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Margaret Curtis

Margaret Shipp, Margaret Roberts, Maggie, Margaret (Maggie) Curtis Shipp Roberts

17 December 1849—13 March 1926

Emmeline B. Wells

Born 17 Dec. 1849 in St. Louis.1 Daughter of Theodore Curtis and Margaret Morgan.2 Migrated from St. Louis to Salt Lake City, arriving by June 1860.3 Baptized as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by J. M. Woolley, 4 June 1860, in Salt Lake City.4 Married first Wilford Bard Shipp, 31 Dec. 1867, in Salt Lake City; nine children.5 Graduated from Medical College of Pennsylvania, 15 Mar. 1883, in Philadelphia.6 Socialized with EBW.7 Member of the Utah Woman’s Press Club.8 Assisted EBW’s family with medical concerns.9 Divorced 1890.10 Represented Salt Lake Co. in the executive session of the Utah Woman Suffrage Association, Apr. 1891.11 Conducted a school of nursing and obstetrics, 1897–1910, in Salt Lake City.12 Served as an instructor of the Relief Society nursing class, 1898–1918.13 Spoke to members of the Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association on various medical topics, in Salt Lake City.14 Edited the Salt Lake Sanitarian with Dr. Ellis Reynolds Shipp.15 Presented at the Reapers’ Club, 19 Mar. 1894.16 Married second Brigham Hyrum Roberts, 9 Nov. 1923.17 Accompanied her husband while he served as president of the eastern states mission.18 Died 13 Mar. 1926 in Brooklyn, Kings Co., New York; buried in Salt Lake City.19

The First Fifty Years of Relief Society

20 Born at St. Louis; daughter of Margaret Morgan and Theodore Curtis. 21 Migrated to the Salt Lake Valley, 1857. 22 Married first Milford Bard Shipp as a plural wife, 1867; nine children. 23 Attended the Woman’s Medical College in Philadelphia, 1875–1883. 24 Practiced medicine in Salt Lake City, 1883–1922; taught classes in obstetrics and nursing. 25 Coeditor of and contributing writer to the Salt Lake Sanitarian, 1888–1889. 26 Divorced, 1888 or 1892. 27 Married second Brigham Henry Roberts as a plural wife, circa 1890–1894. 28 Helped establish Relief Society nursing classes and school, 1898–1916. 29 Accompanied Roberts on a mission to New York City, 1922. 30 Died at Brooklyn, Kings County, New York; buried at Salt Lake City. 31 (See Document 4.17)

Footnotes

  1. 1 “Endowments of the Living, 1851–1884,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Endowment House, vol. F, 16 June 1866–25 Oct. 1868, p. 26, line 18, Margaret Curtis, 25 Sept. 1866, microfilm 183405, DGS 5270328 (restricted access), FHL. “Family Tree,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org, accessed 20 Aug. 2019), Margaret Curtis (KWNT-TPH).

  2. 2 “Endowments of the Living, 1851–1884,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Endowment House, vol. F, 16 June 1866–25 Oct. 1868, p. 26, line 18, Margaret Curtis, 25 Sept. 1866, microfilm 183405, DGS 5270328 (restricted access), FHL. 1860 U.S. Census, Great Salt Lake City, Great Salt Lake Co., Utah Territory, p. 81, Margaret Curtis. 

  3. 3 Record of Members Collection, 1836–1970, North Thirteenth Ward, Part 1, 1907–1940, Segment 1, CR 375 8, image 87/400 (restricted access), CHL. 1860 U.S. Census, Great Salt Lake City, Great Salt Lake Co., Utah Territory, p. 81, Margaret Curtis. 

  4. 4 Record of Members Collection, 1836–1970, North Thirteenth Ward, Part 1, 1907–1940, Segment 1, CR 375 8, image 87/400 (restricted access), CHL. 

