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The Echo of Equal Suffrage
The Echo of Equal Suffrage: A Brief History of Utah’s Rural Suffrage Movement, 1889–1896
BY TIFFANY H. GREENE
On the evening of November 20, 1894, Emily Crane Watson gathered with fellow suffragists in Parowan, Utah, to enjoy an evening of “musical and literary entertainment.”1 Their local suffrage newspaper, the Echo of Equal Suffrage, was read as part of the evening’s program. The publication was edited, published, and distributed by the women of the Iron County Woman Suffrage Association in order to “allay any prejudice against [the] organization.”2 They did not intend the name of their paper as a figure of speech. Since 1887, when the federal government passed the Edmunds-Tucker Act, Utah women’s elective franchise had been revoked. These women relied heavily on the echo of their previous equal suffrage to inspire a movement to regain that right. The story of these Iron County women, their suffrage newspaper, and their rural political activism is not unique in Utah history, only underexplored.
Between 1889 and 1895, hundreds of female citizens joined local suffrage associations across Utah Territory in order to advocate for the restoration of the female franchise.3 The history of Utah’s rural suffrage movement has traveled to the present day in precisely the way that the name of Emily Watson’s paper unknowingly predicted: as an echo rather than a clear call. Historians have acknowledged the existence of rural activism in the Utah suffrage story but have done little to examine the specifics of who was involved or what types of activities they engaged in outside of the three rural towns for which Woman Suffrage Association minute books survived: Beaver, Farmington, and Glenwood.4 The research presented here, sourced from local newspapers of the time period, yields new information concerning Utah’s rural suffragists and provides a more complete understanding of what nineteenth-century activism looked like for these women.
In January 1889, Emily Richards and Margaret Caine established the Woman Suffrage Association (WSA) of Utah, as an affiliate organization of the National Woman Suffrage Association led by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth C. Stanton.5 The constitution of the WSA of Utah provided a protocol for establishing affiliate associations in the counties of Utah.6 By 1890, there were organized suffrage associations in sixteen of the twenty-five counties then established in Utah Territory. By 1895, the year the territorial legislature voted to include an equal suffrage clause in the proposed state constitution, twenty-one of the then twenty-seven counties had associations.7 Each county WSA elected women to the offices of president, vice president(s), secretary, treasurer, and corresponding secretary. Typically, the group elected seven to eight women to the offices, with an additional five to nine women elected to serve on an executive committee. These officers were responsible for organizing and supporting the WSA in the towns of their counties, holding county suffrage conventions, and participating in annual territory-wide suffrage conferences.
The organizational framework of the county WSAs was replicated at the town level, with women elected to fill executive offices and work on committees. In counties where few municipalities had been established, WSAs led by women like Sarah Fulmer (Emery) and Sarah J. Elliot (Grand) functioned as both county and town WSAs. In counties where municipalities were more numerous, WSA leaders such as Julia Farnsworth (Beaver) and M.A.Y. Greenhalgh (Millard) established local WSAs in many small towns. At least fifty town WSAs had been organized throughout the territory by the time Utah applied for statehood in 1895. Despite the success of these rural leaders in creating associations across the territory, not all of their organizing efforts came to fruition. Iron County WSA president Emily Crane Watson visited Paragonah in the spring of 1895 in hopes of organizing an association there. Despite her fervent efforts in presenting and explaining the cause of equal suffrage, “no organization was affected.”8
The membership and leadership of rural WSAs was not limited to older women whose elective franchise had been revoked. The Summit County WSA listed “Miss Ball . . . Miss Nora Evans, Miss May Cluff, Miss Lena Allison and Miss Maggie Salmon” as members of their executive committee.9 This indicates that the target audience included young women as well, who hoped to one day vote under an equal suffrage law like women of the previous generation had done.
One woman involved on the ground in a local WSA chapter, Vilate Kimball Snow Hawley. Courtesy of the author.
