Analysis of the fertility histories of women born between 1850 and 1900, as given in the Utah Population Database ( updb ), reveals the effect of the number, as well as the sex composition, of previous children on birth-stopping and birth-spacing decisions. Specifically, agricultural and Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ( lds ) households—two sub-populations that might have placed different values on male and female children for economic, social, and/or cultural reasons—showed a distinct preference for male children, as expressed by birth stopping after the birth of a male child and shorter birth intervals in higher-parity births when most previous children were female. Remarkably, women in both the early “natural fertility” and the later contraceptive eras used spacing behavior to achieve a desired sex mix. Although the lds population had relatively high fertility rates, it had the same preferences for male children as the non- lds population did. Farmers, who presumably had a need for family labor, were more interested in the quantity than in the sex mix of their children.