Jennie Anderson Froiseth

Jennie Anderson Froiseth (December 6, 1849 — February 7, 1930) was the founder of the Blue Tea, a literary club for women in Utah territory who were not Mormon. She was an anti-polygamy crusader who was the vice president of the Anti-Polygamy Society of Utah. Froiseth published the Anti-Polygamy Standard and later edited The Women of Mormonism, a book which described in detail the experiences of some Mormon women inside polygamous marriages. She believed strongly in women's rights and played a role in bringing enfranchisement to Utah territory, later becoming the vice president of the Utah Women's Suffrage Association.

Early life

Born in Ireland, Froiseth came to the United States with her family and resided in New York. In 1866, Froiseth traveled to Europe with her brother, Colonel Finley Anderson, and her mother, Sarah Strong Anderson. Froiseth spent five years abroad to study in Europe, during which time she met authors Charles Dickens, Robert Browning, and William Makepeace Thackeray who were guests of the Anderson home.^[1] After returning to the United States in 1870, she traveled to the Utah Territory with her brother Finley, who was on special assignment for the New York Herald in the West. In Utah the siblings resided at Fort Douglas where she met Bernard Arnold Martin Froiseth. Bernard and Jennie were married in the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn, New York, on June 8, 1871. Bernard was an army surveyor assigned to the Utah Territory, and soon after their wedding they headed back out West.^[2]

The Blue Tea

In the late 19th century, Utah Territory was heavily populated by Mormons and dominated religiously and politically by the Mormon Church, which held great sway over Mormons voters. Because the vast majority of the population was Mormon, people outside of the LDS church had very little political representation. The segregation between Mormons and non-Mormons (at the time called "Gentiles") became very apparent. As a non-Mormon woman there were few ways to meet other women, whereas, the women of the Mormon Church had the Relief Society to build friendships and expend energy.^[3] Froiseth struggled with the lack of social engagement. During a visit to family and friends back in New York City in 1875, Froiseth attended the Sorosis Women's club with her sister Julia. The experience Froiseth had at the club motivated her to form a literary club back in Salt Lake City which was organized in 1875 and called the Blue Tea.^[1] It was Utah's first women's club. The Blue Tea's first president was Froiseth (1876) who set a cap of 25 members. The Blue Tea discussed many topics for the purpose of stimulating "mental culture" within its members. A few women would be assigned to read a book or article and come back the next week to expound on the ideas they read. Then the club would debate over those ideas. Froiseth described the Blue Tea's first year: "we did good work, had some fine programmes, necessitating not a little reading and study, and the meetings went so well that there was rarely a vacant chair".^[1] Froiseth's club gave non-Mormon women the chance to socialize but also empowered them to push for change within their society.^[1] The minutes for the Blue Tea can be found in the Special Collections of the Marriott Library, University of Utah.^[4]

Anti-polygamy movement

The Anti-Polygamy Society

The Carrie Owen case^[5] moved Froiseth along with other members of the Blue Tea to protest at Independence Hall in Salt Lake City (November 7, 1878). The women of the protest came together that very day and organized the Ladies' Anti-Polygamy Society of Utah; Sarah Anne Cooke was named president with Froiseth as vice president. The society's purpose "was not to wage war against any party, sect, or person, but...to fight to the death that system which so enslaves and degrades our sex, and which robs them of so much happiness".^[1] In August 1880 the Women's National Anti-Polygamy Society was founded, and Froiseth toured the country to give lectures on polygamy and to set-up Anti-Polygamy chapters. The Anti-Polygamy Society of Utah later would develop into the Utah Association for the Advancement of Women.^[2]

The Anti-Polygamy Standard

Froiseth was passionately against polygamy. In 1880 she edited and published The Anti-Polygamy Standard. The eight-page monthly paper has the same biblical verse printed on every issue, "Let every man have his own wife, and let every women have her own husband" (1 Corinthians 7:2). The Standard told the stories of women suffering in polygamous marriages and further educated the country on polygamy in the Utah territory. The Anti-Polygamy Standard only lasted three years, ending abruptly in 1883 due to lack of funding.^[6] During the newspaper's life Froiseth compiled the stories of suffering women in polygamous marriages in order to publish The Women of Mormonism: Or, The story of polygamy as told by the victims themselves.^[7] The book focuses on the misery and distress felt by wives subjected to polygamy. One reverend wrote, "I have read some of the proof sheets of The Women of Mormonism. If the statements made are true—and they are amply vouched for by intelligent and trustworthy persons—they will certainly stir the blood of those who read them."^[7] Froiseth wanted women from all over the United States to know what was happening in Utah territory.^[8]

Suffragist movement

Utah held intensely liberal views of women's suffrage and also a strong dedication to polygamy. To the people in the East, women's suffrage was seen as the opposite of polygamy. For many, the two ideals could not coincide because polygamy was seen as oppressive to women. Hamilton Wilcox, a New York suffragist (1867–1868), suggested women's suffrage should be experimented with in the territories. The East was heavily motivated to push women's enfranchisement in the Utah territory believing it would put an end to polygamy.^[9] By 1870 the idea became so popular and pushed by the East that Utah territorial legislature began debate over the right of women to vote. On February 12, 1870, after two weeks of debate a unanimous vote passed a bill enfranchising the women of Utah, fifty years before the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution guaranteed women nationwide the right to vote.^[10] However, instead of voting against plural marriage, Mormon women helped double the majority in favor of plural marriage by reelecting William H. Hooper, who defended polygamy. Froiseth, a long time believer in the enfranchisement of women and later the vice president of the Utah Women's Suffrage Association (1888), firmly believed Mormon women should not have the right to vote—at least until polygamy was outlawed. She recognized this was inconsistent with her beliefs about women's rights but concluded, by her own judgement, that Mormon women were too heavily influenced to make voting decisions for themselves.^[9]

Later years

The Edmunds–Tucker Act passed in 1887, nine years after the organization of The Anti-Polygamy Society. After Froiseth's fight against polygamy, she dedicated her energy to women suffrage. Froiseth worked with the American Association of University Women and in 1888 she was the vice president of the Utah Women's Suffrage Association.

In 1911, Froiseth organized a retirement home for women.^[11] She dedicated her time towards purchasing the property and overseeing the architectural plans. The building was named the Sarah Daft Home and 100 years later it is still running as a retirement center.^[12] Froiseth became the president of the Sarah Daft Home and also worked with the Orphan's Home and Day Nursery. In her later years Froiseth was an active member of the Poetry Society and served as its president. Froiseth's daughters, Ethylene and Dorothy, became members of the all-encompassing Ladies Literary Club which took the place of the exclusive Blue Tea. As Froiseth put it "the larger scope of the Ladies Literary Club" had discontinued the Blue Tea. Both of her daughters served for a time as president of the Ladies Literary Club.^[1]

Froiseth's husband Bernard died on November 5, 1922. After living as a widow for eight years, Jennie Anderson Froiseth died at the age of 80 on February 7, 1930, 40 years after polygamy publicly ended. She left behind her five children: Bernard Froiseth, R.J. Froiseth, R.E. Froiseth, Ethylene Perkins, and Dorothy Bracken.^[13]

References

External links

• Jenni Anderson Froiseth letters, MSS 3875 at L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University