Sketches & Portraits ~ Henderson to Walker

Henderson, Henry Parry

Henry Parry Henderson was born September 22, 1843, in Otisco, Onondaga County, New York, his father being Parry Henderson and his mother Huldah Christian. While he was quite young his parents moved to Michigan and he was educated in the public schools of Mason, the high school of Lansing, and the Agricultural College at Lansing. He came to Utah in August, 1886, and was an accomplished lawyer at that time, though his only attendance at law school was con-fined to a short period at Ann Arbor. He acquired his legal education by reading law in the offices of experienced lawyers, and always argued that it was the best way for a young man to obtain legal learning.

Mr. Henderson held the office of county clerk of Ingham County, Michigan, was clerk of the supreme court of Michigan two years, prosecuting attorney of Ingham County two years, and served as a member of the Michigan legislature in 1879. He was elected mayor of Mason, county seat of Ingham County, and during Cleveland's administration he was appointed a member of the Territorial Supreme Court of Utah. He married about this time, and two children born to them died when very young. Mrs. Henderson has been a leading personality in Salt Lake society ever since she came here and is still prominent. She is a lady of pleasing personality, and very popular.

In addition to the great law practice which Judge Henderson established in Utah after his advent here, he acquired holdings in many of the big mining properties of the State. He possessed social qualities highly developed and was a member of the Alta Club, the University Club and the Salt Lake Commercial Club.

Judge Henderson was a Democrat all his life. He served as a member of the city board of education from January 1, 1899, to January 1, 1901. January 1, 1903, he was again returned and served continuously until his death, being elevated to the presidency of the board on January 1, 1908, his term to expire January 1, 1911.

At death he was the head of the legal firm of Henderson, Pierce, Critchlow and Barrette, composed of H. P. Henderson, Frank Pierce, E. B. Critchlow and W. J. Barrette. It was one of the strongest legal firms in the State, and enjoyed an extensive clientele in adjoining States.

Judge Henderson died June 3, 1909, of pneumonia, at his residence at No. 32 Fifth East Street, after an illness of nearly a month's duration. In his death Salt Lake lost one of her most distinguished and patriotic citizens.

Hogle, James

The late James Hogle was one of Utah's most prominent citizens and was honored and respected by all who had the good fortune to have his friendship and acquaintance. Mr. Hogle was widely known in the inter-mountain States and counted as his friends the best element of citizenship in that section of the country. He was born at Armaugh, Ireland, October 15th, 1838.

When but six years of age his parents moved to Quebec, Canada, where the boy was sent to a French school until he was 15 years of age. Then the family removed to Illinois where they resided until 1859, when the Colorado gold excitement broke out and young Hogle, then about 20 years old, was stricken with the gold fever and joined the rush to Pike's Peak. He was a member of a party that started from Illinois. Most of them grew tired of the hardships of travel before the ox teams reached St. Joseph, but young Hogle resolutely kept on, driving a yoke of oxen and a mule on the wagon in which he had his earthly possessions. Only two others of the original party stuck, and they were all that remained when they reached Denver which at that time was merely a cluster of roughly built houses and no one had any idea that it was the beginning of a great city. Mr. Hogle remained in Denver four years and acted as bookkeeper for a mercantile house and resided with a French family there.

In 1863 the gold craze again seized him and he pushed on to Virginia City, Montana, where he did mining in Alder Gulch. He first came to Salt Lake in 1864 and in the spring of 1865 went to Helena, Mont., and then to the gold placer grounds of Loon Creek, Idaho; he returned to Salt Lake in 1871, determined to make it his permanent home, and the following year entered business in partnership with James T. Clasby, which continued successfully for several years. Upon the dissolution of the firm he entered into partnership with his brother Owen, and built up a profitable business. Mr. Hogle was an intimate personal friend of the late Marcus Daly, who repeatedly tried to induce him to go to Butte to enter business, but Mr. Hogle had formed a deep attachment for his adopted city and refused to leave it. Marcus Daly and James Hogle were friends when neither had much, and the friendship ripened as they both amassed wealth. Mr. Hogle through his mining interests and fortunate investments was able to amass a substantial fortune which enabled him to retire from active business, which he entrusted to younger hands, and during the four years preceding his death spent his time in travel and recreation.

