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Housewives, Hussies, and Heroines, or the Women of Johnston's Army
Housewives, Hussies, and Heroines, or the Women of Johnston's Army
BY AUDREY M. GODFREY
AMONG THOSE WINTERING WITH JOHNSTON'S ARMY near Fort Bridger in 1857, when bad weather and delays forced encampment, were three women — representative of many — Louisa Canby, Elizabeth Gumming, and Mrs. Marony. Louisa was the wife of Col. E.R.S. Canby, a career military man who would later establish Fort Bridger as an army post. Louisa had followed him on each tour of duty and would continue to do so throughout her life. Elizabeth, a civilian, was the wife of the new territorial governor Alfred Gumming who was being escorted by the army to his new office in Utah Territory. And Mrs. Marony, the wife of Sgt. Patrick Marony, would become a laundress and cook for Lt. Jesse Gove. All three women had left Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, the previous July as part of the largest concentration of army troops in peacetime to quell the rebellion of the Mormons.
Why had these women chosen life with the army rather than the comforts of nice homes and the settled life of a community? They were neither wanted nor encouraged to accompany husbands. Special permission from company commanders had to be given for them to be included in the expedition. And later women who chose to marry soldiers could only receive housing on the post through these same leaders. Army regulations, while not forbidding enlisted men to marry and include their wives in their tours of duty, made life difficult for those who did by not recognizing their wives' presence or by denying privileges unless the spouses became laundresses or cooks. Officers' wives, however, could travel with husbands if they chose to do so and received permission.
Army life was not an experience to encourage this female entourage. The ladies would encounter cold, boredom, physical hardship, dust, and primitive living conditions. But on they came, joined by Indian women, prostitutes, actresses, servants, peddlers, barmaids, and girl friends during the years the army occupied Utah. Some would become, or already were, laundresses and cooks for the military. But they all had in common the love of, or service for, some member of Johnston's Army or the desire to make quick money.
To find out who some of these women were and why they came, and to reconstruct what life was like for them as they marched to and settled on the army post of Camp Floyd in Utah Territory, is a difficult task, for few personal writings have been found. Their story must rely, for the most part, on references to them in diaries and letters and some few citations in official records. Archaeological excavations at Camp Floyd have uncovered such things as perfume bottles and delicate buttons, definitely feminine articles, and more clues should come as the work progresses. Sutlers' records indicate the presence of women, although it is difficult to pinpoint a female population merely from soldiers' purchases. For instance, many yards of fabric of various kinds were bought, but they may have been purchased for polishing guns, shoes, and belt buckles, or for sewing by someone else's wife into male apparel, or as gifts to be sent back home. However, enough dress hoops, women's gloves and shoes, and other womanly articles were sold to suggest that there were many women at Camp Floyd.
It is probable that few women came in the first group of forces. Elizabeth Gumming tells of saying good-bye at Salt Lake City to only four women she had traveled with, most likely Mrs. Canby, Mrs. William Burns, Mrs. Samuel S. Carroll, and possibly Mrs. E. B. Alexander, all officers' wives.
The Utah Expedition comprised eight companies of the Tenth Infantry under Col. E. B. Alexander, two batteries of the Fourth Artillery, the Fifth Infantry, six companies of the Second Dragoons, volunteers, and various civil authorities. Col. Albert Sidney Johnston subsequently became the commander, and the force became known by his name.
The government had amply provided for 8,000 persons for a period of twenty months. These provisions included rations for 200 women, most likely laundresses. Twenty-five hundred men were in the original group; if the ratio of one laundress to every nineteen and a half men was adhered to, there were roughly 120 women along in that capacity. Laundresses would not normally have been included among the "ladies" mentioned in writings of the time. That term was reserved for officers' wives in most cases.
Reveille was not later than dawn, with the march beginning two hours later. After marching one hour there would be a ten-minute rest and at each succeeding hour a pause of five minutes. Men of the battery walked every alternate hour, and all were expected to walk uphill or downhill. The women, undoubtedly, found places with their husbands' particular group.
Two women in labor were reported by an army surgeon during the march, "both primapara" or with their first child. In each case, the delivery occurred in a wagon en route, a novelty at that time in obstetric practice, according to the surgeon. The first labor was routine and the mother recovered rapidly, but the second was "remarkable for its duration, a period of sixty hours." The delay was attributed to a rigidity and narrowness of the pelvis, the age of the mother, and her excessive "nervous mobility."
