Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume 49, Number 3, 1981 by Utah Historical Society

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SUMMER 1981/VOI^ME 49/NUMBER 3

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UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY (ISSN 0042-143X) EDITORIAL

STAFF

MELVIN T. SMITH,

Editor

STANFORD J. L A Y T O N , Managing M I R I A M B. M U R P H Y , Associate

ADVISORY BOARD

Editor Editor

OF EDITORS

M R S . I N E Z S. C O O P E R , Cedar City, 1981 S. G E O R G E E L L S W O R T H , Logan,

1981

P E T E R L. G o s s , Salt Lake City, 1982 G L E N M . L E O N A R D , Farmington,

1982

L A M A R P E T E R S E N , Salt Lake City, 1983 R I C H A R D W . SADLER, Ogden,

1982

HAROLD SCHINDLER, Salt Lake City, 1981 G E N E A. S E S S I O N S , Bountiful,

1983

Utah Historical Quarterly was established in 1928 to publish articles, documents, a n d reviews contributing to knowledge of Utah's history. T h e Quarterly is published 'by the U t a h State Historical Society, 300 Rio Grande, Salt Lake City, U t a h 84101. Phone (801) 533-6024 for membership a n d publications information. Members of the Society receive the Quarterly, Beehive History, a n d the bimonthly Newsletter upon payment of the annual dues; for details see inside back cover. Materials for publication should be submitted in duplicate accompanied by return postage a n d should be typed double-space with footnotes a t the end. Additional information on requirements is available from the managing editor. T h e Society assumes no responsibility for statements of fact or opinion by contributors. T h e Quarterly is indexed in Book Review Index to Social Science Periodicals, America: History and Life, Combined Retrospective Index to the Book Reviews in Scholarly Journals, 1886-1974, a n d Abstracts of Popular Culture. Second class postage is paid at Salt Lake City, U t a h .

HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

Contents SUMMER

1 9 8 1 / V O L U M E 49 / N U M B E R 3

IN T H I S ISSUE

219

WOMEN AND T H E SOCIALIST PARTY IN UTAH, 1900-1920 "I CARE N O T H I N G FOR P O L I T I C S " : R U T H MAY FOX, F O R G O T T E N SUFFRAGIST

SILLITO

220

EDITED BY LINDA THATCHER

239

JOHN

A WOMAN STATE SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT: WHATEVER HAPPENED T O MRS. M c V I C K E R ?

CAROL A N N LUBOMUDROV

254

SUSAN STAKER OMAN

262

URSENBACH BEECHER

276

N U R T U R I N G LDS PRIMARIES: LOUIE FELT AND MAY ANDERSON, 1880-1940

WOMEN'S WORK ON T H E M O R M O N FRONTIER . . . . ENTERPRISING LADIES: UTAH'S NINETEENTH-CENTURY WOMEN EDITORS BOOK

MAUREEN

SHERILYN

Cox

BENNION

291

REVIEWS

305

BOOK NOTICES

312

T H E C O V E R This Utah Writers Project photograph shows women canning tomatoes Utah — a typical female occupation. USHS collections.

Ogden,

M A R C GAEDE a n d M A R N I E G A E D E .

Camera, Spade, and Pen: An Inside View of Southwestern Archaeology

J O H N PHILLIP REID.

Law

Elephant: Behavior

Property on the

Overland

Trail

ROBERT V. H I N E .

American but

Not

for

DAVID B. M A D S E N

305

JAMES H . LEVITT

306

N O R M A N J. B E N D E R

307

OMER

the

and Social

Community

Frontier:

on the

Separate

Alone

Books reviewed BRIGHAM D . M A D S E N . The

Northern

Shoshoni

R . DAVID EDMUNDS,, ed.

Indian

Leaders:

in Diversity

Public

Years

STEWART

309

JANICE W H I T E

CLEMMER

310

JUSTIN H . LIBBY

310

American

Studies .

F R A N K W. F o x . / . Reuben The

Clark:

:/<: , : :â&#x20AC;&#x17E;, ÂŤ,. ,,

M:.

In this issue Whether they succeed or fail, society's dreamers add zest to history. The dream realized may change the social order, but even unachieved the dream reveals much about human nature. T h e dream of equal rights, like peace, seems elusive. T h e Utah women drawn to radical politics as a means of achieving equality came largely from traditional backgrounds and were not, in fact, very different from their Republican and Democratic sisters. Socialists won elective office in Bingham, above, and other Utah towns, but women, like the laundry on the lines, remained tied to the heme no matter who controlled politics. From settlement to the present, the one great political victory for women has been the inclusion of woman suffrage in the Utah Constitution. A diary provides an intimate look at the struggle to make that dream come true. Following statehood, the brief tenure of a woman state school superintendent brought a victory of sorts, but this bittersweet story is full of ironies. Far more than politics, church, home, and employment have occupied Utah women. The dreams and leadership of two women vitalized the LDS Primary for more than a half-century. The next article reappraises a popular depiction of pioneer Mormon women as heralds of ever-widening roles for women in society. Their dream was not to plow and plant alongside men but to bring the refinement and culture they had known in the East to the raw frontier. Finally, the careers of fourteen women editors are seen to reflect the optimism and energy typical of frontier journalistsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;female or male. Compelled by a variety of dreams, then, Utah women sought both broad and specific goals. Sometimes they succeeded; sometimes they floundered on the shoals of reality. Their stories give perspective to the dreams of present-day women.

Women and the Socialist Party in Utah, 1900-1920 BY J O H N R. SILLITO

Socialism and socialistic ideas have existed in this country in various forms since the earliest days of the republic. American socialism found expression in the Utopian movements of the 1820s, particularly those with a religious orientation; through the establishment of labor and working-class political parties in the 1830s; and with the influx of Mr. Sillito is the archivist at Stewart Library, Weber State College, Ogden.

Women and the Socialist Party

221

European immigrants, especially Germans, who brought with them to this country the Socialist and Marxist ideas permeating Europe in the 1840s. For the most part, however, Socialist groups tended to be geographically isolated and ideologically fragmented in the United States during the nineteenth century. The organization of the Knights of Labor and the Socialist Labor party, coupled with the agrarian revolt of the 1870s and 1890s, first significantly challenged the assumptions of American capitalism and set the stage for the creation of a mass national movement for socialism. The Socialist party of America was born in 1901. During the next two decades it exerted a measurable influence on American politics. At the peak of its strength, in 1912, the party elected 1,200 individuals to state and local office, boasted two members of Congress, and had the support of 300 newspapers throughout the country. That same year Eugene V. Debs (running in the fourth of his five presidential campaigns) received nearly one million votes â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 6 percent of the total. Furthermore, as James Weinstein has noted, during this period the Socialist party "had a large following in the trade union movement, and a profound influence on the reformers and reforms of the day." 1 The Socialist party was an "umbrella organization'' that appealed to a wide group of constituencies. Within the party were found laborers and middle-class reformers, old-stock Americans and newly arrived immigrants, intellectuals and populist organizers, and clergymen and miners. Another component of this Socialist coalition consisted of women who saw the class struggle as a means of seeking not only economic democracy but also equality regardless of sex. From the beginning, the Socialist party demonstrated a commitment to women's rights. Because of its primary emphasis on electoral politics, it was probably natural that the early thrust of Socialist advocacy for women centered around the issue of suffrage. Until 1912, when both the Progressive party and the Prohibition party endorsed suffrage, the Socialists were the only national political organization unequivocally supporting full voting rights for women. Similar support was not forthcoming from either the Democrats or Republicans until four years later; even then the Republicans hedged by asserting the need for "states' rights" in interpreting qualifications for voting. The Socialist party's support of suffrage did not, however, indicate a uniform commitment on the part of all Socialists to the larger issue of 1 James Weinstein, The Decline Press, 1967), p . ix.

of Socialism

in America

(New York: Monthly Review

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women's rights. Many Socialist women, arguing that suffrage alone "could not provide equality," complained that an "understanding of women's oppression was not consistent among Socialists" and that consequently "a gulf existed between different Socialists on this subject."" These women believed that there was a need for considerable consciousness-raising within the party. In assessing this condition historian Bruce Dancis has noted: Socialists in the early twentieth century had no single coherent ideology on the "woman question." Within the j_party] . . . adherents of contradictory view on the subject worked side by side. . . . Most Socialists agreed that capitalism was oppressing women and that socialism would end that oppression. But while some Socialists saw socialism as a means of enforcing Victorian mores, then being destroyed by the proletarianization of the family, others looked forward to the creation of new relations between the sexes.3

Socialist women, themselves, divided into two tactical camps. One group argued that the best course for women was to work through autonomous Socialist-feminist organizations outside, but in contact with, the Socialist party. Such a course was necessary, they argued, because women experience a special type of oppression, compounded by their training to ignore political and economic considerations; thus, women required a special effort of Socialist education. An autonomous position was needed also, this group contended, because despite the platform rhetoric, many Socialist men were either hostile or indifferent to women and their needs and considered them political inferiors. A second group, which advocated working through the Socialist party structure, reasoned that although there was some hostility, there was also support for women among Socialists and that the party offered real opportunity for leadership experience. Calling separate organizations bourgeoise and unappealing to working-class women, the advocates of working within the party argued that since capitalism "made no distinction between the sexes in its treatment of workers, neither should Socialists." 4 This tactical argument continued until the impetus for solution came in 1907 when an International Socialist Congress at Stuttgart

2 Bruce Dancis, "Socialism and Women in the United States, 1900-1917," Socialist lution 27 ( M a y - J u n e 1 9 7 6 ) : 81-144.

3 Ibid., p . 87 4

Ibid.

Revo-

Women and the Socialist Party

223

urged all Socialist parties to make "definite provisions for women in their platforms and to work more explicitly in every way for the support of suffrage."5 Consequently, the 1908 Socialist party convention (which witnessed an increase from eight to nineteen women delegates) endorsed "unrestricted and equal suffrage for men and women and also created a Women's National Committee. Party leaders promised adequate staff and finances for the committee, envisioning it as a way to "make intelligent Socialists and suffragists of women and secure their active membership in the Socialist party." 6 From this point on, the role of women in the Socialist party increased substantially in terms of membership, activity, and importance. Another important step preceding the action of the 1908 convention was the appearance of the periodical Socialist Woman, later called Progressive Woman. Not only did women now have a Socialist journal exclusively dedicated to women's concerns and education, but through state correspondents who reported activities throughout the country the magazine helped to bind the Socialist woman's movement into a national sisterhood. Although officially separate from the Socialist party, the journal helped to bridge the gap between women of the two tactical philosophies. While these developments occurred nationally, a Socialist movement evolved in Utah as well. Socialist party locals were organized in a score of cities in the state in 1901. During the next twenty years, the Utah Socialist party actively engaged in political contests, electing some seventy-five individuals to a variety of offices throughout the state. Utah was one of only a handful of states, for example, that elected Socialists to the state legislature. And at one time several Utah cities â&#x20AC;&#x201D; including Eureka, Mammoth, Murray, Bingham, and Salt Lake â&#x20AC;&#x201D; elected full or partial Socialist municipal tickets. The party also received support from organized labor. Many Socialist leaders and candidates were union officials, and the Utah State Federation of Labor endorsed the party in 1910-13. Socialist women also played roles in the development of the party in Utah. Two female delegates participated in the 1901 state organizing convention. One was Kate S. Hilliard, whose career will be examined later. The other was Ida Crouch-Hazlett, a newspaper reporter from 5 Mari Jo Buhl, "Women and the Socialist Party, 1901-1914," Radical America 4 (February 1970) : 36â&#x20AC;&#x201D;55. The articles by Dancis and Buhl represent the best summary sources on women and the Socialist party. 6

Ibid., p. 44.

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Colorado, former member of the radical Knights of Labor, and a national organizer for the Woman Suffrage Association.7 For some time prior to the state convention and apparently on her own initiative, Crouch-Hazlett traveled through southeastern Utah in support of the Socialist party. Consequently, she arrived at the convention claiming 92 proxy votes. In a convention with less than two score delegates, such strength clearly would give her a commanding role. Delegates from Salt Lake were angered and accused Crouch-Hazlett (and Peter Johnson of Murray, who claimed to have 75 proxy votes) of trying to dominate the new party. Undoubtedly, the Salt Lake delegates were also worried about the prospect of losing control over the state organization of the party, a privilege they felt was theirs. Ultimately, they bolted the convention, and the meeting ended with each rival faction claiming to speak for the party in Utah. After appealing to the national secretary, Leon Greenbaum ruled that the convention was "conducted in violation" of the national constitution of the Socialist party. Finally, the difficulties separating Utah Socialists were settled and a state organization was effected. Throughout the history of Socialist activity in Utah, however, conflicts frequently arose over party offices and resources between Salt Lake Socialists and party members elsewhere in the state.8 During this period of initial organization, an important development occurred when Lucy Hoving commenced her activity as a Socialist orator and organizer. The International Socialist Review reported in May 1902 that Hoving was "speaking to crowded houses" in both Utah and Idaho. 9 Lucy Hoving is one of the most interesting of all the Utah Socialist women. Born in Gronigen, Holland, in 1856, she embraced the Mormon faith and emigrated to Utah in 1888. She settled in Logan and attended the Brigham Young Academy. Subsequently, she became a faculty member of that institution. In 1899 she moved to Ogden where she taught in the public schools and later established both a kindergarten and a private training school for teachers.10 Hoving graduated from the International School of Social Economy, a correspondence "school for socialism," with some 1,200 students, organized by the colorful Socialist orator and educator Walter Thomas 7 Oakley C. Johnson, Marxism in the United States before the Russian Revolution York: Humanities Press, 1974) ; , p . 99. 6 Salt Lake Tribune, December 29, 1 9 0 1 ; Utah Labor Journal, January 10, 1902. 9 International Socialist Review 2 (May 1902) : 820. 10 Ogden Standard, August 8, 1902.

(New

Women and the Socialist Party

225

Mills.11 Coinciding with her conversion to socialism was her apostasy from the LDS faith, although there is no direct evidence to link these two decisions. Shortly after this, Hoving wrote an anti-Mormon tract entitled The X-Rays Turned on Mormonism in which she indicated that she had joined the Mormon church at a time of personal dissatisfaction with the religious denominations around her but that after coming to America and "being initiated into every secret" of Mormonism she grew disenchanted with her faith. She felt that the church was antiintellectual, that it wrongly opposed the theory of evolution, that there was unwarranted LDS influence in politics, and that the church had misused financial contributions. She perceived a gulf between church teachings and practices, alleging that Mormons were extremely materialistic, seeking after the trappings of "honor, position and credit."12 These criticisms of the Mormon church are not unique to Lucy Hoving; of more interest and importance in light of her Socialist commitment are her views on the church and women and her assertion of sexism within the LDS faith. Hoving felt that Mormons had lost sight of the fact that "God made man and woman alike" and that men were given "no privileges . . . above the women."13 Mormon theology, she believed, taught men that they were superior to women and that any opposition to priesthood authority by church members was blasphemy. Such teaching, Hoving asserted, was one way the rank and file Mormon women were kept in subjection. She vented similar anger on polygamy, calling its practice a "throwback to a long-dead animal stage in human history."14 Labelling the Woodruff Manifesto a "sham," she charged that plural marriages were performed after its issuance with the approval of the hierarchy as well as the membership at large. The tone of her attack on "priesthood sexism" seems to suggest that Hoving may have seen the Socialist party as the true champion of women's equality. At a time when some Socialist women were arguing that the Socialist party should not be concerned with sexual or family life-styles, Hoving was critical of Mormon polygamy for what she saw as its oppression of women and children and its disruption of family life. It is also significant that as Lucy Hoving embraced socialism from an anti-Mormon position, other Utah Mormon women championed the 11 J o h n Spargo, " T h e International School of Social Economy," The Comrade 1 (July 1 9 0 2 ) : 218-19. 12 Lucie Hoving, The X-Rays Turned on Mormonism (Gronigen, Holland: Author, 1901). p. 46. " Ibid., pp. 9, 37. ÂŤ Ibid., p p . 28-29.

Two prominent Socialists in Utah were Lucy Hoving, left, and Virginia Snow Stephen, right. Photographs from O g d e n S t a n d a r d , August 8, 1902, and Gibbs M. Smith's J o e Hill, courtesy of Mrs. Scotty Jenkins.

Socialist cause while remaining active within their church. In Utah the Socialist party truly brought Mormons, Gentiles, and nonreligious people, both men and women, together in support of a larger cause. Lucy Hoving's labors in behalf of the Socialist party were cut short. On August 7, 1902, she was struck by a carriage and instantly killed while crossing a street close to her Ogden home.15 The lack of consistency among Socialists on women's rights, previously mentioned on a national scale, was also evident in Utah. Some Utah Socialists shared the view of the state party secretary, O. A. Kennedy, who claimed that the efforts of many of the party's "staunchest comrades . . . and best workers" were thwarted by a "hostile home atmosphere." Kennedy quoted some party members as saying they simply got "no encouragement at home regarding . . . party work."16 Other Utah Socialists probably agreed with local party member John Strongwil, who wrote in a small book called Your Sister's Keeper that "Socialism . . . is the preserver of the family [and] teaches reverence for motherhood." Strongwil also asserted that it "was a mother's love" that inspired the Socialist demand "for the full enfranchisement of woman" and the guarantee of "full and equal rights with men."17 15

Ogden Standard, August 8, 1902. O. A. Kennedy, "Organizing the Socialist Women," Socialist Party of America Papers, Duke University, D u r h a m , N.C., hereafter cited as Socialist Party Papers. I n the late 1920s when the Socialist party was faltering, both nationally and in U t a h , Kennedy proposed creation of the "Federation of Socialist Women." H e urged the party to allow women to have separate organizations, independent of their male comrades, noting, "if it all ends, as with many ladies clubs, in serving black coffee a n d two kinds of cake, perhaps that is the best way. We can hardly expect them to stick all the time to the study of K a r l M a r x . . . ." 17 J o h n Strongwil, Your Sister's Keeper (Salt Lake City: Equity Publishing Co., 1912), pp. 44-47. 16

Women and the Socialist Party

227

The impact of women on the Utah Socialist party varied among party locals. Generally speaking, where the party itself was strong, women played an important role. Unquestionably, much of their effort was utilized for traditional women's activities. In 1903, for example, several Socialist women took part as delegates to the state convention. After the meetings were over, they were given the responsibility of fixing dinner for all the delegates.18 Also, locals organized separate "ladies auxiliaries" or "women's clubs" within the party structure. One of the most active of these was the Socialist Ladies Club of Eureka. Organized in 1905, the club functioned for over a decade, though much of its emphasis was purely social. On January 9, 1906, for example, the club met with partners at the home of one of the members. The Eureka Reporter noted that "cards and games occupied the attention of the guests until midnight when a delicious luncheon was served."19 At the same time, however, the club was also involved in Socialist organization, education, and electoral politics. The group sponsored a lecture series bringing nationally known Socialist speakers to Eureka. In 1907 Mother Jones spoke about her experiences in unionizing coal miners. On another occasion, Luella Twining, a prominent suffragist and delegate to the Socialist International in 1910, spoke on the subject of capitalism as the root cause of prostitution and white slavery. As a part of their organizing work, Eureka's Socialist women were the dominating force in the women's auxiliary of the miners union. During this period, all but ten members of the organization were Socialists. An important characteristic of Eureka's Socialist women was their ability to work harmoniously together despite their differing religious faiths. Most of the Socialist women of Eureka were LDS, and many were active Mormons who combined their Socialist and labor activity with responsibilities in the Relief Society and Primary organizations. Other Eureka women were active members of other denominations, and still others supported no religious denomination. Yet, the cause of socialism united these women in a sisterhood that transcended what might have been significant barriers. Statewide, Utah Socialist women also had an outlet for their views through the Women's Department, a regular feature of the Intermountain Worker, the official paper of the Utah Socialist party from 1S 19

Salt Lake Tribune, April 8, 1903. Eureka (Utah) Reporter, January 19, 1906.

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1912 to 1916. Earlier, Kate S. Hilliard, a former newspaper woman, edited the Socialist department of the Ogden Examiner. Eva Smith served as Utah correspondent for the Socialist Woman and other women were subscribers and promoters. Apparently the newspaper was used in Socialist propaganda contacts. Fannie A. Edgar, for example, reported to the editor of the Socialist Woman in 1908: "I picked up twelve names [of potential subscribers] in about an hour. I loaned my copy to a neighbor and got her, to a teacher and got her, and it is still going the rounds."20 Most of the activity of Utah Socialist women centered around the daily routine of political organizations. Women frequently served as secretaries of local party groups and shouldered much of the burden of keeping those organizations intact. In Salt Lake City, Isabelle Adamson was the mainstay of the local for many years. Adamson and her husband, Robert, were active Socialists, having joined the party in Eureka, and they continued their affiliation after coming to Salt Lake in 1918. In the early 1920s Mrs. Adamson's efforts were recognized by state secretary O. A. Kennedy who commented to the national secretary that Mrs. Adamson, "a wonderful woman . . . and mother of nine children," was "largely responsible for re-organizing the [local] in Salt Lake City." In less than six months, Kennedy continued, "she has instituted regular monthly meetings" and helped "build the membership up to eighty."21 Isabelle Adamson continued her Socialist activity for a decade more, and Kennedy reported to the national office in 1931 that she had given up her efforts only because she was "obliged to concentrate on earning a living because of the failure of her husband's health."22 Other women performed similar duties elsewhere in the state. As part of their electoral activities, Socialist women were often given the responsibility for "getting out the vote." In the Eureka city election of 1907 members of the Socialist Ladies Club "made a canvass of the town and left circulars with the ticket and platform" at all residences, actively seeking the votes of women. In Ogden during the 1913 municipal elections, the party made a "strong appeal" for women's votes and canvassed specifically during the day when housewives were at home."3 20

Socialist Woman 2 (December 1908) : 15. O . A. Kennedy to Otto Brarnstetter, December 2 1 , 1922, Socialist Party Papers. 22 O. A. Kennedy to Clarence Senior, J u n e 23, 1931, Socialist Party Papers. Isabelle Adamson was like other U t a h Socialist women in that her husband and children were also Socialists. Often, U t a h Socialists were related by marriage or birth, and it was not uncommon for children of Socialist parents to intermarry. 23 Eureka Reporter, November 1, 1907; Party Builder, November 22, 1913. 21

Women and the Socialist Party

229

Socialist women were also active in Utah as candidates for office. In every election between 1902 and 1920 Socialist state and county tickets contained women candidates. Socialist women were often candidates for offices generally considered to be the bastion of men, including county commissioner, county treasurer, county assessor, state legislator, secretary of state, and superintendent of public instruction. Additional insight concerning the women who were attracted to the Socialist party in Utah comes through examining in closer detail individual lives. From data compiled on seventy-five women who were active Socialists serving as either party officers, candidates, or officials of Socialist organizations, some general observations can be made.24 Roughly 10 percent of the Socialists in Utah were women; most were American-bom ; most were involved in other community and civic organizations. Additionally, the following profile emerges: MARITAL STATUS

Married Single Unknown

RELIGION

83% 15% 2%

LDS Active LDS Non-LDS

OCCUPATION

28% 15% 57%

Housewife Teacher Clerical ... Domestic Writer Other

56% 12% 6% 6% 6% 14%

Although most Utah Socialist women were married housewives, a sizeable number were employed on a part-time or full-time basis outside of the home. Moreover, a significant percentage were Mormons, even active Mormons. This is particularly interesting in view of the fact that during the years these women were active in Socialist politics and church auxiliaries, the LDS church strongly encouraged its members to work within the two major political parties. A more complete profile of Utah's Socialist sisterhood emerges by examining other aspects of these women's lives. The overwhelming majority of Utah Socialist women pursued the traditional career of wife and mother; however, many were active in women's clubs and in social and service organizations. Several were writers and poets who took an active interest in literary organizations. Still others pursued professional careers as journalists and editors. These women, then, were active at various levels within the community. They were not misfits or malcontents on the periphery of society but tended to be mainstream. 24 This demographic d a t a was gathered by the a u t h o r and John S. McCormick as p a r t of a larger study of Socialist party membership in U t a h . T h e author acknowledges his debt to Dr. McCormick for his help in preparation of this study.

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In his book The Decline of Socialism in America, James Weinstein asserts that although the Socialist party "recruited women of all classes and backgrounds," it found its greatest success among three basic groups: middle-class, Protestant women with a history of participation in nineteenth-century movements for women's rights; working-class or frontier farm women who had some contact with the union movement; and immigrant, working-class women "who came to socialism through the sweatshops of the large Eastern industrial centers."25 There is little evidence to suggest that Utah Socialist women came from the third category, but information on local women does tend to confirm Weinstein's assertions concerning the first two categories. Representative of the first group are Olivia H. McHugh and Virginia Snow Stephen. Olivia McHugh was born and raised in Kentucky. After graduating from Kentucky State University and the Sargeant School of Education in Cambridge, Massachusetts, McHugh worked as a teacher at Randolph Macon Women's College and the Kentucky Institute for the Blind. She also served as director of the Louisville municipal gymnasium.26 McHugh moved to Utah in 1910 and settled with her physician husband, Frank, in Murray where both became active members of the Murray Socialist local. In later years she recalled that she "had not even heard of the Socialist party" until coming to Murray but was attracted to it because the town had an effective Socialist administration. This administration had built "a municipally owned power-plant which was one of the most efficient in the country."27 Additionally, the McHughs were attracted to the Socialist banner because they were "young, idealistic, and sympathetic to the plight of the working class."28 Both McHughs were candidates for office; Frank as the party's nominee for governor in 1912 and Olivia as candidate for superintendent of public instruction in both 1912 and 1914. In reviewing these campaigns, some sixty years later, Olivia McHugh recalled: T h e r e weren't many people w h o could meet the qualifications for the office of superintendent, which basically were graduation from a university or normal school. I could meet those qualifications, so I became t h e candid a t e ! I r a n strictly as a protest candidate and knew there was no chance of my winning. I received quite a few votes, but I was well-known in 25

Weinstein, Decline of Socialism, p. 54. x* Salt Lake Tribune, September 11, 1973. 27 Interview with Olivia McHugh, Salt Lake City, November 4, 1971. 28 Ibid.

