Esther Romania Salina Bunnell Pratt Penrose

8 August 1839 — 9 November 1932

1 Born at Washington, Wayne County, Indiana; daughter of Esther Mendenhall and Luther Ball Bunnell. 2 Lived at Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, circa 1846. 3 Lived in Ohio and Indiana, circa 1847–1855; attended a female seminary at Crawfordsville, Montgomery County, Indiana. 4 Baptized en route to the Salt Lake Valley, 1855. 5 Married first Parley P. Pratt Jr., 1859; seven children. 6 Studied medicine at Bellevue Hospital, New York City, circa 1874–1877; at the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; at the New England Hospital for Women and Children, Boston; and at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, 1881–1882. 7 Taught courses on anatomy, physiology, and obstetrics in Salt Lake City, beginning 1878. 8 Divorced from Pratt, 1880. 9 Married second Charles William Penrose, 1886. 10 Appointed to the Deseret Hospital board of directors, 1882; became a resident physician, 1887. 11 Served as president of the Salt Lake City Twelfth Ward Young Ladies’ Retrenchment Association, as treasurer of the Salt Lake Stake Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association, and as assistant secretary for the Relief Society Central Board. 12 Retired from active medical practice, 1912. 13 Died at Salt Lake City. 14 (See Document 4.11, 4.15, 4.28)

Footnotes

  1. [1] “Utah Death Certificate Index, 1904–1961,” database and images, Utah State Archives (http://archives.utah.gov, accessed Dec. 2014); from Utah Department of Health, Office of Vital Records and Statistics, series 81448, file no. 1622/56 (1932), Romania Bunnell Pratt Penrose.

  2. [2] Utah death certificate, file no. 1622/56. Romania B. Pratt Penrose, memoir, 1881, photocopy of holograph, p.1, CHL. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, “‘Eye to Eye in Faith and Scientific Knowledge’: Esther Romania Bunnell Pratt Penrose,” in Women of Faith in the Latter Days, ed. Richard E. Turley Jr. and Brittany A. Chapman, vol. 2, 1821–1845 (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2012), 275–278.

  3. [3] Christine Croft Waters, “Romania P. Penrose,” in Sister Saints, ed. Vicky Burgess-Olson (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1978), 344.

  4. [4] Penrose, memoir, 1–2. Waters, “Romania P. Penrose,” 345. Ulrich, “‘Esther Romania Bunnell Pratt Penrose,” 275–276, 279.

  5. [5] Penrose, memoir, 2. Ulrich, “‘Esther Romania Bunnell Pratt Penrose,” 279. “Esther Romania Bunnell,” Church History Biographical Database, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, available at https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/chd/landing, accessed Jul. 2024.

  6. [6] Susa Young Gates, “Our Picture Gallery: A Biographical Sketch of R. B. Pratt,” Young Woman’s Journal 2, no. 12 (Sept. 1891): 531–532. Ulrich, “‘Esther Romania Bunnell Pratt Penrose,” 280. Waters, “Romania P. Penrose,” 346.

  7. [7] Annie W. Cannon, “The Women of Utah, Part IV, Women in Medicine,” Woman’s Exponent 17, no. 7 (Sept. 1, 1888): 49. Gates, “Biographical Sketch of R. B. Pratt,” 533–534. Waters, “Romania P. Penrose,” 347–350.

  8. [8] Waters, “Romania P. Penrose,” 350. Ulrich, “‘Esther Romania Bunnell Pratt Penrose,” 284.

  9. [9] Ulrich, “‘Esther Romania Bunnell Pratt Penrose,” 278.

  10. [10] Waters, “Romania P. Penrose,” 353. Ulrich, “‘Esther Romania Bunnell Pratt Penrose,” 278.

  11. [11] Gates, “Biographical Sketch of R. B. Pratt,” 534–535.

  12. [12] Penrose, memoir, [n.p.]. Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah (Salt Lake City: George Q. Cannon & Sons, 1904), 4:602.

  13. [13] “First Utah Woman Doctor Succumbs,” Deseret News, Nov. 10, 1932, [1]. Waters, “Romania P. Penrose,” 357.

  14. [14] “First Utah Woman Doctor Succumbs,” [1]. Utah death certificate, file no. 1622/56. “Family Tree,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org, accessed Jan. 5, 2016), Esther Romania Bunnell KWJC-SDG.