Origins and Myths: Revising the Founding Story of the Latter-day Saint Young Women Organization

Thus Clarissa Beesley, a member of the Young Women's Mutual Improvement Association (YWMIA) general board, imaginatively set the scene for her 1944 retelling of the founding of the young women's organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in commemoration of the YWMIA's seventy-fifth anniversary. Originally known as “Junior” or “Young Ladies” Retrenchment associations, the organization had adopted the title Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Associations (YLMIA) in 1877 to mark its parallel status with the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations, organized in 1875. At the turn of the twentieth century, the young women's and young men's organizations began to operate on a joint basis as the recreational and cultural outlet for adolescent Latter-day Saints and became known collectively as “the MIA.” In 1934, the young women's organization replaced the old-fashioned “Young Ladies” with the more modern “Young Women's” in its title.By the time Beesley wrote her account, the scene had become iconic among young women and their leaders. In 1869, the story went, Brigham Young assembled his teenage and young adult daughters and their mothers in the parlor of the Lion House and issued a new imperative: they must retrench! and they must form an association! The girls responded by adopting a set of resolutions and forming an association that eventually grew into the vibrant YWMIA. Over the years, the story was portrayed and retold countless times among Latter-day Saint young women. The 1969 film Pioneers in Petticoats portrayed the founding story in technicolor and built an elaborate, character-driven drama on its frame, which helped popularize the narrative for Latter-day Saint Young Women.In working on a book about the history of the Young Women organization, our team of historians has encountered this founding story repeatedly.2Pioneers in Petticoats was only the most elaborate iteration of the story to be invoked as an inspirational foundation for girls in the church. But is the story true? For a century after it was first published in the writings of Susa Young Gates, the story was taken at face value. Building on research questioning the founding date, looking closely at the story as a whole, and carefully tracing the historical record, we discovered that the answer is complicated.The founding story of the YLMIA might best be understood as a mythologized narrative. That is, it is not exactly false, and it is not completely true. Its power and importance lie in its status as a “venerated and celebrated story used to give meaning to the world.”3 The story provided several important landmarks for the YLMIA, constructing a self-conscious sense of identity and purpose that animated the organization for decades. It established a prophetic origin story for the church's young women's organization, placing it on par with the women's Relief Society, and it gave young women generally a charge to develop spiritually on the same terms as their brothers. Moreover, for historians today, a careful disentangling of the threads of the story sheds further light on how the Retrenchment movement—an important development among Latter-day Saint women—unfolded among both younger and older women at a time of heightened worry about the boundaries of the Latter-day Saint community.The story of the founding originates in the writings of Susa Young Gates, Brigham Young's daughter and YLMIA leader. She first published a version in the February 1892 issue of the Young Woman's Journal. Titled a “Historical Sketch of the YLMIA,” it is the first known account of the meeting in the Lion House parlor.4 Here, Gates gives “winter 1869” as the founding date. Much of the sketch consists of Brigham Young's speech, which she places in quotation marks.5The better-known and subsequently cited version of the founding story appeared in Gates's History of the Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association, a 400-page book published nineteen years later in 1911. Here, she imported verbatim large stretches of the 1892 account, particularly Brigham Young's address to his family. In the earlier version, Gates said nothing about her sources. In the 1911 book, she made a point of claiming that she was “repeating the story as told by several who were there.” She mentions in particular Bathsheba W. Smith, whose “clear and excellent” memory supplied the details of what occurred, with those details having been “verified by many of the family” who were present.6 Four pages later, she appends a “testimony” from Smith, affirming that the account is “correct, both as to details and the words spoken by President Young.” It is dated March 8, 1909, at the Salt Lake Temple.7 In the 1892 sketch, Gates mentioned the presence of Bathsheba W. Smith but did not directly attribute the account to her. Given that the 1892 and 1911 accounts are almost identical, we would have to infer that Smith was the source for the earlier account. But this begs the question of why Gates did not originally attribute it to her. In any case, we cannot know precisely which “details” came from Smith and which ones Gates provided. As a well-known literary writer in the community, Gates was certainly trying to create a colorful portrayal of the event.In the book, the narrative of the founding meeting runs to six pages, too long to reprint in full here, but a few lengthy excerpts are necessary in order to set up our discussion. Gates prefaces her story with this statement about its origins: “The first meeting of the projected