Esther Romania Salina Bunnell

Dr. Pratt, Dr. Romania Pratt, Romania B. Penrose, Romania Bunnell Pratt, Esther Romania Salina Bunnell Pratt Penrose

8 August 1839—9 November 1932

Emmeline B. Wells

Born 8 Aug. 1839 in Washington, Wayne Co., Indiana.1 Daughter of Luther B. Bunnell and Esther Mendenhall.2 Arrived with her family in Nauvoo, Hancock Co., Illinois, 1846; traveled to Winter Quarters, unorganized U.S. territory.3 Due to her mother’s illness, her family returned to Nauvoo and then to Ohio while her father went on to Sacramento, Sacramento Co., California, where he died.4 Attended school in Ohio and Indiana, until 1855.5 Migrated to Utah Territory with the John Hindley pioneer company, arriving 3 Sept. 1855.6 Taught school in Salt Lake City.7 Married first Parley P. Pratt Jr., 23 Feb. 1859; seven children.8 First woman to be admitted to Bellevue Medical College in New York City, where she studied at the Eye and Ear Infirmary, 1874–1875.9 President of the Twelfth Ward Young Ladies’ Department of the Ladies’ Cooperative Retrenchment Association, 1875.10 Graduated from the Women’s Medical College in Philadelphia, 15 Mar. 1877, the first Latter-day Saint woman to graduate with a medical degree.11 Founding member and physician of Deseret Hospital in Salt Lake City.12 Close friend and physician of EBW, who wrote a tribute in her honor for her birthday.13 Divorced husband, 7 June 1880.14 Served in the presidency of the Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association, 1881.15 Addressed the “Ladies Mass Meeting” in Salt Lake City, 26 Mar. 1886, speaking against persecution for participating in plural marriage.16 Married second Charles W. Penrose, 11 Mar. 1886, in Salt Lake City.17 Served as assistant secretary of the Relief Society central board, 1888–1892, and on the Relief Society general board, 1892–1921.18 Taught private classes in nursing and obstetrics.19 Closed her medical practice after she was appointed to serve with her husband as president of the European mission; helped organize early European Relief Societies, 1906–1910.20 Served as a delegate, representing the Relief Society, at the International Council of Women conventions held in London and the Netherlands, Mar. 1908.21 Died 9 Nov. 1932 in Salt Lake City.22

The First Fifty Years of Relief Society

23 Born at Washington, Wayne County, Indiana; daughter of Esther Mendenhall and Luther Ball Bunnell. 24 Lived at Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, circa 1846. 25 Lived in Ohio and Indiana, circa 1847–1855; attended a female seminary at Crawfordsville, Montgomery County, Indiana. 26 Baptized en route to the Salt Lake Valley, 1855. 27 Married first Parley P. Pratt Jr., 1859; seven children. 28 Studied medicine at Bellevue Hospital, New York City, circa 1874–1877; at the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; at the New England Hospital for Women and Children, Boston; and at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, 1881–1882. 29 Taught courses on anatomy, physiology, and obstetrics in Salt Lake City, beginning 1878. 30 Divorced from Pratt, 1880. 31 Married second Charles William Penrose, 1886. 32 Appointed to the Deseret Hospital board of directors, 1882; became a resident physician, 1887. 33 Served as president of the Salt Lake City Twelfth Ward Young Ladies’ Retrenchment Association, as treasurer of the Salt Lake Stake Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association, and as assistant secretary for the Relief Society Central Board. 34 Retired from active medical practice, 1912. 35 Died at Salt Lake City. 36 (See Document 4.11, 4.15, 4.28)

