From the 1820s until 1890: women’s substantial roles

Chapter 3 Women’s roles through Mormon history

3.2. From the 1820s until 1890: women’s substantial roles

The historical record shows how many women played substantial roles in the founding and the development of nineteenth-century Mormonism.

3.2.1. Women during Joseph Smith’s life

Mormonism arose in the wake of an intense religious revival in New York State and on the American Frontier. Women were closely associated with this revival. Camp meetings with ambulant preachers attracted large female audiences (Cott 1975). Charismatically gifted women were a driving force of the movement (Brekus 1998; Casey 2000;

Westerkamp 2005).

3.2.1.1. Women in the founding of Mormonism

Joseph Smith’s mother belonged to the realm of “seekers,” nondenominational, visionary, and open to changes. In his personal history Joseph Smith mentions how, at a time of religious excitement in his area, also his family was affected by the turmoil and how his mother and his sister Sophronia were attracted by the Presbyterian faith.¹ In 1820, according to his account, Joseph Smith reported his initial visionary experience to his mother first. She believed him. Her later laudatory biography of her son became part of church history (ed. Black 2016). A next development in Joseph Smith’s quest was the coming forth of The Book of Mormon. He involved his wife Emma in the story of obtaining the record. He dictated parts of the Book or Mormon to her and he recorded revelations

1 “Joseph Smith—History” is a standard scriptural text of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is part of The Pearl of Great Price, one of the four Standard works, next to the Bible, The Book of Mormon, and The Doctrine and Covenants. It is readily available on the church’s websites under “Scriptures”.

73 specifically for her. Another woman, however, strong-willed and skeptical, was responsible for a first major crisis: Lucy Harris was blamable for the loss of the first 116 pages of the Book of Mormon manuscript. Archetypal gender roles of the trustworthy and protective mother, the believing and supportive wife, and the disbelieving and treacherous woman are thus present in the founding stories which all Mormons are familiar with. The ambivalence in assessing past figures becomes evident when one compares two biographies of Emma Hale Smith, both written by professional historians, the one depicting Joseph Smith’s wife as a loving and loyal “elect lady” (Black 2007), the other trying to apprehend her complex psyche and her struggle with polygamy—an

“enigma” (Newell and Avery 1984).

When the church was officially organized on April 6, 1830, some fifty men and women were present. Women were granted the same ordinances of baptism and confirmation as given to men, but only men were ordained to priesthood offices such as priest, elder, or apostle. Letters and diaries of these early Mormon female converts attest to their personalities, accomplishments, challenges, and faith. Though accepting their subordinate position to the priesthood, they were very much part of the action, as described by Johnson and Reeder (2016).

Bushman (2015) drew attention to the fact that many of the men who were Joseph Smith’s closest associates in the founding years of the church turned their back on him, driven by envy, disloyalty, or ambition. Some of these men were even instrumental in Smith’s martyrdom in 1844. But the women remained loyal. Smith’s mother supported him and provided the only personalized account of his life and death. Emma Hale Smith, Joseph’s wife, “was more faithful to him than he was to her” (p. 69). The women whom Smith convinced to enter into polygamous relations “overcame their initial reluctance and revulsion, and pledged themselves to unions that they believed would bring future blessings to their families” (p. 72). A detailed study of their loyalty was provided by Compton (1998).

3.2.1.2. The establishment of the Relief Society: a complex story

In 1842 a number of Mormon women formed a “Relief Society” for charitable purposes, as was common at the time in many churches. Joseph Smith gave it an organizational pattern resembling the priesthood structure with a president and counselors. Some of his statements have been interpreted as his intention to include women in the priesthood, which became even more apparent in the temple ceremony he developed and where women participate in the rituals. But textual ambiguity and alterations to his words in later church publications muddle original meanings. Other sources of those early years attest to women being “taken into the order of the priesthood” (Compton 2003). The issue continues to feed argumentations and clarifications (Basquiat 2001; Newell 1985; Quinn 1992; Toscano 1994).

