Walter K. Granger: "A Friend to Labor, Industry, and the Unfortunate and Aged"

BY JANET BURTON SEEGMILLER

FROM 1941 THROUGH 1952, Utah's First Congressional District was represented in the U.S. House by a farmer and stockman, Democrat Walter K Granger of Cedar City Granger's inauspicious roots would not have suggested that he would rise to a position of influence and respect in Congress or that he would enjoy the friendships of presidents and other national leaders His path to Washington, D.C, began when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) called him as a missionary to the southern states, where he came under the influence of the energetic and persuasive Charles A. Callis. Under Callis's tutelage, Granger hone d his skills as a leader and public speaker while, against constant opposition, he stood up for his beliefs. The impressionable young man adopted Callis's character traits and ideals, especially his love for mankind and desire to help them have better lives. As Callis would remind him many years later, "Every objective should be to this end: God, Country, Patriotism, and Truth."1

Granger began running for public office soon after his mission ended, serving as a mayor and state legislator before his run for Congress. At points along the way, he benefited from the timing of world events such as World War I, the Great Depression, and the rise of Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal. Factors contributing to his success were his intelligence and integrity, the support of his talented wife Hazel Dalley Granger, and his early commitment to the Democratic party. On the other hand, the reckless anti-Communist movement of the 1950s brought about his political demise.2

Walter Keil Granger was born in St. George on October 11, 1888, into the polygamous household of Walter Granger's third wife, Anna Keil.3 At the time of his birth, his father was in the state penitentiary for "unlawful cohabitation." After serving his sentence, Walter Sr. could live with only one wife; rather than returning to St George, where he and Anna had two small daughters and baby Walter, he moved to the tiny farming community of Enoch in Iron County, where his first wife, Catharine, was being cared for by their married daughter. Catharine died on September 23, 1894.4

Walter K. hardly knew his father until he was almost five years old; at that tender age, his mother decided to send him to live with his father.5 A fruit farmer from St. George who peddled produce in Iron County agreed to take him to Enoch, which he did, but he dropped the child off on the side of the road, pointed the way to the house, and drove away. A small hill blocked the view, and the boy could not see where he was to go, so he stood in the road and cried. He was found by a man on horseback, who led him to his father.6

For the next ten years Walter K was raised by his father and his much older half-sister, Catherine Granger Bell, whom he called Aunt Kate He got along well enough until his father died when he was fifteen; after this he felt he had been left alone in the world From the age of fourteen, he had been herding sheep for wages so that he could pay his tuition and attend the Southern Branch of the State Normal School (BNS) in Cedar City, which offered a high school education. Unfortunately, the herding season began before school was out in the spring and ended after school started in the fall, so he could not complete all his classes each year and fell two years behind his age group. But when Granger was on campus he was active in athletics and debate, and he enjoyed English, literature, and history. In a first attempt at campaigning, he ran in and lost an election for mayor on the BNS campus. 7

During the summer of 1909, when Granger was almost twentyone years old and a year away from his BNS graduation, he left the sheep herd with his partner, Dick Tweedie, and rode down the mountain to get the mail and to check on his Aunt Kate's home because she was away. On the table he found a letter addressed to him from Box B in Salt Lake City. He knew it was an LDS mission call, but it came as a surprise, as he had not anticipated filling a mission In fact, he and Dick had been offered scholarships at a Michigan university where they had planned to train as physical education teachers Walter's first thought was not of his unfinished education but of his own inadequacy for missionary work. Still, he readily accepted the call and was soon on his way to Atlanta, Georgia, headquarters of the Southern States LDS Mission.