Annual dues were a quarter per person, and official membership was only available for women, although men were often invited to attend and participate in meetings. Most county WSAs met on a monthly basis. However, some, like the WSA of Iron County, met several times a month, and others, like the WSA of Glenwood in Sevier County, met most often between the months of March and July, with fewer meetings occurring during the latter half of the year.10
Once they had established their organizations, these rural suffragists began educating themselves and their communities on issues relating to women’s rights. Typical meetings opened with song and prayer, and were followed by business matters of the WSA, such as reading minutes of previous meetings, recognizing new members, amending by-laws, or electing new officers. The Utah Suffrage Song Book, the source for many of the songs at suffrage meetings, was published in 1891 by the WSA of Utah. The book sold for ten cents a copy and could be purchased at or mailed from the offices of the Woman’s Exponent in Salt Lake City.11 It included lyrics penned primarily by Utah women. Nearly half of the songs were written by women who also served in the leadership of rural WSAs throughout Utah: M.A.Y. Greenhalgh (Millard), sisters Lucinda Dalton and Ellen Jakeman (Sanpete), and Lucy Clark (Davis) all contributed. One of Dalton’s songs, “Oh, Come, Come Away,” included the following refrain:
Greenhalgh’s encouraging words in “Where is Suffrage Gone” provided Utah suffragists with a hopeful rallying cry:
Following the opening business, women (and occasionally men) delivered speeches they had written. Naturally, advocating for women’s right to vote was a frequent topic of these lectures, but other topics—such as pay equity, voter education, constitutional government, the history of the national suffrage movement, and “coequal education”—were regularly discussed as well.13 Additionally, articles from national publications like the Yellow Ribbon Speaker and territorial publications like the Woman’s Exponent were often read aloud during rural WSA meetings. In between speeches and lectures, the women also included musical entertainment as part of the meeting: in the spring of 1890, Vilate Hawley sang a “charming” rendition of “Lords of Creation” at a suffrage meeting in Deseret, Millard County, and “suitable songs, recitations, duets and instrumental music interspersed” the lessons of a suffrage meeting in Iron County in 1895.14
Rural Utah suffragists worked to improve the perception of and participation in the suffrage movement in their communities. The minutes from WSA meetings in Beaver and Glenwood frequently mentioned the need for recruitment in order to increase the amount of women (and men) involved in the cause. Newspaper evidence shows that WSAs in Box Elder, Sevier, Beaver, and Cache counties advertised regularly. Anyone subscribing to the Brigham City Bugler, Richfield Advocate, Southern Utonian, or Logan Journal would have, at the very least, been aware that suffrage organizations existed and were an active force in the community. Women such as Genia Pierce of Brigham City and Celia Bean of Richfield would have been easily identifiable as suffragists in their own communities, since their names were most often included in advertisements for suffrage meetings.15 Occasionally, local papers reprinted the speeches given at WSA meetings.16 If nothing else, people in rural Utah towns knew about the arguments in favor of equal suffrage.
In addition to advertisements and articles included in local papers, some of these suffrage organizations published their own newspapers or newsletters. The Beaver County WSA published the Equal Suffrage Banner, a monthly publication aimed at furthering the education and support of local Beaver residents for the suffrage cause. As mentioned earlier, Emily Crane Watson and the women in Iron County published monthly editions of the Echo of Equal Suffrage. Similarly, Ray (Rachel) Evans was the president of the Brigham City WSA when it self-published the Woman’s Advocate, a manuscript paper that was read regularly at the association’s meetings.17
The women of these associations also held community events to bring attention to and raise funds for women’s voting rights. During the summer months, WSAs in towns like Manti marched in Fourth of July parades.18 The Kaysville WSA held a ball in January 1895 that raised forty-five dollars for the suffrage cause.19 The following month, the Rich County “female suffrage society held forth on St. Valentines night . . . a lovely ball to the satisfaction of all.”20 These fundraising events helped to finance the activities of rural WSAs, but they also provided a public platform to talk about female suffrage.
Parowan Relief Society Hall, Iron County, Utah. Most WSA chapters in Utah held their meetings in halls owned by the Relief Society, the organization for women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints—a fact that reflected the overlapping membership between the organizations. Utah State Historical Society, photograph no. 06775.
By participating in WSAs, rural Utah women joined a social network that encouraged their civic engagement and provided opportunities for leadership beyond their communities. Attending annual conventions held at the county, territory, and national levels linked them to fellow suffragists across the territory and, indeed, the nation.
