William Wallace Cluff

WILLIAM WALLACE CLUFF Born March 8, 1832, in Willoughby, Lake County, Ohio, Died August 21, 1915, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Elder Cluff was the fourth son of David and Elizabeth Hall Guff, who had a family of twelve sons and one daughter. Driven from Kirtland, Ohio, the family located in Nauvoo, in 1840. They were expelled from that place in the exodus of 1846. William was baptized in 1843, in the Mississippi River, by Elder Peter Shurtz. After the exodus crossed the plains in 1850, arriving in Salt Lake valley in October, settling in Provo. He served in the Walker Indian war in 1853, and in 1854 was called on a four years' mission to the Sandwich Islands. Returning, he was sent to Scandina- via in 1860, where he traveled for three years. In October, 1863, he married Ann Wnipple. They have a family of five sons and three daughters. In 1864, he went on a second mission to the Sandwich Islands, with a number of leading elders of the Church, to investigate certain charges preferred by native elders against Walter M. Gibson. While on this mission, he 'saved Lorenzo Snow from drowning.^ In 1865, Elder Cluff was called, by President Young, to preside over the settlements in Morgan, Summit and "Wasatch counties, and he located at Coalville. In 1870-71 he filled a sec- ond mission to Scandinavia, presiding over the mission. He was elected twice, between 1865-85, as delegate to the territorial constitutional convention; and he served as a member of the territorial legislature for six terms, acting as president of the council during his last term. When the Summit stake of Zion was organized, July 9, 1877, he was made president, filled that position with honor for twenty-four years, until 1901, wnen he was honorably released. In November, 1900, he went with President George Q. Cannon on a special mission to the Sandwich Islands, to participate in the celebra- tion of the semi-centennial jubilee to commemorate the arrival, in Honolulu, of the first Latter-day Saint missionaries, December 12, 1850. A faithful missionary, a valiant de- fender of the faith, a worker always, a man who did great good among his fellow men, Elder Cluff went to his rest assured of the reward of a well-spent life.