ELLEN FERGUSON
President 1896-1898
Dr. Ellen Brooke Ferguson was born in 1844 in Cambridge, England, where her father, William Lombe Brooke, was a lawyer of considerable reputation and social prominence. She received her formal education principally from private tutors and professors at the University. In 1857, she married Dr. William Ferguson of London.
Having purchased the “Eaton Democrat” (Eaton, Ohio), a weekly newspaper in 1860, she and her husband arrived in America. The question of suffrage for women was very interesting to her, and knowing it would be years before women would be recognized as the political equals of men, she took every opportunity to extend woman’s influence into politics.
At the close of the Civil War, the Fergusons sold the paper and headed East. Over the next ten years she was occupied in public lecturing, principally on woman suffrage and on educational, literary and medical work, in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois; until in 1875 Mrs. Ferguson went to England for her health, and traveled for some months in France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. Upon her return home to Illinois in 1876, she found her husband preparing to relocate to Utah, having become interested in the affairs of the Utah Territory through his acquaintance with Elder John Morgan and correspondence with President Brigham Young and others.
In company with her husband, Mrs. Ferguson arrived at Salt Lake City in June 1876 and went directly to St. George, where on July 1st, she and her husband were baptized as Latter-day Saints by Elder Alexander F. McDonald. In October the same year they relocated to Provo, and the following year to Salt Lake City. Mrs. Ferguson again became engaged in educational work and continued to practice medicine. In 1878, she opened the Utah Conservatory of Music, in co-operation with the musical establishment of David O. Calder, and for over two years it was the leading music school in the Territory. In 1880, her husband died at Salt Lake City.
In the fall of 1881, deciding to devote herself exclusively to practicing medicine, Mrs. Ferguson went to New York to visit hospital clinics and perfect herself in certain medical specialties including gynecology, obstetrics, and minor surgery. She spent the winter of 1881-2 visiting and examining various hospitals to qualify herself for hospital work in Utah.
Upon her return to Utah in 1882, she drew up a plan for the establishment and maintenance of a hospital in Salt Lake City, an institution greatly needed in the community. The plan provided for a full staff of physicians, surgeons, nurses and assistants, and when presented to President John Taylor and counselors, it was approved by them. The active co-operation of the Relief Society and Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association, with generous cash donations from the Presidency and others, supplied the means to furnish the new institution with the necessary medical and sanitary appliances, as well as everything needed for the nursing and care of the sick. In July, the "Dr. Ellen Ferguson Deseret Hospital" was dedicated to the service of humanity and opened for patients.
Dr. Ferguson was in charge of the hospital as house physician and surgeon and devoted all her time, energy and thought to the institution. As the Resident Surgeon in charge, she demanded a certain level of professionalism and obedience. Other doctors saw things differently, and trouble ensued. Accusations were made, both exaggerated and false, and eventually a Church Council was held in 1884 to review the charges. The question arose: "How could such good women allow such injury?" It was such a difficult case that the stake president, Angus M. Cannon, asked the prophet, Pres. John Taylor, to be present.
The women, Eliza Snow, Romania Pratt, Margaret Roberts, and Dr. Ferguson worked on many projects and enjoyed one another’s company in many venues. But sometimes, those who get along well on a social level, don’t always get along well at a business level, which appears to be the case. The ladies apparently gossiped, and Dr. Ferguson’s name was dragged through the mud. There were several accusations. The first one being that Dr. Ferguson was “austere and dictatorial" in her intercourse with [three members of the Hospital Board]. She, on the other hand, charged them with “insubordination and plotting against her.” The Board sided with the three officers and requested Dr. Ferguson resign. And upon hearing the officers’ side of the story, stated the reasons for her discharge was based upon “incompetence as an opium eater, a drunkard, and a thief.”
During the official inquiry, she admitted to perhaps appearing arbitrary and commanding in her desire to have respect and obedience from those under her charge; but a good deal of the disagreement between the parties appears to have arisen from jealousy and from magnifying faults to a great extent. The decision of the Church Council made, Dr. Ferguson was forced to resign, considering "the injured feelings" involved. However, everyone was encouraged to apologize, extend the hand of fellowship, build the good doctor up, and let everything pass; for the purposes of "increasing a good feeling of influence".
In 1886, she was sent with other ladies to Washington D.C., to present to President Cleveland the protest of the Mormon women against the indignities heaped upon them in the enforcement of the Edmunds Anti-Polygamy Act of 1882. More than 1,300 men were imprisoned for unlawful co-habitation under the terms of the Act. And although women were not prosecuted, being seen as victims and unwilling participants, many women refused to testify against their husbands and some were jailed for their refusal.
Having always been a Democrat by principle, when the people of Utah were preparing for Statehood, she joined the Democratic party and worked early and late for its success. The majority of women in Utah who formerly exercised their right to vote, favored its re-establishment, and labored hard to have the constitution of the new State recognize the political equality of women by an equal suffrage clause in that instrument. None were more zealous than Dr. Ferguson.
On February 18, 1894, a full-house crowd gathered at the Salt Lake Theatre for the closing event of the Sunday night charity series hosted by the Salt Lake Press Club. Part of the program for the evening was devoted to a debate on equal suffrage between two local female doctors: Dr. Ellen B. Ferguson and Dr. Ellen C. Gage.
Opening the debate, Dr. Ferguson cited historical female figures—Abigail Adams and the queens of England—to show the ability and success of women in leadership positions. She also argued that women had just as much right to voice their public opinions as men.
“In ages gone by, women have been looked down upon because they had not had brute force sufficient to hold their own. Now when brains count, they are crowding to the front and displacing men in the highest positions…The right of suffrage should be given to women because she is an individual; because she has a right equally with man to map out her own life…The patriots [of the American Revolution] condemned an aristocracy of blood in England, but established in this country an aristocracy of sex.”
The equal suffrage clause was incorporated into Utah's Constitution on January 4, 1896. Utah women citizens regained the right to vote with these words: “The rights of citizens of the State of Utah to vote and hold office shall not be denied on account of sex. Both male and female citizens of this State shall enjoy equally all civil, political and religious and privileges.”
The Doctor continued to take a very active part in the politics of the State, and during the campaign of 1896 spoke at hundreds of meetings for Democracy, on Bryanism and the Free Silver craze. She was elected an alternate to the National Democratic Convention in Chicago, and had the honor of being the only woman who occupied a seat at the Convention. At the close of the 1896 campaign, she organized the Woman’s Democratic Club in Salt Lake City, and was elected president for two successive years, during which time the club played an important role in politics and contributed largely to the success of the Democratic party. She was also a founding member of the Utah State Historical Society (1897) and the Red Cross Society of Utah.
After spending twenty years defending Mormonism and polygamy at international women’s conferences and before the U.S. Congress, her religious views underwent a change and her connection with the Latter-day Church was severed. She became a follower of Theosophy. She died on March 22, 1920 in Whitestone, Queens, New York. Mrs. Ferguson had four children.
Adapted from: "History of Utah" by Orson Ferguson Whitney, Volume 4, page 602 with excerpts from "Audacious Women: Early British Mormon Immigrants", 1995, by Rebecca Bartholomew; The Journal of Discourses 26:346, Remarks by President John Taylor before the High Council of Salt Lake Stake of Zion, Feb 20, 1884; "Doctors Debate Suffrage", by Tiffany Greene for Better Days 2020, March 18, 2018; Utah State Constitution, Article 4.