Strong feelings were expressed by some soldiers against the women who chose to accompany them. William Drown, a bugler in Company A of the Second Dragoons, found himself assigned to aid Lizzie Tyler, the wife of 1st Lt. Charles Tyler. As they neared the jumping off place for Utah on their way from Fort Riley, Drown recorded:
He complained of the time needed to bring them wood and water and to pack and unpack their needs, ending with "God bless the ladies! I say, and keep them out of the way of the hostile savages; but as long as they travel with troops they must necessarily be attended to, as they cannot attend to themselves."
Jesse Gove, captain of Company I of the Tenth Infantry, was equally apprehensive about the women in his company. In fact, he told 2d Lt. Samuel S. Carroll that if he brought his wife she would have to take care of herself as he needed Carroll's constant attendance to his duties. He warned Mrs. Carroll also that she must not expect her husband to be away from his company "to the neglect of his duty in a single instance." Mrs. Carroll stayed behind, joining the company again as they left Camp Scott. By journey's end, however, Gove paid tribute to her: "Mrs. Carroll I like very much. She takes the trip with a good deal of sense, and her little Katy is a picture of health and good nature."
William Drown, too, while still begrudging somewhat the things he was asked to do for the ladies, found himself secretly pleased when Mrs. Tyler praised his excellent work in fixing her shoe.
Hampered by the destruction of their supply wagons by the Mormons and the difficulty of advancing in the snow and cold, the expedition went into winter camp near Fort Bridger, naming their encampment Camp Scott after Gen. Winfield Scott. The camp was sheltered by bluffs that rose abruptly a few hundred yards' distance from the bed of a stream. One soldier, describing it shortly before it was abandoned, said,
The civilians of the expedition, including Elizabeth Cumming, were camped about a half-mile from the military and named their new town Eckelsville after the new chief justice of Utah Territory, D.R. Eckels.
Housing was, for the most part, in a yet untried tent named after its inventor, Henry Hopkins Sibley, who was with the expedition. It resembled an Indian tepee with an iron tripod support. When the tent was closed a fire could be lighted beneath the tripods, a draught being created by a circular opening in the top. Some augmented this shelter by digging a depression the diameter of the tent's floor space and banking up dirt around the bottom of the tent on the outside. Others found a way to enclose a sod fireplace in the tent wall, though most were heated with sheet iron stoves. Floors were covered with animal skins, carpet, blankets, or canvas.
Elizabeth Cumming lived in a "suite" of five tents filled with some furniture and was comfortable most of the time. On November 15 she recorded that it was very cold and complained of not being able to wash for many days. But for the most part her accommodations were most certainly better than those of the wives of enlisted men. In his report on conditions at Camp Scott in December 1857, assistant surgeon Robert Bartholome said the tents were comfortable, but "It is hoped that the Quartermaster's Department, with its accustomed liberality, will, at an early date, authorize the issue of these tents [Sibley] to laundresses and servants of officers, as the health of these individuals is surely entitled to some consideration."
In December temperatures fell to twenty below zero. John Phelps, who kept a weather diary, recorded thermometer readings of nine degrees at sunrise to midnight readings of four degrees, while daytime temperatures were in the twenties and thirties for the most part. At times high winds made it feel even colder. Phelps also mentioned fog, which left a congealed shine on the trees, and nightly displays of the "Zodiacal light."
In this wintery setting the inhabitants of the tent city found ways of alleviating the dreariness. Timber was hauled by hand through the snow to construct pavilions with regimental flags flying above them where dances were held. A canvas theater became the setting for a Privates' Ball. And individuals visited and celebrated Christmas and New Year's in tents of acquaintances and friends. John Phelps reported having eggnog made from eggs laid by chickens brought on the expedition by an officer's wife. The Canbys, Burnses, Cummings, and others enjoyed wine together on Christmas day.
Elizabeth Cumming noted, however, that there were infrequent visits between the women, "As ladies, of course, do not care to walk about in a camp, unattended, and as it interferes with a sociable impulse to seek a protector everytime one would visit, we see each other very little but send frequent and polite messages — books, some treasure of a couple of turnips and such like."
As winter wore on these treasures would become even more important, for rations were cut because of shortages. Work oxen were killed and food was bought secretly from Mormon peddlers even though the army forbid it because of the disaster created when the army's supply train was destroyed by the Mormons earlier. Salt was especially missed. Brigham Young sent some but it was refused.