At the time of his demise Mr. Hogle was sixty-nine years old. He was sincerely mourned by all who knew him for his lovable disposition, charitable nature and extreme generosity. Mr. Hogle was married to Miss Ida Elizabeth King in 1873, who survives him. One son, James A. Hogle, was born to them. He is now a mining engineer of Salt Lake City.

Judge, John D.

The late John Judge was one of the most remarkably successful mining men that ever came to Utah. He was also one of the best liked and most popular men to be found anywhere in the inter-mountain country. His demise was much lamented by all who were fortunate enough to know him. He was a kind-hearted, generous, upright, honest man, whom everybody loved and respected. He led an active life and was one of Utah's foremost and useful citizens. He died September 14, 1892, at the height of his success, and but forty-seven years of age.

John Judge was a native of Ireland, a son of John and Annie Judge, and was born in County Sligo, in 1845. He came to America when an infant, and his early years were spent in Essex County, New York State, being educated in the common schools there. His parents were successful farmers, and farming and mining were the vocations he was naturally inclined to follow. Therefore, at fourteen years of age he began work in the mines, and lived at Black Brook until he was eighteen. He then enlisted in the Union army, as a private in Co. K., Second Regiment, New York Volunteer Cavalry, otherwise known as "The Empire Light Cavalry." He served a little over two years, being wounded and a prisoner for eight months in Shreveport, Louisiana, and in Taylor, Texas.

Just after the war Mr. Judge was married at Port Henry, on November 25, 1867, to Miss Mary Harney, and to them were born five children; namely, Mrs. W. M. O'Brien, Mrs. T. A. Baldwin, Jr., Mrs. J. E. Woodward, Miss Katherine Judge, and J. Frank Judge.

In April, 1876, Mr. Judge arrived in Utah, and for a time was a guard at the penitentiary, which position in those days required a man of nerve and daring. Later he became a miner at Wood River, Idaho. Returning to Utah, he went to Park City, where he prospected and worked upon some of the most valuable properties there, including the Daly mine. Mr. Judge was one of the original lessees of the Mayflower, from which the profit was placed to purchase the Silver King claims. When the Silver King Mining Company was organized, Mr. Judge was left off the board of directors at his own request, he being in poor health at that time. The Judge estate became rich through the Silver King mine. His widow and family reside in a handsome residence on East South Temple Street, Salt Lake City.

Mackintosh, Richard

Among the pioneers of mining, both in Utah and Nevada, there is no name better known than that of Richard Mackintosh. He was the son of Captain William Mackintosh, of the 93rd Royal Highlanders, and was born in Dublin Barracks, Ireland, while his father's regiment was quartered there. Richard Mackintosh left Europe when a mere boy of nineteen, and made the long trip around the Horn from New York to California, arriving there in the later days of the great gold excitement. After cleaning up enough gold dust to continue his mining operations, he journeyed to Virginia City, Nevada, and took active part in the early development of the famous Comstock. From Nevada he came to Salt Lake in 1871, and continued his activities in mining in Utah, a field at that time comparatively new, and was the first man in this State to engage in the public commercial sampling of ores. The Pioneer Sampler at Sandy, Salt Lake County, was his first undertaking in that line, and later as the mines near Park City proved of great value he built the Mackintosh Sampler at that camp. The sampler in Park City still belongs to the Mackintosh Estate, and is at present being operated. The Pioneer Sampler, which he had operated at Sandy for many years, was sold to Mr. A. J. Gushing, who later disposed of it to the present Pioneer Ore Sampling Company.

Mr. Mackintosh, associated with Mr. R. C. Chambers and others, in the year 1889 acquired by purchase the Diamond and Excelsior mines at Eureka, Nevada, from which a large tonnage of high-grade ores has been profitably mined continuously to the present time, and this output has always been and is yet shipped to the Salt Lake Valley Smelters through the Pioneer Sampler at Sandy.

In the year 1880 Mr. Mackintosh was married to Miss Emma Goss, only daughter of Mr. George Goss, who was associated with the construction of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, the building of the first railroad lines into Bingham and Little Cottonwood Canyons and the gravity tramways to the mines. Mrs. Mackintosh was a popular and well-loved woman, widely known for her generous giving to the cause of charity. Both Mr. and Mrs. Mackintosh devoted much time to philanthropy, and Mr. Mackintosh's genial soul delighted in this use of his wealth. The couple had no children. The estate was inherited by a niece of Mr. Mackintosh, Miss Blanche L. Mackintosh, who, since her marriage to Dr. A. E. Rykert, has resided in Paris, France.