  5. 5 “Sealings of Couples, Living and by Proxy, 1851–1889,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Endowment House, vol. F, 16 Aug. 1869–30 Sept. 1870, p. 102, line 10571, Wilford Bard Shipp and Margaret Curtis, 31 Dec. 1867, microfilm 1149515, DGS 7226456 (restricted access), FHL. 1880 U.S. Census, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., Utah Territory, pp. 25–26, Margaret Shipp. “Utah, Salt Lake County Death Records, 1849–1949,” no. J 1311 (1914), Walter C. Shipp; Salt Lake Co. Management and Archives, Salt Lake City. “Utah, Salt Lake County Death Records, 1849–1949,” p. 143 (1873), Carol Lynn Shipp; Salt Lake Co. Management and Archives, Salt Lake City. “Utah State Archives Indexes,” database and images, Utah State Archives (https://archives.utah.gov, accessed 21 Aug. 2019); Utah Department of Health Office of Vital Records and Statistics Death Certificates, series 81448, file no. 6418/0705 (1964), Milfordetta Shipp Neville. “Utah, Salt Lake County Death Records, 1849–1949,” no. J 393 (1914), Louisa Caroline Parrett; Salt Lake Co. Management and Archives, Salt Lake City. “Utah, Salt Lake County Death Records, 1849–1949,” n.p. (1893), Maggie Shipp; Salt Lake Co. Management and Archives, Salt Lake City. “Utah, Salt Lake County Death Records, 1849–1949,” n.p. (1881), Morgan F. Shipp; Salt Lake Co. Management and Archives, Salt Lake City. “Utah, Salt Lake County Death Records, 1849–1949,” p. 282 (1883), Gross Agnew Shipp; Salt Lake Co. Management and Archives, Salt Lake City. “Utah, Salt Lake County Death Records, 1849–1949,” p. 373 (1888), Wallace Bruce Shipp; Salt Lake Co. Management and Archives, Salt Lake City. “Utah, Salt Lake County Death Records, 1849–1949,” p. 375 (1889), Theodore Chair Shipp; Salt Lake Co. Management and Archives, Salt Lake City.  

  6. 6 Copy of Margaret Curtis Shipp’s Degree from the Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, copy in editors’ possession. “Home Affairs,” Woman’s Exponent, 1 Apr. 1883, 164. “The Women of Utah: Women in Medicine,” Woman’s Exponent, 1 Sept. 1888, 50.

  7. 7  EBW, Diary, 7 Feb. 1887; 31 Jan. 1894; 28 Feb. 1894; 2 Aug. 1894; 5 Dec. 1895.  

  8. 8  “U. W. P. Club,” Woman’s Exponent, 1 Dec. 1892, 84.  

  9. 9  EBW, Diary, 10 Mar. 1889; 21 Dec. 1890; 24 Jan. 1891.  

  10. 10 Noël Neville Cardon, “A Story of Dr. Margaret Curtis Shipp Roberts and Her Husbands, Milford Bard Shipp and B. H. Roberts,” p. 12, copy in editors’ possession.

  11. 11 “N.A.W.S.A. of Utah Ter.,” Woman’s Exponent, 15 Apr. 1891, 158. “W.S.A. Salt Lake County,” Woman’s Exponent, 15 May 1891, 175. “Salt Lake County W. S. A.,” Woman’s Exponent, 15 June 1891, 118.    

  12. 12 “Dr. Margaret C. Roberts,” Woman’s Exponent, 15 Sept. 1897, 200. “School of Nurses and Obstetrics,” Woman’s Exponent, 1 Aug. 1910, 16.  

  13. 13 “Relief Society Nurses’ Class,” Woman’s Exponent, Mar. 1903, 76. “Relief Society School of Nurses,” Woman’s Exponent, 1 Aug. 1909, 16. History of Relief Society, 1842–1966 (Salt Lake City: General Board of Relief Society, 1966), 87. 

  14. 14 “Home Affairs,” Woman’s Exponent, 15 Jan. 1885, 124. EBW, Diary, 2 May 1894.  

