Featured on my Facebook page, and posted here for archiving.

I read a 1914 letter last night that makes a good illustration of the need to be alert for women hiding in the records of men. This letter was written by a man to a man, about men’s actions and men’s [un]cleanliness, in connection with a priesthood ordinance. If the letter were indexed anywhere, it would be linked to men’s names and men’s activities:

“It seems proper at this time to break the bread in the presence of the worshipers and brethren are called from the body of worshipers to take the same in the slices and crumble it up and without doubt we do find it more than crumbled or broken. It is twisted into knots, and really made very unpresentable but the condition it is left in is not the worst feature:

“Many of our brethren in our local branches come to the meeting with teams which they tie up around the meeting houses and of course handle the tugs and portion of the harness: Now the harness may be wet and one cannot handle it without getting portions of dirt on their hands: They are or may be called on to break the bread and up to this time we have not requested parties breaking the bread to clean their hands before doing so. I have partaken of bread at times and tried to forget the people who have broken it, wishing some better system could be adopted.”

Completely masculine Church history, right?

But there is one more sentence that hints at a woman’s contribution, and her cleanliness in contrast to what the letterwriter has just described:

“We reside close to the Yellowstone Tabernacle and Sister Elliott cuts up the bread into slices, and many times I have wished she could besides furnishing it in slices could be allowed to get it ready for the blessing.”

The clean woman who prepared the sacrament bread – probably also baking it, else why would she be slicing it? – was Agnes Burkinshaw Elliott (1856-1935), of St. Anthony, Idaho – a convert and immigrant from England.