Life History of John Gray McQuarrie

I'm still working through my stash of personal histories. Here's one for John Gray McQuarrie:

I was born in St. George, Utah, October 10, 1867. Just the date of birth would be rather unimportant, were it not for the fact that I stepped onto this stage of activity just in the full tide of two great world movements—the redeeming of the West and the establishing of a Zion. There was in these two factors the zeal of the missionary and the courage of the pioneer.

It was quite evident that if I had been born near the storied Garden of Eden and lived until 1867, I would not have witnessed as many changes and marked as many steps of advancement as I have since that date until the present.

My first memory is when we lived in Pine Valley, Utah. My father, with two Gardners, ran a primitive saw mill. They logged with oxen, sawed lumber for the St. George temple, and other buildings being put up in the settlements. Later, I spent a summer at Mt. Trumbell, about seventy miles south and east of St. George, where lumbering was carried on a large scale. They not only logged with oxen, but the lumber was hauled by ox trains to St. George.

The typical Western freighter, driving three and four span of horses or mules, still brought our freight from far off railroad terminals. I became intimately acquainted with these colorful characters and modes of transportation.

As a boy, I played with the Indian papooses, traded for their bows and arrows, and learned to shoot and also to manufacture bows and arrows about as well as the Indian. As I grew a little older, I spent considerable time in Silver Reef and other typical western mining camps. I became acquainted with the “desert rut,” the prospector, the tunnel miner, engineers, assayers, stage drivers, merchants and salon keepers, as well as with the adventurers, gunmen, and all that class of characters which go to make up the thrilling moving picture stories so common today.

When I was thirteen years of age, I went to work as a helper in my father’s blacksmith shop. I served two forges; my brother Hector, five years my senior, ran one and my father the other. The heavy work was wielding the sledge hammer to forge heavy irons. In two years, I was able to do some of the repair work which came to the shop, including the shoeing of horses. I made my own spending money on the side from that age on. When I was fifteen, my father gave up the shop work. I then engaged as an apprentice to learn the carpenter trade. When I was nineteen, I began contracting on my own account. I followed this line of work for thirteen years, during which time I built quite a substantial home and acquired some land and a little other property. The house is still regarded as one of the good homes in St. George. During this time, I served as water master, City Councilor, and representative to the Legislature (second year after we attained statehood, 1898).

I was married to Maggie Seegmiller December 2, 1887. I was called on a mission in August, 1900, to the Eastern States. After serving as a traveling Elder for about two months, I was appointed President of the West Pennsylvania Conference, the largest of seven conferences constituting the Eastern States Mission. About four months later, I was appointed President of the Mission, to succeed Edward H. Snow. I served in this capacity until August 1908. During these eight years, I had very wide and varied experiences. I came in direct contact with the railroad officials, state and city officers, ministers, and the various strata of population from the slums of East Side New York to the elite.

My family lived with me in New York for about six years. Paul will remember well this period. We came home in 1908, and I then became identified with the church school system, teaching at the Murdock Academy at Beaver, later at Emery Stake Academy at Castle Dale, and still later at the Brigham Young University at Provo. I just ran a bluff at teaching. I did not have a school credit when I was forty years of age, but during the eight years I was with the schools, I acquired enough hours’ credit for a BA degree; but I had no major subject, so I did not get my degree.

I gave up the school business when we entered the First World War. I took the boys to a farm at Walsburg, Utah, to do our bit in sustaining the soldiers. When peace came, we sold the farm and moved into Salt Lake City, where we still live.

Soon after we moved to Salt Lake City, I was appointed State Insurance Commissioner. I served in this office for eight years under Governor Dern.  During this period, I had some very wide experience. I became acquainted with the state laws of Utah and also the underlying principles of insurance. Twice each year, I usually attended national conventions held at Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Kansas City, St. Louis, Chicago, Toronto, Hartford, and Washington, DC. While at these conventions, we stayed at the very best hotels and were entertained lavishly.

While at Hartford, Connecticut, we were taken on a tour through New England and had luncheons at the famous country resorts where the rich men play. While at these conventions, I was called to speak before large audiences of Commissioners, State officials, and company executives. I speak of this not by way of boasting, but merely to show that in my varied activities I have contacted characters in all the strata of life, as well as taking part in all phases of civilization and stages of progress as marked by the ox team, the spinning wheel, the stagecoach, the railroad, and the aeroplane. There is never a character flashed on the screen today but what I have seen the counterpart in real life.

During the thirteen years that I worked at the carpenter trade, and also as building contractor, I worked on the tower of the St. George Temple and either built outright or put on additions toa  large percentage of the homes in St. George and adjacent towns.

During my term in the Legislature, an appropriation of $100,000 was made to begin work on the first buildings of the University of Utah. I introduced and secured the passage of the first bill to establish experimental farms in Utah (as City Councilor).

The great problem confronting the people of St. George at the time I became City Councilor was not only the acquiring of additional water, but getting a mountain stream for cultivating purposes more suitable than the rather hard, mineralized springs which came out at that low level. There was a large spring commencing at the base of the Pine Valley Mountain about twenty miles north of the city, but it flowed off to the East in a gorge so deep that it looked impossible to find a feasible route to get it over the divide where it would run by gravity into the city. After two or three years during which time several surveys were made, we were camped near the head of the canyon, and I looked over the tent pole, which was I concluded was level, and discovered a low pass not very far distant where the canal could be taken over. An accurate survey proved that the route was feasible. The long dream of Brigham, Jarvis, and others was realized at last. St. George now has an ample and fresh water supply.

I also took part with Tom Judd, Isaac MacFarlane, Thomas Cottam, and others, in surveying a canal that included a 700-foot tunnel, which made it possible to bring water from the Virgin River. Thus, the prosperous town of LaVerkin was made. Following this enterprise, the Hurricane Canal was undertaken and the Town of Hurricane was built.

I must not forget that during this thirteen-year period I served in similar callings in Beaver Stake and later in Emery Stake. I was also a member of the Stake High Council at the Utah Stake Headquarters in Provo. After I came to Salt Lake City, I served on the Stake Sunday School Board in Liberty Stake, and afterwards, was a member of the Granite Stake High Council. At present, I am one of the two Patriarchs of Granite Stake.