1946-02-20-Deseret News-James H. Moyle, Utah Leader, Dies

James H. Moyle, Utah Leader, Dies

Career Ends At 87 Years

James Henry Moyle, 87, one of utah's most prominent citizens—lawyer, business man, Church leader and government official—died at 11:10 p.m. yesterday in a Salt Lake hospital following a lingering illness.

A practicing attorney since 1885, Mr. Moyle served as Assistant Secretary of the United States Treasury, was U. S. Commissioner of Customs from 1933 to 1939, special assistant to Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau in recent years. He also served as president of the Eastern States Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Mr. Moyle was a close personal friend of the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt for more than 25 years.

Mr. Moyle was born in Salt Lake Sept. 17, 1858, son of James and Elizabeth Wood Moyle. His father for many years was superintendent of construction on Temple Square, and Mr. Moyle as a youth, cut stone for the Temple Block, workin with his father.

In 1879 he was called by the Church to fill a mission in North Carolina, returning to Utah in 1881.

He was educated in Salt Lake schools, later graduating from the University of Deseret. In 1885 he received his L.L.B. degree from the University of Michigan completing a five years' course in three. He was the first member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to gain a degree in law having been given special permission by President John Taylor.

Returning to Utah, he entered the law office of Franklin S. Richards, and in September, 1885, he was elected county attorney. Two years later he gained reelection to this position and in addition was elected to the Utah House of Representatives in 1888. He was chairman of the Utah Industrial School for two years and a member of the board of trustees for four years.

Mr. Moyle married Alice Evelyn Dinwoodey Nov. 17, 1887.

He served as chairman of the Democratic State Committee in 1898 and in 1910. In 1900 and 1904 he was nominated for governor. He was nominated for the U. S. Senate in 1916 by the Democratic and Progressive Republican Party.

President Woodrow Wilson appointed Mr. Moyle as assistant secretary of teh treasury and for some time he was acting secretary of the treasury.

It was during this time that he and the late President Roosevelt, then assistant secretary of the navy, began a friendship which lasted until the president's death in 1945.

When Mr. Roosevelt became the nation's chief executive, one of his first acts was to appoint Mr. Moyle commissioner of U. S. customs. He held this position until war broke out, when he resigned to become special assistant to Secretary Morgenthau.

Mr. Moyle served as president of the Eastern States Mission of the Church from 1929 to 1933, and was always an active Church worker.

Mr. Moyle served as a home missionary for the Church, was appointed to the superintendency of the Salt Lake Stake M. I. A., and became a member of the stake high council. He was a well-versed genealogist and compiled an extensive record of his family.

He was the first to suggest the reduced size of government currency. As commissioner of customs, he was credited by President Roosevelt with establishment of procedures that resulted in saving millions of dollars. One of the money-saving devices he initiated was the use of a machine to test wool. While in the Utah Legislature, he was named chairman of the committee on education, and during his tenure, many of the educational bills which provided foundation for much of our present system were passed. The bill creating the Utah State Agricultural College and the bill establishing the State Industrial School were approved during this period.

He was active in business, helping to establish several concerns, including a meat packing company. He helped to organize the Deseret Livestock Company, of which he was president at the time of his death.

Survivors include his widow, six sons and daughters, Henry D. Moyle, Evelyn Moyle Nelson, James D. Moyle, and Sara Virginia Moyle Creer, all of Salt Lake; Walter G. Moyle of Washington, D. C., and Gilbert D. Moyle, Pocatello, Idaho.

Also surviving are 23 grandchildren, two great-grandchildren and the following brothers and sisters: Oscar W. Moyle, Wilford Moyle, Mrs. Bertha Gray, Mrs. Ray Van Cott, Mrs. W. F. Armstrong, Mrs. T. T. Burton and Miss Gertrude Moyle, all of Salt Lake City.