The Real Romney
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Chapter 2: Following the Call
31 “I believe”: Mitt Romney, speech on faith, Houston, Texas, December 6, 2007.
33 as many as five children: There are differing accounts on how many children came with the Romneys. The report of five children comes from the Mormon church’s ancestry web site, www.familysearch.org, which names five children who were born in England and died in the United States, although it is possible that some arrived separately from their parents. The five were George, Elizabeth, Sarah, Joseph, and Ellen. See Miles Romney family tree at https://www.familysearch.org/search/treeDetails/show?uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffamilysearch.org%2Fpal%3A%2FMM9.2.1%2FMB23-ZR3.
33 “master mechanic”: Thomas Cottam Romney, Life Story of Miles P. Romney (Independence, Missouri: Zion, 1948), 7.
33 “a pillar of light”: “Joseph Smith’s First Vision,” www.lds.org/library/display/0,4945,104-1-3-4,00.html.
33 “divine pronouncement”: “Truth Restored,” www.lds.org/manual/truth-restored/chapter-13-years-of-endurance?lang=eng.
34 several dozen wives: Fawn McKay Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet (New York: Vintage, 1995), 457–488.
34 “despotism”: Ibid., 381.
34 “We are earnestly seeking”: Nauvoo (Illinois) Expositor, June 7, 1844, www.solomonspalding.com/docs/exposit1.htm.
34 The Nauvoo City Council: The order to destroy the Nauvoo Expositor is at http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/carthage/expositororder.html.
34 “point of a bayonet”: “William Farrington Cahoon, 1813–1897,” www.boap.org/LDS/Early-Saints/WFCahoon.html. Just as the Romneys fled, Miles’s sister, five-year-old Ellen, died of an illness on February 24, 1846; see www.familysearch.org/search/treeDetails/show?uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffamilysearch.org%2Fpal%3A%2FMM9.2.1%2FMB23-ZR3.
34 twenty thousand: “Nauvoo, Illinois: 1839–1846,” http://lds.org/gospellibrary/pioneer/02_Nauvoo.html.
35 Instead, the Romneys fled: Romney, Life Story of Miles P. Romney, 18–19. Ellen Romney died May 12, 1846, according to http://awt.ancestrylibrary.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=flakey&id=I555148915&ti=5542.
35 And the elder Romney: Romney, Life Story of Miles P. Romney, 8.
35 “twin relics of barbarism”: www.ushistory.org/gop/convention_1856republicanplatform.htm.
35 desertion: One of those who deserted was a Prussian émigré, Carl Heinrich Wilcken. After he converted to Mormonism, his daughter married the son of a Mormon leader. That couple, Dora and Helaman Pratt, would be one set of Mitt Romney’s great-grandparents.
36 “They were trying”: Mitt Romney interview, 60 Minutes, CBS-TV, May 13, 2007.
36 “Miles had grown into”: Romney, Life Story of Miles P. Romney, 23–25. The reference to playing Hamlet is from an unpublished family biography of Miles’s son Gaskell.
37 “attractive Scotch lass”: Romney, Life Story of Miles P. Romney, 25.
37 The couple had a month together: Ibid., 27.
37 “all day from sunup”: Hannah Hood Hill Romney, “Autobiography of Hannah Hood Hill Romney,” Our Pioneer Heritage, vol. 5 (Salt Lake City: Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1962), 264–265.
37 “You go back”: Michael S. Durham, Desert Between the Mountains: Mormons, Miners, Padres, Mountain Men, and the Opening of the Great Basin, 1772–1869 (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999), 164.
37 “Many, now, wonder”: Miles P. Romney, “Persecution,” Millennial Star, October 1864, 629.
38 “never milked a cow”: Romney, Life Story of Miles P. Romney, 294–297.
38 “We were happy”: Romney, “Autobiography of Hannah Hood Hill Romney,” 266.
38 “Brother Miles”: Ibid., 266.
38 “Nothing short of a firm belief”: Romney, Life Story of Miles P. Romney, 61.
38 “I felt that was more”: Romney, “Autobiography of Hannah Hood Hill Romney,” 266.
