Henry H. Blood
Encyclopedia
Henry Hooper Blood was a prominent businessman and the seventh Governor of the state of Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

.

Biography

Henry was born to William Hooper Blood, a farmer and city councilman, and Jane Wilkie Hooper. He went to local schools and attended Brigham Young Academy at Provo
Provo
Provo was a Dutch counterculture movement in the mid-1960s that focused on provoking violent responses from authorities using non-violent bait. It was preceded by the nozem movement and followed by the hippie movement...

 City, Utah, which later turned into a university. In 1896 he married his childhood sweet heart, Minnie Barnes, and together they had four children, two boys and two girls. Blood was elected Recorder of Kaysville in 1893, and became the Davis County Treasurer from 1896 to 1900. After that in 1901, he was made Minute Clerk of Utah State Senate
Utah State Senate
The Utah State Senate is the upper house of the Utah State Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Utah. The Senate is composed of 29 elected members representing an equal number of constituent senatorial districts. Each senatorial district is composed of approximately 91,000 people...

, and became a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1901 to 1904 in England. When he came back to the United States from England, Blood became a member of the Davis County School Board, Public Utilities Commission, and the State Road Commission, which he was selected chairmen for in 1925. He became involved in Kaysville Milling Company as a manager. Also he got engaged in the buying and selling of grains and flour. A few years later Kaysville Milling company joined Layton Milling Company and Elevator Company. Soon after the two combined, Blood became president of the company.

Political career

In 1932, Blood ran for governor after being nominated by the democrats. He defeated his republican opponent, William W. Seegmiller and took his place as the seventh governor of the State of Utah Blood was known for putting his state on a “pay as you go” basis. He had been related to Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge
John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. was the 30th President of the United States . A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state...

 because of is commitment to the economy. But the difference between them was that Blood was a dedicated democrat and a faithful follower of the New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...

. He served two terms starting in 1933 and ending in 1941. He won his second term in 1936 against Herbert B. Maw
Herbert B. Maw
Herbert Brown Maw was an American politician and the eighth Governor of Utah. He served as governor from 1941 to 1949. He was a Democrat.He was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints-Early life:...

 a liberal democrat, Ray E. Dillman a republican, and Ogden Mayor Harman an independent-progressive. During the time that he took office it was an extremely hard time for the United States because it was at its height in the depression.In 1937 Blood approved many bills to be passed, but warned about the future cost of retirement funds, vocational and adult education programs, and a junior college in Price which is now the College of Eastern Utah. The depression hit Utah pretty hard leaving it struggling as one of the top states for citizen’s relief. The situation got even worse in 1934 when Utah had its worst recorded drought in history. Utahns were left without food, clothing, shelter, and employment. Hundreds of letters from Utahns were sent into Governor Blood's office ever day.

Road to recovery

By instituting new programs, decreasing the wages of state employees, and slashing the size of state departments Blood began his long journey to economic recovery. In addition he supported and followed President Roosevelt's New Deal. Programs such as Public Works Administration
Public Works Administration
The Public Works Administration , part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was created by the National Industrial Recovery Act in June 1933 in response to the Great Depression...

, Home Owners Loan Association, and more helped support Utah. The results of these programs were public buildings and irrigation which provided both relief and employment.

Notable occurrences

While Blood was governor Utah became the thirty-sixth state to ratify the twenty-first amendment ending Prohibition. He was the first governor to occupy the governor’s mansion donated by the Kearns family to the state in 1937. In 1939 he vetoed the proposals for junior colleges in Richfield and Roosevelt, as well as low-income housing while cautioning about the expense. Also he worked to improve Utah’s horrible highway safety record.

Final years

Blood accepted a call to serve as a mission president in California for the LDS Church in January 1941. He died in Salt Lake City in 1942 from a cerebral hemorrhage.

External links

Picture of Henry H. Blood
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