W. D. Candland ~ Mayor of the Month ~ April 2011 ~ He served 1918-1919.

The following are references to W.D. Candland in the " History of Mt. Pleasant" by Hilda Madsen Longsdorf: 

    May 1893, the Mt. Pleasant Electric Light Company filed articles of incorporation, with William Zabriskie, President, and     W. D. Candland as Secretary  p 172

There were fully 500,000 head of sheep owned in the county, and with Mt. Pleasant, the Queen City of Sanpete, fast becoming the commercial center, two prominent wool companies were formed. In 1893 the Mt. Pleasant Wool & Live Stock Company was organized by N. S. Nielsen, J. H. Seely, F. C. Jensen, James

In 1895 :

W. D. Candland was elected on the Republican ticket as the .first Senator from Sanpete County.

February 1906, the North Sanpete Bank was incorporated with a capital stock of $50,000.00. W. D. Candland,      president; A. J. Aagard, vice president; and H. C. Beaumann, cashier. They were installed in their new building on the 

north side of Main Street, midway between State and First West. p 183

June 18, 1918, during W. D. Candland's term as mayor, Mt. Pleasant was visited by a number of floods, one being the biggest in the history of the city. Great boulders and rocks were carried with the stream of mud, damaging bridges and fences, sweeping down the streets and through city lots, covering gardens and filling basements, and completely filling the channels with debris, rocks, etc.

One life was lost, that of Louis Oldham, who, near his home east of the city, slipped and fell into the stream. Some days later, his body was found in the debris west of the city.

A few days after the flood, a group of convicts were sent from the state penitentiary to assist in clearing out Pleasant Creek channel. Many local men volunteered their assistance. p 200  

1918-19. Mayor, W. D. Candland; Recorder, A. O. Neilson;    

     Treasurer, Hannah Barnette; Councilors, John Gunderson, four

years; A. E. Mcintosh, James Monsen, O. M. Aldrich, Bent R. Hansen. p 238

The flood gave W. D. Candland and his associates financial and other troubles. A $25,000.00 bond issue was voted for the purpose of piping pure spring water into the waterworks system.

And now my friends, we are in the hands of the undertaker. (Note: The mayor at that time, Bent R. Hansen, was also an undertaker. ) p 242

It will perhaps be proper to here give the names of those, who,

in addition to those heretofore mentioned, assisted in instructing the youth up to about the year 1880.  Joseph S. Day, Joseph Page, John Carter, Jeramiah D. Page,  Christina Bertelsen,  Lucy Wheelock, Hans Jorgen Shultz, Mrs. H. J. Hutchinson, John T. Henniger,  ­Eli A. Day, and Hilda Dehlin were those who now come to the  memory of the writer.

A little later and in the order given, the following teachers came upon the scene: Samuel H. Allen, Amasa Aldrich, Abram Johnson, H. P. Jensen, Tina M. Morrison, Au­gusta Dehlin, Hans Madsen, Joseph Madsen, George Christensen, C. W. Sorensen, William 1. Tidwell, Ferdinand Ericksen, Ida Dehlin, Cecelia Winters, Olof C. Anderson, W. D. Candland, and Som X. Christensen.  

pp 268,269.

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                        EXCERPTS FROM ADDRESS

                             By W. D. Candland, 1922

I remember the days when the big drum was heard, and the women, with blanched faces and trembling limbs, gathered their children around them and fled to the fort; how men, with grim set faces, took their ever-ready rifles from the wall and hastened to the square, ready to meet the merciless, treacherous foe, know­ing how he lurked in the shadows, or stealthily crawled on his belly to get near enough to fire a deadly shot. How the stoutest hearts quailed when that blood-curdling yell broke on the still night air, knowing it meant death in the most horrible form that the fiends could devise, unless they could for the time beat them back.

I have watched the small hamlet founded by that brave and hardy band, through all the vicissitudes of frontier perils, grow into a beautiful, prosperous city. I have known their lives and aspirations, their hopes and fears, and as they have been gathered one by one into the fold of the great beyond.

