By Mark Havnes | The Salt Lake Tribune

They didn’t like cows wandering on sidewalks, or the fact that mail carriers were delivering booze to their town. And they were offended by the rampant growth of "stink weed."

So the women of Kanab took action.

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At a glance

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Honoring Kanab women

During Rural Day at the Utah Legislature on Friday, the centennial of Kanab’s all-female government in 1912 will be commemorated. At 10:05 a.m., the Utah House and Senate will read a joint citation honoring the women and at 10:30 a.m., Gov. Gary Herbert will read a proclamation in the Capitol Gold Room.

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It was 1912, and the small southern Utah town had just elected an all-female mayor and board of commissioners, thought to be a first for the nation. Historians speculate the ladies-only ballot may have been intended as a joke. But when the women actually won the election, they wasted no time in levying fines to control the whereabouts of cattle, pigs and dogs and to staunch the town’s supply of "liquid evil."

On Friday, the centennial of Kanab’s historic all-female government will be commemorated during Rural Day at the Utah Legislature.

"It was a wonderful accomplishment for the state," said Kylie Turley, who teaches writing at Brigham Young University and published an article on Kanab’s political oddity in the fall 2005 issue of Utah Historical Quarterly.

Details on the council’s actions come from the autobiography of Mary Woolley Chamberlain, a polygamist wife who served as the mayor, and city records collected and published by the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers in History of Kane County.

"Loafers on a ditch bank made up the [ballot] as a burlesque," wrote Chamberlain, who lived with her husband Thomas Chamberlain and his other wives in a house with 55 children. "There was no [ballot] in opposition so of course we were elected…Our [election] was intended as a joke. No one seems interested in supervision of the town."

Her board was composed of Tamar Hamblin, 31; Luella McAllister, 26; Blanche Hamblin, 38; and Vinnie Jepson, 32. Jepson resigned after the first board meeting because her husband needed her help to run his business, so the council recruited Ada Seemiller, 30, to replace her.

Chamberlain and her cohorts served only one two-year term, although Seegmiller stood for re-election and won. On the day the oath of office was to be administered, however, Seegmiller resigned and was replaced by a man.

During their brief tenure, the women took their duty seriously and soon tackled issues ranging from waste water running down the streets, for which citizens were fined, to charging owners of "surplus dogs" $1 per dog per year. They sponsored a contest to rid the town of stink weed-infested sidewalks, offering prizes of up to $10. Anyone using a "flipper," or sling shot, within city limits was fined 25 cents for the first offense, and 50 cents for every offense thereafter.

Liquor was a big concern. "The greatest trouble was in fighting the liquid evil, which is a terror to our town," Chamberlain wrote. The board reportedly wished to turn Kanab into a dry town.

Twelve gallons of liquor were seized and six gallons emptied out by the marshal during December 1912, according to the DUP history. There is no mention of what became of the other six gallons.

The board wrote a protest to the Post Office Department of Utah "complaining that liquors were carried by the mail carriers on the 110-mile route from Marysvale to Kanab," the DUP history says. That put an end to the practice. Fredonia, Ariz., then became the launching point for smuggling liquor into the town, but Arizona officials refused to intervene, according to Turley.

The board also approved a five-page ordinance stating that only a licensed pharmacist could dispense the reviled hooch and then only medicinally.

And the women were responsible for building bridges across canals and striving to keep the Sabbath holy by forbidding residents to "indulge in ball games, foot races, horse races, or in any noisy outdoor amusements within limits of town." They also suggested merchants not sell "unnecessary items" on the Lord’s day.

Turley said the women rarely complained about the job or how they were treated, keeping emotions out of official records. But Chamberlain did express her feelings once in a letter to Susan Young Gates, a daughter of Brigham Young who allowed the letter to be published in the LDS periodical Improvement Era.

"Don’t think for one moment that we haven’t any opposition to contend with. We feel sometimes we have more of our share of it," wrote Chamberlain. "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."