TITLE PAGE • • • • • JPEG-Bk13 PIONEER (full name) Emma Staples Stuart BIRTH (date and place) 3 Feb 1844 Cheltenham, England DEA TH (date and place) PARENTS . MARRIED (who and date) ARRIVAL IN UTAH (date) (Company arrived with) HISTORY (who wrote) (date written) (who submitted} (address) · · Richard Staplet6n . Loui.sa Fielq (1) William Hutchinson (2) James Rutherford Stuart · 24 Sept 1868 Captain Edward Mulford's mule Team Charles William Stuart Jr • 1970 - early 1980 Lois B. Peterson CAMP & COUNTY SUBMITTING ...:.S....,.o.uu....,t.._.h~M.;.l;o~r=--::2.g~a~n'------------ Camp _M_o_r_g_a_n ________ _; __ County . (Camp Historian & address) ----~;,L_o_i.s; ;~B... ..P.;e;.t.e..r:s.o..n;: ,~...;:;._:~--------- County Historian & address )_ _- -,1D.Mil..,ll~a--1.C. .... ~~. .j.u ;c.:.1b;i.__ __________ SOURCE OF INFORMATION & PAGE NUMBERS: ' J EMMA STAPLES (STAPLETON) SrtlART 2'+7 At a time in history when the role of a woman was mainly to give mora l support to r~ husband, care for the family and help with the chores, Emma Stuart was also a pre-dominant woman in the history of Morgan. Emma was born at Cheltenham, England on February 3, 1844 to Richard and Louisa Field Stapleton. When she was eight years old she was placed as an apprentice in the kitchens of Victoria of England, a school to learn the culina ry art. Life at the school was very difficult and strict. Emma along with her family saved money to fulfill a dream to come to America. In 1866 at an age of 22 she sailed from England and later that year arrived in Utah. Emma met and married William Hutchinson, a widower with a large family, and resi ded in Coalville. They had one daughter, Louisa. While in Coalville she opened the first baker~ which was located on main street. After the accidental death of her husband, she moved to Salt Lake City and was employeed by Williams Jennings of the Devereau House . Making a fine salary, she worked several years preparing dinners; until 1877 at the death ~ her sister Fanny. As was the custom in those days, after a family discussion Emma married Fanny's husband, James Rutherford Stuart. It had been her sister's desire that Emma raise her family. Fanny and her family were living in a dugout at the time of her death. Upon coming to Morgan Emma gave James some money she had saved, and he immediately built a two room house. This was built across the street from the old high school and is still in use; although additional rooms have been added. James was a shoemaker who barely made enough money to exist on and the new home and family took all of Emma's savings. Being a good organizer, she was determined to raise above their state of poverty. With a few tools of her trade, which she had brought with her from Salt Lake City, she was prepared when asked to take over the Morgan Hotel. This was a three story building on main street built by Dan Heiner and owned by the Heiner Corp . Emma was 34 at the time. • This building is now known as the "Vall is Hotel" . Emma secured help from young women of the community to assist with meals, laundry and JPEG-Bk13 ( \ Emma Staples Stuart Page -2- upkeep of the hotel. Some were Ametia Williams, May Bull , Fannie Maye, Ella Kingston, Isabelle Welch, Emily Fry, Mary Ann Eddington and her own daughter, Louisa. e In the 20 years she operated the Morgan Hotel, her sa v ings grew. Emma wanted to own her o wn hotel. However, everytime she brought the subjec t up with her husband , Ja mes , he went into a rage, dead set against it. After years o f poverty, a chil d h ood of pove r ty and a lifetime of hard work, the family income was finally adequate . The re wa s pl enty to eat, and Emma kept saving from her earnings at the Morgan Hotel . On Oct 4, 1904, at age 48- - an age when most women are ready to r e tire --she p urchased the land for the first section of the Stuart Ho tel and began constructi o n . It appeared modest; 4 rooms upstairs, one downstairs and a dinin g room. A k itch en was added as a lean - to on the back. Emma was now operating both the 18 r ooms of t h e Mo r ga n Hotel , as sleeping quarters and the new S tuart Hotel where s h e pre pared t he meal s . The r oom in t he Stuart Hotel was insufficient and she wanted to enl a rge it. Emma had built James a shoe shop next doo r t o the ho tel as a sort o f pe ace offeri ng . • Emma knew James wanted to go back to his home la nd, Sco tl and, and do genealogy wo r k . She was not above a little skullduggery, especially if it wo uld me an that he r own drea m to add on to the hotel would come true. She went to the S t ake Pre sident and told him what Jame s wanted to do. Within a very short ti me J ame s r ece i v ed hi s call for his mission to Scotland. Immediately upon his departure, just thre e years afte r the fi rs t s e ction was built, Emma began errecting the second part of her fa mous Stuart Hotel. The ho tel was n ot q uite completed before she had it in operation. But, James became ill in Scotland and his s e a rch for records was cut short. When he returned he got the surprise of his life . It was now that Emma gained her greatest fame