Cache-Salt Lake County UT Archives Biographies.....Squires, George W. 1874 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ut/utfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 September 2, 2011, 4:28 pm Source: See below Author: S. J. Clarke, Publisher GEORGE W. SQUIRES. George W. Squires is the manager of the American Steam Laundry, a business enterprise of which Logan has every reason to be proud. Mr. Squires is a native of Salt Lake City. He was born February 22, 1874, and is a son of John F. Squires, mentioned elsewhere in this work. After attending the district schools of Cache county, Utah, to the age of fourteen years he started out in the business world on his own account and first gave his attention to learning the barber's trade, with which he became acquainted in his father's shop. He then followed that business independently for a period of seventeen years. He afterward became a traveling salesman for the Logan Knitting Factory, which he represented upon the road for a year, and on the expiration of that period he took a position as a representative of the Logan Steam Laundry. After a year's connection with that business he resigned that position and in January, 1908, he purchased a third interest in the White Swan Laundry, which on May 8, 1908, was consolidated with the other plant under the name of the American Steam Laundry. In June, 1908, Mr. Squires became the manager. He has since been in active control of the business and they have the largest, most modern and best equipped plant of the kind to be found in any city of this size in the entire west. The firm employs on an average of thirty people. A contemporary writer has said: "The most distinguished looking building in the city of Logan, Utah, next to the postoffice, is that of the American Steam Laundry. Built in the Mission style of architecture with its round arches and bell hung facade, it is in much better harmony with the Lombardy of Utah than is the bungalow, for Utah is a part of old Spain. "Although built originally for a garage, it has turned out to be an ideal laundry construction, for it would seem that both a laundry and a garage need unlimited space and numerous exits as well as plenty of air and light and absolute freedom from danger of fire. The laundry and the garage are close relatives, for both depend upon the same principles. The building is sixty-two and a half feet on the street by two hundred feet in depth and has a driveway on three sides. It is backed up by a boiler house containing a one hundred and twenty-five horse power boiler and a fifty ton coal bin. The soiled laundry is received at the back, and near the door by which it comes in are the marking stalls, which are under large sunny west windows. These are in the large washing, starching and flat work room, which takes up nearly one-fourth of the floor space on the north side of the building. Another quarter of the floor area is occupied by the finishing room, on the same side. Between the two are rest and supply rooms. The south half of the building is occupied by five rooms of different size, each back of the Other. In front is the office, back of that the clean bundle and the rough-dry room, divided into two sections by a low partition. Then further back comes the tailoring department, and behind that the dry cleaning room. The last has an outer door which takes up nearly one side of the room, so that instant ventilation prevents all danger of fire or sickness while using gasoline. "The chief advantage of the garage plan in laundry work is that all departments are on the same floor, that each communicates with the others, that the partitions are only half the height of the building, and the immense open air space above gives perfect ventilation, which is also helped by the high windows, which occupy nearly all the upper half of the wall space. "No wonder the plant was an eye-opener to a certain Logan housewife who visited it. She had been such a persistent and unreasonable complainer that the laundry people had about decided to tell her firmly that they did not wish to do any more work for her. Before telling her so, however, they asked her to call and inspect their new plant. As the lady passed in her tour from the marking stalls to the office, as she saw the washing machines, the extractors, the vento-drying tumblers, the monitor type flat work ironers; when she noticed that everything had a place and that as high a point of laundry efficiency was reached as is possible for mere human business men, she began to realize that possibly she might have been to blame for some of the errors in the past. With thirty-five intelligent employes to look after her work and with her laundry work being done in well lighted, confusionless rooms, it was more probable that the blame for the lost articles might be more on her side than on the laundry's and she had the good grace to reach the office with a changed heart and to apologize to the manager for some of her unreasonable complaints. Her previous idea of a laundry had been that of her own hodge-podge kitchen, with old-fashioned washboards rather than a modern, efficient, well planned enterprise. She could lose articles in her own kitchen and of course the laundry did it on a larger scale, was her argument, but her visit to the American Steam Laundry corrected her antiquated mental vision of washboards as well as her warped judgment. "However, no matter how well equipped or how well planned a laundry may be, it is the working personnel that is the most important element in the business machine. The Logan laundry has every reason to congratulate itself on its able band of workers." The most progressive methods are followed by the American Steam Laundry, the slogan of which is: "Quality First, Keep the Quality Up. Second: Service and Courteous Treatment, First, Last and all the Time." On the 22d of February, 1899, Mr. Squires was married in Logan Temple by Apostle M. W. Merrill to Miss Lettie Ballard, a native of Logan, Utah, and a daughter of the late Bishop Henry Ballard, who served for thirty-nine years in the bishopric and passed away February 26, 1908. Her mother was Margaret (McNeill) Ballard, who died July 21, 1918, in Logan. Mr. and Mrs. Squires have become parents of six children: George Walter, Alice B., Henry B., Melvin, Myrtle B. and Lettie B. The family reside at No. 308 West First street, which was the old homestead of Mrs. Squires' parents, and there she was born, reared and married. Mr. Squires has taken a very active interest in the work of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is a member of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Board, is one of the presidents of the Fortieth Quorum of Seventy and has done everything in his power to advance religious interests. He served on a mission in California from 1899 until 1901, spending two years there. In politics Mr. Squires is an earnest republican, believing firmly in the principles of the party as factors in good government, and he is also identified with the Logan Commercial Boosters Club, cooperating heartily in all of its well defined plans and projects for the upbuilding of the city, the development of its trade connections and its advancement along all lines leading to permanent progress and improvement. Additional Comments: Extracted from: UTAH SINCE STATEHOOD HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL ILLUSTRATED VOLUME IV CHICAGO-SALT LAKE: THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY 1920 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ut/cache/bios/squires19gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/utfiles/ File size: 7.9 Kb