Charles A. Callis was only in the second year of his twenty-five-year assignment as mission president, but previous service as a missionary in England in the 1890s and in Florida and South Carolina from 1906 to 1908 had prepared him for strong leadership in this region where the church and its missionaries were frequently persecuted. As a self-educated lawyer, Callis passed the bar exams in South Carolina and Florida so he could defend the missionaries when they were arrested on trumped-up charges. It is said that Callis influenced the lives of more than 4,000 missionaries, but perhaps he influenced few so forcefully as he did Walter K. Granger. Like Granger, Callis had come from a background of poverty after his father died in his youth. He worked in the mines of Coalville until his mission to England and afterward had a political career as a Democratic state legislator and as Summit County Attorney from 1896 to 1906. He was known to champion the rights of the working man and to fight for justice. His daughter wrote:

As he served under Callis, Granger's mission became a defining experience and the training field for his political career Years later, when he had been re-elected to Congress in 1943, Granger responded to Callis's congratulatory letter with this summation:

The girl he left behind and later married also wrote about his growth in the mission field. Hazel D. Granger described 'Walter K, the missionary," as a young man who learned to present and defend the views of his church in a very satisfactory manner and in fact had his mission time extended two months so that he could go to Florida and counter the attacks of an outspoken anti-Mormon minister. Hazel concluded that he rendered a great service to the LDS church but received in return greater rewards and development than he could ever have expected.10

Upon his return to Cedar City in late 1911, he became president of the LDS Parowan Stake Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association and helped to develop athletic programs for the young men of the area Six months later he married Hazel Dalley, who was a schoolteacher and a gifted musician. Granger also embraced Callis's Democratic party and a year and a half later became the Democratic candidate for mayor of Cedar City. He was twenty-five years old. He got seventy-three votes in an election where 207 votes were cast for the victorious Republican candidate and 136 for the Socialist candidate. About a year later, Democratic senator William H. King appointed him Cedar City postmaster, so his early commitment to the party paid off. He kept the postmaster's position for ten years When World War I erupted, his office exempted him from military service, but he wanted to serve and volunteered for the U.S. Marine Corps. Initially, he was turned down, but he finally convinced the board to let him go because Hazel agreed to keep the post office until his return. Arriving in France just as the war was winding down, he helped in the transition to peace. H e was still there when President Woodrow Wilson inspected the troops after the war's end, and he came home solidly in favor of Wilson and the League of Nations.11

Granger returned to his postmaster's position but had to give it up in early 1921 after the Republicans came to power under President Warren G. Harding. By this time, he had purchased eighty acres of land that he was farming and had begun acquiring his own livestock. Yet he kept his interest in public service. In November 1923 he ran again for Cedar City mayor on the Democratic ticket and thought for several weeks that he had lost the race by a single vote, but a recount on January 7, 1924, proved him victorious by four votes. He served in 1924 and 1925 for the grand salary of six dollars per month.12

In the years between 1925 and 1933 he ran for mayor four more times, losing twice and winning twice.13 Iron County generally voted Republican in state and national races, but mayors' races depended on the candidates and the issues. In 1926, when he was not the mayor, Granger was called to be the LDS bishop of the new Cedar City Third Ward. He won the mayor's seat again in 1929 and 1931 and therefore was both mayor and bishop when the dark days of the depression reached southern Utah. In 1932 the mayor was supposed to earn $28 per month, but the city was reduced to spending only what it collected each month. As mayor, Granger suggested that the city pay its out-oftown bills first then pay as much as possible on the local bills. That left next to nothing for the mayor. 14

As bishop and mayor, Granger knew firsthand how desperate the people were becoming as the depression deepened Layoffs, reduced wages, and the inability to sell farm products hurt everyone Hazel recalled a night when a prominent member of the church came to their door at dinner time Tears were running down his cheeks as he described his efforts to get a job, any job, but no one could pay him wages. He said, "I haven't a crust of bread in my house for my children. If I can't get help one way, I will have to get it another." Walter asked the man to follow him to his corral, where he released his cow and drove it to the neighbor's house so the children would have milk. He also had a sack of flour and a sack of potatoes from his farm delivered to every widow in the ward. Travelers who were stranded in Cedar City came to Mayor Granger, and none were turned away without some food and gas to help them on their way. 15

