In 1835, Joseph Smith prepared an “Instruction on Priesthood” that spoke of “the valley of Adam-ondi-ahman” as the location where Adam gave his last blessing to his posterity before his death.¹ In May 1838, Smith and others traveled north of Far West, Caldwell County, Missouri, seeking land on which the Saints could settle. In Daviess County, near the Grand River, they found a prominent knoll called Spring Hill. Smith there dictated a revelation identifying the region as Adam-ondi-Ahman, “the place where Adam shall come to visit his people” at some future time. According to Smith’s journal, at Spring Hill the group found the remains of an old “Nephitish” (Native American) altar.² Later accounts given by some of Smith’s contemporaries incorrectly remembered him identifying the structure as an altar constructed by Adam at the location where Adam offered sacrifices after being cast out of the Garden of Eden. Archeological evidence indicates the remains were from a Native American burial ground.³

The Snow family traveled from Kirtland, Ohio, to Missouri and settled in Adam-ondi-Ahman, arriving at the end of July 1838. They left a few months later in December.⁴ During this time, Eliza R. Snow may have visited the stone structure that she incorrectly understood to be Adam’s altar.

See also:

Jacob W. Olmstead, “Far West and Adam-ondi-Ahman: D&C 115, 116, 117,” in Revelations in Context

“Adam-ondi-Ahman,” Church History Topics

“Adam-ondi-Ahman, Missouri” (geographical entry), The Joseph Smith Papers

Early Latter-day Saint settlers in the Great Salt Lake Valley created cultural organizations for intellectual and spiritual refinement.⁵ The meetings of these organizations included literature readings, musical performances, educational lectures, and even the exercise of spiritual gifts such as speaking or singing in tongues. Lorenzo Snow, with the support of his sister Eliza R. Snow, organized the Polysophical Society in 1854. He served as the society’s president, and they met in the large parlor of his home in Salt Lake City.⁶ Eliza Snow composed several poems and prose pieces for the society. The Deseret Literary and Musical Assembly was organized by 1856 and met in the Social Hall in Salt Lake City.⁷ Eliza Snow composed three known pieces for this group, a psalm and two poems.

Emma Hale Smith, wife of Joseph Smith, played a prominent role in the early church. She and Eliza R. Snow were friends and fellow Nauvoo Relief Society officers, and both were sealed to Joseph Smith. The practice of plural marriage was especially difficult for Emma, and it affected the friendship. After Joseph’s death in 1844, Emma and her children remained in Nauvoo when Brigham Young led the Saints west, leading to hard feelings between those who followed Brigham and those who remained in the Midwest. This tension was exacerbated when some Smith sons proselytized in Utah for a different church and denied that their father had taught plural marriage. The memory and legacy of Emma Smith became tarnished for some Saints, including Snow, but today Emma is recognized and valued.

See also:

“Emma Hale Smith,” Church History Topics

During Eliza R. Snow’s lifetime, women were generally seen as subordinate to men in American culture and were expected to be submissive to men. Women in Utah Territory and other parts of the United States had limited legal rights compared to men. Snow and many others in the church understood that this gendered inequality existed in part because Eve was the first to partake of the fruit in the Garden of Eden and then persuaded Adam to partake. According to this nineteenth-century theology, as Eve was the first to sin, she and her daughters were placed in a secondary position. Snow also believed that the “curse of Eve”—that her desire should be to her husband, and that he should rule over her—was not to last forever. Redemption for Eve and all women, according to Snow, came “by honoring God in all the institutions he has revealed to us,” including marriage—and specifically at this time, plural marriage.⁸ Snow also taught on occasion that Eve is “the Goddess and the Queen of Earth,”⁹ that Adam is the God and Father of this earth, and that women who are faithful on this earth might someday become an Eve to another world. Although Snow and others may have held these personal beliefs, these ideas do not reflect the current doctrine of the church.

