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 Martha Hughes Cannon & Gwendolyn LDS Biographical Encyclopedia, Andrew Jenson, Vol. 4, p.86-88
Cannon, Martha Hughes, one of the first Utah women to receive the degree of M.D., was born July 1, 1857, at Great Ormes Head, near Llandudno, Wales, the daughter of Peter Hughes and Elizabeth Evans. Her parents becoming converts to the restored gospel through the preaching of L. D. S. missionaries, the family emigrated to America in 1858. For two years they remained in New York City, on account of the father's poor health, but were then advised by Apostle Erastus Snow to go on to Florence, Nebraska, whence, in 1860, they crossed the plains and mountains in a covered wagon, the mother walking most of the way, in order that her invalid husband and five little daughters might ride. Annie, the youngest, fifteen months old, died while on the journey and was buried on the roadside, and three days after the family arrived in Great Salt Lake City, the father, Peter Hughes, breathed his last.
A year later the widow married James P. Paul, a widower with four [p.87] children, who, being a carpenter, constructed a home for them, which is still standing near the corner of 9th East and 5th South streets, Salt Lake City, a rare example of sun-dried adobe architecture.
Martha (or Mattie as she was familiarly known) early showed unusual intelligence and strong individuality. At the age of 14 she taught school, at 15 she was a typesetter, and then, for five years, worked as a printer on the "Deseret News" and "Woman's Exponent." Having aspired to become a physician, she carefully saved her money to go East and study medicine. In 1878 she went to Ann Arbor and entered the Medical Department of the University of Michigan, working her way through college by washing dishes and making beds at a student's boarding house. Later, she tutored and did secretarial work to help pay her college expenses. She graduated in 1880 with the degree of M.D., after having taken, in addition to the prescribed courses, optional courses in electro-theropeutics and bacteriology. After her graduation she practiced medicine at Algonac, Mich., her patients coming from both the Canadian and the American side of the St. Clair River. Her first case was the insane wife of a river captain. The young doctor discovered and cured the underlying cause of the malady and the woman recovered her health and reason.
In the fall of 1881 Dr. Cannon went to Philadelphia, where she entered the auxiliary medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, taking special post-graduate training, and she also studied public speaking at the National School of Elocution and Oratory. This was in order that she might follow out her conviction that community health could be improved by popular lectures; she also studied pharmacy at night. In 1882 she graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with the degree of Bachelor of Science and also received a bachelor's degree from the National School of Oratory. She then returned to Utah and as a result of overwork had brain fever. After her recovery she became resident physician of the Deseret Hospital in Salt Lake City, a position which she held for three years.
On Oct. 6, 1884, in Salt Lake City, she became the wife of Angus M. Cannon, president of the Salt Lake Stake of Zion, but was still able to prosecute her medical studies in order to render more efficient service to her people, she being at all times a devoted Latter-day Saint.
In 1885, Dr. Cannon visited the Cotton Exposition at New Orleans and also inspected the training schools for nurses in New York City and Boston with a view of opening similar schools in the far west. In 1886 she visited leading hospitals in France, Switzerland and England, and upon her return to Salt Lake City established the first training school for nurses in Utah. In addition, she gave lectures on obstetrics, a subject of vital interest to pioneer communities, where medical aid was not at all times immediately available.
In 1890, Dr. Cannon took her children and went into voluntary exile in San Francisco, in order that her husband might remain free to prosecute his various enterprises. Returning later to Salt Lake City she established an office on the corner of South Temple and State streets and practiced as a physician for some time with marked success.
Being an ardent advocate of women's rights, Dr. Cannon belonged to the younger group who worked in connection with the noted suffragist leaders, Susan B. Anthony and Anna Shaw, and in behalf of votes for women Dr. Cannon addressed gatherings in Washington, D.C., and at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in the nineties. While in the national capital, by request, she appeared before a Congressional Committee to give [p.88] a synopsis of the political work done by women in Utah.
In 1896 she was elected to the State senate of Utah, being the first woman in the United States to hold the office of State senator. While holding this position she introduced a number of important bills, which later were incorporated in the government of the state, among them being a bill for the establishment of a State Board of Health, a Pure Food Law, a bill compelling merchants to provide seats for their sales ladies and another bill for the establishment of a hospital ward for the State School for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind. She later became a member of the State Board of Health, the Board of Directors of the Deaf and Dumb Institute and vice-president of the American Congress of Tuberculosis.
During the last 12 years of her life Dr. Cannon resided in Los Angeles, California, where she worked in the Graves' Clinic, in the orthopedic dept. of the general hospital. She was an authority on narcotic addiction, of which subject she had made a special study. She died in Los Angeles, July 10, 1932, aged 75 years; interment took place in Salt Lake City, Utah. She was survived by one son, James H. Cannon, president of the Cannon Electric Development Company of California, and a daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Cannon Porter, a writer, widow of the late Roy S. Porter. A younger daughter, Mrs. Gwendolyn Cannon Quick, artist and musician, died in 1928, aged 29 years. [Cannon died in Los Angeles in 1932]
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