Archives West Finding Aid

The two patriarchs of the Bamberger family in Utah were Simon and Jacob who were born in the German city of Darmstadt in 1845 and 1852 respectively. Emigrating to the United States as teenagers, they commenced their careers in the business world as wholesale merchants in St. Louis, Missouri. Simon arrived in Ogden, Utah in 1869, preceding Jacob who settled in Salt Lake City in 1875. As entrepreneurial pioneers, he and his brother became mining magnates in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, purchasing several gold, copper, silver, and coal mining properties located in Utah, Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, Oregon, and Alaska. Headquarters for these enterprises were established in New York. In addition to investing in the mining business, the brothers collaborated in developing oil fields in Los Angeles, forming an investment and exploration company, and establishing a leasing concern. In 1890 Simon founded the Salt Lake and Ogden Railway Company (renamed the Bamberger Electric Railroad and Transportation Company) which provided rail and bus service to communities in northern Utah and parts of Idaho. A year later he and others bought the "Salt Lake Herald". Exemplifying his friendship with leaders of the L. D. S. heirarchy, Simon appointed Heber J. Grant, a future president of the Mormon church, as the paper's vice-president. Unable to devote equal time to these numerous undertakings, Simon and Jacob enlisted their sons to assist them in the management of their far-flung economic empire. Simon's son Julian, born on 9 February 1899 in Salt Lake City, was president of the Bamberger railway company, chief executive of gold and copper mines in Nevada, and headed the Lagoon amusement park which his father created in 1896. Jacob's sons, Clarence and Ernest, served as vice-president, general managers, and on the board of directors of silver mines in Park City, Utah, a coal mine in Coalville Utah, and mining operations in Nevada, Colorado, and Oregon. It is noteworthy to mention that Ernest and Clarence received degrees in mining engineering, graduating from Columbia University and Cornell University in 1900 and 1908 respectively while Julian, a graduate from Princeton in 1910, studied electrical engineering in post-graduate work. Clarence was a student at the Royal Prussian Geological Academy in Berlin and at the School of Mines in Paris during 1909-1910. The Bambergers were also active in numerous non-mining businesses. Simon presided over the Utah Lime and Cement and the Salt Lake Valley Loan and Trust companies, the latter of which Julian subsequently assumed the presidential reins. Clarence, a prominent banker, invested in the U.S. and Mexican petroleum industry. Information can be accessed in boxes 3, and 17-22.

Private enterprise was not the only realm where the Bamberger family experienced considerable success. The world of politics was an arena in which several Bambergers were involved. Four of them, namely, Simon, Julian, Ernest, and Clarence actively participated in Utah and national politics. The former two joined the Democratic party while the latter two became affiliated with the Republican party. Simon, a member of the Salt Lake City board of education from 1898 to 1903, achieved considerable notoriety as an effective spokesman for those in the teaching profession and for preventing the closure of Salt Lake City schools due to insufficient funding. Benefitting from being in the public spotlight, he was elected in 1903 as a senator in the Utah legislature, position which he held until 1912. Bamberger was instrumental in the passage of a bill which furnished funds for the founding of kindergartens and the training of teachers for pre-schoolers. In 1916 Simon was elected as Utah's first Democrat and Jewish governor. One of Bamberger's most ardent supporters was fellow Democrat and highly respected L.D.S. general authority, B. H. Roberts. The governor cemented his relationship with the Mormon community when he refused to sign an anti-Mormon petition. In conjunction with Bamberger, the Democratic majority in the state legislature enacted several laws which aligned it with the pro-reform Progressive movement. Included in a long list of regulatory legislation were enactments which granted laborers the right to unionize, formed a state industrial commission to guarantee compensation for industrial accidents and deaths (examine box 25), created a commission to oversee the activities of the security business, taxed the mining industry on a more equitable basis vis a vis other property owners, prevented utility companies from giving kickbacks to public officials, regulated the price of electricity and gas, supervised water consumption in locales experiencing substantial population growth, established judicial elections on a non-partisan basis, gave the electorate the right to participate in the calling for referenda, ratified the19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution providing for the women's right to vote, and required youth to attend high school. Declining to run for re-election in 1920, Bamberger retired from political life. Materials can be found in box 1. On 6 October 1926 Simon Bamberger died. Among those who eulogized him were L.D.S. President Heber J. Grant and Rabbi Samuel H. Gordon. The Jewish citizens of Utah remembered Bamberger as a devoted member of their community for having assisted in the construction of a new synagogue for the B'nai Israel congregation in 1891 and for having served as president of that synagogue for several years. Simon's brother Jacob died on 18 July 1928.

Julian Bamberger, nicknamed "Bam", was elected as a self-described states rights' Wilsonian Democrat to the Utah senate in 1932 when control of both houses in the legislature and the governor's office was transferred to the Democrats. He served one term ending in 1936. Respect for Julian's leadership abilities was evident in his appointment to chair legislative committees entrusted with the reorganization of state government, the writing of legislation designed to furnish emergency relief and fund public works, the drafting of a law to regulate the sale of alcoholic products, and changes in the state's sales tax law. Julian also organized an eleven Western state conference whose purpose was to propose a common taxation system for trucks and buses. Sensitive to the needs and problems arising from the state incarceration of those suffering from mental and physical disabilities as well as those convicted of crimes, Bamberger in 1934 advocated changes in the way in which the state treated and managed residents in the mental hospital, the deaf and blind school, the industrial and training schools, and the penitentiary system. Consult box 7.

Ernest, born on 11 August 1877 and Clarence, born on 16 July 1886, politically parted ways with their uncle and cousin. Both were involved in local, state, and national Republican politics. Correspondence between the brothers and various levels of government occurred frequently during six decades in the twentieth century. Correspondents included the administrative, legislative, and judicial branches of city, county, state, and federal governments. As a state and national Republican committeeman during the 1920s, Ernest lobbied several party officials on behalf of Utahans seeking federal government positions. Senator Reed Smoot was a fequent recipient of Ernest's missives. Having served in the Utah State Assembly (1908-1910) and as a member of the state Republican party's central committee in the 1960s, Clarence was also quite active in the political world. He frequently expressed his opinion on a variety of issues to prominent governmental leaders, including Marriner Eccles and J. Edgar Hoover. See boxes 13 and 14.

A constant which pervades the activities of the Bamberger family was an ethos of committment to serving the public's interests and needs. Julian was an officer in a number of state and local civic organizations, viz., the Utah Traffic Safety Council, the Salt Lake City Travelers Aid Society, the American Red Cross, and the Salt Lake Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Another example of Bamberger public service was the significant contribution which Ernest and Clarence made when they were members of the Board of Regents of the University of Utah and the Board of Trustees of Westminster College. These activities spanned the years of 1913-1955. Clarence was instrumental in the building of the Utah State Hospital for Crippled Children which was located on the U of U's campus. This edifice laid the foundation for the establishment of the university's medical center in which he was involved as a member the medical center's fund drive. In 1953 Clarence created a scholarship fund for meritorious students in the College of Mine and Mineral Industries.

Roger V. Paxton composed the biographical sketch and processed boxes