Leaders of the church today—drawing on Joseph Smith’s revelation that is now the Book of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price—consider Eve a woman of wisdom and courage who recognized the implications of the choice she made in Eden: “Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient” (Moses 5:11). Eve was a partner and a companion with Adam and became the “mother of all living” (Moses 4:26). In his 1918 vision of the redemption of the dead, Joseph F. Smith (president of the church, 1901–1918) saw “our glorious Mother Eve, with many of her faithful daughters” (Doctrine and Covenants 138:39). Gordon B. Hinckley (president of the church, 1995–2008) considered Eve “God’s final creation, the grand summation of all of the marvelous work that had gone before.”¹⁰ Russell M. Nelson, who became president of the church in 2018, declared in 2015, “We need women who have the courage and vision of our Mother Eve.”¹¹

See also:

Lisa Olsen Tait, “Susa Young Gates and the Vision of the Redemption of the Dead: D&C 138,” in Revelations in Context

The early Saints believed that American Indians were descendants of Book of Mormon peoples and that Saints and Indians shared a covenant heritage connecting them to ancient Israel. At the same time, many early Saints often held the same prejudices toward Indians shared by other white European Americans. In Utah, Latter-day Saints established trade relations, preached the gospel, and generally sought accommodation with indigenous peoples. Eliza R. Snow and other Latter-day Saint women made efforts similar to their Protestant counterparts to provide service and leadership to indigenous women, inviting them to participate in the Relief Society. Snow visited settlements of indigenous peoples in Thistle Valley (also known as Indianola), Sanpete County, and Washakie, Box Elder County, and organized Relief Societies and Primaries. Minute books for these organizations are not extant.

See also:

“American Indians,” Church History Topics

“Indianola Ward Relief Society, Minutes, September 16, 1880,” First Fifty Years of Relief Society website

Drawing upon scriptural references to Gentiles as people who were not of the house of Israel, early Latter-day Saints used this same term for people not of their faith. Joseph Smith envisioned a kingdom of God in which the Saints could both politically rule themselves and be self-sufficient. Brigham Young had that same vision for Utah Territory, where the Saints initially lived in isolation from the outside world.

In the 1850s and 1860s, more and more settlers came to Utah seeking economic and political opportunities. Young grew concerned with what he perceived as a threat to Latter-day Saints. In late 1866, church leaders began instructing the Saints to stop buying from merchants who were anti-Mormon, or enemies to the church.¹² The imminent completion of the transcontinental railroad promised an even greater influx of people of other beliefs. At an October 1868 meeting of the School of the Prophets, Young furthered the divide, issuing a firm boycott of all Gentile businesses. He and others voted that those who solicited Gentiles “should be cut off from the Church.”¹³

Eliza R. Snow took this charge seriously, viewing women as the primary consumers of items needed for domestic use and the Relief Society as an organization through which she could teach women according to Young’s requests. She often spoke of trading with Gentiles as deleterious and in opposition to building the kingdom of God. Snow condemned “the foolish, extravagant and disgusting fashions of the godless gentile world.” She also expressed concern for the “strong-minded” women of the world who claimed “woman’s sovereignty”; instead, she encouraged Latter-day Saint women to understand counsel from priesthood leaders.¹⁴

See also:

“Cooperative Movement,” Church History Topics

At the first Relief Society meeting, held in Nauvoo on 17 March 1842, Joseph Smith approved the use of parliamentary procedure—a set of rules used by many legislative bodies, civic groups, and other organizations to conduct orderly meetings. Fundamental elements of parliamentary procedure include control of the meeting by a chairperson, members of the body having equal opportunity to speak and to vote on motions, and members being respectful of one another. Snow continued to follow these customs and taught them to women in local church organizations. In Relief Society meetings in the nineteenth century, terminology associated with legislative and civic organizations was common. For example, Relief Society leaders were often appointed rather than called, members might vote on rather than sustain an appointment or a proposal, and a woman could resign if she wanted to be released from a position.