Women and the Socialist Party

231

women's clubs and therefore a lot of people voted for me out of friendship and not because of my Socialist affiliation.29

Olivia was, in fact, active in a number of civic organizations, including the Ladies Literary Club, the League of Utah Writers, the Salt Lake County Medical Association Auxiliary, and others. She was also a member of the Unitarian church in Salt Lake City. In 1915 the McHughs' lives were touched by the case of Joe Hill, the legendary Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) songwriter and organizer whose execution in Utah became a cause celebre in American labor history. Frank McHugh was the physician who treated Joe Hill for gunshot wounds the same night that Salt Lake City grocer John G. Morrison and his son Arling were murdered. Ultimately, Hill was executed for that crime. In later years Olivia speculated that Hill probably came to her husband for aid because he had seen him at Socialist meetings in Murray (where Hill was living at the time with the Eselius family, who were also patients of McHugh) and felt that since the physician had Socialist sympathies he would not report the incident or charge him for medical services. Actually, it was McHugh who tipped off the Murray police after reading of the Morrison murders the next day in the newspaper. The same year as the Hill case, Olivia helped organize the Utah branch of the Woman's Peace party. Like her counterparts nationally, she shared the goals of preventing American involvement in the war and supporting the use of neutral mediators to bring about an end to the European conflict. Once America officially entered the war, however, McHugh â&#x20AC;&#x201D; like many other women in the WPP â&#x20AC;&#x201D; supported the country's efforts in World War I. Similarly, she broke with the Socialist party, as did a number of others, when it continued to oppose American participation after Congress declared war in April 1917. From that time forward Olivia McHugh dropped her affiliation with the Socialist party, although she was attracted to the presidential candidacy of Socialist nominee Norman Thomas a decade later. Also touched by the Joe Hill case was Virginia Snow Stephen. Born in Brigham City in 1864, Virginia was the daughter of Mormon apostle (and later church president) Lorenzo Snow and one of his polygamous wives, Mary Elizabeth Houtz. Despite her parentage, Virginia evidenced only minimal ties in her adult years to the LDS faith. 20

Ibid.

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After graduating from the University of Deseret with a normal degree, Virginia returned to Brigham City where she taught school. In 1892 she married Jay R. Stephen and moved to Salt Lake City where she again taught school and studied art.30 At the time of the arrest of Joe Hill, Mrs. Stephen was a member of the Art Department faculty at the University of Utah. By this time she had become a Socialist and a staunch opponent of capital punishment. She believed that even in the case of murder the community had no right to "commit a worse murder" by taking a criminal's life. She argued, "if it is evil to kill in the heat of passion, is it not a double evil to kill by a supine community consent called law?"31 At the same time, Stephen became particularly interested in the struggle of the working class to obtain justice under the United States legal system. She scoffed at the idea that poor or working people could obtain equal justice under capitalist law, particularly in cases involving working women. In a letter to a friend, she commented that conditions existing in Salt Lake City at the time convinced her of that unlikelihood. Her deepening Socialist awareness led Stephen to cooperate with various groups and individuals seeking change in the status quo, though she was apparently a supporter and not a joiner of these organizations. In explaining her political views, she noted that there were many changes needed in society and that she wanted to be affiliated with efforts to secure those changes. Aware that such activity might lead to censure, she commented: We may be persecuted and prosecuted for doing or saying the unusual â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but we go on working for [change] just the same. We are not out for the honor of the hour; we are working for reforms which will be enjoyed by your children and your children's children. These changes will be slow in coming, they may come most unexpectedly, but they will come. 32

Virginia Snow Stephen's commitment to socialism, opposition to capital punishment, and support of equal justice for working people, received considerable attention after her identification with Joe Hill. Initially she became involved in the case because of her radical sympathies as well as her friendship with Ed Rowan, an IWW member and an 30 Box Elder County, U t a h , Record of Marriages, Book I, p . 95, Box Elder County Courthouse, Brigham City. T h e marriage to J a y R. Stephen was short-lived and ended in divorce in May 1897. See State of U t a h , T h i r d District Court, Salt Lake County, "Papers in the Case of Virginia S. Stephen vs. Jay R. Stephen, no. 1137," U t a h State Archives, Salt Lake City. 31 Salt Lake Herald-Republican, June 2 1 , 1 9 1 4 . 32 Ibid.

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activist in the Joe Hill Defense Committee in Salt Lake. Stephen conferred personally with Hill while he was in the Salt Lake County jail. She came away convinced that he was not capable of committing the crime for which he had been charged. Relating these views, she gained a high profile in the local press, which found it "good copy" that a faculty member at the university, as well as a daughter of a prominent Mormon, would even associate with Joe Hill, let alone champion his innocence. Stephen again appeared in the press when she took an active part in the funeral services of Roy J. Horton, an IWW member shot and killed in an argument in downtown Salt Lake City, by a former police officer named H. P. Myton. An IWW funeral was conducted for Horton at which Stephen sang, played accompaniment for the IWW songs used as funeral hymns, and spoke. In her eulogy she called Horton's death "industrial murder" and a part of the "class struggle of the wage slaves against their masters."33 Statements such as this, combined with her support for Hill and for radical causes generally, reached the attention of the university's Board of Regents, angering some of the members. At its meeting of October 7, 1915, the board decided that Mrs, Stephen would not be rehired for the 1916-17 school year. The regents intended that this action not be reported until later because they feared reprisals from the IWW and others, particularly since the decision took place during the height of efforts to obtain a stay of Hill's execution which was scheduled for November. However, one regent mentioned the action of the board to a friend; their conversation was overheard by a newspaper reporter and made public.34 Stephen called the university's move "unprecedented" and part of an effort to "discredit" her for the remainder of her tenure at the university. She further asserted that the regents were not only upset by her support for Hill but had charged her with attending "an anarchist meeting in New York and assisting in research work regarding the condition of working girls in Utah." 33 The board's concern about reprisal did not materialize, and eventually Stephen was discharged. After leaving the university she continued to be affiliated with the IWW and was active in promoting the rights of women workers.

Ibid., November 8, 1915. University of U t a h Board of Regents, Minutes, October 7, 1915, p. 453, Archives, University of Utah, Salt Lake City; Salt Lake Tribune, December 1, 1915. 34

(University of U t a h ) Chronicle, December 9, 1915.

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In 1916 Stephen married IWW organizer Constantine Filigno, and the couple moved to Walnut Creek, California. Virginia continued to take an active interest in current events, education, and literature, accumulating an extensive library in her home. She often traveled to Los Angeles to visit libraries and educational institutions. She died in Walnut Creek in the early 1950s.36 Virginia Snow Stephen and Olivia H. McHugh represent the first category of women identified by James W'einstein. Both were middleclass, college trained, professional women who advocated women's rights. Both were active in artistic, literary, and educational circles. They differed in that although each considered herself to be a Socialist, McHugh was a member of the Socialist party while Stephen seems to have never officially affiliated with that group. The Socialist women of Eureka, many of whom were wives of miners, and were active in both the Socialist party and the women's auxiliaries of the miners union, represent the second group of women Weinstein identifies. Another Utah woman representative of this category is Kate S. Hilliard. Born in Illinois in 1854, Hilliard moved to Ogden in 1886 with her husband, Reuben, a railroad worker. Shortly after the Hilliards settled in Ogden, Kate became involved with the Utah Woman Suffrage Association and actively promoted suffrage until its was granted by the Utah Constitutional Convention. During the same years, she also edited the Ogden Times, a newspaper supportive of woman suffrage. In 1895 Hilliard allied with the Populist party, serving as secretary of the state Populist convention and as a member of the party's national committee representing Utah. In 1900 she left the Populists and joined the newly formed Social Democratic party, having concluded that "until socialism triumphs" there would be two classes, "the capitalist class and the working class whose interests constantly clash."37 Hilliard's conversion to socialism was well received by the leadership of the Social Democratic party. The editor of the party newspaper, A. B. Edler, commented that Hilliard's shift in allegiance was "a bright example for other Populists to follow."38 A year later, as previously noted,

30 Gibbs M. Smith, Joe Hill (Salt Lake City: University of U t a h Press, 1969), p. 226. See also International Socialist Review 9 (December 1909) : 487. 37 Milton R. Hunter, Beneath Ben Lomond's Peak (Salt Lake City: Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, Weber Chapter, 1944), p. 4 8 5 ; Utah Socialist, October 25, 1900; Ogden Standard, November 21, 1914. 3S

Utah Socialist, October 25, 1900.

Women and the Socialist Party

235

Hilliard took an active part in the formation of the Socialist party of Utah and was recognized by the press as one of its leaders. Hilliard also participated in the affairs of the Ogden Socialist local. She served as editor of the "Socialist Department," a regular feature of the Ogden Standard-Examiner in the years prior to World War I. During those years she took part in the routine work of the Ogden local, serving as a member of the education committee and in other capacities. Though the details of Hilliard's life are sketchy, it appears that she was largely self-educated. She was quite well-read, had a good knowledge of Marxist and Socialist writings, and was a talented and effective speaker. Her socialism was militant and strongly grounded in Marxist thought. She believed that the working class needed to be taught that they were "economic serfs" whose lives were dictated by the capitalist class, "controlled and dominated by corporations, unjust courts, and the paraphernalia of our so-called [political] representatives." Only when the workers united as one, Hilliard maintained, would they gain "the right of their class to the earth . . . and a full and and free life for all."39 Hilliard was also active in the affairs of the Utah Federation of Women's Clubs, serving as state organizer in 1902. She believed that Socialist women should "organize a Social Economic Club" and join the federation because it represented the best way to "spread the word" about socialism among Utah women.40 In assessing Hilliard's commitment to socialism, it is clear that her attitudes were strongly influenced by her feminist views. In this context, she saw socialism as the force that would ultimately lead to true emancipation for women because, she believed, it was based "on a code of ethics which spells justice without regard to sex."41 Hilliard's views were similar to those of Lucy Hoving regarding the relationship of organized religion to women. Hoving specifically criticized Mormon "priesthood sexism," but Hilliard felt that the teachings of religion were generally a major stumbling block in the path of women. In an address given at the First Congregational Church in Ogden in 1908 she summarized her views: Why are women still excluded from the councils of [religious bodies]? W h y are they requested to promise obedience to their husbands?Why are they not entitled to the children they bear, and an equal division m a d e of

39 40 41

Ogden Standard, November 21, 1914. Utah Socialist, December 28, 1900. Ogden Standard, March 23, 1908.

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material goods? Why is there a double code of morality which makes outcasts of hundreds of thousands of women, but not the despoilers of virtue ? . . . Why? Because the Bible, the great book which for ages has been recognized as the word of God, declares women to be chattel: "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his ox, nor his ass."42

Hilliard also criticized organized religion because it was not "concerned with the problems of this world" and served as a major impediment to the emancipation of the working class." The church had forgotten, she asserted, that Christ was a "revolutionist" who sought to "overthrow the power of the priesthood" in secular and economic affairs. Noting that although there were scattered clerics "here and there" who raised individual voices against the evils of the present-day economic system, she claimed that the church as a whole was "either silent or against the efforts of the working class to free itself from wage slavery." Indeed, without the support of the church, Hilliard believed, the "whole system [of capitalist exploitation] . . . would go down to destruction as it should."43 ' Another important concern for Hilliard was antimilitarism and the prevention of American involvement in World War I. She believed that "economic necessity" was the cause of all wars, but that this fact had purposely been "concealed or obscured" from the working class by "historians, teachers, writers, the church, and the powers that be" because it was not in their best interest "to acknowledge the truth." Moreover, Hilliard shared the sentiments of many Socialists, both in the United States and in Europe, that the interests of the working class would not be served by workers taking up arms in imperialist wars. Consequently, workers should reject the call by the "capitalist class" to join the armed services on the basis of national patriotism: Today it is impossible to find a country where the working class is free to dictate the conditions under which they shall work. In every country we find the wage slave. So truly the world is the working man's country, his country where freedom does not exist. Under these conditions it is a farce to talk to him of patriotism to the country in which he happens to have been born. "My country right or wrong, but still my country," has no place in the heart or mind of the working class . . . . It is time that this false teaching of patriotism should be relegated to the past, and . . . Socialists should denounce it in unmeasured terms. . . ,44

Ibid. ibid. 44 Ibid., November 21, 1914.

Women and the Socialist Party After this period of time, Kate Hilliard's activities as a Socialist are somewhat obscure. At one point she left the Socialist party and affiliated with the Socialist Labor party, a group critical of support for such "bourgeoise" organizations as the Utah Federation of Women's Clubs. In 1912 she was the nominee of the Utah Socialist Labor party for secretary of state, polling some 405 votes. Neither she or her husband, Reuben, were listed in either the Salt Lake City or Ogden directory after 1914. It is evident, then, that Utah women have pursued radical political goals in ways parallel to the Socialist movement nationally. Within the structure of the Socialist party, and outside its perimeters, women sought a fundamentally different social, economic, and political system and a better life for themselves and their children. Most were also committed to freeing women from the oppressive elements in the status quo. Some, such as Lucy Hoving and Kate Hilliard, equated the patriarchal systems of organized religion (specifically the Mormon church) as both a cause and defender of the economic and social repression of women. Other women fought for a Socialist society from within the church itself. Some women, like Virginia Stephen, sought fundamental change while

237

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avoiding ties to particular political organizations, but most joined the Socialist party. Even though the Socialist party and its individual members, both nationally and in Utah, espoused the goal of equality for women, the role of women within the Socialist party was not much different from that of women in the Republican or Democratic party. Roughly 10 percent of Utah Socialists were women. Few women held important party offices; nor were they usually candidates for major political offices. Often Socialist women were delegated the "women's work"â&#x20AC;&#x201D; cooking and secretarial duties. Nevertheless, these women worked to bring about a Socialist society which, they believed, would not only emancipate the working class but bring an end to the oppression particular to women. Meanwhile, most of Utah's Socialist sisterhood pursued traditional activities as wives, teachers, club members, and church workers. Socialism was but one aspect of their lives. Unfortunately, little documentation is available to place that element within its proper context. The role of women in the Socialist party should not be overstated; it was clearly a supportive role modified in many ways by male attitudes and societal convention. In fact, contemporary women are now engaged in similar struggles to gain equity within every political party as well as in the factory, mine, or church. The rhetoric of Utah's Socialist sisterhood is as relevant as today's newspaper. For this reason, among others, the role of women in radical politics in Utah should be noted as a colorful thread in Utah's political fabric, which weaves connections between the past and the present.

The rights of citizens of the State of Utah to vote and hold office shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex. Both male and female citizens of this State shall enjoy equally all civil, political and religious rights and privileges. Article IV, Section 1 Utah State Constitution 1896

Ruth

May Fox.

USHS

collections.

"I Care Nothing for Politics": Ruth May Fox, Forgotten Suffragist EDITED BY L I N D A T H A T C H E R

I N U T A H ' S HISTORY T H E R E HAVE BEEN many important women of whom little has been written; one such person is Ruth May Fox. Besides raising twelve children she was active in the U t a h Woman's Press Club (presid e n t ) , the Reaper's Club, the U t a h Woman Suffrage Association (treasMs. Thatcher is a librarian at the U t a h State Historical Society. Leonard Grant Fox gave his kind permission to publish here a portion of the Ruth May Fox diary, later donated to the L D S church.

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urer), the Salt Lake County Republican Committee, the Second Precinct Ladies' Republican Club (chairman), the Deseret Agricultural and Manufacturing Society (board member), and the Traveler's Aid Society (board member). She also served on the general board and as general president of the Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Association. She was born November 16, 1853, in Westbury, Wiltshire, England, the daughter of Mary Ann Harding and James May. When Ruth was five months old her parents joined the Mormon church. Her mother died in March 1855 after giving birth to a second child, who also died. After her mother's death her father was called to be a traveling elder for the church. Ruth lived with various Mormon families and relatives until she was around eight years old and her father took her to Yorkshire where he was employed. There they boarded with a Mrs, Saxton who had a daughter named Clara, five months younger than Ruth. While living with the Saxtons Ruth attended the Church of England Sunday School where she learned about deathbed repentance. This concept appealed to her as she was fun loving and occasionally did things like take a bite out of a china saucer, skip school, or give her grandmother's possessions away. When her father went to her grandmother's house to pick her up to take her to Yorkshire, her grandmother exclaimed: "She's a bad maid, she's a bad maid." In 1865 Ruth's father journeyed to America. A few months later he sent for Mrs. Saxton, Clara, and Ruth. Soon after arriving, Mrs. Saxton and James May were married. They lived in Manayunk, a manufacturing district a few miles out of Philadelphia, where at the age of twelve Ruth and Clara were put to work in a factory to help earn money for the journey to Utah. Later, the family moved into Philadelphia where Ruth and Clara worked in another factory, but eventually the girls found jobs doing housework. In July 1867 the Mays started for Utah, first traveling to North Platte, Nebraska, where they purchased supplies for their trip. After doing so they found that they had only enough money left to purchase "one yoke of cattle," so they shared a wagon with another family and ended up walking most of the way. Upon arriving in the valley Ruth experienced a sense of disillusionment: At last the long journey was ended. W e had pulled u p the hill out of Parley's Canyon just as twilight shrouded the valley. We could still catch a glimpse of the city below, but I confessed to some disappointment as I asked, "Did we come all this way for this?" This, however, was my first and last disappointment. 1 1

Ruth May Fox, "My Story," MS, Utah State Historical Society, Salt Lake City.

Ruth May Fox, Forgotten Suffragist

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Her father soon found work as a carder in the Deseret Woolen Mill at the mouth of Parley's Canyon. Ruth and Clara worked in the factory as well in order to help the family accumulate enough money to purchase a home. James May worked in this mill for two years before moving to Ogden to work in the Ogden Woolen Mills, started by Alfred Randall, near the mouth of Ogden Canyon. Ruth remained in Salt Lake for a short time, but her father soon sent for her to work in the mill. After seven months she returned to Salt Lake and attended John Morgan's College for four months, ending her formal education. Her father returned to Salt Lake at that time, purchased some used carding machines, and started his own business. Ruth worked in the mill, operating equipment meant to be run by a man. She had strong feelings about equality and felt that since she was doing a man's work she should receive a man's pay. Of the incident she later wrote: 'Here I reeled yarn and wove cloth and finally undertook a m a n ' s job running the Jack, a machine for spinning scores of threads at a time. I should have h a d a man's wages for this, but Father thought that his. partner would object since I was a girl. Although I did quite as well as a m a n , I was given only $10.00 a week; but that was very good for a girl at the time. 2

After working at this job for four months she quit to prepare for her wedding to Jesse Williams Fox, Jr. They were married May 8, 1873; she was nineteen, he twenty years old. On April 14, 1874, their first child, Jesse May, was born. The following year her husband was called to serve a mission in New York but stayed only three months before being called home to help his father, Jesse Williams Fox, Sr., survey for the Utah Southern Railway. Ruth and her husband prospered financially the first twenty years of their married life, building in 1880 a large home at 261 West Second South in Salt Lake. Most of her time was consumed with household duties, but later in life she looked back on her experiences and noted the changes in her attitude toward raising children: T h e r e was mischief always in process, and at times tempers flared. I can't blame my children too m u c h for their quarrels, as I was myself quick with sharp words and could not always count ten when provoked. I had been brought u p in the English tradition of family discipline and applied the flat of my hand or a switch when I thought it necessary. I improved in self-restraint through the years, or else grew weary of the continued and fruitless effort to impose on my children my own standards of conduct. T h o u g h my first children got more whippings, I don't see that they are 2

Ibid.

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Utah Historical Quarterly any nearer perfection than those that came later and escaped with fewer and lighter punishments. 3

At the height of their prosperity in the late 1880s they made plans to build a three-story mansion on South Fifth East. Everything seemed to be going well in Ruth's life when, in 1888, her husband decided to take a second wife, Rosemary Johnson. He did not ask Ruth's permission. Obviously hurt by his action she wrote about it later. At this peak of our prosperity my husband was prompted to take a second wife. It seemed a noble thing for him to do; especially when it was almost certain to result in a term in the State Prison. He did not ask my advice, but if he had, I am sure that my convictions of the soundness of the principle would have enabled me to suppress every urge to jealousy and to bear my cross as did every other good L.D.S. woman under similar circumstances.4

About this time financial disaster hit the Foxes. Jesse lost his business and accumulated large debts, and they eventually lost their home. He took his financial collapse extremely hard, even staying in bed for a few days. Ruth was also upset but responded by doing what needed to be done; she let domestic help go and eventually took in roomers. Her husband retained possession of his farm, so they were able to eat. During the year 1900 Ruth and her children ran the Saint Omer Boarding House to help supplement their income. In 1896 her last child, Emmeline Blanche, was born; and two months later her oldest child, Jesse May, was married. Emmeline Blanche contracted scarlet fever and never recovered, dying in February 1914. Afterward, Ruth moved in with her son Feramorz Y. Fox, who was living at 124 North State Street, to be near her ailing father and to work as a typist for the Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Association. She lived with her children the rest of her life and resumed housekeeping only to nurse her husband through illnesses in 1921 and from 1927 until his death in 1928. Always interested in writing, she joined the Utah Woman's Press Club and the Reaper's Club, both groups emphasizing literary pursuits. Thus, she became better acquainted with such women leaders of the day as Dr. Ellis R. Shipp, Dr. Ellen B. Ferguson, Emma McVicker, and the person who was the most influential in her life, Emmeline B. Wells. It seems likely that Ruth became involved in the clubs and causes that she 3 4

Ibid. Ibid.

Ruth May Fox, Forgotten Suffragist

243

did because Emmeline B. Wells was also involved in them. Emmeline had a profound influence on Ruth's life, so much so that she later wrote: N o other woman h a d so great an influence as she in shaping my life. I became her devoted disciple and she in turn loved m e as a daughter. I named after her my last child, Emmeline Blanche, born September 14, 1896, when Sister Wells was the center of my orbit of public activities. For many years subsequently she h a d much to do with my progress. n

Ruth always had strong beliefs, though, and chief was suffrage for women. She was not particularly interested in politics but became active in the Utah Woman Suffrage Association and the Republican party to further the suffrage cause. She actively worked for the inclusion of the woman suffrage clause during the 1895 Utah Constitutional Convention, helping draft the suffrage memorial to the convention. Later, she worked for the election of candidates who would support women's issues and for the approval of the new constitution. Viewing politics as merely a means to an end, she was never again as active in politics as during the year 1895. A great deal of her later life was devoted to the Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Association, and she eventually served as the general president of the organization. She lived to be 104 years old, for which achievement she seemed to be the most remembered at her death on April 12, 1958. The significant contributions she had made to woman suffrage in Utah were mostly forgotten. The portion of Ruth May Fox's diary selected for publication covers the final time period in Utah's struggle for statehood and women's fight for the franchise. The diary covers one person's life during those hectic days and illustrates how the women worked within the already established structures to promote their causes. Left out are the maneuverings to get men elected to the constitutional convention who were willing to include suffrage within the constitution. Ruth does comment a great deal about working for the Republican party and traveling around the state to speak. Noticeably absent are extensive comments about her own daily life, her husband, and children. The extract from her diary is printed exactly as it was written, with spelling, punctuation, and capitalization errors. Footnotes have been added to help explain events.

ibid.

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DIARY D E C E M B E R 29, 1894,

TO NOVEMBER 5,

1895.

Dec 1894 29 Went to Press Clubr> in the evening had a pleasant time Club entertained Phebc Cousins 7 who spoke to us on the sufferage and currency questions. 8 Sun 30 was invited to Dr E. Firrgusons 9 where some ladies met to complain of the way they had been treated by the Ter. Board of U.W.S.A. 1 0 Questioned the legality of the elections of officers etc I gained some experience at that time. Made a mistake in signing letter requesting the calling of a another [constitutional] convention. Although I did it with the best of feelings toward Sister Wells. 11 Went to meeting in the evening Bro Stevenson occupied the entire evening. 1895 31 Miss Cousins was at the Reaper's to day. Mrs. F.[ranklin] S. Richards and I delevered letter to Mrs. E. B. Wells. Was interviewed in the evening by Margaret Caine 12 who thought the letter was wrong Jet 13 and I sat up with some of the children to see the old year out. 6 T h e U t a h Woman's Press Club was organized October 3 1 , 1891, by Emmeline B. Wells. T h e club was open to women writers with published works. Furtherance of literary development and women's interests were two of the club's objectives. Meetings were held in the Woman's Exponent offices, Dr. Ellis R. Shipp's office in the Constitution Building, or in member's homes. R u t h May Fox served in all offices of the club from its first treasurer to president. 7 Phoebe Wilson Couzins, 1839?—1913, was the first woman law graduate from Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri, in 1871. A prominent figure in the national suffrage movement, she traveled extensively lecturing on suffrage. At odds with the national suffrage organization, she started lecturing on her own in the early 1890s, supporting temperance and other reforms. T u r n i n g against her former causes in later years, she denounced woman suffrage and became a Washington lobbyist for the United Brewer's Association. 8 See Salt Lake Tribune, D'ecember 30, 1894, for text of speech. 9 Dr. Ellen Brooke Ferguson, 1844-1920, was a physician who was widowed a few years after moving to Salt Lake City. Active in the woman's suffrage movement, she received a call along with Zina Young from M o r m o n church authorities in 1881—shortly before she left for New York for further education—to be an advocate of woman suffrage and defend polygamy. For these causes she gave many lectures during her stay in the East and developed significant contacts with important suffrage leaders. She remained an active supporter of the Mormon church until around 1896 when she became associated with Theosophy, which she embraced. She severed her relations with the Mormon church and moved to New York where she died at the age of seventy-six. 10 Territorial Board of the U t a h W o m a n Suffrage Association, formed in 1889 and affiliated with the National W o m a n Suffrage Association. For further information see Beverly Beeton, ' W o m a n Suffrage in the American West, 1869-1896" (Ph.D. diss., University of U t a h , 1976), y J p p . 128-31. ' ' ' 11 Emmeline Blanche Woodward Wells, 1828-1921. She joined the Mo r m o n church in 1842 and eventually emigrated to U t a h . She married Daniel H . Wells, a prominent Mormon, and devoted a great deal of time to church work, the suffrage movement, and journalism. She served as president of the Relief Society as well as editor of the Woman's Exponent, organ to the Relief Society. She also served as president of the U t a h Woman Suffrage Association during the period when full suffrage was secured. 12 There were two M a r g a r e t Caines, Margaret T. Caine, wife of John T. Caine, Utah's delegate to Congress, and M a r g a r e t A. Caine, a widow. This diary entry most likely refers to Margaret A. due to her somewhat meek attitude toward the constitutional convention. 13 Jesse Williams Fox, Jr., 1852-1928, her husband.

