WASHINGTON, Utah — They toiled beside their husbands while picking cotton, raising children, cooking over open fires and wiping sand from their faces. Yet, the contributions of pioneer women who helped colonize the deserts of southwestern Utah in the latter 1800s have largely gone unrecognized in history.
In remarks May 4 at a ceremony dedicating a monument honoring these women, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland quoted the late Western American writer Wallace Stegner, who said after his own study of the Mormon pioneer journey, "Mormon men were strong, but Mormon women were incredible."
A bronze statue depicts a young mother holding scriptures in one arm and a child in the other. "In her arms she holds the essence of what is precious to her — her family and her faith," said Elder Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve. "Look into her face. She's facing the future with faith."
The monument was erected on the grounds of the historic Relief Society Hall in Washington City, Utah, as a tribute to pioneer women. A crowd of more than 1,000 spectators filled the shaded grounds of the historic hall and spread onto Telegraph Road where traffic had been diverted during the ceremonies. They watched as local sculptor Jerry Anderson unveiled the larger-than-life-size statue.
While extolling the virtues of these pioneer women who have remained generally unknown in history, Elder Holland described how the harsh land was redeemed by the sacrifice of the early settlers.
"I grew up on the story of my great-great-grandfather, Robert Gardner, leaving his lovely farm and mill in the Cottonwood area of the Salt Lake Valley and bringing his wife and children to Dixie (southwestern Utah). When he got to Washington and saw the plight of dear friends who had come ahead of him to settle here on the Virgin River, he said he was truly afraid for the first time in his life. This from a man who had walked the 1,000 miles from Toronto, Canada, to Nauvoo, Ill., and back, swimming streams and fording swamps with only crackers to eat and the clothes on his back. None of that had frightened him, but the sight of his men and women friends in Washington did. He records in his journal that almost all of those who greeted him had malaria. He said they had all worn out their original clothes and had replaced them from the early and fairly poor cotton they had grown in their own lots and farms. The women had carded, spun, woven by hand and colored the cloth with weed dyes. Robert noted that these men, women and children were clothed with a color of cloth that frighteningly matched the pale blue of their faces.
"He then looked at his charming and beautifully dressed wife and daughters who were still fresh and dainty. He knew that in the days ahead the terrible stamp of sun, sickness and fever would undoubtedly be placed upon them as well, and he wept. He confided in his diary that this experience tried him more than anything in all his long Mormon experience, but like the women of Washington, he said, 'We will trust in God and carry on.' "
Elder Holland quoted from Zaidee Walker Miles, who wrote of the embodiment of pioneering woman of southwestern Utah: " . . . May her rest be sweet and her salvation sure. Her faults we write upon the sand. [Her] virtues we chisel upon tablets of love and memory.' " (Under Dixie Sun, p. 98.)
Also speaking during the ceremony was Chieko Okazaki, a former counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency.
Noting that her ancestors didn't come from southern Utah but from Japan and Hawaii, she said the monument had meaning for her because it symbolized the mothers who raised faithful sons who became missionaries and brought the gospel to her family. In Hawaiian tradition, she draped a large lei of fresh flowers over the statue.
The desire to create a women's memorial stemmed from research made by Harold Cahoon of the Washington 1st Ward, Washington Utah Stake. Over the years he and his wife, Priscilla, worked with the Washington Historical Society to erect two monuments recognizing the accomplishments of the pioneer men. But in his research he found that the epic experiences of sacrifice and struggle by women went unrecognized.
"He was researching the history of the two groups who originally arrived here in May 1857," said Sister Cahoon. "He was able to find the names of the men who first arrived at Adair Springs, but he soon noticed that not much was mentioned about the women."
Unable to find any record of the women, he began his own search more than a year ago. The project became consuming. He searched for names in the 1860 and 1870 Census records, early Church records, property deeds, marriage and death certificates, cemetery records, newspapers and family name bulletin boards on the Internet.
"This research would not have been possible without the technology of the Internet and the Church's family history resources," Brother Cahoon said. For several thousand hours, usually after midnight when he wouldn't tie up the telephone line, Brother Cahoon sat secluded in his computer room searching and cross referencing names on the Internet.
At times he used a jeweler's magnifying glass to read the scarcely legible handwriting of the 1870 Census. His research yielded the names of 315 women who either lived between 1857-1870, or who bore children in Washington City by 1880. Those names are now inscribed on the plaque beside the statue.
"It is impossible to spell the names as the present families might want them spelled since there are too many families from the same ancestry that spell their names differently," Brother Cahoon said during the dedication.
Among the names listed on the plaque is Martha Spence Heywood, who was born in 1812 in Dublin, Ireland. She came to the United States at age 22 with her sister and joined the Church in July 1848. Desiring to be with the Church, she traveled to Salt Lake City where she joined a theatrical society and became known for the fine quality of hats she made.
At age 38 she married Joseph L. Heywood. She became the first recognized school teacher in Washington City after her husband was called to the area.
"Through the years," she wrote, "I never had a home except a wagon box. My two children were born in a wagon box. My sweet daughter Serepta Marie died at age two. I suffered the loneliness I never thought possible to know. I was grateful even in my sorrow that I had two years with her and had my little son, Neal.
"How I missed the society of dear friends left behind for the gospel's sake. It was a lonely life," she wrote. She was buried in the Washington City cemetery.
Another woman who helped settle the area was Eunice Chidester Harmon, who was born in 1834 in Ohio. Her parents joined the Church and sold their possessions to be with the saints. Four of her eight siblings died during the privations of the trek West. She walked most of the distance from Nauvoo to the Salt Lake Valley.
She married Levi Nehemiah Harmon.
Called to the Cotton Mission in southwestern Utah, they lived in their wagon box for a season since there was no shelter. The heat was merciless, the soil had to be forced to yield a crop. Her husband died six years after arriving in Washington. Still, she persevered while caring for her family and working at the Cotton Factory.
In the dedicatory prayer, Elder Holland noted that the mounment to pioneer women would become "something of a beacon . . . to remind us of who they were and what they did."
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