The vast work of improvement which has been going on in Utah during the last half century has called for men of brain, energy, and perseverence, as well as determination, to transform this country from a wild and undeveloped state to its present most wonderfully prosperous condition. Among the men whose history and life's work has been closely linked with nearly every enterprise that has been for the betterment and development of not only Utah but of this whole inter-mountain region, Bishop George Romney, the subject of this sketch, deserves special mention. Over fifty years of the most valuable period of his life has been spent in Utah, and by his long and honorable career in this State he has won a host of friends among all classes and creeds, and today is reckoned among the most prominent and substantial citizens of the State.

He is a native of England, having been born in Dalton, Lancashire, August 14, 1831, and is therefore in his seventy-first year, as active and full of business as when he was a young man. His father, Miles Romney, was a native of the same shire as our subject, and became a member of the Mormon church in 1837. He was ordained an Elder and labored as a local preacher in the Preston Conference. On February 27, 1841, he sailed from Liverpool with his family on the ship Sheffield, and after a voyage of seven weeks arrived at New Orleans, then traveled up the Mississippi River by boat to Nauvoo, Illinois, and while there acted as foreman of the construction of the Nauvoo Temple. At the time of the exodus in 1846 he moved his family to Burlington, Iowa, where they spent the winter. In the following spring they moved to Saint Louis and there made preparations for the long trip across the plains. They left Saint Louis in March, 1850, with ox teams and six wagons, and arrived in Salt Lake City October 18th of that year. During that winter the family camped in their wagon boxes on Temple Block, where one daughter was born. In 1856 he was called on a mission to England and remained there two years. In 1862 he was sent to Dixie and had charge of the woodwork on the Saint George Temple. Ííe continued to live in that place until his death, which occurred May 8, 1877. His wife, Elizabeth Gaskell, mother of our subject, also a native of Lancashire, England, accompanied him to America and endured all the hardships incident to the pioneer women of those days. She was the mother of nine children, five of whom are still living [1902]. Our subject was converted to the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in his native land, and baptized in September, 1839.

George Romney came to America with his parents and learned the carpenter trade at Nauvoo, where he worked on the Temple. He was married in Saint Louis March 15, 1850, to Miss Jane Jamison [daughter of John Jamison and Barbara Stevenson Jamison], who bore him twelve children. She was a native of Scotland, where she became a member of the Mormon Church, and emigrated to the United States in 1849. They came to Utah in company with the Bishop's parents and camped with them in their wagon boxes on Temple Block that first winter, and it was there their first child was born, on December 15, 1850, when the snow was three feet deep.

Since then Bishop Romney has married two other wives [Vilate Ellen Douglas on Feb 26, 1857 and Margaret Ann Thomas on August 29, 1863] and is the father of thirty­five children, twenty-three of whom are living. At the time the Edmonds law came into effect he was among those who were tried and convicted of violation of that law, and was sentenced to a six months' imprisonment, but was released for good behavior at the expiration of five months.

His second wife was Vilate Ellen Douglass, a native of Lancashire, England, who came to Nauvoo with her parents when a child. Her mother passed through the exodus at Nauvoo and endured the hardships there and in the early days of Salt Lake, where she arrived in 1852. She is a member of the Ladies' Relief Society and is the mother of twelve children. His third wife was Margaret Thomas, a native of London. She emigrated to America with her mother and brother, Charles J. Thomas, and came to Utah in 1861. She was married to Bishop Romney in 1863 and is the mother of eleven children. She has been prominently identified with theatrical interests and was one of the first actresses at the opening of the Salt Lake theater, taking the part of "Comeadania" in "The Pride of the Market." She is a teacher in the Relief Society of the Twentieth Ward and a member of the Reapers' Club.

Upon coming to Utah the Bishop began working at his trade, laboring part of the time on the public works.where his father was foreman, and doing whatever other work he could find. In 1854 he entered into partnership with George Price and others,doing contracting and building, lic buildings. In 1856, when his father was called on a mission to England, he .took his place oreman in. constructing the woodwork on the Lion House and all public works, in which position he remained until they were closed in 1864.

In 1857 he was appointed by Governor BrighamYoung as Captain in Major Blair's Battalion of Nauvoo Legion, and took part in the Echo campaign, which lasted for several months. At time of the approach of Johnston's army the city was practically deserted, most of the people had having moved to Provo, our subject taking his family with others, and they remained there until trouble was over, when they returned and he continued his work on the public buildings. In 1864 he formed a partnership with W. H. Folsom together they built the City Hall, many of the stores and residences, and did a general contracting business until 1869, when the firm was enlarged and they organized what is today known he Taylor, Romney, Armstrong Company, the other members of the firm at that time being George H. Taylor and Thomas Lattimer. Our subject, became the manager of the firm and has retained that position to the present day, through manyy changes. The present firm was incorporated in 1891.

During his residence in this city the Bishop has been foremost in everything that has tended to build up or improve the city or State. He been associated with many of the large corporations; among other things he has been for the seventeen years a director of the Zions Co­operative Mercantile Institution and is now Vice­President and also Director. This is one of the largest establishments of the kind in the entire western country; a Director and member of the executive committee of the Consolidated Wagon and Machine Company; for several years a Director and now Vice-President of the Home Fire Insurance Company; a Director in the Deseret National Bank and the Deseret Savings Bank, and also a Director and one of the executive committee of the firm of Clark, Eldredge and Company. He was one of the first to advance means develop the beet sugar industry in Utah, and thus paved the way for the founding of the Utah Sugar Company. He is also President of the Romney Shoe Company and a Director and Vice President of the Oregon Lumber Company. He has also accumulated considerable real estate in Salt Lake City.

Bishop George Romney - 1831-1920

In politics Bishop Romney is a believer in the principles of the Republican party, and has been an active worker in its ranks since its. organization in this State. He has all his life in Utah been prominent in public affairs, and served two terms in the City Council, being elected in 1882 and again in 1895. In 1890 he was a delegate to the Trans-Mississippi Congress at Houston, Texas, and also to the Congress at Cripple Creek, Colorado, in 1891. He is a member of the executive committee of the Congress which will meet at Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1902. He is also an aggressive worker in Church circles; he has traveled in California, Mexico, Hawaiian Islands. England, Scotland, Ireland, Italy, France, Scandinavia and Holland. While on his mission to England in 1869 he presided over the Liverpool and London Conferences. In the Priesthood he has held the offices of a Seventy, President of the Quorum of Seventies, High Priest, Counselor to Bishop W. C. Bassett, and later Bishop of the Twentieth Ward, succeeding Bishop Bassett in 1888. His Counselors are George F. Gibbs and Joseph F. Simmons. He is active in all matters pertaining to his Ward, to which he devotes a large portion of his time.

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