Initially upon hearing about the practice of plural marriage (sometimes called celestial marriage in the nineteenth century), Eliza R. Snow was perplexed. She wrote, “The subject was very repugnant to my feelings—so directly was it in opposition to my educated prepossessions, that it seemed as though all the prejudices of my ancestors for generations past congregated around me.”¹⁵ However, her views changed, and she came to believe that the principle of plural marriage came from God. Snow was sealed to Joseph Smith as a plural wife on 29 June 1842.¹⁶ After Joseph Smith’s death, Snow was married to Brigham Young.¹⁷ In Nauvoo, the practice was kept secret and not widely discussed. In Utah, the Saints were open about living the principle, and it was frequently mentioned in public sermons and discourses. As federal antipolygamy legislation pressured the Saints, Snow and other women became increasingly verbal in speaking publicly to defend their religious freedoms. In fact, in 1880, Snow took on the surname Smith to reflect the fact that she had been sealed to Joseph Smith. Snow spoke to many Relief Societies about plural marriage, testifying that the practice was required for exaltation in the celestial kingdom, which the Saints believed at that time. She often used hyperbole in her rhetoric, as did Brigham Young and others.

After Snow’s death, church president Wilford Woodruff issued a manifesto in 1890 that led to the end of the practice of plural marriage. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints no longer practices plural marriage or teaches that it is required for exaltation.

See also:

“Plural Marriage in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” Gospel Topics

“Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo,” Gospel Topics

“Plural Marriage and Families in Early Utah,” Gospel Topics

“The Manifesto and the End of Plural Marriage,” Gospel Topics

During the nineteenth century, the church as an institution was heavily involved in electoral politics at the state, territorial, and national level. Church leaders in this time period held office, endorsed political parties and platforms, lobbied government officials and diplomats, and organized rallies.

In Utah Territory, Latter-day Saints participated in municipal and territorial elections. Because the Saints formed an overwhelming majority of citizens in Utah, they dominated most elections. Brigham Young and other church leaders frequently endorsed candidates and sometimes sought and held political office. As the non-Latter-day saint population in Utah increased, the Saints found they had to balance their theocratic ideals with the reality of local politics. Over time, Latter-day Saints began to build relationships with national coalitions and the church moved toward political neutrality.

At the same time, women’s social and political opportunities expanded. Stake and ward Relief Society leaders encouraged women to voice their opinions—especially in favor of religious freedom. The Utah territorial legislature granted women suffrage in 1870 as federal politicians threatened antipolygamy legislation. Utah women became the first in the United States to cast votes in municipal elections. In 1887, the federal government disenfranchised women in Utah as part of the antipolygamy Edmunds-Tucker Act. Utah women worked to regain their full legal rights.

See also:

“Political Neutrality,” Church History Topics

“Women’s Suffrage,” Church History Topics

“Building the Kingdom” section of “Introduction,” and “Part 3: 1867–1879,” First Fifty Years of Relief Society website

Eliza R. Snow rejoiced to live in a time of restoration, including the restoration of priesthood authority—the authorization to act in God’s name for the benefit of God’s children. With authority granted to him by heavenly messengers, Joseph Smith acted in the name of God to officially organize the Church and its various organizations. He conferred priesthood authority upon men and ordained them to offices in the priesthood. In 1830s America, the word priesthood was defined as “the office or character of a priest” and “the order of men set apart for sacred offices.”¹⁸ Over time, an extensive structure of priesthood offices and quorums was established. Women appointed and set apart to positions of leadership and to specific assignments also acted with the authority given to them through priesthood keys.

In Nauvoo in March 1842, a group of women desired to organize a sewing society; they asked Eliza R. Snow to write a constitution and bylaws. When she showed Smith her draft, he responded that he would organize the women “in the Order of the Priesthood after the pattern of the Church.”¹⁹ He did so on 17 March, using his priesthood authority to organize the Relief Society, thereby giving women a formal, authorized ministry as part of the church structure. At that organizational meeting, Smith spoke of “ordain[ing]” women.²⁰ At the time, members of the church sometimes used ordain in a broad sense, often interchangeably with set apart and not always referring to priesthood office. For much of the nineteenth century, in fact, the terms ordain and set apart were often used interchangeably and sometimes together. Over time, the verb ordain came to be associated only with the laying on of hands in connection with a man receiving a priesthood office.

In the minute books containing Snow’s sermons, many people, including her, used the word ordain in situations when modern Latter-day Saint usage would call for set apart. Snow also often referred to the Relief Society as an “order,” or spoke of groups of Relief Society women being a “quorum.” In such cases, she was using these terms in a generic organizational sense—as roughly equivalent to committee or board.