Footnotes

1 “Memoir,” Romania B. Pratt Penrose Papers, ca. 1881–1975, 19 Mar. 1881, 1, CHL. “Endowments of the Living, 1851–1884,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Endowment House, vol. B, p. 56, Esther Romania Salena Bunnel, 11 Mar. 1856, microfilm 1149524(restricted access), FHL. “Family Tree,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org, accessed 29 Jan. 2018), Romania Bunnell Pratt Penrose (KWJC-SDG).
2 “Memoir,” Romania B. Pratt Penrose Papers, ca. 1881–1975, 19 Mar. 1881, 1, CHL. Wayne Co., IN, Clerk of the Circuit Court, Marriage Records, 1811–1951, Marriages Licenses, vol. B, p. 136, Luther Bunnel and Esther Mendenhall, 8 June 1832. “Endowments of the Living, 1851–1884,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Endowment House, vol. B, Esther Romania Salena Bunnel, 11 Mar. 1856, microfilm 1149524 (restricted access), FHL.
3 “Memoir,” Romania B. Pratt Penrose Papers, ca. 1881–1975, 19 Mar. 1881, 1–2, CHL. Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah in Four Volumes (Salt Lake City: George Q Cannon & Sons, 1904), 4:600.
4 “Memoir,” Romania B. Pratt Penrose Papers, ca. 1881–1975, 19 Mar. 1881, 2, CHL. 1850 U.S. Census, Clear Creek Township, Warren Co., OH, Luther Bunnel. Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah in Four Volumes (Salt Lake City: George Q Cannon & Sons, 1904), 4:600.
5 “Memoir,” Romania B. Pratt Penrose Papers, ca. 1881–1975, 19 Mar. 1881, 2–3, CHL. Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah in Four Volumes (Salt Lake City: George Q Cannon & Sons, 1904), 4:600.
6 “Esther Romania Bunnell,” Pioneer Database (https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/overlandtravel/pioneers/16531). Jane Charters Robinson Hindley, Journals, 1855–1905, [16]–[21], CHL.
7 “Memoir,” Romania B. Pratt Penrose Papers, ca. 1881–1975, 19 Mar. 1881, 5, CHL. Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah in Four Volumes (Salt Lake City: George Q Cannon & Sons, 1904), 4:601.
8 “Sealings of Couples, Living and by Proxy, 1856–1861,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Endowment House, vol. C, p. 334, Parley Parker Pratt and Esther Romania Bunnel, 3 Feb. 1859, microfilm 1149514 (restricted access), FHL. 1900 U.S. Census, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., UT, ED 22, p. 3A, Esther Romania Pratt. “Memoir,” Romania B. Pratt Penrose Papers, ca. 1881–1975, 19 Mar. 1881, 10–11, CHL.
9 “Memoir,” Romania B. Pratt Penrose Papers, ca. 1881–1975, 19 Mar. 1881, 11–12, CHL.
10 “Memoir,” Romania B. Pratt Penrose Papers, ca. 1881–1975, 19 Mar. 1881, 13, CHL. Twelfth East Ward, University West Stake, Twelfth East Ward Manuscript History and Historical Records, “YLMIA,” CHL.
11 “Memoir,” Romania B. Pratt Penrose Papers, ca. 1881–1975, 19 Mar. 1881, 14–16, CHL. Romania B. Pratt, Women’s Medical College of Philadelphia, Philadelphia Co., Pennsylvania Diploma, Mar. 15, 1877, Women’s College of Medicine, Pennsylvania, CHL. August Joyce Crocheron, Representative Women of Deseret: A Book of Biographical Sketches (Salt Lake City: J. C. Graham, 1884), 72–74.
12 Romania B. Penrose Papers, 1875–1898, Romania B. Pratt Letters, 1879, First Presidency (John Taylor) Correspondence, CHL. History of Relief Society, 1842–1966 (Salt Lake City: General Board of Relief Society, 1966), 116–117.
13 Emmeline B. Wells, “Tribute to Romania B. Pratt,” 1881, Romania B. Penrose Papers, ca. 1881–1875, CHL. EBW, Diary, 8 Aug. 1881.
14 “Divorce Documents for Parley P. Pratt Jr and Romania Bunnell,” Romania B. Penrose Papers, ca. 1881–1975, 1, CHL.
15 “Memoir,” Romania B. Pratt Penrose Papers, ca. 1881–1975, 19 Mar. 1881, 22–23, CHL.
16 Jill Mulvay Derr, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Kate Holbrook, and Matthew J. Grow, eds., The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women’s History (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2016), 521–522. “An Interesting Meeting,” Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star, 5 Apr. 1886, 48:216–220.
