Wells' story a scholarly work

AN ADVOCATE FOR WOMEN: THE PUBLIC LIFE OF EMMELINE B. WELLS, 1870-1920, by Carol Cornwall Madsen, Deseret Book/BYU Press, 498 pages, $21.95, softcover

It is one of the mythical beliefs in American history that Mormon women were controlled or subjugated due to the practice of polygamy. In fact, early Mormon women were among the most accomplished of any in the history of the United States.

Mormon women from early Utah became doctors, lawyers, teachers, writers, businesspeople and were in fact active in all the professions. Many of them attended graduate schools in Eastern states to acquire the credentials they needed.

"An Advocate for Women" is the story of Emmeline B. Wells, one of the most noteworthy of early Utah women, and it is told with clarity and impressive scholarship by Carol Cornwall Madsen, professor of history at Brigham Young University.

Madsen is careful to point out that this is not a conventional biography — the life story of Wells. But it is rather "to show how a young girl from a small mill village in rural Massachusetts was able, through the strength of her convictions and

determination, to transform herself into a self-confident, nationally known spokeswoman for women and for her faith."

A devoted family woman, Wells was also a poet, a businesswoman, a religious woman, and "a thinker and a doer," according to Madsen. At the age of 82, she became general president of the Relief Society of the LDS Church, but her greatest accomplishments probably came in her feminist efforts to acquire political rights for women.

In part through her efforts in the latter part of the 19th century, women in Utah acquired the right to vote (Utah women voted 50 years before women who lived in the rest of the country). They also had the right to own property, the right to attend institutions of higher learning, and they had increased economic opportunities and leadership roles in a variety of religious and civic movements.

Wells left a huge written legacy in her role as editor of the Woman's Exponent, the LDS women's newsletter, for 37 years. She also left numerous letters, magazine articles, a volume of poetry and 47 diaries.

Emmeline, a tiny woman at 5 feet and just short of 100 pounds, was married to Nauvoo bishop Newel K. Whitney in 1845, and they had two children, Isabel and Melvina. But Whitney died in 1850.