Granger's response to watching the struggles of his neighbors and community members was to put his name on the ballot for state representative in 1932, the year of Franklin D Roosevelt's first presidential campaign Hazel worried about Walter taking on another political position when he was still mayor and deeply involved in the fight over building a municipal power plant. Yet she knew that he felt something had to be done, and he thought he could do it best by being in the Utah legislature. Granger won election to the House and became an advocate for involving the state in Roosevelt's New Deal programs. But his viewpoint ran counter to that of LDS president Heber J. Grant, who spoke out against accepting federal relief. Grant's most oftenrepeated quote was "Wanted: Not a red cent of federal dole for Mormon Utah, Idaho, Arizona or California."16 Although LDS church authorities personally lobbied Granger and asked him not to present legislation to bring federal economic relief to Utah,17 he remained true to his personal conviction that extraordinary measures, including government programs, were necessary to recovery from the economic depression.

During his second term, Granger was elected Speaker of the House, and in that position he wrote an emergency bonding bill that allowed Utah cities to issue revenue bonds to build municipal projects with federal relief funds. The bill came to be known as the Granger Revenue Bond Act. In his hom e county, community water systems were built or vastly improved and sewers installed with these funds.

Due to the success of the New Deal programs, Roosevelt won the majority vote in twenty-eight of Utah's twenty-nine counties in 1936; only Kane County stuck to its Republican bias. Granger won his third state term that year. After the 1937 legislature created the Utah Public Service Commission to oversee utilities, Granger did not run again but instead accepted one of the first appointments to the commission in 1938.

In 1940 First District congressman Abe Murdock opted to run for a U.S. Senate seat, creating a vacancy in the U.S. House. When people began urging Granger to enter the contest, Hazel again expressed disapproval, but to no avail, as many prominent Democrats were on her husband's side. Hazel realized that his leadership, honesty, and hard work as the Speaker of the Utah House had positioned him for this opportunity and that, if elected, he would serve successfully. His campaign slogan was "The ideal candidate: Ask anyone who knows him." Granger's simple ads described him and his allegiances to the voters:

Granger won the election by 14,000 votes, but of course it was a big year for Democratic candidates as FDR won his third election. The other members of the Utah delegation in the 77th Congress— Senators Elbert Thomas and Abe Murdock an d Congressman J. Will Robinson, who was in his fifth term—were also Democrats.

As the Grangers anticipated their move to Washington, D.C , Walter K. was fifty-two years old and in the prim e of life. He might have been considered a "high school dropout" because he had never finished the BNS, but he was confidently self-educated. Six years as a mayor and six years as a state legislator, plus th e two-year mission and nine years as a bishop, constituted his congressional prep course. He had never earned much of a salary, excep t as Public Service Commissioner, and the Grangers often relie d on Hazel's teaching salary to keep the farm going The couple ha d had no children; Hazel's only pregnancy ended when the fetus died at seven months To compensate, she had immersed herself in he r teaching career and studied music. Her beautiful contralto voic e was recognized by Professor William H. Manning, who brought gran d opera and oratorio to Cedar City's Branch Agricultural College. Hazel sang the roles of Azucena in 77 Trovatore and Carmen in Carmen, and she sang the contralto solos in mor e than fifteen performance s of Handel's Messiah.19

It was with some anxiety that the Grangers sold their Cedar City home, stored their furniture, and drove east before New Year's Day 1941. They did not dare move all their household goods, for there was no promise of re-election for another term . In Washington they rented a three-room furnished apartment in the Carrol Arms Hotel, across the street from the Senate Office Building; they could walk out the hotel's front door and see the majestic Capitol straight ahead On January 3, from the House gallery, Hazel watched in awe as Walter was sworn in as a member of the 77th Congress.20

