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The history of the organization known as the Relief Society in the Latter Day Saint movement began on March 17, 1842, and continues to this day.
In the spring of 1842 Sarah Granger Kimball and her seamstress, Margaret A. Cook, discussed combining their efforts to sew clothing for workers constructing the Latter Day Saints' Nauvoo Temple. They determined to invite their neighbors to assist by creating a Ladies' Society. Kimball asked Eliza R. Snow to write a constitution and by-laws for the organization for submission to President of the Church Joseph Smith for review. After reviewing the documents, Smith called them "the best he had ever seen" but said, "this is not what you want. Tell the sisters their offering is accepted of the Lord, and He has something better for them than a written constitution. ... I will organize the women. .. after a pattern of the priesthood."[1][2]
Twenty Latter Day Saint women gathered on Thursday, March 17, 1842, in the second-story meeting room over Smith's Red Brick Store in Nauvoo to discuss the formation of a Ladies' Society with Smith, John Taylor, and Willard Richards. Smith, Taylor, and Richards sat on the platform at the upper end of the room with the women facing them. "The Spirit of God Like a Fire Is Burning" was sung, and Taylor opened the meeting with prayer. The women present were Emma Hale Smith, Sarah M. Cleveland, Phebe Ann Hawkes, Elizabeth Jones, Sophia Packard, Philinda Merrick, Martha McBride Knight, Desdemona Fulmer, Elizabeth Ann Whitney, Leonora Taylor, Bathsheba W. Smith, Phebe M. Wheeler, Elvira A. Coles (Cowles; later Elivira A. C. Holmes), Margaret A. Cook, Athalia Robinson, Sarah Granger Kimball, Eliza R. Snow, Sophia Robinson, Nancy Rigdon and Sophia R. Marks. The women present were proposed as the initial members and the men withdrew as the motion to accept all present was considered. The motion was passed and the men returned. Then another seven names were proposed by Joseph Smith for admission. They were: Sarah Higbee, Thirza Cahoon, Keziah A. Morrison, Marinda N. Hyde, Abigail Allred, Mary Snider, and Sarah S. Granger. The men again withdrew as the women considered and passed the motion. Smith then proposed the society elect a presiding officer and allow that officer to choose two counselors to aid her. They would be ordained and would preside over the society. In the place of a constitution the presidency would preside and all their decisions should be considered law and acted upon as such. At appropriate times, the body of the society should vote and the majority opinion of the sisters would be honored as law. The minutes of the meetings would serve as an additional guide to their governance. Whitney motioned and it was seconded that Emma Smith be chosen president and this passed unanimously. Emma Smith then chose her two counselors, Cleveland and Whitney. At that time Taylor, who had been presiding over the meeting, vacated that honor to Smith and her counselors. The men then again withdrew as Smith chose a secretary and treasurer. The three members of the Presidency were then ordained and blessed by Taylor.[3]
Smith stated "the object of the Society—that the Society of Sisters might provoke the brethren to good works in looking to the wants of the poor—searching after objects of charity, and in administering to their wants—to assist; by correcting the morals and strengthening the virtues of the female community, and save the Elders the trouble of rebuking; that they may give their time to other duties, &c., in their public teaching."[4]
It was proposed that the organization go by the name "Benevolent Society" and with no opposition the vote carried. However, Emma Smith made a point of objection. She convinced the attendees that the term "relief" would better reflect the purpose of the organization, for they were "going to do something extraordinary," distinct from the popular benevolent institutions of the day.[5] After discussion, it was unanimously agreed that the fledgling organization be named "The Female Relief Society of Nauvoo". Joseph Smith then offered five dollars (worth $158 today) in gold to commence the funds of the Society. After the men left the room, Eliza R. Snow was unanimously elected as secretary of the Society with Phebe M. Wheeler as Assistant Secretary and Elvira A. Coles as Treasurer. Emma Smith remarked that "each member should be ambitious to do good" and seek out and relieve the distressed.[6] Several female members then made donations to the Society. The men returned, and Taylor and Richards also made donations. After singing "Come Let Us Rejoice," the meeting was adjourned to meet on the following Thursday at 10 o'clock. Taylor then gave a closing prayer. Of his experience Joseph Smith recorded: "I attended by request, the Female Relief Society, whose object is the relief of the poor, the destitute, the widow and the orphan, and for the exercise of all benevolent purposes. ... [W]e feel convinced that with their concentrated efforts, the condition of the suffering poor, of the stranger and the fatherless will be ameliorated".[7]
