• Patty Sessions (1795-1892), frontier midwife.
Sessions was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints four years after it was founded and drove her own wagon to Utah, arriving in the second group. She worked as a midwife and healer, and formed charities to help those less fortunate. Her diary accounts were of days filled with work and service. “Mother Sessions,” as she was called, died at age 97.
• Eliza R. Snow (1804-1887), writer.
Snow was a strong voice in the early LDS community, well-known for arguing doctrine with Brigham Young. She wrote songs and poems that are still popular today. She helped found the Women’s Exponent, a popular women’s magazine. She was a sought-after public speaker. She was known for taking action first, and asking male church leaders for permission afterward.
• Jane Manning James (1820-1908), advocate for equality.
James was the first free black woman to arrive in Utah. An early member of the LDS Church, James faced prejudice from her fellow members and had fewer rights in the church than did white women. James asked Brigham Young countless times for the right to do temple ceremonies, which doctrine held was required to get into heaven. Young denied her each time, which never deterred James from politely asking again.
• Emmeline B. Wells (1828–1921), journalist and suffragist.
Wells, editor of the Women’s Exponent, was on her way to speak at the 1879 National Suffrage Association meeting when she learned that the Supreme Court had declared polygamy illegal. She impressed the group with her eloquent speaking skills, but failed to win sympathy for polygamy. She remained a strong voice in Utah, and was a community leader, serving on civic and religious committees at a time when most women would not seek out such roles.
• Cornelia Paddock (1840-1898), author and crusader.
Paddock moved to Utah with her husband as a non-Mormon hoping to take part in Utah’s economic boom. She believed LDS Church members preferred to do business with each other rather than outsiders. Paddock began writing novels, which she said were based on stories told to her by dissatisfied polygamist wives. Mormon men were the villains in Paddock’s books. Paddock formed the Women’s National Anti-Polygamy Society, and argued that polygamy was degrading and anti-Christian.
• Ann Eliza Webb Young (1844-unknown).
She was an unhappy wife of Brigham Young, who by some estimates married more than 50 women. Ann Eliza Webb Young, who said she had felt pressured into the marriage, later filed for divorce, and wrote “Wife No. 19: The Story of a Life in Bondage, Being a Complete Expose of Mormonism, and Revealing the Sorrows, Sacrifices and Sufferings of Women in Polygamy.”
• Dora B. Topham, aka Belle London (1866-1925), enterprising madam.
Topham ran brothels on Ogden’s 25th Street, which provided easy access for travelers and railroad workers at Union Station. Topham ran a successful enterprise and was asked by leaders in Salt Lake City to help them run a red-light district that would confine prostitution to a limited area of town. Topham invested $20,000 and ran the prostitution district, employing 170 women at one point, until lawmakers closed it in hopes of ending all prostitution.
• Martha Hughes Cannon (1857-1932), doctor and political leader.
Cannon became a doctor when few women did. She served as a state senator, the first in the nation, after beating out her husband for the job.
• Susanna Branford Emery Homes Delitch Engalitcheff (1859-1942), Utah’s silver queen.
Poor in her youth, Engalitcheff vowed never to be hungry again. She married a bookkeeper who bought a share in Park City’s Mayflower Mine. Widowed and remarried several times, Engalitcheff lived life grandly, and was a favorite topic in the news media.
• Maude Adams (1872-1953), actress.
This Salt Lake City woman followed her mother into show business, and was a hit on Broadway for her portrayal of Peter Pan. The female lead in “Somewhere in Time” was based on Adams.
• Josie and Ann Bassett (1874-1964, 1878-1956), Wild West Sisters.
These Southern Utah sisters lived by their own rules, married often and felt most comfortable in the company of outlaws.
• Reva Beck Bosone (1895-1983), lawyer, judge, congresswoman.
Told by her high school principal that it wouldn’t look right for a girl to be elected student body president, Bosone vowed she would never again back down from public office.