The Grangers cautiously entered the Washington social scene. Their first formal event was Roosevelt's third inaugural reception on January 20, a white tie and tails event Walter rented a full tuxedo, but when it was time to dress, he realized that the white tie was missing. Rather than stay home, he put on his own black bow tie and went to the White House. Hazel noted that he was the only one there with a black tie, but it did not seem to bother Walter at all. It was the couple's first opportunity to meet Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Hazel had heard that once Mrs. Roosevelt met a person, she did not forget his or her name. A short while later she was invited to the White House for an elegant luncheon with a few other wives of Congressmen and Cabinet members, and sure enough, Eleanor remembered her name. After the nation became involved in World War II, however, there were no more such luncheons, and even the next inauguration was celebrated with a simple lunch of items not rationed: chicken salad, hot rolls with no butter, coffee with no sugar, a green salad, and cake with no frosting.

The Grangers became members of the local LDS ward upon their arrival in Washington. Walter K. was sometimes called upon to speak in Sunday services, and Hazel was quickly put to use in the musical programs. She directed a women's chorus and sang in the choir in the stately new Washington Chapel on 16th Street and Columbia Road. Dr. Sterling Wheelwright, a noted organist, led the choir and gave public recitals at the chapel three nights a week, recitals that were a "tonic and respite for tired defense workers" during the war years. 21 Wheelwright also scheduled the Washington Ward choir to give public performances of a shortened Messiah at Christmastime. Hazel declined the opportunity to sing the contralto solos because she would not drive alone to the chapel for weekday evening practices, but she rehearsed as a chorus member on Sundays. However, on the evening of the first performance the contralto soloist failed to appear, and Hazel was called on the spot to sing the solos, which she handled beautifully for all three concerts.

A second Washington institution touched by the talents of Hazel Granger was the Congressional Club, which was organized in 1908 by wives, mothers, and older daughters of members of Congress The club built its own building as a center for educational, cultural, and social events. In order to pay for the building, the club held bazaars, printed cookbooks, and presented entertainments. Hazel and a guest from Utah, Mrs. Will Hoyt of Nephi, came to the club one day just as members were planning a fundraising musical program to pay off the club's mortgage When someone asked for a volunteer to lead a chorus, Mrs. Hoyt spoke up and said Hazel was an experienced director. Hazel could not get off the hook, so she located the members who could sing, gathered up some music, and put together a few comedy numbers for the program. Apparently, the "Congressional Club Follies" were the hit of the show. In this way, she endeared herself to the women behind the men in Congress.22

Granger was pleased when his first House assignment in 1941 was on the Agricultural Committee, where he felt he could make the greatest contribution His first piece of legislation committed the federal government to share in the cost of reseeding vast grazing tracts in the western states still suffering from the drought of the 1930s. With Abe Murdock co-sponsoring it in the Senate, the bill passed both houses and became law. Granger also successfully lobbied for an Army Air Corps unit to be stationed at the Branch Agricultural College (former BNS), which probably saved the school from extinction during the war years, and he obtained ROTC units for both BAC and BYU. Granger may have come to Washington on Roosevelt's coattails, but as he had done in the state legislature, he quickly established his own reputation for fair-mindedness and integrity. He developed strong working relationships with other congressmen as he conducted hearings for agriculture subcommittees He was asked to escort Senator Harry Truman across Utah as the senator investigated the quality of construction in war plants. Later, when Truman unexpectedly became president, Granger felt he had a close colleague in the White House.

Walter's legislative contributions often benefited the Indian tribes, the stockmen, the farmers, and other agricultural interests He worked to regulate mining in favor of U.S. mines, to provide disaster loans, and to support the work of the U.S. Forest Service. His most productive session was the 81st Congress, in which he submitted some thirty-four bills or concurrent resolutions and saw at least fifteen become law. The most important of these was the Granger-Thye Bill, a complicated bill that he wrote at the urging of the Forest Service; it provided for the restoration of forests through collection of grazing fees, authorized the election of local advisory boards for each national forest or administrative subdivision, and established ten-year grazing permits. Granger herded the bill through the house while Senator Thye of Minnesota took it through the Senate. It was unusual at that time for a bill to carry the sponsors' names, but the Forest Service insisted upon it this time.23 Thus, both Utah and federal legislation carried Granger's name.