organization was called by Brigham Young on November 28, 1869, in the parlor of the Lion House. This meeting is necessarily of great historic interest to us.”Gates then describes the gathering of the family in response to the ringing of the prayer bell and begins quoting Brigham Young's “address” to his family, which she presents in first-person voice and sets off in tighter type, suggesting that it is a quotation. “All Israel are looking to my family and watching the example set by my wives and children,” he begins. “For this reason I desire to organize my own family first into a society for the promotion of habits of order, thrift, industry, and charity; and, above all things, I desire them to retrench from their extravagance in dress, in eating and even in speech.” Women particularly must “give up their follies of dress” and “cultivate a modest apparel, a meek deportment” and set an example by creating their own fashions. He continues: I have long had it in my mind to organize the young ladies of Zion into an association so that they might assist the older members of the Church, their fathers and mothers, in propagating, teaching, and practicing the principles I have been so long teaching. There is need for the young daughters of Israel to get a living testimony of the truth. Young men obtain this while on missions, but this way is not opened to the girls. More testimonies are obtained on the feet than on the knees. I wish our girls to obtain a knowledge of the Gospel for themselves. For this purpose I desire to establish this organization and want my family to lead out in the great work. . . . We are about to organize a Retrenchment Association, which I want you all to join, and I want you to vote to retrench in your dress, in your tables, in your speech, wherein you have been guilty of silly, extravagant speeches and light-mindedness of thought. Retrench in everything that is bad and worthless, and improve in everything that is good and beautiful. Not to make yourselves unhappy, but to live so that you may be truly happy in this life and the life to come.8While most of the story is imported directly from the 1892 magazine version, the account in the History includes two consequential additions: the exact founding date and Brigham Young's declaration about the importance of girls gaining “a living testimony.” Perhaps ironically, these elements subsequently became the two most frequently cited details of the story.In the History, as we have seen, Gates goes beyond earlier mentions of “winter 1869” and specifies November 28, 1869, as the date of the founding meeting in the Lion House parlor. Where did she get this date?9 It takes only a little investigation to discover that there is a discrepancy. In the History, after narrating the meeting in the Lion House parlor, Gates proceeded to insert what she called the “Articles” adopted by her sisters in founding the young ladies’ retrenchment association, “organized in Salt Lake City, 1869.” Looking at contemporaneous sources, however, we find that, as published in the Deseret News, the “Resolutions” of the First Young Ladies’ Department of the Ladies’ Cooperative Retrenchment were dated May 27, 1870.10 If the founding meeting was held on November 28, why would the Resolutions be dated six months later?It seems certain that Gates herself was not present at the founding meeting in the Lion House parlor. She never claimed to have been, and there is zero chance she would not have mentioned it had she been there.11 Thus, she could not have been drawing on her own memory. We have seen that she cited Bathsheba Smith as her source in the History. This provides one of the most important clues to reconstructing what actually occurred and when. Both of Gates's accounts make a point of noting that Brigham Young invited George A. Smith and his wife Bathsheba to be present at the meeting, but they could not have been there on the date Gates supplied. The Historian's Office Journal records that “GAS [George A. Smith] started for Provo about noon” on November 26, 1869, making it all but impossible for Smith to have been at the Lion House two days later.12Moreover, the Historian's Office Journal also corroborates a date in It records that on May George A. and Bathsheba Smith to Brigham Young's at prayer time a large of the family were Young an address the of his and their in the that the of the and the of the Saints were them and that “the of his was by their He said that his wives and daughters to their own and to set an and he the of the Saints to the of the in this source is to that Gates into her account. account corroborates the presence at the Lion House in May This is the of the Relief Society, which Bathsheba Smith a few days she what she had Brigham Young As by the she of the good President Young gave to his family in the with to retrenchment in She his were the of the He said he to his family has he had the would be with for them to that the young might and set an example with to The President how might be by off so on their that would to for the This to Gates's later is that Gates on or both of these she her at the Lion House meeting, but this would not why she did not them or the May date. Perhaps Bathsheba memory was “clear and excellent” in so of the Young used on what must have been a and that why Gates's account so with the any case, it seems that there was a meeting of Brigham Young's in the Lion House parlor on May the one Gates describes in her at which a set of The said that the Young Ladies’ Department was organized May 27, two days later, which there may have been meeting of the girls the may have the about members of the Young