Emmeline Blanche Woodward was born in Petersham, Franklin County, Massachusetts, to David and Diadama Hare Woodward. She was their seventh child.

Emmeline’s father, David Woodward, was killed in a wagon accident.

Emmeline’s mother, Diadama H. Woodward, married Samuel Clark Jr. Around this time, the family moved about ten miles to North New Salem, Massachusetts.

Emmeline attended the New Salem Academy, a private boarding school, and earned a qualification to teach.

At the urging of her mother, fourteen-year-old Emmeline was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Emmeline passed the district examination and took a teaching post in the nearby town of Orange, Massachusetts.

Emmeline B. Woodward married James Harvey Harris in Vernon, Vermont; both were fifteen years old. The marriage was arranged by her mother so that Emmeline could travel with the Harris family to Nauvoo, Illinois.

Emmeline departed from Massachusetts for Nauvoo with her husband, James Harris, and his family. They arrived in Buffalo, New York, nine days later.

Joseph Smith met arriving steamboat passengers, including the Harris group, at the landing in Nauvoo. In later years, Emmeline repeatedly bore witness of the electrifying experience of first meeting a prophet of God.

A son, Eugene Henri Harris, was born to Emmeline and James Harris in Nauvoo.

Eugene Henri Harris, the infant son of Emmeline and James Harris, died of an illness.

James Harris left Emmeline in order to seek work in St. Louis. In the weeks thereafter, he sent letters requesting her to join his parents in La Harpe, Illinois, but she decided to stay with the Saints in Nauvoo. James never returned.

Emmeline moved in with Olive Bishop, a cousin of Elizabeth Ann Smith Whitney. Emmeline soon began teaching the children of Elizabeth Ann and her husband, Newel K. Whitney.

Emmeline received a patriarchal blessing from patriarch John Smith.

With Brigham Young as officiator, Emmeline B. Woodward Harris married Newel K. Whitney as a plural wife.

Emmeline learned that James Harris had gone to sea and would be away for three years. She recorded in her diary her hope for his return.

Emmeline’s mother, Diadama H. Woodward Clark, arrived in Nauvoo with three of Emmeline’s siblings.

Newel K. Whitney was sealed in the Nauvoo Temple to eight wives, including Emmeline B. Woodward Harris.

Emmeline crossed the Mississippi River from Nauvoo into Iowa Territory; she traveled with the Whitney family as part of the Heber C. Kimball company.

Emmeline’s mother and three of Emmeline’s siblings left Nauvoo with other poor Saints, headed west.

Emmeline’s mother died of an illness and was buried in Iowa Territory; the three children with her joined Emmeline and other families for the remainder of the journey.

Emmeline arrived in the Salt Lake Valley with the Heber C. Kimball company.

A daughter, Isabel (Belle) Modalena Whitney, was born to Emmeline and Newel K. Whitney. The new mother was living at that time in a wagon, parked on the northeast corner of Main Street and South Temple Street.

A second daughter, Melvina (Mell) Caroline Blanche Whitney, was born to Emmeline and Newel K. Whitney, in the Whitney home on North Temple Street.

Emmeline’s husband, Newel K. Whitney, died unexpectedly at age fifty-five in Salt Lake City. Thereafter, Emmeline moved herself and her two daughters in with Olive Bishop. She also opened a school in the Twelfth Ward.

Emmeline wrote Daniel Hanmer Wells, a prominent Latter-day Saint who practiced plural marriage, a letter subtly promoting their compatibility and suggesting marriage.

Emmeline B. Woodward Harris Whitney (hereinafter EBW) and Daniel H. Wells were married by Brigham Young. She was Daniel’s sixth plural wife. At some point she moved into the Wells home on South Temple Street.

A daughter, Emeline (also known as Emmeline, Emma, and Emmie) Whitney Wells, was born to EBW and Daniel H. Wells.

EBW and her daughters moved into a new two-story home at 243 South First East (or State Street).

With three of Daniel’s other families, EBW and her daughters moved south to Provo, Utah Territory, for a few months to resist invasion by the federal army during the Utah War. She taught school in a tent next to the home where she was living.

EBW learned that her first husband, James H. Harris, had died at sea somewhere near Bombay, India.

