Unselfish Usefulness:
The Power of Women in the Kingdom
by Davis Bitton

I have been reading a fascinating book, and it has me thinking about women and how important they are to the kingdom.

Mormon Healer and Folk Poet by Margaret K. Brady was published in 2000 by Utah State University Press.  It carries the subtitle “Mary Susannah Fowler’s Life of ‘Unselfish Usefulness.’”

Although Margaret Brady is not a Latter-day Saint, she shows admirable empathy and understanding in treating her subject.  As a folklorist, Brady is interested in more than just a narrative biography.  Some of her chapters treat folk belief, folk healing, and folk poetry.

Before marriage, her name was Mary Susannah Fackrell.  Growing up in Orderville, she learned the discipline and sacrifice of communal living.  From her own mother, she learned the skills of cooking, sewing, and healing.

In 1880, she married Henry Ammon Fowler.  Henry was the son of English convert William Fowler, who wrote the hymn known to all Latter-day Saints “We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet.”  Henry worked in the Orderville shoe shop.  Mary taught school.

With the break-up of the United Order, the Fowlers left Orderville and settled in Huntington.  Mary Fowler had one child after another.  Living close to the edge of survival, the parents along with the children worked hard.  A plural wife came into the picture when Henry Ammon married Eliza Norwood.

In 1900 Henry was called to be a missionary and for twenty-five months served in Texas and Oklahoma.  Here is Mary’s diary entry: “I am thankful for the privilege of parting with my husband for a little while to spread the glorious gospel which is dearer than anything on earth to me.  And I believe our Heavenly Father will take care of him & us.”

With practically no money, she raised vegetables and fruits, put up honey, and made all the family’s clothing.  When her sister-wife, Eliza, became ill, Mary cared for her and her children.  She also worked to earn money to send to her missionary husband for his sustenance.

It is hard to imagine all that was required of this good woman.  Sustained by her faith, she did it without complaining.  A wonderful photograph shows Mary surrounded by her eight children, all alert and good looking.

We haven’t finished.  Mary Fowler was recognized as someone who understood ailments and how to treat them.  Her own family benefitted from her ministrations; many others in her small community also called on her.  One of Margaret Brady’s most informative chapters is titled “‘And Gave You All My Care’: Folk Healing as Mormon Maternal Practice.”

Mary also had literary aspirations.  Starting when she was a young woman, she wrote poetry.  Some of it was read aloud, some published in unpretentious “newspapers,” and some of it published in the Young Woman’s Journal and the Woman’s Exponent.   Her ability with words was recognized by others.  At meetings of Young Women or Relief Society she often gave talks and sometimes kept the minutes.  These minutes are models of careful, detailed summary.

Through her trials, Mary’s stance was to do her best, pick up the pieces when necessary, move on, and trust in the Lord.  The leitmotif of her life is encompassed in a two-word phrase: “unselfish usefulness.”

How many Mary Fowlers have there been in our Latter-day Saint history from 1830 on?  How many Mary Fowlers are there in the church today?

Thanks to the rise of women’s history as a subject worthy of treatment, we have excellent books and articles on individual Latter-day Saint women.  Historians like Maureen Ursenbach Beecher, Carol Cornwall Madsen, and Jill Mulvay Derr, to mention only three of our ablest scholars, have produced books and articles on leaders like Eliza R. Snow, Sarah Kimball, and Emmeline B. Wells.

When JoAn and I wish to read about the great trek west from Nauvoo, sometimes called the Mormon exodus, we especially enjoy Carol Cornwall Madsen’s Journey to Zion: Voices from the Mormon Trail, a compilation of entries from trail diaries, most of them by women. 

Think about the thousands of women who work quietly and patiently in the church  throughout the world.  In a sense they may be “invisible.”  Yet they are there in Arizona and Idaho (I know because one such a woman  happened to be my mother), in Louisiana and Tennessee, in Chile and Brazil, in Ghana and Mongolia.  They are indispensable  to the morale and proper functioning of branches and wards.  They are also the most powerful shapers of the next generation, raising children of faith and commitment.

A recent gospel doctrine lesson was on the “sons” of Helaman, the “stripling warriors” who in the Book of Mormon account fought valiantly against the Lamanite aggressors.  “They had been taught by their mothers,” we read.  After recounting some of their mothers’ teachings, they added, “We do not doubt our mothers knew it”  (Alma 56:47-48).

A contingent of about 200 sister missionaries serves on Temple Square, the majority of them non-Americans.  As I look at these energetic young sisters of joyful countenance, I think of an assembly line.  New sister missionaries arrive.  Others complete their missions and, cohort after cohort, return to their home countries.  These are the great women who during the next thirty, forty, or fifty years will serve in their communities and in the church and who will raise the next generation of “sons of Helaman.”  (A similar process occurs in seminary and institute programs, in church colleges and universities, in each mission, and elsewhere.)

I imagine myself in a conversation with someone from another faith tradition who is proud of its strong women.  “Strong women?” I reply.  “You haven’t seen anything yet.  No group on earth–repeat, no group on earth–has women of more spirituality, dedication, and power than the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”

It has been said that the “secret weapon” of Mormonism is the individual testimony of its members.  But it can equally be said, I think, that the underlying strength, an “invisible” cadre in each ward and stake throughout the church, is its awesome women. 

The original Mary Fowler did not live to hear President Gordon B. Hinckley read the Proclamation on the Family at general Relief Society conference in October 1995, but I have no doubt that she would have nodded her head in agreement.   Thanks to all the Mary Fowlers throughout the church for your lives of unselfish usefulness.