Granger was ahead of the times in what he saw as the government's role in protecting its citizens. Twice he submitted bills proposing investigation of "the tobacco and cigarette problem." He was fifty years too early to generate widespread public support, but he was not far from the mark as he suggested that there might be a "connection between receipts from cigarette advertising by certain newspapers and magazines and the suppression by the m of unfavorable publicity regarding the effects of tobacco addictions " and that there were occupational diseases connected with the manufacture of cigarettes. He also proposed studies on whether the use of tobacco affected the moral, mental, and physical health and longevity of its users; whether nonsmokers were directly or indirectly affected by tobacco use of others; the effects of tobacco use on the efficiency of government employees; the prenatal and postnatal effects on children of smoking mothers; and related issues of deaths, property losses, and economic waste.24

Granger's judgment and integrity were recognized by his peers when in 1951 he was elected to the powerful House Ways and Means Committee with the second highest numbe r of votes in the Democratic caucus. This assignment placed him in a favorable position to influence legislation and committee assignments. He was able to secure passage of a bill that would allow the livestock men to treat their breeding stock as capital gains on their income taxes, a change that saved the stockmen millions of dollars The stockmen had been trying to get this consideration for years. 25

During his last campaign, in order to re-emphasize that he was running on his own record in Congress, Granger summarized his legislative career to a party worker:

I sponsored all the legislation for the sheep men and as a result was always endorsed by the National Wool Growers Association, Byron Wilson a former president and their representative in Washington, a Republican, taking care of the letters of endorsement. Before I got on the Agriculture Committee the problem of the sheep growers had not been considered by the Agriculture Committee and as a result there was no one looking out for them. . . . The sheep men wrote their own bills while I was there and I got them passed for them.

Granger then noted that he had authored the Granger-Thye forest bill, "one of the finest bills" dealing with conservation, and went on to say,

While Granger made friends and alliances in Washington, D.C, his campaigns at home every other year became more heated as the political mood was shifting in favor of the GOP In Granger's second congressional campaign in 1942, he did not even carry his home county in the race against then-Republican J. Bracken Lee, mayor of Price. However, Granger retained his seat by 269 votes by carrying Washington, San Juan, Wayne, Millard, and Weber counties. That year there were no major races in Utah, and voter turnout was low Two years later, during Roosevelt's fourth campaign, Granger was reelected by 16,000 votes.

In 1946 there was another close race as the Republican party rebounded following Roosevelt's death. Two Utah Republicans won their first seats in Congress—Arthur V. Watkins in the Senate and William A. Dawson in the House for the Second District. However, Granger defeated David J. Wilson by 104 votes. Wilson, who was chairman of the Republican State Committee, contested the election on the grounds that some local election judges had improperly registered voters and mishandled ballots He implied that voter fraud was present and asked to have the ballots in specific districts thrown out. Not coincidentally, those districts had been heavily won by Granger.

The Utah election board refused Wilson's request, but he went to Washington and convinced the House election subcommittee to hear his challenge. After the 1946 election brought a Republican majority to the House, the case finally came up in June 1948 in a Republicancontrolled committee Wilson expected the GOP majority to be sympathetic to him and vote to override the state canvassing board that had certified Granger's election. However, except for a single Republican member, the committee voted in favor of Congressman Granger, saying they found no evidence of fraud and no reason to unseat the incumbent However, they did agree that there may have been "numerous and wide-spread errors and irregularities in many parts of the district, which reveal a lack of the knowledge of the law and a failure to enforce properly the registration and election statutes" in the rural voting districts.27 The committee report was accepted by the House of Representatives with a unanimous vote for Granger, a victory he found satisfying since it came from his peers in both parties Granger served through the controversy, never doubting his right to the seat.

