Utah Women of the 19th Amendment Series Part 3: Sarah Melissa Granger Kimball

Born on December 29, 1818, in Phelps, New York, a small town 20 miles from Palmyra, she is one of eight children of a well-to-do puritan family. When her father joins the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he moves his family to Kirtland Ohio. 15 year old Granger is fascinated with the doctrines found in the Evening and Morning Star newspaper and, at her father’s suggestion, joins the

School of the Prophets to study secular and gospel subjects. Unlike many 19th-century women Granger is excited about the intellectual and spiritual challenge, something she retains throughout her life. However, she is also a typical of 19th century women, in that she wants to work within the existing patriarchal system. 

Having moved to Nauvoo, 21 year old Granger meets and marries wealthy businessman, Hiram Kimball, who does not share her faith. Although she lives in a large elegant home and has money at her disposal, Sarah Kimball, as she is now known, is frustrated that she owns nothing in her own name due to the property laws of the day. In 1842, anxious to contribute to the temple, but not wanting to impose on her husband, Kimball organizes a “Ladies Society” to sew clothes for temple workers. This organization is presented to Joseph Smith who from it officially forms the Relief Society. The first meeting is held in Kimball’s home where Smith says he is “turning the key in behalf of women.” Kimball credits that phrase that promises to rain down knowledge and intelligence upon women, as the beginning of the women’s suffrage movement. She allows that statement to color her perception of woman’s changing sphere.

In 1851, when many of the Saints are already in Utah Territory, Kimball’s husband is still away on business and she travels to Utah without him, bringing her children and mother in law. He joins her 2 years later, penniless and ill. With no income, she begins teaching school. She has another baby in 1854 and resumes teaching 2 months later. Kimball teaches under difficult circumstances, and becomes more convinced of the need for better conditions for women in the workplace. She becomes determined to “push the matter to the utmost” says Emmeline B. Wells, another Utah suffragette. Her opinions do not go unnoticed by one of her young pupils, Emily Tanner (Richards), who later becomes a fierce proponent of women’s suffrage. 

By 1857 Kimball’s husband is again prospering in business, freeing Kimball to pursue other activities. Never one to go against the brethren, when the territorial legislature grants the right of suffrage to Utah women in 1870, Sarah affirms “that she had waited patiently a long time and now that we are granted the right of suffrage, she would openly declare herself a woman’s rights woman.” She is called to be ward Relief Society president, a position she holds for 40 years. As president, she urges women to exercise their minds, and among other subjects, introduces a study of physiology in 1872 from which comes her dress reform movement; she declares that “tight lacing is a sin against humanity.” At the same time, Kimball serves as a member of the territorial committee of the People’s Party gearing her efforts at awakening women to their responsibilities and possibilities. In the years that follow, Kimball never hesitates to give her opinion on woman’s equality, which gains her a reputation for being strong-minded. 

In 1882, Kimball becomes a member of the Utah State Constitutional Convention that draws up Utah's unsuccessful petition for statehood. After the passage of the Edmunds-

Tucker Act, Kimball heads a women’s committee petitioning Congress against outrages inflicted upon Utah women by federal deputies. Kimball becomes president of the Utah Women's Suffrage Association and Utah’s delegate in the national suffrage movement in 1890, traveling to Washington D.C. where she works closely with, and becomes good friends of Susan B. Anthony

As president, she urges women to read over the Constitution six times and study municipal government in each Suffrage Association chapter. They form mock legislative assemblies to understand the political process. “This would lead to our advancement and the enlargement of our capacities. Woman,” says Kimball, “must intelligently assert her selfhood in a manner that will enable her to labor more effectively for the general good of humanity.” 

During the urgent statehood campaign of the 1890s aging Kimball is not as active in organizing local suffrage auxiliaries and communicating with national suffrage leaders as are younger suffragettes, namely, Emily Tanner Richards. But Sarah’s endorsement of the goals and programs of the local movement is unwavering; her sanction, as one of the older generation and an established advocate of woman’s advancement, undoubtedly helps to gamer support for the cause. She dies in 1898, having witnessed Utah attaining statehood with women’s rights constitutionally established.

Excerpted from “Sarah M. Kimball” by Jill Mulvay-Derr