Political Career
After 1888, Cannon resumed her Salt Lake medical practice and taught nursing courses through a school established at Deseret Hospital. This school was later absorbed into the University of Utah School of Medicine. She took an active interest in the work of the Utah Equal Suffrage Association, and became involved in the national women's suffrage movement. Cannon was a featured speaker and served as a member of Utah’s delegation to the Columbian Exposition, 1893 Chicago World Fair. In 1898, she traveled to Washington, D.C. to speak to a Congressional Committee in favor of granting women the right to vote in the United States. Cannon felt that education and public service were vitally important for women, stating:
| “ | "Somehow I know that women who stay home all the time have the most unpleasant homes there are. You give me a woman who thinks about something besides cook stoves and wash tubs and baby flannels, and I'll show you, nine times out of ten, a successful mother." | ” |
By 1896, a suffrage clause in the new state constitution had restored the right to vote to Utah women. In a much publicized election, Cannon was one of five Democrats running as "at large" candidates for state senator from Salt Lake County. Suffrage activist Emmeline B. Wells and Cannon's husband Angus were among the Republicans standing for the office.
| “ | "Local newspapers gave play to the fact that a leading Mormon polygamist was defeated by his fourth wife. The Salt Lake Tribune, proponent of the Republican view, editorialized that Angus Munn Cannon was deserving of readers' votes. The Salt Lake Herald, a Democratic newspaper, countered: "Mrs. Mattie Hughes Cannon, his wife, is the better man of the two. Send Mrs. Cannon to the State Senate and let Mr. Cannon, as a Republican, remain at home to manage home industry" (see link, SL Tribune). | ” |
On November 3, 1896, Martha Hughes Cannon became the first woman ever elected as a state senator in the United States. She served two terms in the legislature and was noted for her efforts on public health issues. She spearheaded funding for speech-and hearing-impaired students, establishment of a state board of health, and a law regulating working conditions for women and girls, "An Act to Protect the Health of Women and Girl Employees." Cannon's third child was born at the end of her second term in office.
After leaving the legislature, Cannon served as a member of the Utah Board of Health and as a member of the board of the Utah State School for the Deaf and Dumb. After her husband’s death in 1915, Cannon settled near her son in Los Angeles, California where she worked for the Graves Clinic. She died in Los Angeles on July 10, 1932.
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