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Jan. 1, 1895 snowing Jet and I called on Mrs. W. C. Morris, Father, Uncle Gid, went in cutter, [fine] sleighing. Jan 2 Met E. B. Wells had a long talk on the sufferage question paid my yearly fee. 3d. Very busy making dresses for S. School party. Clera" was here and spent the afternoon Fri 4th Got children off to party Went late to Emily Clawsons to Primary O. 13 meeting to arrange about Miss Chapins class which was imediately afterward I remained and enjoyed it. Sat 5 In the afternoon went to Mrs. Beatty's tea she gave to help raise funds to send delegate to Atlanta 10 6 Remained at home Jet being poorly. Mon 7 Went to R. C.1T in the afternoon and Y. L.18 meeting in the eve. which met at S. Rockwells was asked to write for their paper called at Georgie's going home to see Lylie about taking part in a Primary entertainment Wed. 9 very busy Peral. E. 19 left. Daisy20 and I did work attended T e r r i t o r i a l ] S.[uffrage] executive meeting I refused to withdraw my name from letter because the ladies I signed with were not present with the exception of Mr. F. S. Richards It was quite late when I returned home being to late for supper Thur. 11 Frank was sick to day, did not go to Primary Borrowed $10.00 from Mrs Wimley for Jette 21 to get his glasses. Fri 12 Worked hard at 4 o'clock went to Miss Chapins class22 came home in time to get supper 4 of the children have gone to a party at Mrs Pollocks. Sat 13 hurryed all day to get to the club and found it was not to be untill the 15 th' Sunday Went to hear Miss Phebe Cousins lecture on the silver conspiracy. 23 Which she did in a very able manner, Jet went also. 14 Clara. Most likely the daughter of Mrs. Saxton, whom Ruth's father married shortly after they arrived in America. 13 The Primary organization is for Mormon children. 10 I n January 1895 Emmeline B. Wells, accompanied by Marilla M. Daniels from Provo and Aurelia S. Rogers from Farmington, attended the National Woman Suffrage Association convention in Atlanta. 17 T h e Reaper's Club was organized in 1892, mainly for those women who could not qualify for the Press Club but were interested in the same pursuits. Ruth M a y Fox was never as active in this club as in the Press Club mainly because it met during the day when it was more difficult for her to attend. 18 Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Association. Organized in 1869 as the Retrenchment Society by Brigham Young for the benefit of his daughters to help them better cope in the "worldly" world, it soon, became a churchwide organization for young women, and eventually its named was changed to Young Ladies' M u t u a l Improvement Association. R u t h May Fox was most active in this organization, serving as its general president from 1 929 to 1937. 19 Most likely someone who helped with the housework. 20 H e r daughter R u t h Clare Fox, 1879-1961. 21 Son Jesse May Fox, 1874-1947. 22 Ending her formal education at an early age, R u t h occasionally took correspondence classes and summer classes from the University of Utah in such subjects as English. 23 Popularly known as the "silver question," it involved a complex set of issues related to the country's economic situation. For further information see Robert Harkness, " T h e Silver Question," The Utah Monthly Magazine 9 (March 1893) : 201-16, and C. C. Goodwin, "Another View of the Silver Question," The Utah Monthly Magazine 9 (April 1893) : 249-60.

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Went to sufferage meeting in the afternoon and P Club in the evening.

Fri 18 Miss Chapin class was dismissed as the members were all falling off Sat

worked very hard all day in the evening finished writing the Ten Virgins. 24

Feb 9th Have been to busy to remember my journal when I might have taken time to write in it Jan 29th went to Relief Society.25 Sister E S Taylor 20 spoke to us asking our faith and prayers as she was going to Washington to represent the Young ladie Tues Feb 5th. Went to S.A. heard Prof [W. M.] Stewert and [Dr.] S. B. Young also a M r Adams from N D a [North Dakota] 2 7 on sufferage tried to vote down petition but failed Feb 8th Went to Sister E. Stevenson's birthday party had a glorious time Sister B.[athsheba] Smith and Helen [M.] Whitney were present. Sister Sarah Phelps spoke in toungs 28 with great power insomuch that the floor and the chairs and our limbs trembled, she blessed Sister Whiting, who was an invalid for years said we should know a year hence wether God spoke or not, the Sisters laid hands on Sister W. and prayed for her speedy recovery Sister N C. Taylor being mouth. 29 Fri 15 Went to Weiler Home's funeral. In the evening tended S.L.Co. Sufferage Ass.30 entertainment to celebrate Susan B. Anthony's birthday. Sat eve Went to P. Club Sister Shipp 3 1 had gone to Washington 32 chosen to represent the club at the Federation 33

I was

Sun 17 I have been to evening meeting Bro Eli Pierce told us that General Carter of Industrial Army fame on the day of his departure made these remark. T h a t slaves were or words to that effect rising up against their masters and would shortly plunge the U.S. in blood that it was but the sequal to the Civil War. Being a fulfillment of J. Smith's prophecy. 34 24 She wrote many poems during her lifetime and published one volume of verses: R u t h May Fox, May Blossoms (Salt Lake City: General Board of the Young Ladies' M u t u a l Improvement Association, 1923). 25 T h e Relief Society was organized for the women of the M o r m o n church. 2G E l m i n a Shepard Taylor, 1830-1904, president of the Y L M I A during 1880-1904. 27 For summary of meeting see Woman's Exponent, April 15, 1895. 28 Called the "Gift of Tongues," it was common, during religious occasions, especially among the women of the early M o r m o n church, to speak in another language, usually the "Adamic tongue" or some contemporary language. Afterward, someone would interpret what h a d been said. Claudia L. Bushman, ed., Mormon Sisters: Women in Early Utah (Cambridge, Mass.: Emmeline Press Limited, 1976), p . 7. 29 I t was also common until 1914 for women in the Mormon church to administer to sick women and children. Ibid., p . 17. 30 Following the formation of the U t a h W o m a n Suffrage Association, county chapters were organized as well. Beeton, " W o m a n Suffrage in the American West, 1869-1896," p. 131. 31 Dr. Ellis Reynolds Shipp, 1847â&#x20AC;&#x201D;1939. Besides having a medical practice she served on the general board of the Relief Society and belonged to both the Reaper's and the U t a h Woman's Press Club. 32 President Ellis R. Shipp and Emmeline B. Wells were in Washington, D . C , as representatives to the National Council of Women. U t a h Woman's Press Club, "Minutes, 1894-1898," MS, U t a h State Historical Society. 33 She was chosen, being first vice-president of the Press Club, to represent it at the Federation of Women's Clubs on February 12, 1895. U t a h Woman's Press Club, "Minutes, 1894-1898." 34 First printed in 1851, this entry refers to part of what is known as Joseph Smith's "Great Prophecy on W a r " in Doctrine and Covenants, sec. 8 7 : 4 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; "And it shall come to pass, after

Ruth

May

Fox, Forgotten

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Fri. 22 Last Monday at the Reapers Club we voted to send 5 Oct a. piece as a birthday present to Sister E. B. Wells who is now in Washington. 33 Tue Went to suffrage meeting we decided to interview the delegates to the Constitutional Convention 36 Sister Ebba Hyde and myself were appointed to see Samuel [H.] Hill. Richard [G.] Lambert and Mr [William G.] Vanhorne 3 7 O n thursday attended Primary and changed my name so that it would go on the minutes from Polly to Ruth M. I thought it would prevent confusion in the future. To-day the children are out of school and I want to do some sewing if I can get time 24th Sunday

Sick had cramps

Mon 24 I interview delegates Mr Hill was favorable Mr Vanhorn did not think the constitution was the place for sufferage to come up 3 8 Went to see Mrs. McVicker 39 about the federation. I forgot to write that last Friday night Jet told me he was going to the store and he did not come home till next day I was quite worried was afraid something had happened to him I don't like to be treated that way. 40 I am afraid their are many little incidents my journal will not get. I am so busy I do not get time to attend to it but to day the 6th of March I attended the Federation business meeting, this morning and this afternoon a reception given to the delegates, both at the Women's industrial home 41 everything went along nicely I was appointed one of a committee to organize womans clubs throughout the territory, but declined my home duties are too pressing. Two subjects of the Press Clubs were accepted for discussion at the May meeting in Ogden. Yesterday attended Suff. Meeting.

many days, slaves shall rise up against their masters, who shall be marshaled and disciplined for war." 35

See footnote 32.

T h e main interest of the U t a h Woman Suffrage Association d u r m g this period was to persuade the delegates to the constitutional convention to frame a constitution which would include equal rights for women as well as men, rather than be submitted as a separate proposal. 37 All were delegates to the constitutional convention from the Salt Lake City Second Precinct. Utah, Constitutional Convention, 1895, Official Report of the Proceedings and Debates, 2 vols. (Salt Lake City, 1898), 2 : 1 9 4 2 , 1957, 1999. 38

Both eventually submitted motions to petition for a separate submission of suffrage. Ibid.,

1:850. 39 E m m a J. McVicker, 1846-?. Little is known about her except that she was a nonMormon community leader. She was the only woman superintendent of public schools in U t a h , for three months in 1900. 40 Apparently her husband kept irregular hours, as in her autobiography she wrote: "My English training had fitted me to be a conscientious wife. Three meals a day, on time, was always the rule in my Father's home. My husband, however, was not quite so particular as to> the time or place. I had to discipline myself, which was not always easy as I had a quick temper and a strong sense of justice." Fox, "My Story." 41 Located at 145 South Fifth East, today housing the Ambassador Athletic Club, the building was erected by the federal government around 1889 for the purpose of housing polygamous wives deserted by their husbands as a result of the enforcement of the Edmunds law. In its ten years of existence only ten women connected with polygamy sought shelter, and the building was sold at auction in 1899 for a fraction of its original cost.

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Herbert Spencer and Frances Hodgson Burnett 42 at

Sat 2nd Called at Georgie's, the sewing class met there had refreshments then went to Dr. R. [illegible] about the Federation. Fri

attended Mrs C E. Dye's Funeral.

Mar 11 Was called to a meeting on the sufferage question at S.[arah] M. Kimballs but could not remain it being to near the dinner hour. 12

Attended Relief Socity.

Went to W Coop 13 Directors meeting

14 Saw Dr E R Shipp and decided to pospone Press and Reapers meeting in her and Sister E B Wells honor till Saturday night on account of Bro Homes party Sat 16th H a d a pleasant time at the Club Mrs E B. Wells and Dr. Shipp gave interesting accounts of their visit to the East. 44 17th Bro Brigham Young spoke this evening his theme was to not mix to much with outsiders 43 Mon 18 Met with S. A in convention at City and County building memorial being one of the committee 40

drafted

18 Presented memorial to committee on sufferage was very courteously treated we all felt it a great day in the history of Utah. 4 7 the Cornmittee informed us they had passed on W. S. being ten to five in favor. Friday am invited to meet the committee in the Probate Court room. When I hope to' see inside of State convention Hall. 48 Fri. 22 Met with committee and decided to ask for a room not now in use for the purpose of holding public meetings for, ladies, of course, Thur 28. A very rainy day but I attended the convention to hear the debate on the Sufferage question Air B. H. Roberts was very eloquant but his only argument was that he thought it would defer statehood. 49 42 Herbert Spencer, 1820-1903, a philosopher and author who attempted to explain Darwinism and other popular thought of the day. Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett, 1849-1924, a noted author whose most remembered work is Little Lord Fauntleroy. 43 Woman's Co-operative Mercantile and Manufacturing Institution, established in 1890 to sell locally produced goods. Shares in the organization were sold by Relief Societies for five dollars each. 44 This was a combined meeting of the U t a h Woman's Press and Reaper's clubs. 45 Brigham Young, Jr., 1836â&#x20AC;&#x201D;1903, was ordained an apostle in the M o r m o n church in 1 864. For summary of speech see Deseret News, M a r c h 18, 1895. 46 R u t h M a y Fox, along with fourteen other women, was chosen by the U W S A to prepare the memorial on woman suffrage for the constitutional convention. 47 Franklin S. Richards presented their memorial to the convention. 48 T h e majority of this committee, on March 22, reported that they could not find any good reasons why women of U t a h should not have equal rights. 49 O n M a r c h 28 the majority report of the committee was placed before the convention for debate. B. H . Roberts spoke against the inclusion of woman suffrage as he felt that it would

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31 It is grand-pa Fox's 50 birthday. We had all the members of his family to dinner. April 1st. O dear I have worn myself out to-day. Have been to the convention all day and stood up all the time with the exception of a little while that I sat on the tabble Mr Roberts was to give his oration but did not have time so it went over till next day. What a shame he does not use his eloquience in a better cause 2nd attended W. S. meeting Dr Fergusen thought if we had petitioned it would have been a benefit but we shall sec. Wed 3d Was called out suddenly to circulate petions 51 met with good success Thurs 4 went with petitions a little while again but did so dislake to visit the business block. Fri. Press Club met in the evening had a pleasant time adjourned early to discuss the sufferage question every one present and there were some gentlemen, expressed themselves as being in favor of its being adobted and put in the Constitution 52 The article giving women the Franchise passed in the convention to day 75 to 13 53 but it is expected to be brought up again So I am afraid the fight is not over Sat afternoon attended conference. Bro Snow and Bro Talmage addressed us. Sun 7 went to conference both meetings The First Presidency occupied the time. Tue.

Went to mutual

Wed 9 Have been arround a gain with petitions to find out who are willing the Sufferage Clause should remain in the Constitution met with very good success. Apr 14 Sunday. Jette is 21 to-day should like to have remembered him but did not feel able. 15th Clara's birthday made her a call after Reapers Club also attended P. C. called for the purpose of considering wether we should entertain officers of Federation Tues. attended S Ass. Thurs. As usual went to Primary

endanger statehood: " I t is a sacrifice that I believe the women of this Territory are capable of making." Proceedings, 1:426. 50 Jesse Williams Fox, Sr., 1819-94, was the surveyor general of U t a h , 1852-84, and Salt Lake City surveyor, 1851-76. 51 Opponents of the suffrage issue wanted it submitted separately; and even though the issue of woman suffrage seemed settled in the convention, petitions for separate submission of woman suffrage continued to flow into the convention. T h e suffragists organized petition drives for equal political rights to remain in the body of the constitution and submitted them to the convention. 52 Emmeline B. Wells made a motion that the f o r t h e consideration of woman suffrage, each person desiring suffrage." According to the minutes, "Mrs. equal to any emergency. I n reading her Bible she found Quoted a sentiment from Luther and made remarks article should be in the constitution." U t a h Woman's 53

club meeting be resolved into a meeting giving "the strongest reason she has for R. M. Fox said that personally she felt that m a n and women were created equal. thereon. T h o u g h t most emphatically the Press Club, "Minutes, 1894-1898."

T h e vote was actually: Ayes, 7 5 ; Noes, 14; Absent, 12. Proceedings,

1:767.

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May 1st have been very busy housecleaning with that exception nothing of importance has happened to me personally although the air seems full of misfortune, excepting the entertaining of the Federation officers. We had a very pleasant time but was greatly disappointed on account of Sister E. B. Wells being unable to attend also Dr Ellis Shipp so we had to do the best we could. I was chosin to preside. Sun. May 19th So many things have happened since I wrote last, in fact I have been too busy to write. There was the reception given to the delegates to Constitutional Convention, at the [Hotel] Templeton. which I attended and enjoyed very much. Then the visit of Susan B. Anthony 54 and the Rev. Anna Shaw 55 whom we met at the depot last Sunday morning on the 12th W e had breakfast at the Templeton, about 40 of us and Thurs had a nice ride arround the City using the Utah and other carriages then it was meeting meeting meeting which I enjoyed very much 50 and now conies the meeting of the Federation of Clubs in Ogden to which I am a delegate from the Reapers. We go on the 22nd. May 27 T h e meeting of the Federation was a success in every way The topics were particularly fine. The one by Anna K. Hardy's and Lizzie Wilcox being very creditable to our clubs' 37 I was made a director of the Federation our Press Club met Fri. 24th I was chosen on a debate "Is the double standard of money the one for America." For the sake of argument I am to> take the negative side. 58 Sat June 15 T h e Press club was entertained by Mrs. I Cameron Brown we 'had a pleasant time I wrote for the occasion T w o sides of a question which I read and they seemed to enjoy 16th we visited Aunt Purdie her son Gid being very sick. 18 Went to R. Society in the evening attended a surprise party given in honor of Sister Mary Freeze 59 in 14 wd. it was unusually fine but oh! the dressing down Mr B H. Roberts got from Joseph F. Smith I really felt sorry for him 00 54 Susan Brownell Anthony, 1820—1900, was the president of the National Woman Suffrage Association during 1892—1900. Besides working for a federal suffrage amendment she also spent a great deal of time helping with state campaigns for suffrage. 35 Anna Howard Shaw, 1847—1919, besides being a minister, was active in the suffrage movement as vice-president of the National W o m a n Suffrage Association during 1892—1904. 56 T h e conference held in Salt Lake City was one of four planned for different places in the country during that year by the National Woman. Suffrage Association to promote woman suffrage. At the time it was planned it was not known that the issue of woman suffrage would already be settled. For text of speeches see Salt Lake Tribune, M a y 13, 14, and 15, 1895. 37 Lizzie S. Wilcox of the U t a h Woman's Press Club gave a talk entitled "Women in Journalism." Annie Kay H a r d y of the Reaper's Club gave an address on the subject "Training Schools for Girls." For full report of convention, see Ogden Standard, May 23, and 24, 1895. 55 T h e affirmative side was assigned to Mrs. Phoebe C. Young. U t a h Woman's Press Club, "Minutes, 1894-1898." 39 Mary A. Burnham Freeze, 1837—1912, served on the general board of the Young Ladies' M u t u a l Improvement Association from 1898 until her death in 1912. She was also a member of the Press Club and active in the suffrage movement. 60 She elaborated on the incident in her autobiography " M y Story" as she wrote: "Evidendy President Joseph F. Smith did not approve of the course taken by Brother Roberts, for at an evening entertainment he spoke earnestly on what he considered the unwisdom of some of the members of the Constitutional Convention."

Ruth May Fox, Forgotten Suffragist Sat 22

251

Went to both meetings of primary conference.

Mon June 24 started to the summer school at the university am taking grammar and English Literature do hope I shall make a success of it shall have to work very hard to keep up in Grammar. 28

Went to the Temple to do some sealing with Jette.

July Sun 14 nothing of importance has happened excepting that the Republican women are forming Legues 01 I have been made Treasurer of the Ter State Organization. I do hope they will not engender bad feelings in their division on party lines for my part I care nothing for politics It is Mormonism or nothing for me. Wed. I am to recite at Saltair for the R. S. I do hope I shall do it creditably. July 21 Well I went on the excursion gave one of my own pieces I guess I did allright as so many people wanted a copy. Sat the 20 I was. invited with some other ladies to meet with the gentlemen's Co. Republican Committee we had a very nice meeting. In the evening the ladies Republican League called a meeting which I attended This afternoon Sun. I went to the Tabernacle. 24 July pioneer day went with Jet to the Lake had a bath Fri 26th I was notified that I was one of the ladies chosen on the S. L. Co. R. Committee. 62 Aug 23 Since last writing I have been chosen one of the ladies to> act on the reception Committee Republican day at Saltair which meets Mon. 26. Yestreday 22 attended Salt Lake Co. [Republican] Convention was there till 3 o clock in the morning I nominated Mrs Wells for the [illegible] House which was carried Mrs Lillie Pardee carried for the Senate. 03 Today Emma Empey and myself went to Farmington to a Rep. Convention. Sept 1st I am so busy that I almost forget my journal Bro Fox and I went to the Lake Republican day had a very pleasant time. Tues. 27 of Aug. I went to speak in the sixth ward on registration. Fri. 30th club.

I went to Brigham City with Sister E B Wells to organize a R. Womens

G1 R u t h May Fox's husband joined the Democratic party. After attending a meeting in Logan, U t a h , where J o h n Henry Smith and John Morgan spoke on. Republicanism, she joined the Republican party as she believed "in protection and centralization of power." The fact that Emmeline B. Wells had joined the Republican party may have influenced her also. 62 She felt that she had been appointed because she was a woman, as she later wrote in "My Story": " O n July 25, I was invited to meet with the men's Republican County Committee. Anticipating suffrage for women, the men were vying with each other in consideration for the ladies. T h e next day I was informed that I had been chosen a member of the Salt Lake County Committee." 63 After the constitutional convention the women of the state continued in politics by joining political parties and working to get candidates in office who were sympathetic to their causes. During the Republican convention Mrs. E m m a McVicker was also nominated for superintendent of public instruction. It was declared that although women could not vote yet, it was possible for men to vote for women. But finally the women's names were withdrawn from the ticket for fear that the ticket might be voted down.

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1895 We returned home with Jet who had been to Preston the following day. We had a meeting in t h e opera house staid with Bro. Rich and had a very pleasant time. T o day I have been home all day there was no one to stay with the children so did not go to meeting. I have been invited to speak at the Re. Ratification to morrow eve my speeches as yet are very short not being accustomed to it04 Sept 12 the Y. Ladies M. held there annl [illegible] this eve. here

Sept 15 Since I last wrote I have been to Payson Spanish Fork and to American Fork to attend Republican meetings I also went to speak in the 1 [illegible] Ward tues the 10th but did not do very well. I felt very timid. I forgot to state that I was made chairman of the 2nd precent ladies' republican club I did not want it but because I was a Mormon they wanted me to take it we were organized Aug 8th 1895 Sept 17 Gave report of 2nd Precent in the Grand Opera house today where the Republican lady's held a meeting Sept 23 licanism

went to South Cottonwood Ward with Mrs E B Wells to talk Repub-

Was chosen President of the young ladies of the 14 ward

went to sugar house to the house of Sister Mary Young to speak on politics

spoke in the 1st precint to the woman of the Rep. Club

Oct 8 held a very successful meeting in the 2nd precint serving refreshments at the close. Oct 12 Attended Reapers Club. I happened to give in as a current event, Powers play against the Priesthood for the democratic party, but withdrew it as our club is divided in politics and some of the ladies thought we should take no note of it on that account. But I think it quite serious. 0 ' Sun. 20 nearly blind.

Mrs Evan's has come to pay me a visit she is 86 yrs old and

21 went to south Jordan with Mrs Edna Smith 00 to speak at a political meeting. Pres Smith came to Depot to meet his wife with his whiskers tied back with a 64 She evidently attended the meeting but lost her autobiography she wrote: " I n September I was scheduled in the Salt Lake Theatre. T h o u g h I had prepared what and though I attended the meeting, I lost my nerve and hid

nerve and did not speak, as in her to speak at the ratification meeting I thought was a wonderful speech, away in the crowd."

05 Political issues entered in everywhere at the time, as she later wrote in "My Story" : " H o w deeply party lines were cutting across and through non-political groups may be illustrated by occurrences at successive meetings of the Reapers' Club. At the October 12 meeting in speaking by assignment on 'Current Events,' I referred to a dramatic speech against the Priesthood by O. W. Powers, a non-Mormon and a Democrat. I was asked to withdraw my comment because the Club members were divided on political questions. Partisanship was revealed again at the next meeting when one of the members talked in defense of J u d g e Powers." CG

Wife of Mormon President Joseph F. Smith.

