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 Angus Munn Cannon LDS Biographical Encyclopedia, Andrew Jenson, Vol. 1, p.292-295 Cannon, Angus Munn, president of the Salt Lake Stake of Zion since 1876, is the son of George Cannon and Ann Quayle, and was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, May 17, 1834. At the age of three years he went to live with his grandmother Quayle on the Isle of Man, where he remained until he was four years old. His parents were baptized in Liverpool Feb. 11, 1840, by Apostle John Taylor, who had married Leonora, his father's sister. Angus was blessed by the Elders in the Church the same year. The family, composed of parents and children—George Q., Mary Alice, Ann, Angus M., David Henry and Leonora—in September, 1842, took passage with a company of Saints in the ship "Sidney," presided over by Elder Levi Richards. On the second day the mother was taken sick, and after a six weeks' illness, she died and was buried in the ocean. She had anticipated this fate, but she could not be deterred from undertaking the voyage to gather her children to the bosom of the Church, such was the exalted religious nature of this Apostolic mother, three of whose sons were destined to become leaders in the Church. After a voyage of eight weeks the family reached New Orleans and finally St. Louis, where they spent the winter, and in the spring of 1843 they went up to Nauvoo with a company of Saints on the "Maid of Iowa," a steamboat owned by the Church and commanded by Captain Dan Jones. In the summer of 1843, Angus and his brothers and sisters were prostrated with fever and ague, and young Angus was anxious to be baptized for fear he would die without the administration of the ordinance. In his youthful earnestness he delighted to hear the instructions of Joseph and Hyrum, and was especially inspired with the Prophet's forecast of the future. When the Prophet delivered his famous speech to the Nauvoo Legion, in full dress as their lieutenant-general, these feelings were intense; but beyond the power of his description is the memory still retained in President Angus M. Cannon's mind of the awful night of the martyrdom—June 27, 1844. In 1844 his father married Mary Edwards (nee White), a widow from North Wales. He went to St. Louis and died during that fall. His daughter Elizabeth is the issue of that marriage. The same fall Angus was baptized at Nauvoo by L. O. Littlefield and was confirmed on the river bank. Charles Lambert married Mary Alice Cannon and became administrator of Mr. Cannon's estate and guardian of the younger children. In the fall of 1846, after the battle of Nauvoo, the family were driven with the Saints across the river, on the banks of which they had laid for a while, exhausted and suffering from hunger, which was relieved by the miracle of flocks of quails flying into their camps and even into their tents. The famishing exiles caught the birds and thus their wants were relieved. At Winter Quarters the family built a house. The Indians killed their cattle in the winter, and Angus, in company with his guardian, went to Missouri to get a traveling outfit, with which they started west in 1848, but their outfit went [p.293] through the ice on the Missouri river, which hindered their journey till the spring of 1849, when Angus walked from Missouri to Salt Lake valley, driving stock and carrying a gun for hunting. He arrived in Salt Lake valley in October, 1849, the day after his brother George Q. had started on his mission to California and the Sandwich Islands. The next summer Angus farmed and hauled wood, and in November went with Geo. A. Smith's company that settled Iron county, arriving on the present site of Parowan in January, 1851. In May he returned to Salt Lake City and continued farming and canyon work till the fall of 1852, when he went to the "Deseret News" office in the printing business. At the April conference of 1852 he was ordained a Seventy in the 30th Quorum. In the fall of 1854 he went with Apostle John Taylor on a mission to New York, to preach and assist in publishing the "Mormon." His mother's brother, Captain Joseph Quayle, gave him money and his mother's sister furnished him with a home in Brooklyn. He was next sent to Hartford, Connecticut, to preach, which he did in various parts of that State. He returned to New York in May, and was next sent to labor in the New Jersey part of the Philadelphia conference under Jeter Clinton. During the summer he baptized ten persons. He next went to Franklin county, Penn., where he baptized twenty-one persons within one month. There he was joined by Geo. J. Taylor, and others were baptized. In the spring of 1856 he succeeded Elder Clinton in the presidency of the Philadelphia conference, which included Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and eastern Maryland. In the spring of 1857 W. I. Appleby was appointed to preside over the mission, and Angus was appointed his first counselor and to superintend the emigration on this side of the Atlantic. The same fall the Elders were released to come home in consequence of the "Buchanan war." Angus left Philadelphia in March, 1858, and started for the West, but he was taken down with lung fever and stayed at Crescent City a month. He had also previously the lung fever at Philadelphia. In the beginning of May, 1858, he, together with one hundred Elders, started west and had an eventful journey, on which the hand of God was signally made manifest in the protection of His servants in the midst of great danger. They arrived in the Valley June 21, 1858, and found the city deserted, the Saints being on their move south. Angus joined his brother George Q. in Fillmore; the brothers had not seen each other for eleven years. He returned to Salt Lake City, and engaged in farming, teaming and printing, as his health permitted. In 1859 he was ordained a president of the 30th Quorum of Seventy. In the fall of 1860 he started a company to manufacture potteryware, under the firm name of Cannon, Eardley & Brothers. In the fall of 1861 he was called on the "cotton