are best adapted to soil and climatic conditions here. Upon his place he has a large
modern home and all the conveniences and accessories of a model farm of the twentieth
century. His place comprises ninety-five acres of land, all of which is under irrigation.
In 1897 Mr. Rice was married to Miss Charlotte Pickett, a daughter of John and
Charlotte Pickett, the former a native of England, who came to Utah in 1862. The
mother was brought to this state in 1849, having been born while her parents were en
route to Utah, at which time two feet of snow lay upon the ground. Her father died
of hardship ere they reached their destination. Mr. and Mrs. Rice became parents of
eight children, of whom six are living: Oscar Legrand, Inez, Jane, Mahlou Franklin,
Edmond Windsor and Virginia. The eldest son enlisted in the United States service
at the Agricultural College of Logan.
Mr. Rice and his family have always been identified with the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints and in 1908 he was sent on a mission to the eastern states,
where he labored for two years. In 1910 he was appointed bishop of the Logan sjxth
ward and has since filled that office. He never lightly regards his church responsibili-
ties nor his duties in any connection and is most loyal to every trust reposed in him.
ARCHIBALD JAMES LEWIS.
The spirit of modern-day business enterprise and progressiveness finds expression
in the record of Archibald James Lewis, who is at the head of the Lewis Drug Company
of Salina, is the president of the Salina Telephone Company and has been identified
with other important corporations which figure prominently in connection with the
business development of the northern part of Sevier county.
Mr. Lewis was born in Wisconsin in May, 1856, a son of Alden P. and Marga,ret
(Brander) Lewis. The father was a prosperous merchant of Wisconsin who at the
time of the Civil war, however, put aside all business and personal considerations and
responded to the call for aid in the preservation of the Union. When his son Archie
was a lad of but three years the father removed with the family to Hardin county, Iowa,
and after being educated in the schools of Alden he secured a position as drug clerk.
In 1882 he was registered as a licensed pharmacist and accepted the management of
the Red Oak Pharmacy at Red Oak, Iowa. There he remained until 1886, when he
accepted a position with the Blake & Bruce Company, wholesale druggists of Omaha,
Nebraska, with whom he remained for a year, after which he returned to Red Oak to
become manager of the Ross Drug Store. A year later that business was removed to
Salt Lake City and Mr. Lewis came to Utah to continue in the position of manager.
In 1890, when the store was sold, he accepted the management of the Sharp & Younger
Drug Company in Salt Lake City and in 1895 he became sales manager of the Shores
& Shores Manufacturing Company, manufacturers of proprietary medicines, traveling
all over the country in the interests of that firm through the succeeding four years.
Later he took up the business of manufacturing proprietary medicines on his own
account in association with W. L. Ellison in Butte, Montana. In the course of his
travels on the road as a salesman he visited Salina and, being greatly impressed with
the city and its future outlook, he decided to locate within its borders.
Closing out his Butte holdings, Mr. Lewis removed to Salina in 1902 and purchased
the Salina Drug Store but soon afterward changed the name of the business to the
Lew'". Drue: Companv. He purchased a lot whereon he erected the store building that
he now occupies. His stock embraces a complete line of drugs and chemicals and in
addition he handles all of the goods put upon the market under the names of the A.
D. S., the Rexall and the Nyall. He makes a specialty of the compounding of prescrip-
tions and in the conduct of the drug store has developed a business of large and grati-
UTAH SINCE STATEHOOD 97
tying proportions. He has not confined his attention, however, entirely to the conduct
of the drug business, for he has become an active figure in other connections and is
now the president of the Sal'ina Telephone Company, which covers all of the northern
section of Sevier county and has connection with the Mountain States Telephone Com-
pany, which is the Bell System, and the government line to Fish Lake and Loa on the
south. Into financial circles he has directed his energies and has been the president of
the First State Bank of Salina. He is likewise half owner of the famous Monroe Hot
Springs at Monroe and from 1912 until 1919 he conducted a business under the name
of the Lewis Auto Company, distributors of the Ford cars and later of the Dodge and
Hudson cars. He shipped the first carload of automobiles into southern Utah, bringing
sixteen Fords. This was deemed a very unwise business venture, but within three
weeks he had disposed of all of the cars and for a number of years he remained an
active factor in the automobile trade but found that other interests were claiming more
of his time and attention. He finds enjoyment in the management of his extensive
farm, which is pleasantly and conveniently situated five miles northwest of Delta and
is devoted to the raising of grain.
