Mary E. Woolley Chamberlain

Mary Elizabeth Woolley Chamberlain (January 31, 1870 – August 20, 1953) was an American politician who served as the board president of Kanab, Utah, from 1912 to 1914. She presided over an all-women town board, and had earlier been elected as Utah's first female county clerk in 1896. She used the pseudonym Mary Howard during her time on the board.

Early life Mary Elizabeth Woolley was born on January 31, 1870, in St. George, Utah. She was the second child of Edwin Dilworth Woolley Jr. and Emma Geneva Bentley. She was named after both of her grandmothers. She was elected under the name Mary W. Howard, as she had married Thomas Chamberlain as his sixth wife when The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was ending the practice of plural marriage. Chamberlain wrote in 1936 that they were not actively seeking office and their candidacy was a practical joke as their ticket was formed on the day of the elections, as nobody in the town was concerned with who was elected in the positions. They were visited by Susa Young Gates who was excited about their work and wanted to learn more about what they were doing. Mary's letter to Gates, who called her "Mayor", was published in the July 1914 Improvement Era. When her husband Thomas Chamberlain died, she had to support herself and her children by selling homemade goods to travelers and offering up her home as a board house. She was, however, the first female board president of Kanab, Utah. The town board in Kanab consisted of five women: Vinnie Jepson, Tamar Hamblin, Blanche Hamblin, Luella McAllister, and Mary Chamberlain (then Howard) as president. She changed her name to "Howard" in 1904. They met because she worked in the store that he partly owned and managed. He was also county treasurer while she was county clerk and he was a counselor in her father's presidency. He proposed marriage and they decided they should marry three years later.

In July 1900, Thomas traveled to Mexico to determine if marriage would be possible, there he met President George Q. Cannon, who advised him on how to proceed with the marriage. Mary joined Thomas in Mexico to be married. They went home separately and she continued to work at the store for another year. She quit her job to go into hiding in Salt Lake City due to being pregnant with her first son as a result of a plural marriage. She began using the pseudonym "Thomas" as a surname to avoid detection, this way of living lasted six years.

Autobiography Mary E. Woolley Chamberlain's autobiography resides in L. Tom Perry Special Collections at the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University.