Utah Biographies ~ Snyder to Tarbet

Snyder, Willard F.

Willard F. Snyder is a native son of Utah, having been born at Woods Cross, Davis County, about ten miles north of Salt Lake City, September 22, 1863.

His father was George G. Snyder who was born in Watertown, Jefferson County, New York, in 1819, and his mother Martha Snyder. George G. Snyder's boyhood was spent on a farm, and during the first few years of his manhood he was engaged in the potash industry in New York and Canada. In 1844 he came west, settling in Jefferson County, Missouri. When the California gold excitement stampeded the country in 1849, the father of our subject joined the overland west-bound tide. He went by the way of Salt Lake City and spent the winter in Salt Lake valley. He reached Sacramento in the fall of 1850, and soon after that went to Diamond Springs, where he built a hotel and conducted it successfully for four years. Having amassed considerable wealth in the gold fields of California, he set out to return to the East, but on the way stopped again in Salt Lake City. He had previously joined the Mormon Church, and having many friends in the valley, concluded to remain here. He engaged in business in Salt Lake and Davis counties for several years, later going to Cache County, where he built a sawmill and operated it with success. In 1864 he moved to Summit County, where he engaged in ranching and the stock business, and in freighting, livery, merchandising and mining. He was one of the earliest settlers in Park City, and laid out a portion of the town. He served as probate judge of Summit County for six years, and remained a resident of Park City until his death, in 1887. His wife died in March, 1891. The Snyder family came originally from Germany. They settled first in Pennsylvania, being among the earliest settlers of that State. George G. Snyder's father was Isaac Snyder, and his mother Louisa Comstock Snyder. The Comstocks were of English descent, the first American member of the family having come over in the "Mayflower."

Our subject spent his boyhood in Summit County and his education was obtained mainly in the public schools of Park City. Growing up in a mining atmosphere such as that pervading so prosperous a mining center as Park City has always been, he became half -unconsciously well versed in mining matters, and consequently well fitted in early man-hood to engage in the mining business intelligently and successfully. He has been actively engaged in this work for twenty years, and has achieved an enviable position in the Salt Lake and Utah mining field. He is president and a director of the National Development Company, with offices on the fourth floor of the new Judge Building, Salt Lake City, and holds similar positions in the official family of the Yerington Malachite Copper Company, whose mines are at Yerington, Nevada. He is vice-president and a director of the famous Cliff Mining Company, with mines at Ophir, Utah, and is interested as a stockholder and officially in many other mining concerns in the inter-mountain country. Mr. Snyder is a prominent figure in the large and growing group of energetic and successful mining men who have been and are now doing so much to make Salt Lake the mining center of the country.

Mr. Snyder is a member of the Salt Lake lodge of Elks, the Alta Club, the Commercial Club, and the Country Club. He is married and is the father of six children, the family residing in a commodious and handsomely appointed new and modern home at 643 East Second South Street, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Stewart, Charles Biekley

Charles Biekley Stewart was born July 20, 1870, at Draper, Salt Lake Comity, Utah. He is the son of Isaac M. and Elizabeth (White) Stewart. His father was a farmer, who came to Utah with the early pioneers, and assisted materially in building up the State, being especially noted as a leader in the educational matters of the State, and took great pride in educating his children. Mr. Stewart is a descendant of Puritan stock, and his grandfather, Biekley Stewart, during the whole period of the Revolutionary war, carried his musket in the defense of his country.

The subject of this sketch spent his early days on the farm and attended the district school during the winter months; he later attended the State University, and was a public school teacher for a number of years. In 1890 he entered the University of Michigan and graduated from the law department of that institution in June, 1893, and was admitted to the bar the same year. Since that time he has been constantly engaged in the practice of his profession, being a member of the well-known law firm of Stewart & Stewart of Salt Lake City.

At the age of twenty-six years, Mr. Stewart was married to Katherine Romney, daughter of George and Margaret Romney. Miss Romney was known as an accomplished musician and attained considerable prominence in musical circles throughout the State. As a result of their union they have seven children, viz: Charles, Margaret, Katherine, Elizabeth, Isaac, Josephine and George. Mr. Stewart is a lover of home, and is a strong believer in that oft-repeated maxim: "The home is the foundation of the State and nation, and without purity of home life no nation can long exist."