Ruth

May

Fox, Forgotten

Suffragist

253

handkerchief. 07 25 Went with the young Ladies to take a party of Aggie and Annie Campbells house as a recognition of their efficint labors in the M.I. Ass Sat 26 took part in the ladies Republican parade which was a great success. Mon 28 Attended Reapers Club again a democratic member had a chance to defend Judge Powers Oct Tues 29 Discontinued the meetings of the Womans R League at the meeting Bo Roberts posed as a blacksmith being [illegible] Nov Fri 1st T h e republican ladies met at my home to day to see what we could do about a lunch for the workers on election day And this evening I have been to the theatre to hear B. H . Roberts speak on democracy some of his remarks I enjoyed some I could have wept over. Day before yestreday Bro George Q Cannon was accused of saying a certain thing in Box Elder in a sermon he preached there which he promptly denied and afterward he was told that he did say it by some of the brethren though he could not remember it he accepted their statement and made a public acknowledgement and withdrawal 08 I feel very sorry for him and I felt sorry for Roberts when he said the church had meddled in politics and he cared not who the meddler was he should be branded as an enemy to the church and a traitor to the State. Sat 2 Went to Young ladies in the morning, officers meeting, In the afternoon went to the Walker Pavillion settled the affairs of the precint Rep. Club and found we did not have to serve lunch as the candidates wives were going to attend to it. I n the evening went to East Bountiful to speak at a Republican meeting, but did not make myself know, Mrs Clark who should have been there not being forth comming. I staid all night with Elisabeth Fox and visited Jessie Stephen and Eva Grant returning in the afternoon. Mon eve 4 went to Rep. Rally in the theatre Tus eve. It is election day, have been to the Y.L.M.I.A., do not know as yet how it will turn out but do not care much, beleive we have got Statehood assured so far as the vote is concerned and that means sufferage for women. G9 07 68

Afraid of being arrested for cohabitation he wore the disguise.

George Q.. C a n n o n attended the Box Elder Stake conference on October 27 and 28, 1895, without being called b u t volunteering to be present. H e apparently stayed after the conference was over to make additional speeches. 169 O n November 5, 1895, the Republican party carried the election by a large majority, and the constitution, containing the suffrage memorial, was approved 28,618 to 2,687 by the voters of U t a h . President Cleveland proclaimed U t a h statehood an J a n u a r y 4, 1896, and ceremonies were held J a n u a r y 6, 1896, in U t a h .

Emma J. McVicker from Utah School Report, 1936-38.

A Woman State School Superintendent: Whatever Happened to Mrs. McVicker? BY CAROL A N N LUBOMUDROV

C M M A J. MCVICKER WAS THE ONLY WOMAN state superintendent of schools in Utah's history. Although she was deeply involved in educational issues in Utah between 1883 and 1905, very little is actually known Mrs. Lubomudrov is a doctoral candidate in the cultural foundations of education at the University of Utah.

Mrs. McVicker?

255

about her: where she was born, her family or educational background, and when and where she died. Nor is much known about her personal educational philosophy. While all other state superintendents have separate boxes for their correspondence at the LItah State Archives office, her letters are mingled with those of A. C. Nelson. Instead of a portrait of her, as there are of all the other state superintendents, there is only an enlarged snapshot exhibited in the Utah State Board of Education office. Although she was the first woman regent at the University of Utah and a graduate of that institution, neither the registrar nor alumni association has any information concerning her. This paper is meant to serve as an introduction to what is known about Emma J. McVicker. It will present her views on the state of education in Utah history at the turn of the century and perhaps provide an impetus for further research concerning Utah's only woman state superintendent cf public instruction. University records indicate that Mrs. McVicker was born in 1846.1 A published reference to her occurs in her husband's obituary (John McVicker) which states that he married an Emma Kelly, twenty-one years prior to his death. This would have been in approximately 1886 when Emma was about forty. It is assumed that they were married in Utah, since John had come from California to Salt Lake City and begun an assaying business in 1871 or 1872. There were no children as a result of this late marriage, and he died on September 27, 1907. At the time of his death, it was stated that Mrs. McVicker was to remain in charge of the assay office on Richards Street. 2 She was listed in the 1908 Salt Lake City telephone directory and would have been about sixty-two years of age. This is the last record that has been found. She was not listed in the 1913 telephone directory, and there is no local obituary recorded for her or newspaper article referring to her death. Did she remarry and assume another name? Did she move out of the state and lose all contact with Utah? Did the fact that she was a woman result in a lack of interest in following her career and thus no record was kept as to the place and date of her death? Besides her birth and marriage dates, most references to her center around her educational activities. In 1880-81 Miss E. J. Kelly was hired by the Collegiate Institute 3 to serve as an assistant in the high school and to teach in the department of music. She filled in as principal of the 1

Registrar, Park Building, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, personal communication. Salt Lake Tribune, September 29, 1907. 3 T h e Collegiate Institute was later to become part of Westminster College. Emil Nyman, the archivist at Westminster, could find no references to Mrs. McVicker in the college archives. 2

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school in 1882-83 but resigned in 1884. She wrote the section on Presbyterian church history in Utah for the World's Fair Ecclesiastical History of Utah4 in 1893, but the Presbyterian church archives in Salt Lake City and in Philadelphia have no further information about her during this period.5 In 1883 she served as the first president of the Children's Service Society of Utah, originally known as the Orphan's Home and Day Nursery Association. This organization, according to their pamphlet, was "founded in 1883 by a group of ladies, representing all major faiths of this community to give day care to the children of working mothers whose hours were long and pay small."6 The society has no further record of her. In 1895 she was nominated for the position of state school superintendent by the Republican party. This nomination was subsequently withdrawn for legal reasons. A 1900 newspaper article states that although the governor considered appointing A. C. Nelson to serve out the remainder of Dr. John R. Park's term as superintendent, "Mr. Nelson declined in favor of Mrs. McVicker for the reason that he considered she had prior claim on account of her being the nominee of the Republican convention in 1895, but withdrew for legal reasons."7 The "legal reasons" were discussed in The Republican Catechism written for the women of Utah by Emily S. Richards. 8 She defended the governor for not supporting a woman's nomination for public office: T h e Governor knew that the legislation which h a d been incorporated into the federal statutes disqualified w o m e n from voting and also from holding office, a n d it would be extremely unwise a n d improper in him to ratify any enactment or procedure t h a t he knew to b e illegal. T h a t he was correct in his conclusion on this subject would seem to b e demonstrated fully for Republicans in the resignations of Mrs. Pardee a n d Mrs. McVicker from positions to which they h a d been nominated by the Republic a n Party, for the reason that the decision of the court withholding from the women the right to vote disqualified them for holding office.9

4 Emma J. McVicker, "Presbyterian Church," in World's Fair Ecclesiastical History of Utah (Salt Lake City, 1893). 5 Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, personal communication, February 4, 1981. 6 Children's Service Society of Utah, 94 Years of Service to Children, 1883-1977 (Salt Lake City, 1977). Although the actual beginnings of this organization are obscure, it was apparently begun to offer alternatives for the day care of non-Mormon children. The original articles stipulated that no more than one-fourth of the board be comprised of one denomination. These representatives were nominated by the clergymen of each "major" religion and included Mormons, Protestants, and members of die Jewish faith. 7 Deseret News, October 8, 1900, p. 2. 8 Emily S. Richards, The Republican Catechism (Salt Lake City? 1895?). 9 Ibid., p. 2.

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Thus, in 1895, Mrs. McVicker could not run for office since women could not vote and apparently this was interpreted to mean that they also could not hold office. Park was subsequently nominated by the Republican party and served as superintendent until his death in October 1900. In 1895 the Utah Constitutional Convention, after lengthy debate, offered suffrage to the women of Utah and opened the way for allowing women to hold public office. Mrs. McVicker was appointed the first woman regent of the University of Utah in 1896. The student paper stated: T h e appointment of Mrs. McVicker is of especial interest, as she is the first woman who has been a member of the [Board of Regents]. She is a capable, persistent worker in education, a n d will doubtless m a k e a good officer. Even the opponents of women suffrage recognize the fact that it is eminently proper that women should take an active p a r t in the management a n d control of educational institutions. 10

In May of the same year, the Chronicle stated that Mrs. McVicker, "President of the free kindergarten schools of this city, spent two days visiting the Training School and University. She expressed herself as being both surprised and delighted with the work being done in our institution."11 She received an A.B. from the University of Utah in 1900 and remained a regent until 1905.12 Despite this close association with the institution, neither the registrar nor the alumni association at the University of Utah have any further information concerning Mrs. McVicker. On October 8, 1900, she was appointed by Gov. Heber M. Wells to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Dr. John R. Park, the first superintendent of public instruction in the state of Utah. The notices in the Deseret News13 and the Salt Lake Tribune14 contain very little information about Mrs. McVicker. Instead of discussing her qualifications, most of the articles expound on the gentlemanliness of A. C. Nelson in deferring to Mrs. McVicker for the appointment. I t was pretty generally expected that the Governor would n a m e Professor A. C. Nelson, the Republican nominee for the office, as Dr. Park's successor, but that gentleman in a communication addressed to- the State's chief executive declined to accept the appointment, and even went so far as to 10

Daily Chronicle, University of Utah, April 8, 1896. ÂŤ Ibid., May 10, 1896. a2 Alumni Association, University of Utah, personal communication. i3 Deseret News, October 8 and October 10, 1900. ÂŤ Salt Lake Tribune, October 9, 1900.

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say that were he appointed h e would decline to accept. Although there were other applicants for the place, there is little doubt b u t Prof. Nelson's declination had a great deal to do with Mrs. McVicker's appointment. 1 5

Conspicuous is the lack of information concerning the appointee herself. Mrs, McVicker served as superintendent for three months, completing Park's term. A. C. Nelson was elected to the position and assumed office in January 1901, succeeding her. With so little known about her, the superintendent's report she filed in 1900 and the correspondence she conducted while in office provide most of the insight as to her concerns. The problems she discussed sound familiar to those involved in education today. They give some idea of the educational issues facing Utah at the beginning of the twentieth century and sound curiously contemporary. Nevertheless it is hard to say what impact she had on the schools during her brief tenure. In the 1900 superintendent's report she wrote, "In that short time it was only possible to carry out the policy of the former Superintendent in relation to the schools of the State and to attempt to keep the office up to its usual excellent conditions."16 Her first priority in assuming the superintendency was to visit several of the counties, since Park had been in ill health for some time and had not been able to do this. Several statements in her report refer to the aesthetic attractiveness of the classrooms, the poor performance of male teachers, and the special needs of primary age children and show that it was written from the perspective of a woman who had particular ideas as to what was needed to improve education in the newly created state of Utah. Much of her report echoed Park's report of 1898.17 Although there had been general improvement in terms of schools being more carefully graded with better teachers and a much larger number of school population enrolled, consolidation of the schools had still not been adopted. Complaints about mismanagement and misuse of public funds continued. She gave several graphic examples of this situation and stated: "There is much needless expense and waste in handling of schools funds."18 Record-keeping was poorly done; but more important, "the State and county funds which are set aside by law for teachers' salaries only, are 13 Ibid. State of Utah, Department of Public Instruction, Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction . . , 1900 (Salt Lake City, 1900). 17 State of Utah, Department of Public Instruction, Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction ... 1898 (Salt Lake City, 1898). i8 Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction . . . 1900, p. 11. 16

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willfully used by the trustees for furniture, repairs, or new buildings."19 Thus, teachers went without pay and no attempt was made to replace this money. Books showed money on hand that had already been spent and/or diverted to other uses. "This shows a spirit of dishonesty and rebellion against lawful authority."20 She went on to suggest that county superintendents prosecute the cases where funds were misused but added cryptically, ". . . but they lack courage to do anything that would make them unpopular." 21 One area where she departed from previous policy and raised questions that became important in educational circles during the early twentieth century was school management. Whether or not a business model should be applied to education became a hotly debated topic during the progressive era. At issue was the applicability for education of the efficiency movement model. During this period business was seen as an excellent model that might be applied to education, with particular emphasis upon statistical evaluation and the use of businessmen as members of boards of education. Although not referring to this larger issue per se, Mrs. McVicker did point to the lack of understanding among businessmen of educational issues: . . . b u t m a n y of them [the trustees] while they are excellent business men and quite qualified to look after the affairs of the district as far as financial matters are concerned are totally lacking in the educational qualifications a n d are m u c h better judges of livestock and fields than of teachers and school methods. 2 2

These trustees emphasized lower spending; and since their goal was to save money, teachers' salaries were cut to a bare minimum. She observed: " . . . the trustees congratulate themselves on saving money, regarding the work of a teacher like that of a farm hand, so many hours work for so much money."23 Mrs. McVicker had a definite opinion about teachers and the characteristics that constitute a "good" teacher. She stated that "as a whole the teachers were found to be faithful and to some degree efficient though there were marked exceptions, principally among the men teachers."24 This must have caused some comment among the male-dominated ad19

Ibid., p. 14. Ibid. 2 iJ.bid.,p. 15. 22 Ibid. 23 Ibid., p. 18. 24 Ibid. 20

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ministration. She was very concerned about the proper training of teachers, especially those who had to teach primary age children: "In my visits to various schools it was evident almost at a glance that certain teachers had received normal training and equally evident that others had not."20 She pointed out the kindergarten's importance as a foundation of the educational system, but at that time no provision was made to provide public money to support kindergartens. She recommended that the school age be lowered to five years of age and that the first two years of schooling be spent in the kindergarten. Reflecting her background and emphasis on primary education, Mrs. McVicker was particularly adamant about which curriculum areas needed to be stressed in the schools: . . . there is not sufficient interest in Nature Study, and in very few county schools do the children know much about the natural environment. The natural features of their district should be their geography lessons, and they should be familiar with every tree, herb, animal and insect, and intimately acquainted with the habits of life and development.26

She placed a great deal of emphasis on "doing," insisting that children need to participate in the learning process by engaging in activities that involve a wide area of knowledge. Although she felt that children should learn to draw, she lamented that few teachers or superintendents had a knowledge of this area: "The system of copying cards is most pernicious in its influence on the art or creative instinct, as well as setting children copying extracts from literature to teach them to express their own thoughts."27 Singing was also much neglected in the schools. Many teachers seemed to feel that time spent singing was wasted time, but Mrs. McVicker disagreed: "It has been charged by some writers that in this scientific, utilitarian age too little attention is paid to the expression of our emotions by the means of poetry and music and thus the finer culture of the race is neglected."28 In both these subjects she stressed the importance of creative expression and expression of one's emotions. Children should observe nature and be taught to express themselves through active participation in subjects rather than passively absorbing knowledge that does not foster creativity or allow an expression of a child's emotions. 23

Ibid., p. 20. 6 Ibid., p. 22. 27 Ibid. 28 Ibid., p. 23. 2

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In another area, Mrs. McVicker demonstrated her understanding of young children and their needs. She attacked the way penmanship was taught: . . . the children are allowed to cramp the fingers a n d write in so fine a h a n d that they stoop over the desk and strain the eyes a n d in fact impair the whole nervous system. Instead of the large free movements of the larger muscles, the smaller accessary muscles of the h a n d are employed before they are sufficiently developed, especially in the primary grades a n d m u c h h a r m results. I n all cases, the teachers were advised to correct these evils by large movements in writing on chalk boards. 2 9

One other area, still debated today, was discussed by Mrs. McVicker in her report. Making a plea for improved health conditions in the, schools, she stated that ". . . every school board should employ a competent oculist and aurist to test the sight and hearing of all the children in the schools since many children are accounted stupid who are simply unable to see or hear as normal children do."30 Although she wrote these thoughts in the early 1900s, many of them recur throughout the educational history of Utah. It is fortunate that Mrs. McVicker was required to file a superintendent's report in 1900. Otherwise, she would remain a complete enigma. She was obviously an important figure in Utah's educational history: the first woman regent at the University of Utah and the first and only woman state superintendent of schools. She must have had some personal appeal or political backing that propelled her to the front during this period. The small amount of information available on her is tantalizing, and certain questions persist: Why were better records not kept on her? Why was more written about A. C. Nelson than on Mrs. McVicker at the time of her appointment as state superintendent? Why do the Utah State Board of Education and the University of Utah have no further information concerning her? And, finally, whatever happened to Mrs. McVicker? 29 30

Ibid., p. 24. Ibid.

-.. . ... v , .^ : Children of Primary age in front of Ephraim Ward. USHS collections.

Nurturing LDS Primaries: Louie Felt and May Anderson, 1880-1940 BY SUSAN STAKER OMAN

1883 A TRAIN westbound for Salt Lake City stopped to take on passengers at Morgan, U t a h . Completing the last leg D U R I N G T H E S U M M E R OF

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of a journey begun that spring on the ship Nevada out of Liverpool harbor was the large family of Scott and Mary Bruce Anderson, originally of Shetland, Scotland. Boarding at Morgan to welcome family members returning from the East were Mr. and Mrs. Joseph H. Felt and two of Mr. Felt's young daughters. Nineteen-year-old Mary Anderson, eldest daughter in the immigrant family, was introduced to the young matron, Louie Bouton Felt, who at age thirty-three had presided for three years as general president of the fledgling Primary Association, the children's auxiliary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.1 This chance meeting was the beginning of a life-long friendship between the two women who at first glance appeared disparate in background and temperament. Gentle, emotional Louie Felt and blunt, pragmatic May Anderson, as Mary came to be known, were to weld a personal bond that would have a lasting and productive impact upon the organization over which together and separately they would preside for the next fifty-seven years. As the charismatic leader, Louie inspired the loyalty necessary to the survival of any organization and was the mediator of difficulties; as the realistic organizer, May sponsored the programs that enabled the Primary to negotiate the changes that came in the 1890s as the church relinquished old practices and moved into the mainstream of American society. The programs and practices established at this critical juncture characterized the Primary for decades as it slowly expanded from its Utah roots to become a worldwide religious organization for children. The Mary Anderson on the train that day in 1883 was inexperienced in the highly organized church her family had joined a few years earlier in England. Her world was the large and close family that demanded her full time and energies. Before her father, Bruce Anderson, converted to Mormonism, he was a temperance lecturer traveling throughout Ireland and England. As a child, Mary often recited such pieces as "The Lips that Touch Liquor Shall Never Touch Mine" during her father's public meetings. Since the Andersons moved quite often, they formed few ties outside of the fourteen family members. Mary tended the younger children and did much of the cleaning, cooking, and sewing.2 The Felts, whose path crossed that of the immigrant family, were in contrast one of the leading families in the LDS Eleventh Ward in Salt Mrs. O m a n is a coauthor with Carol Cornwall Madsen of Sisters One Hundred Years of Primary (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1980). ^ ' M a r y and May," Children's Friend 18 (December 1919) :420. 2 Ibid., 418-19.

and Little

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hake City. Gregarious and fun-loving, Louie was popular in the ward and since she had no children devoted much time to church work. Not only was she general president of the Primary, but she was also ward Primary president, counselor in the Salt Lake Stake Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Association (the renamed Retrenchment groups for young girls), treasurer in the Eleventh Ward Mutual Improvement Association, Sunday School teacher, and participant in ward dramatic activities. Her husband, to whom she had been married for seventeen years, was stake president of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association and counselor in the bishopric.3 Louie had been born a Latter-day Saint but away from the Utah center. Both of her parents were early converts, acquainted with such leaders as Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, but for years they had chosen to remain in their ancestral home at Norwalk, Connecticut, where Louie was raised. When the family finally came to Utah in 1866 sixteenyear-old Louie met her future husband, Joseph H. Felt, who was returning from a mission to Europe in the same wagon train; he was ten years her senior. The couple married that fall, spent some years in the unsuccessful Muddy Mission in Nevada, and returned to Salt Lake City where they built a house on the corner of First South and Seventh East streets. Louie was never able to have children and apparently encouraged her husband to take his plural wives, two young women active in the Eleventh Ward who between them bore Joseph Felt thirteen children.4 The Primary Association, over which Louie Felt and May Anderson presided for so many years, was actually the brain child of Aurelia Spencer Rogers from Farmington, Utah. She had enlisted the support of Eliza R. Snow, acknowledged leader of the Latter-day Saint women, and through her John Taylor, president of the church, in organizing the first group of children in Farmington on August 25, 1878. Louie Felt was chosen by Eliza to organize the second such group in the Eleventh Ward which began meeting in September 1878. All age groups met together, giving recitations and listening to the admonitions of the women in the presidency. Fairs, entertainments, and other projects were sponsored at the discretion of the local leaders. In such a setting, according to a coworker, Louie was an immediate success: "There were Christmas trees and baskets, the Maypole dances and games for in and out of doors. 3 Eleventh Ward, University West Stake, Manuscript History and Historical Record, 18491930, n.p., M S , Archives Division, Historical Department, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City. 4

"Louie B. Felt," Children's

Friend

18 (December 1919) : 4 0 4 - 1 6 .

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Louie B. Felt was a graceful dancer and had the spirit of play. She joined with them, a child among the children, happy in the things she and they loved."5 In 1880 Eliza chose Louie as the first general president of the Primary Association. Louie recounted her call: T h e n Sister Eliza said, "Sister Felt we have chosen you for this place." I was so surprised and alarmed that I immediately replied, " I a m not worthy and a m so ignorant. I could not fill that position. I ' m sure I could not." Sister Eliza said, "If you thought you could we would not want you." Sister Precindia [Kimball] said, "Sister Felt, it has been decided that we w a n t you." After tiiat we talked some time about the m a t t e r and when the sisters saw how I felt they gathered around me and Sister Eliza gave m e a grand blessing. She also blessed me in tongues. 6

In spite of the call that placed Louie at the head of the organization, she was not thrust into the limelight of leadership since Eliza Snow directed the activities of the Primary on the practical level. It was Eliza and other leaders of the Relief Society who traveled throughout the territory and organized associations, not Louie. Eliza taught that the Primary and the Young Ladies' were satellite groups of the Relief Society and could be organized only under its direction or that of the priesthood.7 Eliza also prepared a hymn book, a catechism of Bible questions, and two books of recitations for use in the Primaries.8 Louie visited only those associations that invited her and arranged for her fare since there were no general Primary funds. She rarely ventured from the northern Wasatch Front, however, and her counselors took no active part. 9 She continued as president in her local association and until 1884 also worked with her husband and Mary Ann Freeze in the Salt Lake Stake Mutual Improvement Association.10 • Journal History of the Church, April 21, 1928, p. 4, MS, LDS Archives. The Journal History is a scrapbook collection of newspaper clippings and relevant diary and journal excerpts surveying the history of the church. For an account of early beginnings of the Primary see Aureha Spencer Rogers, Life Sketches of Orson Spencer and Others, and History of Primaryr H-WA; (Salt Lake City, 1898). •L. B. Felt's History," n.d., holograph, LDS Archives. In all direct quotes spelling and punctuation have been standardized. 'Record of Relief Society in Stake Capacity of Box Elder County, Minutes 1878-1890 June 13, 1881, LDS Archives; Woman's Exponent, November 15, 1880. 8 Eliza R. Snow Smith, Tune Book for the Primary Associations of the Children of Zion (Salt Lake City, 1880); Bible Questions and Answers for Children (Salt Lake City, 1881) • Recitations for the Primary Associations in Poetry, Dialogues, and Prose, Book no 1 (Salt Lake City, 1881); Book no. 2, (SaltLake City, 1882). 9 Lillie Tuckett Freeze, "Primary Work from 1880-1890," p. 1, holograph, LDS Archives. 10 See Mary Ann Burnham Freeze Diary, 1876-1884, especially September 20, 1884, holograph, Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.

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When Eliza R. Snow died in 1887 Louie "lost her good support and council."11 The Edmunds-Tucker Act, passed that same year, signaled the intensified prosecution of polygamists and thus meant further unsettling for Louie and the Primary organization. Because Joseph H. Felt had two plural wives he was forced to go on the "underground," and Louie went to the East on at least two occasions to avoid testifying against him. "Then trying times began for allof us," recalled a coworker. "The raid began and we all scattered for nearly 4 years . . . but nothing much could be done, only as the stakes and wards kept the work goingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; and they did marvelous work."12 In 1889 Louie suffered a long, severe illness; so by 1890, after presiding over the Primary organization for ten years, she had yet to assume a controlling leadership role. Meanwhile, during the 1880s the Anderson family settled in Salt Lake City, and Mary secured employment as a clerk in the dry goods store of R. K. Thomas & Co. She and her mother called on the Felts soon after their arrival in the valley and during the next seven years the friendship of Louie and Mary grew. During this time Mary changed her name to May because Louie thought it would avoid confusion with such close friends as Mary Freeze. May began occasionally to stay overnight at the Felt residence which was closer to her work than was her parents' home. Louie had not recovered completely from her long illness when Joseph Felt received notice of a business trip that would take him out of town for at least six weeks, and so he asked May if she would stay with Louie. Thereafter, the two women lived together for nearly three decades. "Those who watched their devotion to each other declare that there never were more ardent lovers than these two. . . .," commented a lesson prepared for the Primary children about the two years later. "These two have never been separated unless duty called them away from each other and many have been the long and difficult trips they have taken together for the Primary work."13 This personal association led naturally to May's call to the general board of the Primary as secretary in 1890, related as follows in the Children's Friend:

Freeze, "Primary Work," p. 2.

" L i l l i e Freeze, "A Bit of History to 1880," p. 3, holograph, LDS Archives. For effects of the Edmunds-Tucker Act, see James B. Allen and Glen M. Leonard, The Story of the Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1976), pp. 4 0 4 - 1 3 . 13 See "Mary and May," pp. 4 2 0 - 3 1 . Personal as well as public endeavors characterized their friendship. Together, Louie and May helped to raise the four children of one of Joseph Felt's daughters, Louie Felt Keysor, who with her sister Vera lived with Louie and May for years.

