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Charlotte Ives Cobb Godbe Kirby (August 3, 1836-January 24, 1908) was an influential and radical women’s rights activist and temperance advocate in the state of Utah as well as a figure known nationally. Charlotte was born in Massachusetts and later moved to Utah with her mother to practice religious beliefs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The step-daughter of Brigham Young, a leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Charlotte was brought up in the Mormon church and married into polygamy. Her first marriage was to William S. Godbe, the leader of the Godbeite revolution against the Mormon church. Kirby was remarried again to John Kirby, who was not a Mormon, and denounced polygamy. Charlotte played an active role in the Utah women’s rights movement along with Emmeline B. Wells. She was a leading figure of the Utah Territory Woman Suffrage Association and served as a correspondent to the government and other suffragist organizations. Charlotte traveled to the east coast often to deliver lectures regarding women’s rights and temperance. Charlotte Ives Cobb Godbe Kirby passed away on January 24, 1908 at age 71 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Early life

Charlotte Ives Cobb (nicknamed "Lottie") was born on August 3, 1836 in Boston, Massachusetts, to Henry Cobb and Augusta Adams Cobb. Augusta listened to Joseph and Hyrum Smith preach in Boston and converted to Mormonism despite her husband's disapproval. After many years of practicing her religion secretly, Augusta left her husband and five of her children in Boston to join the Mormons (also called Latter-day Saints or Saints) in Nauvoo, Illinois. Augusta took two of her children with her; seven-year-old Charlotte Ives and Brigham. Brigham Cobb died shortly after the journey.^[1] In Nauvoo, Augusta married Brigham Young as his fifth wife and was sealed (part of the marriage ceremony of the Mormon church) for eternity in the Mormon temple. Charlotte was brought up as Young's daughter and described Young as being affectionate and concerned with her education. In 1848, Augusta and Charlotte traveled to Utah, but they always maintained their social ties to family and friends in the East.^[2] Augusta later requested to have her eternal sealing to Young cancelled so that she could be sealed to the deceased Joseph Smith, while still remaining sealed and married to Young. Young complied and stood proxy as Joseph Smith for this sealing.^[3] Despite this change in her mother's relationship, Young remained the effective father of Charlotte.

Marriages

William S. Godbe

In April of 1869, Charlotte was married to William S. Godbe as his fourth wife, and Brigham Young performed the sealing ceremony.^[2] In the fall of 1869, Godbe was excommunicated from the LDS church, along with Elias L. T. Harrison, for his criticisms of Brigham Young's economic policies and his adoption of spriritualism. After his excommunication, Godbe and his followers, including Thomas B. Stenhouse and Edward Tullidge, started the Church of Zion, a group often referred to as the Godbeites.^[4]

The Godbeites were known for their liberal economic and social views and their help in forming the Liberal Party of Utah. Notably, they were helpful in creating a relationship with Eastern suffragists Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. When these two women came to visit Utah for the first time in 1871, it was at the invitation of the Godbeites. Charlotte and William Godbe met them at the train station and Godbe opened his home for them to stay at while in Utah.

While Charlotte's relationship with these and other Eastern suffragists continued, her marriage to Godbe did not. After publicly denouncing polygamy in July of 1871, Godbe slowly divorced all of his wives except for the first.^[5] Charlotte and Godbe separated in 1873, but their divorce was not finalized until 1879. Out of Godbe's four wives, Charlotte was the only one who did not leave the LDS church after Godbe's excommunication.^[6]

John Kirby

In 1884, Charlotte remarried a man named John Kirby. Twenty years her junior, Kirby was a wealthy mine owner and was not a member of the LDS church.^[7] Charlotte remained married to Kirby for the rest of her life, living in Salt Lake City, Utah.

While Charlotte never left the church, she was sometimes not accepted by other Mormon suffragists, such as Emmeline B. Wells, a prominent advoate of polygamy and woman suffrage through her role as editor of the Women's Exponent and her work with the Female Relief Society.^[6]

Suffrage and Women's Rights

Suffrage in Utah

After the enfranchisement of women in Wyoming in December 1869, the Utah territorial legislature granted Utah women the right to vote in 1870.^[8] Shortly before enacting enfranchisement, Salt Lake received reports that Congress threatened to disenfranchise the women of Utah because of the nationally unpopular practice of polygamy of the Mormon church, predominant in Utah. After being informed of these reports and anti-polygamist ideas, Territorial Secretary S. A. Mann signed the bill to enfranchise women in the territory of Utah on February 12, 1870.^[9] This enfranchisement raised national attention as it brought in forty times more women into the voting realm than Wyoming did, the majority of women being members of the Mormon church. Congress as well as suffrage organizations such as the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) thought the enfranchisement in Utah would lead to women voting for the eradication of polygamy. The Mormons expected the women's vote to strengthen their religious traditions by empowering women during the practice of polygamy.

Utah petitioned for statehood through the 1880s. Congress denied Utah’s petition for statehood, proposing instead to admit them if women were disenfranchised. In 1887, the Edmunds-Tucker Act stripped all women residing in Utah the right to vote because the women's vote did not end polygamy.^[9] Suffragist Belva Ann Lockwood began campaigning that the fight was not only for “Mormon’ female votes” but for “woman’s equal rights in principle.” After this campaign, suffragists were accused of supporting polygamy. Suffragists such as Susan B. Anthony attempted to clarify their intentions of solely advocating women's suffrage, not polygamy, and continued fighting for the vote in the west. This association with polygamy tainted the public view of the national suffrage movement and its organizations including NWSA. Suffragists continued to fight for Utah’s women’s suffrage and many visited Utah in 1895. Leading the Rocky Mountain Suffrage Conference held in Salt Lake City, Susan B. Anthony and Anna Howard Shaw aided in the formation of a suffrage association in Utah called the Utah Territory Woman Suffrage Association as many Utah men wanted to abandon women's suffrage in order to obtain statehood.

