Utah State University DigitalCommons@USU All USU Press Publications USU Press 2005 Women in Utah History Patricia Lyn Scott Linda Thatcher Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/usupress_pubs Part of the Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons Recommended Citation Quinn, F. (2004). Building the "goodly fellowship of faith": A history of the Episcopal Church in Utah, 1867-1996. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press. This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the USU Press at DigitalCommons@USU. It has been accepted for inclusion in All USU Press Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@USU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WomenWomenin in UtahUtahHistory History Paradigm or Paradox? edited by Patricia Lyn Scott and Linda Thatcher Women in Utah History Paradigm or Paradox? Used by permission, Utah State Historical Society, all rights reserved. Two women selling the Herald Republican newspaper at 167 South Main Street, Salt Lake City, January 31, 1911. Women in Utah History Paradigm or Paradox? edited by Patricia Lyn Scott and Linda Thatcher Susan Allred Whetstone, photograph editor A Project of the Utah Women’s History Association Cosponsored by the Utah State Historical Society Utah State University Press Logan, Utah 2005 Copyright © 2005 Utah State University Press All rights reserved Utah State University Press Logan, Utah 84322–7800 www.usu.edu/usupreses All royalties from the sale of this book will be donated to the Utah Women’s History Fund at the Utah State Historical Society to promote women’s history. Manufactured in the United States of America Printed on acid-free paper An earlier version of “Gainfully Employed Women” by Miriam Murphy was published in the Utah Historical Quarterly 50 (Spring 1982): 139–59. Cover photos used by permission, Utah State Historical Society, all right reserved. Front, top to bottom: Osbourne auto party, April 7, 1909. Women at work, 1944. Mrs. J. W. Fowles working in her Victory Garden, May 6, 1945. Back: Unidentifi ed group of Japanese Americans, ca. 1920. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Women in Utah history : paradigm or paradox? / edited by Patricia Lyn Scott and Linda Thatcher. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN-13: 978-0-87421-625-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-87421-625-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-0-87421-624-0 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-87421-624-9 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Women--Utah--History. 2. Women--Utah--Social conditions. 3. Utah--History. 4. Utah-- Social conditions. I. Scott, Patricia Lyn. II. Thatcher, Linda, 1946- HQ1438.U8W66 2005 305.4’09792--dc22 2005020065 Contents Introduction ix 1. Polygamous and Monogamous Mormon Women: A Comparison 1 Jessie L. Embry and Lois Kelley 2. Innovation and Accommodation: The Legal Status of Women in Territorial Utah, 1850–1896 36 Lisa Madsen Pearson and Carol Cornwall Madsen 3. Confl ict and Contributions: Women in Churches, 1847–1920 82 John Sillito 4. Ethnic Women, 1900–1940 129 Helen Z. Papanikolas 5. The Professionalization of Farm Women, 1890–1940 154 Cynthia Sturgis 6. Gainfully Employed Women, 1896–1950 183 Miriam B. Murphy 7. From Schoolmarm to State Superintendent: The Changing Role of Women in Education, 1847–2004 223 Mary R. Clark and Patricia Lyn Scott 8. Scholarship, Service, and Sisterhood: Women’s Clubs and Associations, 1877–1977 249 Jill Mulvay Derr 9. Women of Letters: A Unique Literary Tradition 295 Gary Topping 10. Women in the Arts: Evolving Roles and Diverse Expressions 324 Martha Sonntag Bradley-Evans 11. Women in Politics: Power in the Public Sphere 360 Kathryn L. MacKay 12. Women’s Life Cycles, 1850–1940 394 Jessie L. Embry Suggested Readings 416 Contributors 419 Index 424 Illustrations Women selling the Herald Republican frontis Joseph F. Smith’s family 6 Maureen Whipple 13 Polygamist home 18 Dr. Ellis Reynolds Shipp and class 26 Faust & Houtz Livery Stable 41 Elias Smith 43 The Salt Lake City and County Building 56 Sarah E. Anderson 66 Teachers at the New West Education Commission Annual Conference 94 Abbie Parish Noyes 96 Students and instructors in Panguitch, Utah 102 Miss Sarah Louisa Conklin with students 106 St. Mark’s Hospital School of Nursing 111 Holy Cross Sister at St. Mary’s Academy 115 Holy Cross Sisters with children at St. Ann’s Orphanage 116 Navajo women weaving 131 Widow and children of Archie Henderson 134 Armenian family store 137 Wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Angelo Heleotes 139 Widow and children of Joe Talarico 142 First faculty of Utah Agricultural College 156 Farmers’ encampment, Logan, Utah 158 4–H Club girls and leader 162 Branch Agricultural College in Cedar City 167 Utah State University Extension Service meeting 177 J. G. McDonald Chocolate Company 187 Millinery store, Moab, Utah 188 Whitaker & Dallas Cigar Factory 189 