However, some did not seem to suffer from these shortages. Lieutenant Gove enjoyed the talents of Mrs. Marony as she created delicacies from canned tongue and served salad, biscuits, butter, hot coffee, and milk toast. Her husband was able to transfer into Gove's company to enable her to work for the lietitenant. Her son Johnny often came with her, and Gove thought it refreshing to see a little child. Gove said of her, "Everyone in camp thinks ... I have a prize. She is certainly one of the best women in the army."
Indian women of the Cumumbah tribe living near Camp Scott were hired for other reasons. Money or clothing would buy their services. Several Indian women were reported as having contracted venereal disease as a result of their association with the soldiers. But the army surgeon found the women to be models of industry. He said they were prolific and manifested as "much affection for their offspring as the most devoted of civilized mothers." He observed that they were more athletic and vigorous then the men of their tribe but were "far from approaching any elevated standard of beauty." One wonders what their views were of the army.
Other women mentioned in journals or letters of those at Camp Scott were Mrs. Martin who was "as flat as a tailor's press board, both before and behind"; Mrs. William Burns and her daughter Mab; Mrs. Carroll and her daughter Katy; and Mrs. Charles Mogo.
Mab Burns or Katy Carroll may have been the little girl remembered by Henrietta W. Wilson:
In the latter part of October, Mrs. Mogo, who had been living in Salt Lake City with a child, desired to join her husband at Camp Scott. Charles Mogo, who had first come to Utah as a teamster, was later employed by the surveyor general and engaged in various business pursuits in the territory. An escort of four men brought Mrs. Mogo into camp, accompanied by a letter from Brigham Young, dated October 28, 1857, inviting any who wished to return to Salt Lake in the "conveyance" which had transported her. None accepted the invitation.
The Mormons made other suggestions relative to the camp women. Gen. Daniel H. Wells of the Mormon militia advised Colonel Alexander "that if he had ladies in the camp to put them in a train by themselves, as he did not wish to injure them. And the Deseret News oi October 14, 1857, included a poem by Eliza R. Snow from the ladies of Utah "To the Ladies of the United States Camp in a Crusade against the 'Mormons'" which read in part.
Its critical verses undoubtedly were contained in copies of the Salt Lake paper sent to Alexander "to enliven the monotonous routine of camp life" and were directed at Mrs. Canby and Mrs. Burns, according to Gove.
Much could be written about Louisa Canby who was the epitome of the best of the military wives. The sutler at Fort Bridger, after Colonel Canby took command there, called her "the idol of the army." She was a cultured, educated woman who enjoyed a large library of books and magazines sent by friends. She had a brief illness during that first winter but withstood the rigors of the march admirably and rode horseback from Bridger to Camp Floyd, although she had had the comforts of an army ambulance before arriving at the winter encampment. She was known for her amiable personality and often entertained the officers, cooking them delicious meals and occasionally visiting their tents with her husband or a female companion. Her culinary skills were challenged at Camp Scott. She wrote home how gladly she had eaten wild garlic when it started under the snow early in the spring of 1858. She bought eggs at $1 a dozen and butter at $1.50 a pound and then distributed the food among the sick of the regiment. These special kindnesses were noted throughout her life by soldiers who served under her husband.
During November 1857 Col. Randolph Marcy headed a rescue expedition to New Mexico to obtain supplies and draft animals for the army. His guide was a well-known mountaineer named Tim Goodale whose Indian wife, Jennie, underwent the hardships of the journey with him with "astonishing patience and fortitude." Jennie has been described as "a good-looking" woman "about 25 years old, who spoke good English and was neatly dressed and a clean housekeeper." She had a pet colt which was the first animal to be killed for food after the company became bogged down in snow. "She cried very bitterly when the colt was killed, as it had always been her pet; but she realized the necessity of the sacrifice, and was consoled" upon the promise of a replacement on arrival in New Mexico.
The long winter finally ended, and the troops began the last phase of their journey to Utah in a June rain. Drown observed their difficulties:
It was at this point several women joined the force who had wintered at Camp Laramie, including, probably, Mrs. Carroll.
If the women had looked back at their winter encampment they might have been impressed by the scene described a year later in the Atlantic Monthly: "... a few tents which remained unstruck glittering like bright dots on the wing of an insect. . . while stacks of turf chimneys, lodge poles, and rubbish marked the spots where the encampment had been abandoned."
