F. S. Richards, S. Thurman, Judge Dusenberry and W. H. King of Fillmore. Bro. Thurman came to explain his management of the cases of the brethren at Provo, with which I had told Bro. F. S. Richards the brethren who had been sentenced there were much dissatisfied. Brothers Dusenberry and King came to see me about political matters. Mr. Putnam preached on Sunday and did better than before. He passed my cell where I stood with several others and he came to me and asked how I was and said I was looking very well. I do not know how he knew me. I have had visitors every day. Brother C. H. Wilcken, my Sons Abraham, who brought Willard, Grace and Brigham; he also came himself the next day…David and Mary Alice called on Wednesday and Frank and Hugh on Thursday…I gave Mary Alice an Order on my son Abraham for $20 each quarter of the year. This is the interest of $1,000 which now that she is 21 years of age, I desire her to have. Her birthday was the 16th inst. Bro. C. H. Wilcken called upon me on Friday, the 19th, and brought two trout and a lot of wild ducks for me. He gave the Warden fish, and ducks also. I desired to leave mine outside for the guards or to be cooked for the sick or the aged; but the Warden urged me to have them taken in and have them cooked. I had the cooks divide them with the guards and themselves and others whom they thought suitable. I had a piece of fish myself and a small piece of duck.

October 21, 1888 (Sunday):

…Bible class [is] very interesting to me. There were nearly one hundred present this morning. In the afternoon Mr. and Mrs. Archibald (Methodists) held meeting. She is a very sweet singer. He preached the best, so I am told, he ever did. He praised men who had backbone and who stood up for the right; and said the nearer men lived to God the more they would be opposed. Dr. Shipp has been very attentive to me in rubbing my knee and it has much improved.

October 23-25, 1888 (Tuesday to Thursday):

I had calls from Bro. C. H. Wilcken…and my son Abraham on Thursday. On Wednesday, I was for the first time…spoken to authoritatively by any one of the guards. A set of rules has been recently drawn up and printed and hung up for the prisoners to observe. Among them is one to the effect that a prisoner must take off his hat when he enters a room where the guards are. I was called outside to the round house to meet Brother Wilcken. I entered and sat down, as had been the practice previously, without taking off my cap. Brother Joseph Thurber did the same…One of the guards, who has been brought from the city to take the place of one who is sick, and whose name is Bush, punched Bro. Thurber with his cane and told him to take off his cap; then he turned to me and told me to do the same, and directed my attention to the rules which were hanging up. I did so without any remark; but the manner of the man stirred up Bro. Wilcken and when he saw him prepared to sit down and listen to our conversation he stepped out to Mr. Hudson and requested the privilege of speaking to me alone, he having an order from the Marshal to have this privilege whenever he desired it. Mr. Hudson came in and told me to walk over to the Warden’s office where we could converse alone. It is this Mr. Bush who had Bro. N. V. Jones put in the sweat box when he was here for some trifling cause…Warden (Mr. Arthur Pratt) has spoken to me concerning Mr. Bush’ remark to me and hoped I would not notice it. He had sent him back to town, because he thought him unsuitable to be here.

October 26 to 30, 1888 (Friday to Thursday):

I have had three visits from Bro. C. H. Wilcken, two from Bro. Clawson…my sons Frank and Sylvester (Friday) and William and Lewis (Monday). The Marshal had an interview with me on Friday and another on Monday…Had a good time in Bible class on Sunday. No preacher came from town. Bishop Geo. Halliday and Bro. Henry Nebeker…came to prison Saturday evening.

October 30, 1888 (Tuesday):

Brothers F. D. Richards & F. S. Richards came to see me about Receiver’s compensation and affairs of Deseret News Co…I had calls through the week from my daughter Mary Alice and sons Abraham, David, Preston & Carl. Bro. Wilcken came every day. Brothers H. B. Clawson, O. F. Whitney…A. O. Smoot…my sister Mary Alice…

November 4, 1888 (Sunday):

…Bro’s. S. P. Teasdal…and John T. Caine with whom I had a long conversation in the Warden’s parlor…

November 6 to 21, 1888 (Tuesday to Wednesday):

During this period I have had the usual visitors…On Tuesday and Thursday [Nov. 8] I sat for my portrait with the brethren. They formed different groups, and each group desired me to sit with them. Thursday was a very chilly day and I was kept out, most of the time with my head uncovered, for about two hours, sitting before the Camera. The result was I took a very heavy cold. Bro. C. R. Savage, accompanied by May Wells the first day, and Bro. Ottinger, Jr., the second day, was the photographer.