The new organization was popular and grew so rapidly that finding a meeting place for such a large group proved difficult. Under Emma Smith's direction, the Society was "divided for the purpose of meeting" according to each of the city's four municipal wards.[8] Smith and her counselors continued to preside over the groups. Visiting committees were appointed to determine needs in each ward. Young mother Sarah Pea Rich, wife of Charles C. Rich, recalled, "We then, as a people were united and were more like family than like strangers."[9] By March 1844, membership totaled 1331 women.[10]
The last recorded meeting of the Relief Society in Nauvoo was held on March 16, 1844.[11] Smith had often used the Relief Society as a pulpit to express her opposition to plural marriage.[12][13] However, several of the society's members and leaders were themselves secretly in plural marriages, including to Smith's own husband,[13][14] who himself counseled the society against exposing iniquity.[15] These inner conflicts led Joseph Smith to suspend all meetings of the organization.[14][16] After the death of Joseph Smith in June 1844, Brigham Young assumed leadership of the majority of Latter Day Saints. Desiring to continue plural marriage, Young disbanded the Relief Society before leaving Nauvoo for the Salt Lake Valley.[17][18]
Penny Subscription Drive and Boston Female Penny and Sewing Society
In 1843 Mercy Fielding Thompson and Mary Fielding Smith led women in a penny subscription drive to raise money for nails and glass for the construction of the Nauvoo Temple.[19] According to Mercy Fielding Thompson she had a spiritual inspiration to get women to donate one penny a week. However, Hyrum Smith said in 1844 that "No member of the Female Relief Society got it up; I am the man that did it; they ought not to infringe upon it; I am not a member of the Female Relief Society; I am on of the committee of the Lord's House."[19]: 163 Regardless of origin, the drive was carried out by Relief Society members, sanctioned by church leaders, and an article of the Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star encouraged latter day saint women in England to become involved [19] The subscription drive lasted until the 1845 completion of the Nauvoo temple.[19] The women raised about two thousand dollars from women throughout the United States and England.[19]
In response to the penny subscription drive, church members in Boston organized the Boston Latter day Saint's Sewing and Penny Society on July 16, 1844, writing "The ladies of the Boston branch are determined not to be behind hand in assisting the rolling on of the cause of Christ."[19]: 163 The name later changed to the Boston Female Penny and Sewing Society.[19] Members were expected to donate one penny a week, and meet together once a month to sew.[19] A similar organization in Lowell, Massachusetts formed with an additional intent to make clothing for travelling Elders.[19] Derr et. al writes, "...these societies did not act as official branches of the Nauvoo Female Relief Society. Nevertheless, with their similar goals and strategies, they may have functioned like satellite Relief Societies in purpose."[19]: 163
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When Relief Society secretary Eliza R. Snow joined the Latter Day Saints in their exodus west in 1846, she carried the Relief Society Book of Records with her. Although they no longer met in an official capacity, women continued to assemble informally; the care and nurture of the needy continued without a formal Relief Society organization.[20]
As Saints established homes in the Salt Lake Valley and surrounding settlements, formal meetings for women gradually emerged. A Female Council of Health was established in 1851.[21]
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On January 24, 1854, in response to Brigham Young's call to Saints to assist neighboring Native Americans, women from several Salt Lake City wards decided to organize "a society of females for the purpose of making clothing for Indian women and children."[22] Two weeks later, on February 9, 1854, they formally organized an association remembered as the "Indian Relief Society." Matilda Dudley was elected president and treasurer, Mary Hawkins and Mary Bird as counselors, Louisa R. Taylor as secretary, and Amanda Barnes Smith as assistant secretary. Twelve other women were listed as charter members.[23] Though the Latter-day Saint women were poor in material goods, they felt the need of Native Americans exceeded their own. Over the next four months, their efforts to clothe Indian women and children continued in earnest. In June 1854, Brigham Young encouraged women to form societies in their individual wards. Members of the first Indian Relief Society disbanded to help establish organizations in their own wards, many of them becoming leaders. Matilda Dudley, for example, became president of the Thirteenth Ward Relief Society with Augusta Cobb and Sarah A. Cook as her counselors and Martha Jane Coray as secretary. Records are limited but show that by 1858 over two dozen organizations had formed in some twelve Salt Lake City wards and in other outlying settlements such as Ogden, Provo, Spanish Fork, and Manti, Utah.
