George Quayle CANNON, Congress, UT (1827-1901)

CANNON, George Quayle, (father of Frank Jenne Cannon), a Delegate from the Territory of Utah; born in Liverpool, England, January 11, 1827; attended the common schools; immigrated to the United States in 1842 with his parents, who settled in Nauvoo, Ill.; moved to Great Salt Lake (then Mexican territory), Utah, in 1847; went to California in 1849 and a year later to the Hawaiian Islands as a missionary; returned to Salt Lake City in 1854; learned the art of printing; editor of the Western Standard in 1856 and 1857 and of the Deseret News 1867-1874 and 1877-1879; member of the Territorial council 1865, 1866, and 1869-1872; member of the board of regents of the Deseret University (now the University of Utah) and later chancellor; elected by the constitutional convention in 1872 a delegate to present the constitution and memorial to Congress for admission of the Territory as a State into the Union; elected as a Republican to the Forty-third and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1873-March 3, 1881); contested the election of Allen G. Campbell to the Forty-seventh Congress, but the House, on April 20, 1882, decided that neither was entitled to the seat; returned to Salt Lake City; director of the Union Pacific Railroad and a member of the board of directors of several financial and industrial enterprises at the time of his death; died in Monterey, Monterey County, Calif., April 12, 1901; interment in Salt Lake City Cemetery, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Bibliography

Cannon, Mark W. “The Mormon Issue in Congress 1872-1882: Drawing on the Experience of Territorial Delegate George Q. Cannon.” Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 1961.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present