family, who Gates claimed were present and Bathsheba the must have been a of and among Gates and her sisters their her with a source of In the historical record, however, there are few sources, and those that are Young Gates's was one of the of the and she became a in the she later published about the founding and days of young ladies’ but all of these date to after 1911. are by Gates's book and be even they from a source is more In or as she was on the History, Gates wrote to her Young for her about the of the young ladies’ retrenchment was at the meeting and the She called his family 28, We all know the my this is the first of the November date she is off by a was called after our first meeting, as mind out more on this of after our meeting for his account an that may the about In she is to of the Salt Lake Relief Society, who was by Brigham Young to up what would become the retrenchment among Latter-day Saint them to on extravagance in and Young's were of a response to the of the the of the Latter-day Saint and the and Retrenchment became the for to and his to retrenchment a to in and in November were in at the she was her family. Young of his with in his in made November 1869, and published in the Deseret on November places to the November date. to a meeting in the Lion House a family of retrenchment at that but it is certain that Brigham Young did with his family after their family Given that he had about a retrenchment among women at the that and were in a in November of In this there a of retrenchment among Young's family in November and then in May with the the organization of the Young Ladies’ to retrenchment by that after the November said in her that girls had meaning that she and her sisters had not on the discussion. In this the to organize the young women was in May Young's to his family, and the organization of young women the had proceeded to Relief in Salt Lake and organize the Ladies’ Cooperative Retrenchment of their began in the Deseret in February the time of the organization of the young the adult women's retrenchment association was established and meeting Thus, it was in the Young organization was called the Young Ladies’ Department of the Ladies’ Cooperative Retrenchment the History, Gates from what she called the of the Ladies’ Retrenchment Association, held on May 28, in the with in The of this of the Young Ladies’ as an with Young as and Young and the new It is that this meeting was held after the one in the Lion House in to or the new young ladies’ This would why Gates it as the had been of the adult women for a few older and younger women for but they on The adult women's Retrenchment Association in the in Salt Lake it as a of particularly Relief leaders. the young ladies’ were in the of Salt Lake and and sisters began to organize young women as they the the The of retrenchment was to women but only young women's retrenchment were organized of Salt as Gates later “the general and purpose of retrenchment the young women of the date in Gates's History of November 28, 1869, for the founding of the organization is it seems that Brigham Young did have of retrenchment with his family that It is Gates the exact it was from her there is than her own November would have been a of Young's about retrenchment in the Deseret It is not an date for a meeting in the Lion House but further it of this date in her History was consequential for the YLMIA and later YWMIA. the had to important this gave the young women one of their years after the of the History, the YLMIA the of years its The Young Woman's Journal several the Young and a story by May one to the principles of YLMIA also a that association a commemoration on or the of November or the founding and history of the organization, its “the of the today, and the history of the organization in the and also in which the might the Retrenchment years later, the the of a held in with the a of girls and girls into the and there was a at the Salt also in with with invited to and the in women in an at the Lion the at the of and from the of and a and were to the and with to be the of November This the several were a a with the of the and a book, of which was the for all the of this was the film Pioneers in Petticoats the the with the and to the church's of the of this was the sense of identity to its of the founding became as the and its into the the November 28, 1869, date In Young Women by general held a of the founding meeting, with President ringing the Lion House bell to the well-known Brigham Young to This in of the church's and that the out to women the This a to be held a later the of the That was held November and more bell ringing and a from young women to make “a to set the of this and for and In at one girls were on a to be as a them of their to the and a to the that Gates in her 1911 account of the founding of Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association was an to Brigham Young's address to his family. It at the of the by that is taken verbatim from the 1892 historical The new includes this There is need for the young daughters of Israel to get a living testimony of the truth. Young men obtain this while on missions, but this way is not opened to the girls. More testimonies are obtained on the feet than on the knees. I wish our girls to obtain a knowledge of the Gospel for themselves. For this purpose I desire to establish this organization and want my family to lead out in the great have seen that there is full contemporaneous source for Brigham Young's words at the meeting with his family. Gates's account, which she to the memory of Bathsheba Smith, to the Historian's Office Journal of Young's