WILLIAM PORTERFIELD NISBET
Director/Trustee, Initiator of the UPB
William Porterfield Nisbet was born February 19, 1869, in Claythorne, Renfrewshire, Scotland. He died January 24, 1940, in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. His father was William Alexander Nisbet (1837–1887), and his mother was Isabella Nisbet (née Porterfield, 1838–1914).
Nisbet was employed in a rope factory at the age of 11 and later became a messenger boy. He worked in the coal mines at 13 years old until emigrating to the United States at the age of 19. After settling in Wyoming, he continued working in the mines in Almy and Diamondville.
In 1893, Nisbet married Martha Hannah Brown (1874–1894) in Logan, Utah. She died the following year after giving birth to their first child, Harriet Isabella (1894–1894), who only lived a few months. In 1896, Nisbet married Agnes Baird Neil (1873–1897) in Salt Lake City, who also passed away the following year. He married
He married again in 1902 to Jeanie Ross Smith (1874–1952) in Salt Lake City, and together they had seven children: Elizabeth Smith (1902–1941), William "Wallace" (1904–1970), Helen Mar (1906–1906), Ruth (1907–1986), Lenora (1911–2006), James Douglas "Doug" (1914–1993), and David (1916–1916).
In 1898, Nisbet traveled back to Scotland, where he spent two years as a missionary. Afterward, he returned to Salt Lake City, where he later became a Salt Lake County deputy sheriff and the chief gardener at the Utah State Capitol. He also served as Chief of the Salt Lake Scottish Club for several years and as chaplain of both the Salt Lake Thistle Club and Clan Stewart No. 207 of the Order of Scottish Clans (OSC).
Nisbet was not only a cofounder of the Utah Pipe Band (UPB) in 1937 but also its first proponent. An early UPB document states:
"Credit for the origination of the idea [of creating the Utah Pipe Band] belongs solely to Mr. William Nisbet, that staunch and true American of Scottish Birth, who has led in many Civic enterprises in Salt Lake City during the past thirty years . . . ."
In the late 1930s, Nisbet suffered from chronic illness and passed away in 1940 at the age of 70. Reflecting on Nisbet's death, UPB cofounder Robert S. Barclay wrote that he was a "well-loved friend, and instigator of the Utah Pipe Band."
William P. Nisbet (far right) with three of his children ca. 1910.
(L–R): Ruth, William, and Elizabeth.