James Moyle

Biography

Moyle was born in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory to a Cornish American family. He was the grandson of John Rowe Moyle, a Mormon pioneer and master stonemason for the Salt Lake Temple. From about 1879-1881 Moyle served as a missionary in North Carolina for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). He then went to the University of Michigan where he received a law degree.

Politics and Public Service

After law school, Moyle returned to Utah and quickly ran for County Attorney being elected in 1886. He was re-elected in 1887 before winning election to the house in the territorial legislature of 1888. He was appointed chairman of the Committee on Education, fitting as he was the only assemblyman who had graduated from a university, and a member of the Committee on Judiciary and Committee on Municipal Corporations and Towns. During his tenure, Moyle assisted in the acceptance of city land where the Utah capitol is currently located today and introduced measures such as "compiling of the laws of Utah Territory," "custody of a Territorial Library," "establishment and support of district schools," creation of "an institution for deaf mutes," and "an act relating to life insurance companies."

Moyle was the founder of the Utah Democratic Party. He was the Democratic Party's candidate for governor in the 1900 and 1904 Utah elections, losing to Heber Manning Wells and John Christopher Cutler respectively and ran on the Democratic and Progressive tickets in 1914 for the Senate, ceding to Reed Smoot. Moyle served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury from 1917 to 1921 in the administration of Woodrow Wilson, the first member of the LDS Church to be appointed to a subcabinet position. In 1933 he was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who knew Moyle well having served together in the Wilson administration, as Commissioner of the United States Customs Service and in 1939 as a special assistant to Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau.

Church service

Moyle served as a member of the High Council of the Ensign Stake in Utah for three decades. From 1928 to 1933 he served as president of the Eastern States Mission of the LDS Church. This mission covered New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware the District of Columbia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Jersey. Moyle created an innovative radio proselytizing program, in all total overseeing 764 programs on various stations throughout the mission. During his administration West Virginia and Western Maryland were separated off into the East Central States Mission.

Death

Moyle died in 1946 at the age of 87. His son Henry D. Moyle became an Apostle of the LDS Church in 1947.