BIOGRAPHY: J. Cecil Alter; Salt Lake City, Salt Lake co., Utah

Transcribed by W. David Samuelsen for The USGenWeb Archives Project
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History of Utah
The Storied Domain
A Documentary History of Utah's Eventual Career
by J. Cecil Alter
Vol. 2, published 1932 (expired copyright)
The American Historical Society, Inc.

J. CECIL ALTER, whose labors as author, editor and compiler are represented in
the historical volume of the present publication entitled Utah, the Storied
Domain, has for many years been meteorologist in the United States Weather
Bureau for the State of Utah, has had his home in Salt Lake City for thirty
years and has become well known all over the state for his official work and
as a writer of travel and collector of historical material.

Mr. Alter was born on a farm near Rensselear, Indiana, March 31, 1879, son of
John E. and Hattie (McColly) Alter. His father was one of the best known
citizens of Jasper County, Indiana, where he was a farmer, civil engineer,
county surveyor and drainage commissioner eight years, and taught in the
schools of the county for twenty-one years.

J. Cecil Alter has been a continuous student all his life, attending the
common schools of Jasper County, Indiana, taking special courses in Valparaiso
University, formerly Valparaiso College, the Northern Indiana Teachers
Institute, and took courses of work in Purdue University at Lafayette,
Indiana. His experiences outside of school have brought him in contact with
the practical phases of farming, school teaching, land surveying, duties as a
drainage engineer, mining engineer and his long connection with the United
States Weather Bureau. Mr. Alter was in charge of the Weather Bureau exhibit
at the International Dry Farming Exposition at Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, in
1912, and at Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1913. He was in charge of the exhibits of the
United States Department of Agriculture at the International Dry Farming and
Soil Products Exposition at Wichita, Kansas, in 1914, and at Denver in 1915.
During 1915 he was in charge of the Weather Bureau exhibit at the Panama
Pacific International Exposition at San Francisco. In 1916 he was in charge of
the Weather Bureau fruit-frost warning work at Medford, Oregon, was in charge
of the Weather Bureau station at Cheyenne and the Wyoming State Weather
Service in 1916-17, and since the latter year has been in charge of the
Weather Bureau Station at Salt Lake City and the Utah State Weather Service.

Mr. Alter was chairman of the Utah State Parks Commission from 1920 to 1924.
Since 1927 he has been a member of the board of Control and
secretary-treasurer ana editor-in-chief of the Utah State Historical Society.
Fraternally he was junior steward in 1928, in 1929 senior steward, in 1930
junior deacon, in 1931 senior deacon and in 1932 junior warden of Progress
Lodge No. 22, A. F. and A. M. He is a member of the Utah Academy of Sciences,
the American Meteorological Society, and in religion is a Christian Scientist.

Mr. Alter has had many interesting contacts with the people and life of the
intermountain country, and for years has been attracted to the rich historical
materials of this section of the West. He set a high standard of historical
narration, based on indefatigable research in his volume on James Bridger,
trapper, frontiersman, scout and guide. He is also author of a volume of
travelogs, Through the Heart of the Scenic West.

Mr. Alter married at Salt Lake City, in 1904, Jennie 0. Greene. He has three
sons, J. Winston, E. Irving and Marvin S.