Daniel Heiner House

The Daniel Heiner home in Morgan is a distinguished pioneer residence that marks the local importance of a man who, in peculiarly Mormon fashion, combined a life of religious leadership with active entrepreneurial activity in ranching, mining, and banking, as well as significant involvement in Republican politics.

Located at 543 North 700 East in Morgan, Utah and added to the National Historic Register (#78002664) on December 20, 1978.

Daniel Heiner was born November, 1850, in Pennsylvania to German immigrant parents. After conversion to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Heiner family migrated to Utah in 1859. With ten members in the family, together with all their belongings, there was no room on the one wagon for eight year-old Daniel Heiner….so he walked the 1,000 miles from Council Bluffs, Iowa.

ollowing some years of hardship, during which he worked as a shepherd )oy, Daniel finally settled with his family in Morgan county. During these early years he helped support his family through hunting and leading hunting parties and by working as a laborer on the Union Pacific Railroad. Despite his almost total lack of formal education, Heiner was literate and intelligent and eventually at age 22 he was called as the village schoolmaster in Morgan.

In 1873 Heiner married both his brother’s widow and a virgin of his choice, and in his biography later noted that following the double ceremony in the Salt Lake Endowment House he had exactly two dollars to his name. However, it was not long before his energy and initiative had created a family ranching business that he maintained throughout his life. In addition he managed Echo Land and Livestock Company for 15 years, and bought and sold cattle on behalf of the Whitney § Chambers Company of Evans ton, Wyoming. In commenting on his vigorous business instincts, Heiner remarked that he could never “content myself by killing time.” Every activity had to be turned to good account, and for example, “When I was riding horses over the country I would notice the kind of grass, brush, or timber that I was going through. If I passed a grove of timber, I would figure out mentally how much lumber could be sawed out of the grove, by guessing how many acres in the grove, how many trees to the square rod, and how much lumber could be cut out of an average sized tree.”

The family fortune from mining, principally coal and silver claims, was the result of this eagerness to work and achieve. “I went down there (Emery County) four or five times and climbed over the high mountains following coal measures and survey lines while my neighbors were sitting by the fire warming their shins. I succeeded in getting twelve of my children (he had nineteen) located on coal claims, which are now know as the Black Hawk coal mine, about the best coal mine in the state.” Growing out of his mining and ranching activity was Heiner’s interest in banking which led to the creation of the First National Bank of Morgan of which he was President for 16 years.

Describing himself as a “natural Republican,” Heiner served in a number of local political offices, and was mayor of Morgan City for two years. Following service in the first state legislature, Heiner was then appointed as road commissioner for Morgan County. In this role, he had several significant accomplishments in road and bridge building.

Keeping pace with his growing prestige in the secular world, Heiner’s role in the Mormon Church grew increasingly more responsible. As a polygamist he narrowly escaped prosecution, being saved from being brought to trial by the timely announcement of the Manifesto which had the effect of halting active prosecutions of polygamists under the Edmunds-Tucker Act. Although he did not join the distinguished group of Mormon Church leaders serving time as “prisoners for conscience’s sake” in the territorial prison, Heiner had gained that extra measure of responsibility, from a Mormon point of view, which probably ensured his eventual selection as President of the Morgan state (akin to a diocese) of the Mormon Church. He served in that position for twenty-three years.

Daniel Heiner was preceeded in death by the two wives who had given him nineteen children. Before his own death in 1931, at his home in Morgan, he was married to his nurse, Barbara Wheeler.

The Heiner Home, like the man, is a measure of the sturdy values of pioneer enterprise and its solid construction and innate style a fitting memorial to a man who made contributions to his community through business, politics, and religion.

The Daniel Heiner house is a very well maintained five-over-five I-form central hall house. A two-story porch runs almost the full width of the house, with the porch columns matching the five-part division of the façade openings. Although the jigsaw scrollwork brackets on the sides of the columns are missing, the porch railings and balustrades are in excellent condition. The stucco walls were originally scored to give the appearance of cut stone; they are now painted slate blue. The shingle roof has been covered with neutral colored asphalt shingles.

The house stands on the edge of a valley and commands an exceptional view of valley farm lands and mountains. A number of pioneer residences, differing in style, are strung out along a country road. Unfortunately, they are interspersed with modern dwellings.