In an account told by Mrs. Elvira Martineau Johnson, who, in 1876, traveled with her husband to Moen Copie tells of how Navajo Indians wanted justice, not revenge. According to her, three of the tribes cattle were killed and the Navajo’s wanted to know by whom. The head of the settlement, Jas S. Brown, was hospitable and fed the Navajos while he tried to get to the bottom of the story. Brown and the Navajos traveled to another settlement not far away and discovered half-starved colonists. The colonists admitted to killing the three cattle and explained they thought the cattle were owner less. Because of the time and effort Brown devoted to solving the problem, the Navajos were satisfied and did not ask for any reparations.1
Flagstaff became one of the first Mormon settlements in Arizona. “In the end they scattered, to be caught up in mining and other activities of the West or to return home.” 2 Though the first Mormon settlement failed shortly after it was founded, Flagstaff has become a well known city throughout Arizona. The Flagstaff settlement was not the only one to have failed. In the 1850’s, there was a Gold Rush in California and many traveled through Arizona to reach the mountains of California. A group of Mormons were traveling through Tupac, Arizona when a representative of the Mexican comandante stopped them. He offered them lands, where irrigation ditches were already dug, if they would agree to stay and cultivate the land. The offer was to good to pass up; everyone in the group (men, women, children) did their part to make this land fertile. The community was expecting a bounty of produce, which they in turn were planning to turn into profit. However, summer and spring passed with no rainfall and their fields could not be irrigated. The Mormons abandoned the project and with the bare minimums succeeded in reaching Santa Isabel in California.3
While traveling and interacting with other cultures Mormons were able to pass on their ideas of polygamy. Polygamy is the practice of having more than one spouse. In the Mormon religion only the men are allowed to have more than one spouse, whereas the women are to remain faithful to their one and only husband. This was a common practice until the year of 1892, when President Wilford Woodruff’s Manifesto ended plural marriages in the Church. This was put into effect because Woodruff realized that the Mormon church could not withstand the prosecution of the United States Government. Not understanding America’s moral issue with polygamy, many Mormons felt that the Manifesto was put into effect because the ratio of women to men at this time was very poor. The Mormons felt that non-Mormon men were upset with the fact that they had no wife, while the Mormon men had more than one wife.
The Manifesto
complicated many lives. Much confusion was as to if the Manifesto
applied to existing plural marriages, or only forbade new plural marriage.
This problem occurred to Ida Hunt Udall. Ida was married to David
Udall in 1882 as his second wife. She often felt neglected
by David and in the beginning threaten by his first wife. Later,
David’s first wife and Ida became good friends. David got into trouble
with the law for polygamy in 1891 and Ida was forced to move away from
David until he was released from jail. Ida and her children returned
to David in the winter of 1891. Ida once told David of how she felt
that David neglected and once again David sent Ida and the children away
for a year. During their time apart and even when they were together
Ida had to support her family. She had her own farm with cattle and
pigs, helped out in the church and also did substitute teaching.
Ida Hunt Udall kept her faith in all she did because she felt that it was
God’s will to give her a hard life. Her involvement in the church
helped the stress of her everyday life.4
One of
the many functions of women in the church was pioneering. However,
occasionally women were called ,along with their husbands, as missionaries.
The women helped in a holy undertaking. Families were often too large
for the husband to provide sufficiently for all of them. Plague,
robbers and attacks were often disasters. “Frequently living in the
shadows of disasters, women nevertheless found meaning and comfort in the
sense of mission that actuated the church and in the associations of their
communities.”5 Women are now more restricted as to how they are allowed
to participate in the church activities. However, in the late 1800’s
and early 1900’s women were given tasks in secondary organizations.
In fact, the brothers of the St. Joseph United Order invited women to attend
a meeting to help decide the Order’s future. Though the women were
to remain silent during the meeting, they could often pursued their husbands
to present their ideas for them.
Though these women were under such strict supervision, they were encouraged to join the Women’s Rights Movement of 1830 to 1890. The suffrage movement was more popular on a community bases than an individual bases. The Mormon women’s political ideas were relatively conservative. A few changes did occur from the movement. For example, there were, “new developments in hygiene, midwifery, and nursing... Their interest, however, was in preparation for services, not in emancipation.”6 There were women however, that did not believe in the movement. These women were few and content with staying the home with a dominant husband and being submissive to his every command. Lucy Hannah Flake wrote, “I don’t believe in equal rights... [I] feel willing for the men to kill snakes, build the bridges and smoothe down the high places and hold the offices. I would like to see women’s rights respected and held sacrid at all times and in all places.”7
When times of hardship and disorder arose it was the women who usually took the blunt end of it. There were many communities that once set up, they cut off all communication with the outside world. Living in such close quarters and seeing the same people day in and day out often lead to unrest and tension. This stress was often taken out on the women of the colony. Water was another trial in these pioneers lives. Women had many different techniques of how to make the water (which was full of minerals and dirt) drinkable. The most common practice was to pour ash and other materials into the pail of water to make it settle, but the brown color never went away and showed up in food and clothing. Finances were often poor in these pioneering Mormon families. Women quickly adapted by producing their own labors. “At Mormon Dairy and a few other spots throughout the country, women and older girls joined a man or two in milking hundreds of cows and manufacturing thousands of pounds of cheese and butter under the most primitive conditions.”8 Women also hand made the families clothing, often the material was cheap cloth, burlap or wagon tarps. The hardship of their everyday life often caused death early in these women’s lives.
Every day life could also amount to boredom on the range. With neighbors living miles away, and husbands often away on missions, wives often found themselves doing odd jobs around the house to make the days go by faster. “Mrs. Flake found her lonely life on a farm some two miles from town to be nearly intolerable.”9 On one occasion Mrs. Flake wrote a list of her daily chores, these were typical chores of most pioneer women, “Get up turn out my chickens draw a pail of watter, watter hot beds make a fire, put potatoes to cook then brush and sweep half inch of dust off floor and everything, feed three litters of chickens then mix bisquits, get breakfast, milk besides work in the house, and this morning had to go half mile after calves. This is the way of life on the farm...”10 Spring time was often a busy season. Mrs. Flake accomplished more in those three months than most Americans do in one year now. “...gleaning wool from carcasses left along the trail over which sheepman made a seasonal circuit to and from the Salt River Valley, and picking, washing, and carding it to make a mattress; whitewashed her home; gardening and irrigating; sewing, including making underwear, shirts and carpets; tending her grandchildren; feeding her growing her sons as well as numerous duties in her church capacity.”11
Mormon women faced more challenges in a single month in the 1800’s, than I probably face in five years now. The many trials and errors these women went through to make a good life is amazing. The strength of this women is to be admired by all, not by just Mormons, or only women, but by all in this society of ours. These women should be admired and remember for their courage and might.