Church History
21. The School of Experience: Mattie Horne Tingey

“21. The School of Experience: Mattie Horne Tingey,” At the Pulpit: 185 Years of Discourses by Latter-day Saint Women (2017), 83–87

“21. Mattie Horne Tingey,” At the Pulpit, 83–87

21

The School of Experience

Mattie Horne Tingey

World’s Congress of Representative Women

Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

May 19, 1893

Martha “Mattie” Jane Horne Tingey (1857–1938) believed women had a responsibility to develop their intellects and their talents in order to influence their children and the world, as outlined in her 1893 speech before the World’s Congress of Representative Women. The fourteenth of fifteen children of Joseph and Mary Isabella Horne, she grew up in Salt Lake City, where she participated actively in the Primary Association, the Sunday School, and the Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association (YLMIA).1 As a child, she would often eavesdrop on the conversations of adults in her parents’ parlor, many of whom were leaders in the church and the community.2 As a teenager, Tingey edited the manuscript newspaper of her ward YLMIA and often read articles at joint meetings of the Young Ladies’ and Young Men’s Associations. She attended the University of Deseret,3 and she was a member of the Wasatch Literary Association and a member and assistant secretary of the Tabernacle Choir.4 While working as a typesetter, she met Joseph Tingey at the Deseret News office and married him on September 30, 1884. Together they had seven children.5

Like her mother, Tingey served actively in the church’s women’s organizations. She acted as a counselor in the Salt Lake City Fourteenth Ward Primary Association under Clara C. Cannon and as a counselor in the YLMIA for many years. In the summer of 1880, she was called as second counselor to Elmina S. Taylor, the first general president of the YLMIA, in which capacity she served for twenty-five years.6 Tingey herself was sustained as general president of the YLMIA on April 4, 1905, and served until 1929.7

Even before the 1890 Manifesto ended the official sanction of plural marriage, Mormon women worked to establish relationships with contemporary women’s groups with similar beliefs and goals. But the 1890s became a period of unprecedented cooperation and coordination for Mormon women with national organizations.8 As a delegate of the YLMIA, Tingey traveled to Chicago at her own expense in 1893 to attend the World Columbian Exposition.9 The exposition, or world’s fair, included a World’s Congress of Representative Women, which had the purpose “of bringing together the representatives of all worthy organizations of women, whatever their nationality or their specific object.”10 The congress hoped to find solutions to the many problems associated with “the Woman Question.”11 Mormon women were requested to plan their visits to the fair in order to attend “this most important meeting.”12

The YLMIA conducted an evening session of the congress on Utah Day, May 19, 1893, following the afternoon session sponsored by the Relief Society. Speakers included Elmina S. Taylor and other members of the YLMIA general board, addressing such topics as literature and art, the legal and political status of Utah women, and education.13 Tingey was known for her impressive public speaking skills, “having a fine voice and clear articulation. She is modest, humble, and retiring in her disposition, yet firm, fearless, and unhesitating in expressing her convictions.”14 At this meeting she presented the address featured here on the role of women. She introduced significant Mormon beliefs—including the belief in a Heavenly Mother—to an audience of people from a variety of faith traditions.15 The meeting was considered a success as several attendees—both men and women, both Mormon and those from other faiths—expressed “surprise and pleasure over the exalted, refined, and pure sentiments” presented at the session.16

Woman—Mother, Woman—Wife,

The sweetest words man ever knew.17

The school of life, in which we are all pupils, is a grand, a glorious institution. Of divine conception, it is perfect in organization, widespread and far-reaching in its operations, incomprehensible in its results. It extends back to man’s pre-existence and reaches forward to the vast eternities to come.18

