Christy Karras - More than Petticoats: Remarkable Utah Women

Utah native Christy Karras comes from a long line of stubborn pioneer women who crossed plains, married good men, toiled on farms, took low-paying jobs, and generally did whatever it took to help their descendants thrive in the Beehive State.

She has worked as a staff reporter for the Salt Lake Tribune and the Associated Press and as an editor for Wasatch Journal magazine. She writes about arts, culture, history, travel, and the outdoors for publications including the Seattle Times. She also writes motorcycle touring guides with coauthor Stephen Zusy. She divides her time between Utah and the Pacific Northwest and shares adventures with her sweetheart, Bill, and their diabolical pets.

Surely, to-day, whoever inflicts an additional volume upon a long-suffering public, ought to be able to set up an unassailable plea in justification thereof.

CORNELIA PADDOCK, IN THE TOILS

Anyone writing about the past relies on the work of many, and this project made me appreciate all the more those who help write the stories of their timeswhether they be newspaper reporters or private citizens keeping diaries.

Then there are the people who carefully preserve and share those first-person accounts, including historians who put it all together and make sense of what it means. Their work is all the more valuable in the case of traditionally neglected areas like womens history.

Several entities in particular made my research possible and deserve recognition and huge thanks.

The Utah State Historical Societys helpful staff made working at its archives a pleasure.

A joint project of Utahs academic and research institutions, the Mountain West Digital Library maintains an invaluable electronic database of statewide documents and photos, which are now easily available to the world.

The Marriott Library at the University of Utah also hosts the Utah Digital Newspapers Project, a searchable database of papers large and small, old and new. No more microfilm!

The Salt Lake City Public Library has a lovely collection of resources on Utah and Mormon history.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints welcomes all kinds of researchers, and its mostly volunteer staff cheerfully handles all kinds of requests.

Thanks to my patient and capable editors at Globe Pequot Press.

Finally, thanks to my family and friends, and especially Bill, for help, encouragement, and putting up with me in general when I was paying more attention to the book than I did to you.

Alexander, Thomas G. Utah: The Right Place (revised and updated edition). Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith, 2003.

Beecher, Maureen Ursenbach, and Lavinia Fielding Anderson, eds. Sisters in Spirit: Mormon Women in Historical and Cultural Perspective. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987.

Bushman, Claudia L., ed. Mormon Sisters: Women in Early Utah. Logan: Utah State University Press, 1997.

Godfrey, Kenneth, Audrey M. Godfrey, and Jill Mulvay Derr. Womens Voices: An Untold History of the Latter-day Saints, 18301900. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1982.

Mountain West Digital Library: http://mwdl.org.

Stegner, Wallace. Mormon Country. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003.

Utah Digital Newspapers Project: http://digitalnewspapers.org.

Utah State Historical Society: http://history.utah.gov.

Utah State Historical Societys History to Go series: http://historytogo.utah.gov.

Whitley, Colleen, ed. Worth Their Salt: Notable but Often Unnoted Women of Utah. Logan: Utah State University Press, 1996.

. Worth Their Salt, Too: More Notable but Often Unnoted Women of Utah. Logan: Utah State University Press, 2000.

Arrington, Chris Rigby, Pioneer Midwives in Bushman, Claudia L., ed. Mormon Sisters: Women in Early Utah. Logan: Utah State University Press, 1997, p. 4366.

Black, Susan Easton. My Heart Is in God in Smith, Barbara B. and Thatcher, Blythe Darlyn. Heroines of the Restoration. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1997, p. 3445.

Derr, Jill Mulvay. Strength in Our Union in Beecher, Maureen Ursenbach and Anderson, Lavinia Fielding, eds. Sisters in Spirit: Mormon Women in Historical and Cultural Perspective. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987.

Scadron, Arlene, ed. On Their Own: Widows and Widowhood in the American Southwest, 18481939. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1988.

Smart Donna T., ed. Mormon Midwife: The 18461888 diaries of Patty Bartlett Sessions. Logan: Utah State University Press, 1997.

Smart, Donna Toland. Patty Bartlett Sessions: Pioneer Midwife in Whitley, Colleen, ed., Worth Their Salt: Notable but Often Unnoted Women of Utah. Logan: Utah State University Press, 1996.

Beecher, Maureen Ursenbach. Eliza R. Snow in Bushman, Claudia L., ed. Mormon Sisters: Women in Early Utah. Logan: Utah State University Press, 1997, 2542.

Beecher, Maureen Ursenbach, ed. The Personal Writings of Eliza Roxcy Snow. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1995.

Beecher, Maureen Ursenbach, and Lavinia Fielding Anderson, eds. Sisters in Spirit: Mormon Women in Historical and Cultural Perspective. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987.

Derr, Jill Mulvay. Mrs. Smith Goes to Washington: Eliza R. Snows Visit to Southern Utah, text of a speech for Juanita Brooks Lecture Series, St. George, Dixie State College, March 24, 2004.

Lieber, Constance, and John Sillito, eds. Letters from Exile: The Correspondence of Martha Hughes Cannon and Angus M. Cannon, 18681888. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1989.

Madsen, Carol Cornwall. Mormon Women and the Temple in Beecher, Maureen Ursenbach and Anderson, Lavinia Fielding, eds. Sisters in Spirit: Mormon Women in Historical and Cultural Perspective. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987, p. 90.

Peterson, Janet, and LaRene Gaunt. Elect Ladies: Presidents of the Relief Society. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1990.

Smith, George Albert, et al., Correspondence of Palestine Tourists: Comprising a Series of Letters by George A. Smith, Lorenzo Snow, Paul A. Schettler, and Eliza R. Snow of Utah. Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1875. (Reprinted by Ayer Company Publishers, Salt Lake City, 1977).

Barrett, Ivan J. Heroic Mormon Women: True Stories from the Lives of Sixteen Amazing Women in Church History. American Fork, UT: Covenant Communications, 2000.

Bringhurst, Newell G., and Darron T. Smith. Black and Mormon. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2004.

Carter, Kate. The Negro Pioneer. Salt Lake City: Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1965.

Embry, Jessie L. Black Saints in a White Church. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1994.

. Speaking for Themselves: LDS Ethnic Groups Oral History Project. Dialogue 25 (4) (Winter 1992): p. 99110.

Gittins, Lita Little. Wonderful, Unfailing Friend in Smith, Barbara B. and Thatcher, Blythe Darlyn. Heroines of the Restoration. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1997, p. 7178.

James, Jane E. Manning. My Life Story, as dictated to Elizabeth J. D. Roundy. Wilford Woodruff Papers. Historical Department, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, UT. 1893.