And so they entered, finally, the abandoned city of Salt Lake, their arrival punctuated by the regimental bands. The Tenth Regiment marched past Brigham Young's home with banners flying and drums beating. The Third Regimental Band halted in front of the home and played several national airs, then moved on to the home being occupied by Governor and Mrs. Cumming where they were ordered to play "The Star Spangled Banner," which they did grudgingly as they felt the new governor was consorting with the Mormons. The troops took a whole day to pass through the city.
John Young, a nephew of the Mormon leader, was hiding in one of the houses and observed some of the officers uncover their heads as they marched through the deathlike silence. One of these was most likely Lt. Col. Philip St. George Cooke of the Second Dragoons, who had led the Mormon Battalion and had special feelings for the Mormons. Young said, "To us western mountain boys, the solemnity of the march was oppressive, and glad relief came to our strained feelings when we saw the soldiers' campfires kindled on the other side of the Jordan." (The army spent their first evening in the valley camped on the flats beyond the Jordan River in the area of what is now Twenty-first South and Redwood Road.)
Thirty miles away a broad valley of sagebrush surrounded the small town of Fairfield. Settled in the early 1850s by the Carson family, William Beardshall, and John Clegg, its few inhabitants were about to be invaded by Johnston's Army, not in a military sense, but by the loss of their quiet daily life. Some residents would move away as camp followers and rough elements set up saloons, hotels, and gambling houses in an area of the town three blocks long.
One soldier estimated that three million adobe bricks would be needed to construct the army quarters. There would be three to four hundred neatly built structures on streets running north and south. At the rear and parallel to the streets of the camp would be homes built for officers and staff. Behind them quarters for the bands, sutlers' stores, and huts of the camp followers would be scattered. There would be a theater, a social hall, and various other public buildings. By December 1858 the post was described as
This grouping of colorful residents made up a wild, ramshackle area known as Frogtown, or Dobeytown. R. W. Jones recounted:
These terrible places in which the women lived were not unusual to those who followed the military. Katherine Gibson, writing some years after the Utah period, said the women coped by holding "themselves above their environment." She felt that the privation and shared hardships drew army people closer "than many brothers and sisters." Husbands did not seem terribly sympathetic to their plight, telling them such things as, "You will have to learn to do as other army women do—cook in cans and such things, be inventive and learn to do with nothing.'"
Even when household goods were available the frequent moves and inadequate moving allowances and conveyances made it difficult to assemble and transport the items. So they did learn to do with nothing. Eve Alexander's table was made of wooden planks placed across saw horses, with a trunk for a chair, bed, ironing board, and bench. Other standard items were army blanket carpets and packing box bureaus covered with calico.
Patience Loader, who married a sergeant in Johnston's Army, John Rozsa, recalled her first home at Camp Floyd. One of John's lady friends had fixed up a room for them. When she took Patience to see it the first time she said,
By the standards of most frontier posts Patience was very lucky to have friends provide so much comfort to welcome her.
Though Cedar Valley was described as being pretty, surrounded by high mountains with snow on their crests year 'round, the soil was light, and the particular bane of the inhabitants as the population of people, animals, and wagons grew was the dry season which brought dust. Frequent and violent whirlwinds, sometimes six or seven at once in different directions, would rush through the camp. Then, according to Henry Hamilton,
The wind typically began blowing at seven or eight in the morning and would continue until visibility was reduced to scarcely ten feet. About three in the afternoon it would begin to subside, leaving the nights calm and clear. Some dubbed the storms "Johnsoons" in honor of the post commander. One recruit complained if you put your foot down "in this adominable [sic] country it raises a cloud of dust." While another described a pillar of dust "a mile high" and within the camp limits no vegetation growing, only "dust, dust, dust." Probably many echoed Lafayette McLaws who said in April of 1859, "Dust Horrible—all hate the place."
Considering the uncivilized locale and the equally unsuitable living conditions, a great tribute is due to the women who followed army husbands to such outposts. Far from civilization, they sought to make life bearable. Social activities revolved around entertainment the post could provide—parties, dances, drama clubs, dinners, etc.
The most popular entertainment, as far as written accounts reveal, was the theater. In 1858 Sgt. R. C. White organized a dramatic company among the soldiers and built a theater of pine boards and canvas. His scenery was painted with make-do items such as beet juice, mustard, and "other commissary delicacies." His company became known as the Military Dramatic Association, and he recruited actresses from Brigham Young's Salt Lake Theater.
