Susa Young was born 18 March 1856 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah to Brigham Young (1801-1877) and Lucy Bigelow (1830-1905) and died 27 May 1933 Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah of unspecified causes. She married Alma Bailey Dunford (1850-1919) 1872 in Utah. She married Jacob Forsberry Gates (1854-1942) 5 January 1880 in St. George, Washington County, Utah.
- active in promoting women's rights and women's suffrage.
- founder of Utah Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution
- author of nine books
- founding editor of Relief Society Magazine
- member, two university board of regents
- active genealogist
Biography
Susan Amelia "Susa" Young Gates was a writer, periodical editor, and women's rights advocate in Utah.
Susa Young was born in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory to Lucy Bigelow, LDS Church president Brigham Young's twenty-second wife. She entered the University of Deseret at age 13 and became the editor of the student newspaper.
In 1878, Young entered Brigham Young Academy in Provo, Utah, where she founded the music department. Two years later would be her second marriage to Mr Gates.
Gates and her husband served as church missionaries to the Kingdom of Hawaii in the late 1880s. During this time two of her children died of diphtheria. She would later recount her experiences here in a novel The Little Missionary.[2] In 1889, she founded the Young Woman's Journal, a periodical targeted to adolescent Latter-day Saint females. In 1897, the church's Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Association adopted the Young Women's Journal as its official organ. Gates stepped down as editor of the Journal in 1900, but continued to contribute occasionally until it ceased publication in 1929.
Around the turn of the century, Gates was ill for three years after suffering a psychological and physical breakdown. However, she eventually returned to health.
In 1909 a novel by Gates entitled John Stevens' Courtship was published.
In 1915, Gates founded Relief Society Magazine a periodical targeted at adult Latter-day Saint women. The magazine became the official publication of the church's Relief Society and Gates edited it until 1922. Gates also wrote nine books, including a biography of her father, two novels, a history of women in the LDS Church, and a 1911 history of the YLMIA.
Gates was active in promoting women's rights and women's suffrage. She was a founding organizer of the National Household Economics Organization, served as a delegate and speaker to five congresses of the International Council of Women and was a delegate and officer of the National Council of Women. Gates was also the primary organizer of the Utah chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, and the National Woman's Press Club. She attended several Republican National Conventions. Gates was also a member of the Board of Regents of Brigham Young University and Utah State Agricultural College.
In her later years, Gates was active in genealogy and LDS Church temple work. For a time she was the head of the Research Department and Library of the Genealogical Society of Utah. She managed the genealogy departments in the Deseret News and Inter Mountain Republican and edited and wrote columns for both papers.
Gates died in Salt Lake City at the age of 77.
Lion House
The Lion House was the Brigham Young home in Salt Lake City for his wives and 55 children. The 2020 History of the Church - Saints Vol II gives a vivid description of family life there.
In Salt Lake City Brigham built two majestic homes just a block south from the Mormon Tabernacle, the first was called Lion House and the second was Bee Hive. In these two home would reside the vast majority of his family. The house had large social rooms downstairs to host major family communal activities.
Built in 1856 by Brigham Young, Lion House derives its name from the stone lion statue resting over the front entrance. "Lion of the Lord" was also a nickname of Brigham Young, who served as President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877.
The solid construction of both buildings gives witness to Brigham's vast experience as a carpenter and cabinet-maker.
Today the bottom floor of the Lion House is a functional, cafeteria-style restaurant called "The Lion House Pantry" which is open to the public. It is located adjacent to the LDS church's main headquarters and heavily-visited Temple Square, and therefore serves many of the employees and visitors there each day.
Marriage & Family
1st Marriage: Dunford
In 1872, she married Alma B. Dunford and had two children, but the couple divorced in 1877 while he was serving an LDS Church mission. One of these children was Leah Dunford, who later became the wife of John A. Widtsoe.
- Leah Eudora Dunford (1874-1965) - Md John A Widtsoe - LDS Church Apostle and Writer.
- Alma Bailey Dunford (1875-) - died young, sometime in the 1880s.
2nd Marriage: Gates
In 1880, she married Jacob F. Gates. She had 13 children with him, seven of which did not survive to adulthood. Her son Bailey Dunford, from her first marriage, also died young. One of her daughters was Emma Lucy Gates Bowen.
- Emma Lucy Gates (1880-1951) - Emma Lucy Gates Bowen (1882–1951) was an American opera singer and later the wife of Albert E. Bowen, LDS Church Apostle.
- Jacob Young Gates (1882-1887)
- Karl Naham Gates (1883-1887)
- Simpson Mark Gates (1885-1885)
- Joseph Sterling Gates (1886-1891)
- Brigham Cecil Gates (1887-1941) - famous LDS composer born during parents mission to Hawaii
- Harvey Harris Gates (1889-1948)
- Sarah Beulah Gates (1891-1898)
- Franklin Young Gates (1893-1979)
- Heber Gates (1894-1894)
- Brigham Young Gates (1896-1900)
Children
Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
Leah Eudora Dunford (1874-1965) | 23 February 1874 Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah | 7 June 1965 Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah | John Andreas Widtsoe (1872-1952) |
Alma Bailey Dunford (1875-) |
Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
Emma Lucy Gates (1880-1951) | 5 November 1880 St. George, Washington County, Utah | 30 April 1951 Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah | Albert Ernest Bowen (1875-1953) |
Jacob Young Gates (1882-1887) | |||
Karl Naham Gates (1883-1887) | |||
Simpson Mark Gates (1885-1885) | |||
Joseph Sterling Gates (1886-1891) | |||
Brigham Cecil Gates (1887-1941) | 17 August 1887 Laie, Oahu County, Hawaii, United States | 31 August 1941 Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah, United States | Gweneth Gibbs (1897-1967) |
Harvey Harris Gates (1889-1948) | |||
Sarah Beulah Gates (1891-1898) | |||
Franklin Young Gates (1893-1979) | |||
Heber Gates (1894-1894) | |||
Brigham Young Gates (1896-1900) |
Siblings
Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
Elizabeth Young (1825-1903) | 26 September 1825 Port Byron, Cayuga County, New York, United States | 2 February 1903 Lewisville, Jefferson County, Idaho, United States | Edmund Lovell Ellsworth (1819-1893) |
Vilate Young (1830-1902) | 1 June 1830 Mendon, Monroe County, New York, United States | 18 November 1902 Lewisville, Jefferson County, Idaho, United States | Charles Franklin Decker (1824-1901) |
Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
Oscar Brigham Young (1846-1910) | 10 February 1846 Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, United States | 4 August 1910 Provo, Utah County, Utah, United States | Paralee Russell (1845-c1905) Annie Marie Roseberry (1855-1936) |
Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
Jeannette Young (1849-1930) | |||
Nabbie Howe Young (1852-) | |||
Jedediah Grant Young (1855-1856) | |||
Albert Jeddie Young (1858-) | |||
Charlotte Talula Young (1861-) |
References
- Susa Young Gates - Wikipedia Biography
- R. Paul Cracroft (1951). Susa Young Gates: Her Life and Literary Work. Master's thesis, University of Utah.
- Louise Plummer, "Gates, Susa Young", in Encyclopedia of Mormonism, vol. 2, pp. 535–536