A daughter, Elizabeth Ann (Annie) Wells, was born to EBW and Daniel H. Wells.

Daniel H. Wells moved his other families into a two-story home on the corner of Main Street and South Temple Street. Thereafter the home was called the “Wells Mansion” or “big house.”

A daughter, Louisa (Louie) Martha Wells, was born to EBW and Daniel H. Wells; this was EBW’s last child.

EBW’s daughter Melvina Whitney married William Dunford. They eventually had three children. The couple divorced in 1872.

Brigham Young appointed Eliza R. Snow to help revitalize the dormant Relief Societies.

EBW’s daughter Isabel Whitney married Septimus Wagstaff Sears as a plural wife. They eventually had eight children.

Thousands of Latter-day Saint women met in a “Great Indignation Meeting” in Salt Lake City to protest federal antipolygamy legislation.

Mary Isabella Hales Horne, president of the Salt Lake City Fourteenth Ward Relief Society, convened the first retrenchment meeting, in response to Brigham Young’s request that she lead Latter-day Saint women in simplifying meal preparation and apparel.

Stephen A. Mann, acting governor of Utah Territory, signed a bill giving women in the territory the right to vote. Women first exercised that right at the next municipal election, held two days later.

EBW was called as assistant secretary of the Salt Lake City Thirteenth Ward Relief Society. She served in that capacity for nearly twenty years.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony lectured in Utah and met with Latter-day Saint women.

The first issue of the Woman’s Exponent appeared under the editorship of Louisa Lula Greene. EBW soon began submitting articles to the newspaper under the pseudonym Blanche Beechwood.

The Wasatch Literary Association, a group for young single adults with literary interests, was organized in EBW’s parlor.

EBW’s daughter Melvina Whitney Dunford married William (Will) Woods, an attorney and a nephew of Daniel H. Wells. The couple eventually had two children.

EBW first led her ward Relief Society visiting teachers’ meeting.

Eliza R. Snow asked for EBW’s help planning a women’s exhibition scheduled for July 1876 to celebrate the centennial of the American Revolution.

First issue of the Woman’s Exponent published that listed EBW as associate editor; EBW also became a regular columnist for the newspaper at this time.

EBW, chair of the Central Grain Committee, held its first official meeting. At Brigham Young’s request, EBW had earlier published two editorials encouraging local Relief Societies to begin storing grain.

In Weber Stake, Ogden, Utah Territory, Brigham Young organized the first stake-level Relief Society.

First issue of the Woman’s Exponent published that listed EBW as editor.

As part of a national petition drive, EBW gathered nearly seven thousand signatures in Utah Territory in favor of a women’s suffrage amendment to the United States Constitution.

EBW was appointed to the advisory board of the National Woman Suffrage Association and began corresponding with national leaders.

EBW’s daughter Emeline died of an illness.

After a Relief Society conference in Farmington, Utah Territory, Eliza R. Snow and EBW met with Aurelia Spencer Rogers. Rogers introduced the idea of an organization for young boys, which Snow took to President John Taylor for approval.

At a meeting of the People’s Party, EBW was selected as one of four women delegates to the county convention. This began her entry into local politics.

Zina D. H. Young, Mary Isabella Horne, and EBW led a mass meeting in the Salt Lake Theatre to protest the “misrepresentation and falsehood” being circulated as part of a growing antipolygamy movement.

EBW and Zina Young Williams departed by train to attend the annual convention of the National Woman Suffrage Association in Washington, DC.

Along with two other women, EBW and Zina Williams presented resolutions to President Rutherford B. Hayes, including one supporting women’s suffrage in Utah Territory. EBW and Williams also encouraged the president not to support federal antipolygamy measures.

EBW’s husband, Daniel H. Wells, was arrested for contempt of court for refusing to testify in a polygamy case and imprisoned for two days. EBW chronicled his triumphal return from prison in the Woman’s Exponent.

EBW’s daughter Elizabeth Ann Wells married John Q. Cannon. They eventually had twelve children.

In a conference of the Salt Lake Stake Relief Society, Eliza R. Snow was sustained as general president of the Relief Society. EBW was later appointed assistant secretary to general secretary Sarah M. Kimball. EBW traveled to outlying stakes with Snow over the next few years.

