From left to right: Luella Atkin McAllister, Treasurer: Blanche Robinson Hamblin, Councilor;
Mary Woolley Howard Chamberlain, Mayor; Tamar Stewart Hamblin, Clerk; Ada Pratt Seegmiller, Councilor
“Kanab’s all-woman town council is a fascinating story of an election prank, the women who decided to take it seriously, and the civic accomplishments and struggles of an all-female town council,” reads the “Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume 73, Number 4, 2005” by the Utah State Historical Society.
The election was supposed to be a joke, though who got the last laugh is debatable since these remarkable women decided to take their seats on the council, give due diligence to their offices, and run the town. On the day they took office each of them was married and raising young children, 36 in total. Three of those children were born during their mother’s term in office. Two of the women worked outside of the home: Mary Chamberlain as a clerk in Kanab’s mercantile store and Tamar Hamblin as a “practical” nurse.
Like their earlier male counterparts, the women on the town council may have held opposing viewpoints, though the minutes rarely record such incidents. Chamberlain wrote that the women “have always been united in our labors, have laid aside our personal feelings and always worked for the public good,” indicating that differences of opinion were subject to the will of the majority.
These women spent an ambitious two years in office, leading some supporters to claim that they had done more for Kanab than all the previous town councils combined. Their first official act was to protect local merchants by increasing the license fee for peddlers and traveling salespeople. Other ordinances included the regulation of stray animals, and a ban on “Flippers” within town limits to protect birds from thoughtless youth. They outlawed all “noisy sports” on the Sabbath and passed a strict anti-liquor ordinance. They arranged for the town cemetery to be surveyed and sold plots, purchased lumber to build bridges over town ditches, joined with Kanab’s Irrigation Company, and built a large dike to protect the town from flooding.
The women acknowledged that they had more than their share of opposition and some met it every day in their own homes. “But, they are all women of character and have been able to hold their own. They have come out on top of every skirmish so far, but it makes it very unpleasant for them as you may know,” wrote Chamberlain. A poem, written by Tamar Hamblin claimed it was a time “when all we got was fault-finding, never an encouraging word.”
Several of their ordinances faced major animosity. For example, the men of Kanab refused to comply with a $1.50 fine for stray cows, and the women were forced to hire a “great, big, brave, courageous” city marshal to enforce the law. But it was difficult to find a man who didn’t resign after being teased for being under the “Petticoat Government.” The women hired seven different marshals during their term.
Toward the end of their term, Chamberlain noted that prior to the women’s election nine-tenths of the townsfolk did not know who the members of the town council were. In contrast, she asserted, even the children know all the names of the female council, and they are discussed “in every home for good or ill.”
An extended list of ordinances and accomplishments can be found in an article written by Mayor Chamberlain “An Example of Women in Politics” published in the “Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume 73, Number 4, 2005” by the Utah State Historical Society.
Click on their pictures to learn more about the lives of these amazing women.