In 1905 Mr. Lewis was married to Miss Merle Peterson, a daughter of Lehi and
Carolyn Peterson, of Salina, and they are now parents of a son, Thad Whittier, who
was born in 1909 and is being educated in the Lafayette school of Salt Lake City. That
Mr. Lewis is a most progressive man and keenly interested in the welfare of his adopted
city is indicated in the fact that he was for many years secretary of the Commercial
Club. He is a thirty-second degree Mason and member of the Mystic Shrine and he
also belongs to the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. He has served as a member
of the city council of Salina but has never been a politician in the sense of office seek-
ing. His has been an extremely busy and useful career, yet at all times he is found
as a most genial and jovial companion, greeting everyone with a pleasant word and
cheery smile. The interests and activities of his life are well balanced, making him
a typical citizen of the west a man who accomplishes his purposes, who formulates
his plans readily and is determined in their execution. His activities have ever been
of a character that have contributed not only to individual success but to public pros-
perity and upbuilding as well.
HEBER K. MERRILL, M. D.
Dr. Heber K. Merrill, devoting his life to the practice of medicine and surgery in
Logan, was born in Richmond, Cache county, Utah, September 23, 1869. From the
period of early settlement and development in this state the name of Merrill has been
associated with the history of Utah. His father, Marriner W. Merrill, was a native of
Canada and of French descent, the family having long been established in that country.
He was reared and educated in his native land and during the '50s left Canada, making
his way direct to Utah. He settled at Bountiful and in 1859 removed to Richmond,
becoming one of the first residents of that place. There he continued throughout his
remaining days, his death occurring in February, 1906, when he had reached the age
of seventy-two years. He had devoted his life to farming and contracting, thus becom-
ing a well known factor in agricultural and industrial circles. He was the father of
forty-six children. He belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in
the work of which he took an active and helpful part, and for more than twenty years
he served as an apostle of the church and was bishop of Richmond for many years. He
was also president of Logan Temple from the time of its opening until his demise.
He likewise figured actively and prominently in connection with the political interests
of the state and was a member of the territorial legislature. The mother of Dr. Merrill
bore the maiden name of Elmira J. Bainbridge and was a native of Salt Lake City, a
daughter of Frederick and Elizabeth (Pond) Bainbridge. Her mother came to Utah
with the first emigrants in 1849. The mother of Dr. Merrill passed away April 6, 1906,
at Richmond, just exactly two months after the death of her husband. She had a family
of twelve children, eight sons and four daughters, of whom the Doctor was the third
child and second son.
At the usual age Heber K. Merrill became a pupil in the public schools of Rich-
mond and afterward he attended the University of Utah, from which he was graduated
in 1893 with the degree of Bachelor of Pedagogy. Subsequently he entered the Brigham
%> \v 7
98 UTAH SINCE STATEHOOD
Young College at Logan, from which he was graduated in 1902 with the Bachelor of
Arts degree. Following the completion of his course in the University of Utah he took
up the profession of teaching, which he followed in the district schools of Cache county
for two years. He then went to Germany on a mission, devoting three years to the
work of the church, and following his return he taught in the Brigham Young College
at Logan for a period of five years. He had married and had two children when he
determined to prepare for the practice of medicine. His work as a teacher provided
him with the means for the pursuit of his medical course and he entered the North-
western Medical College at Chicago, from which he was graduated in 1905. Having
obtained his degree, he then returned to Utah and opened an office in Logan, where he
has since continued in general practice. He displays pronounced ability in this con-
nection and his success is indeed well merited. In addition to his professional interests
he is a director of the Wellsville State Bank.