At the founding meeting of the Nauvoo Relief Society, Joseph Smith advised that “if any Officers are wanted to carry out the designs of the Institution, let them be appointed and set apart, as Deacons, Teachers &c.”²¹ Snow and Sarah M. Granger Kimball took this counsel literally in May 1868 within the Salt Lake City Fifteenth Ward Relief Society. In describing ward Relief Society officers and their responsibilities, they used terms often associated with priesthood offices, including “deaconesses” and “teachers.”²² Some other ward societies may have followed suit, but deaconesses was never widely adopted. In any case, women were not considered as having priesthood authority simply by virtue of their title.

The role of teacher has played and continues to play an integral role in the Relief Society. Beginning in Nauvoo in 1843, the Relief Society was divided into four geographical units, or wards. Women visited each family to determine physical needs and seek donations.²³ According to the document Kimball and Snow prepared for the Fifteenth Ward society, “teachers” were assigned to visit neighborhood blocks once a month to ascertain the temporal and spiritual needs of families and individuals. These teachers reported to a president of the teachers and acted as their own “quorum” or committee, and some kept their own minutes.²⁴ Snow often spoke specifically to these teachers, encouraging personal ministry and discernment. Although the roles and terminology related to visiting committees, teachers, and visiting teachers have changed over time, the concepts of charity and ministry remain the same.

See also:

“Joseph Smith’s Teachings about Priesthood, Temple, and Women,” Gospel Topics

“Ministering with Authority” section of Introduction, First Fifty Years of Relief Society website

“‘Pure Religion’: Watchcare and Ministering through Visiting Teaching,” Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society

Concern for the spiritual welfare of children dates to the early days of the church. Associations were organized to provide gospel instruction for youth and adults with the Deseret Sunday School Union in 1867, the Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association in 1870, and the Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Association in 1875. By 1878, concern shifted to younger children, especially rowdy boys. Aurelia Spencer Rogers addressed the need to form an organization for Latter-day Saint children in Farmington, Utah Territory, and Eliza R. Snow assisted in developing the formal structure of the Primary Association. Snow’s leadership experience and her relationships with church leaders facilitated the process. By virtue of her Relief Society leadership role, Snow felt she had the authority to organize Primaries and Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Associations.

An experienced teacher and renowned poet, Snow published songbooks for Primary children as well as lesson manuals or guidebooks in the form of catechisms and recitations. Oral instruction by means of questions and recited answers and memorization were popular Christian educational practices at the time.²⁵

See also:

“Primary,” Church History Topics

“Aurelia Spencer Rogers, Reminiscences of August 1878, as Published in ‘History of Primary Work,’ 1898,” First Fifty Years of Relief Society website

“The Story of Primary: Stories from the Founding of the Primary Organization,” Church History, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Eliza R. Snow lived during an era of great racial division in the United States, when racial distinctions and prejudice were customary among white Americans. In referring to African American people, Snow sometimes used the words Negro or colored, which were standard and acceptable terms of her day. In the nineteenth century, both whites and African Americans used these terms, though they did so with varied cultural and political understandings. Church leaders today have asked Latter-day Saints to “lead out in abandoning attitudes and actions of prejudice,” which includes rejecting racist language.²⁶

See also:

“Race and the Priesthood,” Gospel Topics

“Racial and Cultural Prejudice,” Gospel Topics

In the early decades of the restored church, many practices and ordinances, such as baptism, were in a process of development. Then, as now, baptism was performed for the remission of sins and as a necessary step for admission into Christ’s restored church. In Nauvoo, Illinois, as well as in Utah Territory, many members of the church underwent rebaptism for various reasons, such as to demonstrate greater religious commitment or in an effort to restore health.

See also:

“Reformation of 1856–57,” Church History Topics

H. Dean Garrett, “Rebaptism,” in Encyclopedia of Mormonism

Russell R. Rich, “I Have a Question,” Ensign, Feb. 1975

Eliza R. Snow was one of the founding members of the Nauvoo Relief Society. She preserved the original society’s minute book and used it as a pattern when she established and instructed later Relief Societies. Joseph Smith had encouraged the women to act according to parliamentary procedure, a system of rules that emphasized order, the equal right of all members to speak, and keeping minutes of meetings. In Utah, Snow worked to continue many of the practices of the original society.