Each Relief Society operated independently within its ward in cooperation with the local bishop. Ward societies were not interconnected by central women's leadership, though many of them engaged in similar activities such as sewing clothing for Indians, caring for the poor, especially emigrants, and weaving carpets for local meetinghouses.[24]
In 2004, historian Carol Holindrake Nielson documented the organization, activities and membership of the Salt Lake City Fourteenth Ward Relief Society. The Fourteenth Ward included Temple Square and eleven residential squares to the south and west. This section contained the homes of many church leaders. Among others, the ward Relief Society roll included the names of Leonora Taylor and Jane B. Taylor, wives of John Taylor; Elizabeth B. Pratt, Kezia D. Pratt and Phoebe Soper Pratt, wives of Parley P. Pratt; and Phebe W. Woodruff, Emma Woodruff, Sarah Woodruff, Sarah Delight Woodruff, Phebe A. Woodruff, Susan C. Woodruff, Bulah Woodruff, wives and daughters of Wilford Woodruff.[25]
Interrupted by the 1858 Utah War, no more than three or four of these independent ward organizations survived the temporary move of much of the Latter-day Saint population south of Salt Lake County.[26]
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In December 1867 church president Brigham Young publicly called for the reorganization of Relief Society in every ward. Eliza R. Snow provided a historical account of the society and described its purpose to seek "not only for the relief of the poor, but the accomplishment of every good and noble work."[27] Young again addressed the need to establish local Relief Society units at the church's 1868 April general conference, stating: "Now, Bishops, you have smart women for wives, many of you. Let them organize Female Relief Societies in the various wards. We have many talented women among us .... You will find that the sisters will be the mainspring of the movement."[28] Snow was assigned to assist local bishops in organizing permanent branches of the Relief Society. Using the minutes recorded in the early Nauvoo meetings as a Constitution, Snow created a standard model for all local wards that united women in purpose and provided a permanent name and structure to their organization. She and nine other sisters began visiting wards and settlements in 1868, and at the end of the year, organizations existed in all twenty Salt Lake City congregations and in congregations in nearly every county in Utah.
Ward units of the Relief Society performed a variety of functions. Women helped the bishop of the ward assist the poor by collecting and disbursing funds and commodities. They nursed the sick, cleaned homes, sewed carpet rags for local meeting houses, planted and tended gardens, promoted home industry, and shared doctrinal instruction and testimony.
Snow provided central leadership both before and after her call as General President in 1880. She emphasized spirituality and self-sufficiency. The Relief Society sent women to medical school, trained nurses, opened the Deseret Hospital, operated cooperative stores, promoted silk manufacture, saved wheat, and built granaries. In 1872, Snow provided assistance and advice to Louisa L. Greene in the creation of a woman's publication, the Woman's Exponent, which was loosely affiliated with the Relief Society. Emmeline B. Wells succeeded Greene and continued as editor until its final issue in 1914.
Under Snow's direction, Relief Society sisters nurtured young women and children. Heeding Brigham Young's 1869 call to reform, Snow, Mary Isabella Horne, and others established the Ladies' Cooperative Retrenchment Association from which the Young Ladies' Department of the Ladies' Cooperative Retrenchment was formed (later called the Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Association and now the Young Women). Snow also worked with Aurelia Spencer Rogers to establish the first ward Primary Association in 1878. By 1888, the Relief Society had more than 22,000 members in 400 local wards and branches.[29]
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Brigham Young called upon Emmeline B. Wells to begin a program to store grain.[30] Under her direction, women grew, harvested, stored, and sold grain. Income from this program funded various humanitarian projects for decades. In 1978 the Church's Welfare Services program took official control over the assets of the grain storage program.[30]
In 1891, the Relief Society became a charter member of the National Council of Women of the United States and it was called the National Women's Relief Society.[31]: 114
Early Relief Society meetings were generally held semi-monthly. One meeting per month was devoted to sewing and caring for the needs of the poor. At meetings members might receive instruction, discuss elevating and educational topics, and bear testimony. The women were also encouraged to explore and develop cultural opportunities for their community.
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Stakes began circulating outlines for lessons in 1902. The first standardized lessons were published by the General Board in 1914 in the Relief Society Bulletin, later renamed the Relief Society Magazine in 1915. These lessons included information on genealogy, literature, home economics, theology, and social work. Throughout this era the Relief Society trained women in first aid, social work, food preservation, public health, maternity and infant health, nutrition, hygiene and vaccination, and charity work.[32]
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By 1942, membership in the organization was approximately 115,000 women,[33] growing to 300,000 members in 1966.[34]
In June 1945, the General Board changed the organization's official name to "Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints".[31]
The church-wide implementation of Priesthood Correlation in the 1960s "radically transformed" the Relief Society.[35] These changes assisted in preparing the Relief Society for an era of a worldwide church; correlated lessons and materials were easier to translate and applicable to a broader audience. A side-effect of these changes was that the Relief Society lost much of the autonomy that it once enjoyed, notably around its budget.
The Relief Society Magazine's last edition was December 1970, after which it and several other church magazines were replaced with the Ensign.
In April 2005, the Relief Society received the American Red Cross "Heroes 2004 Award" for its service in the Greater Salt Lake area.[36] In 2010, Catholic Community Services honored Julie Beck, the general president of the Relief Society, where she was named Community Partner.[37]
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