  15. 15 “The Salt Lake Sanitarian,” Woman’s Exponent, 15 June 1888, 16.  

  16. 16  EBW, Diary, 19 Mar. 1894.  

  17. 17 “Mormon Leader Gets Marriage License Here,” Chicago Daily Tribune, 10 Nov. 1923, 3. 

  18. 18 “Margaret Curtis,” Go Ye into All the World (https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/missionary, accessed 23 Aug. 2019). “New President of Eastern States,” Daily Herald (Provo, UT), 11 May 1922, 1. “Mrs. B. H. Roberts Dies in New York,” Salt Lake Telegram, 13 Mar. 1926, 2.

  19. 19 New York, NY, Department of Health, Brooklyn Death Certificates, 1919–1949, cert. no. 5995, 1926, Margaret Curtis Roberts, State of New York, Department of Health, City of New York, Bureau of Records, New York City.

  20. 20 “Family Tree,” database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org, accessed Jan. 2015), Margaret Curtis KWNT-TPH. “Mrs. M. C. Roberts Dies in New York,” Deseret Evening News, Mar. 13, 1926, sec. 2, p. 1. Richard C. Roberts, A History of the B. H. Roberts Family (Salt Lake City: Eborn Books, 2009), 139.

  21. 21 “Family Tree,” database, Margaret Curtis. Roberts, A History of the B. H. Roberts Family, 139.

  22. 22 “Margaret Curtis,” Church History Biographical Database, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, available at https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/chd/landing, accessed Jan. 2015. Ellis Curtis Lindgren, comp., “Notes on some of the ancestors of Clarence Shipp Curtis, son of Theodore Walter Curtis and Flora Lydia Shipp Curtis, born 22 July, 1876,” Curtis family history, n.d., p. 5, CHL.

  23. 23 Roberts, A History of the B. H. Roberts Family (Salt Lake City: Eborn Books, 2009), 139–141. “Mrs. M. C. Roberts Dies in New York,” 2:1. “Family Tree,” database, Margaret Curtis and Milford Bard Shipp KWNT-TP4.

  24. 24 “Home Affairs,” Woman’s Exponent 11, no. 21 (Apr. 1, 1883): 164. Annie W. Cannon, “The Women of Utah: Women in Medicine,” Woman’s Exponent 17, no. 7 (Sept. 1, 1888): 49–50. “Mrs. M. C. Roberts Dies in New York,” 2:1. Roberts, A History of the B. H. Roberts Family, 141.

  25. 25 Cannon, “Women in Medicine,” 50. “Mrs. M. C. Roberts Dies in New York,” 2:1. Roberts, A History of the B. H. Roberts Family, 141.

  26. 26 Sherilyn Cox Bennion, Equal to the Occasion: Women Editors of the Nineteenth-Century West (Reno and Las Vegas: University of Nevada Press, 1990), 113–118.

  27. 27 Roberts, A History of the B. H. Roberts Family, 141–143.

  28. 28 Their actual marriage date is unclear, as no official records exist for what was mostly likely a post-Manifesto plural marriage; the best evidence suggests the marriage took place between 1892 and 1894. Margaret Curtis and B. H. Roberts were married in a civil ceremony in 1923, after the death of his first wife. See Roberts, A History of the B. H. Roberts Family, 142–146.

  29. 29 “First Woman Doctor in Utah Retires,” Salt Lake Tribune, Apr. 13, 1919, 7. “Mrs. M. C. Roberts Dies in New York,” 1. Roberts, A History of the B. H. Roberts Family, 141.

  30. 30 “Mrs. M. C. Roberts Dies in New York,” 1. Roberts, A History of the B. H. Roberts Family, 145.

  31. 31 “Utah Cemetery Inventory,” database, Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com, accessed Jan. 2015), Margaret Curtis Roberts; citing Utah State Historical Society, Utah Cemetery Inventory, Salt Lake City, UT. “Mrs. M. C. Roberts Dies in New York,” 1.