In many rural towns where the majority of the population belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the overlap of female ecclesiastical leadership and suffrage leadership was high. The structure of the WSAs resembled the organization of the LDS church, and much of the success of the rural suffrage movement can be attributed to the already-existing religious networks in Utah towns. In many cases, a rural suffragist could easily be involved in all three of the church’s organizations for women—the Relief Society, Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association (YLMIA), and the Primary Association—in addition to her WSA work. For example, Lucy Heppler (Sevier) served as president of the Glenwood WSA for over five years while also serving as a secretary of her ward Relief Society, as first counselor of her ward YLMIA, and as president of her larger stake Primary Association.21 Additionally, the Woman’s Exponent, the official publication of the LDS Relief Society, was a pro-suffrage newspaper with distribution in small towns across Utah Territory. Rural suffragists not only read and discussed articles advocating for suffrage from the Exponent, they could also contribute articles themselves that would then be printed and distributed to a larger audience.
For example, women in Sanpete County gathered in May 1890 for their first annual county WSA convention. Local leaders like Ellen Jakeman and Alvira Lucy Cox, as well as prominent men, gave speeches, and Euphrasia Day and Mrs. M. A. Hyde from Fairview and Spring City reported on the work of the WSA in their communities. A letter from territorial WSA president Sarah M. Kimball was also read at the convention.22 Proceedings such as this occurred regularly for other county WSAs as well, providing women with a venue to share their local activities with a broader audience.
As women attended or participated via letter in territory and national suffrage conventions, their opportunities for inclusion within the larger suffrage movement expanded. In 1889, at the conclusion of the first territory wide WSA convention held in Salt Lake City, it was noted that “letters were received by other counties besides those represented on the platform.”23 Despite the lack of specific details about what the letters contained, who wrote them, or what counties the letters were sent from, the fact remains that women from small Utah towns were participating in these territory conventions in whatever way they were able.
Although their physical attendance at national suffrage conventions was limited, Utah’s rural suffragists still contributed to the success of the Utah delegations. In February 1891, ten Utah women attended the NAWSA convention in the nation’s capital. M.A.Y. Greenhalgh was not only present, but she also spoke to a national audience specifically about the suffrage efforts in Millard County.24 Without the efforts and financial contributions of women from towns like Holden, Oak City, Deseret, and Fillmore, Greenhalgh’s participation in the national convention would not have been possible.
In May 1895, a suffrage convention was held in Salt Lake City and Susan B. Anthony and Anna Howard Shaw were in attendance. The relative ease in traveling to Salt Lake City compared to Washington, D.C., allowed many women from across the territory, such as Lucy Heppler from Sevier County, the opportunity to meet wellknown national leaders.
As Utah prepared for statehood in the fall of 1894, rural activists marshalled their efforts to ensure the inclusion of an equal suffrage clause in the state constitution. Having received encouragement and direction from national and territory leaders, they used “every effort in the cause of suffrage for women prior to the election of delegates to the state constitutional convention,” in the words of Sarah H. Boyer from Utah County.25 The Richfield Advocate reported that “the ladies of Sevier County . . . are, in every social gathering, expressing their delight over what has been done by the two political parties in favoring their enfranchisement and political rights.”26 Women around the territory had been working for five years to agitate for equity. They laid the groundwork for the inclusion of an equal suffrage clause in the state constitution, and, by the early spring of 1895, it appeared to be a foregone conclusion.27
On March 11, when the topic of the female franchise was first discussed by the Committee on Elections and Suffrage, Representative B. H. Roberts raised concerns that including an equal suffrage clause could potentially derail federal approval of Utah’s proposed constitution. As the debate over equal suffrage continued to escalate in the days and weeks to come, antisuffragists lobbied constitutional convention delegates to delay the female franchise until after statehood. But rural suffragists also rallied to their own cause, sending petitions with thousands of signatures in support of equal suffrage as part of the proposed constitution. The WSA of Utah sent a petition to the convention with signers from several rural counties: Mary A. Grover (Juab), Alvira L. Cox (Sanpete), and Celia Bean (Sevier).
Records of the constitutional convention also identify nine women by name as signers of separate petitions, each including hundreds of other signers: Sarah M. Dell (Beaver), Laura Taylor (Fremont), Elizabeth Yeates (Scipio), Ann Webster (Cedar City), Mary Ann Hubbard (Box Elder County), and Bertha Thiede, Mary Anderson, Ellen Reese and Caroline Affleck (Cache County). Although Dell was the only one among these women with documented membership in a rural WSA, it is highly likely that the other women listed were also active in the suffrage work of their communities. People from twenty-six of the territory’s twenty-seven counties sent petitions in favor of equal suffrage to the convention.28 While documentation of official WSAs in Carbon, Garfield, Kane, Piute, Tooele and Wayne counties has not been found, petitions in favor of equal suffrage were sent from each of these counties, hinting that there was indeed suffrage activity going on in those areas, regardless of official WSA affiliation.
