This book presents edited versions of the personal narratives of 24 Mormon women who taught school in frontier Utah. Drawn primarily from the archives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the accounts detail the women's lives as Mormons, as pioneers, and as teachers and have been edited to focus on the education of women, descriptions of the teachers and their classrooms, and the influence of their lives outside the schoolhouse. Also included are entries that illuminate how the women's personal lives varied from those of other western teachers. A lengthy prologue provides contextual information on the history of Mormonism, the rhetoric and reality of education in Utah in the first decade of settlement (1847-57), hostilities between Mormons and "gentiles" played out on the battleground of education, the education of Mormon women, teacher training and competency exams, typical curriculum and educational practices, teacher salaries, moral standards, women administrators, marriage and polygamy, and feminism in 19th-century Utah. Each narrative includes introductory background on the teacher and explanatory notes on historical and family events. The teachers, whose lifespans ranged from 1802-80 to 1902-59, are Louisa Barnes Pratt, Laura Farnsworth Frampton Owen, Martha Spence Heywood, Elizabeth Terry Heward, Lucy Meserve Smith Smith, Elmina Shepard Taylor, Lucina Mecham Boren, Lucinda Lee Dalton, Louisa Lula Greene Richards, Martha Cragun Cox, Elizabeth Frances Fellows Critchlow, Eunice Stewart Harris, Cynthia Burnham Fisher, Vilate Elliott, Amy Brown Lyman, Alice Louise Reynolds, Maggie Belle Tolman Porter, May Pierson McCraney Joyce, Florence Morgan McDonald, Mary Hulet Coburn, Alice Laura Iverson Gardner, Luella Wareing Cannon, Matilda Woodbury Ruesch, and Reva Stevens Daniels Smoot. The book includes a bibliography and an index. (SV)