Elizabeth Ann Whitney, a sister-wife to EBW (both had been married to Newel K. Whitney), died in Salt Lake City. She was buried two days later.

The passage of the Edmunds Act denied voting rights to women involved in plural marriage in Utah.

EBW served with two other women, Sarah M. Kimball and Elizabeth Howard, on the state constitutional committee.

The Deseret Hospital, an institution established by the Relief Society, opened its doors in Salt Lake City. EBW served as secretary to the hospital association. 

Daughters Belle and Louie went east to visit Wells, Woodward, and Dickinson family members. Louie sent travelogue-type letters back home.

Daniel H. Wells was named president of the European Mission. His wife Louisa Free Wells later joined him there.

EBW departed to visit her family in Massachusetts for the first time since she had left them at age sixteen.

In Washington, DC, EBW met with Rose Cleveland, sister of President Grover Cleveland, in an effort to counter the restrictions the impending Edmunds-Tucker Act would place on Latter-day Saint women.

On her return trip to Utah, EBW visited Kirtland, Ohio, and Nauvoo, Illinois.

EBW returned to Washington, DC, at the request of President John Taylor and, along with Dr. Ellen Ferguson, met with President Cleveland to present a memorial pleading for the rights of Utah women.

A few months after returning home ill from Europe to Utah, Louisa Free Wells died, the first of Daniel H. Wells’s wives to die.

In a Sunday meeting in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, John Q. Cannon confessed a sin of immorality, later revealed to be an affair between himself and Louie Wells, and was excommunicated from the church.

John Q. Cannon divorced Annie Wells Cannon and, on 10 September, the day after the divorce was finalized, married Louisa Wells.

EBW and her daughters were subpoenaed as witnesses in a polygamy case against John Q. Cannon.

EBW, along with other members of the family, testified at a hearing in John Q. Cannon’s case. He was released on bail to await trial.

John Q. Cannon was indicted on the charge of polygamy. EBW and other family members again testified, this time before the grand jury.

After John Q. Cannon’s indictment, Louisa Wells Cannon decided to go to San Francisco to stay with her sister Belle Whitney Sears. 

The Edmunds-Tucker Act became law, taking away the vote from all Utah women and permitting the confiscation of church properties.

After suffering from renal failure, which caused swelling in her legs, feet, and abdomen, Louisa Wells Cannon gave birth to a stillborn son.

EBW joined the family of Belle Whitney Sears in San Francisco to help care for Louisa Wells Cannon.

EBW’s daughter Louisa died of an illness or chronic condition.

John Q. Cannon and EBW accompanied Louie’s body back to Salt Lake City, where her funeral was held 21 May at the Cannon farm.

Church president John Taylor died.

An encounter on the street between daughter Melvina Whitney Woods and stake president Angus M. Cannon over his words at Louie’s funeral stirred contention between the Wells and Cannon families.

Eliza R. Snow, general president of the Relief Society, died.

EBW contributed five hymn or song texts to Hymns and Sacred Songs, Designed for the Use of the Children of the Latter-day Saints, published in 1888.

The National Council of Women, formed at the celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the Seneca Falls, New York, women’s rights convention, appointed EBW a member of its press committee.

Daniel H. Wells, under financial duress, sold EBW’s home in Salt Lake City. She moved into the earlier Wells residence, the old adobe house on South Temple Street, as a combination home and office.

Zina D. H. Young was sustained in general conference as Relief Society general president. She later asked EBW to serve on the central board as corresponding secretary.

John Q. Cannon was rebaptized by his father on 6 May. A few days later, he also had his priesthood authority restored.

Daniel H. Wells performed the remarriage of John Q. Cannon and Elizabeth Ann Wells Cannon in the Endowment House. A civil ceremony followed, conducted by Judge Elias Smith.

President Wilford Woodruff dedicated the Manti Temple in a private ceremony held 17 May 1888 and set apart Daniel H. Wells as temple president on 18 May. EBW and other family members attended the first public dedication on 21 May.

John Q. and Annie Cannon moved to Ogden, where John Q. edited the Ogden Standard.

EBW served as proxy in the sealing of her deceased daughter Emeline W. Wells to Orson F. Whitney in the Manti Temple.