I desire to follow, for a few moments, another line of thought, and ask you this question:

Did these things just happen in a haphazard way, or was there an impelling, guiding force that actuated and directed events and caused men to come here who were needed, whose training in various avocations, made them exceedingly valuable in the new order of things?

If you say it was just an accident, you will admit at least it was fortunate that William S. Seely, who had such a happy faculty of making friends with the Indians, settled here.

Wasn't it fortunate that men and women settled here who could make the things that were so sadly needed? That John Tidwell could make tubs and churns and pails out of wood, bound

with wooden hoops? That James Porter could take the hide from the ox and make it into leather and then into shoes? That Abram Day knew how to survey and build roads and sawmills? That Fechser and others knew how to build a flour mill? That P. M. Peel could fashion things from iron and make a threshing ma­chine? That Erick Gunderson was a carpenter? That Alma Staker

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and Paul Dehlin could make furniture? That Wellington Seely could set broken bones and pull teeth? But most fortunate and most wonderful of all were the women, brave as their husbands, and even more industrious, who could shear the sheep, wash, card, and spin the wool, weave it into cloth, then make from the cloth raiment for the whole family and the blankets and sheets they slept in. The men did nobly, but my admiration and- respect, my profound reverence, is for the women who not only performed their full measure of the work, but went many times into the shadows of the valley of death in the throes of motherhood; their names are not engraved on the monument, but they are enshrined in the archives of heaven and are hallowed in the immutable love of Almighty God. Be you Mormon, Jew, or Gentile, it is your privilege to determine in your own mind whether these things all came by chance, or by some irresistible governing power.

Would that our forefathers, who have passed beyond, might have lived to see and enjoy the fruits of their labors as we now do.

              ADDRESS BY  W. D. CANDLAND  

                                     1932

      This is the seventy-third anniversary of the founding of Mt. Pleasant.

What wonderful changes have taken place since then. Con­sider the train of events that has led up to the settlement of this place. In the short period of less than thirty years, people from many countries had trickled into Mt. Pleasant, Utah. If it had not been for an announcement of a new plan of salvation, made in 1830, I doubt that any of us would be here today. And what sort of men and women were they who came here? Those of us who can remember the first Seelys, Bartons, Reynolds, Monsens, Madsens, Christensens, Rasmussens, Peels, Larsens, Sorensons, and all those names recorded on the Pioneer monument. Such people are the salt of the earth, they tilled the soil and planted trees, and they built a beautiful little city with fine homes, churches, and schools.

In the short space of seventy years the little settlement blos­somed into a thriving, prosperous farming community of three thousand inhabitants; two banks had opened.  But as opportunity

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was limited, many of her sons and daughters had moved on to newer fields in other counties and other states.

As this is a historical narrative, it seems proper to discuss some history that is now in the making. During the war, prices climbed to levels never dreamed of before. Money was plenti­ful and people acquired extravagant habits; stocks and bonds sold far above their actual value. Farm lands in this vicinity went up to $225 an acre. Butter went up to 90c a pound, eggs to 75c a dozen, cattle and sheep went up out of sight. So the thrifty man, who had a little spare money, went to the bank and de­posited it, saying to the cashier, "Here is some money I want to leave with you, and I want you to pay me some interest on it." The cashier informed him, "We can only do that by lending it to some farmers who will give us a mortgage on his farm to secure it. Of course, we cannot pay you unless he pays us, but we can take his farm." Now the only security the people in agricultural communities have to offer is their farm and livestock. If a bank is to serve its people, it must accept as security for loans that which they have to offer.

