Emily Sophia Tanner Richards

Emily Sophia Tanner Richards (May 13, 1850 – August 19, 1929) was a key figure in the founding of the Utah Woman's Suffrage Association. Early life and marriage Emily Sophia Tanner was born in the Salt Lake City Cottonwood settlement to Rachel and Nathan Tanner and was the granddaughter of John Tanner (Mormon). At age six, She moved to Salt Lake Valley to attend school. At age eighteen, Emily Tanner married an old schoolmate, Franklin S. Richards, who later became the leading attorney for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). The next year the young couple moved to Ogden to stay with the Richards family. Emily Richards raised five children. In 1882, Emily and Franklin Richards along with their children moved to Washington, D.C. so that Franklin Richards could lobby the U.S. Congress for Utah statehood. Women's suffrage work While in D.C. Richards met many national suffrage leaders. In 1886, Richards along with Josephine R. West, Emmeline B. Wells, and Ellen B. Ferguson presented a memorial of the women of Utah to president Grover Cleveland to reduce anti-Mormon sentiment. The Edmunds–Tucker Act disenfranchised Utah women the following year.