The high standing of the State of Utah among the youngest States in the Union, is due not alone to its ideal climate and rare beauty of scenery—other regions boasting a climate and environment as exceptional have nevertheless remained unknown to the great world of commerce and thought. When we consider the wonderful development and progress made in this new State, and especially during the last decade of the Nineteenth Century, we find that the present gratifying condition is due to the enterprise of public-spirited citizens. Through their efforts and untiring energy they have developed the commercial interests and the horticultural resources of the State. They have also maintained a commendable interest in public affairs and have given to their commonwealth many of her best statesmen. It has been truly said that in the lives of the citizens of any section the history of the locality is best narrated, and those who read the following pages will become acquainted with men and movements inseparably associated with the history of the State.

In the compilation of this work and in securing data a number of experienced writers have been employed for many months visiting the leading citizens, and every effort has been employed to obtain reliable data and produce a work accurate and trustworty even to the smallest detail. Owing to the great care exercised and the fact that every opportunity was given those represented to secure accuracy in their biographies, the publishers believe that they are giving their readers a volume containing few errors of consequence. The biographies of some representative citizens will be missed from this work. This in some instances was caused by their absence from home when the writers called, and in other instances by the failure on the part of the men themselves to understand the scope of the work. The publishers, however, have done everything in their power to make the volume a representative work. The value of the data presented will grow as the years pass on. Posterity will preserve the work with care from the fact that it perpetuates biographical history which otherwise would be wholly lost. In those not far distant days will be realized in a greater degree than at the present time, the truth of Macauley's statement that "The history of the country is best told in the lives of its people."