In November 1948 he faced Wilson again and defeated him by a margin of 21,000 votes as President Truman carried Utah by 25,000 votes Granger had been at Truman's side again as he made a whistlestop tour through Utah in September 1948

During the 1950 campaign, fallout from McCarthyism and strident anti-Communism began to take its toll on Utah's Democratic candidates. Subtle advertisements placed the Democrats and the American Communist Party on the same side of some issues, making it appear as though candidates Elbert Thomas, Reva Beck Bosone, and Walter Granger were Communist sympathizers Wallace F Bennett defeated Thomas, but Granger won his fifth term by defeating Preston L. Jones, and Bosone defeated Ivy Baker Priest.

On the strength of his successes in the 82nd Congress (1951-52), Granger decided to challenge Arthur V Watkins for his Senate seat in 1952 He announced his candidacy before General Dwight D Eisenhower threw his hat into the Republican presidential race, however, and he would later regret this move when the Republican party swept Utah, riding on the coattails of the popular army general. Once again, the in-state campaign was affected by the national climate of McCarthyism Both Bosone and Granger were called "dupes of 'the Kremlin-controlled American Communist Party'" as former congressman William A. Dawson challenged Bosone to regain his House seat.28

The campaign against Granger was further muddied by charges of personal gain from taxpayer dollars. The charges, originally made in an American Fork newspaper column, were reprinted in a GOP ad prominently published in Utah newspapers the Friday before election day. The advertisement, which Granger denounced as an "infamous lie" and "the lowest example of dirty politics I have ever seen," said that Granger was building a $60,000 home on his ranch near Cedar City ("Rancho Granger") and that government funds had been used to drill a well, build the fence on the property, and reseed forty-five acres of his grassland Weekend editions of the major newspapers carried Granger's denial and demands for full retraction from the man who had taken a picture of the home for Watkins's press secretary, from those who had prepared and inserted the ad, and from the publishers of the papers. 29 All the papers printed some kind of retraction like the following, which was buried deep in Section A in the Ogden Standard-Examiner on November 2, 1952:

The damage had been done, however, and it was small consolation to Granger that Watkins received 30,000 fewer votes than Eisenhower did in Utah; Watkins still won by 28,000 votes.

Walter and Hazel retired to their new home in Cedar City, but as the 1954 election drew near, a grassroots effort to get Granger to run again for his House seat began within the membership of the Weber County Democratic Party and culminated when he agreed to let the state Democratic party place his name on the ballot.31

Weber was the home county of Republican Douglas R. Stringfellow, who had won the First District seat in 1952 largely through his stirring tales of heroism during World War II. Stringfellow had become paralyzed while serving with the U.S. Army Air Corps in France, but he began embellishing his war story as he retold it to Scout groups and young people's gatherings until he had invented his participation in a dangerous Office of Strategic Services (OSS) mission behind enemy lines, an officer's commission, and several faith-promoting incidents in which his life was saved Not only did Stringfellow share his story at dozens of meetings but the stories were also repeated by Mormon church leaders and written into church lessons for young people, and he was honored by the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce as one of the top ten young men in America.

His election to Congress in 1952 showed the strength of his popularity, but during the 1954 campaign his fabrication unraveled, and under pressure from the leadership of the LDS church and the state Republican party, he confessed and withdrew from the campaign.32 Before withdrawing, however, he had attempted to discredit Granger by implying that Granger had Communist sympathies and had failed to meet him in scheduled public debates. Granger resented Stringfellow's false accusations and wrote him on October 4, 1954:

Perhaps Granger was indirectly asking Stringfellow to be truthful about his war record. Granger had known for some time—perhaps as long as a year—that the war story was a fabrication, but he had no plans to expose Stringfellow.34 An expose was not his style, but it also could have backfired. In reviewing Stringfellow's career, political scientist Frank Jonas wrote, "If anyone had dared to attack Stringfellow either on his war story or his veteran status, the anger of the electorate would have turned on the accuser and not on the accused " The congressman had evoked considerable sympathy not only in Utah but also wherever he spoke across the nation.35