When we take up the study of nature and become somewhat acquainted with its beauties, its harmony, its grandeur and perfection, our minds expand, and we can but think of the Creator, the Organizer, the Power that controls so much life and intelligence; and almost unconsciously a feeling of reverence for that unseen Power, that great Intelligence, takes possession of our hearts, and the questions naturally arise in our minds: By what power were all these things brought into existence?19 Who planned and controls such a perfect system, and what is the object of its creation? This spirit of inquiry as to the why and wherefore of our earthly existence is the first step in theology; for pure and undefiled religion is the true science of life.20 According to the views of the so-called Mormon people, this earth is only one department of a great system of education which has been devised by our Heavenly Father for the cultivation and development of his children. The sacred scriptures—the Holy Bible—teach that all things were created first spiritual, then temporal, and man is no exception to the rule.21 The primary department, or first grade, in this school of life was the spirit world, where the sons and daughters of God passed through a spiritual probation to enable them to gain the intelligence and experience necessary to prepare them for a future state of existence—in other words, to enable them to enter the preparatory department in the school of experience.22 According to their diligence and faithfulness in the first department is their position or status in this the second or earthly probation. Time will not admit of our entering into the details of this organization; suffice it to say, that in the wisdom of God man has been placed in charge of this department; but to woman has been given the power, the honor to open the door through which all must pass ere they can enter that advanced stage of action and go forward in the work of progression which has been designed and marked out by our Heavenly Parents.23 I say parents, because while we hear a great deal about our Heavenly Father, and very little, if anything, about our Heavenly Mother, reason and revelation both teach us that we must also have a Mother there.24 This is true, pure motherhood—to give temporal bodies to heavenly spirits, that the spiritual and temporal may be united and continue on in the work of perfection.

I would ask this intelligent audience, is this a menial labor? Is there a greater or nobler work, or one that is more important and beneficial to the human family than that of motherhood? It is of equal importance to the high and the low, the rich and the poor. A man can never reach such a height of perfection, such a pinnacle of greatness that he can deny that he owes the possibility of his success to a woman—his mother. It is for this reason we impress upon our girls the necessity of preparing themselves to become pure, strong, intelligent wives and mothers, that their children may begin life upon this earth with fair prospects: strong, healthful bodies; bright, active minds; free from inherited disease and vice. And in order that this may be accomplished perfectly, it is woman’s right—nay, more, it is her duty—to demand from the husband and father the same purity of life and character that she herself maintains and that he demands from her. For a man is under as great condemnation in the sight of God for unchastity and an unholy life as is woman. Else woman must be the superior power, the greater intelligence, if more is expected and required from her than from her brother man.25

Nor is this all of woman’s work. For reasons best known to our Heavenly Father, the intelligence gained in our previous existence is for the time being taken from us, and we come upon the earth pure, innocent, helpless babes. Upon mothers has been placed the responsibility of nurturing and training these tender plants. It is during the period of childhood that the most lasting impressions are made upon the mind. Let us have educated, refined, common-sense mothers, and the home, society, the nation, and the world will reap the benefits. I once heard a prominent Utah man remark that if he could only educate a part of his family he would certainly educate his daughters rather than his sons. He realized woman’s power and influence, especially when she becomes a mother, over present as well as future generations.26

Oh, if mothers would thoroughly understand, fully appreciate, and wisely use their God-given power, there would be no greater truism than the old adage, “The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.”27

When women entertain the idea [of] a wife and mother [as was] advanced to me, that when she married she gave up her own individuality, she felt she had no mind nor will independent of her husband’s, can we wonder that their children grow up with the idea that father and mother are one, and that one is the father? It has always roused an indignant feeling within me to hear a woman say in answer to her child’s question, “Oh, I don’t know anything about such things; go and ask your father.” Every time she makes a remark of that nature the mother loses influence and the father gains it.

Let woman prepare herself to stand side by side, shoulder to shoulder with her husband in all the affairs of life, to be a wise counselor and helpmeet unto him, as her Creator designed she should be;28 let mothers impress upon their children the principles of justice and equal rights, and the women of the next generation will not have to beg and plead for what rightfully belongs to them.

Why is it that today there is so much broader a view taken of woman’s position than before? Because woman herself is beginning to feel that she is an intelligent, responsible being, with a mind capable of the highest intelligence, with talents that it is her duty to develop and use for the advancement and elevation of the human family. This feeling is gradually but steadily growing; it is being felt throughout the world, and it will continue to grow until it becomes a power in the earth.

