Indianna Mary Maybert

Ina Maybert was caught in war of words between Mormons, gentiles

By Ardis E. Parshall

The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated: 10/02/2009 09:51:37 PM MDT

In November 1881, The Butte Daily Miner reported, "At five o'clock yesterday afternoon, a young woman in this city died from an overdose of morphine." Who, upon reading that notice, could guess the history of the 18-year-old prostitute who called herself Inez Maybert and ultimately took her own life?

Indianna Mary Maybert -- "Ina" in childhood, and "Inez" when she joined the demi-monde -- was born in Calcutta, India, to an English military family. Her mother died when she was an infant, and Ina was taken in by Emily McMahon, her grandmother. Emily had been a Mormon convert for 11 years when she brought 2-year-old Ina to Utah in 1865, where Emily died soon afterward. The orphaned toddler was adopted by Lucy Bigelow Young, a wife of Brigham Young, and raised with Lucy's daughters, first in Salt Lake City and later in St. George.

Ina didn't adjust well to the quieter life in southern Utah. She wanted to go back to the city, or perhaps even farther. In February 1879, when she was not quite 16 years old, Ina wrote a letter to her father. The letter was delivered to an uncle in Calcutta, who appealed to a Protestant minister for help. The men wrote to Ina, telling her that her father had gone with the army to Burma and had lost touch with his family. They assured her that her extended family would bring her back to India if she wished.

The minister in Calcutta wrote to Thomas C. Iliff, Methodist minister at Salt Lake City, appealing for his help.

So, when Iliff made his next tour of the territory, he called on Ina, only to learn she had left her home with the Young family and had found employment of some sort in the mining camp at Silver Reef.

Ina welcomed the minister, showing him the letter from her uncle and chatting freely about the glamorous life she would have when she returned to India. Without consulting Mrs. Young, Iliff brought Ina back to Salt Lake City to stay with his family.

Ina was pleased to be back in the city, and enjoyed the small notoriety she gained in the Gentile community as having been "rescued from the Mormons." But in the spring of 1880 when Iliff's wife went East for an extended visit, the family decided Ina should not stay in the house alone with the minister. Iliff recommended that Ina stay with her foster sister, Dora Young, but apparently he took no responsibility for assuring that Ina was safely housed.

On July 5, when one faction of Utah's fractured social community sponsored a parade through downtown streets in honor of Independence Day, "sandwiched in between the carriages of Federal officials and some prominent citizens of Salt Lake, was an open barouche, containing several notorious members of the demi-monde, in broad display." Riding with the "public women" was 17-year-old Ina -- newly christened "Inez" -- who had found a home for herself in one of the city's brothels.

Then followed several months with Ina as the subject of a war of words: The gentile press blamed Ina's downfall on her upbringing in a polygamous household; the Mormon press blamed the interference of Protestant ministers. Except for the Youngs, who urged Ina to return to her foster family and home, nobody seems to have remembered that she was still just a young girl in need of help. To everyone else, she was a political symbol, a club to be wielded by each side against the other.

Her family in India never did send the means for Ina to rejoin them. Sometime late in 1880 or early in 1881, Ina left Salt Lake City for the mining community of Butte, Mont. In November, unable or unwilling to either go home or go on as she had started, Ina took her life.

Everyone deserves to be remembered for who she was, not just for the way she died.

Ardis E. Parshall (AEParshall@aol.com) is a Utah historian who welcomes feedback from readers.

Born 06 May 1863 in Calcutta, West Bengal, India to James Gorden Maybert and Agnes Leslie McMahon.

1870 United States Federal Census, Census & Voter Lists

Name: Ina Mabert

Birth: Abt 1863

Residence: 1870 - Salt Lake, Utah Territory

Some brief Pioneer details from LDS.org.

Please see also Tracing Emily, on the Author's blog.