As a large sheep-owner, Mr. Stewart brought much credit to himself in 1907 by bringing about a friendly relationship between the sheep men and cattlemen of western Wyoming, a fact that was highly beneficial to both interests. This agreement promises to continue indefinitely, and it seems to have permanently eliminated the friction formerly prevalent on these ranges.

Mr. Stewart has always taken a deep interest in the political and social life of the country, and has held several positions of trust in his native State. He is not only a successful practitioner at the bar, but he has attained considerable prominence in waging the battles of commerce, and, although comparatively a young man, he is actively and officially connected with some of the most flourishing business enterprises in the State of Utah, among them being the Stewart-Harding Sheep Company, Salt Lake & Jordan Mill & Elevator Company, Western Wyoming Land & Livestock Company, Utah Coal & Supply Company, Salt Lake Real Estate & Title Company, Summit County Mercantile Company, Stewart Ranch, and Crystal Lime & Cement Company. He is also connected with the University Investment Company. Since its organization, he has been secretary and director of the Wool Growers' Association. Mr. Stewart's residence is at 217 Twelfth East Street, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Sweet, Arthur Alonzo

Among the younger generation of business men of Utah there is none more prominent and progressive than the subject of this sketch, who has been very prominently identified with the growth and develop-ment of the resources of Utah for the past thirteen years, and who has achieved the success and distinction in his endeavors that seldom come to a man of his years.

Arthur A. Sweet was born at Ellsworth, Ellsworth County, Kansas, January 10, 1881. He is a son of Alfred A. Sweet, retired merchant of that city, and his mother was Mary Sweet. Mr. Sweet received his early education in the schools of his native city and at the Russell High School, at Russell, Kansas. At the age of fifteen he came to Salt Lake City, and has been very successful since his arrival. He was the promoter and organizer of the Independent Coal and Coke Company, which concern is at present shipping eight hundred tons of coal per day. He is also general manager and a director of the Consolidated Fuel Company, one of the largest in the West. This company is now shipping three thousand tons of coal per day, and has opened up the largest coal field in Utah. Mr. Sweet is also general manager of the Southern Utah Railway, which is twenty-one and one-half miles in length, running from Price, Utah, into Emery County, Utah, opening up a large coal and farming community that will in time yield great wealth to the people interested, and will be of inestimable benefit to the citizens of Utah in the development of the great mineral resources of the State. Mr. Sweet is also prominently identified with numerous other companies of the inter-mountain country.

Mr. Sweet was married August 31, 1900, to Miss Frances Mary Wade, and two children have been born to them, namely: Marcella and Harold Arthur Sweet. He has never held any political office, being too busy with his numerous industrial enterprises to bother with politics. Mr. Sweet is a member of Lincoln Lodge, Knights of Pythias, also of the Commercial and Automobile clubs of Salt Lake City, and the American Mining Congress, and he resides at 853 First Avenue, Salt Lake City.

Mr. Sweet, though one of the youngest business men of Utah, has shown executive ability and good business judgment in all of his under-takings, and a prosperous and successful future is predicted for him. There is much to develop in the inter-mountain country and plenty of work for the younger business men to do, and no doubt Mr. Sweet will yet be heard from in larger undertakings than he has yet attempted.

Tarbet, Alexander H.

