Charlotte Ives Cobb Godbe Kirby

Charlotte Ives Cobb Kirby (August 3, 1836 – January 24, 1908) was an influential and radical women's rights activist and temperance advocate in the state of Utah as well as a well-known national figure. Charlotte was born in Massachusetts and at seven years of age moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, with her mother, an early member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). There, without divorcing father Henry Cobb, her mother became Brigham Young's second plural wife. Shortly before enacting enfranchisement, Salt Lake received reports that Congress threatened to disenfranchise the women of Utah because of the nationally unpopular practice of polygamy of the LDS Church, predominant in Utah. After being informed of these reports and anti-polygamist ideas, Territorial Secretary S. A. Mann signed the bill to enfranchise women in the territory of Utah on February 12, 1870. This enfranchisement raised national attention as it brought in forty times more eligible women than Wyoming did, the majority of women being members of the LDS Church. Stanton and Anthony were also invited by Brigham Young to speak to women at the Mormon Tabernacle. After speaking at the Tabernacle, they spoke to the Godbeites at their newly dedicated Liberal Institute, and then to the Godbeite women, the Ladies Mututal Improvement Society. After their visit, Charlotte maintained close ties with these suffragists and the national suffrage movement. The Salt Lake Herald-Republican newspaper shared the success Charlotte had giving a lecture on temperance in New York on March 14, 1881. In Nauvoo, Augusta married Brigham Young as one of his first plural wives and was sealed (part of the marriage ceremony of the LDS Church) for eternity in the Mormon temple. Augusta later requested to have her eternal sealing to Young cancelled so that she could be sealed to the deceased Joseph Smith, while still remaining sealed and married to Young. Young complied and stood proxy as Joseph Smith for this sealing. Despite this change in her mother's relationship, Young remained the effective father of Charlotte.

Marriages

William S. Godbe

In April 1869, Charlotte was married to William S. Godbe as his fourth wife, and Brigham Young performed the sealing ceremony.

The Godbeites were known for their liberal economic and social views and their help in forming the Liberal Party of Utah. Notably, they were helpful in creating a relationship with Eastern suffragists Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton; when these two women came to visit Utah for the first time in 1871, it was at the invitation of the Godbeites. Charlotte and Godbe separated in 1873, but their divorce was not finalized until 1879. Out of Godbe's four wives, Charlotte was the only one who did not leave the LDS church after Godbe's excommunication. After distancing herself from Godbe and polygamy, she established a better relationship with national suffrage organizations. Charlotte remained married to Kirby for the rest of her life, living in Salt Lake City, Utah.