Uppity Mormon Women: Sarah Melissa Granger Kimball

Sarah Melissa Granger Kimball

Early Advocate of Universal Rights


Sarah Melissa Granger Kimball (born 1818) was not a woman to take life meekly. She possessed the courage to say what she thought.

Did she believe in suffrage? You bet your sweet bippy she did! And not just voting rights, but universal rights for all. In her opinion, not only should women have the right to vote, but the education and self-presence to know their own mind. As president of the Utah Woman Suffrage Association, she worked closely with Susan B Anthony to encourage universal suffrage in the United States. She believed "education and agitation are our best weapons of warfare." ^[1] No shrinking violet she.

Sarah Kimball was a vocal advocate for women's rights. She believed that women were more than capable of contributing and functioning in society as intelligent, skillful people and encouraged them at every opportunity. She was a suffragist, a first member, and later served in the general and local presidencies of the Relief Society, and a supporter of education for women. She was a school teacher by career and a wife by choice. Hers "became a public life and she became a major influence on Utah’s social, religious, and political scenes." ^[2]

The neat thing about her suffragettage was that, unlike many of her contemporaries in the Eastern States or abroad in, say, England, she was not ridiculed or shunned by society or called a raving bluestocking. She was an honored and respected member of the community.

As president of her ward's Relief Society, and later, as general vice-president of the General Relief Society, she was known for her innovation and attention to the complete development of women. She encouraged the sisters of the Relief Society to seek out knowledge, not just of the sacred but the secular as well.

And nobody ever told her to shut up.

Alas, she died in 1898 and never got to see universal suffrage come to pass. She did, however, get to participate in the vote, as the Territory of Utah had universal suffrage in 1870, and got to see the first female State Senator in the US elected. (More on this senator in a later post. Um, in fact, next post.)

Next Post: Martha Hughes Cannon. You'll like her.