Richard Mackintosh was one of the Utah Commissioners to the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, and filled the position with great credit to himself and the State. He was a charter member of the Alta Club, and its president for four successive years. Although a public-spirited man, he was never induced to accept political office until the election for the Constitutional Convention in 1895, to which he was elected and served through the session with marked ability and intelligence. He thus took an active part in the framing of the fundamental laws of the proposed new State in the Territory of which he had been an active factor for many years.

Mr. Mackintosh began to fail in health soon after his wife's death, in 1895. A cancer, long unsuspected, at last compelled his retirement from active business life, and the end came in February, 1900, five years and two months after the death of Mrs. Mackintosh.

Sharp, Bishop John

One of the sturdiest characters Mormonism ever brought to Utah as a convert, was the late Bishop John Sharp, of the former twentieth ecclesiastical ward in Salt Lake, he being elevated to that position in 1854. Born at the Devon Iron Works in Clachmannanshire, Scotland, in 1820, and going to work in the coal pit when he was but eight years old, he became an expert coal miner, and a singular coincidence was that with the promiscuous child labor that prevailed in that land in those days, Jane Patterson, whom he later made his wife, went to work in the same pit at practically the same time. In 1847 he became a convert to the Mormon faith, and the same year came to America, reaching Utah, via New Orleans, in 1850, accompanied by his two brothers, Adam and Joseph Sharp, and by his wife and their two sons, John and James Sharp, then nine and seven years old respectively.

His first activities in Salt Lake were quarrying stone for the building of the Tabernacle and the Tithing House, and he was shortly made superintendent of the quarries, and later superintendent of public construction for Salt Lake. He was a man of great intelligence and constructive capacity, and was the largest sub-contractor under the Brigham Young contract with the Union Pacific Railroad, building all the grade with the Utah men and teams from Echo Can-yon to Promontory. John Sharp had dictated the terms of the contract. They were that eighty per cent, of the engineers' estimates of completed work should be paid, for the men's wages, each month, and the final settlement made when the work was finished. He was making money on his contracts on the Union Pacific, and when the Utah Central Railway Company was organized he became a large subscriber for the stock and one of its directors, and he built and equipped the road and followed it up with the building of the Utah Southern Railway, reaching to Milford. In 1871 he was superintendent of the Utah Central; in 1873 he became its president, and vice-president of the Utah Southern Railway, later becoming a director of the entire Union Pacific system, with a seat on the Executive Committee, and always with a potent voice.

Bishop Sharp was physically of herculean proportions, and his activities had made him a very wealthy man, and a power in the financial circles of the Pacific railways. He had made money ever since his arrival in Utah, Brigham Young, early recognizing his exceptional abilities, placing all kinds of activities and opportunities before him. A pet cognomen was "The Railroad Bishop," and in everything he turned his attention to he made work for men and paid good wages always. He early acquired heavy interests in the coal lands in southeastern Utah, and supplied the. Territory with its fuel.

He died in the seventy-second year of his life at his home on East Brigham Street, Salt Lake City, December 23, 1891, from an aggravated attack of la grippe, after a brief illness. He left a large family, five sons and nine daughters, all the sons and eight of the daughters being married at the time of his death. His funeral was held at his late residence on East Brigham Street, on Sunday, December 27, 1891, and among those who attended were George Q. Cannon, Angus M. Cannon, William B. Preston, John R. Winder, Bishop William Thorn, Bishop E. F. Sheets, John E. Dooley, W. S. McCornick, S. W. Eccles, George Y. Wallace, and Judge Charles S. Zane. The directors of the Deseret National Bank and of the Z. C. M. I. were all present. The funeral address was delivered by Elder John Henry Smith, and was eloquently eulogistic of the life of deceased. The Cambrian Glee Club rendered some of tha favorite hymns of Bishop Sharp; the bier was buried in flowers, and during the two hours the body lay in state in the main hall of the residence hundreds of his friends and admirers passed in line to take a last view of the dead. The pall-bearers were James C. Livingston, C. H. Livingston, George Swan, Samuel H. Mill, George G. Bywater, John Acomb, Zebulon Jacobs and J. H. Rumel, Jr. The interment was in the city cemetery, and the procession that followed the remains to their last resting place was never greater at any funeral in Salt Lake.