The most interesting of these actresses was Mercy Tuckett who had accepted a two-year Mormon mission call to perform in the Bowery and later in the Social Hall in Salt Lake City. When Johnston's Army came her family was living in Spanish Fork. Her brother Phillip had organized a dramatic company in which she often acted, and she accompanied it on a tour to Camp Floyd where she was an instant success. Tributes described her musical voice, piquant style, and charm. Mercy, who had occasionally let her children perform, left her husband after the troupe disbanded and moved to Nevada with her two brothers and their families. She took the youngest child with her and left the two older ones with their father, who divorced her on the grounds of desertion. Mercy's move did not sever her army ties. Richard White went to California after his discharge, then joined Mercy's brothers' new troupe in Nevada, and two years later married Mercy. They had one child who died in Folsom, California.
The Valley Tan, which reported Camp Floyd new s, followed the successes and failures of the desert theater. Mercy was joined on stage by Miss and Mrs. Whitlock, Mrs. Westwood, Mrs. Longee, Mrs. Kelting, Mrs. Lynde, and other talented thespians. Lucy Stevenson danced there during the fall of 1859, and the newspaper enthusiastically noted: "It is something in the desert to find a danseuse who possesses the advantage she does, and we hail her visit with pleasure."
In January 1859 two actresses, Mercy Tuckett and Mrs. Longee, refused to appear in any more dramatic productions on the post. It seems that the Military Dramatic Association wanted to present an anti-Mormon song that the actresses felt was very objectionable and "decidedly vulgar." A parody of "Root, Hog, or Die," it ridiculed the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith and the current church president Brigham Young. The Valley Tan reported that although all were anti-Mormon, the association "had not enough tack [sic] to know the difference between principle and interest." The furor was so intense that the theater was closed for a time.
Nevertheless, the theater enjoyed success and served as entertainment for many. One evening Gen. and Mrs. M. S. Howe attended with "other ladies" and seventy-five laundresses of the Fifth and Seventh Infantries. William Lee thought it a "well gotten up affair." He described the drop curtain embellished by a representation of Camp Floyd with a regiment at dress parade saluting. He called the decorations "well designed, but badly executed" and thought that the orchestra was a very good string band. Another theatergoer took a rather dim view of the whole thing, calling the plays "most vulgar and degrading" and those who attended them "motley."
Other entertainment included an Ethiopian Opera Troupe, a circus (organized by the soldiers), a German singing club, a Masonic lodge (the first to be organized in Utah), a billiard hall, horse racing, parades, various classes such as nature study, Shoshone language instruction, and Bible study, lectures, and balls. Lectures were sponsored by the Temperance Society which numbered 250 to 300 members and which drew a large attendance every Sunday evening. Worship was held every Sunday in the theater by Capt. James H. Simpson of the Corps of Topographical Engineers. Father Keller had a brief stint as a religious leader also and took occasion to record twenty-six baptisms and three marriages (another indication of female population)."
Balls were held in the Temperance Hall. The first one saw seventy ladies in attendance who "expressed themselves delighted with the order and decorum that prevailed." At another dance a week later, given by the Fifth Infantry, only nine ladies w ere present. So the men took turns polkaing and waltzing together when they couldn't have a feminine partner, "making believe one is a lady ... in a rather dull way." John Wardell felt the greatest drawback of the dances was the "paucity of the fair sex, without whose presence nothing can be carried on with eclat."
In quiet dinners in various homes others obtained diversion. Charles A. Scott was highly entertained by his dinner companion, Mrs. Ogden, who discoursed on batter puddings and their creation. Yet, he found himself so awkward at the table that he "managed to upset a bottle of pickled beets staining the snow white table cloth with the crimson vinegar which could not have been more crimson than my face."
Diversion took many forms. On April 7, 1860, the excitement of the day was the arrival of the first mail from California by Pony Express. People stood on the walls of the fort looking southwest toward Five Mile Pass. A shout went up as a black speck appeared in the distance, rapidly enlarging as the rider drew closer.