On Tuesday, the 20th I was surprised by receiving a visit from Hon. Geo. A. Halsey of New Jersey, who had come out to the Pen. To see me. We had served together in Congress.[6] He was accompanied by a party of prominent gentlemen, to whom I was introduced. Mr. Halsey said he had been much interested in watching my case and therefore desired to see me. After inquiring as to my treatment and how I bore my confinement he asked me what I would do when I got out. This he said pressed upon him…I described how necessary it was that we should have clearly defined what we could do with our families and what we could not do without violating law. In conclusion Mr. Halsey said when you get free, you have influence, come East and get these matters arranged. I told him I might call upon him to help. He said he was not in Congress, but he would do what he could…On the same day I met and had conversation with Major Strong and Mr. Perry of the Dept of Justice who came here to inspect the prison. I have had an interview with Bro. John T. Caine and several interviews with Bro. F. S. Richards in which I have urged attention to a number of points, principal of which is to get some ruling, if possible, to define what men can do for their wives and children with out being open to arrest when they emerge from the Pen; and also to do everything possible to prevent indictments and convictions for adultery, especially to have a count for unlawful cohabitation and a count for adultery cover the same time. This I view as another form of segregation and punishing twice for the same offence…I find it difficult to get down to writing much in prison. The atmosphere is not favorable to it, besides the brethren keep me well occupied relating to me their circumstances, asking counsel, asking questions concerning doctrine, &c. In addition I am called out often to see visitors and this occupies considerable time.

November 29, 1888 (Thursday):

Was taken in the evening by [omitted] to Bro. Woodruff’s where I met Pres. W[oodruff]., Bro. Jos. F. Smith and Mr. Alex Badlam, Jr. Spent two hours & a half with them. (Must describe this meeting hereafter). At 9 p.m. [omitted] called for me and took me back. Bishop H. B. Clawson remained at the Warden’s while I was gone. On Saturday the Warden was kind enough to take me down to my house on the river and see my son Read who I was told was dying. I had a brief visit, with the Warden’s permission, with my folks and my sister-in-law, Jane Simonds. Read is very low. I felt well in administering to him. I took dinner at my wife Elizabeth’s late residence – the best meal I have had in eleven weeks.

December 12, 1888 (Wednesday):

I had two or three visits from Bro. John T. Caine before he left for his post at Washington…Had a call this morning from Marshal Dyer & Warden Pratt. They accompanied Mr. [omitted] one of the clerks of the House of Rep’s at Washington. Had a pleasant interview. The Marshal informs me that Apostle Lyman has surrendered this morning and asks till Jan. 12 to appear. [This is the last entry from George’s prison journal.]

On February 21, 1889, George was released from the penitentiary after five months. President Wilford Woodruff wrote in his journal: “G Q Cannon left the prision this Morning. Called at My house at the farm with Br Wilkin. I rode with him to his. I went with Brother Cannon to his house. Took Breakfast then rode to the Presidents Office & met with many of the Brethren.”[7]

ENDNOTES:

[1] Hamlin, p. 395.
[2] The Gardo House had been the business office of Brigham Young and later was the business office of the presidents of the Church. (Hamlin, p. 395, n. 15)
[3] David H. Cannon died shortly thereafter while on a mission to Germany. Hamlin, p. 401, n. 21.
[4] George Q. Cannon, Albert Carrington, and Brigham Young, Jr., as executors of the estate of Brigham Young, refused to divulge certain facts to the Court and were sentenced to the state penitentiary on August 4, 1879 (not 1878) for contempt of court. On August 28, 1879, the Supreme Court of Utah set aside Judge Boreman’s order and the prisoners were released. Hamlin, p. 402, n. 23.
[5] Frank had great admiration for his father. After his father’s death, he said the following: “There are memories in a man’s life that have a peculiar value. One such, to me, is the picture I have in mind of my father undergoing his penitentiary sentence, wearing his prison clothes with an unconsciousness that makes me still feel a pride in the power of the human soul to rise superior to the deformities of circumstance. Charles Wilcken…was visiting him one day in the prison office, when a guard entered with his hat on. Wilcken snatched it from his head. ‘Never enter his presence,’ he said, ‘without taking it off.’ And the guard never did again…I salute the memory. I come to it with my head bare and my back stiffened. I see in that calm face the possibilities of the human spirit. He was a man!…He spent his time, there, as he would have spent it elsewhere, writing, conferring with the agents of his authority, planning for his people….I know now - though he never said so - that he was looking toward the necessary recession from the doctrine of polygamy, and that he may have counted on the spectacle of his imprisonment to help prepare his people for a general submission to the law” (Under the Prophet, pp. 81-82)
[6] Halsey was a manufacturer from New Jersey and served two terms in the House of Representatives. Hamlin, p. 408, n. 28.
[7] WW Diary, p. 381.

