Archives West Finding Aid

Rudger Clawson (1857-1943) was born on 12 March 1857, in Salt Lake City, the son of Hiram B. Clawson and Margaret Gay Judd. He attended school in the Salt Lake Nineteenth Ward, the Social Hall, and the University of Deseret in the Council House.

From 1875 to 1877 Clawson worked as a secretary to John W. Young, a railroad contractor, in both Salt Lake City and New York City, Clawson was professionally trained in shorthand and bookkeeping, and graduated in 1877 from Scott-Browne's College of Phonography in New York City. Examples of his shorthand are found in his first diary and in a few of his letters to Lydia. He also used his skills in shorthand when he served as official reporter for four sermons delivered by apostles in the Sunday meetings at the Salt Lake Tabernacle.

On 9 April 1879, Clawson was called to serve as a missionary to the southern states mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. On 21 July 1897, near Varnell's Station, Georgia, he and his companion were abducted by an angry, anti-Mormon mob evidently intent of giving the two young men a severe beating, but instead led to the murder of his companion, Elder Joseph Standing, when the latter provoked his abductors. Clawson's mission ended after only this short beginning, as it then became his assignment to accompany the body of his slain companion back to Salt Lake City.

From 1879 to 1880 Clawson worked as a corresponding secretary for Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution, and from 1882-1884 he worked as a bookkeeper for his brother, Spencer Clawson, in the wholesale dry goods business.

On 12 August 1882, Clawson married Florence Ann Dinwoodey, the daughter of Henry Dinwoodey and Anne Hill, at the Salt Lake Endowment House. About six months later and with his wife pregnant he announced to her his intention of taking another wife. Accordingly, on 29 March 1883, he married Lydia Elizabeth Spencer, daughter of Daniel Spencer and Mary Jane Cutcliffe, at the Endowment House. In 1884 Clawson was indicted for polygamy and unlawful co-habitation. Because the case could not be proven, the trial ended with a hung jury. The next day Clawson's plural wife, Lydia, was located by the authorities and a second trial was held, but she refused to serve as a witness and was committed to the Utah Territorial Prison for contempt of court. The following day Clawson asked her to testify and as a result he was convicted on 25 October 1884 and she was released. Although he expected that the sentence would be for about one year, on 3 November 1844 Judge Charles S. Zane sentenced him to four years imprisonment and fined him $800. Clawson thus became the first Mormon polygamist to be imprisoned. After serving three years, one month and ten days of his sentence, he was pardoned by President Grover Cleveland and was released from prison on 13 December 1887. Perhaps as a reward for so nobly defending the principle of polygamy, Clawson received their second anointing one week after his release from prison. This anointing in Mormon belief assures exaltation in the highest degree of the Celestial Kingdom.

On 23 December 1887, Clawson received the call to become the president of the Box Elder Stake. In January of 1888 his family moved their residence from Salt Lake City to Brigham City. The next month he was sustained as president by the Box Elder Stake members at their quarterly stake conference, and was ordained a High Priest and set apart by Lorenzo Snow. Clawson was invited to speak at the 1888 general conference. President Wilford Woodruff (who was in hiding to avoid prosecution for polygamy) had left instructions with Lorenzo Snow to not allow any discussion of polygamy at the conference. However, on 6 April less than four months after being released from prison Clawson delivered a stirring speech in which he referred to his conviction and imprisonment in 1844 for the crime of living the principle of polygamy and declared that his testimony was strengthened by his three-year incarceration. In order to soften the strength of Clawson's defense of polygamy the following statements were omitted form the report published in the LDS church-owned Deseret Evening News "the Lord has revealed the principle of celestial marriage. Do we believe it is true? We most assuredly do. And will we honor this principle? By the help of the lord we will honor it and honor him. By the help of the lord will not make the promise to do away with this principle any more than we will promise to do away with the principle of faith, (repentance), baptism, or the laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost." In May of 1891 Clawson looked back at the delivery of this speech and the discussion it had aroused and said. "My remarks... occasioned a great deal of comment at the time, not only among the saints but to some extent among the gentiles ... It will be remembered that in the year 1888, the crusade against our people was prosecuted with great vigor by the Government and some were of opinion that the remarks ... would have a tendency to increase the violence of the persecution."

During the next few years three of Clawson's children died. His son, Daniel Spencer Clawson, died on 4 May 1893. His daughter, Vera Mary Clawson, died tragically on 13 March 1897 as a result of drinking some furniture cleaning fluid. On 19 April 1898 his oldest son, Rudger Elmo Clawson, died. This was Clawson's son by his first wife, Florence Ann Dinwoodey, who had divorced him because of her unwillingness to live in polygamy.

On 10 October 1898, Clawson was ordained an apostle by President Lorenzo Snow. Three days later he attended his first meeting with the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles. As a result of his elevation to the apostleship, he moved his residence from Brigham City to Salt Lake City in July of 1899, but was not released as Box Elder Stake President until the following November.

On 6 October 1901, Clawson was sustained at general conference as second counselor in the First Presidency, but President Snow died only four days later. It was decided, however, not to dissolve the First Presidency until after the funeral on 13 October 1901. Because of the suddenness of President Snow's death, Clawson was never formally set apart to this position by the church leaders: Clawson's seven days in this high office is the shortest period of time that anyone has served in the LDS First Presidency.

In June 1912 Clawson arrived in Liverpool, England, to preside over the European Mission, and served in this position until April 1913.

In November 1918 as a result of Anthon H. Lund's being made a member of the First Presidency, Clawson was sustained as acting president of the Council of the Twelve Apostles. Finally, on 10 March 1921, he became President of the Council of the Twelve Apostles, during his long service to his church; Clawson spoke at church gatherings of many sizes and in many places for over half a century. In 1942, one year before his death, he compiled the statistic that he had attended 10,637 meetings and had addressed the congregation at 5,792 of these.

During an interview conducted around the turn of the century, Clawson was asked what the most important reason for his success in life was. His unhesitating response was: "My success in life, if I have attained to any, is due to a fixed an unyielding determination on my part to seek and abide by counsel. I know there is safety in counsel."

Rudger Clawson died on 21 June 1943 Clawson died in Salt Lake City at the age of 86. At the time of his death he had served in the Council of The Twelve Apostles for a total of 45 years.