Walker, Samuel Sharp

The late Samuel Sharp Walker was the eldest of the four well-known Walker brothers, whose names are known, and honored and respected and who have accomplished so much towards the development and up-building of Utah and its resources.

Samuel Sharp Walker was a son of Matthew and Mercy Long Walker, and was born at Yeadon, Yorkshire, England, September 22, 1835. The elder Walker was a prominent wool merchant of Yorkshire, England, and immigrated to this country in 1850, and while on his way to Utah he died at St. Louis, Missouri. His wife survived him, and passed away in Salt Lake City in December, 1863. Samuel Sharp Walker, together with his brothers, J. R., D. F., and M. H., arrived in Salt Lake City in September, 1852. After a couple of years working in St. Louis as clerks and peddling notions they finally saved enough money to move on to Utah. The brothers were natural born merchants, and came to the notice of William Nixon, the father of general merchandising in Utah, who gave them employment. The family settled first in the Third ward, where they afterwards purchased property, gradually acquiring possession of the greater part of a city block in the Seventh ward, where they afterwards lived, and there they built the handsome homes of the Walker brothers at the present day.

Sharp Walker turned his attention to farming and engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1859, when the famous house of Walker Brothers was organized at Camp Floyd. Here he joined his brothers in conducting the business and supplying the United States troops with merchandise. They soon built up a large business and became wealthy. After the departure of the troops, the brothers moved their store to Salt Lake City, and the famous store of Walker Brothers has been a landmark there ever since, and has grown to be one of the largest and most complete dry goods establishments in the entire Western country. The firm started in a small way, but soon acquired the location in which they are at the present day. This was in 1866.

The firm afterwards engaged in finance, and the present banking house of Walker Brothers was the outcome. Mining and other investments were also made, including the famous Emma mine, which was afterwards sold to English capitalists. The firm met with much success and only a few reverses, notable among which was the burning of the Walker opera house July 3, 1889. After the fire the building-was remodeled and made into an office building known as the Atlas block. This was burned in 1903 and later rebuilt, and is now one of the largest office buildings in the city.

The Walker brothers were substantial citizens, public spirited and benevolent in the use of their wealth, and up to the time of the death of S. S. Walker, which occurred in 1887, he was actively engaged in business in Salt Lake City.

Samuel S. Walker was married January 5, 1857, and was the father of ten children, Samuel, Frederick, Elizabeth, Emma, Mercy, Nellie, Matthew Sharp, Fannie, Doris, and John Walker.

Walker, Joseph Robinson

Joseph Robinson Walker, deceased, merchant and banker, Salt Lake City, Utah, one of the most prominent business men of the State, was a native of Yeadon, a small place near Leeds, Yorkshire, England, being born there August 29, 1836. The family line is traced back as far as 1700. Matthew Walker, his father, married Mercy Long, and followed the vocation of a merchant in England, until the spring of 1850, when he brought his whole family, four sons and two daughters, to America.

Landing at New Orleans, the party ascended the Mississippi River to St. Louis, and settled there, the head of the family going at once into business. In 1851, during the scourge of cholera, the father and two daughters were carried off by the disease. Joseph R. had received a good practical education for a boy before leaving his native land, and gave promise of being of great assistance to his father at the store in St. Louis, when the death of the father proved a terrible blow to the family and interrupted their plans. All four of the boys, however, secured positions in fancy goods and notion stores, Joseph R. going into one on Broadway, where he held a place as a bright, active and efficient young clerk for two years.

