Utah Biographies ~ Wells to Wilson

Wells, Joseph S.

Prominent among the native born Salt-Lakers is Joseph S. Wells, who for a number of years has occupied the position of general manager of the Utah Light & Railway Company.

Mr. Wells was born May 25, 1862, his father being Daniel H. Wells, a well-known lumberman and farmer, and prominent among the business men of his time. His mother was Martha G. Harris.

Mr. Wells began his education in the public schools of Salt Lake City, and later attended the University of Deseret, from which in due time he graduated. March 14, 1888, he was married to Anna E. Sears. Five children were born to the couple: Alice Francis, Herman Joseph, Byron Sears, Richard Harris, and Geneva. In 1903 his wife died, and on June 20, 1907, he married Mamie E. Lovell, who has one child, Margaret.

Mr. Wells has long been regarded as one of the prominent railroad and business men of the inter-mountain region. He went into the railroad business first upon leaving school. For a number of years he filled a clerical position with the Ogden branch of the Z. C. M. I. Leaving this, he engaged in the insurance business as an employee of Heber J. Grant & Co. On May 1, 1889, he returned to the railway service, becoming secretary of the Salt Lake City Railroad Company, now the Utah Light & Railway Company. He retained continuous connection with that concern, and as a result of his efforts, in November, 1907, was appointed general manager of the system.

Mr. Wells has long' been prominent in local business life, and at this time is a director in the Zion's Benefit Building Society; and president and director of the Victor Consolidated Mining Company. He is also interested in the Wilson Publishing Company, besides having half a dozen other minor business interests.

Like his father, who for ten years was mayor of Salt Lake City, Mr. Wells has always been an advocate of the introduction of modern methods into every branch of industry. Under his efficient management, the affairs of the Utah Light & Railway Company have been highly prosperous. In private life the influence of his personality has been just as potent among his large circle of friends.

Mr. Wells occupies a handsome residence at 257 Second Avenue, and it is here that this genial business man is seen at his best. From the standpoint of success achieved at a comparatively early age, Mr. Wells is enabled to look back upon a past wherein failure has had no place and forward on a vista of many years of promise.

For years past Mr. Wells has been recognized as one of the prominent members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He now holds the position of first counselor to President R. W. Young, of Ensign Stake, and he has long been recognized as a sincere and earnest churchman and a man who is of real value to the church.

Wilfley, John M.

One of the foremost among Salt Lake's prominent business men is John M. Wilfley, who first saw the light of day in St. Joseph, Missouri, September 21, 1863. Born in the stirring days of the Civil War, Mr. Wilfley early showed an energy and earnestness of purpose which are largely responsible for his achievement in a business way during the years which have followed.

His father was Redman Wilfley, a retired miller of St. Joseph, Missouri, and his mother Maria L. Baker. He was educated in the public schools of Kansas City, and later entered business life in the State of his nativity. In 1903 he came to Salt Lake City, where he has since made his home.

In December, 1887, he was married to Miss Lucy Fopping by whom he has two children, namely: Louis T. and Frank T.

He married Louise Betty in 1898.

Mr. Wilfley is a man of wealth and has long been regarded as one of the substantial business men of the State. He is the owner of the Wilfley apartments which are among the more fashionable apartment houses of Salt Lake City and is also the owner of other local real estate, in the handling of which he has been uniformly successful.

Mr. Wilfley was for some time interested largely in the well-known Minnie Moore Mining Company of Bellevue, Idaho, which company attained an enviable reputation under the management of Mr. Wilfley and his associates. As a builder he is well and favorably known, and in every line he has attempted success has smiled upon his efforts.

While fully alive to the duties of his position, Mr. Wilfley is a man of modest tastes and an unostentatious bearing which have gone far to endear him to his large circle of friends. He is a member of the Commercial Club, and has always taken a foremost place in such public functions as he considered it his duty to take part in.

Mr. Wilfley makes his home at the Wilfley apartments where he lives quietly and happily in the bosom of his family. Well posted on current events, and with a fund of information and knowledge of human nature gained through years of association with the better element of Western business men, Mr. Wilfley is at once a jovial companion and an interesting and entertaining conversationalist.

So far during his interesting business career he has been eminently successful, and should he again turn his attention to the more active pursuits of life, his friends predict for him an even greater measure of fame.

