A Letter from David H. Cannon to his nephew, Georgius Y. Cannon

St. George Temple

St. George, Utah

Jan. 7, 1921

Elder Georgius Y. Cannon

Deseret Bank Bldg.

Salt Lake City, Utah

Dear Georgius:

Your favor of the 27 December 1920, reached me all right, the only excuse that I have to offer for not answering sooner is ill health, while I have not been down sick I have been so that my duties in the Temple has been as much as I felt able to perform.

As you say I was with your father in California. He was called to the mission in 1855. I was called by President Young on 1st May 1856, reached San Francisco on 8th July 1856 and was with him from that time until November 1857. He published the Western Standard and he and his wife Elizabeth Hoagland endured many hardships. He manifest great faith. On one occasion he owed $50.00 office rent to Samuel Brannon, an Apostate. He called the office force into his office and made known the situation, the money was due that day. He said if the Lord does not come to our rescue, we are in a bad fix. He had hardly completed his prayers when Samuel Brannon came and laid a $50.00 slug on the Banker and said, give this to John when he comes around. His brother John was his agent. This man Brannon was said to be the richest man in the state. There are many instances of the power of the Lord being manifest in the relief that was afforded him during his mission.

In November he sent your Aunt Elizabeth with me to San Bernardino. He at the same time shipped a wagon and harness for four mules. John Q. was the babe of about 8 months, he was born on 19 April 1857. We remained at San Bernardino for several weeks. He sent money to us and I bought four mules. From there we reached Salt Lake City on the 1st January 1858. Your father reached the City about the 20th February, coming with Elder Orson Pratt as a teamster. That winter we went to the Mill Creek Canyon and got out wood. We had rigged up two teams. He made a poor out as a wood rustler. We found a man that had some wood out that he wanted to get hauled home on shares. We took the contract. He however, did not haul many loads, as he was appointed to some clerkship in the Territorial Legislature. He in this wood business showed what he could do if circumstances rendered it necessary.

When he came into the valley with Elder John Taylor he thought about his brothers and sisters who had been obliged to remain back through the Indians killing their cattle. He drew a lot for himself, the lot upon which the 14th Ward school house stands and planted it to corn. He went into the adobe yard and made adobies for a house. When called to go to California in October 1849, he bought a lot of a man by the name of Wm. T. Follit and had the adobies that he had made hauled to the lot that he had bought for the children that were to come, he also left that corn that he had raised with the fodder. We got into the City three days after he had left.

In yours to me, it would seem that you have the impression that the family lived on the Isle of Man. Our father and mother were from the Island but were married in Liverpool and their six children were born and lived there until the 18 of September 1842, when they left for America. Our sister Mary Alice was with our Grandmother for several months on the Island and Angus M. for several weeks but as a family were not on the Island. In 1860 after your father reached England, he no doubt visited the Island for the first time. I visited the Island in January 1861, and seen by marks on the grave, if my memory serves me right, that out Grandmother had been dead something like three months.

Your father was a natural student or he would never have attained to the degree of eminence that he did. He was less than 16 when we left England and we were driven from our homes into the wilderness when he was only 19 so that he had no chance to obtain an education in school after he was 16 years of age.

I have had copied a letter that is in my possession which was written by our father to his sister Leonora Cannon Taylor on the 15th Oct. 1840. The thought that prompted me to send it was that you could learn from it something of the thoughts that prompted him to leave the old country. With much love your uncle.

David H. Cannon