GQC: Surrender and Sentencing on Unlawful Cohabitation Charges

On February 7, 1887, in In Re Snow, 120 U.S. 274 (1887), the U. S. Supreme Court heard Lorenzo Snow’s denial of a petition for a writ of habeus corpus. He had served one of his three sentences. The Court overturned the segregation policy. It ruled that since cohabitation is a living or dwelling together, it was inherently a continuous offense, and not one consisting of an isolated act. If segregation were allowed, there would be nothing to prevent making each week a separate offense. Under those conditions Snow’s 35 months of proved cohabitation could have resulted in imprisonment for 74 years and fines amounting to $49,000. “It is to prevent such an application of penal laws, that the rule was obtained that a continuing offense of the character of the one in this case can be committed but once, for the purposes of indictment or prosecution, prior to the time the prosecution is instituted.” This was the last constructional case involving the Edmunds Act.

On March 3, 1887, Congress passed the Edmunds-Tucker Act without the signature of President Cleveland. It provided for immediate compulsory attendance of witnesses without a previous subpoena being necessary, and it permitted, but did not compel, wives to testify against their husbands. Certificates had to be issued for marriages performed. Illegitimate children born at least a year after the Act were disinherited. The attorney general was to escheat all property (houses of worship excepted) beyond $50,000 owned by the Church, for the use of the schools in the territory. As an example, the Perpetual Emigrating Fund was to be abolished and the proceeds on hand were to be used for the common schools. The courts had the right to examine all books and documents of the trustees of the Church. The legal incorporation of the Church was dissolved, female suffrage in Utah was terminated, seats in the legislative assembly were to be redistributed by the governor, secretary and the Utah Commission. Voting, holding office, and jury service were all conditional upon signing a test oath pledging obedience and support of the anti-bigamy law. The territorial supreme court was to replace the school superintendent with another who would prohibit sectarian instruction. The Nauvoo Legion and local militia laws were abolished.

On July 25, 1887, President John Taylor died in obscurity while hiding from U.S. marshals at the home of a friend in Kaysville, 2 ½ years after his last public utterance. George wrote in his journal this date: “I felt that I had lost the best friend I had on earth; for he had been as a father to me in early life…To him I owe many things which impressed me in my boyhood and youth…He was a man whom I admired very greatly. I thought him the most perfectly controlled man, in the days when I lived with him, that I ever met. His independence of character…made a great impression upon my mind…Our associations since the First Presidency was organized, in October, 1880, have been always pleasant and agreeable. I may have differed from him upon some points; but I have always submitted to his judgment, as my head…I have always viewed him as one of the most noble men that have lived in this generation – a man whose integrity and valor, steadfastness and devotion to the Gospel have not been surpassed in those days.”

Previously, after George and Joseph F. Smith became counselors to John Taylor in the First Presidency, other apostles were called to fill their places in the Quorum of the Twelve. With President Taylor’s death the remaining apostles had to decide whether to accept Cannon and Taylor back into the quorum and increase its size beyond twelve members. If they were readmitted, would they retain their former ranking or would their ranking be based upon their re-entry date? On August 3, 1887, Wilford Woodruff met at 10 a.m. with the following members of the Quorum of the Twelve: Lorenzo Snow, Franklin D. Richards, Moses Thatcher, John Henry Smith, Frances M. Lyman, Heber J. Grant, John W. Taylor, George Q. Cannon and Joseph F. Smith, to decide those issues. “A Vote was taken to reinstate George Q Cannon & Joseph F Smith into their former place into the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.” The Quorum of the Twelve began to direct the affairs of the Church without an organized First Presidency. However, Wilford Woodruff asked George to “stay around and help all I could...that he felt unable to attend to the business, as it was all new to him. I was familiar with it, and he would be very much pleased to have me assist him.” President Woodruff told Abraham Cannon, “Your father has got the biggest brain and the best mind of any man in the kingdom, without exception.”

