Excerpt from Utah Since Statehood, Historical and Biographical, Vol. 2: Illustrated

Thomas Kearns was born on a farm near Woodstock, in Oxford county, Ontario, Canada, April 11, 1862. His people were Irish emigrants. His father, Thomas Kearns, had settled in Canada, there marrying Margaret Maher and supporting his family by farming. When Thomas was a lad of seven or eight years his parents removed from Canada to Nebraska, where the father engaged in farming and stock raising in Holt county. Thomas Kearns acquired a common school education but was forced to lay aside his textbooks before he was seventeen years of age and provide for his own sup port. He had early become familiar with all the duties and labors incident to farm life, as he had assisted in the cultivation and development of the old homestead.

This was at the time of the gold excitement in the Black Hills and young Kerns naturally believed that there would be found opportunities far greater and that the field in which he might there exercise his ability promised more results than the restricted sphere of farm life. He left his home in Nebraska and struck out for the Black Hills. His first work in the new country was in freighting provisions across the plains to the mountain camps which had already sprung into existence in the Black Hills. This occupation he followed until the building of railroads did away with the business of overland freighting. He also worked for a stock association in the Black Hills, weighing cattle, and later -he did a little mining, after which he returned home.

Not long afterward, however, he went to Arizona and at the mining settlement of Tombstone he again engaged in mining and also drove a team for one season. Then, in the spring of the year 1883, he started for Utah with four companions, driving a team across the southern desert. He first sought employment at Tintic, but was unsuccess ful there, so went to Springville, where he entered the employ of the Denver Rio Grande Railroad, which was pushing its tr'ackage from Salt Lake City to Ogden. Mr. Kearns worked on a supply train, running from Springville to Salt Lake City, and in this way made his traveling stake, as it was known in those days. He then started for Butte, Montana, but at Pocatello, Idaho, turned back and went to Park City, Utah, where among the mines in that section he was destined to make his fortune. Ungues tionably a man of his character, big of stature and great of strength, he would have made his success wherever in this great undeveloped west he might have chosen to locate, but fortune smiled upon him the day at Pocatello when he heeded the advice of others and turned back to Utah, Opportunity opened the way but only with pluck and undaunted energy did he travel the path shown to him.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.