1. 1. The standard biography of George Q. Cannon is Davis Bitton, George Q. Cannon: A Biography (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1999). The New York Times was especially fond of referring to George Q. Cannon as next in prominence to Brigham Young. "Cannon's Expected Coup, Will He Seize the Mormon Church Presidency?" New York Times, September 27, 1896, 13
2. "Mormons Break Up Enemies' Meeting," New York Times, April 14, 1914, 14. Though he was genuinely admired and loved by his people, George Q. Cannon could also be controversial with his fellow Church leaders and was known as the "Richelieu of Mormonism" or "The Premier" by detractors outside the Church. "George Q. Cannon Dead," New York Times, April 13, 1901, 9
3. Arthur I. Street, "The Mormon Richelieu," Ainslee's Magazine 4 (January 1900): 699-706
4. "Some Conundrums," Salt Lake Tribune, October 10, 1886, 2. The three brothers were the oldest of thirty-six children who lived to adulthood. Bitton, George Q. Cannon, 463-64.
5. 2. Bitton, George Q. Cannon, 373-90. During her relatively short life, Elizabeth Hoagland was treated as the first and favored wife: living with her husband on foreign assignments, traveling with him, living in the largest house, and overseeing the other wives. During the 1850s, four children of George Q. and Elizabeth died before reaching age two. Three of them were named George or a form thereof (a daughter was named Georgianna) and the fourth was named Elizabeth. After Abram was born in March 1859, the next child of George Q. Cannon who lived to adulthood was Mary Alice, who was born in October 1867. Ibid., 373-74, 463; Family Group Records of George Q. Cannon and Elizabeth Hoagland, www.familysearch.org (accessed September 2008).