In the spring of 1888, Frank J. Cannon and Abraham Cannon, sons of George, secretly traveled nine miles one evening from Salt Lake City to Bountiful to meet their father “who was concealed ‘on the underground…’” They were driven by Charles Wilcken, a good friend of their father. Frank, then age 29, summarized what his father said as follows:

I have sent for you my son, to see if you cannot find some way to help us with our difficulties. I have made it a matter of prayer, and I have been led to urge you to activity. You have never performed a Mission for the Church, and I have sometimes wondered if you cared anything about your religion. You have never obeyed the celestial covenant, and you have kept yourself aloof from the duties of the priesthood, but it may have been a providential overruling. I have talked with some of the brethren, and we feel that if relief does not soon appear, our community will be scattered and the great work crushed. The Lord can rescue us, but we must put forth our own efforts. Can you see any light?’…[H]e proceeded to a larger consideration of the situation, in words which I cannot pretend to recall, but to an effect which I wish to outline-because it not only accounts for the preservation of the Mormon people from all their dangers, but contains a reason why the world might have wished to see them preserved.…It would be a cruel waste of human effort,’ he said, ‘if, after having attained comfort in these valleys-established our schools of art and science-developed our country and founded our industries-we should now be destroyed as a community, and the value of our experience lost to the world. We have a right to survive. We have a duty to survive. It would be to the profit of the nation that we should survive.’ But in order to survive, it was necessary to obtain some immediate mitigation of the enforcement of the laws against us. The manner in which they were being enforced was making compromise impossible, and the men who administered them stood in the way of getting a favorable hearing from the powers of government that alone could authorize a compromise. It was necessary to break this circle; and my father went over the names of the men in Washington who might help us. I could marvel at his understanding of these men and their motives, but we came to no plan of action until I spoke of what had been with me a sort of forlorn hope that I might appeal to President Cleveland himself…‘It’s true that your youth may make an appeal-and the fact that you’re pleading for your relatives, while not yourself a polygamist. But he would immediately ask us to abandon plural marriage, and that is established by a revelation from God which we cannot disregard…No. I can make no promise. I can authorize no pledge. It must be for the Prophet of God to say what is the will of the Lord. You must see President Woodruff, and after he has asked for the will of the Lord I shall be content with his instruction.’…

They talked until midnight.

Frank anticipated that he would be summoned by President Woodruff, but he was not. Eventually his brother Abraham brought word from President Woodruff that Frank must be “guided by the spirit of the Lord.” Frank did talk to Joseph F. Smith at his father’s request.

Frank decided to contact Abraham S. Hewitt, the mayor of New York City who had been a friend of George Q. in Congress. Frank describes that experience as follows:

I took my place…in the long line of applicants waiting for a word with the man…There must have been fifty men ahead of me…They came to his desk, spoke, and passed with a rapidity that was ominous. As I drew nearer, I watched him anxiously, and saw the incessant, nervous, querulous activity of eyes, lips, hands, as he dismissed each with a word or a scratch of the pen, and looked up sharply at the next one. ‘Well young man,’ he greeted me, ‘what do you want?’ I replied: ‘I want a half hour of your time.’ ‘Good God,’ he said, in a sort of reproachful indignation, ‘I couldn’t give it to the President of the United States.’…’Mr. Hewitt,’ I said, ‘it’s more important even than that. It’s to save a whole people from suffering-from destruction.’…’Who are you?’ ‘I’m the son of your old friend in Congress, George Q. Cannon of Utah,’ I said. ‘My father’s in exile. He and his people are threatened with endless proscriptions. I want time to tell you.’ His impatience had vanished. His eyes were steadily kind and interested. 'Can you come to the Board of Health, in an hour? As soon as I open the meeting, I'll retire and listen to you.’…As soon as he had opened the meeting, we withdrew together to a settee…and I began to tell him…the desperateness of the Mormon situation. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘but why can’t your people obey the law?’…I explained…that no proscription, short of extermination outright, could overcome their resistance; but what force could not accomplish, a little sensible diplomacy might hope to effect. No first step could be made, by them, towards a composition of their differences with the law so long as the law was administered with a hostility that provoked hostility. But if we could obtain some mitigation of the law’s severity, the leaders of the Church were willing to surrender themselves to the court…and a sense of gratitude for leniency would prepare the way for a recession from their present attitude of unconquerable antagonism…He asked: ‘do you know President Cleveland?’ I told him that I had seen the President several times but was not known to him. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘I may be able to help you indirectly. I don’t care for Cleveland, and I wouldn’t ask him for a favor if I were sinking. But tell me what plan you have in your mind, and I’ll see if I can’t aid you-through friends.’ I replied that I hoped to have some man appointed as Chief Justice in Utah who should adopt a less rigorous way of adjudicating upon the cases of polygamists; but that before he was selected-or at least before he knew of his appointment-I wished to talk with him and convert him to the idea that he could begin the solution of ‘the Mormon question’ by having the leaders of the community come into his court and accept sentences that should not be inconsistent with the sovereignty of the law but not unmerciful to the subjects of that sovereignty. ‘The man you want,’ Mr. Hewitt said, ‘is here in New York - Elliot F. Sandford. He’s a referee of the Supreme Court of this state - a fine man, great legal ability, courageous, of undoubted integrity. Come to me tomorrow. I’ll introduce you to him.’

Mayor Hewitt contacted Elliot Sandford and gave Frank a letter of introduction to him. Frank visited Sandford and described his visit as follows:

He received me in his outer office, with a manner full of kindliness but non-committal…He was a tall, dignified man, his hair turning gray - thoughtful, judicial - evidently a man who was not quick to decide. He led me into his private room, and sat down with the air of a lawyer who has been asked to take a case and who wishes first to hear all the details of the action. I began by describing the Mormon situation as I saw it in those days: that the Mormons were growing more desperately determined in their opposition, because they believed their prosecutors were persecuting them; that the District Attorney and his assistants were harsh to the point of heartlessness, and that Judge Zane…acted like a religious fanatic in his judicial office;…I did not really reach his sympathy until I spoke of the court system in Utah - the open venire, the employment of ‘professional jurors’ - the legal doctrine of ‘segregation,’ under which a man might be separately indicted for every day of his living in plural marriage - and the result of all this: that the pursuit of defendants and the confiscation of property had become less an enforcement of law than a profitable legal industry. After two hours of argument and examination, I ended with an appeal to him to accept the opportunity to undertake a merciful assuagement of our misery…[H]e might have the distinction of calling into his court the Mormon leaders who had been most long and vainly sought by the law; and by sentencing them to a supportable punishment, he could begin the composition of a conflict that had gone on for half a century. He replied with reasons that expressed a kindly unwillingness to undertake the work. It would mean the sacrifice of his professional career in New York. He would be putting himself entirely outside the progression of advancement. His friends, here, would never understand why he had done it. The affairs of Utah had little interest for them…His wife had been waiting some minutes in the outer office; he proposed that he should bring her in…[When] Mrs. Sandford…entered,…Her first question [was:]…how did the women endure it? I repeated a conversation I had once had with Frances Willard, who had said: ‘The woman’s heart must ache in polygamy.’ To which I had made the obvious reply: ‘Don’t women’s hearts ache all over the world? Is there any condition of society in which women do not bear more than an equal share of the suffering?’ Mrs. Sandford asked me pointedly whether I was living in polygamy? No, I was not. Did I believe in it? I believed that those did, who practised it. Why didn’t I practise it? Those who practised it believed that it had been authorized by a divine revelation. I had not received such a revelation. I did not expect to. Our talk warmed into a very intimate discussion of the lives of the Mormon people…I took advantage of her curiosity to lead up to an explanation of how the proscription of polygamy was driving young Mormons into the practice, instead of frightening them from it. And so I arrived at another recountal of the miserable condition of persecution and suffering which I had come to ask her husband help us relieve; and I made my appeal again, to them both, with something of despair…It did not seem that I had reached her - until she turned to him, and said unexpectedly ‘It seems to me that this is an opportunity - a larger opportunity than any I see here - to do a great deal of good.’ He did not appear as surprised as I was. He made some joking reference to his income and asked her if she would be willing to live on a salary of - How much was the salary of the Chief Justice of Utah? I thought it was about $3,000 a year. ‘Two hundred and fifty dollars a month,’ he said. ‘How many bonnets will that buy?’ ‘No,’ she retorted, ‘you can’t put the blame on my millinery bill. If that’s been the cause of your hesitation, I’ll agree to dress as becomes the wife of a poor but upright judge.’ In such a happy spirit of good-natured raillery, my petition was provisionally entertained, till I could see the President; and it is one of the curiosities of experience, as I look back upon it now, that a decision so momentous in the history of Utah owed its induction to the wisdom of a woman and was confirmed with a domestic pleasantry. I left them after we had arrived at the tacit understanding that if President Cleveland should make the appointment, Mr. Sandford would accept it with the end in view that I had proposed.

