4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Salt Lake Tribune, Tom Harvey, February 1, 2009, April 18, 2009
This review is from: Always a Cowboy: Judge Wilson McCarthy and the Rescue of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad (Hardcover)
This review appeared in the "Salt Lake Tribune." The publisher no longer has anyone doing marketing, so I thought I'd post it myself. BTW, I gave the book give stars, not Tom. --The Author
Wilson McCarthy Sat on the Board Created to Bail Out the Great Depression.
By Tom Harvey
The Salt Lake Tribune, 1 February 2009
Wilson McCarthy was a nationally prominent Utah native whom most Utahns today probably never have heard of.
Now, however, Will Bagley has written a highly readable biography of the attorney, judge, top Depression-era federal official and longtime president of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad.
Bagley is the author of 10 books and editor of several more, probably best known for Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows. The subtitle of the writer's latest book tells the reader what Bagley sees as McCarthy's great accomplishment: Judge Wilson McCarthy and the Rescue of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad .
Indeed, McCarthy in 1935 took the helm of the venerable but teetering railroad based in Denver and over 20 years improved its tracks, trains, service and, most important, its bottom line.
But the book's focus is much broader than that. Bagley, in fact, traces the family of McCarthy's father back to Ireland, where black rot ruined the potato crop and sent the family packing for the United States in about 1847. Wilson's father, Charles, born in Ohio in 1850, made his way to Utah, where he drove a stagecoach and married Mary Mercer in 1876, converting to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
When Mary didn't conceive, Charles took her sister as a second wife (and later was sentenced to prison for practicing polygamy). But Mary was the one who then got pregnant, and soon gave birth to two sons in a row. The second, Warren Wilson McCarthy, was born on July 24, 1884.
Charles McCarthy bought ranch land in Alberta, Canada, where Wilson learned to be a cowboy as a teenager, wearing the boots as standard attire the rest of his life.
Wilson served a church mission in Ireland, then gave up ranch life. In 1910, he married Minerva Woolley and the couple moved to New York, where Wilson entered Columbia Law school and finished his legal education.
McCarthy became an attorney in Utah, showing talent for both the law and Democratic politics. He served two years as district attorney and then was appointed to a judgeship in 1919. He resigned after a little more than a year, restarted his career as a private attorney and entered the banking industry, where he made a fortune. In 1926, he was elected to the state Senate.
The stock market crash of 1929 began the Great Depression, and President Herbert Hoover responded by creating the Reconstruction Finance Corp. to make emergency loans to banks, industries and agriculture (sound familiar?). McCarthy was appointed to a Democratic seat on the board in 1932, serving until he resigned the next year.
McCarthy returned to law practice in San Francisco, and became a millionaire with another bank. But in 1934, McCarthy accepted a request from RFC Chairman Jess H. Jones to take control of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad when it defaulted on a $10 million loan.
McCarthy accepted, spending the next 20 years rebuilding the railroad and making it profitable. He also became involved in Denver and Salt Lake City civic activities, helping to bring the Geneva Steel plant to Utah County, heading the big stock show in Colorado and serving on the commission planning the 100th anniversary celebration of the arrival of Mormon pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley in 1947.
Bagley writes that, "Half a century has swept away many of the contributions Wilson made to the American West " but his "enduring legacy is more than the sum of his parts." When McCarthy died in 1956, his funeral at Temple Square's Assembly Hall was presided over by LDS President David O. McKay.
In Always a Cowboy, Bagley shows his knowledge and mastery of historical sources, weaving together a colorful story of an important state figure. Yet Bagley goes on for too long in passages meant to serve as historical background to various aspects of McCarthy's career. Sometimes we lose sight of the subject amidst the details.
In the end, though, Bagley has produced a well-researched, readable biography of a Utahn who rose to national prominence and had a great influence over the history of the West at the mid-20th century.
tharvey@sltrib.com
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