Entertainment of another sort was available in Frogtown and other areas around the fort. William Thomas remembered a house of ill repute located just below the potato-vegetable pit of the camp, and there were dance hall and painted girls in saloons nearby. Another soldier called these establishments "hog ranches" and described the women as "the most wretched and lowest class of abandoned women." An eastern traveler said the women lived on the outskirts among the "Gentiles" as they were "too strong for the Saints."
Elizabeth Harris, though married, was one of these women. She had threatened once to kill her husband and was heard to call him "an Irish loafing s.o.b." Michael Mahon said she had once begged him to take her away from camp. Another time, while sitting on Mahon's lap in her home at Camp Floyd, she said she had given her husband twenty dollars to get him out of the house because she "expected her husky Pat Higgins that night.''
Richard Ackley remembered a pretty girl who took up with a fellow named Cloud "in very comfortable circumstances." She later went with another man to New Mexico where she became very common and was subsequently sold in the Plaza at Las Vegas for about forty dollars. Her parents frequently wrote her to come home but with no result."
One of the camp followers named Annie Lee used to frequent Mormon dances held in Fairfield. Her employment made it possible for her to have nicer clothes than those worn by the Mormon girls. This and her good looks made her attractive to the Mormon men, and she never lacked for dance partners. Jealous, the Mormon women banded together and took her out back one evening, took off her dress, and each in turn wore it for a dance. Finally, the woman was cast out. Because she had associated with the Mormons she was no longer desirable to her Frogtown companions. Later, she was reportedly seen wandering the streets of Salt Lake City and finally made her way to San Francisco.
As a minority, among men who sometimes forgot their hard life in drink, women were sometimes molested by the ruffians of the troops. Court-martial records indicate several instances of rape and of entering women's quarters. Patience Rozsa, alone at home while her husband was away with his company, heard a man trying to break in. She went out another door and got a male friend to stay in the home until her husband returned. The intruder made several further attempts to enter the home. Later, Patience found he had a grudge against her husband for having punished him for bad behavior.
There was sadness, too. Ellen Foy, the daughter of a private at Camp Floyd, became engaged to Frank Mullins of the Fifth Infantry. Mullins, who was being transferred to New Mexico, endeavored to get the family to follow him. En route to New Mexico, Ellen changed her mind about marriage. As the couple sat in a tent together, Mullins drew a pistol and shot her through the neck and then shot himself through the heart. Both died instantly. Those who knew them were shocked, for Frank was considered "a fine specimen of a man" and Ellen an exceedingly nice girl who was much respected.
The tragedy of Mountain Meadow revealed other women associated with the army such as Mrs. Black. The wife of an ordnance sergeant, she was given the assignment of accompanying the child survivors of the massacre and three children of a man who had died in Utah to Fort Leavenworth where relatives would meet them. Also attending the children would be four women from Salt Lake City, Ann Eliza Worley, Sally Squire, Hester Elvira Nash, and Elizabeth Mure.
One of the most appreciated groups of women w ith Johnston's Army, as with other troops, were the laundresses. Tributes abound in writings of army men as to their character and performance. Women were first allowed to accompany troops as laundresses in a ratio of four to each one hundred men. Over the years the ratio was changed to one for every nineteen and one-half men. Lt. Col. Philip St. George Cooke of the Second Dragoons noted that there were three or four with each of his companies. Under army regulations, "Laundresses were carried on the tables of organization, drew daily rations, were assigned quarters, furnished fuel and bedding straw, and accorded the medical services of the post surgeons." These women were generally the wives of enlisted men and usually appointed by the captain of each company.
Sometimes the appointment was not solicited nor appreciated. One day John Rozsa came home and told Patience she was now the "acknowledged" company laundress and would be allowed government rations but would have to take her share of the wash every week and see it was properly done. Every Monday she would be brought her apportioned batch, and on Friday it would be picked up. Patience said,
So every wash morning John got up at one or two o'clock to get the wash done by nine. After several months a woman was found who would do it for $2.50 per day, and later a woman boarded with them and received $20.00 to wash and iron two days a week and be free the other days to work for others. Later, when Patience's health improved, she helped with the ironing but never did wash.
An account book records washing fees paid to laundresses as $4.50, $2.25, and $7.50. By comparison, fees of $22.50 for sawing wood, $14.00 for carpentering, and $13.25 for general work were paid to men. So women had the same problem then as now as far as receiving equal pay was concerned.