as a cook and was called "Mother" S t uar t . No one furnished money for the operation; she built her hotel with money s h e saved o r loans from the local bank which she repaid. Now for approximately 15 years, her f ame s pread far and wi de. Durin g t h i s ti me ~ bottled all of her own fruit for the hotel and cured all of h er meat, h ams , bacons and corn beef in barrels in the cellar; Salted beans and dried fruits. JPEG-Bk13 \ Emma Staples Stuar t Page - 3 - She had been tau ght how to prepare all dif fe r en t types of meat, how to cut them a nd d~ s them; from the killing right thro ugh to the in tricate prepa rat i on f o r the table . She learned to make her own colorings f o r her cooking ; f la vo rin gs and gelatin; f ancy cakes and pastry. She was the first person to dec orate a cake with icing in Morgan. Th e knowledge she had learned as a student proved inv aluable i n t h e early days o f f ood p r epa rati on and preservation in Utah. She had been tau ght an d t r ained b y the bes t a u thoriti es in Europe and she brought that talent to Utah. Emma was famous for her sal ted b eans . She and the hotel became quite a source of i ncome to r many people in Morgan. She used butter e x clusively for c o oking and bro u ght h uge suppl ies from the local dairy farmers . When Bert Crouch and Tom Fry ran the bu tche r s hop , she would drop in and tell them what she wanted. They would put a side of b e e f on the block and s he woul d either tell them exactly where to cut or cut it hersel f . Emma , a l tho ugh o nly f i v e toot s even an d one- halt i n ches tall and 146 pounds in he r prime years left a mark indeliably clear on t h e culinary a r t s of t h i s p i oneer town . ~ William J. Jeffri e s, Presiden t of t he Uni on Paci f i c Railroad , in a speech made at the concl us i on o f l ay ing the do ubl e t racks, said that with the support of women like Emma Stuart and h er Stuart Hotel, t h e job was made e a sier . ~f you feed men right, they'll work rig ht . " The bi g e v e nt of the y e ar a t t he St uart Hot el , was the g ra duati on dinner she pre pared fo r t hose young people who completed the 8th grade . Fl o wers were expressed from Ogden to decorate the tables, each setting a sparkling di splay o f th e best china and silver . It was s aid that traveling me n , drumme r s , salesmen from all over th e Unite d Sta tes ofte n met i n cities l ike St. Lo ui s , and in the cou rse of their conversation, the same commen t "If you go West in or about Salt Lake City, o r Ogde n, don ' t stop t o eat t here. Go up We b er Canyon to Morgan for the meal of your l ifetime at the Stua r t Hotel . " Ma n y n otab les of the e r a e n joyed Mother Stuart ' s d i nners , traveling from Salt Lake o r Ogden . Mi ll i onai r e banki ng e xec uti ve John R . Barnes , who fo unded the Barnes banking empi r e i n Kaysville would bring a gaily d r e ssed [Er t y to Mo r gan in one of the first automobiles , ~ v e ove r roads that we r e barely t ra i l s a t t h at time thro u ght the r ocky canyon . After d i nne r, he and hi s part y would spend the e n tire afternoon visiting and rela xing in the cool ~~~Jsantatmosphere of the hotel. ~ I ~ \ Emma Staples Stuart Page -4- Governor Bl ood and his father and Governors Spry and Hambur ge r e n joyed heathful occasi ons. Bri gham Yo ung had eaten her meals when she 250 ~ tites at the Hotel on many prepared banquets for notables in Salt Lake City. in the service of Williams Jennin gs at the Deve reau House Those in the arts also sought out the fine food offered at the Stuart Hotel. When John Hann, a tenor with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, traveled west he would stop with his retinue of followers. After dinner he would invite the kitchen help, wait - resses, dishwashers, and all present to surround the piano while he sang se lections from his recent concert tours. Judge Rollap of Ogden Circuit Court would bring groups of h is companions . He was especially fond of the coconut tarts Mother Stuart made. Emma's life, like many lives of the time, was a mixture o f tragedy and deep de voti on, poverty and hard labor; all of whi c h revolved almost exclusively around he r family, her sister's family and her famous kitchen. ~ Emma continued to operate the Stuart Hotel and prepare deli c ious vegetable soup , r oa s t beef dinners and delicately sweet cakes and tarts almost up until the time of her death, July 26, 1924. The Stuart Hotel now stands, an apartment house , long past the glory of another and earlier generation. Its fruition was brought to a peak under the supervision of a ski lled and knowlegable woman, trained for her work in the o ld worl~ which she gladly shared with a burgeoning new state. Emma represented how well women could participate in the comme rcia l wo rld long before it became acceptable for women to engage in business. The information in this art i c l e was taken from Biography of Emma Stapl es (Sta pl eton) Stuart and History of The Stua rt Hotel both writ ten by Charl es W. Stuart. Morgan County Historical Society • JPEG-Bk13