Camilla Clara Mieth Cobb

24 May 1843 — 16 October 1933

1 Born at Dresden, Saxony, Germany; daughter of Henrietta Christiana Backhaus and Karl Benjamin Mieth. 2 Among the first church members baptized in Germany, 1855. 3 Emigrated from Germany to England with the Karl G. Maeser family, 1856; sailed to the United States aboard the Tuscarora, 1857. 4 Migrated to the Salt Lake Valley, 1860. 5 Assisted Maeser in the Salt Lake City Fifteenth Ward and Twentieth Ward schools. 6 Married James Thornton Cobb, 1864; seven children. 7 Visited relatives in New York and studied kindergarten under the prominent German educator Adolph Douai in New Jersey, summer 1874; returned to Utah and established the territory’s first kindergarten. 8 Contributed articles to the Woman’s Exponent advocating kindergarten education. 9 Appointed counselor in the Salt Lake Stake Primary, 1880; served as president, September 12, 1896–April 20, 1904. 10 Served on the Primary general board, 1898–1917. 11 Died at Salt Lake City. 12 (See Document 2.1, 4.4)

Footnotes

  1. [1] Utah Department of Health, death certificates 1904–1961, series 81448, file no. 1477/100 (1933), Clara Camilla Cobb; Office of Vital Records and Statistics, Salt Lake City, UT.

  2. [2] Utah death certificate, file no. 1477/100. “Pioneer Teacher of Utah Is Dead,” Deseret News, Oct. 16, 1933, 1. Harold H. Jenson, “True Pioneer Stories: Mrs. Cobb, Mrs Smith, Friends,” Deseret News, June 22, 1934, 12.

  3. [3] Jenson, “True Pioneer Stories,” 12. Catherine Britsch, “Camilla C. Cobb: Founder of the Kindergarten in Utah” (PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1997), 4.

  4. [4] “Mormon Migration,” database, 1840–1932, Mormon Migration (http://mormonmigration.lib.byu.edu, accessed Oct. 2014), Kamilla T. Meith; extracted from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mormon Immigration Index CD (2000).

  5. [5] “Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel,” database, 1847–1868, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel (http://history.lds.org/overlandtravels, accessed Apr. 2014), Clara Camilla Meith.

  6. [6] Britsch, “Camilla C. Cobb,” 88–89.

  7. [7] “Family Tree,” database, FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org, accessed Aug. 2014), Camilla Clara Mieth KWN2-4QW and James Thornton Cobb KWN2-4Q4 . Britsch, “Camilla C. Cobb,” 90–91.

  8. [8] “The Pioneer Kindergarten,” Woman’s Exponent 25, no. 19 (Apr. 1, 1897): 124. “Pioneer Teacher of Utah Is Dead,” 1. Britsch, “Camilla C. Cobb,” 99–100.

  9. [9] See Camilla C. Cobb, “The Kindergarten,” Woman’s Exponent 4, no. 6 (Sept. 15, 1875): 47; and “The Paradise of Childhood,” Woman’s Exponent 4, no. 9 (Oct. 1, 1875): 70–71.

  10. [10] “Salt Lake Stake Relief Society Conference,” Woman’s Exponent 9, no. 3 (July 1, 1880): 21–22. Ella W. Hyde, “Brief History of the Stake Board Primary Association of Salt Lake Stake,” Woman’s Exponent 21, no. 11 (Apr. 1, 1904): 76–77. Maude M. Smith, “History of the Salt Lake Stake Primary,” CHL.

  11. [11] Britsch, “Camilla C. Cobb,” 88–89.

  12. [12] Utah death certificate, file no. 1477/100.