University of Michigan for her MD, Maggie was taking her turn to become a doctor as well. Hughes started at the University of Michigan in the autumn of 1878. With limited funds, she spent her first year working in the student dormitories. During Hughes' second year she worked as a secretary for another student, Bethenia Owens-Adair. She graduated July 1, 1880, on her 23rd birthday. She briefly practiced medicine in Algonac, Michigan. In 1881, she moved to Philadelphia to take post-graduate courses at the Auxiliary Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania. Hughes was the only women out of 75 students. Additionally, Hughes took night classes to learn more about pharmaceuticals and enrolled at the National School of Elocution and Oratory. In 1882, she earned a Bachelors of Science from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor's degree in Oratory (B.O.) at the National School of Elocution and Oratory. At 25 Martha Hughes had earned four degrees. Hughes returned to Salt Lake City, Utah and opened a private practice in a new wing of her old home built by her step-father. Soon after, she was called by LDS Church leaders to become the resident physician for the newly founded Deseret Hospital in 1882. As the Deseret Hospital's paid physician, Hughes set up training classes for nurses and lectures on obstetrics. Plural marriage and exile While working at the Deseret Hospital, Martha met a Mormon polygamist, Angus Munn Cannon, who was the superintendent of the new hospital and a local official of the LDS Church. Mormon polygamy was a hot topic in Utah Territory. To the Mormons polygamy was sacred but to the rest of the United States it was offensive. In 1882 the Edmunds Act was passed by Congress making polygamy a felony punishable by a $500 fine and five years in prison. When Martha married in the Mormon temple to Angus on October 6, 1884, becoming the fourth of his six plural wives, the marriage was kept secret as it was a religious ceremony rather than a legally binding contract. Martha Cannon's mother knew nothing of the ceremony. Still, rumors of her marriage to Angus brought pressure to the Deseret Hospital. Martha Hughes Cannon was called to testify before the court, but Cannon eluded federal officers. Angus was also called to testify and after a court hearing, was sent to jail. Cannon joined the Mormon "underground" seeking to avoid