Emmeline Blanche Woodward Harris Whitney Wells

29 February 1828 — 25 April 1921

1 Born at Petersham, Worcester County, Massachusetts; daughter of Diadama Hare and David Woodward. 2 Baptized, 1842. 3 Married first James Harvey Harris, 1843; one child. 4 Moved to Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, 1844. 5 Separated from Harris, circa 1844. 6 Married second Newel K. Whitney as a plural wife, 1845; two children. 7 Migrated to the Salt Lake Valley, 1848. 8 Widowed, 1850. 9 Married third Daniel Hanmer Wells as a plural wife, 1852; three children. 10 Appointed president of the Central Grain Committee, 1876. 11 Edited the Woman’s Exponent, 1877–1914. 12 Appointed secretary of the Deseret Hospital Association, 1882. 13 Appointed corresponding secretary of the Relief Society general board, 1888, and general secretary, 1892. 14 Served as president of the Utah Woman’s Suffrage Association, 1893–1896; presided over a plenary session at the Chicago World’s Fair, 1893. 15 Served as fifth general president of the Relief Society, 1910–1921. 16 Died at Salt Lake City. 17 (See Document 3.25, 3.28, 3.30, 4.1, 4.3–4.5, 4.11, 4.14, 4.18, 4.19, 4.23, 4.27, 4.28)

Footnotes

  1. [1] Augusta B. Joyce Crocheron, “Emmeline B. Wells: Editor of ‘Woman’s Exponent,’” in Representative Women of Deseret a Book of Biographical Sketches to Accompany the Picture Bearing the Same Title (Salt Lake City: J. C. Graham and Co., 1884), 62. “Life of Emmeline B. Wells Comes Peacefully to a Close,” Deseret News, Apr. 25, 1921, 1. “Early Settler of State Dead,” Salt Lake Tribune, Apr. 26, 1921, 20.

  2. [2] “Life of Emmeline B. Wells Comes Peacefully to a Close,” 1. Crocheron, “Emmeline B. Wells,” 62. Carol Cornwall Madsen, An Advocate for Women: The Public Life of Emmeline B. Wells, 1870–1920 (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2006), 16.

  3. [3] “Life of Emmeline B. Wells Comes Peacefully to a Close,” 1. Crocheron, “Emmeline B. Wells,” 64. Madsen, An Advocate for Women, 18.

  4. [4] “Life of Emmeline B. Wells Comes Peacefully to a Close,” 1. Madsen, An Advocate for Women, 18–19.

  5. [5] “Life of Emmeline B. Wells Comes Peacefully to a Close,” 1.

  6. [6] James Harris left Nauvoo for St. Louis looking for work and promised to send for Emmeline; she never heard from him and later learned that he had gone to sea. He died at sea near Bombay, India, in 1859. (Madsen, An Advocate for Women, 19, 31n7.)

  7. [7] Crocheron, “Emmeline B. Wells,” 65. Madsen, An Advocate for Women, 19–20. 1850 U.S. census, Great Salt Lake Co., Utah Territory, p. 86A, Emeline B. Harris; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com, accessed Jan. 2015); from NARA microfilm publication M432, roll 919.

  8. [8] “Early Settler of State Dead,” 20. “Emmeline Blanche Woodward Whitney,” Church History Biographical Database, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, available at https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/chd/landing, accessed Jan. 2015.

  9. [9] Madsen, An Advocate for Women, 20.

  10. [10] “U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560–1900,” database, Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com, accessed Jan. 2015), Emmeline Blanch Woodward and Danial [sic] Hanmer Wells; citing Yates Publishing, Provo, UT. Madsen, An Advocate for Women, 20.

  11. [11] Committees on the Grain Movement, Minutes, Nov. 17, 1876, in “General Meeting of Central and Ward Committees,” Woman’s Exponent 5, no. 13 (Dec. 1, 1876): 99. [doc. 3.28] Weber Stake Relief Society, Minutes, Oct. 30, 1877, vol. 6, pp. 23–34, 1877–1900, Relief Society minutes and records, 1867–1968, Weber Stake, CHL (LR 9970 14). Crocheron, “Emmeline B. Wells,” 69. Madsen, An Advocate for Women, 27–28.

  12. [12] “Life of Emmeline B. Wells Comes Peacefully to a Close,” 1. Madsen, An Advocate for Women, 23, 28.

  13. [13] “The Deseret Hospital. Dedication Services,” Deseret Evening News, July 17, 1882, 2. Crocheron, “Emmeline B. Wells,” 69. Peterson and Gaunt, Faith, Hope, and Charity, 100.

  14. [14] “Relief Society Jubilee. Exercises at the Tabernacle,” Woman’s Exponent 20, no. 18 (Apr. 1, 1892): 140‒144.

  15. [15] “Life of Emmeline B. Wells Comes Peacefully to a Close,” 1. Crocheron, “Emmeline B. Wells,” 68–69. Madsen, An Advocate for Women, 25.

  16. [16] “Relief Society Jubilee. Exercises at the Tabernacle,” 140‒144. Madsen, An Advocate for Women, 26–30.

  17. [17] “Life of Emmeline B. Wells Comes Peacefully to a Close,” 1. “Early Settler of State Dead,” 20. “Utah Cemetery Inventory,” database, Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com, accessed Jan. 2015), Emeline Blanch Wells; citing Utah State Historical Society, Utah Cemetery Inventory, Salt Lake City, UT. “Family Tree,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org, accessed Jan. 7, 2016), Emmeline Blanche Woodward KWJ8-853.