Archives West Finding Aid

Nephi Lowell Morris was born 2 October 1870 to Elias and Mary Lois Walker Morris, prominent Utah pioneers. He received his early education in the Salt Lake Public Schools and in 1886 entered Brighan Young Academy. He later studied at the University of Utah. At the age of 20, Morris entered the roller mills business. In 1891, he was assigned as a special missionary for the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association to Cache, Oneida, and Malad Stakes. In January 1892 he was appointed an election Judge for the Territory of Utah. On 2 December 1892, he left for a mission to Great Britain where he first served in Manchester, later becoming president of the London conference. He returned to Salt Lake City in August of 1895. Upon the death of his father in 1898, Nephi was called to fill three positions of responsibility. His father had been bishop of the Fifteenth Ward and Nephi was called as second counselor in the new bishopric. He succeeded his father as director and treasurer of the Cambrian Association. And he was elected president of Elias Morris and Sons Company, subsequently becoming its manager. In the business realm he was also one of the organizers of the Ashton Fire Brick and Tile Company and of the Deseret Federal Building and Loan Association. He was at one time a member of the State Industrial Commission and at the time of his death the secretary-treasurer of the Pacific National Life Assurance Company. In 1904, when the old Salt Lake Stake was divided he became the president of what remained Salt Lake Stake and held that position until 1929. His other religious activities included regular contributions to the Improvement Era, the magazine of the Mutual Improvement Association with which he had been involved since 1891, and the authoring of books on religious topics including the popular Prophecies of Joseph Smith and Their Fulfillment. Morris married Harriet Hooper Young on 5 June 1907 and was survived by his sons Lowell, Willard, and Richard and his daughters Mary, Barbara, Ruth, and Harriett. Morris was a popular public speaker on religious and political subjects. Through the years of his radio addresses on KSL's Church of the Air Morris became well known and widely respected. Morris was a Republican member of the State Legislature in 1904. His political involvement led to two unsuccessful bids for the governorship of Utah, the first on the Progressive ticket in 1912 and the second on the Republican ticket in 1916, the year of his re-entry into the party. He was an outspoken advocate of prohibition over which he participated in a long-standing controversy with Reed Smoot. His community involvement included work with the Sons of the Utah Pioneers and the Salt Lake City Board of Education to which he was elected in 1934. He became its vice-president in 1936 and in 1938 was elected president, a position he held at the time of his death.

Nephi Lowell Morris died on 5 April 1943.