The Relief Society had as its first goal to provide relief to the poor, the sick, and the afflicted, under its motto “Charity never fails.” By uniting the women in a hierarchical organization, it was to become a backbone for Joseph Smith’s spiritual, social, and economic endeavors. However, it was also closely entangled with Masonry and secrecy, thus providing a shelter for covert polygamous relations, which in turn fed tensions and conflicts (Bruno 2013). The Relief Society’s complex initial history, and in particular its relation to the male priesthood, has been the object of detailed studies (Derr, Cannon, and Beecher 1992; Derr et al. 2016). That complexity contrasts with the official church story of the early Relief Society, which acclaims its spotless record of women’s selfless service under the direction of the priesthood. Such images of a “usable past” were created in the second half of the nineteenth century: “The way in which Mormon women ‘used’ certain segments of their past allowed them to display different identities for different audiences . . . The selection process illustrates these women as historical agents, choosing the past to frame an identity in the present” (Reeder 2013, 4–5).

Since the Relief Society continues till today, its fluctuating presence and influence are mentioned in further parts of this chapter.

3.2.1.3. The indispensable woman for exaltation

In 1843, at the height of the tensions that polygamy caused, Joseph Smith spelled out a revelation on marriage: no man or woman can reach exaltation alone; they must be sealed in a celestial marriage. This doctrine would become central in Mormonism and profoundly mark its gendered perspectives. I study it as part of the concept of gender in Mormonism (5.2.3).

3.2.2. Female perseverance and fervor

3.2.2.1. Women pioneers as replication of male strength

From 1831 till the 1860s, the history of the church was dominated by subsequent moves of the bulk of the membership to various locations and, in the Far West, by new pioneer settlements in order to establish a peaceful Zion. Expelled several times from the places they had developed and considered their haven, in 1847 the Mormons found their definite abode in the region which is now the State of Utah and parts of neighboring states.

Though men held the official priesthood positions in the hierarchy, the dramatic relocations and the challenges of pioneer life required similar efforts and tenacity of women as they had to perform equal tasks. “Sheer survival in the arid and inhospitable Great Basin region initially demanded that all available talents and energies of both sexes be mobilized effectively for the good of the group . . . many of the conventional American

75 sex role divisions in economics and other areas of life were temporarily deemphasized”

(Foster 1979, 9).

On a higher hierarchical level, wives of top church leaders played a significant informal role in church leadership. Beecher (1982) documented how a tight group of “leading sisters,” formed a “powerful elite running as an effective undercurrent in the tides of Mormonism.” They contributed remarkably “to the political, educational, economic, and social well-being of the Mormon community of the Intermountain West” (p. 38–39). Scott (1986) provided an overview of the overall significant impact of Mormon pioneer women, compared to American women in general, till the end of the nineteenth century. In spite of the demands of pioneer life, the schooling and further education of Mormon girls and women was on equal footing with boys and men. In the 1840s women could attend the Mormon “University of Nauvoo.” In 1850 the Mormons established one of the first coeducational colleges in the United States. See for these educational aspects Black (2009), Buchanan (1982), Foster (1979), and Jackson (2002).

Another element that empowered women came from the temporary absences of men.

From 1837 on, many married male Mormon missionaries were sent to preach in other parts of the United States and around the world, leaving for several years the care of their families to their wives. In polygamous households the women partitioned the tasks as a small community. Stories abound of how these women managed to direct their domestic affairs and to develop home industries. At the same time, converts were encouraged to gather to Zion: by 1880, some 90,000 of them, mainly British and Scandinavian, had emigrated to the Mormon West. Such immigration implied a determination to build a better life, with women playing a vital role. Their diaries and letters attest to their significance but also to their challenges in the material, social, and cultural establishment of Mormonism (Turley and Chapman 2011; 2012). Bartholomew (1995) described the early Mormon British immigrants as “audacious women.” Hafen (2004) viewed their labors from the recollections of a female handcart pioneer. Arrington (1955; 1984) analyzed the Mormon women’s economic role and rural life. Kay (1997) distilled from these women’s writings their relation to nature since agriculture and stock had to guarantee survival.

What polygamy meant in this context is discussed in 3.2.3.

