Introduction 1915
Although no EBW diary is extant for 1915, the minutes of the Relief Society general board describe topics and events that engaged EBW’s attention this year. On 7 January, when the board was asked to set a regular day for holding ward meetings throughout the church, EBW suggested Tuesdays. That recommendation was approved by the group and remained standard for decades. On 14 January, as a gift from board member Elizabeth McCune, copies of a photograph of the presidency and board were made available to them all. (See “Relief Society General Presidency and Board, 1914,” “Images,” The Diaries of Emmeline B. Wells.) On 4 February, EBW explained that the Presiding Bishopric was now overseeing the storage and distribution of wheat. She held a receipt for the Relief Society’s share. On 25 March, when board members appointed Susa Young Gates to be the historian of the society, EBW reminded them that she herself had recently prepared a brief history of the Relief Society for Appletons’ Encyclopedia and that a detailed history of women’s work was contained in her volumes of the Woman’s Exponent. Nonetheless, Susa Gates began writing a history of the Relief Society and read chapters to the group beginning in 1916. EBW delivered opening and closing remarks at Relief Society general conferences in April and October 1915. In the 19 November board meeting, her daughter Annie Wells Cannon announced that a second edition of EBW’s poetry volume, Musings and Memories, would be printed. Annie proposed that Relief Society board members sign on as the first subscribers, to which they agreed.
The highlight of the summer of 1915 for EBW was attending the International Genealogical Congress in connection with the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. EBW traveled on the excursion train from Utah with many others. Memorable events for the group included a Utah Day, 24 July; an evening reception and program hosted by the Genealogical Society of Utah and the National Woman’s Relief Society, 26 July; and a Utah Genealogical Day, 27 July. Fair officials awarded two medals to Utah leaders, one to President Anthon H. Lund on behalf of the Genealogical Society of Utah, and the second to EBW as president of the National Woman’s Relief Society. Both honorees responded “with appropriate remarks.” In the days following the Congress, the Utah excursion train traveled south toward Los Angeles and San Diego. When the visitors stopped along the way to see a grove of sequoias, they learned that one of the “Big Trees” could be named for a famous person in their party. Group members united in requesting the tree to be named for EBW. EBW appears on the front row of a photograph of “Officials of the Genealogical Society of Utah” that was published in the Relief Society Magazine in September along with a descriptive article.