On April 18, the debates over equal suffrage came to an end, when delegates of the convention voted to include an equal suffrage clause in the proposed constitution.29 Later that year, Utah’s male citizens voted overwhelmingly in favor of the proposed constitution, and Utah was admitted to the Union as the forty-fifth state on January 4, 1896.30
The cover of a handwritten newsletter published by Beaver County Woman Suffrage Association. The banner and subtitle read “Equal Rights Banner,” and “The Ballot, the Key to All Reform.” The newsletter is dated July 16, 1893. L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, BYU.
In addition to the restoration of the female franchise, the new Utah state constitution legalized the election of women citizens to city, county, and statewide offices. For Utah’s rural suffragists, leadership in WSAs was a springboard for further participation in the political sphere. Of the eleven women elected to county office in 1896, nine came from counties that had suffrage organizations, and four of them were directly involved in the leadership of their county WSA: Ellen Jakeman (Sanpete/Utah), Deliah Olsen (Millard), Margaret A. Caine (Salt Lake), and Mary F. Shelby (Rich). Within the first decade of statehood, three more women joined the list of county suffrage leaders who were later elected as county officials: Emily Crane Watson (Iron), Addie Longhurst (Uintah), and Sarah A. Howard (Davis). These numbers are not definitive. In the absence of complete WSA membership records, it is difficult to identify how many of Utah’s elected female leadership also participated in the suffrage movement. However, there is a high probability that most of the female town and county officials elected within the first decade of statehood were also involved in the suffrage movement in some way.
The public service of rural suffragists was not confined solely to running for an elected office. Before and after statehood, they also participated in political and social groups and clubs. Many women, such as Electa Bullock (Utah), Lucy Heppler (Sevier), and Lucy Clark (Davis), held leadership positions in county Democratic and Republican committees. Lucy Clark was also elected as a delegate to the National Republican Convention.31 Many more suffragists—like Sarah J. Elliot (Grand), founder of the Busy Women Club of Moab—established women’s civic groups under the umbrella of the National Federation of Women’s Clubs.32 Again, without a comprehensive collection of rural suffragists’ names, it is difficult to assess the crossover between rural women’s participation in political and social clubs and involvement in the suffrage movement during the 1890s, but it is reasonable to assert that it was high.
As the last decade of the nineteenth century progressed, rural suffragists in Utah successfully used their influence to advocate for equal voting rights for themselves and future generations of Utah citizens. The need for fair treatment under the law was just as pressing and important to women living in small towns and rural counties as it was for those in the more populated cities. The relatively unknown details of who these rural women were and how they worked to champion the cause of equal suffrage add a much-needed dimension to the history of Utah. In all they undertook as part of the daily labor of living and providing for their families and communities, these women also dedicated time to organize, educate, and advocate under the banner of equal rights. The echo of their participation in the political process can be heard again more than one hundred years later, encouraging and inspiring Utahns to continue to engage in the process today.
A map of towns and hamlets where a chapter of the Woman Suffrage Association had been formed, 1889–1895. Map created by Whitney Seal and Deb Miller, Utah Division of State History.
Notes
1. “W.S.A. in Iron Co.,” Woman’s Exponent, December 1, 1894, p. 215.
2. “W.S.A. at Summit, Iron Co.,” Woman’s Exponent, July 1, 1895, p. 24.
3. The history of the Utah suffrage movement has been wonderfully researched and written in Carol Cornwall Madsen, ed., Battle for the Ballot: Essays on Woman Suffrage in Utah, 1870–1896 (Logan: Utah State University Press, 1997), 176.
4. Lisa Bryner Bohman, “A Fresh Perspective: The Woman Suffrage Associations of Beaver and Farmington, Utah,” Utah Historical Quarterly 59, no.1 (1991): 6–21; Glenwood Ward, Sevier Stake, “Woman Suffrage Association Minutes,” LR 3227 25, LDS Church History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.
5. Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper, eds., History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, 1883–1900 (Indianapolis: Hollenbeck Press, 1902), 940.
