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Show 191 SUSAN'(SUSA) YOUNG OSBORNE GATES, CHURCH ASSOCIATE Susa, known by Ellis through church callings over a long season of their lives in the gospel, begs our attention. She was born in Salt Lake City in March of 1856 (nine years later than Ellis) to Brigham Young and Lucy Bigelow. At 14, Susa went with her mother and sister to live in St. George. According to Elizabeth Claridge, 5 years older, who became her life-long friend, Susa was alert, appealing, and mirthful. These basic qualities served her well in her long years of presiding over the young women's organizations of the Church. She married, in 1872 at age 16, Alma Bailey Dunford, then 22, who had been born in England in 1850. This high-spirited young girl bore a daughter, Leah Eudora, fifteen months later, then a son, 22 Bailey, when Leah was eighteen months old. It is entirely possible that Susa was the "Sister Dunford" whom Ellis visited while living in Sugar House and in whose situation in polygamy she found no correlation to her own, Sister Dunford's circumstances being so much more favorable. In 1877 Dunford was sent on mission to correct a problem he had developed with drinking. Susa's father's proprietary hand may be seen in this. There is an implication that this tactic may have been chosen by him as a means of saving a foundering marriage for, shortly after Brigham Young's death in that same year (1877) and while her husband was still away on his mission, Susa obtained a civil divorce from Dunford. It is said that he never forgave her |
