Miss Eliza R. Snow was chosen Chairman, Mrs. E. [Emmeline] B. Wells Secretary, and Miss Amy Adams Assistant Secretary.

[. . .]

The Chairman explained to the Sisters why this special meeting had been called. First to transact business pertaining to the Relief Society, and Secondly to discuss Woman’s Suffrage, the subject of petitions to the Forty-fifth Congress, etc. Miss Snow stated that President [Brigham] Young had inaugurated a movement previous to his death, which she considered proper to carry out. At a special meeting of the ladies of Weber Co. President Young had appointed Mrs Jane S. Richards to preside over the various branches of the Relief Society in that Stake of Zion, and had appointed a meeting to be convened three months from that time, at which he requested they should bring a written report from each society in the county, of their progress and finance from their first organization. Miss Snow then said pursuant to this example it is the intention to day to appoint a bo[a]rd of officers to pr[e]side in this Stake of Zion over the various branches of the Relief Societys in this County, and to hold quarterly meetings in this City, when reports will be read from each district or branch of Relief Society in this Stake, After making these and other more definite explanations, the Chairman nominated Mrs Mary I. [Isabella Hales] Horne President of the Relief Society of Salt Lake Stake of Zion; the vote was unanimous, Mrs Elmina S. Taylor and Mrs Sarepta [Serepta] Heywood were chosen as her Counselors, and sustained by the vote of the assembly.

Mrs Elizabeth Howard was appointed Secretary, and Mrs Maria Wilcox Corresponding Secretary, also sustained unanimously. The first Quarterly Meeting of the various branches of Relief Societies of Salt Lake Stake will be held in the Fourteenth Ward Assembly Rooms, Saturday March 23d, 1878 at 2 o’clock p.m. At this [p. 1] meeting it is expected a full report will be given of the progress and financial condition of each respective society by the secretaries of the same. After the first report, quarterly reports will be given evry three months that all appropriations, disbursment and matters of importance may be generally known. There is no doubt but this movement will be of great practical benefit to those who labor in these organizations, as well as of special interest to all who are working for the elevation of mankind and the progress of the Latter day work. Miss Snow said during her remarks to the sisters, that should the sisters wish any aid in making out their first she could probably help them to references as she had by her, reports from the different branches of the Relief Society, furnished her in making up a full report for the Woman’s Department of the Centennial Exposition. After the first business had been dispatched, the Chairman stated that the women of this Territory had been solicited by the National Suffrage Association, at Washington, D.C., to aid them in obtaining signatures for the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which amendment is designed to prohibit the several states and territories from disfranchising United States citizens on account of sex; otherwise to permit women to enjoy the rights and privileges of citizenship which is now denied them with two exceptions Utah and Wyoming. Miss Snow dwelt eloquently upon the heroism of the lidies [ladies] engaged in this movement in the East, and the sisterly feeling they had manifested for the women of Utah two years ago; and further that at the present time, a bill was before the House of Congress waiting to be acted upon, which was designed to deprive this people of the privilige they now enjoy. She entreated those who had not yet become citizens to do so without delay. [. . .] [p. 2] [. . .] The Chairman then arose and made some suggestive remarks and the meeting was resolved into an Indignation Meeting the purport of it being to get an express of the feelings of the sisters on the petition for Universal Suffrage and the Bill now before the House, in which it is proposed to repeal Woman’s Suffrage in Utah and disfranchise the Mormons wholesale. [. . .] [p. 3]