and charity work, Utah women have been active. Some of the most able teachers and writers in the State have been women, and some of the most famous actresses in the country began their careers in the famed Salt Lake Theatre.
Among this people the men and women of attainment always stood out as leaders. In early days an English nurse and her husband, a physician, gave lectures to the women on health and home nursing. Several Utah women, graduates from Eastern medical schools, were practicing medicine in the second generation of pioneers. In 1882, an institution known as the Desert Hospital was established by the women and was the forerunner of the Utah hospitals of today. This early insight created interest in public health and sanitation, in pure water supply and in other preventive health measures.
A unique movement of pioneer days was a seri-culture project established by the women of the Relief Society. It included the planting of mulberry trees, the growing of cocoons and the manufacture of raw silk into cloth. For many years the industry was successful, the raw material winning prizes at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893. Susan B. Anthony wore, with much pride, a dress made of Utah silk, presented by the women of the Relief Society. There were three silk factories in the State, and hundreds of yards of silk cloth and ribbon were manufactured.
To facilitate the exchange of domestic commodities in the primitive, isolated Western life, where money and manufactured merchandise were scarce, women throughout the State conducted cooperative stores. At these they exchanged the products of their labors, their handiwork and also household articles, with a view of mutual helpfulness in meeting the pioneer problems.
To promote and develop their work more effectively these women raised funds and erected halls where their weekly meetings and socials were held. Here they would gather to sew, knit, remodel clothing, prepare burial clothing and make quilts and carpets. These articles were either sold for the benefit of the treasury, or were given to those in need. Unique Relief Society halls, several costing as much as $5,000, were to be found in many of the communities—monuments to the industry and enterprise of pioneer women.
In 1875, President Brigham Young, realizing the importance of an adequate food supply for his isolated people in far-away Utah, instituted a grain-saving movement. Entire crops had several times been destroyed by the elements or by grasshoppers and other insects. Cut off from the rest
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