On the 30th of June, 1898, Dr. Merrill was united in marriage in Logan Temple to
Miss Oretta A. Dudley, a native of Clifton, Idaho, and a daughter of Brigham S. and
Delilah (Allen) Dudley. Dr. and Mrs. Merrill have become the parents of five children:
Oretta D., Loila D., Leah D., Jean D., and Heber K., Jr. All were born in Logan.
In his political views Dr. Merrill is a stalwart republican, having supported the
party since attaining his majority. He filled the office of county physician for two years,
has served on the state board of health for nine years and his present term in that
office will expire in 1922. During the period of the war he was associated with Dr.
Parkinson in conducting all of the examinations of the soldiers. At local elections
Dr. Merrill casts an independent ballot, regarding the capability of the candidate rather
than his party ties. His religious faith is that of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-
day Saints, in which he was reared. For the past nineteen years he has occupied the
position of high counselor of the Cache stake and he has been active in all branches
of church and Sunday school work.
HON. CHAUNCEY WALKER WEST.
Hon. Chauncey Walker West, presiding bishop in the Mormon church of Weber
county from 1855 until 1870, was one of the most distinguished men of his time in
the history of Utah. He was the son of Alva West and Sally Benedict and was born
February 6, 1827, in Erie county, Pennsylvania. His colonial ancestor, Francis West,
who settled in Duxbury, Massachusetts, about the year 1620, was identical with the
Captain (afterwards Admiral) Francis West, brother of Lord De La Ware, who was
governor of Virginia in 1609. (See Hist. Dudley Family, Fol. 978.) His parents re-
moved in his childhood to the state of New York, where, in his sixteenth year, he joined
the Mormons and soon after started out as a traveling elder. In the fall of 1844
he gathered with his parents to Nauvoo, Illinois, where, early in 1845, he was ordained
a member of the Twelfth Quorum of Seventy quite a distinguished position in those
days for a young man only seventeen years of age. When the Saints were expelled
from Nauvoo in 1846, he assisted in starting the first company for the west. In
June, 1846, he left with his and his father's family, to seek a home in the Rocky Moun-
tains. He partook of the hardships incident to that memorable journey, losing many
of his kindred on the way, among the number his father and mother and brother
Joseph, who died at Winter Quarters. With no available resources but his indomitable
will and untiring activity he succeeded in bringing his father's large family to Great
Salt Lake valley, where they arrived in the fall of 1847. He was one of the first set-
tlers of Salt Lake City and also of Provo, Utah county, from which latter place, in
the month of December, 1849, he started with a company of men under the direction of
Parley P. Pratt to explore the southern part of Utah. The company was gone two
months and suffered many hardships, but returned in safety. It was upon this return
trip, and when the company was threatened with starvation, and came near perishing
in the snow, that Mr. Pratt selected Chauncey W. West and Nathan Tanner from
among the members of his party to go to the settlements for relief; they made a most
remarkable night and day journey to Provo and virtually saved the exploration party
from starvation and from being frozen to death in the heavy snowfall by which they
were imprisoned.
In tl\e fall of 1852, Mr. West and thirty-six others were called to go upon a pro-
CHAUNCEY W. WEST
UTAH SINCE STATEHOOD 101
selyting mission to eastern Asia. They started from Salt Lake City on the 21st of
November, taking the southern route to California. On reaching San Francisco, the
elders, who were practically without means, learned that six thousand two hundred
and fifty dollars would be needed to take them to their several fields of labor. Nothing
daunted they immediately distributed themselves over the city of San Francisco and
throughout the mining regions of the state, seeking assistance. Elder West went to
the latter section, and in less than two weeks the required amount was raised. January
25, 1853, Elder West made a contract with Captain Windsor of the ship "Monsoon," for
the passage of the Hindostan and Siam missionaries to Calcutta, agreeing to pay two
hundred dollars per passenger. On the 28th they set sail and on the 25th of April,
eighty-seven days from the time of their embarkation, the vessel cast anchor in the
river, in front of the city of Calcutta. From Calcutta Elder West's labors were extended
to many of the principal cities of Hindostan, and to the island of Ceylon. He labored
principally in the latter place and in the cities of Madras and Bombay. After an
absence of two years and eight months, he returned home, arriving at Salt Lake City,
July 15, 1855. It was a remarkable fact that not one of this large company of Mormon
elders was swerved from his fidelity to the Mormon cause by the lure of gold that was
being gathered in such quantities from the virgin placer fields of California at the
time of their departure * from and return to San Francisco. All filled their missions
with honor to their church and credit to themselves.