Payment of another sort was most probably appreciated, for the laundresses, as well as the women servants of officers' families, furnished the female element in the enlisted bachelor's social circle. The women may have lived on "Soapsuds Row," but at a ball they were queens: "With their uniformed husband or lover on one arm and an infant or two in the other, the washers would make an entrance exceeded only by their flamboyant dancing." And they were remembered. George A. Forsyth described them as being "ever ready for a fight" but "kind at heart if rough in manner, always ready to assist in times of distress. Often ... the officers' wives would have found a hard life if they had not been at hand, and they were ever ready with a help that can not be paid for with money." He called them "honest, upright and most thoroughly reputable and respectable women in all relations of life." Albert Tracy made it a practice to send a bottle of wine to his two laundresses on his wedding anniversary. And Forsyth says they were the honored guests at dances, theatricals, and other entertainments. They also attended parties in the men's quarters, "for let it be known that no woman, old or young, beautiful or homely, has ever yet entered a garrison without having a wooer at her feet if her stay was reasonably long."
And what of the Mormon girls? Many men besides John Rozsa married local young ladies. Most of the men remained in Utah after their discharges, converting to their wives' religious faith and contributing to the communities in which they lived. These marriages came about in spite of the fact that Mormon leaders often preached against the soldiers and of the necessity of women arming themselves against them, and in spite of what the soldiers boasted they would do to the Mormon girls when they arrived in Utah and what they actually tried to do.
Several women from surrounding towns visited Camp Floyd, some to peddle pies and produce, some to purchase items at the sutler's store, and probably some to see the sights. One came to see her husband who was imprisoned there. Albert F. McDonald had been charged with murder, arson, and treason and was incarcerated at the camp. His twenty-eight-year-old wife Elizabeth visited him in June 1859. She first had to apply for a pass to Col. Pitcairn Morrison of the Seventh Infantry in whose quarters her husband was being held. After her departure the colonel saw that Albert received library books, bed coverings, some boards to put under the straw he slept on, and a camp chair in which to sit. Elizabeth's visit brought results but was difficult for her. The following day she gave birth.
During the short life of Camp Floyd many women crossed the prairies to join their husbands. Most of them were officers' wives. Travelers such as Richard Burton recorded visiting their camps as they made their journey. The wives of Lt. Gurden Chapin, Lt. James Dana, Capt. Gabriel Rene Paul, Lt. Augustus H. Plummer, and Peter Tyler Swain were among them.
Then, with the outbreak of the Civil War, the occupation of Utah ended as troops were needed elsewhere. On April 20, 1860, the Deseret News reported:
In May a number of companies left for New Mexico, and "a very large contingent of the camp followers — including women and gamblers that had infested Camp Floyd—left with these detachments."
It would be some time before traces of the existence of this huge army would be erased. Some military property was sold at ridiculously low prices. The Salt Lake Theatre and the first cotton factory (built at Parowan) used materials from the post. Priscilla M. Evans, whose husband worked at Camp Floyd, was the recipient of a doorknob, a lock, and a stepstove that became "the wonder and admiration" of her neighbors. William Thomas said the day the army left he found "a big log house jammed full of carpets, rugs, and fine furniture" that the army wives had had to leave behind.
Household furnishings were not the only marks left by these gallant and brave ladies who endured what Martha Summerhays later described as "glittering misery." The days spent in sewing, reading, writing letters, reading letters, baking, and caring for husbands and children were not inconsequential. George D. Clyde,
former governor of Utah, in transmitting the deed for Carson's Inn at Fairfield to the state of Utah, suggested the 100-year old-building and land surrounding it (the area of Camp Floyd) were part of Utah's heritage. And an early writer suggested that women's presence in the frontier West was a mission of refinement second only to that of religion.
They also set an example of loyalty and love for husbands and lovers. One woman's explanation for enduring life with the army was, "I had cast my lot with a soldier, and where he was, was home to me." Patience Rozsa felt it was her duty to accompany her husband and expressed her willingness to follow him anywhere and share in whatever hardships he might experience. Some felt a need to provide comfort and cheerful surroundings for their soldier spouses. Perhaps, then, this loyalty was their greatest legacy.
But there is much more to learn from them. Unlike the soldiers they followed, "whose existence has been faithfully preserved in regimental histories and order books" and in reminiscences, the women of the frontier army may well be a "lost battalion." Efforts to uncover and make known their lives have revealed them to be remarkable women. This account of their short existence in Utah Territory helps to create a more complete picture of the Utah Expedition.
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