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As Sister Felt was about to make a trip to Springville to visit the Primaries there, M a y said, " I really wish I could go too." Brother Felt said, "You may. I'll buy you both a ticket." So they started on their trip. Sister Felt was a little worried about accommodation when they arrived. She knew the Primary workers would be p r e p a r e d to entertain her, but she wondered whether the presence of two visitors would inconvenience them. As she was wondering about this, the thought came to her, " W h y not make M a y a Primary worker. She would be a good one." So the next day on the train she said to her, " M a y why couldn't you be a worker on the General B o a r d ? " M a y laughed and laughed and said, " W h a t d o I k n o w about your work? And if you should call upon me to pray in public I would die." Sister Felt said, " I believe it is your calling," and M a y responded, " I would like to think that I would always be with you."i 4

This coming together of the two women in the interest of the Primary was significant because 1890 was a watershed year for the church. The Manifesto, halting the practice of plural marriage, signaled a new willingness by the church to move into the mainstream of American, society. Also in 1890 the Free Public School Act was passed by the Utah Territorial Legislature after years of opposition by the church. With the establishing of tax-supported public schools, Latter-day Saint doctrine could not be included in the secular curriculum, and the thought of "godless" education worried many. "If there was a time when it was important to attend to the spiritual education of our children," Louie warned a convention of Primary workers in Salt Lake City that year, "it is now when so many of our little ones attend the district school, where religion is forbidden to be taught." She concluded that it was therefore "necessary to take a more general interest in the welfare of the souls of our little children."15 Primary leaders were forced to examine their program further when, in response to secular education, weekly religion classes were established by edict from the First Presidency and were perceived by some as competing with the Primary.16 In addition to these new problems, the Primary continued to face challenges endemic since the founding. "Counselor . . . told the children she thought they might try to be orderly for one hour and that these societies were for their especial benefit and they should pay attention,"17 was the often repeated entry in the minutes of most associations as the "Ibid., pp. 421-22. 13 Primary General Board, Minutes 1889-1940, 10 vols., vol. 1, October 3, 1890, p. 4, MS, LDS Archives. 16 See D. Michael Quinn, "Utah's Educational Innovation: LDS Religion Classes, 18901929," Utah Historical Quarterly 43 (1975) : 379-89. "Goshen Ward, Santaquin-Tintic Stake, Primary Minutes, vol. 1, March 29, 1879, p. 14.

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local presidencies tried to cope with as many as a hundred children ranging from age four to fourteen in a single room for an hour or more. Leaders constantly complained that few boys attended, and as one stake leader bluntly related in a Primary convention in Salt Lake, she "found that the work in some associations appeared to be growing monotonous."18 Thus, the time was ripe for change and Louie had auspiciously gained a capable partner in her friend May. "With May's efficient help Louie seemed to take new interest,"19 recalled a coworker. The direction they would follow was determined to a large extent in 1894 when the two took a class in kindergarten principles and practices from a visiting teacher through the University of Utah.20 The experience clearly influenced their ideas about the education of children, "and from that time the Primary began to take on definite and steady growth." 21 By Christmas of 1895 the Deseret Evening News reported a party for the private kindergarten the two were operating in the basement of the Eleventh Ward meetinghouse. O n e of the most pleasant entertainments of recent occurrence was given last evening at the Eleventh W a r d meetinghouse by the private kindergarten of that ward, conducted by Mrs. Louie Felt and M a r y Anderson. T h e class consisted of thirty-one children, from three to six years of age. Joseph H . Felt then gave a brief description of the kindergarten work a n d the remarkable progress. A n interesting p r o g r a m was then rendered, the children being questioned by Mrs. Felt, making their own choice of w h a t should be done. 2 2

The joint venture continued for two years, and May operated the kindergarten for two years on her own; she then worked for four years at the University of Utah in the kindergarten attached to the normal school.23 In 1895 as the two women were opening their kindergarten, Louie was still president of the Primary in her own ward, a position she had held since 1878 except for five years during the difficulties with polygamy when she had gone east; May was second counselor. That year, no doubt "Board Minutes, vol. 1, October 5, 1896, p. 24. 19 Freeze, "Primary Work," p. 4. 20 As early as 1892 the Sunday School had established a Sunday School normal training class at Brigham Young Academy and by 1894 was establishing model Sunday Schools conducted by prominent educators. Perhaps these innovations motivated Louie (who had been a Sunday School teacher for years) and May to take the class. In addition, 'both were closely associated with Camilla Cobb, a Primary worker, who had opened the first kindergarten in Utah in 1874. See "A Life Dedicated to Kindergarten Work" in Kate B. Carter, ed., Treasures of Pioneer History, 6 vols. (Salt Lake City: Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1952-57), 1:59-60. 21 Freeze, "Primary Work," p. 3. 22 Deseret Evening News, December 24, 1895, p. 8. 23 "May Anderson, A Friend of Children," Children's Friend 39 (April 1940) : 147-48.

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left, and courtesy

May Anderson, right, of LDS church.

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influential

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leaders.

influenced by their work through the university and educational developments in the Sunday School, they had a number of young women called as aids or assistant secretaries so that the children in the ward Primary could be divided by age into three classes and taught in separate rooms.24 Schools in Utah had been graded beginning in the 1870s, and the Sunday School auxiliary had also begun grading its classes in the 1870s and 1880s. Perhaps in response to limited physical facilities the Primary, organizing at the same period, had followed a more conservative approach, paralleled by the Mutual Improvement Association which did not grade until 1902.25 The experiment in the Eleventh Ward must have been successful, for in that same year the members of the Primary general board were encouraging Primaries to grade their associations into three groups. By 1896 a stake worker could report to the board that she "had found the associations in excellent order more particularly in the wards where the associations were graded."26 In that year the board also presented a suggested outline for work to the stake leaders for the first time, and they began to lobby for their own publication, an idea of May's first mentioned as early as 1893 but becoming an increasing necessity if the general board 24

Eleventh Ward, Manuscript History. For discussion of auxiliary reform see The Story of the Latter-day Saints, pp. 421-22, 4 5 8 - 6 3 , a n d Ronald Lewis Knighton, "A Comparative Study of the Teaching Methods of the L D S a n d Non-LDS Sunday School Movements in the United States Prior to 1900" (Master's thesis, Brigham Young University, 1968). For discussion of grading in Utah schools see Jill Mulvay, " T h e Two Miss Cooks: Pioneer Professionals for U t a h Schools," Utah Historical Quarterly 43 (1975) : 396-409. 20 Board Minutes, vol. 1, October 5, 1896, pp. 2 4 - 2 5 . 25

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was to provide detailed direction and standardized lessons geared to the various grades. On the eve of the new century Louie was asked, along with other prominent Utah women, to express her sentiments on the old and new for the Woman's Exponent. The feelings of excitement she must have shared with May as they directed the innovations in the Primary come through clearly in her optimistic reply: So m a n y changes have come to pass in our actions toward children a n d in our methods in rearing a n d training, that m u c h m i g h t be said or written about them. We have m u c h to be grateful for to Pestalozzi and Froebel a n d m a n y others w h o have filled our own a n d our children's lives with pleasures a n d experiences of object lessons, a n d the Kindergarten. . . . And as the care of children is woman's special charge, the new cent u r y will see m u c h a d v a n c e m e n t and m a n y things which today are in the experimental stage will be proven a n d tested, and whatever is u n w o r t h y will be cast out. . . . W i t h the possibilities of the newer education a d d e d to those long inherited qualities, the race of men will grow a n d increase in the virtues and grace of life, as well as in intelligence a n d power. 2 7

The newer educationâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;kindergarten, Pestalozzi, Froebel, and later Hall and Deweyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;which came to be known as progressive education provided the framework in which the Primary developed. Louie and May and the women they called to serve with them on the general board clearly supported the assumptions of this approach: Sound lessons must be appropriate to a child's mental development, and a child's emotional and physical development affects his ability to learn and must be addressed in any educational scheme.28 Three specific Primary projects grew out of this philosophy and characterized the Primary for several decades thereafter: continual planning and shifting of curriculum to reflect assumptions about how children learn, editing a magazine to bring the information to teachers and gradually to speak directly to children, and evolving programs such as a hospital to address the physical as well as intellectual needs of children. In 1901 the Primary finally received approval to publish a magazine, unanimously christened the Children's Friend, provided the women could keep it out of debt. Symbolic of their joint commitment, Louie pledged her house as collateral on the venture and May quit her job at the uni-

Woman's Exponent, January 1, 1901. John S. McCormick, "The Primary Association, 1902-1952," MS, LDS Archives.

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versity normal school to work full-time in the Primary office.29 The two women worked full-time together on Primary business for the next twenty-four years until Louie was released as president; May continued as president herself for fourteen additional years. The magazine was successful, financially and otherwise, and continues today as the Friend with nearly 200,000 subscribers in many different countries far from its Utah birthplace. The working relationship that had been growing with their friendship matured during these years into a symbiotic partnership with each compensating for the weaknesses and complementing the strengths of the other. May, no longer a shy and inexperienced girl, was a self-confident and efficient professional who filled for the Primary the organizational gap left by Eliza R. Snow's death. Louie remained the spiritual and charismatic leader and the arbiter of difficulties among board members, some sparked by May's blunt and candid personality. Their letters reflect their differing temperaments. "We are always so pleased to get a letter or card from you even though we are so slow in responding. But but! the same old story, too much to do, and the doers in a constant state of being too tired," wrote May to an old friend in 1917. The next paragraph of the friendly epistle reveals the characteristic flair for the somewhat tactless, if honest, comment: "Your flowers came too late for the conference and too wilted to do anything with, but we did appreciate the loving thoughtfulness that prepared and sent them." 30 May's blunt style stands out all the more boldly when compared to Louie's glowing greetings in a letter written to the same friend the day before: Y o u r card, letter, pictures and kind wishes all here before me. And I can't tell you h o w pleased I was to receive them. I h a d m a n y letters, telegrams, and various other things on my birthday, but none so dear to m e as yours. . . . God bless and keep you, sweetheart, and return you in safety when you are ready to return to us once more. 3 1

Such differences in temperament sparked occasional disagreement even a young clerk working in the Primary salary from sixty to eighty-five dollars

and manner of communicating between Louie and May. When office was offered an increase of a month if she would join a city

M Board Minutes, vol. 3, August 28, 1901, p. 5 1 ; January 4, 1902, p. 61. May began the work on a six-month trial basis. 30 May Anderson to Lillie Tuckett Freeze, May 9, 1917, holograph, LDS Archives. 31 Louie B. Felt to Lillie Tuckett Freeze, May 8, 1917, holograph, LDS Archives.

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firm, Louie's immediate response, undoubtedly influenced by her own sense of loyalty and kindness, was to encourage the young woman to stay with the Primary by offering her a raise of ten dollars per monthâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a raise that nevertheless fell short of that offered by the other firm. May, with a characteristic blend of justness and pragmatism, stated that she did not approve of holding a girl back when she h a d opportunity to advance and r e c o m m e n d e d t h a t [the girl] be permitted to take the new position. Stated that she was sure the services of another girl equally fitted for the work in the office could be procured for fifty or sixty dollars.

The majority of the board responded to Louie's more empathic recommendation and voted to keep the girl with them.32 Such overt differences between the two were, however, extremely rare, though Louie undoubtedly soothed the feelings of others who encountered difficulty in dealing with May's abrupt candor. When Louie retired in 1925 some members of the general board could not adjust to the change and eventually left in dissatisfaction.33 Most who worked with May, however, came to admire her. "Now that I knew her and understood how her mind worked, I found it a real pleasure to serve with her," explained one board member who at first had expected to encounter a very "dictatorial and unbending 'old maid.' " She no longer offended m e with her blunt remarks; in fact, I enjoyed her utter frankness. . . . H e r first thought was always for the welfare of the children of the C h u r c h . I t bothered her not at all if her plan was inconvenient for the teachers or difficult for the parents. 3 4

Whatever the source of disagreement among board members, Louie was the peacemaker. "All that I am God has made me. He blesses me, but I have never felt need of sympathy so much as to-day," she confessed on one such occasion. She said t h a t no one realized how she h a d suffered through the trouble which h a d recently come into the Board. . . . Said that she felt t h a t if she h a d choice between everything in the world and her work she would choose h e r work and her sisters. 35

Such pleas for unity were characteristic. A coworker called Louie "a wonderful arbiter of difficulties and ours never lasted very long."36 32

Board Minutes, vol. 7, February 21, 1923, p. 207. Ibid., vol. 8, October 5, 1925, pp. 96-97; vol. 9, December 9, 1931, pp. 174-79. 34 Frances Grant Bennett, Glimpses of a Mormon Family (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1968), pp. 175-77. 35 Board Minutes, vol. 6, August 30, 1918, p. 62. 30 Ibid. 33

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Louie and May often traveled together when they visited the stakes. Louie's engaging personality inspired frequent expressions of admiration: President Felt, who visited this stake also,. . . was specially honored by being crowned queen of the Primary Association, the children placing a wreath of flowers on her head with appropriate original sentiments. 37

On another occasion: A special float had been prepared in honor of Sister Felt and officers were very disappointed on account of her not being in attendance. 3 8

Her warm manner as well as her acknowledged spiritual gifts, nurtured by association with such women as Eliza R. Snow, Zina H. Young, and Mary Ann Freeze, endeared Louie to coworkers. She would often bless board members before they visited the wards and stakes, and prayer meetings for board members in distress were held. When the Primary moved into new offices in 1902 the rooms were dedicated by one of the women. On one occasion, while visiting a stake with May, she received a note during the meeting, asking her to call at a particular home. Stopping there she found a gravely ill baby and, at the mother's request, knelt and prayed for the child, promising recovery. As she traveled home she was disturbed at her promise, for she feared the child would die. Several months later she received a letter of gratitude from the mother enclosed with a picture of a healthy child.39 Loyalties to the Primary were thus molded and strengthened. Louie remarked on one occasion that "when she resigned it should be when the spiritual condition of the Board was equal to the financial condition."40 Her personal and spiritual presence was central to the Primary organization, though she characteristically remarked that "she felt very humble in the part she had been able to play in the Primary work and would like to remain in the background."41 Organizationally, Louie did remain in the background, preferring a supporting rather than an initiating role. Both women had exhibited their commitment to the magazine, and Louie as well as May continued 37

Ibid., vol. 5, April 26, 1912, p. 39. Ibid., vol. 6, August 29, 1919, p. 183. 39 Journal History, June 9, 1934, pp. 5-7. See also Board Minutes, vol. 5, January 7, 1916, p. 205; vol. 6, August 30, 1918, p. 60; vol. 1, June 14, 1900, p. 43; vol. 3, November 27, 1901, p. 58. 40 Ibid., vol. 4, February 26, 1908, pp. 179-80. 41 Ibid., vol. 6, April 12, 1918, p. 14. 38

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to spend hours on the endeavor—soliciting subscriptions, collecting paper and string, wrapping and personally addressing and mailing hundreds of copies. May became the editor and continued as such until she was released from the general board in 1939. May was also centrally involved in the planning of curriculum. From 1902 until 1916 she wrote all of the lessons that appeared in the magazine, relinquishing the writing only because of a doctor's order forcing her to curtail activities.42 After 1920 she was again in charge of the committees that prepared the lessons, personally spearheading the activity-oriented Seagull program for the older girls begun in the early 1920s.43 Louie, as she preferred, remained in the background. The working relationship of the two women is perhaps best exhibited by their joint efforts on behalf of what became the Primary Children's Hospital—May as organizer, Louie as emotional supporter. Louie and May had apparently been moved by the plight of a crippled boy they had seen trying to cross a street, and May had conceived the idea of a children's ward in the LDS Hospital to be sponsored by the Primary. Such a ward was opened in 1911. Louie often visited the children, rarely exceeding two or three in number, kept the board apprised of the project's development, and urged board members to "visit the children at the Hospital as often as possible."44 May was the Primary representative on the Correlation Committee and the Social Advisory Committee—churchwide planning committees with representatives from various auxiliaries and priesthood groups— which assigned specific social welfare functions to the various organizations within the church in 1920. The Primary in particular was given responsibility for providing a day nursery for children as well as private care of dependent orphans and neglected children, preadolescent recreation, and training for community service.45 May and Louie, who had dreamed of expanding the children's ward in the LDS hospital into a convalescent hospital, saw in the articulated assignment for the social welfare of the children new life for the idea of a hospital. In July 1921 they traveled east to visit children's homes and hospitals. On their return, May oversaw the formulation of plans for a new institution, implemented in 1922 with the opening of the LDS Children's Convalescent Home and

' Ibid., vol. 5, February 11, 1916, p. 213. Ibid., vol. 6, March 19, 1920, p. 250. 44 Ibid., vol. 7, March 1, 1922, p. 123. 45 Ibid., vol. 6, May 7, 1920, p. 265.

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Day Nursery in the remodeled Hyde home on North Temple.46 Later, May began planning a new hospital to replace the converted home, an idea not finally realized until 1952 after the deaths of both women. The Primary Children's Hospital would eventually become a leading center for pediatric medicine in the Intermountain West, with children from all over the world using its services, many paid for with Primary money. Ironically, May Anderson, the shy and inexperienced immigrant girl on the Salt Lake-bound train that day in 1883, had become the efficient organizer of a religious program for children that eventually expanded far beyond the confines of Utah where it was born and nurtured. Louie Bouton Felt, the prominent and experienced church member, continued to soothe difficulties and inspire confidence in the expanding Primary. This working partnership, buttressed by an enduring personal friendship, fashioned ultimately the unique contours of the Primary Association. The decade of the 1890s was a period of crisis and change, and the Primary, along with other auxiliaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was impelled to adopt reforms to address pressing needs. Though the general trends were common to all auxiliaries, the specific articulation of these trends can be traced in the Primary to concerns and experiences shared and responded to by Louie Felt and May Anderson at this critical juncture. Their decisions still affect the Primary, now in its 103d year with a half-million members worldwide and a hundred thousand officers and teachers. Each contributed her unique strengths. Writing to a friend, Louie concluded with a phrase that aptly describes these joint contributions: "you in your small corner, me in my small corner, doing the best we are equal to." 47

Ibid., vol. 7, July 20, 1921, p. 86, and August 2, 1921, p. 87. Louie B. Felt to Lillie Tuckett Freeze, May 7, 1919, holograph, LDS Archives.

i ^ ^

'*^**ii

Sarah S. Nisonger of Santaquin, Utah, ca. 1894, at a typical woman's task. Photograph by George Edward Anderson, courtesy of Rell G. Francis, Heritage

Prints.

Women's Work on the Mormon Frontier BY MAUREEN URSENBACH BEECHER

3, 1875, MARTHA JANE CORAY, middle-aged mother and ranch wife of Mona, Utah, recorded in her diary that she had "washed

U N

JUNE

Dr. Beecher is associate professor, Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Church History.

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forenoon, plowed afternoon."1 Such an entry â&#x20AC;&#x201D; coupled with the oft-told tales of such exceptional Utah women as Patty Sessions, horticulturist; Romania B. Pratt, M.D.; Emmeline B. Wells, publisher; Eliza R. Snow, author and storekeeper; Alice Louise Reynolds, professor; and Martha Hughes Cannon, senator â&#x20AC;&#x201D; raises the question of the degree to which the pioneer women of this mountain region anticipated the present century's movement towards occupational equality. The record of women building a silk industry, storing grain in their own granaries, organizing international societies, writing their own books, publishing their own newspapers, suggests that here, in the more or less controlled environment of Mormon Utah, women were decades ahead of their sisters in the American East in economic and professional opportunity. But there are balancing statements to be reckoned into the equation, such comments as that of another diarist, Josephine Streeper Chase, who wrote from her experience that "woman poor woman must iron Sew Bake tend Babies," in simple eloquence suggesting that there were the traditional tasks for women and those for men.2 The household responsibilities assigned to women in western civilization seem, in her view, to have been accepted without question, here as well as in the wider society. To what degree, then, were the women of Mormon Utah ahead of, behind, or parallel to their American sisters generally in the work they did and their opportunity, or desire, to change the traditional role assignments. This paper investigates a portion of that question, approaching it through diary accounts of Utah women who, at various phases of settlement, recorded their activities in their homes and abroad. The precedents are worth looking at, the experiences of women before they settled in Utah. Writers of the present age, enlightened by the advances of the women's movement toward equality of opportunity for both sexes, applaud Caroline and Eliza Partridge Lyman, unhappy with the lay of their log house in Mormon Winter Quarters, Nebraska, moving the thing log by log,3 or Mary Fielding Smith, told by the wagon master that she would be a drag to the company, driving her oxen ahead of the i M a r t h a J a n e Knowlton Coray, Diary, J u n e 3, 1875, manuscript, Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, U t a h . 2 Fae Decker Dix, ed. " T h e Josephine Diaries: Glimpses of the Life of Josephine Streeper Chase 1 8 8 1 - 9 4 " Utah Historical Quarterly 46 ( 1 9 7 8 ) : 179. A very h u m a n irony is reflected in her comment o n the work of m e n a t harvest time, when they must have been feeling as tired as she herself h a d felt: " I t is a pretty sight to see the machine agoing & all of the men & boys so bussy all sweat & dirt. . . . " 3 Eliza Partridge Lyman, Reminiscence, holograph, Archives Division, Historical Department, C h u r c h of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, hereinafter cited as L D S Archives.

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rest into the Salt Lake Valley.4 What is overlooked is that those acts of spunky initiative were most probably taken on unwillingly; they were the requirements of survival. In those cases where a woman performed what is traditionally man's work, it was under duress and eagerly relinquished as soon as a man was free to carry on. Caroline and Eliza were happy to have male help to roof their house and build the chimney, and widowed Mary would readily have walked beside the wagon had she had a husband to drive it — as it was, her nine-year-old son handled one team and wagon. Survival made its demands on all, but the women sensed other needs as well. Women on the Mormon frontier were caught between two opposing thrusts, neither of which they could afford to ignore. First, there was the necessity of survival in a hostile environment, survival as a people in a region soon to be drawn into civilized America, the "Babylon" from which they had so recently escaped; then there was the thrust of civilization itself and the attempt to preserve the genteel traditions to which they had aspired in their eastern American homes. Much of the discrepancy, observed by historians of the Mormon movement, between the official policies of church leaders and the actual behavior of the women can be explained in the tension between these two forces. Part of the women's affirmation of identity was easily enough confirmed. "True women," those pure, pious, and submissive ladies of American culture, were also domestic; and in that sphere pioneer Utah women could make their contribution to the temporal well-being of the community without offending their sense of womanliness. Constants in the lives of the women, as recorded in their diaries and letters, are the chores traditionally associated with their sex. The cleaning; the regular washing on Monday using snow or rain water to make the soap go farther, and ironing on Tuesday — or Wednesday, if the clothes froze on the line; the sewing of "imported" fabrics or — and this will be treated in some detail later — the spinning and weaving; the providing and processing of food or, in the more affluent homes, the procuring and preparing of food; the improving of the home for comfort or style; and the bearing and rearing of the children. The house itself — extended to include the kitchen garden and perhaps the cow shed and the chicken coop — was woman's domain, and seldom did her work take her beyond that, and then not often of her own choosing. 4 [Susa Young Gates], Heroines of Mormondom Office, 1884), p. 37±

(Salt Lake City Juvenile Instructor

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Women in pioneer Utah spanned two phases of household organization and family life, making the transition between what Ann Oakley delineates as the "traditional" or preindustrial home and the later postindustrial household.5 In neighboring towns, even in houses next door to each other, one might find families functioning in either of these ways: one family living in the traditional "first house," the log cabin or dugout where one room encompassed all the family indoor activities, where cooking, eating, learning, socializing, and sleeping took place in one central area; and another already moved into the "big house," the adobe or rock dwelling, often two-storied, with kitchen-eating area separated from sleeping areas, and, if circumstances permitted, a parlor apart from all. And with the move to the house patterned after those of the Atlantic states from which place both the Saints and the builder's manuals for the most part originated, came styles of gracious living to which the women aspired as soon as their circumstances permitted. Patty Sessions, midwife, middle-aged mother and grandmother, may not be typical in all ways of the Mormon frontier woman, but her account will serve to illustrate some of the generalizations.6 Well into middle age, Patty crossed the plains from Winter Quarters, Nebraska, to the Salt Lake Valley in the first general crossing. There is no inkling in her diaries as to the presence of her husband on the trek. His name is not mentioned during the entire crossing, although her son Perrigrine â&#x20AC;&#x201D;"P. G." in the diary â&#x20AC;&#x201D; comes and goes with some regularity. Patty brings her own wagon hitched to four oxen and says with some pride at the journey's end that she had driven "all the way but part of the two lasts mts [mountains] P G drove a little I broke nothing nor turned over."7 Her daily activities on the trail differ little from what is recorded in other journals of the trail, such as those of Eliza Roxcy Snow or Jane Rio Baker, or the sketchier later accounts of Mary Goble Pay and Bathsheba Smith. In each case, with the rare exception of times when some women had to drive wagons, there is little mention of their doing what was traditionally "men's work." In most cases, men drove the wagons, women gathered fuel; men did the guard duty, women cooked the meals; men herded the cattle, women tended the children; men hunted buffalo and antelope, women jerked the meat. Patty was an exception in that 5 Ann Oakley, Woman's Work: The Housewife Past and Present (New York: Vintage Books, 1976), p . 20ff. 16 Patty Bartlett Sessions, Diaries, holograph, L D S Archives. All direct quotations concerning Patty Sessions are from this source. 7

Ibid., September 25, 1847,

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she carried more reponsibility — mended her own wagon cover, a woman's task, probably, but also repaired her own wagon. Even so, when the wheel gave trouble, "the men set waggon tires." 8 The most surprising accounts, however, considering the general urgency of survival in the Salt Lake Valley that first winter and Patty's wide range of abilities, are those brief entries recounting her days in the first two years of her settlement there. While P. G. and Patty's husband were hauling load after load of logs for the first house, herding the cattle, and building a farm north of the main settlement, Patty was at home in a tent or the wagon box (the wagon, lifted from the running gears, was set on the ground where it served1 as shelter), doing little that in the most refined New England community could not have been considered truly domestic. Her cryptic account of those days lists such activities as "Mended my dress," "knit," "wrote letter," "mended soldier's clothes" (this would be for a member of the Mormon Battalion, stopping in the valley on his way east to meet his family and bring them on — she was paid in seed for services), "cut out coat for soldier," "sewed," "finished the coat, gave the making" (she made no profit on this one). Meanwhile, between farming operations, Mr. Sessions and P. G. finished the log house, and the family moved in. The usual domestic tasks continued inside: Patty "put up curtains," "set dishes in the cupboard," "made soap," along with the continued sewing, quilting petticoats for herself and others, making dresses, tailoring a coat and two pairs of pants for her husband, and finally, the first nontraditional task since her arrival: "Helped Mr Sessions lay down a floor the first floor that I could set my foot upon as my own for more than two years."9 The most amazing feature of the whole profile of Patty's activities, as reflected in the diary — and it must be admitted that the account will be skewed according to Patty's Own sense of what was significant in each day's activities (she seldom mentions food preparation or general housework, though the washing almost always rates space) — is the frequency of visiting. Every other day, it seems, she and her sisters in the faith are either visiting or being visited, often on the occasion being offered some treat such as mince pie, hardly what one would expect in the desert where people were scraping for every bit of food and planting the last of their grain in optimistic gamble on return. s Ibid., August 7, 1847. s Ibid., April 21, 1848.