Frank went back to Abraham Hewitt to tell him of his success and to discuss the best way to approach President Cleveland. Hewitt told Frank that President Cleveland was honest, but that he would have “to be persistent, patient, and-lucky. ‘You’ll have to be lucky, if you intend to persuade him to acquire any information. He’s been so successful in instructing mankind that it’s hard to get him to see he doesn’t know all he ought to know about a public question. But he’s honest and he’s courageous. If you can convince him that your view is right, he’ll carry out the conviction in spite of everything. In fact he’ll be all the better pleased if it requires fearlessness and defiance of general sentimentality to carry it out.’” Hewitt gave Frank a letter to William C. Whitney, the Secretary of the Navy, asking him to obtain for Frank an interview with President Cleveland.

Frank met William C. Whitney and Whitney arranged for a meeting that afternoon with Colonel Daniel S. Lamont, President Cleveland’s secretary and political trainer. Frank described that meeting as follows:

I found at once that Colonel Lamont understood the situation in Utah, thoroughly….He seemed surprised at my assurance that my father and the other proscribed leaders of the Church would submit themselves to the courts if they could do so on the conditions that I proposed; I convince him of the possibility by referring him to Mr. Richards, the Church’s attorney in Washington, for a confirmation of it. I pointed out that if these leaders surrendered, president Cleveland could be made the direct beneficiary, politically, of their composition with the law….I was doubtful whether I should tell Colonel Lamont and Mr. Whitney of my conversation with Mr. Sandford. I decided that their considerations entitled them to my full confidence, and I told them all-begging them, if I was indiscreet or undiplomatic, to charge the offence to my lack of experience rather than to debit it against my cause. They passed it off with banter. It was understood that the President should not be told - and that I should not tell him - of my talk with Mr. Sandford. Colonel Lamont undertook to arrange an audience with Mr. Cleveland for me. ‘You had better wait,’ he said, ‘until I can approach him with the suggestion that there’s a young man here, from Utah, whom he ought to see.’…

Two days later, Frank received word from Colonel Lamont and went to the White House. Colonel Lamont led him into President Cleveland’s office and Frank described the meeting as follows:

Mr. Cleveland was working at his desk. Colonel Lamont introduced me by name, and added, ‘the young man from Utah, of whom I spoke.’ The President did not look up. He was signing some papers, bending heavily over his work. It took him a moment or two to finish; then he dropped his pen, pushed aside the papers, turned awkwardly in his swivel chair and held out his hand to me. It was a cool, firm hand, and its grasp surprised me, as much as the expression of his eyes-the steady eyes of complete self-control, composure, intentness. I had come with a prejudice against him; I was a partisan of Mr. Blaine, whom he had defeated for the Presidency; I believed Mr. Blaine to be the abler man. But there was something in Mr. Cleveland’s hand and eyes to warn me that however slow-moving and even dull he might appear, the energy of a firm will compelled and controlled him. It stiffened me into instant attention. He made some remark to Colonel Lamont to indicate that our conversation was to occupy about half an hour. He asked me to be seated in a chair at the right-hand side of his desk. He said almost challengingly: ‘You’re the young man they want I should talk to about the Utah question.’ The tone was not exactly unkind, but it was not inviting. I said, ‘Yes, sir.’ He looked at me, as a judge might eye the suspect of circumstantial evidence. ‘You’re the son of one of the Mormon leaders.’ I admitted it. And then he began. He began with an account of what he had done to compose the differences in Utah. He explained and justified the appointments he had made there - appointments that had been recommended by Southern senators and representatives who, because they were Southerners, were opposed to the undue extension and arbitrary use of Federal power. He had made Caleb W. West of Kentucky governor of Utah on the recommendation of Senator Blackburn of Kentucky, my father’s friend. He had made Frank H. Dyer, originally of Mississippi, United States Marshal. He had appointed a District Attorney in whom he had every confidence. He had a right to believe that these men, recommended by the statesmen of the South, would execute and adjudicate the laws in Utah according to the most lenient Southern construction of Federal rights. He dwelt upon Governor West’s charitable intentions towards the Mormon leaders, went over West’s efforts at pacification in accurate detail, and told of West’s chagrin at his failure-with an irritation that showed how disappointed he himself was with the continued recurrence of the Mormon troubles. I had to tell him that the situation had not improved, and his face flushed with an anger that he made no attempt to conceal. He declared that the fault must lie in our obstinate determination to hold ourselves superior to the law. He could not sympathize with our sufferings, he said, since they were self-inflicted. He admitted that he had once been opposed to the Edmunds-Tucker bill, but felt now that it was justified by the immovability of the Mormons. All palliatives had failed. The patience of Congress had been exhausted. There was no recourse, except to make statutes cutting enough to destroy the illegal practices and unlawful leadership in the Mormon community. ‘Mr. President,’ I pleaded, ‘I’ve lived in Utah all my life. I know these people from both points of view. You know of the situation only from Federal office holders who consider it solely with regard to the official responsibility to you and to the country. Why not learn what the Mormons think?’ He replied that it was not within the province of the President…to consider the mental attitude of men who were opposing the enforcement of the law….For an hour, he continued, with vigor and dignity, to describe the situation as he saw it; and he chilled me to the heart with his determination to concede nothing more to a community that had refused to be placated by what he had already conceded. I listened without trying, without even wishing, to interrupt him; for I had been warned by Mr. Whitney and Colonel Lamont that it would be wise to let him deliver himself of his opinion before attempting to influence him to a milder one; and I could not contradict anything that he said, for he made no misstatements of fact. Colonel Lamont had entered once, and had withdrawn again when he saw that Mr. Cleveland was still talking. At the end of about an hour, the President rose. ‘Mr. Cannon,’ he said, ‘I don’t see what more I can do than has already been done. Tell your people to obey the law, as all other citizens are required to obey it, and they’ll find that their fellow-citizens of this country will do full justice to their heroism and their other good qualities. If the law seems harsh, tell them that there’s an easy way to avoid its cruelty by simply getting out from under its condemnation.’ His manner indicated that the conference was at an end. He reached out his hand as if to drop the subject then and forever, as far as I was concerned. ‘Mr. President,’ I asked, with the composure of desperation, ‘do you really want to settle the Mormon question?’ He looked at me with the first gleam of humor that had shown in his eyes-and it was a humor of peculiar richness and unction. ‘Young man,’ he asked,’ what have I been saying to you all this time? What have I been working for, ever since I first took up the consideration of this subject at the beginning of my term?’ ‘Mr. President,’ I replied, ‘if you were traveling in the West, and came to an unbridged stream with your wagon train, and saw tracks leading down into the water where you thought there was a ford, you would naturally expect to cross there, assuming that others had done so before you. But suppose that some man on the bank should say to you: ‘I’ve watched wagon trains go in here for more than twenty years, and I’ve never yet seen one come out on the other side. Look over at that opposite bank. You see there are no wagon tracks there. Now, down the river a piece, is a place where I think there’s a ford. I’ve never got anybody to try it yet, but certainly it’s as good a chance as this one!’ Mr. President, what would you do? Would you attempt a crossing where there had been twenty years of failure, or would you try the other place-on the chance that it might take you over?’ He had been regarding me with slowly fading amusement that gave way to an expression of grave attention. ‘I’ve been watching this situation for several years,’ I went on, ‘and it seems to me that there’s the possibility of a just, a humane, and a final settlement of it, by getting the Mormon leaders to come voluntarily into court - and it can be done! - with the assurance that the object of the administration is to correct the community evil - not to exterminate the Mormon Church or to persecute its’ prophets,’ but to secure obedience to the law and respect for the law, and to lead Utah into a worthy statehood.’ I paused. He thought a moment. Then he said: ‘I can’t talk any longer, now. Make another appointment with Lamont. I want to hear what you have to say.’ And he dismissed me.