EBW's daughter Melvina Whitney Woods moved with her two daughters to Murray, Idaho, to join her attorney husband, William W. Woods, who had been working there for some months.

National suffragist visitors Elizabeth Lyle Saxon and Clara Bewick Colby spoke in the Salt Lake Theatre and the Assembly Hall. They encouraged EBW and her friends to organize a state suffrage association.

EBW, with granddaughter Louise Cannon, and Zina Smoot Whitney, with daughter Emily, departed Utah to visit Belle’s family in San Francisco.

The Utah Territorial Woman Suffrage Association was organized with Margaret Nightingale Caine as president. The executive committee determined that officers could not be women who had lived in plural marriage. That excluded EBW, despite her long involvement in and strong relationship with the national women’s suffrage movement.

Daniel H. Wells sold the “big house” at the corner of Main Street and South Temple Street.

The first general Relief Society conference was held in the evening at the Assembly Hall in Salt Lake City. Stake Relief Society presidents reported on their work, and general leaders spoke.

EBW wrote several poems about her life experiences. This one, published in the Woman’s Exponent, described her feelings about the garden she had kept at her home in Salt Lake City.

EBW revised and serialized her literary autobiography “Hephzibah,” which began with the story of her New England girlhood and ended in Nauvoo. Chapters were published in the Woman’s Exponent until 15 September 1890.

In this poem, published in the Woman’s Exponent, EBW used the metaphor of a sea to explore feelings about grief and love.

EBW departed to visit her daughter Melvina Whitney Woods in Murray, Idaho. EBW returned about a month later.

The Young Woman’s Journal was first published, with Susa Young Gates as editor.

The National Woman Suffrage Association merged with the American Woman Suffrage Association, forming the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Despite the AWSA’s resistance to including the Relief Society and Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association, friendship shown by Susan B. Anthony assured Latter-day Saint women of admittance to the new combined organization.

At general conference, Orson F. Whitney read Wilford Woodruff’s Manifesto, which led to the end of plural marriage in the church.

The Woman’s Cooperative Mercantile & Manufacturing Institution was established as a cooperative store under the leadership of Mary Isabella Horne.

EBW attended her first National Council of Women meeting in Washington, DC. She helped present credentials from the Relief Society and Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association to May Wright Sewall. Despite controversy, the organizations were admitted.

EBW was included in the Woman’s International Press Federation and was appointed one of seven to prepare a constitution for the new association.

EBW and Phebe Young Beatie attended the executive meeting of the National American Woman Suffrage Association.

EBW went to Boston to visit her brother Hiram W. Clark and then to the homes of her sisters Pallas Woodward Clark and Cordelia Woodward Holden.

Daniel H. Wells suffered his final illness in Salt Lake City and died shortly after EBW returned from the East.

EBW published the first installment of her serialized romance “In Rural England” in the Woman’s Exponent. The fiftieth and final chapter of the story appeared in December 1895.

EBW organized the Utah Woman’s Press Club for published writers in late 1891. The following year, she organized a companion organization, the Reapers’ Club, for women who had not yet published their writings. Throughout the decade she supported community groups such as the General Relief Committee, the Committee on Charities, the Utah Kindergarten Association, and the Wasatch Chapter of the Daughters of the Revolution.

Stake president Angus M. Cannon told EBW the First Presidency had agreed to pay the debt that the Woman’s Exponent owed the Deseret News Press, and he suggested she cease editing the Exponent. He brought the idea up again on 30 March, saying she should let the church support her. She determined to keep the newspaper as her income.

The Relief Society jubilee year was celebrated in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, with a symbol prominently displayed of the key turned by Joseph Smith to women.

To meet requirements of the Edmunds-Tucker Act, Septimus Sears divorced his first wife, Mary Ann Needham, and was civilly married to EBW’s daughter Belle (who had married him as a plural wife in 1869). Belle and Septimus had returned to Salt Lake City from San Francisco the prior year.

EBW, a member of the Pacific Coast and National Woman’s Press Associations, traveled to San Francisco for the National Editorial Association convention.

Back in Salt Lake City, EBW hosted convention attenders on their return journey east, arranging tours and a special organ recital.

EBW visited her daughter Melvina Whitney Woods, who then lived in Wallace, Idaho.

John Q. and Annie Cannon returned from Ogden to Salt Lake City, living initially in a house on Third East and Sherman Avenue.

To meet business standards, the Relief Society was officially incorporated as the National Woman’s Relief Society. Efforts to incorporate had gotten underway much earlier but culminated on 10 October. When secretary Sarah M. Kimball was called as third counselor in the presidency, EBW replaced her as general secretary.

As chair of Salt Lake County’s Board of Lady Managers, EBW helped prepare for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. She edited a pamphlet for the exposition, Charities and Philanthropies: Women’s Work in Utah; and a poetry book, Songs and Flowers of the Wasatch. She contributed to another volume, World’s Fair Ecclesiastical History of Utah. She also organized Columbian Clubs in Salt Lake County to help prepare exhibits for the Woman’s and Utah Buildings.

A grand ball was held in Salt Lake City to raise funds for silk curtains for the Woman’s Building at the Columbian Exposition and a display of silk making.

EBW moved her Woman’s Exponent office to the Constitution Building on Main Street.

Settlement of Daniel’s will granted EBW $1,000, with which she had a home built on former Wells farm property in the Waterloo area of the city, close to both of her daughters. She moved into the home in December 1893, and Orson F. Whitney dedicated it in February 1894.

The Salt Lake Temple was dedicated after forty years of construction.

The Utah Federation of Women’s Clubs was organized. EBW soon enrolled her two literary clubs in it.

EBW traveled to Chicago for the Woman’s Congress of the Columbian Exposition, at which she delivered a paper on Utah authors and journalists and the grain-saving mission. She stayed in the Palmer House and met many notable women. She was surprised at being invited to preside over the “General Congress in the Hall of Columbus,” which she noted as “an honor never before accorded to a Mormon woman.”

EBW received a packet of letters in the hand of her first husband, James Harris, written to her but kept by his mother, who received them but never revealed to EBW that they existed. These were forwarded to EBW by a cousin after the mother’s death.

EBW was named president of the Utah Territorial Woman Suffrage Association.

After the success of the World’s Fair in Chicago, another fair was organized for California and called the 1894 Midwinter Fair. EBW sat on the executive committee in Utah, preparing the expositions and delegates Utah would send.

EBW was named a patron of the National Council of Women. During this period she often communicated with Susan B. Anthony and Rachel Foster Avery, who was secretary of the council.

U.S. president Grover Cleveland signed the enabling bill for Utah statehood. EBW received a letter from Susan B. Anthony on 25 July, urging the women of Utah to secure a women’s suffrage platform in the state constitution.

EBW attended the National American Woman Suffrage Association convention in Atlanta and the National Council of Women meeting in Washington, DC. She was invited to stay overnight at the home of Rachel Foster Avery outside of Philadelphia and with May Wright Sewall in Indianapolis.

As the constitutional convention met anticipating Utah statehood, EBW joined the campaign to include women’s suffrage in the new state constitution. On 18 April the motion passed, and EBW sent a telegram with the historic news to Susan B. Anthony.

EBW hosted Anna Howard Shaw and Susan B. Anthony at the Rocky Mountain convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. The two suffrage leaders also spoke in the Assembly Hall and Tabernacle.

EBW declared a political party, choosing to identify with the Republicans. She soon became chairman of the Republican Women’s League and joined her friend Ruth May Fox in organizing women’s Republican clubs throughout the state.

The Republican Party nominated three women for state office: Lillie R. Pardee for the senate, EBW for the House, and Emma J. McVicker for superintendent of schools.

Relevant judicial rulings, together with public opinion, put pressure on the three female political candidates to withdraw their names; EBW did so with considerable regret.

U.S. president Grover Cleveland signed the Utah statehood proclamation.

Inaugural ceremonies for Governor Heber M. Wells and other officials were held. EBW sat in the governor’s box with Heber’s mother, Martha Wells, for the inaugural ball.

The National American Woman Suffrage Association celebrated Utah women’s triumph at their annual meeting in Washington, DC, but EBW could not get the funding to go and instead received a tribute in absentia.

EBW visited daughter Mell Woods in Wallace, Idaho, and worked on a collection of poetry. It was to be published as Musings and Memories.

EBW was one of five Republican candidates for five seats in the state senate. All five Democratic candidates were elected, including Martha Hughes Cannon. EBW had the fewest votes of the ten.

EBW moved her office from the Constitution Building to the Templeton Building. Her literary clubs and some of the other organizations she was part of continued to meet in her office on occasion.

EBW received the first bound copies of Musings and Memories. The publication date given in this first edition is listed as 1896, although the book did not appear until the end of 1897.

President Wilford Woodruff died. Lorenzo Snow became church president later that month.

Utah’s November 1898 election of Latter-day Saint leader and polygamist B. H. Roberts to the U.S. House of Representatives stirred national controversy and led to criticism of EBW and Latter-day Saint women. At the National Council of Women’s triennial meeting in Washington in February 1899, EBW and Ann M. Cannon helped modify a condemnatory resolution. The final resolution omitted Roberts’s name and simply spoke against someone who was not “law-abiding” serving in a “law-making” body.

The International Council of Women met in London in late June 1899. The Relief Society provided funds for EBW to attend in her role as second corresponding secretary of the National Council of Women. Sixteen Latter-day Saint women attended in all. EBW participated in discussions and explained Relief Society social work. 

As a culminating social event, the attendees of the International Council of Women conference received a drive-by wave from Queen Victoria and refreshments at Windsor Castle. EBW and twelve of her Latter-day Saint traveling companions were there.

After the ICW conference, EBW toured England and visited Paris and Glasgow. She also met with church members and visited Latter-day Saint branches to support Relief Society and missionary work.

EBW visited Idaho for the twenty-fifth wedding anniversary of Mell and William Woods.

As chaplain of the Salt Lake City chapter of the Daughters of the Revolution, EBW attended the society’s annual convention in New York City.

EBW began research on a history of suffrage in Utah. Her history was published in 1902 as chapter 66 in Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper, eds., The History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4.

EBW and Elizabeth Claridge McCune attended meetings of the National Council of Women in Minneapolis. EBW read a paper and participated in business meetings.

EBW and Susa Young Gates attended the second presidential inauguration of William McKinley on 4 March 1901. EBW traveled to Washington, DC, in late February. A major highlight of the trip for her was carrying a personal message from her son-in-law John Q. Cannon to Vice President Theodore Roosevelt on 9 March; the two men knew each other from the U.S. Army’s campaign in Cuba in 1898.

George Q. Cannon died in Monterey, California.

May Wright Sewall, president of the International Council of Women, visited Utah. EBW arranged lectures and socials and enjoyed private conversation with Sewall.

President Lorenzo Snow announced that he would set aside land near the temple for a women’s building if sufficient funds were raised. In the following months, the project was delayed for financial reasons.

Zina D. H. Young, Relief Society general president, died.

Bathsheba W. Smith was sustained as Relief Society general president. EBW was named general secretary.

EBW and others attended the NAWSA convention in Washington, DC. 

At an evening session of the National Council of Women meeting, EBW presented a paper, “The Age We Live In.”

EBW met with President Theodore Roosevelt in a private interview.

Under President Bathsheba Smith, the Relief Society issued its first official handbook in a ninety-seven-page booklet.

EBW moved her office from room 507 to room 509 of the Templeton Building.

EBW’s son-in-law Septimus W. Sears died at age fifty-nine.

EBW’s sister Pallas Woodward Clark died.

For lack of funding, EBW missed attending the ICW meetings in Berlin. Instead, Alice Merrill Horne, Lydia D. Alder, Emily Tanner Richards, and Ida Smoot Dusenberry represented Latter-day Saint women, supported by their own funds.

Barrymore N. Hillard, husband of EBW’s granddaughter Verona, died.

Annie Wells Cannon’s last child (and EBW’s last grandchild), Theodore Lincoln Cannon, was born. The Cannons had stayed with EBW between May and September before moving into a new house on the Cannon farm.

Elmina Shepard Taylor, first general president of the Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association, died.

EBW traveled north to spend Christmas with her daughter Melvina Whitney Woods and her family in Idaho. She arrived back in Salt Lake City on 29 December.

At the behest of Emily Richards, artist Lee Greene Richards painted a portrait of EBW. The three-quarter-length profile view later became her presidential portrait.

At the death of Susan B. Anthony, EBW was bequeathed a gold ring with the note “In recognition of her esteem and love for Mrs. Emmeline B. Wells, Miss Anthony sent one of her gold rings on the day of her death to Mrs. Wells in Utah. The bond between these two women was very strong and the friendship had continued for nearly thirty years.” 

A memorial service for Susan B. Anthony was held in the Assembly Hall in Salt Lake City.

The Relief Society general board discovered that the new building opposite the temple would not be the hoped-for women’s building but instead would provide offices for male and female church leaders and would be called the Bishop’s Building. The First Presidency asked for a $5,000 contribution from the women’s building fund and, in exchange, would house the women’s organizations rent free.

EBW’s great-granddaughter Marian Buchholz died at age nine of “heart failure, while suffering from quinsy and tonsilitis.”

The general presidency and board raised EBW’s salary from $10 to $25 a month in appreciation of her work as general secretary of the Relief Society.

In a March 1908 article in the newspaper titled Truth, Harry Culmer commended the portrait Lee Greene Richards had painted of EBW. According to EBW’s diary entry of 30 March, Culmer wrote “that the picture was an adorable painting of an adorable woman.”

EBW learned that her son-in-law William W. Woods had been nominated by the Democratic Party as candidate for the U.S. Senate from Idaho.

EBW backed Republican candidates in the fall election of 1908 and organized women to distribute campaign literature out of her office.

EBW’s grandson Daniel H. Cannon left on a church mission to the Netherlands.

EBW hoped to attend the International Council of Women meeting in Toronto, Canada, in summer 1909. But she noted her disappointment in her diary this day at not being selected as the Relief Society delegate. Instead, Emily Richards represented the Relief Society. 

EBW noted this day that she had turned down the offer to represent the Relief Society at the triennial meeting of the National Council of Women in Seattle.

Delegates returning to California from ICW meetings in Toronto stopped in Salt Lake City for events EBW arranged. Corinne T. Allen, a nonmember who opposed plural marriage, boycotted a luncheon at Saltair because church president Joseph F. Smith had been invited.

EBW’s sister-wife and dear friend Lydia Ann Alley Wells died. 

EBW visited Melvina and William Woods in their summer home on the lake at Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Granddaughter Katharine Cannon accompanied her. 

EBW moved her office into the new Bishop’s Building, which provided space for the Relief Society presidency and board, among other organizations.

The Bishop’s Building, located on Main Street between North Temple Street and South Temple Street, was dedicated.

Relief Society general president Bathsheba W. Smith died. Her funeral was the first for a woman held in the tabernacle in Salt Lake City.

EBW was told by Anthon H. Lund, counselor to President Joseph F. Smith, that President Smith had selected her as the next Relief Society general president. The next day, in a meeting with the prior Relief Society general board, President Lund announced EBW’s appointment, with Clarissa Smith Williams and Julina Lambson Smith as counselors. Their names were presented at general conference on 6 October. EBW later selected Olive Derbidge Christensen as secretary, Amy Brown Lyman as assistant secretary, and Emma Empey as treasurer.

The original Nauvoo Relief Society minutes, which formerly had been in the possession of Relief Society general president Bathsheba W. Smith, were transferred to the Church Historian’s Office. EBW evidently continued to refer to her own handwritten copy of the minutes. 

EBW attended a meeting with the Young Ladies’ general board in which the board asked for the Relief Society’s assistance in “rescue work” for young women.

EBW reported to her board that the First Presidency had asked the Relief Society to take over the making and supplying of temple clothing. EBW created a committee for the assignment, with Julina L. Smith as chair. 

The Relief Society general board formed a committee to explore the idea of supporting a woman’s employment bureau. The bureau began under Bathsheba Smith’s presidency and was originally part of the Women’s Co-op. EBW wanted to link the bureau with making a home available for working women and girls.

EBW’s eighty-fourth birthday commemoration included her being awarded an honorary doctor of literature degree by Brigham Young University, the first woman so honored by that institution. She was also feted in verses from the Whitney and Wells families. 

The Relief Society general board proposed raising dues from ten cents to twenty-five cents for each woman. The motion officially carried on 5 April 1913 in a special meeting of Relief Society leadership.

May Wright Sewall visited Salt Lake City to reinvigorate interest in the National Council of Women. She met with President Joseph F. Smith along with EBW and Susa Young Gates. 

As general president, EBW supported revitalizing training for nurses. On 25 July 1913, EBW and her board drafted a letter to the First Presidency asking for their approval for the Relief Society to begin a new nursing course taught by Dr. Margaret C. Roberts.

Sculptor Mahonri M. Young granted EBW the privilege of unveiling the new Seagull Monument on Temple Square. She compared the eagle, a bird with important symbolic meaning in the United States, to the Utah seagull. 

EBW attended the New York executive meeting of the National Council of Women. She nominated Clarissa S. Williams as one of the national delegates to the International Council of Women meeting in Rome in 1914. EBW later asked Susa Young Gates to accompany Williams and gave them Relief Society funds to cover their trips. 

Although EBW had wanted the Relief Society to take over management of the Woman’s Exponent, leaving her as editor, that proposition was not accepted. In a general board meeting this day, EBW declared she would discontinue the Exponent with the February issue.

The Relief Society board voted to publish a monthly magazine to be known as the Relief Society Magazine, with Susa Young Gates as editor. It would be issued beginning in 1915. 

Albert Wells, son of Daniel Wells by his first wife, visited the Wells clan in Salt Lake City. 

A second and revised edition of Musings and Memories, EBW’s poetry volume, was published. The Utah Woman’s Press Club paid the cost of publication. 

EBW introduced the Countess of Aberdeen at two of her public lectures in Salt Lake City. The Countess paid tribute to “Aunt Em” as “the Queen of Utah.” 

EBW gave up her home to her grandson George Q. Cannon and his family. Plagued by diminishing eyesight and difficulty with walking, she moved to room 834 of the Hotel Utah. 

EBW agreed that, in the tradition of Nauvoo, Relief Society women be invited to raise money to support the building of the Hawaiian and Canadian temples. To the surprise of the First Presidency, over $12,000 was turned in by 1 October 1917. 

EBW visited Melvina Whitney Woods for the final time in Coeur d’Alene with granddaughter Katherine Cannon as her companion. 

The Relief Society board adopted as its emblem a sheaf of wheat surrounding the initials “RS” to accompany its motto, “Charity Never Faileth.” 

EBW fell into an elevator shaft at the Bishop’s Building. She managed to catch a cable, and her daughter Belle Sears held her until help arrived. 

After the women had stored grain for charitable purposes for more than forty years, war needs brought an urgent request from the U.S. government to purchase Relief Society wheat. The Presiding Bishopric responded without consulting the Relief Society general presidency. Bishop Charles W. Nibley soon apologized for his presumption.

EBW was hit by a streetcar while crossing the street to the Hotel Utah. Her daughters Belle and Annie stayed with her to aid in her recovery.

Church president Joseph F. Smith died. Heber J. Grant became the new president of the church. 

President Woodrow Wilson and his wife, Edith Bolling Wilson, visited EBW in her room in the Hotel Utah to thank her for the generous sale of wheat to the government. 

The National American Woman Suffrage Association held their last meeting in Chicago and presented gold pins in absentia to EBW and Emily Richards. 

The Nineteenth Amendment, granting suffrage to American women, was ratified. EBW was honored at the Utah celebration later that month on the steps of the state capitol.

William Woods, husband of EBW’s daughter Melvina, died at age seventy-nine. 

The general board held a celebration in the Hotel Utah in honor of EBW’s birthday. 

EBW presided over her last Relief Society general board meeting.

EBW moved from the Hotel Utah to the home of her daughter Annie Wells Cannon at the Cannon farm.

President Heber J. Grant released EBW and the other members of the Relief Society general presidency and board during the general Relief Society conference. Clarissa S. Williams was sustained as the new general president.

Emmeline Blanche Woodward Harris Whitney Wells died in the home of her daughter Elizabeth Ann Wells.

Funeral services for EBW were held in the tabernacle in Salt Lake City.

A bust of EBW was unveiled in the Utah State Capitol rotunda on her hundredth birthday. It was sculpted by Cyrus Dallin and funded by women’s groups in the state in honor of “A fine soul who served us.”