3.2.2.2. Women’s spiritual and ritual engagement

Peculiar were women’s contributions to religious life in early Mormonism. As a restorationist denomination, the church preached the return of the spiritual gifts enjoyed by the New Testament Christians. Joseph Smith noted as the seventh Article of Faith: “We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth.” Bradley (1994, 59) mentioned how “revival theologies, like Mormonism, held a sort of magical power: they provided the means with which to deal with some of the changes in their lives at the same time that it claimed to restore a sacred,

ancient order.” Bradley’s study of two hundred conversion narratives of the first decades of Mormonism showed how the cathartic experience of convert women empowered them to claim a new and independent identity, to preach, and to claim personal revelations.

Their religious passion manifested itself sometimes in exorbitant behavior, such as speaking in tongues, shouting, experiencing convulsions, and fainting (Dunn 1982; Newell 1992). As such they played a central role in the vitalization of early Mormonism. The early

“Relief societies” which Mormon women organized, included priesthood ordinances such as “to wash and anoint the sick, and of laying on of hands”—a tradition that would continue into the early twentieth century (Jensen 1983, 120; Newell 1985, 28–29; Stapley and Wright 2011). Another female prerogative that developed in later years was to perform ritual washings and anointings of women about to give birth (Newell 1985, 29).

Stapley (2018) detailed the many ritual forms in which also women were involved and the folk-tradition of “wise-women” with special “gifts.”

However, as church leaders moved into a more controlling mode in the latter third of the nineteenth century, patterns of subordination to male spiritual authority emerged and the exhilarating period of strong female religious input in public started to fade. This development corresponds with Weber’s view on the dynamics of new religions: “As routinization and regimentation of community relations sets in, authority previously allotted women diminishes” (Weber 1922, 104).

3.2.3. Retrenchment, polygamy, and politicization 3.2.3.1. Retrenchment: women in the workforce

In 1869 church president Brigham Young declared:

As I have often told my sisters in the Female Relief societies, we have sisters here who, if they had the privilege of studying, would make just as good mathematicians or accountants as any man; and we think they ought to have the privilege to study these branches of knowledge that they may develop the powers with which they are endowed. We believe that women are useful, not only to sweep houses, wash dishes, make beds, and raise babies, but that they should stand behind the — counter, study law or physic, or become good book−keepers and be able to do the business in any counting house, and all this to enlarge their sphere of usefulness for the benefit of society at large. In following these things they but answer the design of their creation. These, and many more things of equal utility are incorporated in our religion, and we believe in and try to practice them.¹

1 Brigham Young, “Discourse by President Brigham Young Delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, July 18, 1869,” Journal of Discourses 13 (1871): 56–62.

77 A major movement that organized Mormon women as a particular force was the so-called Retrenchment Association. Started in 1869 by Brigham Young, it encouraged women to devote themselves to “moral, mental and spiritual cultivation, and less upon fashion and the vanities of the world.”¹ While the Relief Society focused on charity to others in close association with the male priesthood organization, Retrenchment functioned as an independent organization with multiple branches. It emphasized self-improvement by promoting reform in housekeeping, in habits of eating and dress, and in home industry. “Committees were organized in the retrenchment meetings to implement and supervise silk manufacturing, grain storage, straw braiding, and women's commission stores, all part of President Brigham Young's design to develop a cooperative and self-sustaining economy” (Madsen 1992b).

Moreover, the movement encouraged women to vote in civil elections as Utah women were allowed to do since 1870. It also stimulated women to study medicine, in particular for maternity and child health care. All this resulted in making many Mormon women a visible part of the economic and professional environment. This emergence of Mormon women on the public scene was also cast in public tribute. Edward Tullidge, a British convert, worked with Eliza R. Snow to compile the volume The Women of Mormondom (1877). “Part biography, part history, and part theology, the book portrayed Mormon women as the hardworking and independent builders of a tangible Zion in the West”

(Erekson 2017, 3).

In 1880 church president John Taylor appointed Eliza R. Snow as president of all Relief Societies in the church. Having been married first to Joseph Smith and after his death to church president Brigham Young, Eliza R. Snow functioned as a First Lady of the church.

Since 1868, she had exercised leadership over the Relief Society throughout the church.

Her legacy is very much part of Mormon female consciousness.