Colonel Lamont told Frank to come back the next afternoon and Frank worked on his arguments, to make them as concise as possible. The next day Colonel Lamont congratulated Frank and told him he had “aroused” the President’s “curiosity.” He made another appointment with the President several days later. Frank described that meeting (and subsequent meetings) as follows:

When I entered the President’s office…I found Mr. Cleveland at his desk, as if he had not moved in the interval, laboriously reading and signing papers as before…But as soon as he turned to me, I found him another man. He was interested, receptive, almost genial. He gave me an opportunity to cover the whole ground of my case, and I went over it step by step. He showed no emotion when I recited some of the incidents of pathetic suffering among our people; and at first he seemed doubtful whether he should be amused by the humorous episodes that I narrated. But I did not wish merely to amuse him; I was trying to convey to his mind…that so long as a people could suffer and laugh too, they could never be overcome by the mere reduplication of their sufferings. He looked squarely at me, with a most determined front, when I told him that the Mormons would be ground to powder before they would yield. ‘They can’t yield,’ I warned him. ‘They’re like the passengers on a train going with a mad speed down a dangerous grade. For any of them to attempt to jump is simple destruction. They can only pray to Providence to help them. But if that train were to be brought to a stop at some station where they could alight with anything like self-respect, there would be many of them glad to get off - even though the train had not arrived at its ‘revealed’ destination.’ I do not remember…the exact sequence and progression of argument in this interview and the dozen others that succeeded it. Mr. Cleveland became more and more interested in the Mormon people, their family life, their religion, and their politics. He was as painstaking in acquiring information about them as he was in performing all the other duties of his office. I might have been discouraged by the number and apparent ineffectiveness of my interviews with him, had not Colonel Lamont kept me informed of the growth of the President’s good feeling and of his genuinely paternal interest in the people of Utah. It became more than a personal desire with Mr. Cleveland to benefit politically by a settlement of the Mormon troubles, if indeed he had ever had such a desire. His humanity was enlisted, his conscience appealed to. He asked me, once, if I knew anything of Mr. Sandford, and I replied that I knew him and believed in him. He told me, at last, that he was going to appoint Mr. Sandford Chief Justice of Utah, and added significantly, ‘I suppose he will get in touch with the situation.’

Frank went back to New York to meet with Sandford and to “renew the understanding” he had with him.

On July 9, 1888, Sandford was appointed Chief Justice of Utah. He arrived in Salt Lake City on August 26th. In early September, George’s attorney, Franklin S. Richards, began negotiations for George’s surrender. He initially insisted that he be given a fair trial, with no favors and no prejudice against him. In his journal for September 12, 1888, George notes, “I do not wish to be discriminated against because of my prominence, neither do I wish to be treated more rigorously, if sentenced to prison, than other prisoners.” He also insisted that his wives not be called as witnesses. Further negotiations led to an agreement that George would plead guilty to two counts of unlawful cohabitation, one being quashed and the other for which he would receive a full sentence and a fine. On September 17th, George went before Judge Sandford in court and pled guilty to two indictments of unlawful cohabitation. He was fined $450 and sentenced to the penitentiary for 175 days. His example was followed by a number of prominent Mormons, including Francis M. Lyman, another member of the Quorum of the Twelve. Wilford Woodruff recorded in his journal: “This is an important day in our History[.] President George Q Cannon was indicted on Saturday again for Cohabitation and this Morning he went into Court and Delivered himself up to the Court & Plead guilty to the Indictment and the Court sentenced him on the first Count 75 days imprisonment & $200 dollars fine and the second Count 100 days & $250 dollars fine total 175 days imprisionment & $450 dollars fine. He was taken in to the Penitentiary by Marshal Dyer who was accompanied by C. W. Wilkin[,] H. B Clawson & James Jack. The Marshal told the Warden to treat him Kindly. He will have all the Privileges the rules Can afford. We Parted in good spirits. This leaves me in a Measure alone for 5 Months but I will do the best I Can.”