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These were called the starvation times, the first two winters in the valley. And yet here are the women at all costs preserving the vestiges of civilization. Deaths on the trail had been treated unceremoniously; in the valley, Patty makes a linen shroud for the first woman to die there. She "fringes" a handkerchief for a friend; there is a wedding, so she makes artificial flowers for a wreath. This making of "artificials" is not an hour's diversion; it occupies Patty's diary four days in two weeks, interspersed among making a straw hat — possibly for sale — and working on a bonnet for Martha Ann. One of the caps had "trimmings," the making of which filled another day's entry. Mr. Sessions died less than three years into the valley; his going seemed to make little dent in Patty's life. The note announcing her second marriage reveals once again, with a harsh candor, her wish to be freed of the masculine tasks: "I was married to John Parry and I feel to thank the Lord that I have some one to cut my wood for me."10 Not that Patty was afraid of hard work: she did all the gardening until she could afford a man to hoe and irrigate and dig the fence post holes, and certainly her three-day soapmaking projects (100 pounds was normal output) and her drying of fruit and making of turnip molasses represent tireless hours. But the delineation seems clear: some tasks are for men, some are for women. The significance of this particular woman's account, for the purposes of this paper, is amplified in the fact that Patty was not a typical woman (in her life she made so much money by her careful husbanding of everything except her husbands that she endowed a public school for the settlement) but that she does such typical, womanly things. Other women's accounts, many of which report these same early times, suggest the same sort of division of labor, forcing a revision of a premature assessment from an earlier paper that "sex roles merged and everything got done." 11 Everything did in fact get done; the community survived. More than that — it survived on the highest level of civilization of which the women, given the available resources, were capable. That meant not a merging of traditional roles but a tenacious clinging to the ideal of women doing women's work, men doing men's. But there were times when the ardor with which the women clung to their genteel self-image ran up against the needs of survival in the

i° Ibid., December 14, 1851. 'ii M a u r e e n Ursenbach Beecher, " U n d e r the Sunbonnets: Mormon Women with Faces," Brigham Young University Studies 16(1976) :479,

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hostile new land, as, for example, in 1853, a year beset with Indian conflicts. Political and ecclesiastical leader Brigham Young had been warning the Saints, especially those in remote settlements, to "fort up." His word had in some places not been heeded, and by July the depredations had increased to the point of near warfare. "Harvest is not time to build forts," he admitted in a July 31 sermon, but it was clear that the danger necessitated immediate action. "Now the harvest is upon us," he went on. "Now is the time for women and children to assist in the harvest fields, the same as they do in other countries." Obviously, the women had not been doing the field labor to any extent in the six years the Mormons had been in the valley. And in the succeeding comment it is just as obvious that Brigham Young did not intend the practice to continue beyond the present emergency: I never asked this of t h e m before; I do not now ask it as a general thing, but those employed in the expedition south, in the work of defending their brethren from I n d i a n depredations, w h o have heavy harvests on h a n d , rather t h a n suffer the grain to waste, let the women get in t h e harvest. 1 2

And in a very un-Brigham-like comment, he suggested that the women "carry a good butcher knife in your belt, that if an Indian should come upon you, supposing you to be unarmed, you would be sure to kill him. . . . " The church leader kept his word; no evidence has been found that he ever asked the women in so many words to work in the fields again. There was no question, however, that the women should be useful. In an 1856 epistle to the Saints, Young makes it clear that women should be ready to sustain themselves and their offspring during those times when husbands are away from home. T e a c h [your daughters] to sew, spin and weave; to cultivate vegetables as well as flowers; to m a k e soap as well as cakes and preserves; to spin, color and weave a n d knit, as well as embroidery; to milk, m a k e b u t t e r a n d cheese, and work in the kitchen, as well as in the parlor. a 3

In the structure of his phrases Young shows how he perceives what the women are doing, that they are already attending to the finer aspects 12 Brigham Young, July 31, 1854, as transcribed in lournal of Discourses, 26 vols., (Liverpool, 1854-86), 1:166. For a fuller treatment of Brigham Young's attitude towards women see Jill Mulvay Derr, "Woman's Place in Brigham Young's World," Brigham Young University Studies 18 (1978),:377-95. 13 Brigham Young and Heber C Kimball, "Fourteenth General Epistle to the Latterday Saints," Journal History of the Church, LDS Archives, as quoted in Leonard J. Arrington, "The Economic Role of Pioneer Mormon Women," Western Humanities Review 9 (1955) : 145.

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of homemaking â&#x20AC;&#x201D; cultivating flowers, baking cakes, embroidering â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and uses that as the starting place from which to encourage them into the more practical skills. A generation later, Young was defining the work suited to each sex, as he viewed it, and confirmed what the women themselves had long since accepted, that farm labor is not rightfully part of women's work: "I have occasionally seen women in the harvest fields, ploughing, raking and making hay, and sometimes, though very seldom, I have seen them pitch and load hay. I think this is very unbecoming, this hard, laborious work belongs to men."14 At the time, the church president was pushing women into trades such as telegraph operator, store clerk, and typesetter. (The territory was sending far too much money east to pay for school books, and he could see no reason why women could not provide the labor to produce the books at home.) "Home Industry" was a byword in the very practical sermons delivered to the Mormon faithful from the early 1850s on. Economically, Brigham Young intended the community to be self-sustaining, and he urged few things so strongly as he did the making do with available commodities and the purchase of locally manufactured goods. As the Deseret News editorialized in August 1856, ". . . We came peeled into a rude country, have been here but a brief period, and have had to combat strong previous habits of running to the store for everything."15 And another reporter for the Mormon wrote, "to a people so remote and isolated from the commercial world, [it] does not require much logic to show them [the Mormons] the necessity of sustaining themselves by producing and manufacturing what they consume."16 However, the movement, productive as it was of fine rhetoric, never succeeded in creating an independent economy; and in the case of the women it seems to have made little real difference in what they did or even in what they bought. The most convincing comment on the overall failure of the ideal comes in the never-changing preaching. As each new item, "the fashion of Babylon," was successfully imported and sold in Utah, the cry went out again over the pulpit. And each time, the women were seen as the culprits, their demands for eastern goods decried, their extravagance blamed for their husbands' financial failures and the community's empty coffers. i 4 Brigharn Young, April 7, 1873, in Journal of Discourses, 16:16. 15 Deseret News Weekly, August 20, 1856. i'6 Wilford Woodruff to Editor of the Mormon, August 30, 1856, Historian's Office Letterpress Copy Book, 1:368, LDS Archives.

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In no way is this argument so evident as in the matter of women's clothing. The arguing goes on long, the words of admonition on the one side, the passive rebellion on the other. Many women diarists wrote of making clothes for themselves and their families. Many of them were by their needles self-sustaining. From the fabrics with which they had filled their trunks before they came west, even the earliest pioneers made dresses as nearly as they could to the style of the times. But once they were settled here, cloth was at a premium. One unidentified early pioneer wrote back to Winter Quarters, the eastern edge of the trail west, for jeans, shirting, brown sheeting, dark prints, bleached domestic, thread, tapes, and all kinds of trimming, saying that "you can get your buildings put up cheap [in exchange for] those articles."17 The order lists of the tithing store, the major retail outlet in early Utah, show the traffic in fabrics as the heaviest among imported commodities. As families entered the valley, husbands would often first find employment in the public works projects maintained by Brigham Young. Their salaries in the almost cashless economy would come as orders on the tithing store. From the ledgers available, it is obvious their wives and daughters were the heavy consumers, asking for bolt after bolt of calico, factory, shirting, flannel, as well as the more luxurious delaine, lawn, cambric, and gingham.18 It is no wonder that one of the early settlement missions sent by Brigham Young was to southern Utah where grand efforts were made to grow cotton and establish the industry there. Along with the general attempt to encourage the milling of wool and cotton, there was a concerted drive to prod individual women to take up spinning and weaving, to do the entire clothing manufacturing task from the raw material to the finished garment. As the Deseret News encouraged on March 6, 1852, "We . . . understand that the Governor's lady has offered the use of her loom to her neighbors who have none, to weave their cloth. . . . If all follow this example, we shall not need to write much longer about home manufacture." 19 The comment was part of a campaign, one move of which was asking bishops to inventory the spinning wheels in their respective wards of the city. The five wards whose responses are available showed up well â&#x20AC;&#x201D; nearly half the families in their jurisdiction had spinning wheels. One reported twenty-eight spinning wheels to four looms, with several hundred yards of fabric having 17 Anonymous to Brigham Young, February 1848, Brigham Young Collection, Incoming Correspondence, L D S Archives. 1S Titiiing Office Ledger, 1855, Trustee in! Trust Collection, LDS Archives, 19 Deseret Weekly News, M a r c h 6, 1852.

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been produced for sale outside of the ward itself.20 However, there were about four times as many wards that did not respond, either by neglect or by design: they had no such encouraging statistics to report. The duration of the campaign tells its story: five years later, the call was still being heard, encouraging women to spin and weave. Obviously the project had not met the expectations of the leaders. Second in command in ecclesiastical organization, Heber C. Kimball, berated the women for their sloth in a long harrangue reported in the Deseret News, December 30, 1857. "I have three wives who know how to spin," he boasted, "and they can teach the rest. I am going to have a home manufacturing school in my home. . . . And if there is one that is a dressmaker. . . ."21 The implication is as obvious as it is unintentional; the future tense in which Kimball speaks, and his "if" clause, reveal that in all those years the Kimballs had not got their act together. What is more, it was another five years before Kimball would have much to brag about, and even then he had to hedge when he wrote to his sons in 1862 that We are making a great deal of home made cloth this season; I do not know of one of the family, or a man who is laboring for me, but what is clothed, or will be clothed, with a full suit, and some two, of home made flannel, and this for over 100 persons. We design also to make about 20 or 30 pairs of thick hersey [jersey?] blankets, and also flannel for inside wear.22

That so much of the project was still, even at this later date, represented in the future tense speaks its own story. Purchase of imported piece goods continued to drain the Great Basin economy. Despite injunctions to dress in homespun — and abetted by the as yet unfulfilled hopes of the local woolen and cotton mills — the women and the men, too, wore eastern fabrics whenever their purse permitted. 23 For the women, States fabrics, like States fashions, represented more immediately than did anything else the gentility that they determined 20

Deseret Weekly News, January 24, February 2 1 , M a y 1, 1852. Deseret Weekly News, December 30, 1857. Included in the sermon.—which, if one might believe the transcription and the recurrence of the phrase "You need not laugh about it," was not too well received—-was mention of his wife's former frugality and the implication that she h a d changed, presumably with the fashion: " W h e n I married my wife, she was a spinner of both wool and flax and wove woolen dresses for winter and linen for summer and never p u t on a calico dress except to go to meeting, n o r fine shoes—she would wear her coarse ones until she got to the meeting house and then she would change her shoes. You mlay laugh at it, but I have seen it hundreds of times." 21

22 Heber C Kimball to David a n d Charles Kimball, November 1862, Historian's Office Letterpress Copy Book, 2 : 2 8 6 , L D S Archives. 23 Leonard J. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900 (Cambridge, Mass.: H a r v a r d University Press, 1958), pp. 121-22, 219-20, 318—20, suggests that to 1870 none of the church-owned or supported textile mills had succeeded. After 1872 the Provo Woolen Mills would produce a n d export successfully, and for a shorter time the Washington Cotton Mill would provide goods for internal consumption.

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to build into their frontier society. There was for them no waiting for a promised future when the regional economy would have developed to a New England standard of sophistication in its own time and manner. Not yet a year in the valley, Mary Jane Lambson dressed her baby in high fashion. She wrote to her sister, I will send a smole pece of Melissa Jane's best dressed & apron the delain is trimed with fringe, she wares the white josey apron with the pink one, has a nice little straw bonnet with a little bourder in the edge, pink ribbon one little flower and white pantelets with incirtin [inserts] above the hem as you may gess how sweet she looks. . . .24

Before the child was old enough to know it, she was entered into the fray of fashion versus function. Male leaders at whatever level of authority cajoled, argued, pleaded with women to adjust their dress styles to the rough environment. From the pulpit in the tabernacle Bishop Lorenzo Young reasoned: I see the sisters passing along the streets, even in muddy weather, with their dresses of silk and satin dragging in the mud. They could cut off from four to six inches from die skirt and make their children a dress of what they wear out and waste on the ground. . . .23

That same time, revered leader among women, Eliza R. Snow, was modeling for the women's approval the "Deseret costume," a pants and tunic outfit very much like the Bloomer costume and similar styles promoted by various groups for differing purposes. The Mormon women did not approve, and the costume went into mothballs. The debate went on, and studies of costume indicate that the dresses varied little in either style or fabric from those sold in the States or illustrated in Godey's Lady's Book, purveyor cf high fashion in the West as well as in the East. Official objection to the haute couture of the East reached a peak in 1869 when, with the completion of the railroad, it was anticipated that more States goods would flow into Utah and more cash would fl6w out. Beginning in Brigham Young's own family, and spreading through the rest of the church, was a movement toward "retrenchment," applied not only to dress but also to table and entertainings. "The time has come," said the leader, "when the sisters must agree to give up their follies of dress and cultivate a modest apparel, a meek 24 Mary Jane Lambson to Bathsheba Smith, September 10, 1848, Bathsheba Smith Papers, LDS Archives. 25 Deseret News Weekly, December 23, 1857.

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deportment." 26 "Let your apparel be neat and comely," he said, and then, echoing the familiar catch line, "and the workmanship of your own hands." The "retrenchment" name lasted but a few years on the association Young founded. Even before it changed to Mutual Improvement Association, its major thrust had been lost in the interpretation of the older title to imply "retrenching from ignorance." The women, it appears, would not retrench from those temporal niceties that so enhanced the image they had of themselves as being in every way the equals of their eastern sisters. But if the women would not wear what they wove, they nonetheless wove. They made the more practical fabrics â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the rough "hemp and linen," the hemp being straw from the field shredded and hacked then woven with the linen in what must have been used not for clothing but for sacks and draperies; the linsey, half wool, half cotton; the flannel; and, in one case, "[mother] once wove a vest for father of dog's hair."27 Diaries and reminiscences from outlying settlements more frequently than those from Salt Lake City itself record spinning and weaving, or spinning and then taking the yarn to the weaver to be finished. Relative poverty may explain the skewed proportion. But the craft seems not to have lasted beyond the second generation in any given settlement. Adelaide Jackson Slack wrote from Toquerville, a tiny town in Utah's Dixie, that "We raised cotton. . . . I have helped to pick the seeds out. I have seen a ton at a time piled up stairs on the floor to be seeded. Mother could spin and had a spinning wheel."28 Her account ends abruptly with a terse comment on the final failure of the experiment: "Other things paid better so we quit raising cotton." Other diarists reflect the same generalization: States-made cloth was not only more attractive, it was cheaper, even in a barter society. As Lucy Hannah White Flake wrote of her experience in Beaver, the southern Utah town where she and her grandmother had had a business spinning and weaving: "1871 the [wool] factory was built William done lots of work on it and had a large share in it When done this done away with the spining and weveing."29

26 Susa Young Gates, History of the Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Association . . . as quoted in Arrington, " T h e Economic Role of Pioneer Mormon Women," pp. 148-49. 27 Amelia Theobald Slack," by Louise Slack, Miscellaneous Pioneer Interviews and Sketches, Library of Congress Collection of Mormon Diaries, microfilm, LDS Archives. 28

"Adelaide Jackson Slack," Miscellaneous Pioneer Interviews.

Lucy H a n n a h White Flake, Reminiscence, photocopy of holograph, LDS Archives.

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As the home manufacture of the more practical fabrics declined, the official answer to the women's desires for finer stuff came, encouraged by President Young, through the women's Relief Society leaders. Young had decided that Utah could grow silk, and from the early 1860s into the next century faithful women tried to make true the prophecy of women's leader Eliza R. Snow that eventually "the people would come to Zion to buy the finest of fabrics."30 But sericulture was a showpiece venture, and never did succeed in earning for Mormon women anything more than some good public relations â&#x20AC;&#x201D; they filled their display at the American centennial celebration in Philadelphia in 1876 with their silk. On several counts one would have expected the work of Mormon women of the nineteenth century to be different from that of their eastern sisters. Polygamy, one would immediately suggest, should have made a difference. And it did, in the families of some few of the 15 or 20 percent of the population directly affected. Ellis Reynolds Shipp could go off to medical school, leaving her children with a sister wife.31 Martha Cragun Cox could teach school to support her own children and those of her sister wives, all married to "the poorest man in Washington County";32 and Mattie Hughes Cannon could run for state senate (in which election she beat even her own husband) with the off-hand comment that a woman who has three sister wives is "on duty" only one week in four.33 But in the majority of polygamous families the fact of plural wives more often meant that there were more women to tend to the traditional women's tasks. During "the raid," that period in the 1880s when men were being imprisoned for living with their plural wives, one ought to find women taking over the heavy farm duties. More often, however, a brother, father, or son filled in, as noted, for example, by Laura Ann Keeler Thurber: "My Brother Orson came over . . . to haul me up some winters wood which I was verry glad of, he is after me a grist of flour now over to Richfield." Of the farmwork, only the care of the cows fell to the women, in most cases: "Keeps me busy doing my house work and keeping [the children's] clothes made and then I have been milking four and 30 Deseret News, August 1, 1876, as quoted in Chris Rigby Arrington, " T h e Finest of Fabrics: A History of the Silk Industry in Early U t a h , " unpublished M S in the files of the author. 31 Ellis Shipp Musser, comp., The Early Autobiography (Salt Lake City: DeseretNews Press, 1962). 32 33

and Diary of Ellis Reynolds

Shipp

M a r t h a Cragun Cox, Reminiscence, holograph, LDS Archives.

Jean Bickmore White, "Gentle Persuaders: Utah's First Women Legislators," Utah Historical Quarterly 38 (1970) : 4 2 - 4 5 . T h e quotation is from David A. Shannon, ed., Beatrice Webb's American Diary, 1898 (Madison, Wis., 1963), pp. 134-35.

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five cows this summer and our own wood to chop so we don't get any time to was[t]e."34 One would anticipate that the lay organization of the church—the pastoral functions as well as the missions were all performed by the lay priesthood holders—would take Mormon men so often from their homes that women would have to fill in the gap. There is some evidence that they did. Eliza Partridge Lyman, for instance, and her sister wife Caroline, swapped candle wicking for necessaries and gardened when their husband went on one of his many missions. But at the same time, they lived in their wagon box and tent until the men Lyman had contracted with came and built them a house rather than undertake the work themselves. Even before the Mormons left Nauvoo, Brigham Young, then chief apostle, had admonished the missionaries: "let not the Elders go until they have provided for their families. No man need say Again I have a call to preach — while he has not a good house. Lot, fenced, 1 years provision."35 It is obvious from the women's activities, however, that the advice Often went unheeded, that families were seldom left so well provided for. In most cases, the women supported themselves and their families by selling goods and services traditionally within the scope of women. One would look to the organizations the women set up as leading them to do unusual tasks, to adapt their home activities to make room for typically western or uniquely Mormon projects; but even those projects fell into patterns of an eastern cut. The Relief Society, the mother organization to all the other women's auxiliaries, had the women sewing for the poor—Indians, initially, and their own numbers—and making carpets and weaving straw hats. Over the years, some women participated in service projects that were not typically female, but the lapover into their work at home is questionable. Some ward Relief Societies operated stores, but their merchandise consisted mainly of those items women used in their normal domestic activities: cloth, carpet rags, thread, trim34 L a u r a A n n Keeler Thurber, Reminiscence, holograph, Special Collections, Lee Library. T h e fact that it was expected that other m e n in the extended family would perform the men's work for women whose husbands were away is reinforced in a much later comment, this of Josephine Monsen Anderson, who as a young bride was left when her husband was called to a European mission. Told that the irrigation ditch in front of her property needed to be cleared of the winter's accumulation of wood, she asked her father-in-law to see that one of the boys did the task. No one came. She wrote to her husband, "Your Pa came in here today a n d told m e I could easy do that myself but I told him I wouldn't do it for I was ashamed." T h e remaining correspondence suggests that this was an off day—usually the brothers carried on Josephine's farm work a n d their own with no problem. Josephine Christensa Monsen Anderson to Joseph Peter Anderson, April 21, 1895, typescript in the author's files, holograph in possession of Shirley Anderson Cazier, Logan, U t a h . 35 Brigham Young, discourse delivered April 10, 1843, General Minutes, L D S Archives.

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mings, quilts, straw for braiding, garden seeds, school books.3e There were no hammers, axes, plows, or even milk pails in the Fifteenth Ward Relief Society Store. The grain storage program called for women to participate in a traditionally male operationâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the harvesting and saving of grain. Their methods, however, consisted not of farming itself but of gleaning, since Bible times a woman's task, or selling the Sunday eggs for grain, or providing meals or clothing to men in exchange for an acre's harvest. And all of it came under increasingly heavy priesthood, i.e. male, direction. On the whole, the women seldom strayed from the concept of women's work that they brought with them from their pre-Mormon homes or picked up from their States-born mothers. Far from being the avant garde of the women's movement, the unconscious forefront for widening spheres, the women of Mormon country held all the stronger to the American society they remembered or to the seepings-in from the East of fashions and manners that reinforced those values they associated with refinement and culture. Women's work on the Mormon frontier varied little from women's work anywhere else in the western civilization. Gerda Lerner was right: even in the boldest of social reforms, "women were still in charge of child-rearing and housekeeping."37 The Mormon frontier was no exception. 36 37

Fifteenth W a r d Relief Society, Minutes 1869-1875, L D S Archives.

Gerda Lerner, " T h e American Housewife: A Historical Perspective," Feminist Perspectives on Housework and Child Care, ed. Amy Swerdlow (Bronxville, N . Y . : Sarah Lawrence College, 1979), p. 31.

Women compositors employed by the H o m e Sentinel, Manti, were photographed on parade float by George Edward Anderson. Courtesy of Brigham Young University.

Enterprising Ladies: Utah's Nineteenth-century Women Editors BY SHERILYN COX BENNION

1 H E W A S A T C H W A V E GREETED CANDACE ALICE D E W I T T after she took over the editorship of the Piute Pioneer late in 1897: Dr. Bennion is associate professor of journalism at Humboldt State University, Areata, California.

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With all due respect for ex-Editor Brunell of the Piute Pioneer, there has come a great change in the appearance of that p a p e r since C. A. Dewitt, who is a maiden fair, fully equal to the occasion, took hold of the editorial reins. I t reminds one of the change a female is competent of making in the appearance of some bachelor's hall after giving it a going over for about ten minutes. 1

Candace was only one of fourteen Utah women identified as editors of newspapers or magazines between 1872 and 1900. Most of them were active during the 1890s and most of their editorial terms were brief, but that was characteristic of the time. Editors â&#x20AC;&#x201D; male as well as female â&#x20AC;&#x201D; changed positions frequently, and newspapers were commonly shortlived. In fact, the women had far more qualities in common with their male counterparts than attributes that set them apart. As would be expected for journalistic entrepreneurs of either sex, the purposes and personalities of the Utah women varied widely, and their editorial products reflected these differences. Few of them left a record of their motives, but their newspapers provide clues. Some, with no particular cause to plead, intended simply to edit a profitable smalltown weekly newspaper. Some fell into editing almost by accident and likely considered their editorships a temporary lark. Others founded their publications to further a crusade. Some wanted to write and filled many columns with their own efforts, while others wrote very little, relying on patent pages furnished by the newspaper syndicates of the time. Some had partners. Others worked alone. A few who had major responsibility for their newspapers received credit only as subsidiary editors. One may have been an editor in name only. All of those statements could apply to Utah's male editors, as well. There were differences between the women and the men, but they are less striking than the similarities. Although the men changed jobs frequently, they tended to remain in journalism for longer periods, and perhaps fewer of them embarked on their careers with the idea that their newspaper work might be temporary. Even so, the women often had longer journalistic careers than the period of editorship might indicate, because they continued writing for publication after their editorships ended. If they did not keep writing, they usually became actively involved with community affairs, an indication that the enterprise required to take up newspaper editing was not merely a short-lived aberration of character. They simply sought different outlets, while more men made editing a lifelong occupation. i Wasatch Wave, January 21, 1898.

