Living History: German immigrant rose to become only Jewish governor

Looking back at the life of Simon Bamberger, the German immigrant who not only was elected a state senator in 1903 but also became Utah's first Democrat, non-Mormon and only Jewish governor in 1916, I can't help but think how true grit is the foundation of formidable men.

Born 1846, Bamberger immigrated to New York when he was 14, and from the very start was on the move west. In Indianapolis, he set pins in a bowling alley. He clerked for his brother Herman in Ohio while the older sibling soldiered in the Civil War. In Missouri, the brothers opened a clothing store, and in 1865, Bamberger ventured further west to collect an overdue bill.

"We sold considerable goods to a trader following the Union Pacific Railroad as it was being built westward," Bamberger said in 1924 interviews archived at the University of Utah Marriott Library. "But money was scarce, and the man was [in] our debt."

Crossing the Missouri River at Council Bluffs, the 19-year-old went by train to a railroad-tie camp along the Utah border where, he recalled, "both the life and the men were primitive and tough."

He never found the delinquent salesman, and two months later learned the family business had failed. "Alone and far away from home," Bamberger decided to test his fate.

He gave quick cash to workers for their paychecks, charged them a fee, and then cashed the checks and pocketed the full value. When gold was discovered nearby, he built tents and shacks to rent to prospectors. When the settlement was wiped out by Indian raids, he journeyed to Ogden and took up innkeeping. When an outburst of smallpox kept Union Pacific passengers at bay, he rode the Utah Central to Salt Lake City and bought the Delmonico Hotel on the southwest corner of 200 South and Main. He and Ogden partner B. Cohen renamed it the White House.

Twenty-six years old, Bamberger turned to mining. He invested in the Sweetwater district of Nevada and opened up Utah mines in Bingham Canyon, the Park City area and Juab County. Reuniting with his brothers Jacob, Herman and Louis, he engaged them in business as well.

Bamberger was now wealthy enough to retire. Yet this red-headed, short, stocky man characterized as stormy, staunch, tenacious and "hardened to opposition" just couldn't resist the challenges of the West.

He put money into Sanpete County coal mines and built a connecting railway system between coal mines. When that venture failed -- the coal was inferior -- he was steadfast in seeking other possibilities. In 1890, he constructed the Intermountain West's first interurban railroad line. It carried passengers from Salt Lake City to Beck's Hot Springs and his newly built resort. Extending the line to Farmington, he transformed swampland into an artificial lake and developed an amusement park called Lagoon. Eighteen years later, Bamberger's railroad line stretched to Ogden.

Although Bamberger never received formal schooling, he championed children's rights to a better education and fought to raise teachers' pay. He broke bread with the working man, sponsored "crop mortgage loans" to farmers, helped establish Clarion, the Jewish agricultural colony near Gunnison and believed everyone was entitled to a square deal.

A teetotaler, Liberal Party member and Democrat, 70-year-old Bamberger ran for governor against Nephi Republican L. Morris and won by a 22,000 majority-vote landslide. In his inaugural address, he emphasized his endeavor to represent "a united people" rather than "any one religious, social, racial or industrial faction."

A consummate Westerner, Bamberger extolled the region's strength. "The West is coming into its own," he said, "and the eyes of the world are being turned upon it for guidance and inspiration. We should therefore take special care to so conduct our government that we may win the admiration and confidence of all other states." His words, still, true grit today.

Eileen Hallet Stone, an oral historian, may be reached at ehswriter@aol.com