Alexander H. Tarbet, one of Utah's most prominent mining operators, was born July 21, 1861, at Iowa City, Iowa. He is a son of Alexander and Delia Tarbet, who were of Scotch-Irish descent. Mr. Tarbet received his education in the common schools of Iowa and Salt Lake Collegiate Institute, and at the Colorado State School of Mines at Golden. He came to Utah in 1875, and for three years following he divided his time between his father's mines, The South Star and Titus at Alta, and Salt Lake City. It will be remembered that over this mine was waged the famous case of Tarbet vs. Flagstaff, which was carried for final decision to the Supreme Court of the United States, which established the principle that under conditions the "end lines" become the "side lines." The balance of the time he attended the Salt Lake Collegiate Institute. While at the mine, young Tarbet, being of a receptive age, was almost constantly in the mine with the miners and helping the blacksmiths and timber men on the outside, and what interested him most were the operations of timbering up and protecting bad and caving ground, which knowledge acquired was the real basis of his after success, and when serious caving occurred in the Colusa Mine (then the property of the Montana Copper Company, but now the chief asset of the Boston and Montana), the superintendent acknowledging his inability to stop same, C. T. Meader, the general manager, put Mr. Tarbet in charge of the work of stopping the caving, the continuance of which would mean the destruction of the shaft as well as the falling in of the hoisting plant. Tarbet succeeded after continuous work for thirty-six hours by filling in and false setting, in safely securing the ground. Mr. Meader then put Tarbet in control of all mining operations. Mr. Tarbet is associated with many important mining companies in Utah and Idaho and has been a great power in the development of Utah's mineral resources. He is connected with the Idaho Consolidated Power Company, of which he is a large stockholder; this company lights Pocatello and other cities and towns of Idaho. He owns a controlling interest in the Pittsburg Consolidated Mining Company, and is interested in other important mines in Utah and Idaho. When Mr. Tarbet was but twenty years of age he became superintendent of the Bell Mine of Butte, Montana, which was then and is today one of the biggest properties in the Butte District. There he remained, for two years, when he became superintendent of the Parrott Mines, where he remained for the following year; in the meantime he developed the famous "Wake up, Jim" Mine, a property worth a million dollars; but at this critical period the Bell Mine failed, and as Mr. Tarbet had a large amount of stock in it, he lost all he had, and, being inexperienced in handling large finances, and not wishing to let anyone know of his great find in the "Wake up, Jim" Mine, he sacrificed his interests, and at the age of twenty-one found himself $14,800 in debt, instead of being a millionaire, as he thought he was. Nothing daunted, however, Mr. Tarbet began work all over again and took contracts for hauling ore, and inside of two years he had paid off all of his indebtedness and had also built the Summit Valley Railway, used principally for the purpose of hauling ores from the Parrott and Virginia mines to the Parrott Smelter. Mr. Tarbet was the principal .owner of this railway, and from its inception it was successful. He afterwards determined to widen his knowledge of minerals, and entered the State School of Mines at Golden, Colorado, where he took a special course in metallurgy, chemistry, geology and surveying: In 1885 Mr. Tarbet joined with A. J. Shoemaker in the conduct of a smelter at Argenta, Montana, and in 1886 he went to the Coeur d'Alene country, and within sixty days procured an option on the Sunset Mine, and later sold his interests to Senator Clark and brothers. In May, 1887, he successfully managed the Tiger Mine and other great mining properties in the district, cleaning up a neat fortune. He then went into real estate as a speculation, in which he also profited greatly.

In 1890 he became interested in the Le Roi Mine at Rossland, B. C., and early in 1891 he and Oliver Durant secured the Centre Star and Idaho mining claims in the same camp, adjoining the Le Roi. The former was sold in 1898 for $2,000,000 cash, $1,600,000 of which went to Durant and "Mr. Tarbet as their share. The Idaho was retained until 1906, at which time it was sold for $400,000, the owners having refused at one time an offer of $1,000,000 for the same property. Mr. Tarbet put some $300,000 into the Salt Lake City Water Power and Electrical Company, which, after many vicissitudes, was sold to the Telluride Power Company. Mr. Tarbet constructed the tunnel for power under the Oregon Short Line Railroad, on the west side of Snake River, at American Falls, Idaho, which is 430 feet long by 13 feet in diameter, now the property of the Idaho Consolidated Power Co. Mr. Tarbet expects the' Humming Bird and Pittsburg properties to develop into great producers in the near future.

In 1889 Mr. Tarbet married Emma Easton of Fall River, Mass., and he is the father of a fine young son, Alexander Stirling Tarbet.

Mr. Tarbet is the owner of the "Inter-Mountain Catholic," which was established by him in 1899. He also purchased a three-quarters interest in the "Colorado Catholic," published in Denver since 1884, which he merged with the "Inter-Mountain Catholic" of Salt Lake City. Mr. Tarbet financed the paper, and when it was on a paying basis turned the whole control and operation over to the church, which receives all the profits. The "Inter-Mountain Catholic" has a big patronage and is in a prosperous condition.

Mr. Tarbet is a very charitable man, and his donations to the church have been liberal. He has contributed largely to the St. Ann's Orphanage, and made a subscription of $10,000 to the Cathedral recently.

Index

Source: Sketches of the Inter-Mountain States, Utah, Idaho and Nevada, Published by The Salt Lake Tribune, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1909