Williams, D. Livingston

The saving of the west, as it were, has been brought about by means of irrigation, and surely on every side we see vegetation where but a few years ago a barren waste existed. That irrigation is just in its infancy it is easy to suppose, and what changes it will make in this country of ours, and what bearing it will have on the growth and prosperity of the country, is hard to calculate. In the Western States, Utah is considered first when it comes to irrigating, and as it is a science, Utah has the enviable reputation of having mastered it. Among the many prominent men interested in irrigation projects in this Western country, and more especially in this State, is William D. Livingston. Mr. Livingston is considered to be an authority on irrigation, and that he gives his entire time to this industry, you might say, and is interested in several projects, attests this to be a fact.

Mr. Livingston was born in Salt Lake City on the 26th of March, 1871. He is the son of William Livingston and Lilias Livingston. He received his education in the common schools of this city. Being very ambitious and particularly bright and capable of applying himself to whatever task presented itself, he was successful from the start. When yet a young man he went to Manti and became very prominent in Sanpete County. He entered politics there and became county recorder and county attorney of Sanpete. As a lawyer he was eminently successful, and after he had filled the above offices so capably he was elected district attorney of the Seventh Utah District. It is a well-known fact that as district attorney he filled the office creditably and efficiently.

About this time he began to interest himself in the various irrigation projects which were then demanding the attention of the Western people. He became an enthusiastic worker and soon was looked upon as one of the pioneers in the great projects then on foot. His ideas and views while connected with these schemes proved to be so valuable that he was sought as an adviser and officer in about all of the companies which were being organized and of those which at the present time are being floated. While most of his operations have been in Utah, he is interested too in projects in Nevada, and his whole time is being devoted to the success of the companies of which he is an officer. He has often remarked that the salvation of the West must be in the irrigation of the arid lands, and this is an evident truth. At the present time Mr. Livingston is general manager, secretary and treasurer of the following companies: Abraham Irrigation Company, Spalding-Livingston Investment Company, Gunnison Valley Reclamation Company, Moapa Garden Company, Beaver Land Company, Price Valley Irrigation Company, and the Gunnison Irrigation and Irrigation Investments.

As much of Mr. Livingston's work is in the southern part of the State, he maintains two homes, one at Manti and the other at Salt Lake City. He is prominently identified with the Commercial Clubs of Salt Lake, Manti and Gunnison and he is a live wire in all three of these.

Although a very busy man, he is very domestic in his habits and tastes. His domestic life is a very happy one and he devotes much of his time to his children, seven in number. They are: William E., Ernest E., Annie L., Leland V., Urban Stanley, Wendell A., and Lettie Lucile. He has a beautiful residence at 958 E Street, Salt Lake, and this is the scene of many pretty house parties.

Mr. Livingston is looked upon by his fellowmen as being honest, capable and progressive, and the future holds much in store for him.

Wilson, Frank L.

The Deep Creek section of the State of Utah is destined to become one of the most important in the entire inter-mountain country, abounding, as it does, in mineral wealth and fertile lands. It has a greater variety of the useful metals than any other section of the United States, including gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc and iron; bismuth, tin, nickel, antimony, tungsten and molybdenum. This part of Utah is being rapidly developed and has already made fortunes for a large number of persons who had an early knowledge of the wonderful mineral resources of that section. Among the fortunate ones who have done wonders towards the development of the natural mineral resources of this rich country are the Wilson Brothers, who are prominent and favorably known mining operators and developers of many excellent mining properties in the Deep Creek District, including the well-known Lucy L. Mining and Milling Company, which is probably the only mining company in the United States that has a large body of bismuth ore of commercial value; the Clifton Copper Belt Mining Company, the Seminole Copper Company, the Western Pacific Copper Company, and the Wilson Consolidated Mining Company.

Frank L. Wilson was born February 18, 1859, at London, Nemaha County, Nebraska. His father, William F. Wilson, was a general contractor and merchant, and was a native of Brighton, Pennsylvania. His mother, Anna M. McKenzie Wilson, was born at Vanport, Beaver County, Pennsylvania. Mr. Wilson received his early education in the common schools of Nebraska, and later at the University of Nebraska. After leaving the University, Mr. Wilson turned his attention to mining, and in November, 1889, came to Salt Lake and commenced operations. He has been uniformly successful ever since, his principal interests at present being in the great Deep Creek section, where he has acquired several very valuable mining properties.

Mr. Wilson was married July 29, 1901, to Wilhelmina Rasmussen, who was a native of and educated at Ephraim, Utah. Four children have blessed their union, namely: Frank L., Jr., Robert H., Helen J., and John H. Mr. Wilson is a resident of Salt Lake City, and a member of the firm of Wilson Brothers, mining operators, with offices in the Brooks Arcade.

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