David Eccles, Utah's First Millionaire
Near Ogden, Utah
The figure honored here, David Eccles, climbed from real poverty to become Utah's first multimillionaire, and he began near this valley. Born in Paisley, Scotland, in eighteen forty-nine, he came from a poor family that converted to the Mormon faith and emigrated to the Ogden Valley, settling in Liberty and in Eden. As a teenager, David helped support the family as a freighter and woodcutter.
From that beginning he built an empire in lumber, banking, railroads, and construction. By the time he died in nineteen twelve he was president of sixteen industrial corporations and seven banks, and a director of more than twenty others. His Utah Construction Company would later help build Hoover Dam.
The Eccles name still anchors banks, theaters, and university buildings across the state.
