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Martha Maria "Mattie" Hughes Cannon (July 1, 1857 – July 10, 1932) was a Utah State Senator, physician, Utah women's rights advocate, suffragist, polygamous wife, and a Welsh-born immigrant to the United States. Her family immigrated to the United States as converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and traveled West to settle in Utah territory with other Saints. She started working at the age of fourteen. At sixteen she enrolled in the University of Deseret, now called the University of Utah, receiving a Bachelors in Chemistry. From there she attended the University of Michigan and received her MD. She became the fourth of six wives in a polygamous marriage to Angus M. Cannon, a prominent Latter-day Saint leader during the anti-polygamy crusade. Cannon exiled herself to Europe so she wouldn't have to testify against her husband and others. Upon returning to Utah, Cannon worked as a doctor and fought for women's rights. She helped put women enfranchisement into Utah's constitution when it was granted statehood in 1896. On November 3, 1896 Cannon became the first female State Senator elected in the United States, defeating her own husband, who was also on the ballot. Martha Hughes Cannon was the author of Utah sanitation laws and was a founder and member of Utah's first State Board of Health.: 10–90  Biography Early life Martha Maria Hughes Cannon was born near Llandudno, Caernarfonshire, Wales on July 1, 1857, the daughter of Peter Hughes and Elizabeth Evans. She was known by the nickname "Mattie". The Hughes family were converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and emigrated to the United States with their two daughters, Mary Elizabeth and Martha Maria. They embarked from Liverpool, England on March 30, 1860, on the ship Underwriter and arrived in New York City, New York on May 1, 1860. Peter was very sick at the time and Elizabeth gave birth to their third child, Annie Lloyd. They stayed in New York to earn money to travel the plains to Utah territory. Erastus Snow, a Mormon leader, invited the family to join a pioneer company funded by the LDS Church for the less fortunate. The family accepted the invitation and traveled by train to Florence, Nebraska, and left with The Joseph Horne Company on July 11, 1861. Shortly before the family's arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, on September 3, 1861, Martha's sister Annie Lloyd Hughes died and was buried in an unmarked grave. She was 21 months old. The Joseph Horne company arrived in the Salt Lake valley on September 13, 1861. Three days after they arrived in Salt Lake City, on September 17, 1861, Peter Hughes died. Elizabeth Hughes was left a widow with two young daughters at the age of 28.: 4–8  Thirteen months later, Elizabeth married James Patten Paul, a widower with four sons, thereafter giving birth to the later Latter-day Saints university professor and newspaper editor Joshua Hughes Paul. After Elizabeth's marriage to James P. Paul, Martha, at different times in her life, went by the surnames of both Paul and Hughes. Later in life, Paul encouraged Martha to follow her dream of becoming a medical doctor.: 9–12  Education and career At age fourteen, Hughes taught school for a year, but quit when she had trouble controlling her larger male students. Brigham Young asked Hughes to learn typesetting and she worked as an apprentice for Hyrum Perry. Hughes first worked as a typesetter for the Deseret News. Later she worked as a typesetter for the Women's Exponent, a women's newspaper in Salt Lake City published by Emmeline B. Wells and affiliated with the Mormon Relief Society. While working at the Women's Exponent, Hughes met Emmeline B. Wells and Eliza Snow. These two women were her mentors and encouraged Hughes in her aspiration to become a doctor.: 10–11  In an October 1873 General Conference address, Brigham Young encouraged women, specifically, to enter the medical field and become doctors. The same year, at age sixteen, Martha Hughes enrolled in the University of Deseret as a pre-med major, working as a typesetter during the day while taking night classes.: 65–71  She graduated from the University of Deseret in 1878 with a degree in chemistry. On August 13, 1878, Hughes was one of four women set apart for medical studies and practice by the LDS Church. President John Taylor and his counselor George Q. Cannon set them apart. The other three women were Romania B. Pratt, Ellis R. Shipp, and Maggie Shipp. Pratt and Ellis Shipp had already received their medical degrees while Maggie Shipp and Hughes were heading out to earn theirs. Ellis R. Shipp and Maggie Shipp were plural wives of Milford Shipp. Maggie had been watching Ellis's children in the Utah Territory while Ellis earned her MD. Now as Hughes was heading to the University of Michigan for her MD, Maggie was taking her turn to become a doctor as well.: 20–22  Hughes started at the University of Michigan in the autumn of 1878. With limited funds, she spent her first year working in the student dormitories. During Hughes' second year she worked as a secretary for another student, Bethenia Owens-Adair.: 23–24  She graduated July 1, 1880, on her 23rd birthday. She briefly practiced medicine in Algonac, Michigan. In 1881, she moved to Philadelphia to take post-graduate courses at the Auxiliary Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania. Hughes was the only women out of 75 students. Additionally, Hughes took night classes to learn more about pharmaceuticals and enrolled at the National School of Elocution and Oratory. In 1882, she earned a Bachelor of Science in pharmacy from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor's in oratory from the National School of Elocution and Oratory. At 25 Martha Hughes had earned four degrees. Hughes returned to Salt Lake City, Utah and opened a private practice in a new wing of her old home built by her step-father. Soon after, she was called by LDS Church leaders to become the resident physician for the newly founded Deseret Hospital in 1882. As the Deseret Hospital's paid physician, Hughes set up training classes for nurses and lectures on obstetrics.: 28–30  Plural marriage and exile While working at the Deseret Hospital, Martha met a Mormon polygamist, Angus Munn Cannon, who was the superintendent of the new hospital and a local official of the LDS Church. Mormon polygamy was a hot topic in Utah Territory. To the Mormons polygamy was sacred but to the rest of the United States it was offensive. In 1882 the Edmunds Act was passed by Congress making polygamy a felony punishable by a $500 fine and five years in prison. When Martha married in the Mormon temple to Angus on October 6, 1884, becoming the fourth of his six plural wives, the marriage was kept secret as it was a religious ceremony rather than a legally binding contract. Martha Cannon's mother knew nothing of the ceremony. Still, rumors of her marriage to Angus brought pressure to the Deseret Hospital. Martha Hu.... Discover the Mari Grana popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Mari Grana books.