All honor to the noble women of this Congress, who have stood firm in the face of severe opposition, bitter scorn ofttimes, and dared to maintain their convictions of truth and right. May their number increase, and their influence be felt until it reaches every nook and corner of the habitable globe.29

  1. “Pioneer Woman Goes to Her Rest,” Deseret Evening News, Aug. 26, 1905; Emmeline B. Wells, “Our Picture Gallery: Martha Jane Horne Tingey,” Young Woman’s Journal 2, no. 4 (Jan. 1891): 147, 149–150; “Martha Horne Tingey,” Young Woman’s Journal 16, no. 6 (June 1905): 260.

  2. Tingey’s mother, Mary Isabella Horne, served as president of the Salt Lake City Fourteenth Ward Relief Society, president of the Salt Lake Stake Relief Society, executive chair of the Deseret Hospital board, and leader of the Retrenchment Association. (Augusta Joyce Crocheron, Representative Women of Deseret, a Book of Biographical Sketches to Accompany the Picture Bearing the Same Title [Salt Lake City: J. C. Graham, 1884], 20–21.)

  3. Susa Young Gates, History of the Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1911), 287; see also chapter 9 herein.

  4. Wells, “Our Picture Gallery,” 150. The Wasatch Literary Association was a reading society for young adults that was organized in 1874 to promote appreciation of culture. Members of the group performed dramatic readings and small-scale theatrical productions and presented lectures, debates, and poetry. (Ronald W. Walker, “Growing Up in Early Utah: The Wasatch Literary Association, 1874–1878,” BYU Studies 43, no. 1 [2004]: 61–63.)

  5. She also worked as a typesetter for the Woman’s Exponent. (Crocheron, Representative Women of Deseret, 23; Wells, “Our Picture Gallery,” 149; “The New Class of Young Ladies,” Woman’s Exponent 2, no. 6 [Aug. 15, 1873]: 45; “Martha Horne Tingey,” 260–261.)

  6. “Martha Horne Tingey,” 260; Gates, History of the Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association, 287–288.

  7. Clarissa A. Beesley, “President Martha H. Tingey,” Young Woman’s Journal 40, no. 5 (May 1929): 310–311.

  8. Carol Cornwall Madsen, “Decade of Detente: The Mormon-Gentile Female Relationship in Nineteenth-Century Utah,” Utah Historical Quarterly 63, no. 4 (Fall 1995): 298–300.

  9. “Martha Horne Tingey,” 261.

  10. Hubert Howe Bancroft, The Book of the Fair (Chicago: Bancroft, 1893), 921–922; May Wright Sewall, ed., The World’s Congress of Representative Women: A Historical Résumé for Popular Circulation, 2 vols. (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1894), 1:46–48. The decision to hold the congress separate from the Chicago World’s Fair meant that attendees would not have to pay entrance fees. (“World’s Congress of Representative Women,” Young Woman’s Journal 4, no. 8 [May 1893]: 380.)

  11. May Wright Sewall and Rachel Foster Avery, “The World’s Congress Auxiliary of the World’s Columbian Exposition: Woman’s Branch of the Auxiliary,” Young Woman’s Journal 4, no. 1 (Oct. 1892): 43–45.

  12. “Editor’s Department,” Young Woman’s Journal 4, no. 4 (Jan. 1893): 183.

  13. Tingey’s mother, Mary Isabella Horne, spoke in the afternoon at the Relief Society session. (Gates, History of the Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association, 202–204.)

  14. “Martha Horne Tingey,” 261. Susa Young Gates described Tingey as “always a convincing speaker, and at times [she] pours forth her soul in the true language of eloquence. She has a dignified manner and is quiet in speech, though aggressive in her opinions. She has the prudence to restrain speech when silence is golden. If asked to name the most marked trait in Mrs. Tingey’s character, the answer would be sincerity, genuineness.” (Gates, History of the Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association, 288.)

  15. Reid L. Neilson, Exhibiting Mormonism: The Latter-day Saints and the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 98–99.