Telephone operators 190 Women workers canning produce 202 Parachute factory, Manti, Utah 208 Kennecott Mine/Smelter 209 Fourteenth District School First Reader class 226 First graduating class at the Branch Normal School 230 Maypole dance at Rowland Hall 234 Emma J. McVicker 236 Patti Harrington 240 Ladies Literary Club 253 Utah Press Women’s Club luncheon 255 Young Women’s Christian Association 267 The Jolly Stitchers group 273 Women workers at the Victory Gardens project 275 Lucero Ward Relief Society members 283 Emmeline B. Wells 296 Eliza Roxcy Snow 298 Sarah E. Carmichael 300 Fawn M. Brodie 308 Juanita Brooks 311 Helen Z. Papanikolas 313 Miriam B. Murphy 316 The Salt Lake Theatre 332 Maude Adams and Ida May Savage 334 Emma Lucy Gates Bowen 337 McCune School of Music 339 Mary Teasdel 343 Florence Ware 346 Art class at the University of Utah 349 Olene Walker 361 “Diversity” cartoon 362 Martha Hughes Cannon 376 Kanab Ladies Town Board 379 Reva Beck Bosone 383 Young girl, role-playing her future 398 Woman peeling potatoes 399 “Harvest time” 400 Roy Winchester and Effi e May Miller 402 Four generations of one family 410 Susa Young Dunford Gates with daughters 411 For our mothers. Introduction Linda Thatcher and Patricia Lyn Scott The chief goal of this book is to integrate Utah women of all ethnic and religious backgrounds into the broader fi eld of women’s studies. Readers will fi nd that these historical essays show women in Utah as sharing much with other American women, particularly in the West—in other words, as not unique. But they are also diverse and distinctive—in other words, not as expected. The title Utah Women’s History: Paradigm or Paradox? recognizes the stereotypes normally associated with Utah’s largest group of women: Mormon, polygamous, Caucasian, under-educated, male-dominated, etc. On the one hand, Utah women are seen as a paradox (contradictory to the national norm) for embracing polygamy and submitting to hierarchal Mormon Church authority. On the other hand, they can be seen as paradigm (an example or model) for forging their own way with self-reliance and industry. Perhaps the paradox is that Utah women were both representative of national women (a paradigm) and distinctive. Few realize that Utah was the second territory to grant women the franchise (1870), and Utah’s women often sustained themselves and their families both economically and emotionally for long periods of time, while their husbands were away on church assignments or dividing their time among multiple households. Julie Roy Jeffrey wrote concerning polygamy: “With its peculiar tensions and freedoms, polygamy did, of course, shape the Mormon female life on the frontier. Mormon women were different from women on other frontiers in a number of ways which were related to their religion. Yet they also shared with other pioneer women common frontier experiences and even common ideas about woman’s place in the world. To be a Mormon woman on the Utah frontier was, therefore, to be both the same as, and different from, pioneer women elsewhere.”1 Utah was also a mixing ground of cultures. Native American women of many tribes led lives that having changed little over centuries, were shattered within a generation when a great fl ood of white settlers washed over their traditional territories. Mormon missionaries proselyted in European countries, ix x Linda Thatcher and Patricia Lyn Scott and new members journeyed to Utah from Great Britain, Germany, and the Scandinavian countries by the thousands. Emigrants who continued to embrace their traditional religions followed from Italy, Greece, and Asia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, brought for economic reasons, not religious ones, to work in Utah’s mines and industries. By taking a historical perspective, these essays capture the process of the social, religious, political and economic changes that Utah women experienced. In so doing, it is the fi rst booklength attempt to appraise Utah women of all religions, ethnicities, and social classes. Such an approach, we believe, will move the history of Utah’s women into the academic mainstream of women’s history. Although Utah history is rife with female stereotypes, we believe that the depth and variety of involvement of Utah women in the life of the state will surprise readers. Twelve Thematic Approaches The book is arranged thematically and explores varied women’s activities such as agriculture, education, law, literature, and the arts. Each chapter focuses on a particular period, usually identifi ed in the title. The dates are not meant to be all-inclusive. Underlying each chapter is our keen recognition that Utah women played an important but largely invisible—by today’s standard—role in Utah’s history. This book allows their contribution to be documented and celebrated. The dominant stereotype associated with Utah women, is the subject of the book’s fi rst chapter: “Polygamous and Monogamous Mormon Women: A Comparison” by Jessie L.