39 “There will yet be built”: Brigham Young, quoted at www.stgeorgetemplevisitorscenter.info/by/byowner-baker2.html.
39 “in a little shanty”: Romney, “Autobiography of Hannah Hood Hill Romney,” 266–267.
39 one of the era’s most lavish residences: Visit of the author to Brigham Young house in St. George, Utah. Miles A. Romney built the main part of the house, and Miles P. Romney built an addition. The restored home is visited today by Mormons from around the world, who are told the story of Miles P. Romney’s role in building the house.
39 “was very jealous”: Romney, “Autobiography of Hannah Hood Hill Romney,” 267.
40 “trials met with”: Romney, Life Story of Miles P. Romney, 74.
40 “the Anti-polygamy bill”: Ibid., 71–73. Romney and the others said the legislation violated the Declaration of Independence’s guarantee that all men had the rights of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” and the Bill of Rights’ guarantee of freedom of religion.
40 “prettiest girl in St. George”: Jennifer Mouton Hansen, ed., Letters of Catharine Cottam Romney, Plural Wife (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1992), 1, 10, 19.
40 “weakness for wine”: Miles’s descendants said that he later gave up alcohol.
40 “one of the noblest”: Romney, Life Story of Miles P. Romney, 13–14.
41 “I said I would take it”: Romney, “Autobiography of Hannah Hood Hill Romney,” 269.
42 “Here you can see”: Hansen, Letters of Catharine Cottam Romney, 26.
42 “With the noise and confusion”: Romney, “Autobiography of Hannah Hood Hill Romney,” 269.
42 The Romneys eventually found: Meryl Romney Ward, “Biography of Gaskell Romney” (unpublished family document, 1984), 5.
43 “Hang a few”: David King Udall, Arizona Pioneer Mormon: His Story and His Family, 1851–1938 (Tucson: Arizona Silhouettes, 1959), 116. The quote was included in the May 30, 1884, edition of the Apache Chief. Udall’s progeny would include two famous grandchildren: Stewart Udall, who served as secretary of the interior in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations; and Morris Udall, an Arizona congressman who ran unsuccessfully for president in 1976.
43 “a mass of putrid pus”: Carol Sletten and Eric Kramer, Story of the American West (Pinetop, Ariz.: Wolf Water Press, 2010), Kindle edition, location no. 3709.
43 Still, although Miles had promised: Hansen, Letters of Catharine Cottam Romney, 13.
43 “hate upon Romney”: Udall, Arizona Pioneer Mormon, 116.
43 “American Siberia”: Edward William Tullidge, History of Salt Lake City (Salt Lake City: Star Printing Company, 1886), 149.
44 “due to lack of evidence”: Romney, Life Story of Miles P. Romney, 160–166.
44 “I told him Mr. Romney”: Romney, Autobiography of Hannah Hood Hill Romney, 271–272.
44 “disguising himself so completely”: Hansen, Letters of Catharine Cottam Romney, 111.
44 “Eventually Miles was called upon”: Mitt Romney, Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership, and the Olympic Games (Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, 2007), 8.
44 colony of Juárez: Visit by coauthor Kranish to Colonia Juárez.
45 “I sometimes think”: Hansen, Letters of Catharine Cottam Romney, 113.
45 Hannah, meanwhile, was still trying: Romney, “Autobiography of Hannah Hood Hill Romney,” 271–275.
45 “When it rained”: Ibid., 276–277.
45 “21 of us all together”: Romney, Letters of Catharine Cottam Romney, 118–119.
45 Gaskell: Meryl Romney Ward, “Biography of Gaskell Romney” (unpublished family document, 1984), 9–10. The Cliff Ranch is no longer in use by the Romneys and the original buildings no longer exist, according to Mitt Romney’s cousin Mike Romney, who lives in a nearby town.
46 “I now publicly declare”: “Official Declaration,” http://lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/od/1?lang=eng.
46 “There was a great closeness”: Ward, “Biography of Gaskell Romney,” 10.
46 “Yes, and go to hell”: Ibid.
46 In 1895, afte
r completing: Romney, Life Story of Miles P. Romney, 317–318. After Gaskell’s wife Anna died, he married her sister, Amy.
