Son of Luman Andros Shurtliff and Eunice Bagg Gaylord

Married Eliza Jane Sells

Married Louisa Catherine Smith, 4 Jan 1858, Fort Limhi, Idaho

Married Emily Moorefield Wainwright, 10 Apr 1872, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah

History of Utah by Orson F. Whitney

History - Judge Lewis Warren Shurtliff — for that is his reminiscent title, dating from the time when he presided over the Probate Court of Weber County—is a native of the State of Ohio, born at Sullivan, Lorain County, July 24, 1835. His forefathers were of the old Puritan stock, the first of the name in America being William Shurtliff, an Englishman, who came to Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts, in the year 1634. Some later branches migrated in 1811 to the Western Reserve, in Ohio, which was then an almost uninhabited wilderness. The parents of our subject were Luman Andrus Shurtliff and his wife Eunice B. Gaylord.

Soon after their son's birth they became members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and in 1838 they took Lewis with them on a visit to Kirtland, its head quarters. Among his earliest recollections is that of being shown, with his parents, through the Kirtland Temple. The same year the family went to Far West, Missouri, where they remained until driven out by the mob. After the expulsion from that State they settled upon the site of Nauvoo, Illinois, and remained there until 1846, when they proceeded in the general exodus to Council Bluffs.

It was not until the spring of 1851 that the family began their journey to the Rocky Mountains. After such hardships as few can imagine and none realize unless similarly situated, they arrived at Salt Lake City on the 23rd of September, the same year. After a short sojourn in this place, they continued northward to Weber County, where they settled. They at once began to build log cabins, lay out farms, construct irrigation ditches, make roads and in various other ways improve the land upon which their homes were located.

In the fall of 1855 Lewis W. Shurtliff was called upon a mission to Salmon River, at that time in eastern Oregon, but now in Idaho. A small company had been sent out in the spring, and he went early in August. The object of the expedition was to colonize and found a mission among the Indians in that region. These colonists were the first white men to plow a furrow in what is now the State of Idaho. They remained there until, in a severe encounter with the Indians, two of the company were killed and five wounded. The savages stole and drove away all the cattle and horses, surrounded the fort, and kept the colonists in a state of siege for thirty days, at the end of which time a company of two hundred men arrived from Utah to assist the much enduring missionaries back to their homes.

They returned just after "the move," in 1858. and on arriving at Salt Lake City found the place deserted, the inhabitants having gone south, leaving their property ready for the flames. The returning colonists followed the route taken by the fleeing inhabitants, and at Provo overtook President Brigham Young and many other leading men of the Church. Mr. Shurtliff was present when the peace commissioners came to treat with the Mormon leaders, and after peace was declared he returned to his home in Weber County. In 1863, he made a trip to the Missouri River and back, bringing immigrants to Utah. The company with which he was connected had fifty wagons drawn by ox teams.

In 1867 he again crossed the plains, this time with mule teams and on his way to Great Britain as a missionary. The company of which he was a member met the Union Pacific Railroad at Julesburg, Nebraska. It was then rapidly pushing its way westward. While in Europe, where he remained until 1870, he traveled extensively in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and presided over the Nottingham and London conferences. Crossing over to the continent, he visited France, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway.

Immediately upon his return to Utah he was appointed to preside over the Plain City Ward, which became under his presidency one of the leading Wards of Weber Stake. In 1883 he became President of that Stake, and took up his residence in Ogden.

During the same year he was appointed County Commissioner, and remained in that office until 1886, when he was elected Probate Judge. That year he was chosen a member of the Constitutional Convention, and also elected to the Council of the Legislature. In 1888 he was returned to the Council. He remained Probate Judge until 1889, when he was again chosen County Commissioner, serving in that office until the close of 1894. During the period of his incumbency he had charge of roads, bridges, etc., in which many improvements were made. New roads, boulevards and public buildings were also constructed.

Mr. Shurtliff was a delegate to the first two National Irrigation Congresses, and at the third, held in Denver in 1894, he was appointed chairman of the Utah Irrigation Commission. He was a delegate to the first National Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress, held at Ogden in 1893, and at San Francisco in 1894 was made a member of the National Committee. In 1896 he was appointed Vice President of the Utah division of the Trans Mississippi and International Exposition, and was confirmed by the Board of Directors at Omaha, on the 7th of August, the same year.

Judge Shurtliff was a member of the Senate of the State Legislature both in 1897 and 1899. In the latter session he played a prominent part as chairman of a special committee appointed to investigate charges of bribery made against senatorial candidates. During this session he was a Fusionist-Democrat. He has since joined the Republican party. In a business way he has been equally prominent. He was president of the first street railway company in Ogden, vice-president of the Utah Loan and Trust Company, and assistant general manager of the Pioneer Electric Power Company.

President Shurtliff has been a married man since January 4, 1858, when he wedded Louisa C. Smith at Salmon River, while fulfilling his mission as a colonizer in that part. His wife died in the autumn of 1866, about six months before he started upon his mission to Europe. Several years later, on April 10, 1872, he married Emily M. Wainwright, his present wife.

The family reside in a handsome home in the heart of the city of Ogden. A public spirited citizen, President Shurtliff contributes liberally to every worthy cause, and never tires of pointing out to visitors the good work done by the pioneers and colonizers of Weber County. After a half century of labor, of manifold struggles, privations and successes in the building up of Utah, he finds his greatest source of satisfaction in seeing the land upon which he entered when it was a wilderness and a political dependency, now a flourishing domain, wearing the glory of Statehood, and filled with the happy homes of a thriving and contented people.