Archives West Finding Aid

Few men are better known in the Mormon community, or have been more active in social, commercial, professional and military life of Utah than General Hiram Bradley Clawson (1826-1912). He was a native of Utica, Oneida county, New York, and was born November 7, 1826. He received his education at the Utica Academy. His father died when he was young and his widowed mother joined the Latter-day Saints in 1839. Mrs. Clawson and her family of two sons and two daughters moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1841. Clawson arrived in the Salt Lake Valley with the general immigration of 1848. In common with most of the pioneers he performed a variety of labors in the early years and gained the knowledge of several trades. He had charge of the masons who erected the old Council House and a little adobe structure to the south of it, the latter being the first of its kind in the valley. Also, he temporarily acted as architect for the Salt Lake Temple when Truman O. Angell was called away on a mission.

Early on, however, Clawson assumed the duties of office clerk for President Young and supervised the President's private business affairs, a post he occupied for many years. Clawson initially managed President Young's private store, but in the spring of 1865 he ended that affiliation and purchased the partnership interest of William H. Hooper of the firm Hooper and Eldridge. As junior partner, Clawson traveled frequently to the east coast as the purchasing agent for the firm. Clawson and Horace S. Eldridge dissolved their partnership in 1868, selling their merchandise to the newly incorporated Zion's Co-Operative Mercantile Institution. At the same time, Clawson was appointed general superintendent of Z.C.M.I and continued to travel as a purchasing agent for the new enterprise. He retired from his post in 1873, but resumed the position eighteen months later when his successor, William H. Hooper, resigned. Z.C.M.I occupied its present day location on Main Street during this second term. On October 4, 1875, Clawson again resigned from Z.C.M.I., but then purchased the agricultural, hide and wool departments from the store. He continued to own and operate this concern until his retirement in 1885. A cause for Clawson's retirement from business in 1885 was his indictment for unlawful cohabitation under the provisions of the Edmunds Law.

At the beginning of the anti-polygamy crusade he had three living wives and refused to denounce two of them in compliance with the law. He suffered through an exceptionally severe arraignment beware Chief Justice Sane and was sentenced to the maximum penalty of six months imprisonment and a fine of three hundred dollars and court costs. At the time of his imprisonment, his first wife, Ellen Curtis Spencer; second wife, Margaret Judd; and fourth wife, Emily Young (a daughter of Brigham Young) were living in Salt Lake City. His third wife, Alice Young (a daughter of Brigham Young) had died in childbirth. After his emergence from the penitentiary -- where, as usual with such cases, the term of his sentence was materially shortened by good behavior -- Clawson acted as an agent for the LDS leadership in resolving the conflict created by polygamy with the federal government.

Clawson served the community in many capacities. Most notably, in February 1850, Clawson was present at the Provo Indian battle and assumed the duties of aid-de-camp to General Daniel H. Wells, the commander of the Nauvoo Legion, when the previous aid-de-camp was killed in action. When the Legion was disbanded in 1870 he had risen to the rank of adjutant-general, having succeeded General James Ferguson in 1863. In 1864, he served as the treasurer of Salt Lake City, and as a member of the Territorial Legislature. He also served for many years as the Bishop of the Twelfth Ward. The theater was an important aspect of early Mormon cultural life, both in Nauvoo and later in Salt Lake, and like many of his contemporaries Clawson enjoyed acting, as well as, attending local production. As an early devotee he studied his craft under Thomas A. Lyne, a tragedian of the Edwin Forrest school. As an original member of the Deseret Dramatic Association, he appeared as early as 1850 at the Old Bowery Theater, then located on Temple Block. One of his future wives, Margaret Judd, played opposite him in some of these early productions. Subsequently, he played at the Social Hall which in 1853 replaced the Bowery Theater as the local favorite. His amateur career lasted from the middle 1840s in Nauvoo through the early 1860s when business matters prevented his active participation. Clawson continued his interest in the theater through fund raising and as a purchasing agent; while on business trips to New York he often engaged nationally famous actors and singers or acquired materials used in costuming and stage sets. When the Salt Lake Theater in 1862 was completed Clawson was engaged as manager and continued in this capacity, often in partnership with John T. Caine and others, for many years. Many of Clawson's children also appeared in productions at the Social Hall and later at the Salt Lake Theater.

The above biography by Orson F. Whitney appeared in History of Utah, Volume 4.