  16. “Miscellaneous,” Young Woman’s Journal 4, no. 9 (June 1893): 429; Neilson, Exhibiting Mormonism, 100–101.

  17. The origin of this verse is unknown. A similar idea is found in a poem by Eliza R. Snow, “A Dialogue, between Jenny and Carry,” which was published in the Juvenile Instructor in 1866. (Jill Mulvay Derr and Karen Lynn Davidson, eds., Eliza R. Snow: The Complete Poetry [Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press; Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2009], 728.)

  18. Pre-existence refers to a period of life prior to mortal birth. (See Gayle Oblad Brown, “Premortal Life,” in Encyclopedia of Mormonism, ed. Daniel H. Ludlow, 5 vols. [New York: Macmillan, 1992], 3:1123–1125.)

  19. See Doctrine and Covenants 93:36.

  20. See James 1:27.

  21. Genesis 2:4–5; see also Moses 3:4–5; and Doctrine and Covenants 29:30–32.

  22. See Alma 13:3; and Doctrine and Covenants 138:56.

  23. Nineteenth-century Latter-day Saints and contemporary Americans often viewed women as gatekeepers to both birth and death. (See Susanna Morrill, “Relief Society Birth and Death Rituals: Women at the Gates of Mortality,” Journal of Mormon History 36, no. 2 [Spring 2010]: 128–159.)

  24. Her statement here echoes a line from a popular hymn, “O My Father,” written by Eliza R. Snow in 1845, based on a teaching from Joseph Smith. This hymn was originally published under the name “My Father in Heaven.” (Derr and Davidson, Eliza R. Snow: The Complete Poetry, 312–314; see also Jill Mulvay Derr, “The Significance of ‘O My Father’ in the Personal Journey of Eliza R. Snow,” BYU Studies 36, no. 1 [1997–1996]: 85–126; Jill Mulvay Derr, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Kate Holbrook, and Matthew J. Grow, eds., The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women’s History [Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2016], 173–175; and “Mother in Heaven,” Gospel Topics, accessed May 9, 2016, lds.org.)

  25. In the same meeting, Julia Farnsworth compared the purity and capability of men and women. She said of women in history, “We find that in accordance with the influence and power she has been allowed to wield in society, there also is purity, morality, and refinement of a high order.” The conflicting ideas of separate gendered spheres and equal rights permeated the late nineteenth-century woman’s movement. (Julia Farnsworth, “Woman in All Ages: Address Delivered in the World’s Fair Congress at Chicago, during the Services of the Y. L. M. I. A.,” Young Woman’s Journal 4, no. 11 [Aug. 1893]: 513–514; Nancy F. Cott, The Grounding of Modern Feminism [New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1987], 16–20.)

  26. This particular example of female education is often attributed to Brigham Young, but no reliable source can be found linking it to him. Rather, Tingey was probably referring to Joseph F. Smith, who had recently stated, “Whatever was good and noble was necessary for women to learn. He went still farther. He stated that so necessary did he consider the improvement of woman that if there must be an inequality of chances, let the first and best be given to women.” (“The Intelligent Advancement of Woman,” Young Woman’s Journal 3, no. 12 [Sept. 1892]: 566.)

  27. “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” is a poem by William Ross Wallace praising motherhood as the preeminent force for change in the world, first published in 1865. The verse was repeated often in the Woman’s Exponent, and an anonymous person wrote a Mormon version of the poem with similar ideas. (See Martin H. Manser, The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs, 2nd ed. [New York: Facts on File, 2007], 114; “R.S. Reports,” Woman’s Exponent 6, no. 15 [Jan. 1, 1878]: 114; and Hope, “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle,” Woman’s Exponent 7, no. 8 [Sept. 15, 1878]: 57.)

  28. See Genesis 2:18. In her speech at this same meeting, Farnsworth spoke about Adam and Eve being true partners, “placing her by his side as companion and wife.” (Farnsworth, “Woman in All Ages,” 513.)

  29. Speeches, discussion, and planning at the World’s Congress of Representative Women involved 837 women from about 15 countries. (Sewall, World’s Congress of Representative Women, 5–6.)