Cannon, George Q. (George Quayle), 1827-1901
Dates
- Existence: 1827 - 1901
Biographical History
George Q. Cannon (1827-1901) worked as the Utah Territory Delegate to the United States House of Representative for several years. He also served as a missionary, mission president, and apostle for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
George Q. Cannon was born in Liverpool, England, on January 11, 1827. He was the oldest child of George and Ann Quayle Cannon. The Cannon family sailed to the United States in 1842 after being converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and baptized by John Taylor, the husband of George's aunt, Leonora Cannon. Shortly after arriving in Nauvoo, Illinois, George Cannon lost both of his parents. He was raised in John and Leonora Taylor's home and worked as a printer's apprentice.
George Cannon moved west to Utah with the Taylor family, arriving in 1847. Soon after their arrival, George served a mission first in California, and then to the Sandwich Islands, where he mastered the Hawaiian language. He later served as mission president over the California/Oregon, Eastern States, and European missions. He was also commissioned by the church to do work on several different newspapers. In addition, George Cannon was ordained an apostle for the Church in 1859.
In 1862, George Cannon was elected to represent the Utah Territory in the United States Congress. He only served one term in this capacity but in 1872 returned to Washington, D.C., as the Utah Delegate to Congress. He remained a prominent figure in Utah's plea for statehood and as a representative for the church to the federal government for ten years. He left his seat in Congress following the Edmunds Act, which limited the rights of Utah's polygamists. George Cannon was forced into seclusion until 1888 when he surrendered himself and consequently served nearly six months imprisonment in the Utah State Penitentiary for cohabitation.
George Cannon's first (and only legal) marriage was to Elizabeth Hoagland Cannon just following his first mission for the church. She bore him eleven children, six of whom reached adulthood. In 1858, George Cannon took his second wife, Sarah Jane Jenne Cannon, who raised seven children, one of which was adopted. His third wife, Eliza L. Tenney Cannon, had three sons. George Cannon married Martha Telle Cannon in 1868, and eventually nine children came of their union. George Cannon's fifth wife, Emily Hoagland Little Cannon, was sister to Elizabeth Hoagland Cannon. Emily was a widow, and Elizabeth encouraged the match due to concern over her sister's welfare. George Cannon and Emily Hoagland had no children together. Caroline Young Croxall Cannon became George Cannon's sixth and last wife nearly three years after Elizabeth's death. She was a daughter of Brigham Young, and George Cannon's only legal wife during the time they were married. George Cannon adopted her five children from a previous marriage, and together they raised four more children. In all, George Cannon reared thirty-five children (seven of which were adopted), but forty-three are sealed to him eternally.
In 1880, George Cannon became the first counselor in the first presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints under John Taylor. He also served as first counselor under the presidencies of Wilford Woodruff and Lorenzo Snow before his death in 1901, at age seventy-four.
Found in 16 Collections and/or Records:
Annie Wells Cannon and family photographs, approximately 1877-1963
Contains, photographs, including portraits, of Annie Wells Cannon and family members. Dated approximately 1877 to 1963.
Brigham Young correspondence with Church leaders, 1858-1871
Contains correspondence between Brigham Young and George Q. Cannon, George A. Smith, and Daniel H. Wells. Letters include discussion of the Army's presence in Utah, the Mountain Meadows Massacre, and other matters. Materials date between 1858 and 1871.
Photographs and negative of George Q. Cannon
Collection includes photographs and one corresponding negative with images of George Q. Cannon, taken between the 1870s and the 1900s. Most are albumen prints.
John Q. Cannon collection
This collection contains the 1881 diary of John Q. Cannon, including a typescript, the agenda book of John Q. Cannon (though written in by Annie Wells Cannon), a talk titled, "Spirituality in the Sunday School, and two portraits of John Q. Cannon and George Q. Cannon.
Emmeline B. Wells and Annie Wells Cannon photographs, approximately 1877-1963
Contains photographs of the family of Emmeline B. Wells and Annie Cannon Wells. Photographs are of family members, some unidentified. Also contains scrapbooks with photographs and clippings, and loose ephemera from scrapbooks. Date dapproximately 1877 to 1963.
George Q. Cannon
Francis D. Hughes papers
Photographs, letters, and six volumes of diaries kept by Francis D. Hughes, 1861-1872.
Kane family photographs, approximately 1840-1900
Contains photographs and related materials of the Kane family that were not found in the three-volume family photograph album. These include a steel printing plate of a portrait of Thomas L. Kane in his Civil War uniform, five prints made from that plate, a photograph of George Q. Cannon, and two photographs of unknown people. Materials are largely undated and unlabeled, but presumably date from the mid 19th century to early 20th century.
Norman Woodbury Osborn photograph collection
This collection contains 86 various photographs, portraits, and postcards of unidentified people. Some of the only identified portraits include Karl G. Maeser and George Q. Cannon. The photographs were found in Norman Woodbury Osborn's attic.