Clara C. M. Cannon

Who was Clara C. M. Cannon?

Clarissa Cordelia Moses Cannon was a member of the first-ever general presidency of the Primary organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She was the second counselor to general president Louie B. Felt from 1880 to 1895.

Clara Moses was born in Westfield, Massachusetts. She was a Mormon pioneer and in 1846 took the six-month journey on the ship Brooklyn from New York City to San Francisco via Cape Horn and the Sandwich Islands. Instead of traveling on to Utah Territory, she settled in San Francisco. In 1859, she married William H. Mason; they had two children. William Mason died in 1868.

Clara moved to Salt Lake City and in 1875 she became a plural wife of Angus M. Cannon, who would later be prosecuted for unlawful cohabitation under the Edmunds Act; the case of Cannon v. United States eventually went to the United States Supreme Court. Clara and Angus Cannon had three children together. Prior to her service in the general Primary presidency, Clara Cannon was a counselor in the presidencies of the Primary and Relief Society in the Salt Lake Stake of the LDS Church. When Louie B. Felt became the first general presidency of the Primary, Matilda M.