Utah's First Entrepreneur

David Eccles was a pioneering industrialist who founded 54 businesses in virtually every sector of the economy of Utah, Idaho, Oregon, and Wyoming. The success and influence of David Eccles in industry and business is evident today. A number of notable Utah corporations trace their beginnings to his leadership including First Security Corporation and Utah International. After his death, on December 5, 1912, flags flew at half-mast in the five western states in which his genius helped industrialize the West. On the day of his funeral, factories in Utah and Idaho, railroads in Utah, Idaho, and Oregon, and coal mines in Wyoming halted operations to commemorate his death.

Mr. Eccles came from an impoverished beginning to eventually become a leading American entrepreneur and capitalist. Born in Scotland in 1849, he was the son of a blind wood carver. At the age of 14 he joined his family on a journey to the United States, to find opportunity in Utah. Their arrival in Utah was marked by tremendous struggles and David assumed the role as the family's provider. During the first winter in Ogden he climbed the mountains surrounding the city to cut maple logs for his father to make into potato mashers, rolling pins, and other wooden utensils. David sold these items in the surrounding communities. In 1867 he ventured to Oregon to work in a mill and build a section of railroad between Oregon and California. He returned to the Ogden Valley in 1869 where he was contracted to cut and haul timber in Ogden Canyon. With his success in Ogden he soon opened a lumber yard, multiple sawmills, shingle mill, and general store. His business prospects would take him across the Western United States; by his own account he traveled more than 44,000 miles over the course of his lifetime. At the time of his death he was president of 17 corporations and seven banks, he was also an acting director of 24 businesses in various industries.

Businesses

David Eccles' success quickly grew across multiple industries. In 1873 he was owner and operator of multiple companies in the logging and saw mill industries. In 1889 he became one of the organizers of the Oregon Lumber Company, serving as president and general manager. During his tenure as president and general manager it became one of the most successful companies in the Northwest. As a way of stimulating the success of the Oregon Lumber Company, Eccles built the Sumpter Valley and Hood River Railroads in the 1890s to move lumber to the mills and to markets.

In the late 1800s he began managing and investing in commercial banks. The banks owned by David Eccles were organized by his sons, George and Marriner Eccles, to form First Security Corporation in 1928. Up until the time it merged with Wells Fargo, in April 2000, First Security remained the oldest multistate bank holding company in the United States and the second largest independent banking company in the Western United States.

Eccles financed the reorganization of a local construction company, establishing the Utah Construction Company in the late 1800s. Years after his death, this small company became Utah International, with projects all over the globe. In the United States, Utah International participated in building Hoover Dam and the Oakland Bay Bridge. In 1976 the company merged with General Electric Company.

In 1898 David Eccles ventured into the sugar business when he became an advocate of the Ogden Sugar Company. In 1901 he built a sugar factory in Logan and consolidated three factories under the name of the Amalgamated Sugar Company. The company was later sold to the Snake River Sugar Company, which remains one of the nation's largest producers of sugar.

The Eccles Name

On April 8, 1991, David Eccles' last surviving child, Emma Eccles Jones, made a gift to the University of Utah's College of Business in his memory. The school was named in recognition of David Eccles' achievements towards economic development of the Intermountain West. Today, his philosophy, entrepreneurial spirit, and achievements are embodied in the mission of the David Eccles School of Business.