In the fall of 1855 Mr. West settled in Bingham's Fort, Weber county, and on the
29th of May removed to Ogden, having been appointed bishop of the first ward. In the
fall of the same year he was appointed presiding bishop of Weber county, a position
which he held up to the time of his death, fourteen years later. He was also elected
to the house of representatives by the Weber county constituency about this time
and continued a member of that body until the year 1869, when failing health com-
pelled him to retire from the position.
As a prominent ecclesiastical officer of his church he was untiring in his labors
and zealous in the extreme. His devotion to the cause, and loving fidelity to his core-
ligionists, early won for him the esteem of his superiors and the affectionate regard
of those over whom he was called to preside. As a legislator he was equally efficient.
While not overly fluent in speech, he was possessed of a sound judgment, and keen
appreciation of the needs of his constituency, and the commonwealth in general, so
much so that he was early called to occupy leading positions on the most important
committees of the house, and became prominently identified with all the leading
legislative movements of those exciting and crucial times.
July 18, 1857, he received his commission from Governor Brigham Young as colonel
of the Fifth Regiment, in the Weber Military District, and in March, 1858, was made
brigadier-general in the territorial militia for distinguished services in the Utah war,
which position he filled with honor and ability. Being a maA of great courage, unbounded
energy and commanding presence, he was frequently selected for the most difficult and
dangerous expeditions, both against bands of marauding Indians and outlaws. ' He and
his command were among the first to be called to the defense of the Saints when the
misguided President Buchanan sent an invading army to Utah. At Echo canyon his
regiment, which was said to be among the best drilled and disciplined of the Legion,
occupied the post of danger (always the post of honor) in the center of the defile, and
when tidings came of Johnston's intended detour via the Bear river, General West
was selected to head him off. By forced marches he and his trusted men made such
rapid progress and presented such an aggressive front to the enemy that, hearing of
their movements, the invading troops returned to their former rendezvous and went
into winter quarters. This practically ended active hostilities, and gave the govern-
ment an opportunity of obtaining a correct undertsanding of the Utah situation.
In the spring of 1863 Chauncey W. West was a member of the legislative conven-
tion of the inchoate State of Deseret which drafted a constitution and sent Hons.
William H. Hooper and George Q. Cannon, senators, as a delegation to ask for the
admission of Utah into the Union as a state; and at the April conference, 1863, Elder
West was selected to go to England and take charge of the European mission of the
Mormon church in the absence of George Q. Cannon, then its president. . He left Ogden,
April 21, 1862, in company with Hon. William H. Hooper, and traveled, under cavalry
escort, to the frontiers. Upon leaving Ogden, the people of Weber county turned out
en masse to bid him goodbye. The artillery fired a salute and bands of music heading
civic and military organizations accompanied him some distance upon his journey.
This public demonstration of esteem for one whose brief sojourn of six years among
102 UTAH SINCE STATEHOOD
them had so won the hearts of his fellow citizens, was only equalled by the right royal
welcome that met him on his return sixteen months later. At Washington he was
introduced to President Lincoln and other distinguished statesmen, and on the 21st of
June he sailed per steamer "City of Washington" for Liverpool, arriving there on the
morning of the 4th of July. He immediately entered upon the duties of his calling as
president of the European mission and so continued until President Cannon's return.
He visited all the leading conferences of the British Isles and traveled extensively in
Europe, preaching the gospel wherever opportunity offered. Upon the return of Presi-
dent Cannon he assisted him generally with the affairs of the mission until released to
return home in the fall of 1863. It was while upon this mission that he found among
his coreligionists a brass band of exceptional ability and in the largeness and gener-
osity of his soul he uniformed and immigrated the entire organization to Utah, consist-
ing of fifteen or twenty members. This band was for many years the leading band ot
the intermountain region.