6. “Woman Suffrage Meeting,” Woman’s Exponent, January 15, 1889, p. 1.
7. Carol Madsen and Lisa Bryner Bohman have reported the existence of nineteen county suffrage associations in Utah. Further research now documents suffrage organizations in Rich and San Juan counties, bringing the total number to twenty-one. “Lake Town Locals,” Logan (UT) Journal, November 23, 1893. Minutes from a suffrage meeting in Bluff, Utah, are on display in the Relief Society Building at Bluff Fort, courtesy of the Hole in the Rock Foundation. See “Relief Society Building,” Hole in the Rock Foundation, accessed April 28, 2020, blufffort.org/reliefsociety.html.
8. “Iron Co. W.S.A.,” Woman’s Exponent, July 1, 1895, p. 24.
9. “Summit Co. W.S.A.,” Woman’s Exponent, July 15, 1889, p. 30.
10. “Glenwood Woman Suffrage Association Minutes.”
11. “Editorial Notes,” Woman’s Exponent, April 15, 1891, p. 156.
12. Utah Woman Suffrage Song Book (Salt Lake City: Woman’s Exponent Office, [1890]), accessed May 6, 2020, catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org; see also Kenzi Christensen, “Utah’s Woman Suffrage Songbook,” Better Days 2020, accessed April 28, 2020, utahwomenshistory .org/2019/08/utahs-woman-suffrage-song-book/.
13. “Woman Suffrage,” Brigham City (UT) Bugler, August 4, 1894, p. 4.
14. “Suffrage Meetings,” Woman’s Exponent, May 15, 1890, p. 6 (first qtn.); “Iron Co. W.S.A.” Woman’s Exponent, July 1, 1895, p. 24 (second qtn.).
15. “Special Notices,” Brigham City (UT) Bugler, November 7, 1891, p. 4; Richfield (UT) Advocate, May 3, 1890.
16. “Right to Vote,” County Register (Ephraim City, UT), March 3, 1891, p. 4.
17. “Woman’s Suffrage,” Brigham City (UT) Bugler, September 15, 1894, p. 1.
18. “Programme,” Manti (UT) Messenger, June 29, 1894, p. 4.
19. “Kayevilles Kinks,” Davis County (UT) Clipper, January 24, 1895, p. 1.
20. “Lake Town Locals,” Logan (UT) Journal, February 27, 1895, p. 7.
21. Tiffany Greene, “Lucy Heppler, a Rural Advocate,” Better Days 2020, accessed April 28, 2020, utahwomenshistory.org; Irvin L. Warnock and Lexia Dastrup Warnock, Memories of Sevier Stake, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: Diamond Jubilee Memorial Volume, 1874–1949 (Springville, UT: Sevier Stake Presidency, 1949).
22. “First Annual Convention,” Woman’s Exponent, June 1, 1890, p. 6.
23. “Utah W.S.A.,” Woman’s Exponent, November 1, 1889, p. 5.
24. “The Speech of Mrs. Greenhalgh’s at the National Woman’s Convention,” Provo (UT) Daily Enquirer, March 12, 1891, p. 1.
25. “The Woman Suffragists,” Provo (UT) Dispatch, September 8, 1894, p. 1 (qtn.); see also “Appeal for Woman Suffrage,” Deseret Evening News, July 26, 1894, p. 5.
26. “News from Nearby Cities and Towns,” Salt Lake Herald-Republican, November 2, 1894, p. 7.
27. “With the Delegates,” Salt Lake Herald-Republican, March 10, 1895, p. 8.
28. Official Report of the Proceedings and Debates of the Convention to Adopt a Constitution for the State of Utah, available online at le.utah.gov/documents/conconv /01.htm, accessed April 28, 2020.
29. Katherine Kitterman and Rebekah Ryan Clark, Thinking Women: A Timeline of Suffrage in Utah (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 2019), 79.
30. Jean Bickmore White, “Women’s Place is in the Constitution: The Struggle for Equal Rights in Utah in 1895,” Utah Historical Quarterly 42, no. 4 (1974): 344–69.
31. “First Woman to Be Seated in Convention,” Ogden Daily Standard, June 16, 1908, p. 1.
32. “Birthday of Ladies Literary Club Observed at Saturday Meeting,” (Moab, UT) Times Independent, March 14, 1957, p. 1.