At that time the fertile regions beyond the plains were attracting much attention, and during that period the mother and her boys discussed repeatedly the advisability of moving out to the then new Western country. In April, 1852, the decision was made. All their household effects were disposed of, a strong and specially made wagon was bought, and the family took the long and fatiguing journey over the plains and mountains to Salt Lake City, Utah, where they arrived without serious accident, in September, 1852. Upon their arrival the entire worldly possessions of the family amounted to a small sum of money, four oxen, an Indian pony, which had been bought from the Indians en route, in exchange for a rifle and some powder, and a steer obtained the same way from a trader for a keg of powder. The oxen were soon traded for an adobe house and lot, where the family lived for several months, and then leased a log house on the spot where they subsequently built their magnificent residences. Provisions were dear in Salt Lake in 1853, flour rising to $20 per hundred pounds, and the Indian pony was traded for 800 pounds of that commodity, but only half the bargain price was paid, 400 pounds.

Until 1856, Joseph R. and his brothers worked during the winter in hauling wood from the mountains. Meanwhile, however, the Indians had begun to attack the settlements and were killing a great many people, and among the volunteers who enlisted to help protect the inhabitants of the farming regions near Salt Lake, was Joseph R. Walker. When the excitement had apparently subsided, thirteen men Mr. Walker among the number were detailed to drive a herd of cattle into Salt Lake City, a distance of eighty miles. The first night out they took proper precautions against surprise at night by Indians, and the result proved their wisdom. The stockade was attacked during the night by the Indians, who made several furious assaults in an effort to stampede the cattle and horses. The foe was beaten off, however, with a loss of five or six of their number, and without having damaged the stockade, but two horses and twenty cattle were shot and one of the men in the detail was wounded.

The trading instincts of Mr. Walker prompted him early in his career in Utah, to obtain a mule team, a wagon, and a stock of dry goods and notions, all on credit, and to begin business on his own account. His early training then proved of value to him, and this, combined, with unusual talent and address, made him successful from the start. The entire outfit was paid for in the first few months, and from that time forward his progress was rapid. In 1856 Mr. Walker started for California, and in 1857 settled in Carson Valley as clerk for a trader, and later built a store at Gold Canon, in a placer-mining camp named Johns-town, near the afterwards famous Comstock Lode. Here he found occupation and profit in a large trade and the exchange of goods to miners for gold dust.

In August, 1858, Mr. Walker returned to Utah. General Albert Sidney Johnston had established a camp of United States troops at Camp Floyd, about fifty miles from Salt Lake, and Mr. Walker, repairing to that point, served as a clerk with the army long enough to find out what the situation was, and then with his three brothers, opened a store at Camp Floyd with a general supply of dry goods, groceries, cigars and tobacco, and such other articles as could be sold to the soldiers, all bought in Salt Lake on credit, at sixty per cent, advance on first cost and thirty cents more per pound added for freight. The first year the brothers made a profit of $20,000. Meanwhile, in Salt Lake, in 1859, the Walker brothers had opened a large general store and bank, and this business has been carried on successfully to the present day, although the four Walker brothers dissolved partnership in 1884. As at Camp Floyd, banking has always been carried on in connection with the general merchandising business.

Illustrative of the difficulties Utah merchants labored under in the early times, it is stated that, when in 1864 Mr. Walker went to New York City and bought a stock of goods worth $250,000, he had to pay fifteen to twenty cents a pound for freight and found that it was impossible to get insurance on the stock while it was in transit, and when ' the goods were unloaded in Utah, they had cost him $350,000. Mr. Walker was always a merchant and banker, but was later largely interested in real estate in Utah and California, and in mining enterprises in both States. The first stamp mill in Utah was built by the Walker brothers in the Ophir District.

In addition to being a member of the immense Walker Bros. Dry Goods Company, Joseph R. Walker was a member of Walker Bros., Bankers, and president of the Alice Gold & Silver Mining Company, at Walkerville, Mont., and extensively interested in mines and other enterprises. While he derived great pleasure from the management of large interests, he was a lover of home and family. He contributed liberally to worthy objects, and promoted all measures calculated to advance the welfare of the community in which he lived. He was a strong, genial, capable man, untiring in labor, alert to opportunity, a man of ideas and always sound in counsel. He was not a politician, but a business man, but took the lively interest in public affairs which every American citizen must feel. He died in the early evening of January 6th, 1901. Two years after the death of Mr. Walker, the heirs sold their interest in Walker Bros. Bank, and acquired control of Walker Bros. Dry Goods Company.

Index

Source: Sketches of the Inter-Mountain States, Utah, Idaho and Nevada, Published by The Salt Lake Tribune, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1909