17 “Sealings of Couples, Living and by Proxy, 1883–1889,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Endowment House, vol. M, p. 83, Charles W. Penrose and Romania Bunnell, 11 Mar. 1886, microfilm 183402 (restricted access), FHL.
18 “Relief Society Central Board,” Woman’s Exponent, 15 Oct. 1888, 76. Jill Mulvay Derr, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Kate Holbrook, and Matthew J. Grow, eds., The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women’s History (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2016), 535, 589. History of Relief Society, 1842–1966 (Salt Lake City: General Board of Relief Society, 1966), 52, 58.
19 History of Relief Society, 1842–1966 (Salt Lake City: General Board of Relief Society, 1966), 86, 116–117.
20 “Romania Bunnell Penrose,” Go Ye into All the World: Missionary Database (https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/missionary, accessed 30 Jan. 2018).
21 Emmeline B. Wells, “Letter of Credential to present to the Committee of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance Conference,” 31 Mar. 1909, 12–14, CHL.
22 Utah Death Certificate, 1904–1964, database and images, Utah State Archives (http://archives.utah.gov, accessed 31 Jan. 2018); from Utah Department of Health, Office of Vital Records and statistics, series 81448, file no. 1389/1701, (1932), Romania Bunnell Pratt Penrose.
23 “Utah Death Certificate Index, 1904–1961,” database and images, Utah State Archives (http://archives.utah.gov, accessed Dec. 2014); from Utah Department of Health, Office of Vital Records and Statistics, series 81448, file no. 1622/56 (1932), Romania Bunnell Pratt Penrose.
24 Utah death certificate, file no. 1622/56. Romania B. Pratt Penrose, memoir, 1881, photocopy of holograph, p.1, CHL. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, “‘Eye to Eye in Faith and Scientific Knowledge’: Esther Romania Bunnell Pratt Penrose,” in Women of Faith in the Latter Days, ed. Richard E. Turley Jr. and Brittany A. Chapman, vol. 2, 1821–1845 (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2012), 275–278.
25 Christine Croft Waters, “Romania P. Penrose,” in Sister Saints, ed. Vicky Burgess-Olson (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1978), 344.
26 Penrose, memoir, 1–2. Waters, “Romania P. Penrose,” 345. Ulrich, “‘Esther Romania Bunnell Pratt Penrose,” 275–276, 279.
27 Penrose, memoir, 2. Ulrich, “‘Esther Romania Bunnell Pratt Penrose,” 279. “Esther Romania Bunnell,” Church History Biographical Database, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, available at https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/chd/landing, accessed Jul. 2024.
28 Susa Young Gates, “Our Picture Gallery: A Biographical Sketch of R. B. Pratt,” Young Woman’s Journal 2, no. 12 (Sept. 1891): 531–532. Ulrich, “‘Esther Romania Bunnell Pratt Penrose,” 280. Waters, “Romania P. Penrose,” 346.
29 Annie W. Cannon, “The Women of Utah, Part IV, Women in Medicine,” Woman’s Exponent 17, no. 7 (Sept. 1, 1888): 49. Gates, “Biographical Sketch of R. B. Pratt,” 533–534. Waters, “Romania P. Penrose,” 347–350.
30 Waters, “Romania P. Penrose,” 350. Ulrich, “‘Esther Romania Bunnell Pratt Penrose,” 284.
31 Ulrich, “‘Esther Romania Bunnell Pratt Penrose,” 278.
32 Waters, “Romania P. Penrose,” 353. Ulrich, “‘Esther Romania Bunnell Pratt Penrose,” 278.
33 Gates, “Biographical Sketch of R. B. Pratt,” 534–535.
34 Penrose, memoir, [n.p.]. Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah (Salt Lake City: George Q. Cannon & Sons, 1904), 4:602.
35 “First Utah Woman Doctor Succumbs,” Deseret News, Nov. 10, 1932, [1]. Waters, “Romania P. Penrose,” 357.
36 “First Utah Woman Doctor Succumbs,” [1]. Utah death certificate, file no. 1622/56. “Family Tree,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org, accessed Jan. 5, 2016), Esther Romania Bunnell KWJC-SDG.