to his family, but it seems that Gates actually on that she herself to be her the on her She the of the “address” she wrote the first account of the founding in and in she imported that into her But then she this about gaining a source or that it was Where did it most answer later in the book, Gates includes an account of the founding of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association as told by of Brigham Young's was a Young to organize the young men into an association in 1875. this the young ladies’ had been for a Young's interest in the young men was to them to as and leaders. in his story of meeting with the that Young want to get our into the of trying to in the of the More have testimonies on their feet than on their for said that told this story in a at the It must have made an she the account from a of the As as I have been to the of that address is It is not in any of the contemporaneous of that making the by Gates the only source we It seems that Gates of Brigham Young and it to her account of the founding of the would she have As a of the Woman's and in Latter-day Saint women's organizations and Gates would have been of the many accounts told and published by women in the of the founding of the Relief of in she had at published excerpts of the accounts the Relief purpose to women to to the and to knowledge and from the prophetic by which Smith organized the Society, his statement that he had the in the of of power to account of the founding of the young ladies’ association, with its lengthy “address” by Brigham to the prophetic having been by as the church's organization for women. This was of the 1892 sketch as as the 1911 book The in the book of Young's statement about gaining “a living however, the even It gave the young women's organization a prophetic charge that its Retrenchment after an was about and that were to be This charge from Brigham Young the purpose of the organization in the “a living testimony of the It also young women on more with young girls did not on missions, they could the same of the as their was a consequential be an on testimony was not new in the young women's YLMIA had long that time for of testimonies in their all need a testimony for or we cannot and general of the YLMIA, had in Gates herself the importance of testimony for young women in the Journal. is necessary that you not but know that and that He is your Gates in one There was one to obtain that you not know that He she not give it takes a a a It is all your time and She also a of the I of the accounts by Saints retelling their This on testimony in Gates's and seems to an she in the to her own It is to that these accounts were published after the first founding story of the YLMIA appeared in the magazine in the from Brigham Young about testimony did not in that story the 1911 book Perhaps the later version Gates's on the importance of it was published in the History, YLMIA were to up on this of the founding At the in few months after of the member gave a about “The of the YLMIA in the on the founding story from the History, she For the young women to get a living testimony of the this is the most the first great purpose for the organization to that President Young mentioned as to be for this is for a a living testimony of the she habits of order, thrift, and She retrench from any extravagance in dress, in or She to and She She assist in propagating, and practicing the principles of the She retrench in everything that is bad and and improve in everything that is good and a testimony became the purpose of the young women's The first of the YLMIA, published in a and that Young's from the 1911 History. “The of the girls first the “The of an testimony of the of the Gospel of Jesus was the of the organization, of the of a to her and This from the History Brigham Young's charge about gaining testimonies appeared in and as as the a version of the but the statement that is need for the young daughters of Israel to get a living testimony of the Improvement from to provides one example of how this in Gates's story of the the in Susa Young Gates published an History of the YLMIA that a founding story for the organization in an prophetic charge to the young women of the church. elements of this date of November 28, 1869, and the that the purpose was to young women and in the for many decades. as it to have been into the narrative by Susa Young Gates, even it is that they were of it to get and Latter-day Saints generally that records be that be made to they are and that records have beyond this In this case, the and of that to the founding of the Young Ladies’ Department of the Ladies’ Cooperative Retrenchment of the YLMIA, and the Young Women to the in which the organization began and gives a of how an important among Latter-day Saint women the Saints have long set importance on the words of who are to be In the of the YLMIA, of what exact words or be it is that Brigham Young the Gates was that in the organization this origin she was it on par with the Relief organization for women that claimed prophetic the of gaining testimonies to Brigham Young that that purpose would If Gates had the for the organization or even she had it might not have as as it the words of a to made all the The founding date and Young's prophetic charge to give the organization a it was published in Gates's History came the of a of and that the many young ladies’ Mutual Improvement Associations into the Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement The book both and helped to create the that the YLMIA to as the for and development of Latter-day Saint girls. a date to and a purpose to was of its