Edward Wheelock Tullidge (September 30, 1829 – May 21, 1894) was a literary critic, newspaper editor, playwright, and historian of the Utah Territory, US. He was a member and leader in several different denominations of the Latter Day Saint Movement, including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), the New (Godbeite) Movement movement, and the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS Church). He played a significant role in the creation of the Salt Lake Tribune newspaper.
Towards his death, Tullidge was respected even within the LDS Church community for his fair portrayals in his histories. He was a strong advocate for women's suffrage. Historian Claudia Bushman wrote that Tullidge "stood alone as a Mormon feminist historian before the revitalization of the women's movement in the 1970s."
Biography
Early life in England
Tullidge was born at Weymouth, Dorset, England as Edward William Tullidge. He was born into a middle class Methodist home, and apprenticed as a coach builder and painter. His father was John E. Tullidge, who became a noted early musician in the state of Utah.
At the age of 17 he became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He spent twelve years doing missionary work for the church in Great Britain, mending shoes for money, and writing articles for the Millennial Star. Among those who he walked to church with at this time was the later Latter-day Saint poet Emily Hill Woodmansee. In 1852, Tullidge briefly renounced his beliefs in Mormonism and joined a deist society, even requesting his name be removed from Church records, but soon returned to Mormonism.
In 1856, the President of the mission, Franklin D. Richards, took note of Tullidge's articles and called him from proselytizing to work in the Liverpool editorial office of the Millennial Star under the incoming president, Orson Pratt. While in Liverpool, he felt a calling to move to Utah and write a biography of Joseph Smith.
Emigration to Utah
Tullidge emigrated to Utah Territory in 1861. He approached Brigham Young enthusiastically with ideas for improving the literary quality of Utah but was disappointingly met with little encouragement or response. He approached Wilford Woodruff and George A. Smith and received permission to use their journals for his planned biography of Smith. Tullidge had been impressed with a story he heard from Orson Hyde, telling of heavenly voices accompanying the appointment of Brigham Young to the first presidency of the LDS Church. He was troubled by the lack of evidence in the journals for this event and after discussion with Woodruff, became convinced this claim was false.
On November 15, 1862, he was called as a president of the sixty-fifth Quorum of the Seventy.
In October 1864, he began publishing a literary magazine with his friend Elias L. T. Harrison called Peep O'Day, the first to be published west of the Missouri. A purpose of the magazine was to push the church away from perceived theocracy, and create a new culture led by the example of Mormonism. Editorials by Tullidge were criticized by Brigham Young, increasing Tullidge's disgruntlement with what he felt was Young's autocratic style. In a time when animosity between Mormons and non-Mormons was increasing, the magazine advocating for unity was not popular and did not last for a full year, publishing just five issues.
The failure of his magazine and pressure to produce sent him into a depression and heavy drinking, that in the words of Tullidge, "nearly sent me to the grave". He was living with Wilford Woodruff at the time, and received several healing blessings from Woodruff. Upon what he felt was a miraculous recovery from an illness in 1866, he went east, and wrote for a New York Magazine called the Galaxy for the next two years. His articles were frequently about Mormonism, portraying them in a positive light and attempting to bridge the cultural divide between Mormons and the rest of the United States. Orson Pratt visited him on his way back from his English mission. In 1867, Tullidge embarked on a four-month mission to several eastern cities.
On his 1868 journey back to the territory of Utah, he stopped on the way to visit Emma Smith, the widow of Joseph Smith. He came away convinced she was in error, but also sympathetic, promising himself that he would never write about her disrespectfully.