Preface

THIS BOOK WAS born from a paper I wrote for Dean May's western history seminar at the University of Utah. While researching reaction to the posting of the 24th ("Colored") Infantry to Fort Douglas, I found evidence of a world only hinted at in the secondary literature. The local newspapers reported that some soldiers inevitably found their way downtown to patronize brothels and saloons. The papers wrote familiarly of white, African American, and Asian prostitutes; the long-lived network of houses where they worked; and the customers, policemen, and reformers with whom they interacted. Salt Lake City, the supposedly staid temple city of the Latter-day Saints, proved to have a regulated prostitution district like virtually all other American cities.

      I returned to this trail some years after the seminar, expecting to write a relatively straightforward community study of prostitution. But I discovered Cornelia Paddock, Brigham Young Hampton, and the "Stockade" district, with their implications for the fight over polygamy and the struggle for political, social, and economic power in the city. I was hooked, and I made prostitution and polygamy the subject of my study.

      I wish to express my deep appreciation to Edward J. Davies II, Robert A. Goldberg, Rebecca Horn, and James R. Lehning for their careful reading and useful and necessary suggestions and advice. I am especially grateful to my teacher, Dean L. May, who exhibited great patience while gently nudging me in new and better directions. I would like to thank the following scholars and others who assisted me with sources, connections, and advice: Thomas Alexander, Anne Butler, Sharon Carver, Kathleen Dalton, Craig Foster, Joan Iversen, John McCormick, Paula Petrik, D. Michael Quinn, Patricia Scott, John Sillito, and Sam Weller. Thanks also to Clark Secrest for his manuscript and sources, and Lieutenant Steve Diamond of the Salt Lake City Police Department for photographs. I am indebted to the descendants of Susan Free for their generosity and openness.

      A number of archivists and librarians deserve special recognition. Ray Matthews and his colleagues at the Utah State Archives performed countless tasks of search, retrieval, and interpretation. The staff of the Marriott Library's Western History Division, Special Collections, and Manuscript Division were invariably helpful, especially Walter Jones. Rich Richmond of the Salt Lake County Recorder's Office and Doc Kivett at the City Recorder's Office allowed me full access to necessary materials. I would like to thank as well the staffs of the LDS Genealogical Library, the LDS Church History Library, the Utah State Historical Society, the Frances Willard Library, and the Social Welfare History Archives of the University of Minnesota.

      Elizabeth Dulany was a patient and supportive editor throughout the long process of revision. Thanks to my colleagues at Westminster College for their tolerance of a seemingly never-ending process, and to my students for putting up with my many stories and asides about Salt Lake prostitutes. Melissa Coy Ferguson, Berkley Wilson, and Christina Podegracz, my research assistants, contributed greatly to the project; my office assistants, Jason Helme and Erin Helme, kept the rest of my professional life running smoothly. Of course, any errors are my responsibility.

      And finally, thanks to Cheryl, with whom everything is possible.