Martha Hughes Cannon

Dr. Martha Maria “Mattie” Hughes Cannon was a physician, public health advocate, orator, suffrage leader, and the first woman elected to a state senate in the United States. She was born in Wales on July 1, 1857, and settled with her family in Utah in 1861 after they converted to Mormonism.

• Cannon showed a lifelong determination to pursue knowledge, earning several degrees in science, medicine, and oratory from various universities before the age of 25.
• Cannon was involved in the successful effort to re-establish women's suffrage in Utah's new constitution and won election to the Utah state senate in 1896. She sponsored legislation establishing the Utah Board of Health on which she served until 1903.
• Cannon gave speeches at the World's Columbian Exposition, the 50th anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention, and testified before the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary.
• Cannon practiced polygamy and became the fourth wife of Church of Latter-day Saints leader Angus Cannon in 1884. Because polygamy as practiced by the church was illegal under federal law Cannon lived in hiding or left Utah for extended periods to avoid testifying in court.
• Cannon died in 1932 at the age of 65.