Few families endure long enough in any consistent context to claim the title of a dynasty. But the Summerhays clan of Utah, which traces its ancestry to the 1866 arrival here of one Mormon convert, easily merits that title, having developed into perhaps the most musically durable of Utah families - remarkable for the talent that survives in generation after generation, multiplying in exponential abundance to this day.
First of all, a disclaimer: This family is so numerous and so talented that it's utterly impossible to highlight more than a few of the more visible Summerhayses.Recently retired from a 33-year career in Salt Lake public school music, Carol Jean Summerhays is official historian and guardian of things Summerhays, living or dead. "If I brought all the Summerhays relations together, I bet we could fill the Tabernacle," she said.
Joseph William Summerhays, the strong and vibrant "father of them all," arrived in Utah at the age of 17, having crossed the plains by wagon train. Assigned to drive "three yoke of steers and an iron axle wagon," he left St. Joseph, Mo., with the Scott Company, arriving in Salt Lake City on Oct. 11, after a grueling journey in which 87 pioneers lost their lives.
J.W. was the son of Caleb and Margaret Moore Summerhays, residents of London, England, who along with their three children embraced the LDS gospel. The young man was responsible for bringing his parents and sisters Mary and Hester to Utah in 1873. Mary, who lived to be 100 years old (1850-1950) married William G. Saunders. Hester married Alfred Ballam, and both families settled in Cache Valley. Meanwhile, J.W. married four wives and sired 39 children.
For Summerhays, put the accent on "tenor," though other good and even spectacular voices abound, and dozens of persevering music teachers. The family tree spreads not only horizontally but vertically, producing many hardy nonagenarians. Indeed, spanning several conventional generations, J.W. Summerhays lived to be 80 years old (1849-1929) and his daughter Margaret, a prominent Utah singer and teacher, died at 99 (1884-1983) - just three months short of her 100th birthday.
Though his life took him in more practical directions, J.W. was a natural singer who loved music. "Most of the singers came through the line established by his union with his first wife, Mary Melissa Parker," said Carol Jean. "The daughter of Joshua and Drusilla Hartley Parker, Mary Melissa was six weeks old when her parents began the trek to Zion in the second handcart company (1852), strapping their baby in her cradle to their cart. J.W. and Mary Melissa were married in 1870.
"Unlike many polygamists, who begot children and left much responsibility for their support to their mothers, J.W. did support his family. He founded J.W. Summerhays and Sons, a pullery, where the sheep's wool was separated from the hide, bundled and shipped to Boston for processing. Nor was this all; he founded J.W. Summerhays and Sons, which dealt in hides, wools and furs. Among many other activities, he promoted the Granite paper mill and was for some years a director of the Deseret News.
"His interesting journals show that while his whole life was dedicated to the LDS Church, he traveled widely, buying wool from all over the country. Indeed, J.W. never went to jail as did many of his fellow polygamists, probably because his business was important nationally."
J.W. first established himself on North Temple, later moving his families out on Seventh East to the Forest Dale area, which was for a time an incorporated town. "There were open fields west of Seventh East, and where the Forest Dale golf course is now," said Carol Jean.
"All four wives lived near each other, but each had her own house. All attended Forest Dale Ward and often went to the nearby Brigham Young farm (whose farmhouse was moved to This is the Place State Park at the foot of Emigration Canyon), for church, dances and socials."
"Among J.W.'s and Mary Melissa's outstandingly musical children were four who were in the Tabernacle Choir at the same time - Margaret, Florence, Jack and Melissa," said Carol. "And their four sons, George, Caleb, William Henry and Joshua, comprised a popular quartet. I remember family reunions where we had family choruses of 35 to 40."
When Joseph William died in 1929, after a long and fruitful life, "he had his funeral all planned," said Carol with a laugh. "He said, first of all, make sure I'm really dead! Then he wanted it short and sweet, and proceeded to specify all the people he wanted to participate. It wouldn't have been short, but no worry - they all died before him! Mary Melissa lived until 1937."
Carol spoke of her uncle, Preston L. Summerhays, who was a grandson of J.W. and M.M. Summerhays. "He was a noted coach at the University of Utah, where he coached football, skiing, golf and baseball. He is the father of three tenors, including Bruce Summerhays, a golf pro who has lately been traveling the national professional tour with outstanding success. Bruce could have been a professional singer, but he preferred sports, and at any rate, he wouldn't go on the tour until his children were raised," she said.
Whether or not there's any genetic connection, so many Summerhays men combine singing and golfing interest that family reunions are held on or near golf courses, said Carol.
"My grandfather, William Henry, had 10 children, and they all sang. His four sons, Paul, Preston, Larry and Melvin (my father) were all tenors, and his six daughters (one died at four years of age) were all sopranos.
"Among them was Gwen Summerhays, who was organist in her ward and/or for the Granite Stake for 70 years. She could read and transpose any music written. I don't believe she went to a doctor more than twice in her life; she lived to be 93 (1900-1993), and she had just renewed her driver's license! At her funeral, her bishop said she "lived until she died.'
