BIOGRAPHY: Anthony Woodward Ivins; 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.

ANTHONY WOODWARD IVINS, first counselor in the presidency of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, devoted many long years to the pioneering
extension and colonization of his people in the West and Southwest, and has
come to the high dignities he now enjoys on a record of service and with the
wholehearted respect and veneration which he so well deserves.

He was born September 16, 1852, at Toms River, New Jersey, and the following
year his parents, Israel and Anna (Lowrie) Ivins, came to Utah. In 1861 they
established their home in Southern Utah, where Anthony Woodward Ivins spent
the greater part of his early life. He has been a business man, a public
official and churchman, and from early boyhood took upon him the successive
orders from a sense of serious responsibility. He was ordained a deacon,
subsequently a teacher and later an elder in the Aaronic Order. He was then
ordained by Joseph Young a member of the Seventy and acted as counselor in the
First Mutual Improvement Association at St. George. In 1879 he became
president of the Fourth Ward of that association in St. George, and when all
four wards were amalgamated he was made president of the whole. Later he acted
as state president of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association.

The history of the Mormon people in the West will always give him a place of
special honor because of his services in colonization work in Arizona and in
Northern Mexico. He undertook a mission in Arizona, New Mexico and old Mexico
during 1875-76. In company with other officials he explored and reported on
the country for colonization purposes. While there he visited various Indian
tribes and worked to establish friendly relations between the Indians and the
whites, and also preached to them the Gospel. His party visited the Navajos,
Hopis, Apaches, Pimas, Maricopas and Papagos. In Mexico he traveled from the
City of Chihuahua west to the Sierra Madre country, exploring the Casa Grande
district where Mormon colonies of Mexico were later established. In 1878 Mr:
Ivins went on a mission to the Navajos and Pueblo Indians of Arizona and New
Mexico. In 1878 he married Miss Elizabeth A. Snow, who was born at Salt Lake
City, March 24, 1854, daughter of Erastus and Elizabeth (Ashby) Snow. Their
children are named Anthony W., Antoine R., Anna L., Florence, Leah, Heber
Grant, Stanley S., Augusta and Fulvia.

In 1881 he was chosen a member of the High Council of St. George Stake, being
ordained high priest, and in 1882 was assigned missionary work in Mexico. He
remained at Mexico City until 1884, being president of the Mexican Mission one
year. In 1888 he was chosen first counselor to President Daniel D. McArthur of
St. George Stake, and remained in that post until 1895, when he was called by
President Wilford Woodruff to go to Mexico and again take charge of church
interests in that country. In 1896 he moved his family to Mexico, being
appointed president of the Juarez Stake of Zion. He was also vice president
and general manager of the Mexican Colonization and Agricultural Company and
president of the Dublan Mercantile Company. He returned from Mexico in 1898.

Mr. Ivins was chosen and sustained as a member of the Council of Twelve
Apostles in October, 1907, and was ordained October 6th by President Joseph F.
Smith. His first civil position was that of special policeman at St. George.
He saw service in the Indian wars in Southern Utah, was constable of the St.
George precinct, city attorney, mayor, deputy sheriff of Washington County,
prosecuting attorney, and for six years assessor and collector of that county.
In 1894 he was elected a member of the Territorial Legislature, having part in
the final sessions of the territorial government. In 1895. he sat as a member
of the Constitutional Convention.

Mr. Ivins secured the first government appropriation for the Shebit Indians,
now known as "The Shivwits" tribe, and moved them from the Shebit Mountains,
where they were a menace to the whites, purchasing and procuring for them the
lands constituting their present reservation in the Santa Clara River Valley.
For two years he served as first government agent for the Shebit Indians. At
Christmas, 1931, these Indians sent to President Ivins a beautifully beaded
buckskin vest, on the back of which was worked in beads the following tribute:
"Tony Ivins he no Cheat" ÄShivwits.

Prior to going to Mexico in 1895 Mr. Ivins carried on extensive operations as
a farmer and stock raiser, and in addition to his private ranch holdings he
acted as manager of the Mojave Land & Cattle Company and the Kaibab Cattle
Company, two corporations that owned the largest herds and ranches in what was
known as the Arizona Strip, between the north border of the Grand Canyon of
Colorado and the southern line of Utah. Since his return from Mexico in 1898,
in addition to his church duties, he has been identified with colonization and
irrigation projects and other enterprises of a secular nature. He had a
leading part in the Enterprise Reservoir & Canal Company, which constructed
the reservoir at the head of Shoal Creek in Washington County. Mr. Ivins is
vice president of the Zions Savings Bank & Trust Company, a director of the
Deseret Savings Bank and the Utah State National Bank. He is president of the
board of trustees of the Utah Agricultural College, and has served as general
superintendent of the Y. M. I. A. of the whole church.

With this brief statement of biographical facts it is possible to appreciate
better the word of tribute written by President Heber J. Grant concerning Mr.
Ivins: "His life has been devoted to the highest ideals. In everything he has
striven to do his best. In many things he has excelled. In civil affairs he
has served the people in many capacities, always with distinction and
integrity. Not only is he a man of high moral courage, but he has proved
himself on more than one occasion as a man of great physical courage, and when
serving as deputy sheriff he exhibited the fearlessness of his nature by
arresting some of the most desperate characters in the country. He served
several terms as a member of the Territorial Legislature, where he was
regarded as one of the outstanding leaders. He was also one of the framers of
the State Constitution. At one time his party offered him the nomination of
governor of Utah, which he declined in order to accept a call to preside over
the Mormon colonies in Mexico.

"While in Mexico he was on friendly terms with President Diaz and in the last
interview they had together President Diaz said to him, `There is no man in
all the republic of Mexico that I enjoy doing business with more than you, Mr.
Ivins.' In church affairs he has also held many positions of honor, until
today he stands second only to the president of the church. Besides occupying
these positions and in the civil and religious life of the community, Mr.
Ivins has developed into a successful business man, banker and merchant.

"He is withal one of the most tender-hearted, forgiving and charitable men
that it has ever been my good fortune to associate with. He is a lover of
nature, of flowers, of beauty. He loves his fellow men. He loves his horse,
his dog, his gun, his fishing rod, the mountains and the forests, and the
great outdoors."

As a further proof of the love and honor enjoyed by this splendid citizen of
Utah among all classes in the evening of his life let the concluding paragraph
of this brief sketch quote the words of dedication found in the Year Book of
1931 of the Utah Agricultural College:

"To Anthony W. Ivins, President of the Board of Trustees:
Friend equally of the Indian and of royalty, of the toiler and the captain of
industry; a frontiersman who became modern, yet unspoiled by modernism in
thought and in living; with the heart of. a child, yet as hard as steel under
stress of worthy necessity; without diplomas, yet finely educated; patriot,
but loyal only to truth, and thus exemplar of the greater Americanism: We
affectionately dedicate this volume."