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Women as a Force in the History of Utah
Utah Historical Quarterly
Vol. 38, 1970, No. 1
Women as a Force in the History of Utah
BY LEONARD J. ARRINGTON GUEST EDITOR
THREE WOMEN CAME with the advance company of Mormon pioneers to the Salt Lake Valley in July 1847. An additional sixty women marched with the Mormon Battalion from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and spent the winter of 1846-47 at Pueblo, Colorado, before entering the Salt Lake Valley just a few days behind the advance company. They were accompanied by twenty women who had migrated from Mississippi and Illinois and wintered with the Battalion women at Pueblo. Before the end of July 1847, there were almost as many women in Utah as there were men — a fact which set Utah apart from most western territories. In the companies which subsequently migrated from the midwestern and eastern United States and from Europe, there were approximately as many women as there were men. The "different world of Utah" began with a partnership of men and women, and that pattern has continued to characterize the "family state" of Utah.
One is tempted to suggest that the process of settlement placed a heavier burden on the women than on the men. Often away on "missions" for their church and other assignments, the men left the women home to milk the cows, plant the crops, and care for the children. A reading of the diaries kept by Utah's pioneer women suggests that, in many instances, women provided most of the support of their growing families by producing food and clothing, and, in some instances, even built the family dwelling places. If it is true, as many writers have asserted, that Utah farmers were among the best in American history, the credit is often due to the women who did much of the farming. If it is also true that "Utah's best crop" was its children, then the credit, again, belongs largely to the women who supported, nourished, and educated them.
Herodotus included women in his history, as did Tacitus and other ancient writers of history. Not really a subjected sex in the conventional sense, women in every culture have played important roles in their struggles for liberty, their endeavors to improve the human lot, and their strivings for perfection in the fields of religion and art.
The same can be said of the women of Utah. Utah's women were the first in the nation to exercise the right of suffrage in voting for city, county, and territorial officers. Utah women were among the first to serve as jurors, mayors, and state legislators. Utah women played a prominent role in the livestock industry, in communications, and in the creation of literary symbols. In the last half of the nineteenth century, Utah probably possessed the largest number of midwives and women doctors in the United States. Utah women founded the first "permanent" magazine for women west of the Mississippi River, pioneered the operation of telegraph offices, and led out in the efforts to improve the social and economic status of the Indians.
It is fitting that the Utah State Historical Society should celebrate the contributions of women in this special issue of the Quarterly, timed for distribution during the month which marks the centennial of women suffrage in Utah. It is also fitting that three of the essays are by skilled Utah women writers. While the coming of woman suffrage is told by T. A. Larson, president-elect of the Western History Association, and Thomas G. Alexander, a member of the Board of Editors of the Utah State Historical Society, the remaining essays are by Jean Bickmore White, Raye Price, and Helen Zeese Papanikolas, all of whom, in addition to rearing families, have played an active role in the cultural, educational, and political life of modern Utah.
Every student of Utah history has his own favorite candidate for the most forceful woman in Utah's history. Some will choose the refined and sensitive Eliza R. Snow — poetess, Relief Society president, and leader in many women's causes. Others may prefer the brilliant and stately Emmeline B. Wells — editor of the Woman's Exponent for forty years and a founder of Utah's Republican party. Still others may select the loving and lovable Susanna Bransford Emery Holmes Delitch Engalitcheff — Utah's silver queen, famous hostess, patron of the arts, and philanthropist. Some may favor a woman of today — a political leader, a teacher, a business woman, an artist, or a dispenser of charity. This writer's favorite is Susa Young Gates. Author of a dozen books of merit, both fiction and non-fiction; founder of many regional and national women's organizations, including the Daughters of Utah Pioneers; a leader in the National and International Councils of Women; an editor, poet, temple worker, musician, and woman suffragist, Susa Young Gates was also the mother of thirteen children! Let her "Notes for the Day's Work" for a single day in 1895 illustrate the many concerns and contributions, both large and small, of Utah's women:
Notes for the Day's Work: Provo, Utah, August 19, 1895
Go down cellar with Emma Lucy [later, world famous coloratura soprano] and show her how to clean it.
Go to Aunt Corneel's and take her to Eikens and get hers and my fruit. Darn Dan's stockings. Boil over the bottle of spoiled fruit.
Practice on my bycycle. Write down plan of altering the house which came to me in the night.
Clean my office. Answer Leah's, Sterling's, Sis. Taylor's, and Mrs. Grey's letters, and Carlos's. Prepare talk on "Women and Literature" and go to the [Brigham Young] Academy's opening exercises at 10 o'clock.
Talk to Aretta Young about her story. Write to Pres. Joseph F. Smith, Pres. George Q. Cannon, Apostle Franklin D. Richards, and Elder B. H. Roberts about writing for Young Woman's Journal. Also write Mrs. M. E. Potter and Marie D.
Write and thank Carol for her lovely gift. Get the cloth for Dan's pants and boys' clothes and send them to the tailor. Finish the last chapter of "John Stevens' Courtship" for The Contributor. Sketch out editorials for Young Woman's Journal.
Wash my head. Get the kitchen carpet and have the girl and Dan put it down. Get cot and crib from store. Also washstand and glass and wardrobe. Get vegetables and fruit for dinner. Take my bycycle dress over to Polly and have it fixed. Take clothes to the Relief Society. Get consecrated oil. Bless Cecil [B. Cecil Gates, later director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir] to do his chores well. Administer to baby Franklin [later an outstanding figure in the early days of radio].
EQUAL RIGHTS
Now the voice of womankind is startling all the world; Woman must have equal rights with man. Everywhere beneath the sun her banner is unfurled, Woman must have equal rights with man. We but ask for freedom and the right to live and be, What we are designed in God's great plan; And we're sure all thinking men will very shortly see, Woman must have equal rights with man.
We but ask for freedom and the right to live and be What we are designed in God's great plan; And we're sure all thinking men will very shortly see Woman must have equal rights with man.
Should it be that in the land o'er which our standard waves And our eagle soars so proud and free,
Mothers, sisters, daughters should all be held as slaves, Should they have to beg for liberty?
We must pay our taxes, and the laws we must obey. And it's time an era now began
When in the elections we can also have a say — Woman should have equal rights with man.
Come my sisters, let us rise and educate our minds, Put aside our follies great and small;
Work with heart and soul to help all womankind, Gather round our standard one and all. Do not pause nor falter, but be valiant in the fight,
And the flame of liberty we'll fan. Till it spreads o'er all the land, then hail the time of right,
When woman shall have equal rights with man.
{Woman's Exponent, 23 [October 15, 1894], 195.)
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