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If the women's newspapers were mixed with others from the late nineteenth century it would be impossible to pick them out, except, of course, for those few that were intended for women readers. Unfortunately, some of the papers would be missing, because the only remaining trace of them is a directory listing or a mention in contemporary publications. Of only four do complete files remain.2 Scattered copies of the Piute Pioneer are available; and both the newspaper and its editor, Candace Alice De Witt, the "maiden fair" referred to earlier, were representative in several ways. Candace was one of those who seemed to happen into editing. Like others among the fourteen women editors, she took over a newspaper as a young, unmarried woman. She was born in Manti in 1879, but her family moved to Marysvale, Piute County, in 1881. She grew up in that community and was thoroughly familiar with it by 1896 when J. F. Brunell, who had come there as a schoolteacher, founded the Pioneer. She assisted him until his death in November 1897 and then, at the age of eighteen, became editor. Actually, the Pioneer did not require much editing. Typical of many small-town papers, it was a four-page weekly, with patent front and back pages. These pages, of six columns each, featured small woodcut illustrations and many short articles, jokes, and, appropriately enough, ads for patent medicines. The articles had titles like "Temperature in Tunnels," "A Submarine Boat," and "An Oriental Beauty."3 Two-thirds of pages 2 and 3 were filled with legal notices and local ads. The remaining third was not entirely original, either. Nineteenthcentury editors clipped "exchanges" from other papers and used them liberally. They might give Utah news, offer poetry or humor, or, like a note that Ulysses S. Grant had predicted easy capture of Havana, comment on the national scene.4 The Piute County material was limited to the advertising, legal notices, and a few notes from Marysvale and Circleville. The only local item in the issue for March 26, 1898, besides the ads and notices, Was a tongue-in-cheek poetic tribute to his captor written from prison by a convicted burglar. 2 These are the Woman's Exponent, the Anti-Polygamy Standard, the Salt Lake Sanitarian and the Young Woman's journal. No copies have been found of the Ogden Times, the Woods Cross Watchman, the Panguitch Progress for the period of Elizabeth S. Worthen's editorship, or the Box Elder County Herald published by Eva B. and William E. Smith. Existing copies or microfilms may be seen at U t a h university, historical, or local libraries. 3

Piute Pioneer, March 26, 1898.

Ibid.

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Candace kept the editorship for six months, after which she sold the paper, but her journalistic work continued. According to an obituary, she assisted the new editor by setting type and writing articles "boosting the mining activities of the camp." As other editors came she would help each to "get a line on the town conditions." After the paper moved to Junction, she was its Marysvale correspondent.5 In the meantime, Candace married Roland Blakeslee in 1901 and had three daughters. She also became active in politics, serving as county secretary of the Democratic party for a number of years and as the only woman Democratic county chairman in the state.6 She was the Marysvale city treasurer under two administrations and town clerk for fifteen months before her death in 1927. Another young, unmarried editor was Samantha Sessions. She was twenty-three or twenty-four in 1898 when she founded and edited the Woods Cross Watchman. No copies of the Watchman survive, so its character and longevity are unknown. A second group of editors may be represented by Kate Jean Boan, founder in 1891 of Vernal's first newspaper, the Uintah Pappoose. She was neither young nor unmarried, and her editorial career was certainly not a result of happenstance. However, she was like Candace in that she probably did not have to rely on her paper as a means of earning a livelihood. Kate was born in 1859 in New York and was reared by foster parents after her mother died at her birth and her father was killed in the Civil War. She married Wesley A. Blake, who took her with him to Colorado, where he was an officer of the Signal Service, and from there to Salt Lake City, where she was left a widow. She began her newspaper career by working for the Salt Lake Tribune. She then accepted a position as matron of the Indian school at Whiterocks in 1885. There she met and married Amos Quincy Boan. She had a total of six children from both marriages. Some motherly concern seemed to extend to the birth of her Pappoose, for it greeted readers with this introduction: H e r e I a m today the Uintah Pappoose, young in years a n d experience but if "time will tell" I h o p e to become a "heap big chief m e . " M y " p a p e r talk" will be limited, b u t I shall use my eyes a n d ears, and let you all know w h a t is going o n from one end of the county to the other. I m a y wail sometimes as any pappoose will, but a good medicine will be a new sub5 6

Piute County News, April 22, 1927. Ibid.

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scription. Hoping you all wish m e well I p u t my little hand in yours and start out confident of my success! 7

From a contributor, the Pappoose received a welcome in poetry: T h e U i n t a h Pappoose, so it is said, Is growing fast, a n d we hope it will spread Both far and near, to the great and small, And get to be, Big Chief after all. 8

The paper had four pages with three columns to each. Early subscribers could get it for one dollar a year; after the second number the price rose to two dollars. Short items filled the Pappoose, some reprinted from other sources, but local news was not neglected. The first number carried articles titled "A Holiday Mishap," which described a local shooting accident, and a "A Miraculous Escape," about the rescue of two young boys from beneath a fallen load of hay, along with shorter news briefs. Other frequent features were news columns from neighboring communities, reports on LDS stake conferences, descriptions of the educational progress of the community, explanations of new laws, and summaries of meetings of local organizations and county court proceedings. Advertising occupied nearly half of the paper. Kate's humor came through often, sometimes at her own expense. She wrote, for example, of stopping at the home of a prominent citizen to ask him to subscribe. He replied, "Well, I'll tell you what it is, I don't want the paper. It is no good and I know more than I ever see in it, . . . but to help a home industry I'll subscribe if you'll promise to do three things." These were to enlarge the paper, change the name, and "don't use my name to help to get subscriptions." 9 After a year Kate sold the paper, giving a thank you, but no explanation, to her readers. The Pappoose received a poem at its death, as it had at its birth. After changing its name to the Vernal Express, the new editor wrote: N o longer will its feeble voice I n shrill falsetto shake, No more its wailing monotone T h e m o u n t a i n echoes wake; For empty is the patent chase T h a t held its tiny form 7 Uintah Pappoose, January 2, 1891. s Ibid., January 16, 1891. 9 Ibid., April 10, 1891,

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Utah Historical Quarterly While baby slumbers on in peace And feeds the m o t h and worm. A year its tiny footsteps trod This world of woe a n d pain ; But now it's gone, its infant face We'll never see again. So drop a tear upon its tomb I n costly marble dress, And then produce the needful stuff A n d take the new Express.10

Kate lived on until 1911. No poetic obituary appeared for her, but the Express gave her a front-page tribute: Mrs. Boan was a distinctive character a m o n g women, possessed of a viril, striking personality, keen, original a n d ambitious. H e r true biographer must say that she was of the dynamic type, a w o m a n not to be led b u t to lead, the kind that could plant the flagstaff of the press in a frontier country a n d dare t o dip her pen in vitriol if she t h o u g h t it need be. H e r nature bred enemies but they admired even while they hated. She was not devoid of faults b u t h a d a world of virtues such as of charity, hospitality, a n d of ambition to be a public benefactor. Hers was a nimble wit b u t withal she h a d a very broad view of serious h u m a n affairs v/hich enabled her to give substantially to the world in her public service. 11

Unlike Kate, Elizabeth S. Worthen relied on her publication to provide a livelihood, both for herself and for her mother, although she may have entered newspaper work without intending to become an editor. She was born in Panguitch in 1875. Her father died when she was twelve. To earn money she worked in the Panguitch post office, in the town's co-op store, and as typesetter and, eventually, editor and publisher of the Panguitch Progress. According to J. Cecil Alter, in Early Utah Journalism, the Progress was run for about a year by Will J. Peters, manager of a traveling show, who left it in the hands of Elizabeth, "a feminine printer's devil."12 Elizabeth's stepdaughter indicates13 that before Peters came to Panguitch Elizabeth worked at the Progress with Fred E. Eldredge, who had founded the paper in 1895, and M. M. Steele, Jr., and was officially iÂ° Vernal Express, February 11, 1892. 11 Ibid., August 25, 1911. 12 J. Cecil Alter, Early Utah Journalism (Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society, 1938), p. 182. 13 Letter to author from Fay Ella C. Prince, Panguitch DUP Museum, March 31, 1980, quoting Opal Hatch.

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editor from 1901 to 1904.14 Utah As It Is, published in 1904, stated that the paper was Republican and Mormon and listed E. S. Worthen as editor and manager.15 Elizabeth was active in Mormon church organizations and served as city recorder for two terms from 1910 to 1914, at which time she acquired not only a husband, William J. Henderson, but also eight of his children, the youngest of whom was three years old at the time. They lived in Cannonville, where William raised sheep and cattle, and Salt Lake City before returning to Panguitch. Elizabeth died there on January 7, 1955. Her stepdaughter describes her as "a tall stately woman" and adds, "She had a strong mental and moral character. She served her church and city with all her mind and strength. . . . She was a beautiful writer and never misspelled a word."16 Another group of women were associated with their husbands in newspaper work. In most cases they saw their papers as business enterprises that would be profitable enough to support them and their families. Certainly this was true of Eva B. and William E. Smith, peripatetic publishers who produced papers in four different Utah towns during the 1890s. Nothing is known about the division of editorial labor on the Smiths' papers. They are first listed in N. W. Ayer and Sons' American Newspaper Annual for 1891 as editors and publishers of the Box Elder County Herald. Eva must have been the woman referred to by the Park Record that year: "The Bugler and the Herald of Brigham City are engaged in a life and death struggle for supremacy. The Herald is edited by a lady, and she seems to have the best of the argument."17 No copies of the Herald survive, and the Eagle and the World were inconsistent in listing editor and publisher. The Smiths founded the Eagle, and William was named as editor and publisher in its first number, but then Eva was listed as editor.18 The World listed "Smith & Smith" as publishers. The fourth paper, the Nephi Ensign, claimed only William as editor. The World and the Eagle provide additional examples of papers that used a minimum of locally produced material. Both consisted of 14 From 1905 to 1907 the Progress was again in feminine hands, for two young, unmarried sisters acquired it. They were Gladys DeLong, editor and publisher, and her sister, Winnie. Between Elizabeth's editorship and that of the DeLongs, the paper was published by H a n s P. Ipson. i 5 S . A. Kenner, Utah As It Is (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1904), p. 167. 1,6 Letter from Fay Ella C. Prince. 17 Park Record, February 28, 1891. 18 Carol Ivins Collett, Kaysvilleâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Our Town (Salt Lake City: M o e n c h Letter Service, 1976), p . 122.

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eight pages of six columns each. Only two of the pages, featuring local news briefs and local ads, were of home manufacture. The remaining six were patent. Married editors about whom more is known, even though few copies of their newspaper survive, were Ada and Legh Freeman. Ada started a paper in Ogden in 1875 before her husband came to join her, and she continued to bear a large share of responsibility for it while he scouted the territory for stories, subscribers, and advertisers, taking credit for the newspaper Ada produced in his absence. Ada Virginia Miller was born in Virginia in 1844. She taught school, became an assistant principal, and wrote articles for two newspapers before Legh Freeman came to lecture in his home town of Culpeper, Virginia, in 1869 and married her. Legh and his brother, Frederick, had been publishing newspapers along the route of the transcontinental railroad as it moved west, until a mob destroyed their press at Bear River City, Wyoming, in 1868. Writing as "General Horatio Vattel, Lightning Scout of the Mountains," Legh had made something of a name for himself. Perhaps because of financial losses in stock speculation, Legh decided in 1875 to go back to following the railroad, this time to Ogden. He had been on amiable terms with the Mormons and probably counted on their support. While he remained in Wyoming to mine coal claims there, Ada went on to Ogden and announced that the Ogden Freeman would soon appear. In an early issue she noted: Be it recorded as a part of the history of Utah, that a Virginia born and bred lady came to Utah unacquainted with a single soul, and within a period of six weeks organized, established and conducted the Ogden Freeman; took charge of two infant sons, and gave birth to a third, and in Lhat time was never censured, because her endeavors to assist her husband did not accord with notions.19

Upon his arrival in Ogden, Legh received little support from either Mormons or Gentiles. Such good will as the paper was able to attract during the four years of its existence probably came as a result of Ada's efforts, not Legh's. An 1883 Ogden directory stated: The first number was issued by the lady, Mrs. Ada V. Freeman. It was very conservative in tone and characterâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;indeed Mrs. Freeman appeared desirous to conciliate the people of Ogden and gain their good will. She succeeded to some extent by her non-interference with the religious and 19

Quoted in Salt Lake Tribune, July 24, 1875.

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social system of the citizens. But when Freeman arrived here the policy of the paper was soon changed. H e was a strong a n t i - " M o r m o n " â&#x20AC;&#x201D; in fact he was a sort of wild Ishmaeliteâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;his h a n d was soon turned against every m a n that he could not bulldoze. . . . Freeman was in continual hot water during the time he remained here in consequence of his malignity and abuse of the citizens. 20

After numerous altercations, both verbal and physical, Legh announced that a branch of the Ogden Freeman would be published in Montana at the terminus of the Utah and Northern Railroad. By August 1879 he had ordered the Ogden paper discontinued and had sent for his family to join him in Montana. Ada, who by then had borne a fourth son, supervised loading of the printing equipment into two covered wagons for the trip to Butte and drove the first wagon while a printer drove the second. In southwestern Montana the rough road dislodged a shotgun hanging in her wagon, and a load of bird shot struck Ada's hip. Six days later she died. Legh wrote: She was one of the noblest women on earth. During the most excruciating suffering she was joyous to the last, and when informed that she must die, said: "Well, I a m prepared for death. Tell my children to be good, and meet m e in heaven." Even after the soul h a d taken flight, her whole face beamed with serenity a n d pleasure. As joint editor of The Ogden Freeman, she performed good work in U t a h , and even the Mormons regretted her departure. . . . 21

In a situation apparently very different from that of Ada Freeman was Ireta Dixon Hemenway, listed as editor of the Utah Valley Gazette under her maiden name from its founding in 1889 until October 1890. After October, until its sale early in 1891, the name of her husband, Charles, was on the masthead. It would seem from attacks on him in the rival Provo Enquirer that Charles was responsible for the paper from its inception. He answered the Enquirer's charges in the first person and defended himself without denying that the Gazette's editorial policy was his creation. All of the newspapers mentioned so far were intended to be of general interest. Although marked by the idiosyncracies of their editors, they were similar to other weekly newspapers of the time in purpose, content, and appearance. Some Utah periodicals with which women were associated were more specialized, either in their content or in the audience 20 Leo Haefeli and Frank J. Cannon, Directory of Ogden City and Weber County (Ogden: Ogden Herald Publishing Company, 1883), p. 62. 21 Quoted in Thomas H. Heuterman, Movable Type (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1979), p.. 82,

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they sought to reach. Representative in that it had a social cause to promote was the Salt Lake Sanitarian, the only one of these specialized publications that was produced by spouses. This was a joint endeavor with a difference, however, because it was edited by Milford Bard Shipp and two of his plural wives, Ellis Reynolds Shipp and Maggie Curtis Shipp. Ellis was the first of the three to obtain her medical degree. Born in 1847, she had moved with her family to Utah and in 1866 married twicedivorced Milford, who was eleven years her senior. Then she decided, after the deaths of a son in 1868 and a daughter in 1873, that her life's work would be caring for the sick. In the meantime, Milford had married Margaret Curtis, almost three years younger than Ellis. Maggie also had settled on medicine as a career. She traveled to the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1874 but, after a month of homesickness, returned to Salt Lake. Ellis left three children to take Maggie's place in Philadelphia. After a summer off in 1876, Ellis gave birth to a baby girl back in Philadelphia in 1877 and stayed on to complete work for her degree in March 1878. Five years later, Maggie received her degree, and Milford, who had studied law while Ellis was away, switched to medicine and obtained his degree also. In April 1888 the three Doctors Shipp founded the Salt Lake Sanitarian. It was a monthly of twenty-four pages "devoted to the prevention and cure of diseases and injuries, and the promulgation of the laws of health and life." The editors intended to cultivate an understanding of physiological laws, "educate the people in the laws of life and sanitation," and discuss "the care of the sick and treatment of disease." They would be tied "to no exclusive dogmas" but would "endeavor to advance only such principles as are established in the light of science and have the sanction of professional authority."22 Ellis wrote articles with titles like "Olive Oil," "Scarlet Fever," "Hygiene of Beds," "Poisons and Their Antidotes," "Sleep," and "Mothers' Methods," the last a continuing series. Maggie wrote "Nurses," "Cholera Infantum," "The Skin â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Construction and Care," and "Confidence Between Mother and Daughter." Most of the Sanitarian's content, however, was reprinted from other medical periodicals. Ellis and Maggie must have had full responsibility for putting it together from September to December 1888 while Milford served time in the Utah, penitentiary for unlawful cohabitation. They ran an Obstetric and Nurse School for women of the territory during the same period and al22

Salt Lake Sanitarian 1 (1888): 14.

Nineteenth-century

Women Editors

301

A CHRONOLOGICAL L I S T OF U T A H ' S NINETEENTH-CENTURY W O M E N

EDITORS

Lula Greene Richards, Woman's Exponent, 1872-77. A d a Virginia Miller Freeman, Ogden Freeman, 1875-79. Emmeline B. Wells, Woman's Exponent, 1877-1914. Jennie E. Anderson Froiseth, Anti-Polygamy Standard, 1880-83. Ellis R. Shipp, Salt Lake Sanitarian, 1888-89. Maggie C. Shipp Roberts, Salt Lake Sanitarian, 1888-89. Ireta Dixon ( H e m e n w a y ) , Utah Valley Gazette, 1889-90. Susa Young Gates, Young Woman's Journal, 1889-1901. Eva B. Smith, Box Elder County Herald (Brigham C i t y ) , 1890 or 1891; Eagle (Kaysville), 1893-94; World (American F o r k ) , 1896-99. K a t e J e a n Boan, Uintah Pappoose, 1891â&#x20AC;&#x201D;92. K a t e Hilliard, Ogden Times, 1896. Candace A. D e Witt Blakeslee, Piute Pioneer, 1897-98. S a m a n t h a Sessions Smith, Woods Cross Watchman, 1898. Elizabeth S, Worthen, Panguitch Progress, 1898 and 1903-4.

most could have established their own obstetric ward, Ellis having had ten children and Maggie nine. Beginning with the second volume of the Sanitarian in April 1889 until its demise in January 1891 only Milford was listed as editor. Ellis continued to write for it, but Maggie did not; and one author suggests that the eventual death of the publication might have been caused by feuds between Maggie and Milford who later were divorced.23 A modern reader might wonder if the content of the publication was not at fault. Reprinted articles were long, not very lively, and replete with difficult medical terminology. Ellis went on to further study, service on the staff of the Deseret Hospital, delivery of 5,000 babies, publication of a volume of poetry, leadership in women's literary groups, and membership on the Relief Society general board before her death in 1939. Maggie married Brigham H. Roberts after her divorce from Milford and died in 1926 in Brooklyn, where Brigham was presiding over the Eastern States Mission of the Mormon church. Medical education was the goal of the Sanitarian. Another cause that contributed to the founding of Utah periodicals was woman suffrage. A publication of which no copies now exist but which reportedly 23 Gail Farr Casterline, "Ellis R. Shipp," in Vicky Burgess-Olsen, ed., Sister Saints (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1978), p. 374.

302

Utah Historical Quarterly

had suffrage as its major concern was the Ogden Times, founded and edited by Kate Hilliard in 1896, the year that Utah achieved statehood following a campaign by its women to be allowed to vote once again as they had during the 1870s and most of the 1880s. Publications for Mormon women also were supporters of women's rights. Considerable attention has been given in published works and theses to them and to their editors, so they will be mentioned only briefly here.24 Utah's first woman editor was Louisa Lula Greene Richards, who founded the Woman's Exponent in 1872. The twenty-three-year-old Lula came from the small town of Smithfield, and her total prior journalistic experience consisted of editing the handwritten "Smithfield Sunday School Gazette." During the five years of her Exponent editorship Lula issued the sprightly eight-page paper twice each month and kept the promise of its prospectus that it would "contain a brief and graphic summary of current news, local and general; household hints, educational matters, articles on leading topics of interest suitable to its columns, and miscellaneous reading," as well as reports of the female Relief Societies and other church organizations.25 After Lula married and had two children, both of whom died, she turned the editorship over to Emmeline B. Wells, who was forty-nine, thrice-married with grown children, and eager to fulfill a lifelong ambition to be the editor of a magazine.26 She brought the Exponent through the remainder of its forty-two years, reluctantly seeing its replacement by the Relief Society Magazine in 1914. It was Susa Young Gates who founded and edited the Relief Society Magazine for its first seven years. Her nineteenth-century editing experience was acquired on the Young Woman's Journal, a monthly she founded with the thought that it would provide an outlet for the literary gifts of the girl members of the C h u r c h while presenting the truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as a factor in

24 For example, chapters in Burgess-Olsen, Sister Saints, on Susa Young Gates, Lula Greene Richards, and Emmeline B. Wells, and in Claudia Bushman, ed., Mormon Sisters (Cambridge, Mass.: Emmeline Press, 1976), on Susa Young Gates; three theses: Rebecca Ann Anderson, "Emmeline B. Wells: Her Life and Thought" (Utah State University, 1975), R. Paul Cracroft, "Susa Young Gates: Her Life and Literary Work" (University of Utah, 1951), and Carol Cornwall Madsen, "Remember the Women of Zion: A Study of the Editorial Content of the Woman's Exponent, A Mormon Woman's Journal" (University of Utah, 1977); and articles such as Sherilyn Cox Bennion, "The Woman's Exponent: Forty-two Years of Speaking for Women," Utah Historical Quarterly 44 (1976) : 222-39. 25 Salt Lake Daily Herald, April 9, 1872. 20 Relief Society Magazine 7 (1920) : 136.

Nineteenth-century

Women Editors

303

religious, domestic, social and recreational life through articles and stories, departments and editorials. 27

The Journal survived from 1889 until 1901. If the needs of various groups within the Mormon church stimulated the publication of specialized periodicals, some outside the church felt a need to publish their views on Mormon plural marriage. One of the most vociferous opponents of polygamy was Jennie E. Anderson Froiseth, editor of the Anti-Polygamy Standard. Jennie, born in Ireland in 1849, moved to Salt Lake in 1871 after five years of study at European convents and marriage to Bernard Arnold Martin Froiseth, a surveyor and mapmaker assigned to Fort Douglas. She edited the Standard from its inception in April 1880 until its final number in the spring of 1883. As vice-president of the Women's National Anti-Polygamy Society, she also traveled throughout the country to strengthen antipolygamy sentiment and to form new branches of the organization. A monthly of eight pages, with a subscription price of one dollar a year, the Standard carried a subtitle from I Corinthians 7:2, "Let every Man have his own Wife, and Let every Woman have her own Husband." In her "Salutatory," Jennie quoted the constitution of the society to explain the paper's aim: "to plan and execute such measures as shall in the judgment of its members tend to suppress polygamy in Utah and other Territories of the United States." An editorial added that the society's members felt only "kindness and good will" toward Mormon women but hated the system under which the Mormons were suffering.28 The paper carried news notes, some household hints, reports of nonMormon churches, a mining page, biographical sketches of notable women, and poetry, as well as exposes of polygamy. Jennie used many of the exposes in her 1886 book, The Women of Mormonism; or The Story of Polygamy as Told by the Victims Themselves. She also was busy bearing children â&#x20AC;&#x201D; five of them â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and working for the establishment of a home for escaping families of polygamists. The Froiseths stayed on in Salt Lake after Bernard left government service to operate a map publishing and real estate business. Jennie, a poet and dramatic reader as well as an editor, was a member of the Poetry Society and the Ladies' Literary Club and a vice-president of the

27 28

Young Woman's Journal 40 (1929) : 678. Anti-Polygamy Standard 1 (1880): 4.

304

Utah Historical

Quarterly

Utah Association for the Advancement of Women. She was associated with the Orphan's Home and Day Nursery and provided the major impetus for the founding of the Sarah Daft home for the aged. She died in Salt Lake at age eighty-one. How can this diverse group of women and publications be summarized? Perhaps only by stating that they were as various a lot as any other group of frontier editors. It seems that they were accepted as equals by their male counterparts, who greeted them with encouragement when they became editors, teased them when they made mistakes, criticized them when they took contrary positions on political or social issues, and reported their retirements exactly as they did for editors who were men. No comments were found that supported a view of newspaper editing as an inappropriate occupation for women. Publishing did not require a large capital investment in those days; and a woman, as well as a man, who had some spirit of adventure, a modicum of ambition, and a way with words might see journalism as a reasonable activity to pursue. Utah's population was growing; communities competed for settlers and businesses; advertisers relied on the print media to reach prospective customers. Newspapers were concrete signs that cities and towns were flourishing. Like the new towns, Utah's early women editors often flourished only briefly. Seven of them lasted as editors for a year or less. Only Emmeline B. Wells and Susa Young Gates had editorial careers of more than ten years. Still, in spite of the wide ranges in length of editorship, type of publication, personal characteristics, and editorial aims, it may be possible to sum up these editors by borrowing the characterizations of western frontier women in general that William Forrest Sprague suggested in Women and the West. Certainly, the Utah editors had the three qualities he found typical: They were hopeful, ambitious, and enterprising.29 29 William Forrest Sprague, Women House, 1940), pp. 111-18.

and

the

West

(Boston:

Christopher

Publishing

•Mm.:.

Camera,

•

.V.;,.. .,'......•;':.:.

Spade,

and Pen: An Inside

View of Southwestern

Archaeology.

By M A R C

G A E D E a n d M A R N I E GAEDE. ( T u c s o n : University of Arizona Press, 1980. 106 p p .

