From the first, the Deseret Hospital was an enterprise largely undertaken by women. Among those playing key roles were:
Romania Bunnel Pratt Penrose
In 1874, when Brigham Young urged women to study medicine, Romania Pratt was the first to respond. She sold her prized possession, her piano, to get money for the trip east, left her five children in the care of her mother and enrolled in the Women's Medical College of New York. She later switched to a college in Philadelphia, graduating in 1877 at the age of 38.
After two years of general practice in Utah, she returned to New York to specialize in eye and ear diseases and became the first person to perform cataract surgery in Utah.
Her dream of establishing a Mormon hospital was realized with the founding of the Deseret Hospital in 1882, where she served as a resident physician. She also taught classes in anatomy, physiology and obstetrics.
In 1886, having divorced her first husband, Parley P. Pratt Jr., Romania married Charles Penrose. She continued to practice medicine until her retirement in 1912.
Ellis Reynolds Shipp
Ellis Reynolds was 14 when her mother died. She took over the duties of running the household, but she also turned to books for comfort and solace. That sparked a lifelong interest in learning.
After her father remarried, Ellis lived for a time at the Lion House, attending school with Brigham Young's daughters. In 1866, she married Milford Bard Shipp.
In 1875, Maggie Curtis Shipp, one of Milford's plural wives, enrolled at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania. But she became homesick and returned home. Perhaps because the tuition had already been paid, Ellis moved to Philadelphia to take Maggie's place.
Ellis received her degree in 1878. (Maggie returned and got her own degree in 1883.)
Ellis' experience with childbirth may have led to her specializing in obstetrics; of her 10 children, four survived less than a year, and one died at age 6.
In 1878, she opened a School of Obstetrics and Nursing and worked at the Deseret Hospital. Over the next 50 years, hundreds of women graduated from her courses, and it was said that Dr. Shipp herself delivered more than 6,000 babies.
Martha Hughes Cannon
Mattie Hughes (as she was known) was a pioneer. As a child of 4, she and her family left her home in Wales to journey to Salt Lake City. A younger sister died on the trek, and her father died three days after arriving in the valley.
Maybe it was the tempering of that experience that forged an intrepid soul. For whatever reason, Mattie went on to break ground in both medicine and politics.
In 1876, she enrolled in pre-medicine at the University of Deseret. Two years later, she entered medical studies at the University of Michigan, graduating in 1880. She practiced medicine in Canada, then pursued further degrees in oratory and pharmacy.
In Utah, she established a private practice and served as a resident physician at Deseret Hospital.
In 1884, she became the fourth wife of Angus M. Cannon. After the birth of their first child, she left the state to avoid persecution for polygamy and toured leading hospitals in Europe.
Upon her return, she opened a practice and established a school for nurses.
When Utah became a state in 1896, Mattie campaigned for and won one of the state's first two Senate seats, thus becoming the first woman state senator in U.S. history — not to mention the first to defeat her husband at the polls.
Others
Dr. Ellen B. Ferguson was the first resident physician and probably the first woman physician in Utah. She was a convert to the LDS Church from Cambridge, England, and considered herself a specialist in "diseases of women." She died in 1920 at age 76.
Dr. Washington F. Anderson, Dr. Seymour B. Young, Dr. Elvira S. Barney, most of whom received medical training before coming to Utah, were also on the hospital's visiting staff.