Because the Nauvoo Relief Society was partly intended to prepare members for the temple, worthiness in this “select Society of the virtuous” was a significant matter. At the 31 March 1842 Relief Society meeting, Joseph Smith said “that none should be received into the society but those who were worthy” and proposed that the “Society go into a close examination of every candidate.” During the same meeting, President Emma Smith said, according to Snow’s minutes, that “we wanted none in this society but those who could and would walk straight and were determined to do good and not evil.”²⁷ In a practice similar to the one used when men entered priesthood quorums, potential Relief Society members were examined for worthiness and loyalty. By 9 June 1842, Joseph Smith suggested that “no person shall be admitted but by presenting regular petition signed by two or three members in good standing in the Society—whoever comes in must be of good report.”²⁸

In 1872, Snow wrote of the original Relief Society: “The Society soon became so popular that even those of doubtful character in several instances applied for admission, and to prevent imposition by extending membership to such ones inadvertently, stricter rules were adopted than seemed requisite at first. Each one wishing to join the Society was required to present a certificate of her good moral character, signed by two or more responsible persons.”²⁹ She taught the women to continue the practice of selective membership. It was not until 1971 that all female members of the church were automatically enrolled in the Relief Society.³⁰

The completion of the transcontinental railroad in northern Utah Territory raised concerns about new outside influences on Latter-day Saint settlements. Brigham Young worried that some church members, including adult and young women, were living extravagantly and forgetting the ideals of Zion. In 1869, he assigned Mary Isabella Horne to lead a “retrenchment” effort to encourage women to be more frugal with food and clothing, develop home industry, seek economic self-sufficiency, and increase religious activity. With the assistance of Eliza R. Snow, Horne organized the Ladies’ Co-operative Retrenchment Society on 10 February 1870 in Salt Lake City. The first members were local Relief Society presidents eager to discuss retrenchment, or reform. The Young Ladies’ Department of the Ladies’ Co-operative Retrenchment Association followed three months later; it eventually developed into the Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association, also supported by Snow.

Retrenchment meetings provided Snow and other female leaders with the opportunity to visit and counsel with ward Relief Society leaders before the organization of stake Relief Societies beginning in 1877. The meetings served as a council to coordinate reform efforts with regard to home industry, cooperative stores, grain storage, suffrage, sericulture or silk production, education, and medical training. The organizational name had several iterations, including General Retrenchment and Ladies’ Semi-Monthly Meeting. Minutes were often published in the Woman’s Exponent, distributing Snow’s teachings throughout the various Latter-day Saint settlements.

See also:

“Retrenchment,” Church History Topics

“Ladies’ Cooperative Retrenchment Meeting, Minutes, February 10, 1870,” First Fifty Years of Relief Society website

“Ladies’ Cooperative Retrenchment Meeting, Minutes, February 19, 1870,” First Fifty Years of Relief Society website

A system called the United Order of Enoch—generally shortened to United Order—stemmed from the scriptural description of Enoch’s “City of Holiness, even Zion,” in which the people were “of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them.”³¹ Inspired in part by this ideal, Joseph Smith first implemented the law of consecration and stewardship under the direction of bishops. Later, Brigham Young encouraged communities of Saints to pool their labor and income to be self-sufficient and to work together to provide for all members. This led to the creation of United Orders in roughly 150 Latter-day Saint settlements in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

United Orders were based on communal agreements to establish cooperative enterprises, share income, and eliminate poverty. Each order operated independently, and bishops had significant discretion in determining how much cooperation was expected in their specific congregations and what form the local order would take. United Orders generally included civic and religious leaders, employees and their employers, and local commercial boards and their investors. In most orders, the members of the order contributed to a common fund and received capital stock and stock payouts. Women usually produced textiles, oversaw education, and provided medical and midwife care, while men worked on farms and public works. Eliza R. Snow encouraged women to do their part and to teach their children and youth to participate as well.