In this transaction we set up a triangle, the depositor, the banker, and the borrower. The arrangement is perfect, but it all depends on the borrower's ability to pay. Now, what hap­pened? Prices began to go down. The farmer went to the bank and said the price of wheat has gone from $2.50 a bushel to 50c a bushel.  The dairyman says, "Butter has declined from 90c to 25c." The sheep man says, "Wool has gone down from 40c a pound to 12c. We cannot pay the money we owe, not even the interest due." The cattleman, the poultryman all have the same tale of woe. But says the banker, "We must have some money. Mr. Depositor demands his money, which we lent to you, and which you agreed to pay back at a certain time." "But," says the borrower, "I just haven't got it. I can't sell anything to get it. I am awfully disappointed. I guess you will just have to take the farm." If this situation were true of only one line, it would not be so bad. But when it is true of all lines, a deplorable condition exists. At this time, Mr. Depositor goes to the bank and demands his money; not one depositor only, but all the depositors. There is not enough money in any bank in the country to pay all the

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depositors at one time. So the banker says, "We cannot pay you now; if you will wait until these farmers, cattle, and sheepmen, and poultrymen and dairymen pay up, you will get your money. But the depositor says, "No, I want it now." The law says in such cases the bank commissioner shall take charge of the bank and close it up. Now, who. is to blame? The depositor, in good faith, left his money with the bank expecting to get it in due time. The bank lent it to the farmer expecting he would return it as prom­ised. The farmer expected to sell his products for money enough to pay at the appointed time. It is no fault of his that the bottom dropped out of everything. He couldn't foresee, neither could the banker, nor the depositor, that the whole world would be suddenly turned upside down. If the borrower knew these things would happen he should not have borrowed the money. If the banker knew, we should not have loaned the money. If the depositor knew, he should not have deposited the money. Neither of the triangle is to blame. And each one must take his share of the responsibility. Did each one think he was doing for the best? Did each act in good faith? I think they did. If I may be per­mitted at this time, I would like to say for the bank that I was connected with, that its every act was taken with the full belief that it was in accordance with the law, with good banking practice, and for the best interest of all concerned. Every officer or stockholder who borrowed from the bank was required to put up ample security. The loan was passed on by the board and ap­proved by the bank examiner. Every one of them will be paid. The bank set up a secondary reserve of thirty thousand dollars in bonds. It had the backing and approval of its Salt Lake Cor­respondent Bank, and that bank on the very morning it was decided not to open, offered to lend us seventy five thousand dollars, but we knew that would only delay the inevitable. While the situation is lamentable, we cherish the knowledge that not a whisper of wrong done can be truthfully brought against the management of the bank. I think I can say the same thing for the other bank in this town. If we were the only ones that had failed you might think we were at fault, but when you know that

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twenty-five banks in Utah closed their doors in the last few months, that hundreds of banks all over this country have failed, that banks, and even governments in Europe have failed, that the bank of England, supposed to be the soundest financial institution in the world, was shaken to its very foundation, that every bank in Utah has had anxious moments, you realize that we are only a small part of a world-wide disaster. I watched a run on Zion's Savings Bank a few years ago. I saw people draw their money and then wonder what to do with it. I talked with a policeman, a former Mt. Pleasant boy, who told me people called him in all hours of the night asking what to do to protect their money. They had it and were afraid of being robbed, which is exactly what did happen to some of them. Tell me, what is the best thing to do now. The matter is in the hands of the depositors of the two local banks. If they want to drive the banking department in the time of financial depression, to foreclose on these borrowers and sell their property for virtually nothing, they can make of Mt. Pleasant the blackest spot in America. They can depreciate the security they hold for their money to ten cents on the dollar, and thus suffer a loss themselves. Or they can say, "No, we will sit tight and wait; things will come back."

There is no better security in the world than a good farm. It may not pay much, it may not sell readily, but it won't burn up, it won't run away, and it will produce something to live on. It is safer than government bonds; much safer than European govern­ment bonds, and when a good farm in this country has no value, the country won't be any good either. Be patient, give the borrower time to work out his problem. The government of the United States has recognized the awful condition and has provided some relief, but we must help our­selves and cooperate, or it will do us no good. Will the record of the next few years be a time of blight and despair, or will it be mutual cooperation and material progress?