Recognizing the situation, the Democratic party had been gathering evidence of Stringfellow's hoax for many months; members of labor unions and veterans' organizations and a few newspapermen were also heavily involved The party and Granger did not want to take the initiative to expose the congressman but were willing to assist others. Granger wrote to a Gunnison party member on September 13, 1954, "We have definite proof that Stringfellow's heroic story is a fabrication of his own mind and he did not do the things he has taken credit for. .. . I am giving you this information in order that you may be able to meet some of the arguments in his favor that you may run into."36

Granger's insistence on campaigning on his own record brought him admiration from William W Owens of Logan In early October, Granger refused the opportunity to discuss Stringfellow's war record in a public meeting. Owens wrote Granger:

Evidence of the hoax was finally printed in the Army Times on Thursday, October 14, and the Democratic party had 10,000 copies sent to Utah for distribution. However, Senators Watkins and Bennett and President David O McKay of the LDS church intervened, and Stringfellow confessed on KSL-TV before the Times story could become the propaganda bomb the party desired.38

It was less than three weeks before the election, and it would appear that Granger could easily win. However, the public did not realize that Stringfellow's lies included those he had made against Granger, and his followers were sure that somehow the Democrats were responsible for Stringfellow's fall. Dr. Henry Aldous Dixon, president of the Utah State Agricultural College, replaced Stringfellow on the GOP ticket. Granger had just sixteen days to campaign against Dixon. His strategy was described in a letter he wrote to Lloyd Ivie of Salina:

Public sympathy was with Dixon and the Republicans, however, and Dixon won. Hazel's memoir claims that she and her husband had no regrets about losing the election, because they had no desire to return to Washington.40 Walter himself left no personal record of his feelings, but it would be hard to imagine that he was not disappointed to have his fine record as a congressman soiled and to have been rejected by the Utah citizens whom he had served so well.

The Grangers retired to Phoenix in 1962 In 1966 the U.S Forest Service appointed Granger to serve on its Federal Appeals Board, which settled disputes between the agency and individuals with grazing or timber permits. He served honorably for three years—from his 78th to his 81st year. In 1975 Walter K. and Hazel returned to the peace and quiet of Cedar City.

In 1976 Granger was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from his alma mater, then Southern Utah State College. Although in 1909 he left without a diploma, he had become one of the school's finest alumni.41 Two years later, on April 21, 1978, Walter Keil Granger passed away in Cedar City at the age of eighty-nine.

When the twenty-three-year-old Granger chose to pursue a life of public service, it is unlikely he ever dreamed it would lead him to the halls of Congress and to socials and councils in the White House Throughou t his career, he remained true to his own self image described during his 1940 and 1952 campaigns: "Farmer and stockman, soldier, church man, legislator, Public Service Commissioner," and "a conscientious and responsible public servant." Although he rose from sheepherder to congressman, he never forgot his roots or his friends—"labor, industry, the unfortunate and aged."42

Janet Burton Seegmiller is Special Collections Librarian at the Gerald R Sherratt Library, Southern Utah University

1 Charles A Callis to Walter K Granger, January 22, 1943, Walter K Granger collection, Special Collections, Gerald R Sherratt Library, Southern Utah University, Cedar City, Utah.

2 Thomas G. Alexander, Utah: The Right Place (Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith, 1996), 458.

3 Anna's full name was Anna Christiana Ernestine Keil (sometimes Kiel), born November 10, 1861, in Oberboegandorf, Prussia (Ancestral File, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints).

4 Walter Granger married Catharine Guthrie in Paisley, Scotland, on February 21, 1841 They had twelve children; most died in infancy Only daughter Catherine (born 1848) married and had children Granger's second marriage was to Jane t Clark on October 31, 1877, and his third to Anna Keil on October 19, 1883 (LDS Ancestral File).

5 Apparently, Anna divorced Granger in the fall of 1893; she married George Albert Dodge in St George on December 23, 1893 (LDS Ancestral File).

