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Charlotte Ives Cobb

Charlotte Ives Godbe, Charlotte Ives Kirby

3 August 1836—24 January 1908

Born 3 Aug. 1836 in Boston.1 Daughter of Henry Cobb and Augusta Adams.2 Moved to Nauvoo, Hancock Co., Illinois, with her mother and a younger brother, fall 1843.3 Baptized as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, spring 1845.4 Migrated to the Salt Lake Valley with the Brigham Young pioneer company, arriving by 24 Sept. 1848.5 Married first William Samuel Godbe, 5 Apr. 1869, in Salt Lake City.6 Attended the National Woman’s Suffrage Convention (NWSC) in New York City, 10 May 1871; appointed as a delegate for Utah Territory at the NWSC in Washington DC, Jan. 1872.7 Helped draft a petition to Congress seeking Utah’s statehood, 1872.8 Met with EBW, 1874–1875; contended with EBW, as each claimed to be the voice of woman’s suffrage in Utah, beginning 1876.9 Divorced 1879.10 Read a paper about woman’s suffrage in Utah at Lincoln Hall, Washington DC, 18 Jan. 1881.11 Married second John A. Kirby, 8 Dec. 1884, in Kansas City, Jackson Co., Missouri; one adopted son.12 Living in Salt Lake City, by 1900.13 Died 24 Jan. 1908 in Salt Lake City.14

Footnotes

  1. 1 “Charlotte Ives Cobb,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Early Church Information File, 1830–1900, card 682, microfilm 1750668, DGS 7100407, FHL. “Endowments of the Living, 1851–1884,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Endowment House, vol. A-A1, 20 Feb. 1851–24 Apr. 1854, p. 28, line 689, Charlotte Jane Cobb, 21 Feb. 1852, microfilm 1255545, DGS 7455862 (restricted access), FHL. “Family Tree,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org, accessed 26 Sept. 2019), Charlotte Ives Cobb (KGY7-NGJ).

  2. 2 “Endowments of the Living, 1851–1884,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Endowment House, vol. A-A1, 20 Feb. 1851–24 Apr. 1854, p. 28, line 689, Charlotte Jane Cobb, 21 Feb. 1852, microfilm 1255545, DGS 7455862 (restricted access), FHL.

  3. 3 Carol Cornwall Madsen, An Advocate for Women: The Public Life of Emmeline B. Wells, 1870–1920 (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2006), 128. William D. Huntington, Cemetery Record (Nauvoo), Benjamin Y. Cobb, 28 Oct. 1843, MS 16142, CHL.

  4. 4 “Endowments of the Living, 1851–1884,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Endowment House, vol. A-A1, 20 Feb. 1851–24 Apr. 1854, p. 28, line 689, Charlotte Jane Cobb, 21 Feb. 1852, microfilm 1255545, DGS 7455862 (restricted access), FHL.

  5. 5 “Charlotte Ives Cobb,” Pioneer Database (https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/overlandtravel/, accessed 24 July 2018).

  6. 6 “Sealings of Couples, Living and by Proxy, 1851–1889,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Endowment House, vol. E, 1 Jan. 1867–16 Aug. 1869, p. 273, Wm. Samuel Godbe and Charlotte Ives Cobb, 5 Apr. 1869, microfilm 1149515, DGS 7226456, FHL.

  7. 7 Tiffany Greene, “Charlotte Godbe Kirby, Champion of ‘The Women’s Era,’” Better Days 2020 (https://www.utahwomenshistory.org/bios/charlotte-godbe-kirby/, accessed Feb. 2020). Beverly Beeton, Woman Suffrage in the American West (Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms International, 1976), 44. “New York Matters: Women’s Suffrage Convention,” Cleveland Leader, 13 May 1871, 1.

  8. 8 “Petition,” Deseret News, 22 May 1872, 6.

  9. 9 EBW, Diary, 16 Nov. 1874; 17 Feb. 1875; 13 and 27 Apr. 1875; 30 May 1875; 16 June 1875; 8 Mar. 1879. Carol Cornwall Madsen, “Emmeline B. Wells in Washington: The Search for Mormon Legitimacy,” Journal of Mormon History 26, no. 2 (Fall 2000): 149–152. Letter from Charlotte Ives Cobb Kirby to Wilford Woodruff, 5 Feb. 1889, CR 1 171 box 3 folder 23, CHL.

  10. 10 Carol Cornwall Madsen, An Advocate for Women: The Public Life of Emmeline B. Wells, 1870–1920 (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2006), 149. Beverly Beeton, “A Feminist among the Mormons: Charlotte Ives Cobb Godbe Kirby,” Utah Historical Quarterly 59, no. 1 (Winter 1991): 24. Ronald W. Walker, Wayward Saints (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1998), 330.

  11. 11 “Woman’s Suffrage,” Territorial Enquirer, 19 Mar. 1881, 2.

  12. 12 Jackson Co., MO, Recorder of Deeds, Marriage Record, 1881–1916, vol. 4, p. 586, John A. Kirby and Mrs. Charlotte I. Godbe, 8 Dec. 1884, microfilm 1016664, DGS 7515680, image 705/735, FHL.

  13. 13 1900 U.S. Census, 37th District, Salt Lake Co., UT, ED 35, p. 9B, Charlotte I. Kirby. “Notable Utah Women, Mrs. Charlotte Ives Kirby,” Deseret Evening News, 29 Jan. 1900, 19.

  14. 14 “Utah Death Certificate Index, 1904–1961,” database and images, Utah State Archives (http://archives.utah.org, accessed 25 July 2018); from Utah Department of Health, Office of Vital Records and Statistics, series 81488, file no. 162/610 (1908), Charlotte I. C. Kirby. “Death of Mrs. Kirby,” Deseret News, 21 Jan. 1908, 5.