As a business man Bishop West was preeminently successful until the closing
years of his life, when misfortune of an unusual, and seemingly unavoidable character,
overtook him. Prior to this he was one of the most resourceful men in Utah, always
abounding in enterprises that had for their primary purpose the profitable employment
of his people. He was foremost in the building of canals and wagon roads, and the
first to develop the lumber industry by the building of sawmills in the mountains. He
and Francis A. Hammond established a tannery, boot and shoe and saddle and harness
manufactory in Ogden. He also conducted a mercantile business, a hotel, a livery
stable, a blacksmith and wagon shop, a meat market and many other minor establish-
ments. In connection with Joseph A. Young he erected what was then one of the
largest and finest flouring mills in the territory. He also engaged extensively in
freighting and carried the surplus products of his people to distant markets. In all
these enterprises employment was furnished to hundreds of his fellow citizens.
When the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railways were being built, he and
Ezra T. Benson and Lorin Farr took a contract to grade two hundred miles of the
latter road from Ogden -west. It was in the prosecution of this work, undertaken under
circumstances that made it herculean in character, that Bishop Chauncey W. West's
eventful life was brought to an early termination. He had been given immediate
personal supervision of the work, which was being pushed with all the vigor that
money and the competitive energy that the two companies could command. As the
Union and Central Pacific forces neared each other, work was kept up night and day,
and to add to the already high tension of affairs, the Union Pacific company advanced
wages so as to draw off the working force of its competitor. This in turn had to be
met by another raise on the part of the Central Pacific contractors, and thus they were
placed at the mercy of their men who became masters of the situation instead of serv-
ants of those by whom they were employed. It was under these circumstances of labor
demoralization that the most expensive part of this work had to be done, and in con-
sequence "its cost was enormous, and far beyond the prices to be paid therefor as
specified in the contract. Governor Stanford, who was personally upon the ground and
understood the situation fully, promised to make the contractors more than whole,
if they would not slacken their efforts, but rush the 'work to completion with the utmost
possible dispatch. This was done, but the promise was never fulfilled, and in conse-
quence, the contractors were financially ruined. Bishop West went to San Francisco
to get a settlement with the Central Pacific company, but died without accomplishing
it. His health had been greatly impaired by the hardships and exposure to which
he had been subjected in prosecuting this work, and the damp, foggy weather of the
coast, coupled with his great anxiety to secure such a settlement as would enable him
to discharge his obligations, proved too much for him in his enfeebled condition. On
January 6, 1870, he was compelled to take his bed, from which he never arose again.
In his last moments his great anxiety was to prevent grief on the part of his family.
Just previous to his demise he declared to his wife that he had been visited by his
mother and many of his departed relatives who had expressed joy at the prospect
of welcoming him speedily to their society.
At six o'clock on the morning of January 9, 1870, his noble spirit passed away
to the realms of the just. In speaking of his death Elder Charles W. Penrose in the
"Ogden Junction" says: "Weber county has lost a man of great value, the church on
earth a bright light and a faithful and devoted minister, and the poor a generous and
large hearted benefactor. Among the -many encomiums passed upon his character, one
103
of the brightest and best and most frequently repeated is, 'He was a friend to the poor.'
Chauncey W. West has passed from the sight, but not from the memory of his. friends,
for his name will be numbered among those of earth's greatest and noblest." Although
but forty-three years of age at the time of his death, Bishop West left a large family
to mourn his loss.
This biographical sketch of Bishop Chauncey W. West will be most fittingly closed
with the following brief review of his labors in the British mission, and of his life
and character in general, from a private letter written by Congressman George Q.
Cannon to his son, Hon. Joseph A. West, dated January, 1887: "His labors during this
mission were greatly appreciated by myself and the elders and Saints. During my
entire acquaintance with him, from the time of his arrival at Nauvoo until his death,
he was a man of untiring energy and industry. He was remarkable for these qualities
and for his great hopefulness. I do not think he ever had a feeling of discouragement