John W. Dawson

Who was John W. Dawson?

John W. Dawson was Governor of Utah Territory in 1861.

Born on October 21, 1820, in Cambridge, Indiana he was a lawyer, a farmer and a newspaper editor before he entered politics, unsuccessfully running for a seat in the Indiana House of Representatives in 1854, Secretary of State of Indiana in 1856, and United States Congress in 1858. He started as a Democrat, but later became a Republican. Abraham Lincoln named him governor of Utah Territory in 1861, but he left the territory and his post as governor after only three weeks due to tensions with the Mormon residents. Dawson allegedly made "grossly improper proposals" to the Mormon widow Albina Merrill Williams, who responded by thrashing him with a fire shovel. When he offered her $3,000 for her silence, she rebuked him and he quickly abandoned Salt Lake City on New Year's Eve 1861.

Taking a mail coach eastward, he arrived at Ephraim Hanks' Pony Express station at Mountain Dell, Utah. There, Hanks assured Dawson he was now safe.