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Rebecca Ellen Mantle

Rebecca Ellen Little, N.E., Nells, Nellie

12 August 1852—29 May 1909

Born 12 Aug. 1852 in Salt Lake Co., Utah Territory.1 Daughter of Llewellyn Mantle and Catherine Watkins.2 Baptized as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Samuel Bennion, 1 Jan. 1859.3 Friend of EBW’s daughter Louie Wells.4 Educator; graduated from John R. Park’s normal school; began teaching school in the Salt Lake City Seventeenth Ward, 1881.5 Married Feramorz Little, 3 July 1882, in Salt Lake City; two children.6 Widowed 1887.7 Founded the Author’s Club.8 Secretary of the Utah Woman Suffrage Association.9 Regent of the University of Deseret (later University of Utah), 1890–1909.10 Elected as secretary of the Utah territorial Woman Suffrage Association, Mar. 1895; nominated as a delegate to the convention of the Woman Suffrage Association in Washington, DC, Dec. 1895.11 Graduated with a bachelor of science degree from the University of Utah, 1899.12 Treasurer and director of the State Kindergarten Association.13 Counselor of the Ensign Stake Relief Society; member of the Relief Society general board, 1904–1909.14 Delegate to the National Council of Women on several occasions; addressed the Chicago convention of the National Council of Women, 1906.15 Died 29 May 1909 in Salt Lake City.16 

Footnotes

  1. 1 Record of Members Collection, 1836–1970, Sugar House Ward, Part 1, p. 11, Births, no. 3, CR 375 8, image 11/572, CHL. “Endowments of the Living, 1851–1884,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Endowment House, vol. G, 1868–1872, p. 81, line 10, Rebecca Ellen Mantle, 10 May 1869, microfilm 1239501 (restricted access), FHL. “Family Tree,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org, accessed 25 Mar. 2019), Rebecca Ellen Mantle (KWVQ-51B).

  2. 2 Record of Members Collection, 1836–1970, Sugar House Ward, Part 1, p. 11, Births, no. 3, CR 375 8, image 11/572, CHL. “Endowments of the Living, 1851–1884,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Endowment House, vol. G, 1868–1872, p. 81, line 10, Rebecca Ellen Mantle, 10 May 1869, microfilm 1239501 (restricted access), FHL.

  3. 3 Record of Members Collection, 1836–1970, West Jordan Ward, Part 1, 1907–1923, p. 14, Rebecca E. Mantle, CR 375 8, image 22/630, CHL.

  4. 4 EBW, Diary, 19 Mar. 1881. Rebecca M. Little, Diary, 1852–1909, 11 July 1882, MS 7149 1, CHL.

  5. 5 Rebecca M. Little, Diary, 1852–1909, 29 Aug. 1881, MS 7149 1, CHL. Andrew Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia (Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson History, 1936), 4:191.

  6. 6 Rebecca M. Little, Diary, 1852–1909, 3 July 1882, MS 7149 1, CHL. “Sealings of Couples, Living and by Proxy, 1851–1889,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Endowment House, vol. L, 14 May 1878–8 Nov. 1883, p. 345, Feramoz Little and Rebecca Ellen Mantle, 3 July 1882, microfilm 183402, DGS 5270325 (restricted access), FHL. 1900 U.S. Census, Salt Lake City, 5th Precinct, Salt Lake Co., UT, ED 50, p. 5A, Nellie Little.

  7. 7 “Death of Hon. F. Little,” Deseret Evening News (Salt Lake City), 15 Aug. 1887, 3.

  8. 8 Authors Club Records, 1893–2012, Annual Histories, History of Authors Club to 1962, p. 1, MS 0240, Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah.

  9. 9 EBW, Diary, 9 Jan. 1893.

  10. 10 EBW, Diary, 11 Mar. 1890. “Editorial Notes,” Woman’s Exponent, 15 Aug. 1896, 28. Annual of the University of Utah Including the Utah State Normal School, Salt Lake City (Salt Lake City: University of Utah, 1897), 4. University of Utah, Board of Regents Meeting Minutes, 1906–1909, p. 4, J. Willard Marriott Digital Library, University of Utah (https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=1189241, accessed 24 Apr. 2019).

  11. 11 EBW, Diary, 25 Mar. 1895; 18 Dec. 1895. “Notable Utah Women,” Deseret Evening News (Salt Lake City), 25 Nov. 1899, 2.

  12. 12 Andrew Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia (Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson History, 1914), 2:488.

  13. 13 “Notable Utah Women,” Deseret Evening News (Salt Lake City), 25 Nov. 1899, 12.

  14. 14 Leone O. Jacobs, History of Ensign Stake Relief Society (Salt Lake City: n.p., 1945), 3. Relief Society General Board, Relief Society Officer and Employees of General Board, p. 3, CR 11 56, CHL. 

  15. 15 “Executive Session, National Council of Women, Toledo, Ohio,” Woman’s Exponent, 1 May 1906, 7.

  16. 16 “Utah, Salt Lake County Death Records, 1849–1949,” p. 181 (1909), Rebecca Ellen Little; Salt Lake County Management and Archives, Salt Lake City. “Utah State Archives Indexes,” database and images, Utah State Archives (https://archives.utah.gov/research/indexes, 22 Apr. 2019); Department of Health, Office of Vital Records and Statistics Death Certificates, series 81448, file no. 836/340 (1909), Rebecca Ellen Little. “Mrs. Rebecca E. Little Is Called by Death,” Salt Lake Tribune, 30 May 1909, 20.