The Governors of Utah, Caleb W. West

IMPROVEMENT ERA. Vol. IV. AUGUST, 1901. No 10.

THE GOVERNORS OF UTAH.

CALEB W. WEST,

Caleb W. West, the thirteenth and fifteenth governor of Utah territory, succeeded Eli H. Murray, being appointed by President Grover Cleveland in April, 1886. He qualified at Salt Lake City on the 6th day of May. He was the first and only governor who received a reappointment after having been once succeeded. In the year 1889, he was succeeded by Hon. Arthur L. Thomas, and in turn succeeded him for his second term in May, 1893, hav- ing been reappointed by President Cleveland in April of that year. He was the last territorial governor and was followed by the present state governor, Hon. Heber M. Wells, on the admission of the territory as a state, on the 6th day of January, 1896. Besides the above distinction, it is worthy of remark that in West's second appointment, President Cleveland made his first exception to the general rule which he had announced not to reappoint to the same office those who had received appointments under his previous administration. Caleb W. West is the son of Andrew Jackson and Catherine

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Murphy West, and he was born at Cynthiana, Harrison Co., Kentucky, May 25, 1844. He attended a private school in that town until he attained the age of fourteen years, and thereafter attended one year at the high school at Millersburg, Kentucky. His father having died during this latter period, he did not return to the school. He studied law, about the opening of the year 1861, in the office of Judge W. W. Cleary, in his native town. A company of infantry being organized in March of that year, he joined the Southern army in the impending struggle. He was elected by the company as orderly sergeant, leaving with it for the south on the 23rd of April, 1861. In this company, he served in the Army of Northern Virginia until his company was mustered out, a little after its term of enlistment of one year had expired. He then left Virginia and enlisted as a private in General John H. Morgan's cavalry, at Chattanooga, Tennessee, Morgan being, at that time, a captain in command of three companies. Subse- quently, on the formation of the brigade, a permanent detail of about twenty men was selected to form the advance guard. Mr. West was one of the number chosen for this service, and remained with the guard until promoted and appointed a lieutenant in Company I of Duke's Regiment. He continued with this command until the capture and surrender of General Morgan's forces at Salineville, Ohio, he being included in the capture. He was first sent to the military prison at Camp Chase, Ohio, and after about three months was transferred to Johnson's Island, Lake Erie, where he was confined until the close of the war, being released

on the 7th of June, 1865. Returning to his native town in Kentucky, he secured employ- ment in the circuit clerks' office, being subsequently appointed deputy clerk. While engaged in this employment, he resumed the study of law, and obtained a license to practice early in the year 1867, later opening an office and beginning business for him- self. In June of that year, he was married to Nancy Frazer, daughter of H. W. and Eliza H. Frazer. His wife died in 1882, and his son Caleb F. West, the only child of the marriage, died at Cynthiana, Kentucky, in August, 1898. Shortly after beginning the practice of law, he was appointed county attorney to fill a vacancy, and at the expiration of the

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term was elected county judge. He came near obtaining the nom- ination for lieutenant governor, upon his party ticket, in the gubernatorial election just preceding his appointment to the gov- ernorship of Utah, although he made no canvass for such honor, and was not a candidate until placed in nomination before the convention. The history made during his two terms as governor of Utah, and the part which he took therein, as well as his connection with the public affairs of the territory, during the period between his terms, is not only a matter of record in the published laws and public documents and the pages of the daily press, but is also fresh in the minds of the reading public, and need not be referred to here. Among the main historical events that occurred in our com- monwealth during his administration was the continuation of the persecutions under the Edmunds-Tucker bill, which was the cause of many people leaving Utah to settle in Mexico and Canada, where the settlements of the Latter-day Saints were greatly strengthened by exiles thus sent out. The federal Government took possession of the Church offices and the Church property. In 1888, the legislature made appropriations for the establishment of the Agricultural college, at Logan, and the Industrial or Reform school at Ogden, and the year was unusually prosperous, both in Utah and in surrounding states, a condition preceding the "boom" of 1889-90. In 1893, the dedication of the Temple took place, the build- ing of Saltair was effected, and about seven thousand Utah people visited the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and there was the pardoning, in 1894, by President Cleveland, of all polyga- mists, and the restoring them to their civil rights. In 1895, the Constitutional convention was held, which body adopted the pres- ent state constitution; and preparations were made for the admis- sion of Utah into the Union. On the 18th of May, 1896, some months after his retirement from the gubernatorial chair, Mr. West was appointed a special gen- eral agent of the Treasury Department in connection with the customs, and assigned to duty at Tacoma, Washington, from which place he tendered his services, at the breaking out of the war with

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Spain, to Governor Wells. After six months' service at Tacoma, he was transferred to Portland, Oregon, remaining at the latter place until September, 1899, when he was sent to San Francisco, California. From thence, in September, 1900, he was ordered to Niagara Falls, New York, his present place of residence, where he has charge of the Fourth special agency district under the Treasury department of the government.