6 Information and incidents about Granger's parents and his early life are found in Hazel Dalley Granger, The Grangers, Walter K. andHazelD., Their Life and Times (Cedar City: privately published, [1981]), 3-5.

7 Granger, The Grangers, 5-7.

8 Kathleen Callis Larsen, "A Biography of Charles Albert Callis and Grace Elizabeth Pack Callis," 1974, Special Collections, Harold B Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, 14-16.

9 Walter K Granger to President Charles A Callis, January 26, 1943, Granger collection.

10 Granger, The Grangers, 8.

11 Ibid., 12-16.

12 Evelyn K Jones and York Jones, Mayors of Cedar City (Cedar City: Cedar City, Utah, Historical Preservation Commission, 1986), 246-49.

13 He lost to Eugene Christensen in 1925 by 21 votes; did not ru n in 1927; defeated Christensen in 1929 by 195 votes; won again in 1931 over Joh n S Woodbury by 224 votes; and finally lost in 1933 to Charles R Hunter, 575 votes to 826 The issue of building a municipal power plant controlled the 1933 election Democrats were for it; Republicans were against it, and the entire Republican ticket was swept into office by a majority that opposed a municipal power system. Jones and Jones, Mayors of Cedar City, 254, 271, 279, 287.

14 Ibid., 280

15 Granger, The Grangers, 24

16 New York Daily News, June 20, 1938.

17 Frank H.Jonas, "Utah: the Different State," in Frank H.Jonas, ed., Politics in the American West (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1969), 333

18 Campaign brochures and copies of ads, Granger collection

19 Granger, The Grangers, 25-29

20 Ibid., 37.

21 Lee H. Burke, History of the Washington D.C. IDS Ward (Salt Lake City: privately published, 1990), 72-73.

22 Granger, The Grangers, 64.

23 Congress and theNation, Vol 1, 1945-64 (Washington, D.C: Congressional Quarterly, 1965), 1054.

24 U.S 80th Congress, H.R 6867, June 10, 1948; U.S 81st Congress, H.R 273, June 29, 1949.

25 Walter K. Granger to Conrad Frischknecht, September 13, 1954, Granger collection.

26 Ibid.

27 Deseret News, July 17, 1948.

28 Alexander, Utah: The Right Place, 376-77, 458; "More Straight Talk to Walter K Granger and Reva Beck Bosone about Socialized Medicine," paid political advertisement, Salt Lake Tribune, November 3, 1952.

29 See "Granger Denies Claims in Ad as 'Infamous Lies,'" Deseret News, November 1, 1952.

30 Ogden Standard-Examiner, November 2, 1952.

31 Frank H.Jonas, The Story of a Political Hoax (Salt Lake City: Institute of Government, University of Utah, 1966), 43-44

32 See ibid, for further details about Stringfellow's story and the campaign to uncover the truth and expose it before the November 1954 election

33 Walter K. Granger to Douglas R. Stringfellow, October 4, 1954, copy in Granger collection.

34 Jonas, The Story of a Political Hoax, 43

35 Ibid., 93

36 Walter K Granger to Conrad Frischknecht, September 13, 1954, Granger collection

37 William W Owens to Walter K Granger, October 15, 1954, Granger collection

38 Jonas, The Story of a Political Hoax, 39

39 Walter K Granger to Lloyd Ivie, Granger collection

40 Granger, The Grangers, 60.

41 Approximately forty-five years after the end of Granger's Congressional career, the Grangers were honored posthumously at a Washington, D.C, conference The author presented a paper and was prepared to claim that Granger's career had been "forgotten" in his home state; however, a number of conference attendees came forward to discuss his career and share personal memories of "Walter K." Utahns and former Utahns from Richfield, Delta, and Salt Lake City spoke of his positive campaigning across the state and his great service He had not been forgotten after all.

42 Political brochures from 1940 and 1952, Granger collection.