mission." He located on the Rio Virgen, and was associated on a committee to locate the city of St. George with Erastus Snow and Jacob Gates. A charter was granted during the winter, and Angus M. Cannon was elected the first mayor of the city, which office he held two terms. He was also prosecuting attorney for Washington county four years. He was afterwards elected by the legislature prosecuting attorney for the Second Judicial District. In 1865, in the militia, he was elected major in the second regiment of the Iron Military District; and was afterwards elected lieutenant-colonel of the same regiment and commissioned by the governor. In December, 1864, he went south with an expedition to locate Call's Landing, on the Colorado river, and in January, 1866, he was a member of the expedition under Col. McArthur that recovered the [p.294] bodies of Dr. J. M. Whitmore and Robert McIntyre, who had been killed by Indians. The expedition punished the murderers and assisted the people in placing themselves in a position of defense. In 1867 Angus removed north in consequence of feeble health, and in the fall of that year he was called to the management of the "Deseret News" office. He remained in that position until 1874, during which time he filled a six months' mission to the Eastern States, and traveled about 34,000 miles inside of 2 1/2 years. His health again failing, he resigned in August, 1874 after which he traveled through the Territory to recruit his health, and engaging in business pursuits. May 9, 1873, he was ordained to the office of a High Priest and set apart to act as a High Councilor in the Salt Lake Stake of Zion, which position he held until April, 1876, when he was called to preside over the Stake, and was ordained and set apart to fill said position under the hands of President Brigham Young, the same month. From July 2, 1874, to April, 1876, he also acted as second Counselor to Bishop Thomas Taylor, of the Fourteenth Ward. In August, 1876, he was elected recorder of Salt Lake county for a term of four years, and re-elected in August 1880. When the "Deseret News" company was incorporated, he was elected a director and vice-president, and has been several times re-elected. In 1883 he went east and purchased machinery for the Deseret Paper Mills. Jan. 20, 1885, he was arrested on a charge of unlawful cohabitation and placed under bonds. His preliminary examination before Commissioner McKay was commenced on the 21st and continued until the 24th, when he was bound over in the sum of $1,500 to stand his trial. Feb. 11th he was arraigned in the Third District Court, and two days later he entered a plea of not guilty. His final trial was commenced on the 27th of April, and on the 29th the jury brought in a verdict of guilty. May 9th he was sentenced by Judge Zane to six months' imprisonment and to pay a fine of $300. On the same day he was taken to the Utah Penitentiary, together with A. Milton Musser and James C. Watson, who also had been sentenced for "similar offenses." His case was appealed to the Supreme Court of the Territory, and taken on a writ of error to the Supreme Court of the United States, both of which tribunals sustained the lower courts. Pending the final adjudication by the U. S. Supreme Court, Pres. Cannon remained in jail more than two months over the sentence, the chief object being to obtain an authoritative definition of the legal scope of the term "unlawful cohabitation." On the 10th of May, 1886, three cases of unlawful cohabitation against Lorenzo Snow were disposed of by the U. S. Supreme Court, to which they had been appealed. The court decided it had no jurisdiction. To show consistency it reconsidered its mandate in Pres. Cannon's appeal and dismissed that case also. Previous to this, however, Brother Cannon had been released from prison (Dec. 14, 1885). On the 24th of November, 1886, he was again arrested on a charge of unlawful cohabitation and placed under $10,000 bonds, and when he was arraigned before Commissioner McKay Dec. 13th following, he was arrested on three more charges, two for unlawful cohabitation and one for polygamy. At the conclusion of the examination he was acquitted on all four charges, the prosecution being unable to prove that he had lived with any one of his families subsequent to his discharge from the penitentiary. He had previously declared that he would associate with all his families or with none of them. Besides his ministerial labors in the Church, President Cannon has done a great deal toward developing the resources of this country, reclaiming the desert and giving employment to the poor. He is naturally of a kind and sympathetic nature, and has ever shown his zeal and fidelity to the cause of truth, of which he has been a standard bearer for so many years. July 18, 1858, he married Sarah Maria and Ann Amanda Mousley; the former has borne him six and the latter ten children. They were natives of Newcastle county, Delaware, and descendants of the Swedes and Finns who built the "brick church" of Wilmington, Delaware, and were among the earliest settlers of America. June 16, 1875, he also married Clarissa Cordelia Moses (widow of Wm. Mason), who bore him three children. She was a native of Massachusetts and was one of the company of Saints which came around Cape Horn in the ship "Brooklyn" in 1846. He has since [p.295] married Martha Hughes and Maria Bennion; the former has borne him two daughters and one son; the latter two daughters and two sons. Altogether he is the father of twenty-seven sons and daughters, of whom five sons and two daughters are deceased. During the last eleven years Pres. Cannon has been deeply interested in mining affairs in the Dugway and Mercur mining districts, holding at present many very promising claims; and when a railway is built to Dugway, his claims in that locality will undoubtedly be very valuable. He has also been engaged in farming and stock-raising on a large scale. In one season he marketed horses to the value of $10,000. [Cannon died 1915]
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