Adapted from the LDS Biographical Encyclopedia.
Charles Henry Hart, one of the First Seven Presidents
of Seventies, was born July 5, 1866, in Bloomington, Bear Lake county,
Idaho, the son of James H. Hart and Subina Scheib. He is the oldest son
of his mother's nine children. His father served with President John
Taylor in opening up the French Mission, assisted in Church immigration
and newspaper work in St. Louis, Missouri, in the early eighteen fifties,
was for several years Church immigration agent in New York City, and was
first counselor to President Wm. Budge, of the Bear Lake Stake, for many
years. The mother of Charles H. was born and educated in London and came
to Utah with her parents In 1852. She died March 1, 1919, at the age of
80 years.
The subject of this sketch moved with his father's
family to Provo, Utah, when a boy, and was there baptized by his father.
After a few years' residence in Provo and Salt Lake City, the family moved
back to Bear Lake valley. There he engaged in the various duties incident
to the conditions growing out of the settlement of a new country, being
employed in farming, in canyon work, in freighting during the summer season,
and in attending the district school during the winter months. At the age
of fourteen he entered a printing office and remained there for over two
years, learning such branches of the printer's art as are common to a country
newspaper office.
After attending high school, he became a student
in the Normal department of the University of Utah, from which he was graduated
with the class of 1887 with valedictorian honors. He then entered the University
of Michigan, in which he pursued his law course, winning his L. L. B. degree
in 1889.
Following graduation he returned to the west and
entered upon the practice of law at Paris, Idaho, where he remained for
a year. He then removed to Logan, Utah, where he continued in the practice
of his profession, and his marked ability and devotion to the interests
of his clients won him quick recognition in a large practice. He was elected
to the office of county attorney and later was chosen a member of the last
Territorial council. He was then elected a member of the constitutional
convention which framed the organic law of Utah, and he took part in preparing
the State constitution, his knowledge of law being of immense benefit in
this direction. Afterward he was elected judge of the First Judicial District
of the State and served upon the bench for nine years, his record as judge
being in harmony with his record as a citizen and a lawyer, characteristic
by marked devotion to duty and by a masterful grasp of every problem presented
for solution. While officiating upon the district bench he was called upon
to serve as a member of the Supreme Court of the State many times. Later
he formed a partnership with Hon. Frank K. Nebeker, under the firm name
of Hart & Nebeker, at Logan, Utah.
While there successfully engaged in the practice
of law, he was called upon to fill a mission. Brother Hart was ordained
a Deacon in early life, and later an Elder. He was ordained a Seventy by
John
Henry Smith, Aug. 10, 1890. When the Mutual Improvement Associations
were organized, he became associated therewith, and took an active part
therein for many years, serving as secretary of the local organization
where he lived and also as a counselor to the Stake superintendent of the
Bear Lake Stake, at a time when the associations of that Stake numbered
fifty-seven.
In 1898 he was set apart as a president of the sixty-fourth
quorum of Seventy, and was acting in that capacity when called to be a
member of the First Council of the Seventy of the Church, at General Conference
held in April, 1906. He succeeded to fill the vacancy caused by the death
of Christian D. Fjeldsted, and was
set apart by President Joseph F. Smith, April
9, 1906. From that time he became a most earnest and effective worker in
advancing the interests of the Church. He was a member of the General Sunday
School Board, which had charge of a Sunday School membership of one hundred
and ninety thousand, and he was also a member of the General Board of the
Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association, an organization then comprising
about fifty thousand members.
Elder Hart was appointed by Governor Bamberger as
a member of the Mormon Battalion Monument Commission, in which office he
served without compensation. He served as a member of the General Board
of Y. M. M. I. A. from 1926 to 1934. He also served as president of the
Canadian Mission from 1927 to 1930.
In October, 1889, Brother Hart married Adelia Greenhalgh,
daughter of Peter and Sarah Greenhalgh, early English converts to the Church,
who settled at Willow Creek (now Willard), Box Elder county, Utah, and
later in Bear Lake county, Idaho, at the time of the early settlement of
those places. Mrs. Hart bore her husband ten children, namely, Lucile,
a violinist of marked proficiency, Leona, an accomplished pianist, Genevieve,
a high school teacher of public expression, Charles J, who filled a mission
to the Northwestern States and afterwards served in the U. S. army, Harold
H. who filled a mission in the Northeastern States, Paul Eugene, Dean Eldon,
Melvin G., Raymond G. and Phyllis.
The mother died in Salt Lake City in March, 1913,
and in June, 1915, President Hart married LaLene Hendricks of Logan, Utah,
a daughter of B. A. and Mary Hendricks of Lewiston, Utah.
President Hart continued to serve with the First Council
of the Seventy until his death September 29, 1934 at Salt Lake City, Utah
at the age of sixty-eight.