Kirby's Role in Suffrage

As the Utah territorial legislature proposed a state constitution that made polygamy illegal and did not include women’s right to vote, radical suffragists took a stand against this. Charlotte Ives Cobb Godbe Kirby was an influential Utah feminist that radically fought for women’s suffrage in Utah. Charlotte's dedication to the suffrage movement was inspired by her mother, Augusta Adams Cobb. Charlotte explained in a letter to Wilford Woodruff in 1889 that in Boston, Augusta had been close friends with suffragist Lucy Stone, and that Charlotte had maintained that friendship. On her deathbed, Augusta made Charlotte promise that she would continue the work of woman suffrage.^[7]

During the 1870s, Charlotte became very involved in the national woman suffrage movement. On a visit east in 1870 with her first husband, Godbe, she appeared at a suffrage meeting in Providence, Rhode Island. in May 1871, she was made the Utah delegate to the National Woman's Suffrage Educational Committee of the United States.^[2] In July of 1871, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony of NWSA visited Utah at the invitation of the Godbeites. Charlotte and Godbe met the suffragists at the train station and hosted their stay in Utah.^[10] Stanton and Anthony were also invited by Brigham Young to speak to women at the Mormon Tabernacle.^[11] After speaking at the Tabernacle, they spoke to the Godbeites at their newly dedicated Liberal Institute, and then to the Godbeite women, the Ladies Mututal Improvement Society. After their visit, Charlotte maintained close ties with these suffragists and the national suffrage movement.^[2]

Charlotte was a prominent figure in the Utah Territory Woman Suffrage Association by writing articles and corresponding with other suffragists and local and national governments. Although they did not get along, Charlotte worked alongside Utah suffragist Emmeline B. Wells in the Utah Territory Woman Suffrage Association and in debating the statehood proposal that would deny women of voting rights in Utah.^[9] Wells, however, was often skeptical of Charlotte. Wells was polygamous and advocated for that practice and woman suffrage simultaneously. She expressed that she felt Kirby could not be a representative for the women in Utah because Charlotte did not advocate for polygamy.^[6]

Charlotte played an active role in the national women’s suffrage movement and the national temperance movement. Charlotte traveled to the east coast to deliver lectures on temperance and women’s suffrage often.^[12] The Salt Lake Herald-Republican newspaper shared the success Charlotte had in a lecture on temperance given in New York on March 14, 1881.^[12] She promoted the temperance club of Salt Lake City, which a Mr. Bradley served as president of. Along with other Mormons, she sought to work with people of other religions to advance the temperance movement.

Later life

Charlotte Ives Cobb Godbe Kirby passed away at age 71 on January 24, 1908 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

References

1. ^{{Cite journal|last=Beeton|first=Beverly|date=1988|title="I Am an American Woman:" Charlotte Ives Cobb Godbe Kirby|url=|journal=Journal of the West|volume=27|pages=13-19|via=}}
2. ^¹²³{{Cite book|title=Sister-wives and suffragists : polygamy and the politics of woman suffrage, 1870-1896|first=Lola|last=Van Wagenen|date=2003|publisher=[Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History]|isbn=0842525254|oclc=52262953}}
3. ^{{Cite journal|last=O'Donovan|first=Connell|date=Spring 2012|title=Augusta Adams Cobb Young: Priesthood Holder|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23292749?seq=2#metadata_info_tab_contents|journal=Journal of Mormon History|volume=38|pages=vii-ix|via=JSTOR}}
4. ^{{Cite book|title=Wayward Saints: The Godbeites and Brigham Young|last=Walker|first=Ronald|publisher=University of Illinois Press|year=1998|isbn=0-252-06705-3|location=Chicago|pages=}}
5. ^{{Cite book|title=Polygamy its solution in Utah--a question of the hour : an address delivered in Liberal Institute, Sunday, July 30, 1871|author=Godbe, William Samuel|date=1871|publisher=Printed at the Office of the Salt Lake Tribune|oclc=1085908149}}
6. ^¹²Beeton, Beverly. "Woman Suffrage in Territorial Utah." In Battle for the Ballot: Essyas on Woman Suffrage in Utah, 1870-1896, edited by Carol Cornwall Madsen, 116-135.
7. ^¹Beeton, Beverly. "A Feminist among the Mormons: Charlotte Ives Cobb Godbe Kirby." In Battle for the Ballot: Essays on Women Suffrage in Utah, 1870-1896, edited by Carol Cornwall Madsen, 137-149.
8. ^{{Cite book|title=Defining Moments: Women's Suffrage|last=Hill|first=Jeff|publisher=Omnigraphics|year=|isbn=|location=|pages=}}
9. ^¹²{{Cite book|title=One Woman, One Vote|last=Spruill Wheeler|first=Marjorie|publisher=NewSage Press|year=1995|isbn=0-939165-26-0|location=Troutdale, Oregon|pages=99-116}}
10. ^{{Cite book|title=A house full of females : plural marriage and women's rights in early Mormonism 1835-1870|last=Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher|isbn=9780307742124|oclc=987278975}}
11. ^Iversen, Joan. "The Mormon-Suffrage Relationship: Personal and Political Quandries." In Battle for the Ballot: Essays on Woman Suffrage in Utah, 1870-1896, edited by Carol Cornwall Madsen, 150-169. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1997.
12. ^¹{{Cite news|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85058130/1881-03-23/ed-1/seq-3/|title=The Salt Lake herald. (Salt Lake City [Utah) 1870-1909, March 23, 1881, Image 3|last=Humanities|first=National Endowment for the|date=1881-03-23|access-date=2019-03-13|issn=1941-3033}}