Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Undergraduate Honors Theses 2018-07-05 Lydia Dunford Alder: The Life of the Mormon Poet, Suffragist, and Missionary Sarah Kate Johnson Stanley Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/studentpub_uht Part of the Mormon Studies Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Johnson Stanley, Sarah Kate, "Lydia Dunford Alder: The Life of the Mormon Poet, Suffragist, and Missionary" (2018). Undergraduate Honors Theses. 44. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/studentpub_uht/44 This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Undergraduate Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Honors Thesis LYDIA DUNFORD ALDER: THE LIFE OF THE MORMON POET, SUFFRAGIST, AND MISSIONARY By: Sarah Kate Johnson Stanley Submitted to Brigham Young University in partial fulfillment of graduation requirements for University Honors English Department Brigham Young University August, 2018 Advisor: Leslee Thorne-Murphy Honors Coordinator: John Talbot 1 1 Lydia D. Alder, The Holy Land, (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1912): iii. ABSTRACT LYDIA DUNFORD ALDER: THE LIFE OF THE MORMON POET, SUFFRAGIST, AND MISSIONARY Sarah Kate Johnson Stanley English Department Bachelor of Arts This thesis examines the life of Lydia Dunford Alder (1846–1923), who was a prominent but now nearly forgotten early Mormon writer, women’s rights activist, missionary, and leader of various women’s clubs. A respected member of the late- nineteenth– and early-twentieth-century Salt Lake City, Utah, community, Alder was the colleague and friend of various distinguished Mormon leaders. While these leaders have been studied in-depth by scholars, Alder’s similar achievements have never been examined in scholarship. As the first comprehensive biography ever written on Alder, this thesis explores her birth in England (1846), her immigration to the United States (1850), her return to England, her second immigration to the United States (1853), her migration to Utah and California (1854–1856), her migration and life to St. Louis (1856– 1867), and her final migration to Utah (1867). Categorically, this thesis also explores Alder’s marriage (1864–1898), her children and her relationships with her children, her service to the Mormon Church, her proselyting mission to England (1899–1901), her poems, her prose writings, her suffrage work, her volunteer service for various clubs, her death, and her legacy. As a whole, this thesis seeks to put Alder’s life in historical and cultural context in order to both prove that Alder’s life is worth studying and provide scholars a basis for future study of Alder’s life, her literature, and her volunteer work in her Salt Lake City community. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to convey my gratitude for Dr. Leslee Thorne-Murphy. Thank you for your insights, your uncanny knack for finding amazing sources, your patience, your kindness, your editorial expertise, and your encouragement through this whole process. To Dr. Kristin Matthews, thank you for instilling in me a love for women writers and their stories, for your editorial suggestions, for your humor, and for your overall helpfulness. To Dr. Amy Easton-Flake, thank you for introducing me to Alder and the Woman’s Exponent, for your undying support, for your infectious enthusiasm about early Mormon writing, and for your life advice. Thank you for showing me that it is possible to be a young mother and a professor. I would like to express appreciation for my Honors Thesis Coordinator, Dr. John Talbot, for his enthusiasm, encouragement, and wisdom. Thank you to Margaret Mole at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre for helping me find information on Alder and her birthplace. Thank you also to David Birks and Nikki Ritson at the Trowbridge Museum for letting me use their private resources. Thank you to the Church History Library for helping me discover more information on Alder than I ever dreamed I would find. To my mother, Krissi Johnson, thank you for your help in transcribing Alder’s poetry, your encouragement, and your editing skills. To my son, Charlie, thank you for giving me ample breaks from working on the thesis and for all your smiles. To my husband, PJ, thank you for your unfailing encouragement even when I was pessimistic, for sacrificing your time on your own research so that I could work on the thesis, for your enthusiasm about Alder, for driving me to and from Trowbridge on the tiny and terrifying backroads of England, and for your eternal support and love for me. Finally, thank you to Alder for inspiring me with your words, actions, and example. The story was left unfinished, Though the author’s work was done; —Lydia Dunford Alder, “Unfinished” TABLE OF CONTENTS Title .................................................................................................................................. i Frontispiece ................................................................................................................... iii Abstract ........................................................................................................................... v Acknowledgments ......................................................................................................... vii Epigraph ......................................................................................................................... ix Table of Contents ........................................................................................................... xi Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 Early Life ....................................................................................................................... 4 Life in England, 1846–1850 ................................................................................. 4 The First Immigration, 1850................................................................................. 7 The Second Immigration, 1853 ............................................................................ 9 Life in Utah and California, 1854–1856 ............................................................. 13 Life in St. Louis, 1856–1867 .............................................................................. 15 The Final Migration to Salt Lake City, 1864–1867 ............................................. 18 Adult Life ..................................................................................................................... 20 Marriage, 1864–1898 ......................................................................................... 22 Children, 1865 Onward ...................................................................................... 27 Church Service and Missionary Work, 1867–Death ........................................... 36 Writings, 1875–Death ........................................................................................ 48 Suffrage Work, 1889–1920 ................................................................................ 59 Clubs and Organizations, 1893–Death................................................................ 67 Death and Legacy, 1923–Onward ...................................................................... 73 Appendix 1: Selected Poetry of Lydia Alder .............................................................. 75 Appendix 2: Selected Suffrage Speeches of Lydia Alder ........................................... 94 Bibliography ................................................................................................................ 97 vi Introduction Lydia Dunford Alder (1846–1923) was a prominent but now nearly forgotten early-Mormon writer, women’s rights activist, missionary, and leader of various women’s clubs. She was a respected member of the late-nineteenth– and early-twentieth- century Salt Lake City, Utah, community, especially the community of women. She was the friend and colleague of such notable women as Eliza R. Snow, the second general president of the Relief Society and Utah’s poetess; Emmeline B. Wells, the editor of the Woman’s Exponent, a leading Mormon-woman’s periodical that ran from 1872 until 1914; Zina D. H. Young, the third general president of the Relief Society; Hannah T. King, a distinguished Utah poet; and Ellis Reynolds Shipp, the first female doctor in Utah.2 As a prolific writer, Alder wrote over seventy poems and various prose pieces for the Woman’s Exponent and other periodicals, and she published a popular book on the Middle East entitled The Holy Land. For over thirty years, Alder fought for suffrage and women’s rights, attending and speaking at International Councils of Women and serving as vice president and president of the Territorial Suffrage Association of the Women of Utah. Deeply involved in both her religion and community, she became one of the first female missionaries assigned to preach for the Mormon Church and served in leadership roles in various women’s clubs in Salt Lake City. Even though scholars of Mormonism have studied her peers in depth, no one has heretofore assembled the ample primary sources about her life to write a thorough biography. Indeed, the few secondary biographical sources available often contradict 2 The Relief Society is the woman’s organization in the Mormon Church. Each Mormon congregation,