Dear Ellen: Two Mormon Women and Their Letters

Dear Ellen, Page 054

Dear Ellen nest in which she lives with her four little boys, and where she is supposed to have a.s much of her own way with her lord, as the daughter of a Sultan enjoys in the harem of a Pasha. . . . Ellen and Margaret at this time had twelve ehildren, not the twenty Dixon attributes to them. Nevertheless, as is apparent, Ellen and Margaret shared the larger house, and sometimes took in boarders and rented accommodations. Little is known of the financial arrangements of Hiram's ir> complex family. It is evident that Ellen was the manager. As daughters of Brigham Young, Alice and Emily may have had .separate incomes or competencies. Ellen and Margaret, while well situated and obviously well provided for, still had to manage their family affairs in a frugal manner. In the spring of 1865 Hiram B. Clawson bought out William H. Hooper, partner in the leading Mormon merchandising firm, and the name of the firm became Eldredge and Clawson. Beginning the year before, Hiram made annual trips to the East Coast and sometimes to the West Coast to buy for the store. In October 1868 when Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution was established, it was formed around the firm of Eldredge and Clawson, and Hiram was named general superintendent of the institution. Except for an eighteen-month period in 1873 and 1874, Hiram was superintendent of ZCMI until October 1875. Hiram was married to Ellen for forty-six years. During twenty-six of those years he was gone from home some part of each year - sometimes as near as Provo, sometimes to both coasts visiting New York and San Francisco the same season, and for periods varying from one to eight months. Besides these business trips he sometimes accompanied Brigham Young's company in visiting the settlements, from Logan on the north to St. George on the south. During all these absences Hiram wrote faithfully to Ellen. She kept his letters. She wrote less often, and Hiram apparently did not keep her letters, hence one is forced to sec Ellen's life through the let- 54