A while back I wrote about the scandal between the Wells and Cannon families in 1880s Salt Lake City. Louie Wells, a beautiful, talented daughter of a prominent LDS family, was impregnated by her brother-in-law, John Q. Cannon, scion of prominent Mormon leader, George Q. Cannon and a general authority in his own right. John and Louie had been in an affair for a long time. Louie had miscarried a year earlier. Once the affair was highlighted, George Cannon and other church leaders excommunicated John, had his wife Annie divorce him, and married him to Louie. Despite the marriage, the pair were separated. After stressful appearances before anti-Mormon courts in Salt Lake City, Louie was snuck away to San Francisco to have the baby. However, the tragedy was compounded by the loss of another baby and Louie’s subsequent death. John Q. was eventually remarried to Annie and resumed church membership, although he never was again considered for high ecclesiastical office. At her funeral, Louie’s morals were trashed by a Cannon uncle, stake president Angus Cannon. That exacerbated an already tragic situation. In fact, Angus Cannon punched one of Louie Wells’ sisters who slapped his face on a Salt Lake City street.
I was surprised to discover recently that a historical novel, “A Scandal in Zion: The Tragic Story of Louie Wells and John Q. Cannon,” was recently published by American Fork writer, Lynn Larson. It’s an interesting, readable novel that is heavy on dialogue and presents a scenario of high probability that led to the affair. “A Scandal in Zion” posits that Annie was a supporter of John’s amorous attentions toward her sister, Louie, and hoped that Louie would become John’s polygamous wife.
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