See also:

“Consecration and Stewardship,” Church History Topics

“Cooperative Movement,” Church History Topics

“United Orders,” Church History Topics

Eliza R. Snow treasured spiritual gifts as described in the New Testament and in revelations given to Joseph Smith. In March 1842, Joseph Smith summarized these as “the gift of tongues, prophe[c]y, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues &c.”³² One of the gifts was speaking or singing in tongues, which women often did when they met together. One would speak or sing, and another would interpret. Another spiritual gift women exercised, connected with their ministry among the sick and needy, was to extend blessings of comfort or healing to other women through the laying on of hands and the prayer of faith. Sometimes these blessings involved anointing with oil. As with speaking in tongues, spiritual healing was practiced among nineteenth-century women in evangelical congregations. On 28 April 1842, Joseph Smith instructed Nauvoo Relief Society women in the then-appropriate use of these spiritual gifts, stating, “If the sisters should have faith to heal the sick, let all hold their tongues, and let every thing roll on.”³³ Before advances in medical science, Latter-day Saints often relied on faith and the spiritual gift of healing rather than placing trust in doctors and hospitals.

Snow and other women spoke in tongues and administered healing blessings in Nauvoo, during the Saints’ trek westward, and in Utah. Sometimes blessings were intended to renew commitment and to bolster faith in small female gatherings that promoted spirituality and sisterhood, and sometimes opportunities to practice the gift of healing were extended to youth and children.

During the twentieth century, church leaders gradually and then exclusively emphasized the scriptural mandate to “call for the elders of the church” (James 5:14) to administer healing blessings.³⁴ The current church handbook states that “only worthy Melchizedek Priesthood holders may administer to the sick or afflicted.”³⁵

See also:

“Joseph Smith’s Teachings about Priesthood, Temple, and Women,” Gospel Topics

“Gift of Tongues,” Church History Topics

“Healing,” Church History Topics

In 1833, two years before Eliza R. Snow was baptized, Joseph Smith received a revelation that soon became known as the Word of Wisdom (today found in section 89 of the Doctrine and Covenants). The newly received instruction presented a code of health, forbidding strong or hot drinks. Many early Latter-day Saints, including Snow, understood “hot drinks” to refer to coffee and tea.³⁶ The guideline also advised a diet based on grain and fruit, with meat eaten “sparingly.”

During Snow’s lifetime, church members interpreted the Word of Wisdom in a variety of ways. Some members at this time abstained from coffee and tea, but many accepted them as part of a normal diet.³⁷ In the 1860s and 1870s, Brigham Young renewed an effort for Saints to stop using tea, coffee, tobacco, and liquor.³⁸ Snow carried that directive to the Relief Societies and other organizations to whom she spoke.

In this same time period, Young assigned women to lead out in retrenchment—to be more frugal in meal preparation and clothing while developing home industry and seeking economic self-sufficiency. Snow’s sermons reflect attention to health and women’s domestic reform.

See also:

“Retrenchment,” Church History Topics

“Word of Wisdom (D&C 89),” Church History Topics

Jed Woodworth, “The Word of Wisdom,” in Revelations in Context

The arrival of increasing numbers of “Gentiles” in Utah caused concern for Brigham Young. He worried about the worldly influence on young women, and he wanted his family to set an example for others. On 25 May 1870, Young encouraged his daughters to form a young ladies’ department of the Ladies’ Co-operative Retrenchment Association, which had been created earlier that year. Two days later, Young’s adolescent and young adult daughters met to formally organize, with help from Eliza R. Snow, who wrote the founding resolutions. Snow was actively involved in the organization, soon called the Young Ladies’ or Junior Ladies’ Co-operative Retrenchment Association. By virtue of her Relief Society leadership authority, she often traveled around the settlements to both organize and instruct the young women. She often brought messages from Young about dress standards, education, and involvement in the cooperative movement and home industry. Snow echoed Young’s concerns about “round dancing”—a form of dance, such as the waltz, that required coupling and physical contact between women and men, as opposed to “square dancing,” with no physical contact. In 1875, the Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Association was formally organized; in 1877, the young women adopted a parallel name, the Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association. Snow often spoke to both organizations together.

See also:

“Young Women Organizations,” Church History Topics

“Young Ladies’ Department of the Ladies’ Cooperative Retrenchment Association, Resolutions, May 27, 1870,” First Fifty Years of Relief Society website