After spending four years collecting and editing the stories of pioneer women, Edith W. Menna doesn't have one favorite -- she has 8,000.
Looking through Pioneer Women of Faith and Fortitude, a collection of pioneer women's histories, compiled and published by the International Society Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Sister Menna explained that every woman in the collection is unique.In 1995, Sister Menna, director of the DUP museum in Salt Lake City, started a project to produce a book containing the life stories of several hundred pioneer women for the Utah state centennial, celebrated in 1996.
Family groups were invited to submit historical sketches of their ancestors. However, instead of a few hundred histories as organization leaders had expected, thousands were turned in. The project grew, and completion goals had to be extended. "None of us really realized how big this project was going to be," said Sister Menna. "It just grew bigger than anyone had expected."
Each history, some as lengthy as 30 pages, had to be edited, cut to a workable length and checked for historical accuracy. Others were incomplete, and re-search was conducted to fill in the blanks. Duplicate histories on the same women filed under different names had to be eliminated. Then the histories had to be type set.
The result is a four-volume work, honoring 8,000 of the women who traveled with wagons or handcarts to the Salt Lake Valley between 1847 and 1868. A life sketch of each woman includes birth, death and marriage dates, children, spouses, and several interesting facts about her life. The volumes were completed in June and are now available to the public.
It was not an easy task. A task Sister Menna felt like giving up on more than once. But then she would remember the women the book intended to honor.
Including Sarah Bedford Booth Rudd Pilling Marsing who, after the first day of her pioneer journey from Florence, Neb., could not fit shoes on her swollen feet, so she traveled to the Salt Lake Valley barefoot.
And Mary Ann Neas McFerson who helped organize the Kaysville Ward Relief Society and served as a teacher in the organization for 25 years.
And Sarah Ann Kay McMurdie who learned to communicate with the Indians.
Families were also asked to submit a picture of their ancestors with the biographical sketch. The pictures in the book tell their own story.
Black and white, the photographs reveal women who look similar. Most have hair pulled tightly off their faces. Their appearances seem to personify decades of hard work.
But after learning of their stories, Sister Menna thinks they are all beautiful. "Once you read their stories you are no longer looking [at the pictures] through your eyes, but through your heart," she said.
Sister Menna was inspired by the women.
Including Maria Morrel Squire who was skilled in making medicine from herbs.
And Christina Wicklund Sorensen, who was widowed at age 41 and raised 12 children, as well as younger brothers and sisters and grandchildren, while serving as stake Relief Society president.
And Ruth Jones Williams who crossed the Plains at age 73, riding on a horse. Her saddle was a blanket held to the horse with a piece of rope.
Because of the work involved in the project, Sister Menna said she now looks at history in a different light. "It has shown us an entirely different side of history," she remarked.
DUP president Mary A. Johnson agrees. Many pioneer historical accounts detail events in which men of the time were involved. Frequently, women were referred to in historical accounts as "my wife, my mother, or my sister" or just as she, without her name ever being mentioned, Sister Johnson explained. These are the women who stayed at home while their husbands or fathers served Church missions, marched with the Mormon Battalion or established new western settlements, she said.
Many, added Sister Menna, "were raising their own food to put on the table or making their own cloth to sew clothes."
While both women emphasized the need to honor both men and women pioneers, they are excited that the Women of Faith and Fortitude collection honors pioneers who may not have been mentioned in previously published historical accounts.
"Every woman was important and her story needed to be told," said Sister Menna.
Including Hulda Dimeras Vaughn Harmon Bassett whose family lived across the street from the Carthage Jail during the Church's Nauvoo period and witnessed the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith.
And Harriet Catherine Fausett Bean who purchased material for her wedding dress in Salt Lake City. The only cloth she could find was calico.
And Esther Ann Birch Bennion, who had only nine months of schooling, but nevertheless loved literature and became a writer of poetry.
In all, more than 30 women worked to edit the histories and another 15 put the information on computer. "More than 7,000 photographs had to be scanned into the computer for the books."
They did it to honor the women who sacrificed so much for those who would come after them. "We need to remember . . . that someone else paved the way," said Sister Johnson.
Sister Menna noted that "society today does not have much of a future, if we don't look back on history. These women were such examples of mothers and of kindness and of commitment to their faith, family and cause."
Including Mary Jane Goodridge Flint, who after her husband was incapacitated in a serious accident, wove beautiful carpets to support her family.
And Esther Charolotte Emily Weisbrodt Francis who, before joining the Church in Italy, received the best education of the time and participated in several operas in the famous Opera House in Milan. After settling in Morgan Valley, Utah, she helped state surveyors by using her exceptional knowledge of calculus.
And Elizabeth Coleman Walker Birch Yeates Gillions, who while crossing the Plains in 1856 with a handcart company suffered from frostbitten feet. Near the end of her journey, her company was met by Brigham Young and William Pitt's brass band.
Sister Johnson and Sister Menna noted that everyone who worked on the project considered it a deeply religious experience. They have taken the legacy of these pioneer women into their hearts, explained Sister Johnson. While she once concentrated on the stories of her own ancestors, now she knows thousands more were just as important.
Sister Menna said that her husband once commented that her work on the series will be one of her most important accomplishments -- that the books will be her legacy. "I believe they will be," she added.
