James Henry Moyle Sr. is the son of John Rowe Moyle (1808-1889) and Philippa Beer (1815-1891) of England. Born: October 31, 1835 at Rose Mellon, Luxullian, Cornwall, England
Died: December 8, 1890 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah

James Sr. met Elizabeth Wood, the youngest daughter of Daniel Wood (1800-1892) and Mary Elizabeth Snider (1803-1873). Elizabeth Wood is the sister of Harriet Wood Yancey Brown (1834-1873), the twelveth wife of Captain James Brown.

Elizabeth had been born in the midst of the Illinois persecutions. She met, then married James Sr., a young stonecutter in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, on July 22, 1856.  The couple settled on the west side of Salt Lake City.

During the Spring of 1858, as the Utah Expedition (Johnston's Army) approached the valley, Elizabeth though pregnant, fled the sity with most of the Saints in the great "move south" while James remained behnd to burn his home if the troops failed to live up to a governament promise that they would pass peacefully through and would camp on the western edge of the valley. Within days after returning home in September, Elizabeth gave birth to their son, James Henry Moyle Jr.

The younster early exhibited both a remarkable allegiance to the Mormon Church and a keen intelligence. Following a mission to North Carolina, James Jr. spent three years at the University of Michigan oibtaining a law degree, which thrust him at once into the leading councils of the political life of Utah.

James Jr. married Alice Evelyn Kinnersley Dinwoodey (1865-1950), daughter of Henry Dinwoody (also a Britsh immigrant) and Sarah Emily Kinnersley. They married on November 17, 1887 at Logan, Cache County, Utah.

Serving several terms in the state legislature as a member of the Mormon-dominated Peoples Party, he quickly established himself as a leading statesman in the territory. WIth statehood in 1896, this grandson of Loyalists numbered himself among the founders of the Democratic Party in Utah, subsequently running twice for governor of the state and for the United States Senate in 1914. Though narrowly unsuccessful in these elective bids he received an appointment as chief Assistant Secretary to the U.S. Secreatary of the Treasury William Gibbs McAdoo [served from 1913-1918] in 1917, under the Woodrow Willson administration, thus becoming the first Mormon and native Utahn to hold a high executive position in a national administration.

James H. Moyle Jr. later served as president of the Eastern States Mission. Democratic National Committeeman 1920, Ensign Stake high councilor, state Democratic party chairman, Democrat. Candidate for U.S. Senator from Utah, 1914; Commissioner of Customs under President Theodore Roosevelt, and special assistant to treasury secretary Henry Morgenthau in 1934. and in many other high positions in church and government. By his own count, he had two religions, Mormonism and the Democratic Party, and he alternately praised and criticized both. As one who was intimately acquainted with every major religious and political figure in Utah and elsewhere over six decades--and as the father of a future LDS apostle-Henry D. Moyle- he mustered surprisingly profound and entertaining insights in his memoirs.

Part of his prominence was due to his aristocratic flair. Apostle Matthew Cowley admitted that he "always had to take another look when [he] passed Brother James H. Moyle on the street." Nor was this large-framed, gray-haired statesman one to mince words. It is the raw edge to his comments that makes his autobiography so memorable. This former political kingpen's life is also recounted in LDS church president Gordon B. Hinckley's James Henry Moyle: The Story of a Distinguished American and Honored Churchman, who, by his own account, refers to Moyle as a colorful, highly opinionated, uncensored voice, who has a unique value.

At the age of seventy-five he became commissioner of customs in the New Deal adminstration of Franklin D. Roosevelt.  Throughout all of this he demonstrated an inheritance from the American Revolution, though he was the child of Loyalist descendants and a British emigrant.  A speech he delivered while serving under Roosevelt revealed at once a full possession both of the Spirit of 1776 and of Mormon concepts thereof:

"Every American may well be proud of our heritage, and appreciate living in a land so favored as it is above all other lands, certainly in natural wealth, resources, power, and advanced free government; the greatest democracy the world has ever known, a government, indeed, "of the people, by the people, for the people, and dedicated to liberty," under a Constitution established for the protection of the weak against the strong; to insure the equality of the rights of man; the most favored of all nations in the diversity of its natural resources and products; a land, indeed a great continent, on which kings, emperors, and autocrats have not been permitted to live or their minions endure; a land about which there has seemed to be a Divinity that hedged it about. Divine Providence has manifestly had a watchful eye over the Nation, which has pioneered, on a large scale, a liberal republic."

James Jr.'s oldest son Henry D. Moyle, was a United States Army officer in World War I, an attorney, University of Utah professor, Mormon apostle, and member of the First Presidencey of the Church. Speaking in the Tabernacle in 1949, President Moyle displayed his realization of the American heritage, which he consistently portrayed in the light of a Mormon's rights and duties as a citizen. "We must rely upon that government for the protection of our principles." he said. "Now these things go to the very root of life itself and of our growth and development in the gospel. We cannot afford to neglect to do our duty as citizens of this great United States and as citizens of the state in which we live."

1. Apostle: Henry Dinwoodey MOYLE married Clara Alberta Wright 1919
Born: 22 Apr 1889
Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Ut
Died: 18 Sep 1963
Orlando, Orange County, Fl
Buried: 22 Sep 1963
Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Ut

2. James Hubert MOYLE -- child
Born: 5 Feb 1891
Salt Lake City, S-Lk, Ut
Died: 2 Oct 1892

3. Alice Evelyn MOYLE married Harry Nelson 1930
Born: 21 Mar 1893
Salt Lake City, S-Lk, Ut

4. Walter Gladstone MOYLE married Joyce Nebeker 1922; Irene Vanovermeer 1940
Born: 13 Mar 1895
Salt Lake City, S-Lk, Ut
Died: 28 Nov 1970

5. Gilbert Dinwoodey MOYLE married Helen Rich 1922
Born: 5 Jan 1898
Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Ut
Died: 13 Oct 1960
Ogden, Weber, Ut

6. James Douglas MOYLE married Louise C.
Born: 26 Oct 1901
Salt Lake City, S-Lk, Ut

7. Richard Granville MOYLE married ; parents of Richard Moyle
Born: 20 Dec 1903
Salt Lake City, S-Lk, Ut
Died: 19 Apr 1905

8. Moyle married Creer

Books by James Henry Moyle: Mormon Democrat : The Religious and Political Memoirs of James Henry Moyle (1998)

Sources:

PAF - Archer files = Captain James Brown + (12) Harriet Wood < Daniel Wood + Mary Elizabeth Snyder > Elizabeth Wood + James Henry Moyle Sr. < John Rowe Moyle + Phillippa Beer.

Additions, photos, bold, [bracketed information], etc. added by Lucy Brown Archer.

"Latter-day Patriots: Nine Mormon Familes and Their Revolutionary War Heritage", Gene Allred Sessions. 1975. Page 60

"Mormon Democrat: The Religious and Political Memoirs of James Henry Moyle," editor, Gene A. Sessons. Significant Mormon Diaries Series No. 8. Hardback. 408 pages. / 1-56085-023-X / $85.00. Best Book Award, Mormon History Association.

Copyright 2001 www.OrsonPrattBrown.org