History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

ZION'S COOPERATIVE INSTITUTION. 653
a capital of $1,000,000, divided into $100 shares, and
distributed among 700 or 800 stockholders. 20 The
head of the church continued president of the institution
after it was no longer under control of the church,,
but managed simply on business principles, representing
Mormon as against gentile trading interests. 21
Branches were established at Ogden, Logan, 22 and
Soda Springs, and, as we shall see later, the cooperative
movement spread rapidly throughout the country,
though most of these ventures resulted in failure,
many of the stores being compelled to close during
the commercial panic of 1873.
w Deseret Ev. News, Jan. 2, 18S4. The main building, on East Temple
street, S. L. City, was 318 by 100 ft, the front being of iron, and the roof fireproof.
It was furnished with hydraulic elevators, fire and burglar proof
vaults, and all modern appliances. Zion's Coop. Merc. Inst., MS., 1-2. In
connection with the institution was a tannery and shoe-factory, in which
about 170 hands were employed in 1883.
21 Harrison's Grit. Notes on Utah, MS., 58-9. For further mention of the
institution and its origin, see Marshall's Through Amer., 17G-7; Stenhouse's
Englishwoman, 371-3; TownsenoVs Mormon Trials, 41-2; Tullidge's Mag., i.
363-S; for cut of buildings, Id. , facing p. 3S5. In connection with it, it may be
mentioned that Horace S. Eldredge, who has been connected with the institute
from its inception, was appointed president in 1872, and in 1SS4 was superintendent.
Mr Eldredge, a native of New York, arrived in Utah in 1848, after
passing through all the tribulations of Far West, Nauvoo, and Winter Quarters.
In 186S, being then in partnership with H. B. Clawson, he sold out his
stock of goods to the institute.
Hiram B. Clawson, a native of Oneida co., N. Y., was educated at the
Utica academy. In 1841, his father being then deceased, and the rest of the
family having joined the Mormon church, he moved with them to Nauvoo,
and in 1848 to the valley of Great Salt Lake. Though only 22 years of age,
he was looked upon as a man of mark, and was employed in superintending
the construction of some of the first buildings erected by the church in Salt
Lake City. During the Utah war he figured prominently as adjutant-general
of the Nauvoo legion, and just before the departure of the troops from Camp
Floyd effected a complete reconciliation between the military and the church
authorities. Appointed superintendent of Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institute,
in 1S73 he was sent east in company with H. S. Eldredge to ask for
an extension of credit, in view of the panic then prevailing in commercial
circles'. He met everywhere with a favorable response, and within eight
months the company redeemed its obligations, amounting to $1,100,000. During
his management Mr Clawson states that the losses of the institution by
bad debts did not exceed a quarter of one per cent. In 1875 he resigned the
superintendency, having purchased from the directors the agricultural department
of the Z. C. M. I. , to which he added a machinery department, furnishing
grist and saw mills and steam-engines complete, together with all the
different kinds of machines commonly in use throughout the territory. During
the earlier part of his career Mr Clawson took a leading part in theatrical
affairs, and to him and John T. Caine are largely due the success and prosperity
of the Salt Lake theatre. Tullidge's Mag., i. 67S-84.
22 For 1883 the sales of the Ogden branch were about $S00,000, and of the
Logan branch, of which Aaron Farr was manager, about $000,000.