Edward Hunter Snow

Book excerpt: The life of Edward Hunter Snow (1865–1932), a leader in second-generation Mormon Utah, closely paralleled the early-twentieth-century development of the West. Born in St. George, Utah, to Julia Spencer and Mormon apostle Erastus Snow, Edward Hunter Snow was instrumental both in the development of southern Utah and in the growth of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during a period of rapid change. In Edward Hunter Snow, the first biography of the man, noted western and Mormon historian Thomas G. Alexander presents Snow as a servant of family, church, state, and nation. Offering insights into the LDS Church around the turn of the twentieth century, Alexander narrates the events of Snow’s missions to the American South, including encounters with the Ku Klux Klan in the 1880s, and to New York. As president of the St. George Stake and church leader, Snow sought to reshape the LDS Church’s place in Utah—confining its influence to religious and cultural practices and avoiding politics. Although he was involved in numerous causes throughout his life, Snow was especially dedicated to education. A graduate of what is now Brigham Young University, he worked to ensure that the state’s children would have access to quality education. Snow founded what is now Dixie State College and, as a state senator, introduced legislation to establish what is now Southern Utah University. As the nineteenth century gave way to the twentieth, Snow helped St. George grow from an isolated cotton colony to an important stop on the main automobile route from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles. Alexander shows that rugged, southwestern Utah’s flowering into cultural and commercial maturity was due to the foresight and dedication of second-generation pioneers like Edward Hunter Snow.