$25.00.) Camera, Spade, and Pen is a work which attempts, t h r o u g h a combination of photographic a n d written essays, to capture, as Watson Smith notes i n t h e foreword, " t h e feel, t h e spirit, of the Southwest's archaeological remains." I t is even more ambitious, however, in that it also tries to convey some of the rom a n c e a n d excitement of archaeology: the h a r d work, the frustration, the awe, the painstaking care, a n d t h e dirt down the back. Both interrelated attempts deal with feelings a n d as such are highly subjective. T h e degree to which these attempts succeed or fail is thus dependent on one's own preconceptions. As a n archaeologist with some experience i n the Southwest, I have m y own preconceptions; a n d to m e , the written essays are m u c h m o r e successful a t letting the reader know w h a t archaeology is all about than t h e p h o t o g r a p h s are in capturing t h e essence of t h e Southwest's occasionally spectacular sites. T h e volume consists of fourteen essays by twelve archaeologists whose careers average nearly fifty years. Several, such as Emil H a u r y a n d J. O . Brew, are n o t only deans of southwestern archaeology b u t have m a d e major contributions to archaeology on a national and, indeed, international level. F o r t h e most part, the papers consist of descriptions of t h e work of such people as E a r l Morris, Neil J u d d , H a r o l d Colton, a n d the Wetherills w h o were ultimately responsible for m u c h of the direction that southwestern

archaeology has taken over t h e last century. T h e often h u m o r o u s descriptions of w h a t these early archaeologists did, a n d even m o r e i m p o r t a n t h o w they did it, makes fascinating a n d enjoyable reading. I was struck by h o w little, other t h a n in the degree of accessibility to the sites, archaeology in the Southwest has changed. Frederick Hodge's description in 1923 of feeding t h e Indians w h o polished off " m a n y sheep, several barrels of flour, a n d a wagonload of watermelons" could be a description of dinner a t a n archaeological field c a m p fifty years ago as well as today. While the descriptions of Earl Morris a n d A. V . K i d d e r a n d others a r e enjoyable a n d convey a feeling of w h a t archaeology is all about, I would have liked to h a v e seen m o r e about t h e authors themselves. Several essays, such as that by Emil H a u r y on V e n t a n a Cave and J u l i a n H a y d e n ' s on his early work at K e e t Seel, d o describe t h e authors' own work a n d their own feelings, b u t for the most p a r t anything anecdotal is reserved for a generation of archaeologists now dead. I suppose, however, that it is m u c h easier t o tell a funny story about your mentors t h a n it is to tell it on yourself, a n d we m u s t await essays by their successors to share some of their experiences a n d escapades. O n e very worthwhile aspect of these essays is that they represent t h e full range of archaeological sites a n d cultures found in t h e Southwest. While the large and impres-

306

Utah Historical

sive multi-storied masonry sites a r e t h e p r i m a r y focus, sites from a variety of time periods a r e discussed. T h e search for big-game hunters is described by T e d Sayles a n d Emil H a u r y ; the excavation of a n Archaic h u n t i n g a n d gathering cave site is described by H a u r y ; a n d t h e intriguing b u t often frustrating a n d enigmatic lithic scatters are described by K a t h a r i n e Bartlett. These essays give the volume a m u c h broader scope t h a n is usual in works of this type. T h e photographic essays, by M a r c Gaede with captions by J. R i c h a r d Amber, a r e somewhat less successful a t capturing t h e spirit of southwestern archaeological sites. T o me, they are r a t h e r cold a n d sterile. T h e sites a p p e a r dead, or, rather m o r e to the point, they a p p e a r inanimate. Such sentiment m a y seem strange coming from an archaeologist, b u t w h e n I a m a t these sites they seem full of life. T h e corncobs a n d turkey dung, the potsherds a n d basketry fragments, t h e rock paintings/ a n d fingerprints in the m u d , combine to convey a place alive with humanity. At these sites m o r e t h a n a n y others, it is easy to' see kids chasing a rock squirrel, to see

Law for the Elephant:

Property

and Social

Quarterly

women grinding cornmeal a n d preparing dinner, to see m e n arguing over the best way to haft a stone knifeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;in other words to imagine life as it was in these southwestern canyons. I get none of this feeling from these photographs. M u c h of their ascetical quality m a y be d u e to the black a n d white format. While cost m a y have been a factor here, a t least a few color photographs of the rich brown a n d red sandstones a n d the green of the p i n y o n / j u n i p e r a n d moist canyon bottoms would have gone m u c h further in conveying a sense of w a r m t h a n d humanity. In. sum, archaeology is m u c h more concerned with learning h o w people live and relate to one another t h a n it is with architecture a n d artifacts. Those are merely tools used to get at explanations of life a n d living. Fortunately, it is possible to get some sense of this from the reminiscences in Camera, Spade, and Pen; unfortunately, t h e photographs suggest only austere magnificence. DAVID B. M A D S E N

Division

Behavior

of State History Salt Lake City

on the Overland

Trail.

J O H N P H I L L I P R E I D . (San M a r i n o , Calif.: H u n t i n g t o n Library, 1980. X + 437 p p .

$18.50.) I n Law for the Elephant, J o h n P. Reid has provided a fascinating account of t h e journey westward t o California a n d O r e g o n in the* context of law-mindedness. T h e appropriateness of the title is soon a p p a r e n t , for "seeing die elep h a n t " we learn was a nineteenth-century colloquialism for facing adversity, for gaining experience through h a r d ship, a n d for encountering t h e u n k n o w n or unbelievableâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;conditions t h a t the O v e r l a n d T r a i l provided in a b u n d a n c e for those w h o traveled it. Reid, a legal historian, h a s d r a w n u p o n t h e thoughts a n d actions of t h e overland emigrant to examine h o w a n d , m o r e important,

why people reacted to the "elephants" they encountered. C o n c e n t r a t i n g on the treatment of property a n d property rights, Reid maintains that there was a high degree of law a n d order along the Overland T r a i l a n d a m o n g t h e emigrants w h o traveled it; that though they h a d passed physically beyond the realm of formal government a n d law, lawlessness did not to any significant degree prevail. Reid effectively challenges the historical and literary image of r a m p a n t lawlessness on t h e American frontier, a condition we have been often told is endemic to Americans w h o a r e said to be a violent

Book Reviews and Notices people by nature. That social disruption and lawlessness did not occur to any significant extent Reid attributes to the law-mindedness of the populace. It is that law-mindedness that the author finds so intriguing. Americans of the nineteenth century, he contends, were far more conversant with the law, especially as it related to property, and were more willing to accept the framework of law and work within and be governed by it than are their twentiethcentury counterparts. Wherever they went, their law went with them, providing, as it did on the Overland Trail, a common code of behavior that above all was legal in its nature but also often moral. One need not be a lawyer, a student of the law, or a legal historian to enjoy this book, for its style and appeal are broad. There is a refreshing lack of legal jargon in this work; Reid exposes us to the legal thinking of the nineteenth century as it applied to property and ownership rights! without the legal briefs, court cases, and Latin terms that the layman may find intimidating. Instead, he develops a sense of the law and of the journey westward through an extremely skillful integration of diaries, letters, and other contemporary accounts of those on the Overland Trail. We come to see and understand the hardships faced by the emigrant, and we are treated to a view of the life and lifestyle of those who journeyed westward. We discover that when conflicts arose their resolution in the absence of courts most often followed a system that was almost indistinguishable from the legal system left behind. Reid demonstrates

307 that social behavior was based largely on law. Law-mindedness, of course, was not the only factor in providing social control and determining the behavior of the emigrant who trecked westward. In this sense Reid's approach is on occasion too singular. The New England Puritans, among the earliest westward pioneers, for example, clung to established codes and customs more out of a fear of becoming savages than out of a sense of law. Nor does Reid give any attention to the assumption that even though the overland traveler had passed beyond the reach of the law most expected eventually to find themselves once again bound by formal law and accountable to that law for prior deeds. This element, this coercive force, is never adequately addressed. But these are minor flaws in a masterful work. Reid has presented a convincing argument about the role of law-mindedness on the Overland Trail as well as the nature and extent of frontier violence. Perhaps there were fewer laws, perhaps laws were less complex. Whatever the reason, as Reid leads the reader through partnership contracts, concurrent ownership, and other legal and quasi-legal relationships, one must conclude that the nineteenth-century American was bound in his mind even more than in his heart to a legal system he both understood and respected. This work is highly recommended and belongs on the "must read" list for anyone interested in the westward movement.

JAMES

LEVITT

Southwest Texas State University San Marcos

Community on the American Frontier: Separate but Not Alone. By ROBERT V. HINE. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980. Xii + 292 pp. $12.50.) According to Frederick Jackson Turner, doyen of historians writing about the American frontier, the dominant thrust in frontier settlement, and, in turn, the real propellant of American

history, was individualism. Selecting an alternative approach to Turner's interpretation, Robert Hine has developed a perceptive study of community spirit as it appeared on the successive Amer-

308 ican frontiers. In Fline's estimation America's essential need, past and present, is better identified as community, defined as a sense of place and belonging. Accepting this thesis as the cornerstone for his work, the author provides a masterful synthesis of a multitude of community-oriented episodes in the history of America's westward movement. Beginning with reflections on the theories of noted historians, sociologists, and philosophers as they sought to describe the quest for community presumably inherent in all mankind, Hine proceeds to an analysis of selected periods in American history wherein community forces were notably at work. After a commentary on Puritan communes in the wilderness, Hine discusses communal tendencies exhibited in wagon trains traversing the trans-Mississippi West; in western mining camps; in farming ventures on the Great Plains; in towns of the Midwest; in Mexican and Anglo ranching societies; and, finally, in representative ethnic and cooperative colonies. Recognizing a strong initial motivation for close community ties in each of his case studies, Hine also acknowledges the rarity of continuing and successful communal enterprises in America's past. Restless Puritans left the shelter of their covenanted society to found new settlements throughout New England. Members of wagon trains formed cooperative companies for their travels, but this sense of community was abandoned at journey's end as each family went its own way. The harshness of the Great Plains environment demanded, at first, a community of hardship for farmers, but growing class distinction derived from the impact of national economic forces worked against unity among those same farmers. Attachments to place seldom lasted beyond one generation in the ethnic colonies, and in the cooperative colonies the severe strain caused by internal tensions usually brought disaster.

Utah Historical Quarterly What was the most prevalent eroding factor that destroyed the sense of community on the frontier? In a wordâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; mobility. With irresistible temptations to move on, the frontiersmen and their families seldom achieved any deep attachment to place. Looking for the grass, or whatever, that was always greener on the other side of Lhe fence, our forefathers found it exceedingly difficult to stay put. Concluding with an assessment of several communal movements of the 1970s, Hine reveals his admiration for those courageous persons who surrendered their individualism to live together, all for one and one for all. Of course, these were isolated achievements at best, and, in the author's final observation, the fruition of a cooperative community spirit on a broader scale for the nation at large may have to wait until the lingering effect of the westward movement is finally spent. In this thought-provoking study, the author has mined a vast collection of material, looking always for gems of historical reference to his community theory. No less than 494 sources are cited in his bibliography! Like Frederick Jackson Turner, writing almost a century ago, Hine, perhaps unintentionally, has offered a challenge for rebuttal of his theory from Other historians. An opportunity is now available for presentation of arguments questioning the basic thesis, i.e., America's essential need has been and continues to be a sense of place or belonging. Hine has shown that in the contest between individualism and community in the past, the spirit of community has usually been defeated by separatist impulses. What, then, is the "essential need" of Americans? Historians of the American West will look forward to the controversies that are sure to arise on this captivating issue. NORMAN J. BENDER

University of Colorado

Book Reviews and Notices The Northern Shoshoni. By BRIGHAM D. 1980. 259 pp. Paper, $12.95.) Dr. Madsen has published two books about the Numic-speaking (Shoshonean) people of eastern Idaho who were found there when Europeans arrived and whose descendants are still there. The two books cover the same populations, and both could have been properly titled "Shoshonean Speaking Indians of Idaho and Vicinity." The titles, The Bannock of Idaho (1958) and The Northern Shoshoni (1980), suggest distinctions between the two peoples that do not exist. In the preface of the 1958 volume Madsen wrote: "Although tiiey lived in tile midst of numerous Shoshoni . . . the Bannock persistently maintained their tribal entity and language." It is not clear what Madsen meant by "tribal entity," but the evidence is massive in support of the view that only continued use of the Nortfiern Paiute language, to which Bannock belongs, and an emotional expression of being of distinct ancestry, separate Bannock from Shoshoni in historic times in Idaho. Evidence for the complete integration of the Bannock as a foreign-language minority was the need for 173 citations to Shoshoni Indians in the index of The Bannock of Idaho, which equals a reference on every other page. A similar situation is evident from references to Bannock on 180 pages of the total of the 244 pages of text of The Northern Shoshoni. There are differences between the two volumes. In his 1958 book Madsen reviewed slightly the ethnology and the reports of early trappers in about eighty pages before reporting on Mormon missionary work among the Lemhi. In his 1980 book he included a ten-page introduction by Merle W. Wells to cover the cultural factors and fur trade era, although he devoted three pages to the "Shoshoni Homeland." I expected Madsen's second volume, with a title used by ethnologist Lowie for a monograph of 1909, to be an

309 MADSEN.

(Caldwell, Ida.: Caxton Printers

ethno-history. Unfortunately, the Wells introduction presents about the only ethnology there is. Madsen does list eight ethnological titles in the bibliography, but only two of the eight authors, Liljeblad and Mooney, are named in the index. I could not find how he had used Lowie, Steward, Walker, or Hultkantz. Both of Madsen's book titles should have started with "History of . . . " Neither is an ethno-history. The Northern Shoshoni is divided into sixteen chapters with titles vaguely suggesting the contents of each, but the real organization is in the subsections, two to six to a chapter. Each of the seventy-six subsections is a short essay arranged chronologically with the important dates duplicated in the margins. Sources are indicated by short citation in notes at the end of each chapter. For example, chapter 14, "Medicine Man: Old and New," pp. 195-210, is subdivided into six essays. One, "The Ghost Dance and Christian Activities," pp. 198-202, has fourteen marginal dates 1889 to 1964, supported by twenty-one footnotes. Six cite Mooney 1891, but most of the others are from government documents. Four of the five photographs in the chapter show buildings and Indian students of the Presbyterian Mission, 1901-64. There are fifty-one illustrations and seven maps, six of the Fort Hall reservation 1866 to 1930. Four appendices supply tables of significant dates, a list of agents, statistics on farming, and the text of the Shoshoni-Bannock treaty of 1868. The bibliography is deceptively shortâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;only about fifty books and pamphlets and about one hundred other titles. The deception comes from a single title representing thousands of items. For example, the Deseret News, 1850-1974, or U.S. National Archives, Record Group 75. The Northern Shoshoni is a very useful source book on government relations

310 with Lhe Bannock and Shoshoni of I d a h o as recorded by the government. I t furnishes ready access to important actions

Utah Historical Quarterly a n d dates affecting the Numic-speaking Indians of I d a h o . O M E R C.

University

STEWART

Colorado

American Indian Leaders: Studies in Diversity. Edited by R. DAVID E D M U N D S . (Lincoln and L o n d o n : University of Nebraska Press, 1980. Xiv + 257 p p . Cloth $19.50; paper, $5.95.) R. David Edmunds's compilation of twelve male American I n d i a n leaders serves as an excellent companion a n d extension to The Patriot Chiefs: A Chronicle of Resistance by Alvin M . Josephy, Jr., published almost twenty years ago. Josephy, however, lets both the subjects a n d readers linger in t h e pre-twentieth-century setting whereas E d m u n d s does not. Included are personalities from colonial to present times: O l d Briton, Joseph Brant, Alexander McGillivray, R e d Bird, J o h n Ross, Satanta, Washakie, Sitting Bull, Q u a n a h Parker, Dennis Bushyhead, Carlos M o n tezuma, a n d Peter M a c D o n a l d . A worthwhile introduction by Edm u n d s prepares readers for the shifting problems of defining leadership roles within various American I n d i a n tribes down through time. T h e complex socialeconomic-political-religious fabric of Ind i a n life must be examined in order to understand each m a n within his historical framework of Indian-white a n d I n d i a n - I n d i a n relationships. E a c h author provides valuable inform a t i o n to help readers obtain a flavor of t h e times and of the problems surr o u n d i n g the personalities w h o were propelled, sometimes reluctantly, into prominence. Contributors lending their expertise include: Michael Green, William T . H a g a n , Herbert T . Hoover, Peter Iverson, Craig Miner, Gary E. Moulton, James O'Donnell, D o n a l d Worcester, Peter M . Wright, M a r t i n

Zanger, and R. David E d m u n d s . Although Lhe essays vary in quality, overall diey are presented in a readable, straightforward, descriptive a n d analytical account. Unlike Josephy's book, this work includes useful footnotes that eliminate guesswork as to sources and where additional information m a y be found. Also of interest are the pictorial reproductions of eleven of t h e twelve leaders; apparently no painting or other likeness was found for Old Briton. Reference m a p s in each essay help clarify locations. E d m u n d s has noted t h a t there are m a n y other patterns of I n d i a n leadership tiiat were not included in his book because of the broad time frame and complex h u m a n relationships involved. As one would guess, Lhere a r e many more leaders, m a l e and female, whose contribution to their respective tribes have yet to b e researched a n d p u b lished. E d m u n d s would challenge scholars, both American I n d i a n a n d nonIndian, to continue work he and Josephy have begun. T h e book, expensive in its hardback edition, was recently published in paperback, making it accessible for classroom use. I n time, Edmunds's book will become a standard for American Indian studies classes on university campuses. JANICE W H I T E

Brigham

Young

J. Reuben Clark: The Public Years. By F R A N K W. Fox. (Provo, U t . : Y o u n g University Press, 1980. Xviii + 702 p p . $10.95.) J. R e u b e n Clark would have liked Professor Frank Fox's balanced and at times fascinating biographical study,

CLEMMER

University Brigham

/ . Reuben Clark: The Public Years, beginning with his family's d e p a r t u r e from U t a h for the Columbia L a w

Book Reviews and Notices School in 1903 and ending with the return to his native roots and source of religious inspiration. In between those years, spanning over a quarter of a century, the author has woven the texture of Clark's personal and professional encounters and the influences, friendships, and contacts he made during his mature lifetime. Clark's career is important to the student of American history since it covered the decades when Washington became militarily as well as diplomatically engaged in overseas issues. After joining the State Department, he became involved in the challenges of the first decade of this century when the agency expanded its bureaucracy to handle new responsibilities and simultaneously compartmentalized into special spheres of expertise covering the Far East, Latin America, Europe, and the Near East. No longer would or could family connections guarantee a young man a diplomatic career within this agency; instead, men such as Clark were chosen because of their scholarly and intellectual qualifications. J. Reuben Clark's service mirrored the changes within the State Department as it moved from the lazy days of old-fashioned nineteenth-century diplomacy to the more rapid-paced and world-reaching decisions of the twentieth. Personifying that new man, Clark tried to balance the conservative's dream of historical preservation with the demands of political, social, and economic progress. The tension between the two views sometimes produced intellectual conflicts. Clark opposed American entry into the League of Nations and the World Court, for he wished participation in foreign events not to impede America's freedom of action. Yet his legal drafts, memorandums, and recommendations often reflected a desire to participate in international affairs but always with the caveat not to make permanent, irreversible commit-

311 ments. That dualism pervaded his writings throughout his life. Unable to resolve the internal fight raging between the idealist of the Continental past and the pragmatic interventionist of the present, Clark was left on many occasions anguished and frustrated. The climax of this distinguished career occurred with his appointment as a member of the Mexican-United States Mixed Claims Commission, followed by his confirmation as ambassador to Mexico City (1930-33). Clark's historical importance, however, does not rest solely with his legal documents nor his advice to senators like Philander C. Knox (R. Pennsylvania) or Reed Smoot (R. Utah) on how to combat America's growing internationalism after the Great War. Rather, it comes from his awareness tiiat he represented two Americas: the nation that had been and could not be recalled and the one that was involved in foreign quarrels and overseas obligations. Ironically, he is remembered for a memorandum deemphasizing America's right to intervene in the internal affairs of Latin American nations that he neither authored entirely nor that he advocated. Until Professor Fox's study his beliefs on this issue have been ignored. Even such a well-written biography as Fox's cannot compensate for the fact that Clark was only a minor character in this nation's diplomatic tradition. His influence was confined to writing finely honed legal memorandums and position papers in addition to justifying the negative views of anti-Wilsonians during the debates over American participation in international agreements and organizations following World War I. But that does not distinguish him from others who held similar beliefs and attempted to change the future of the United States. Professor Fox has written a sensitive study of the man, but it is one that needed clearer focus and judgments as

312

Utah Historical Quarterly

to his contributions while a public servant. Perhaps Fox's inability t o define Clark's role more thoroughly or t o demonstrate a lasting influence o n foreign policy must ultimately rest with Clark

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The Story of the Passes. By M A R S H -

Printed Maps of Utah to 1900: An An-

ALL SPRAGUE. ( L i n c o l n : University of

M O O R E M O F F A T . ( S a n t a C r u z , Calif.:

Nebraska Press, 1981. Xii + 468 p p . Cloth, $23.50; paper, $8.50.)

Western Association of M a p Libraries, 1981. X v i - r 177 p p . Paper, $10.00.)

First published in 1964, this lively account of Rocky M o u n t a i n explorations is again available t o delight t h e imagination of readers. T h e serious stud e n t of western American history w h o worries a t times about Sprague's glibness will nevertheless find food for thought as well as amusement i n such analyses as this one of the DominguezEscalante expedition: "But they never reached California, mostly because the friendly U t e Indians of Colorado, c h a r m e d by their gaiety, lectures on monogamy, gospel singing, a n d naive disregard of their own danger in t h e wilderness, kept leading them in t h e wrong drection to show t h e m t h e U n compahgre a n d R o a n plateaus, the jewel lakes of G r a n d Mesa, deep canyons of t h e U p p e r Colorado River, t h e swift-running White River, t h e future Dinosaur National M o n u m e n t and other Colorado tourist attractions." T h e roster of passes, a n eighty-page appendix, will help the armchair historian keep his bearings and may even suggest a trip into historic a n d scenic country for the motorist or backpacker.

notated

Cartobibliography.

By R I L E Y

This immensely useful guide identifies 303 maps of U t a h a n d their provenance. A general discription accompanies each entry, a n d a n y distinguishing features, peculiaries, or inaccuracies are noted. Copies of more t h a n 80 of the listed maps are available to researchers in t h e U t a h State Historical Society library. Early Nevada: tion,

The Period

1776-1848.

Explora-

By F . N . F L E T C H E R .

( R e n o : University of N e v a d a Press, 1980. Xii + 195 p p . Paper, $5.25.) Originally published in 1929, this work has been reissued as the second title in t h e Vintage N e v a d a series of reprints. Early Nevada includes two chapters each on Jedediah Strong Smith a n d J o h n C. Fremont, the most imp o r t a n t explorers of t h e area now part of Nevada. Fletcher also devotes, a chapter each to t h e Bonneville-Walker expedition a n d the Bartleson-Bidwell emigrants. His narrative includes selections from original journals.

UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY D e p a r t m e n t of C o m m u n i t y a n d E c o n o m i c D e v e l o p m e n t D i v i s i o n of S t a t e H i s t o r y BOARD OF STATE

HISTORY

M I L T O N C. A B R A M S , Smithfield, 1985

President M E L V I N T . S M I T H , Salt Lake City Secretary T H O M A S G. ALEXANDER, Provo, 1983 J. E L D O N D O R M A N , Price, 1985 MRS.

E L I Z A B E T H G R I F F I T H , O g d e n , 1985

W A Y N E K. H I N T O N , C e d a r City, 1985 T H E R O N L U K E , Provo, 1983

DAVID S. M O N S O N , L i e u t e n a n t G o v e r n o r /

Secretary of State, Ex officio M R S . ELIZABETH M O N T A G U E , Salt Lake City, 1983 WILLIAM D . O W E N S , Salt Lake City, 1983 M R S . H E L E N Z. PAPANIKOLAS, Salt Lake City, 1985 ANAND A. YANG, Salt Lake City, 1985

ADMINISTRATION MELVIN T. SMITH,

Director

STANFORD J. L A Y T O N , Managing Editor J A Y M . H A Y M O N D , Librarian DAVID B. M A D S E N , State Archaeologist

A. K E N T P O W E L L , Historic Preservation Research W I L S O N G. M A R T I N , Historic Preservation Development J O H N M . B O U R N E , Museum

Services

T h e U t a h State Historical Society was organized in 1897 by pu'blic-spirited Utahns to collect, preserve, a n d publish U t a h a n d related history. Today, u n d e r state sponsorship, t h e Society fulfills its obligations by publishing the Utah Historical Quarterly a n d other historical materials; collecting historic U t a h artifacts; locating, documenting, a n d preserving historic a n d prehistoric buildings a n d sites; and maintaining a specialized research library. Donations and gifts to the Society's programs, museum, or its library are encouraged, for only through such means can it live u p to its responsibility of preserving the record of U t a h ' s past.

MEMBERSHIP Membership in the U t a h State Historical Societyis open to all individuals a n d institutions interested in U t a h history. Membership applications a n d change of address notices should be sent to the membership secretary. Annual dues a r e : individual, $10.00; institutions, $15.00; student and senior citizen (age sixty-five o r over), $7.50; contributing, $15.00; sustaining, $25.00; patron,' $50.00; life member, $150.00. Your interest and support are most welcome.

Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume 49, Number 3, 1981

Articles inside

Women and the Socialist Party in Utah, 1900-1920

"I Care Nothing for Politics": Ruth May Fox, Forgotten Suffragist

A Woman State School Superintendent: Whatever Happened to Mrs. McVicker?

Nurturing LDS Primaries: Louie Felt and May Anderson, 1880-1940

Women's Work on the Mormon Frontier

Enterprising Ladies: Utah's Nineteenth-century Women Editors