3.2.3.2. Polygamy: the roles of “sister wives”

Polygamy existed in the church from the 1840s on, at first limited to a small circle of initiates around Joseph Smith and other leaders in their city of Nauvoo, Illinois. It would only come into the open in the 1850s, once the Mormons had isolated themselves in the American West. It caused outrage in the rest of Protestant America. Why and how it developed, and how it impacted women in diverse ways, has been the object of numerous studies, among the more detailed are the historical and doctrinal studies of Hales and Hales (2015), Hardy (2017), and Van Wagoner (1989), and the investigations into every day polygamous life by Embry (2008), Daynes (2001; 2015), and Harline (2014).

In the 1850s polygamy, known as The Principle, became a standard feature of Mormon life in the West. Ulrich (2017) detailed how most of these “sister wives” took their life in

1 Woman's Exponent 11 (September 15, 1882): 59.

their own hands and practiced a consciously chosen form of “sex radicalism” adapted to their peculiar needs of familial communalism, protection, and security, mainly centered around agricultural units. The extensive ones became “family kingdoms” as Taylor (1951) mapped them. Though men were bound and controlled by ecclesiastical rules, many ruled their families “as if by divine right” (Peterson 1979, 21). Still, a surprising facet of the system were the comparatively progressive rights granted to the women, including the right to own property, to divorce, and to remarry (Ulrich 2017). As Scott (1986, 15) phrased it:

In certain ways plural wives had, as they often argued, unusual opportunities for developing independence think—to choose one example—of Ellis Shipp going off to study medicine in Philadelphia, encouraged by Brigham Young, financed by the Relief Society and her sister wives, leaving her children for those same sister wives to raise. Her career as a medical doctor, builder of medical institutions, trainer of midwives, and pioneer in so many ways would have been difficult, perhaps impossible, had she been her husband's only wife. The Relief Society president of the Salt Lake Stake wrote that the plural wife “became freer and can do herself individually things she never could have attempted before; and work out her individual character separate from her husband.”

More recent historical studies on Mormon polygamy include a surge in family histories where descendants of polygamous households render tribute to the challenging life of polygamist foremothers (Bate 2016; Bradley and Woodward 2000; Johnston 2016). Overall these popular personal histories contribute to instilling a sense of pride among some Mormon women today, in particular in the American West. However, they are not devoid of critical passages that show women’s struggles and frustrations:

Many of them depict women who are very human, who sometimes stray from the paths of archetypal Mormon female virtue. Still . . . they believe that these were the

“pioneer mothers” whom the church declares worthy of emulation. Writing such a laudatory biography of an ancestor who sometimes lapsed, I believe, permits a contemporary woman to be more tolerant of her own lapses, recognizing—if only subliminally—that a woman does not have to be perfect to be worthy of praise and honor. (Swetnam 1988, 5–6).

3.2.3.3. The step to political involvement and the debate on the “American home”

In the 1870s polygamy became the target of intense anti-Mormon condemnation in the Eastern United States, both in popular literature and in legal action. Polygamy was viewed as an instrument of “the patriarchal theocracy” of the church, which allegedly kept Mormon women in abject servitude. In 1870 the church reacted by granting the women, through the Mormon-dominated legislature, the right to vote in civil elections, fifty years ahead of the nationally ratified female voting rights by Congress (Van Wagenen 1991).

79 Contemporary Mormon feminists, even as they reject the polygamous system, are keen to point out how their foremothers fought for their rights to be “sister wives” and were at the vanguard of the suffrage movement. One of the leading and most outspoken women was Eliza R. Snow. Often quoted by feminist historians is her public speech, given in 1870, to a mass gathering of Mormon women:

Our enemies pretend that in Utah woman is held in a state of vassalage; that she does not act from choice but by coercion; that we would even prefer life elsewhere were it possible for us to make our escape. What nonsense! We all know that if we wished we could leave at any time-either to go singly or we could rise en masse, and there is no power here that could or would ever wish to prevent us.

I will now ask this intelligent assembly of ladies, do you know of any place on the face of the earth where woman has more liberty and where she enjoys such high and glorious privileges as she does here as a Latter-day Saint? “No!” The very idea

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