Los Angeles County CA Archives Biographies.....Muir, Leo Joseph March 9, 1880 - 
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Ila Wakley iwakley@msn.com April 2, 2006, 11:15 pm

Author: The Lewis Publishing Company

California and Californians, Pages 23-24

	LEO JOSEPH MUIR, president of the Los Angeles Stake of the Church of 
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was born in Utah, and through a busy career 
since early manhood has filled many responsible positions in business, civic 
and educational fields.  Climaxing these, he became state superintendent of 
schools of Utah.  Today he has prominent connections with mortgage investments 
and agriculture both in Utah and Southern California.  His office is at 437 
South Hill Street, Los Angeles.
	Some of the first American settlers in Southern California were 
members of the famous “Mormon Battalion,” which was recruited, on orders 
emanating from President Polk, while the Mormons were on their trail through 
Southern Iowa after their expulsion from Illinois.  This Mormon Battalion 
marched over the long trail to the Southwest as part of the Army of Occupation 
in the Northern Mexican provinces, finally reaching San Diego after a journey 
through Los Angeles County.  One member of the Mormon Battalion was William 
Smith Muir, father of Mr. L. J. Muir.  William Smith Muir was born in 
Scotland.  He came to America and joined the Mormons in Illinois.  After he 
had rendered service in the Mexican war as a member of the Battalion, he went 
to the gold fields of Northern California in 1849.  When he marched east to 
Salt Lake City he took with him a small bag of gold dust.  William Smith Muir 
was a pioneer agriculturist.  He brought the first asparagus roots into the 
intermountain states, and an original patch of that asparagus is still growing 
on his old estate at Woods Cross, Utah.  He was the organizer of the Woods 
Cross Canning Company, which is still operating several large factories in 
Utah.  William Smith Muir married Lucy Darke, a native of England.  She had 
taught in the secondary schools of England and was one of the early school 
teachers in Utah.  These parents had a family of eleven children.
	One of them, Leo Joseph Muir, was born at Woods Cross, Utah, March 9, 
1880.  He was educated in the public schools, graduated in the normal course 
from the University of Utah in 1902, and from the same institution received 
the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1912.  He entered the teaching profession in 
1902 and was principal of four elementary schools in succession.  In 1907 he 
organized the high school at Bountiful, Utah, this being joined with other 
high schools in Davis County in 1913, the consolidated institution taking the 
name of the Davis County High School.  He was principal of this county high 
school until 1920, in which year he was appointed state superintendent of 
public instruction for Utah.  While living at Bountiful he served six years as 
a member of the City Council and for six year was mayor of that city, his term 
ending in 1922.
	During 1920, 1921 and 1922 Mr. Muir was agency manager of the Inter-
Mountain Life Insurance Company.  In August, 1922, he came to Los Angeles, 
where he became vice president and sales manager of the National Thrift 
Corporation of America.  He was one of the organizers of that company.   Mr. 
Muir was also one of the incorporators of the Escalante Development Company, 
Limited, which owns and is marketing a tract of land in the Escalante Valley 
of Southern Utah.
	Mr. Muir has had a busy life and one that has marked his qualities of 
leadership among men.  During the World war period he acted as fuel 
administrator of Davis County, Utah, and was chairman of the Boys’ Working 
Reserve.  He is a Democrat, and was county chairman of his party for Davis 
County for fourteen years and was for eight years a member of the Utah State 
Democratic Committee.  In 1922 Mr. Muir was chairman of the Utah State 
Democratic Convention.  He was at one time president of the Salt Lake 
Progressive Business Club and a member of the national board of directors of 
that club, which later malagamated with the Exchange Club.  He is a member of 
the Los Angeles Breakfast Club.  His friends frequent speak of his tremendous 
energy and industry, and it is noteworthy that in the intervals of his 
business affairs he has turned to literary pursuits.  In 1928 he published a 
book, Flashes from the Eternal Semaphore, which was followed by another volume 
in 1930, entitled The Upward Reach.
	Mr. Muir married at Salt Lake City, June 19, 1902, Miss Ethie M. 
Malin.  Her  parents, John M. and Alice (Smith) Malin, crossed the plains to 
Utah and with one of the “hand cart” companies in pioneer times.  They were 
early settlers in the Weber River Valley of Summit County, Utah, and they 
reared a family of eleven children.  Mr. and Mrs. Muir have one son, Stephen 
LeRoy.




Additional Comments:
California and Californians, Volume IV, Edited by Rockwell D. Hunt, A.M., 
Ph.D., Assisted By An Advisory Board, The Spanish Period, By Nellie Van de 
Grift Sanchez, The American Period, By Rockwell D. Hunt, California Biography, 
By a Special Staff of Writers, Issued in Four Volumes, The Lewis Publishing 
Company, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, 1932.

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