Thomas Kearns

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Thomas Kearns (April 11, 1862 - October 18, 1918) was a United States Senator from Utah, serving a portion of a single term.

Born near Woodstock, Ontario, he moved with his parents to Holt County, Nebraska and attended the public schools, worked on a farm, and engaged in the freighting business. He moved to Salt Lake City, and afterward to Park City, Utah; he was interested in mining and operated several mines, and served in the City Council of Park City in 1895. With his partner David Keith, Kearns operated the well-known Silver King Coalition mine in Park City, as well as other mines in Park City and elsewhere in the West. Kearns and Keith also purchased the Salt Lake Tribune newspaper in 1901, and launched a second daily named the Salt Lake Telegram.

Kearns was a member of the Utah constitutional convention of 1895. The Utah Legislature elected him to the U.S. Senate in early 1901 as a Republicancompromise candidate, filling a seat left vacant for two years due to the legislature's failure to act. Though Kearns was a Catholic, there was a belief that his election had been engineered by Mormon Church President Lorenzo Snow. Kearns did not stand for re-election in 1904, knowing that he did not have the support needed to win, and he used his farewell speech on the Senate floor to make a scathing attack on the power of the Mormon Church.

Kearns returned to Salt Lake after leaving the Senate, and resided there until his death. He died of a stroke in 1918, several days after walking in front of a moving car. Interment was in Mount Calvary Cemetery.

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Preceded by
Frank J. Cannon		 United States Senator (Class 1) from Utah
1901–1905
Served alongside: Joseph L. Rawlins, Reed Smoot		 Succeeded by
George Sutherland
v • d • e
United States Senators from Utah
Class 1: Cannon • Kearns • Sutherland • King • Murdock • Watkins • Moss • Hatch
Class 3: Brown • Rawlins • Smoot • Thomas • W. Bennett • Garn • R. Bennett
 United States Senate


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