46 “accumulated a great deal”: Romney, “Autobiography of Hannah Hill Hood Romney,” 281.
46 The children went: Tom Mahoney, The Story of George Romney: Builder, Salesman, Crusader, 1st ed. (New York: Harper, 1960), 53–54.
47 One day in early March 1904: Romney, Life Story of Miles P. Romney, 289.
47 “breathed his last”: Romney, “Autobiography of Hannah Hill Hood Romney,” 281.
47 “very prosperous”: Ward, “Biography of Gaskell Romney.”
47 His wealth enabled him: Clark Raymond Mollenhoff, George Romney: Mormon in Politics (New York: Meredith Press, 1968), 26.
47 George Wilcken Romney: His middle name was in memory of the Prussian deserter Carl Heinrich Wilcken, who had left U.S. forces and joined the Mormon side and was the great-grandfather of George.
47 At one point: Mollenhoff, George Romney, 24–26.
47 “would die”: “Refugees Camp in Lumberyard; Mormons Are Still Fleeing to City,” El Paso Herald, July 30, 1912.
48 Vastly outnumbered: Mollenhoff, George Romney, 26.
48 “the first displaced persons”: Mahoney, The Story of George Romney, 60.
48 “I was kicked out”: George Romney, The Concerns of a Citizen (New York: G. P. Putnam and Sons, 1968), 263–267.
48 “until it is safe”: “Salazar Reported at Kilometer 52; Gives Food and Water to Mormons,” El Paso Herald, October 25, 1912.
48 But Gaskell’s family: Hannah made a trip back to the Mexican colonies and died there in 1928; see Romney, “Autobiography of Hannah Hill Hood Romney,” 284. Gaskell and his family, including George, returned to visit the Mexican colony in 1941, according to an unpublished family manuscript titled “Mormon Towns and Trails.”
49 “Even though father”: Ward, “Biography of Gaskell Romney,” 16–19.
49 Gaskell requested $26,753: Gaskell Romney v. the United States of Mexico, Salt Lake City, Utah, March 15, 1938.
50 “Miles Park was a pioneer”: Interview with Mike Romney, 2007.
Chapter 3: Outside the Fray
52 Hoover Tower: “Books: The Hoover Library,” Time, June 30, 1941.
52 “The campus was quite isolated”: Interview with Wayne Brazil, 2011.
53 Mark Marquess: Interview with Mark Marquess, 2011. Marquess has served as Stanford’s baseball coach for more than three decades. As of late 2011, he had not talked with Romney since their college days.
53–54 Ditching his coat and tie: Neil Swidey and Michael Paulson, “Touched by Tragedy, a Leader Emerges from a Life of Privilege,” The Boston Globe, June 24, 2007.
54 Harris was protesting a war: Interview with David Harris, 2011.
54 “It sounds silly now”: Interview with Mike Roake, 2007.
54 “I don’t think”: Interview with Mark Marquess.
54 “He was conservative”: Interview with James Baxter, 2011.
54 “He didn’t put on any airs”: Interview with Mark Marquess.
55 Also on Mitt’s floor: Robert Mardian, Jr.’s, father was Robert C. Mardian, who later served as assistant attorney general in the Nixon administration and worked in President Richard Nixon’s reelection campaign. He was convicted during the Watergate scandal for conspiracy to obstruct justice, but the conviction was overturned on appeal. See Dennis McClellan, “Robert Mardian, Watergate Scandal Figure,” Los Angeles Times, July 21, 2006.
55 “I would say publicly”: Interview with Robert Mardian, Jr., 2011.
56 Ken Kesey: Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, “Ken Kesey, Author of ‘Cuckoo’s Nest,’ Who Defined the Psychedelic Era, Dies at 66,” The New York Times, November 11, 2001. Kesey’s “acid test” exploits were famously chronicled in Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, first published in 1968.
56 “There was this cultural current”: Interview with David Harris.
56 PEACE: http://a3m2009.org/archive/photos/1965–1966_photos/stanford_committee/scpv/index.html
57 Joan Baez: David Harris, Dreams Die Hard (San Francisco: Mercury House, 1993), 123–124.
57 “the same that brought”: Andrew L. Johns, “Achilles’ Heel: The Vietnam War and George Romney’s Bid for the Presidency, 1967 to 1968,” Michigan Historical Review 26, no. 1 (April 1, 2000): 10.
