Monday, November 21, 2011
Final Proposal
Sunday, November 6, 2011
3 places

"The Smoots were one of Utah's leading Mormon families, and Reed was the child of one of his father's several wives. After receiving his basic education in church schools, he entered Brigham Young Academy (later University) as a member of its first class in 1877. Upon graduation in 1879, Reed joined his father's business in Provo. By the time he was 18, he was manager of the Provo Co-op Institute, a general store, and 5 years later was managing the Provo Woolen Mills. Within a few years he had acquired widespread business and agricultural interests, and by the time he was 35, Smoot had accumulated a considerable fortune. At the same time, he advanced in the hierarchy of the Mormon Church. In 1900 he was ordained as one of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles, a position in the church second only to the presidency."
Along with the important position of senator, smoot also was advisor to five presidents, dean of the U.S. Senate, and an apostle in the LDS Church. This latter role proved to be a tough one, not only because of the responsibilities it entailed, but because Smoot's involvement with the LDS church jeopardized his involvement with the U.S. senate. From the year 1903 to 1907, there was a nationwide campaign to unseat Senator Reed, including a movement backed by petitions bearing more than one million signatures claiming that he was a high official in an orginzation that endorsed polygamy and violated the constitutional tenet of separation of church and state.
This campaign was a significant event, and according to historian Thomas F. O'Dea, the "last major flareup of the Mormon-gentile conflict on a national scale.After four thousand pages of testimony, numerous witnesses, and hearings occurring from the year 1904 to 1907, the senate, under pressure from Theodore Roosevelt, refused to expel Smoot from the Senate. Smoot biographer Milton R. Merrill claimed that "No one did more than he in changing the public's opinion from one of scorn and obloquy for the despised Mormons to one of respectful admiration.
Containing many of the original furnishing, including the family China, collection of pitchers, and the collection of paintings by Lee Green, the house still stands strong today. Smoot lived in his home until his death in 1941, and since that time his descendants have retained the home and kept it in excellent condition.