"She always had a hundred projects going, things like making a gift for every child at the annual family Christmas gatherings. Gwen didn't marry until the age of 74, and then her husband, Doug Todd, died 11 months later.
"My grandfather was a brilliant man, a real character, but he never really got his life in focus. Aunt Gwen supported her whole family by working at Daynes Jewelry, making house payments and buying the food.
"My cousin Virginia Summerhays Howard (the granddaughter of J.W.'s son Joshua) died just last year. She taught public school music for many years at South High, and was active in many Miss Utah pageants, accompanying these young women to competition in Atlantic City. These included the Miss America winner Colleen Hutchins in 1953, and my cousin Marion Walker Vance, a gifted soprano who won the talent contest and was among 10 finalists for Miss America in 1959."
Salt Laker Terry Summerhays recalled an anecdote about his Aunt Virginia Howard. "At the age of 3 she would come home from church, sit down at the dining room table, and start drumming her fingers on it. `I couldn't understand why my parents couldn't hear the music, because I could,' she said. When they gave her a piano, she could already play."
"My Aunt Florence Summerhays also taught public school music, and she always told me, never teach in the public schools. You must get better every year, or they say you are slipping!"
"According to me, the Summerhays musicians had two main characteristics - the musical ability to produce, to put their ambitions through, and ham," said Carol Jean. "Virginia said, don't say ham, say joie de vivre, but I call it ham!"
Carol Jean Summerhays noted with a touch of awe the influence that Margaret Summerhays, daughter of J.W., had upon almost a century's worth of Summerhayses as a musician and person. Indeed, Margaret was typical of another frequent Summerhays phenomenon - the independent single woman who made an exciting and influential life for herself.
"My aunts all studied with Aunt Marge (Margaret), as I did," said Carol. "She taught me more than voice - about life, Shakespeare, the great singers, during the era of Tebaldi, Callas and Milanov. Part of her teaching was to always walk as if you were somebody. She always looked mature to me, always just the same. She was my mentor, the epitome of dignity, virtue and loveliness.
"Margaret studied at the New England Conservatory in Boston, where she graduated at the head of her class, in performance and pedagogy, and her father often visited her on his business trips East. She also studied in Paris and traveled Europe in 1934-35, but Hitler frightened her, and she came home. I have a painting of a Spanish bridge scene that she bought in Spain from B.F. Larson, later head of art at BYU."
Her sister Florence was also an important soprano, who studied along with Margaret with many famous teachers. Florence taught public school music, and the sisters lived together in the family home on 700 East (now gone because of the freeway) and frequently traveled. Florence married a widower from Laguna Beach and moved there at age 50.
"Margaret sang from Boston to San Francisco," said Carol, "and widely in Salt Lake City, even for the president of the United States in the Tabernacle. She taught privately at home and at both the McCune School of Music and Brigham Young University. A lover of opera, she traveled every fall to the San Francisco Opera, driving her Model A Ford over dirt roads. "Sometimes the car fell off the tracks and she had to wait for some men to come along and put it back," said Carol.
"She was jolly and happy, but always cultured and refined. When the family got together we would tell funny jokes, but she never laughed at a dirty story. Her mind was always on the good."
Carol recalled frequently visiting Margaret in the Salt Lake Home, where at the last she became nearly blind. "She kept saying, why doesn't Father come for me? She died in St. Joseph's Villa, and the sisters said her final words were yes, Mother, I'm ready."
Among J.W.'s other prominent musical children, his son Jack stands out. "He was a most promising tenor, people predicted he would wind up at the Metropolitan Opera," said Carol. "But his parents convinced him he should come home. Jack taught at Granite High, and he was a character - would have done very well today, when teachers are expected to be entertainers! I heard Jack at 95 years old, just before he died, singing one of those Irish tenor things, and he was still wonderful. He sang very widely in concert and opera around Salt Lake City."
She fondly remembered J.W.'s son, Caleb, whom she called "a character. He used to buy a new Oldsmobile every year, and he always drove in second gear. One day my dad was working at the pullery (out near Tooele), and caught his foot in the machinery. Uncle Cal rushed him to the hospital in Salt Lake City, as fast as the car would go in second gear!"
Noteworthy in succeeding generations were Clyde, a prominent tenor, and much-admired baritone Joe (Terry Summerhays' father and son of Joshua), Howard (Roger Summerhays' father), and Mel, Carol's father.
On a different ancestral line was Hyrum Summerhays, son of J.W. and Sara Barrett. He was first a band teacher and supervised music in the Washington, D.C., schools for four years, then went into the music business, founding Salt Lake's Summerhays Music Company in 1936.
To J.W.'s sister Hester, who married Alfred Ballam in England before coming to America in 1872, five children were born. One of them, Frederick Thomas Ballam, was the father of Oral Ballam, father of Oral Ballam II, who was dean of education for many years (1967-1992) as Utah State University in Logan. His nephew is Michael Ballam, nationally prominent tenor who now teaches as USU and heads the Utah Festival Opera summers in Logan.
The Ballams settled in Hyde Park, Cache Valley, where they fostered music and dance, including the Hyde Park Band.
(A future article will feature conversations with present-day Summerhayses who are active in music and the arts.)