57 Returning from Vietnam: George Romney’s gubernatorial papers include a schedule that shows he stopped at the San Francisco Hilton on his way back from Vietnam. One of Mitt’s classmates said that George stopped at Stanford on his way from Vietnam to Detroit. George may have made one other visit because he is remembered to have been on campus with his wife and Ann Davies. The dinner described here appears to have been during the San Francisco stopover. Romney stayed at the Hilton on the evening of November 12, 1965. George Romney Papers, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan.
57 “He spoke about”: Interview with Peter Davenport, 2011.
57 “He didn’t want his parents”: Jack Thomas, “Ann Romney’s Sweetheart Deal,” The Boston Globe, October 20, 1994.
58 Mitt’s older brother, Scott: Interview with Scott Romney, 2007.
58 “cut back”: Interview with Alan Abbott, 2011.
58 “It was especially”: Interview with Mike Roake.
58 A campus rally was headlined: Harris, Dreams Die Hard, 125.
59 “You don’t stand a chance”: Ibid., 135.
59 Harris . . . won the election: Ibid., 133–135.
60 850 students: “Draft Tests at Stanford Under Way,” Oakland Tribune, May 21, 1966.
60 Harris not among them: Harris had marched to the sit-in with other protesters but said he did not join them in staying overnight because he had concerns about the legality of it.
60 SPEAK OUT: Jay Thorwaldson, “Governor’s Son Pickets the Pickets,” Palo Alto Times, May 20, 1966, George Romney collection, box 3-V, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. The circumstances of that day were described in an interview with Romney’s classmate William Black in 2011.
60 “Down with mob rule”: Thorwaldson, “Governor’s Son Pickets the Pickets.”
60 “Come out”: Interview with Mitt Romney, 2007.
60 “We had animated”: Ibid.
60 “a zero”: Interview with David Harris. Harris said he knew George Romney’s son was on campus but didn’t remember interacting with him.
61 “There were some wards”: Interview with Barry Mayo, 2007.
62 Some non-Mormons in Utah: Wallace Turner, “Suit over Draft in Utah Attacks Mormon Missionary Deferments,” The New York Times, February 7, 1970.
62 “the substantial number”: Interview with Richard Leedy, 2007.
62 “I was supportive”: Interview with Mitt Romney.
62 “I was not planning”: Joe Battenfeld, “GOP Senate Hopeful Romney Got Draft Deferment for Vietnam,” Boston Herald, May 2, 1994.
63 the number 300: Mitt Romney’s Selective Service record, No. 20-67-47-252.
63 “based on thin tissue”: David Kirkpatrick, “Romney’s Life Took a Turn in France,” The New York Times, November 17, 2007.
63 Though Romney’s parents: Interview with Dane McBride, 2011.
63 If he didn’t, she told him: Ben Bradlee, Jr., “Romney Seeks New Chapter in Success,” The Boston Globe, August 7, 1994.
64 In the 1950s: “Country Information: France,” January 29, 2010, www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/58571/Country-information-France.html.
64 LeHavre: “LeHavre, the City Rebuilt by Auguste Perret,” http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1181.
65 Romney shared a one-bedroom apartment: Interview with Donald K. Miller, then Romney’s senior companion, 2007.
66 “Bang!” Interview with Mitt Romney.
66 Romney would take a long, hot bath: Interview with Donald K. Miller.
66 “There were about 20 guys”: Swidey and Paulson, “Touched by Tragedy, a Leader Emerges from a Life of Privilege.”
67
“had a personality”: Interview with Marie-Blanche Caussé, 2007.
67 Think and Grow Rich: Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich, ebook, www.archive.org/details/Think_and_Grow_Rich, 1, 160–175.
68 “We were red-blooded”: Interview with Dane McBride.
68 “great message”: Interviews with Dane McBride, 2007 and 2011.
68 “singing, basketball exhibitions”: Mitt Romney to his parents, 16 July 1968, Box 3—Early Series, George Romney Papers, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan.