Nauvoo Relief Society Minute Book

Source Note

Nauvoo Relief Society, “A Book of Records. Containing the proceedings of The Female Relief Society of Nauvoo,” Minute Book, Mar. 17, 1842–Mar. 16, 1844; handwriting of Eliza R. Snow, Phebe M. Bartholomew Wheeler, Hannah M. Ells, and an unidentified scribe; 123 pages; CHL (MS 3424). Includes redactions and archival marking.

This record is a bound ledger book measuring 12⅜ × 8⅛ × 1 inches (31 × 21 × 3 cm). The book has a tight-back case binding sewn on vellum tapes and a brown suede leather cover with tooling around the edges. Tooled lines on the spine correspond with the vellum tapes. The spine also has a red leather label with “LEDGER” in gold lettering. The paper, which is ruled with thirty-four blue horizontal lines, one red double horizontal line, and five red vertical lines (one of them double), measures 12⅛ × 7¾ inches (31 × 20 cm). The book originally contained fifteen gatherings of eight leaves each, a twelve-leaf gathering of tabbed index pages at the front, and flyleaves in the front and back; the front flyleaves are missing. The first gathering after the index pages currently contains only five leaves. Two leaves were apparently removed from this gathering before the book was used. At some point, an unknown scribe paginated the book up to page 26, beginning with the verso of the last index page. The leaf that would have been paginated 2 and 3 is also now missing. This leaf was presumably removed before the book was used as a minute book for the Relief Society, as page 1 shows ink transfer from the title page (numbered page 4).

The index pages are ruled with thirty-six blue horizontal lines and are blank with three exceptions. The recto of the “A–B” leaf includes a note about provenance, described below. The verso of the “A–B” leaf has an inscription in Eliza R. Snow’s hand reading “Jane Easton commenc’d work August 9th 1852.” The recto of the “L–M” leaf has an index entry for “Mc.Intire Geo. 2” in an unknown hand. As page 2 is missing from the volume, this entry possibly indicates that the book was originally going to be used as a ledger before being presented to the Relief Society to record the minutes of their meetings. Before Willard Richards presented the book to the Relief Society, he may have removed the leaf with the notations for George McIntire.¹

The Relief Society minute book fills 123 pages after the index pages. Page 5 is blank other than the page number. Pages [27]–[127] are paginated in graphite, possibly inscribed when other redactions and notations in graphite were made. The remainder of the pages are blank, except for the verso of the last flyleaf in the back, which is inscribed in Eliza R. Snow’s handwriting: “Commenc’d in C.H. | July 7^th this week ~~two days~~ | ~~″ 12^th~~ two days— 9 | ″ 12^th 14— 7 | ″ 21–23d— 13 | health | ″ 26^th 28^th— 14 | ~~Aug 1st.~~ July 31^st— 5— 1 | Aug. 2^d mo. 0— 1 | ″ 4^th w. 5— 2”.

Eliza R. Snow’s handwriting also appears on pages 4 and 6–[96]; she used blue ink on pages 4 and 6–[79], and brown ink on pages [80]–[96]. Phebe M. Wheeler took over as scribe for pages [97]–[122], except for page [119], which was inscribed by an unidentified scribe in brown ink. Wheeler’s writing is in black ink except for the minutes of the meeting reported on pages [116]–[118], which are in blue ink. Hannah M. Ells’s handwriting appears on pages [123]–[127] in brown ink.

Graphite redactions and marginal notations appear throughout the volume, usually on pages where sermons were recorded. These notations are not included in the transcript. A pink ribbon bookmark stamped “WILLES-HORNE DRUG Co. PRESCRIPTION DRUGGISTS DESERET NEWS B’LDG.” was inserted at some point between pages [91] and [92]. A brown cotton chemise (possibly from dress lining material) was created for this volume, either in Nauvoo or in Utah. No conservation work has been done on this volume, except that two pieces of cellophane tape were added to the volume sometime after 1930 (the year cellophane tape was invented). One of these pieces of tape, which taped pages 13 and 14 together along the bottom of the gutter, has fallen off, leaving residue on the page; the other piece, repairing a tear at the bottom of page 14, remains.

The title page of the minute book indicates that Willard Richards presented this volume to the Relief Society on March 17, 1842, the date of the first meeting of the Relief Society. It is unlikely the volume was used as the original record of the minutes, as there are few editing marks. There are some copy errors, indicating that the minutes were probably recorded on loose pages and then later copied into this volume.

As noted in the historical introduction to this document and in the introduction to this publication, Eliza R. Snow had possession of this record in Utah Territory and read from it publicly on many occasions. At Snow’s death the book passed to her successor as Relief Society general president, Zina D. H. Young. When Young died in 1901 the book passed to her successor, Bathsheba W. Smith, who died in 1910. A provenance note in the beginning of the Nauvoo Relief Society Minute Book reads: “This record was obtained from Bathsheba Merrill who received it in the effects of her mother Sister Bathsheba W. Smith after her death, and was filed in the Historian’s Office July 3, 1911. | Joseph F. Smith Jr.”

See images of the original document at josephsmithpapers.org.

This record of thirty-three meetings of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo commences with the founding meeting on March 17, 1842. A few weeks earlier Sarah M. Granger Kimball, a wealthy young matron in Nauvoo, proposed forming a “Ladies’ Society” to provide clothing for workers constructing the temple in the city. Church leaders had recently assigned more than two hundred missionaries to hasten work on the stone structure finally emerging from its foundation.² Women’s sewing and benevolent associations flourishing in other U.S. cities probably informed Kimball’s idea to formally unite women to clothe missionary-workers.³ Eliza R. Snow, well-known Mormon poet and former secretary to her county commissioner father, drafted a constitution for Kimball’s proposed society. When Snow presented her constitution and bylaws to Joseph Smith, he praised the documents but asked the women to forego their “Ladies’ Society” in favor of “something better.”⁴

Twenty women responded to Smith’s invitation to gather in the large assembly room above the dry goods store he had recently opened on Water Street in Nauvoo. The red brick store’s offices and upper story provided space for church and city administration and for public and private gatherings.⁵ For example, the Nauvoo Masonic Lodge established its lodge in the store’s upper room on March 15 and conducted rites there on March 16. The lodge also met in the upper room on the evening of Thursday, March 17, after the women’s meeting was concluded. Joseph Smith, who had joined the fraternal order and advanced to the degree of Master Mason the day before the organization of the Relief Society, occasionally made references to Masonry when he addressed Relief Society women in 1842.⁶ More frequently, he referred to the Saints’ rising temple and the priesthood order and blessings connected with it.

Organized “after the pattern, or order, of the priesthood,” as Sarah Kimball recalled Joseph Smith saying, the women formally elected a president, Emma Smith, who in turn appointed two counselors, Sarah M. Kingsley Cleveland and Elizabeth Ann Smith Whitney.⁷ Joseph explained that Emma had been “ordain’d at the time” of a July 1830 revelation, which told her “to expound the scriptures to all; and to teach the female part of community.” Apostle John Taylor ordained Emma’s counselors and blessed Emma.⁸ The women’s presidency thus followed the pattern of the three-member presidencies of men’s priesthood quorums.

Eliza Snow and other scribes recorded minutes for seventeen meetings of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo in 1842, twelve meetings in 1843, and four meetings in 1844.⁹ At nearly every meeting, donations were listed and the names of those nominated for membership were submitted for a yea or nay vote. By the end of 1844, approximately 1,336 women had been admitted as members of the Relief Society. The number of participants and the place, timing, and character of the meetings varied during the three years. In May 1842, attendance having outgrown the small “Lodge Room” above Joseph Smith’s store, Relief Society women began meeting outdoors in a grove near the rising temple.¹⁰

The election of Emma Smith as the society’s president and the frequent attendance of and counsel from her husband probably helped speed the growth of the women’s organization during its first year. Emma Smith encouraged women in their new enterprise, provided spiritual counsel, and coordinated assistance to the poor. The minutes indicate that Joseph Smith attended nine of the meetings held in 1842 and addressed members on March 17 and 31, April 28, May 26, June 9, and August 31.¹¹ The minutes are the only contemporaneous record of teachings that Joseph Smith directed specifically to women as a group. A letter that Joseph Smith and others wrote to the Relief Society on March 31, 1842, was also copied into the minutes following the September 28, 1842, entry.

The Relief Society did not assemble in the winter. When it resumed meeting in June 1843, more than one thousand women had enrolled as members. The group soon divided into four sections or wards that met separately in rotation. Because Sarah Cleveland, first counselor in the women’s presidency, had moved from Nauvoo, second counselor Elizabeth Ann Whitney presided in the absence of President Emma Smith, who battled sickness, traveled to purchase goods and visit family, and wrestled with Joseph Smith’s practice of plural marriage.¹² Following the first two meetings in the summer of 1843, society secretary Eliza R. Snow moved to Morley Settlement, twenty-five miles south of Nauvoo, and assistant secretary Phebe M. Bartholomew Wheeler recorded minutes and donations.¹³ Relief Society visiting committees, appointed in each ward in July 1843,¹⁴ began to report needs of Nauvoo families and collect contributions for the poor and destitute, particularly new immigrants. From 1840 through 1845, nearly forty-seven hundred immigrants came from the British Isles, some three-quarters of them from 1841 through 1843.¹⁵ After a second winter hiatus, the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo reconvened on March 9, 1844, with Hannah M. Ells serving as secretary. Minutes for the last meeting on March 16, 1844, indicate an adjournment sine die, and no extant record suggests that further meetings took place.

At some point before the Latter-day Saints’ trek to the West from Nauvoo, which began in February 1846, Eliza R. Snow again took possession of the Relief Society minute book. When the Relief Society was reestablished in territorial Utah, Snow often used the minute book in local meetings and as a guide for the organization. She and other Relief Society leaders in Utah not only preserved the record as an artifact but also referenced it in their speeches and publications to perpetuate the memory and meaning of the Relief Society’s beginnings in Nauvoo.¹⁶

¹⁷A

Book of Records.

Containing

the proceedings

The Female Relief Society of Nauvoo.

Title Page of Nauvoo Relief Society Minute Book — **Title page.** Eliza R. Snow, appointed secretary of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo at its first meeting, inscribed this title page in the organization’s minute book. (Church History Library, Salt Lake City. Photograph by Welden C. Andersen.)

The following appropriate frontispiece, was found lying on an open Bible, in the room appropriated for the Society; at its first meeting.

〈Written on a scrap.〉

“O, Lord! help our widows, and fatherless children! So mote it be. Amen. With the sword, and the word of truth, defend thou them. So mote it be. Amen.”¹⁸

This Book,

was politely presented to the Society by

Elder W. [Willard] Richards;

on the 17^th of March, AD. 1842. [p. 4]

[page 5 blank]

Cite This Page

Nauvoo Relief Society Minute Book, The First Fifty Years of Relief Society, accessed November 27, 2024 https://chpress-web.churchhistorianspress.org/the-first-fifty-years-of-relief-society/part-1/1-2

Footnotes

[1]In January 1842 Joseph Smith signed two promissory notes to George McIntire. (Joseph Smith to George McIntire, Promissory Notes, Nauvoo, IL, Jan. 17 and 20, 1842, Joseph Smith Collection, 1827–1846, CHL.)
[2]Document 4.10. Church leaders asked members to supply provisions to the builders: “Beds and bedding, socks, mittens, shoes, clothing of every description, and store goods are needed for the comfort of the laborers this winter.” (Brigham Young et al., “Baptism for the Dead,” Times and Seasons, Dec. 15, 1841, 3:625–627.)
[3]For the broader context, see, for example, Nancy F. Cott, The Bonds of Womanhood: “Woman’s Sphere” in New England, 1780–1835 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997), 126–159; and Lori D. Ginzberg, Women and the Work of Benevolence: Morality, Politics, and Class in the Nineteenth-Century United States (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990).
[4]Document 4.10.
[5]The store opened for business January 5, 1842. The upper story was often used for meetings by the Nauvoo City Council, the Nauvoo Masonic Lodge, the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, and other organizations. (“Store,” in Andrew H. Hedges et al., eds., Journals, Volume 2: December 1841–April 1843, vol. 2 of the Journals series of The Joseph Smith Papers, ed. Dean C. Jessee et al. [Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2011], 424–425 [hereafter JSP, J2].)
[6]Nauvoo Masonic Lodge Minute Book, 1841–1846, CHL, Mar. 15–16, 1842; Joseph Smith, Journal, Mar. 15–16, 1842, in JSP, J2:45.
[7]Relief Society Record, “First Organisation,” n.d., ca. June 1880, p. 5, Relief Society Record, 1880–1892, CHL; see also Document 4.10.
[8]Document 1.2, entry for Mar. 17, 1842; Joseph Smith, Journal, Mar. 17, 1842, in JSP, J2:45.
[9]For 1842, the record references eighteen meetings but contains no minutes for the seventeenth meeting. For 1843, the record notes fourteen meetings but contains minutes for only twelve (the ninth meeting was canceled because of bad weather and there appear to be two different versions of the September 15 meeting, one of which was dated August 15). In 1844, four meetings were held, two each on March 9 and March 16.
[10]The Latter-day Saints frequently held public meetings in three groves near the temple site in Nauvoo: one to the west of the site, which was the most common meeting place and likely the site of the Relief Society meetings; one to the south; and one to the northeast. The groves each had a stand for speaking. (“Grove,” in JSP, J2:416.)
[11]The meetings Joseph Smith attended without delivering extended remarks were on March 24, May 12, and May 27, 1842.
[12]On Cleveland’s move, see Document 1.7; on Emma Smith’s activities in this period, see Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery, Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith, 2nd ed. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994), 155–168.
[13]“Morley’s Settlement,” Nauvoo Journal 11, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 153–155. Snow moved back to Nauvoo in April 1844. (Eliza R. Snow, Journal, 1842–1882, CHL, July 21, 1843, and Apr. 14, 1844.)
[14]Document 1.2, entry for July 28, 1843.
[15]See Richard L. Jensen, “Transplanted to Zion: The Impact of British Latter-day Saint Immigration upon Nauvoo,” BYU Studies 31, no. 1 (Winter 1991): 77–87.
[16]Jill Mulvay Derr and Carol Cornwall Madsen, “Preserving the Record and Memory of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, 1842–92,” Journal of Mormon History 35, no. 3 (Summer 2009): 88–117.
[17]text: Eliza R. Snow handwriting begins.
[18]This was likely a prayer used at the opening of the Nauvoo Masonic Lodge. Masonic ritual customarily used the phrase “so mote it be” (“mote” is the archaic form of “might”), often reminded participants of their duties to widows and orphans, and sometimes used sword imagery. During the initiation of a Masonic lodge, an open Bible is placed on an altar. (Cornelius Moore, comp., The Craftsman, and Freemason’s Guide [Cincinnati: Jacob Ernst, 1854], 66, 113–114, 152, 192–193.)