[1]“History,” Andrew Jenson, comp., in Nephi Ward, Juab Stake, Nephi Ward Manuscript History and Historical Reports, 1847–1900, CHL; Francis A. Walker, comp., Ninth Census–Volume I. The Statistics of the Population of the United States. … Compiled, from the Original Returns of the Ninth Census, (June 1, 1870,) under the Direction of the Secretary of the Interior (Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1872), 275.

[2]See Document 3.1.

[3]Nephi Ward, Juab Stake, Nephi Ward Relief Society Minutes and Records, 1868–1878, CHL, June 26, 1869.

[4]See Document 3.15. In 1869 Salt Lake City’s business listings included five flour mills, five ice cream sellers, six milliners, eight bakeries, eight confectioners, eight hairdressers, nine specialists for gloves and mittens, eleven suppliers of produce and grain, thirteen sources for “fancy goods,” seventeen tailors and drapers, seventeen clothing stores, twenty-one dry goods providers, and thirty-two general merchandise stores. (E. L. Sloan, comp., The Salt Lake City Directory and Business Guide, for 1869 [Salt Lake City: By the author, 1869], 153–171.)

[5]In this period the Nephi Relief Society generally met either in the town’s log schoolhouse or in the social hall mentioned here. The Relief Society began construction on a hall, which would be an adobe building located on Main Street, in 1871; the hall was first used on June 24, 1876, at the 208th meeting of the Nephi Relief Society. The building was dedicated November 30, 1881. (Nephi Ward, Juab Stake, Relief Society, Minutes, June 24, 1876; “Relief Society,” Andrew Jenson, comp., in Nephi Ward, Juab Stake, Manuscript History and Historical Reports, 1847–1900, CHL.)

[6]Hymn 81, A Collection of Sacred Hymns for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, ed. Emma Smith (Nauvoo, IL: E. Robinson, 1841), 90.

[7]G. Careless, “Prayer,” Utah Musical Times 1 (Sept. 1876): 104; see also Karen Lynn Davidson, Our Latter-day Hymns: The Stories and the Messages (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1988), 170–171.

[8]Amy Bigler and Amelia Goldsbrough had visited with Bathsheba W. Smith in Salt Lake City. Bigler’s husband, Jacob G. Bigler, was Smith’s brother. Smith, wife of apostle George A. Smith, served as a counselor to Rachel Ivins Grant in the Thirteenth Ward Relief Society. (Thirteenth Ward, Ensign Stake, Thirteenth Ward Relief Society Minutes and Records, 1849–1908, vol. 1, CHL, Nov. 5, 1868.)

[9]The next year, when charitable donations were low, counselor Elizabeth Kendall remarked that “she understood that some did not feel like giving any more because they did not know what was done with the means If they would attend meeting they would know But supposed we should always have busy bodies among us.” (Nephi Ward, Juab Stake, Relief Society, Minutes, Nov. 30, 1871.)

[10]text: The original minute book is not paginated at this point, so pagination supplied here will be for the selected entries presented here, rather than for the minute book.

[11]Hymn 204, Collection of Sacred Hymns, 223.

[12]Hymn 48, Sacred Hymns and Spiritual Songs. For the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 13th ed. (Liverpool: Albert Carrington; London: L. D. Saints’ Book Depot, 1869), 60.

[13]Hymn 91, A Collection of Sacred Hymns, for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Europe, selected by Brigham Young, Parley P. Pratt, and John Taylor (Manchester: W. R. Thomas, 1840), 105.

[14]Following Joseph Smith’s pattern of holding a fast day in Kirtland, Ohio, Brigham Young designated the first Thursday of each month as fast day in Utah. During their visiting routes in Nephi, the Relief Society teachers collected fast offerings along with regular donations for the poor. (See Document 3.1.)

[15]Hymn 115, Collection of Sacred Hymns [1841], 123.

[16]Before the planned September 7 meeting of the society was held, a meeting of the board and teachers was held on September 1, 1870.

[17]At Relief Society meetings, the teachers turned in “donation bills” indicating what each woman had donated. Since in-kind tithes were stored in the Nephi tithing office, it is likely that the Nephi Relief Society members also stored fast offerings and other donations there, at least until they had their own hall. As cash was scarce, the tithing office functioned as a kind of local bank. (For example, see “Mail Coach,” Deseret News, May 14, 1853, [4].)

[18]Hymn 88, Collection of Sacred Hymns [1841], 97.

[19]Hymn 152, Sacred Hymns and Spiritual Songs. For the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 12th ed. (Liverpool: George W. Cannon; London: L. D. Saints’ Book Depot, 1863), 166.

[20]The “rolls” listed among these donations were likely small quantities of carded wool brought from a carding mill ready for spinning. (“Roll,” in The Oxford English Dictionary, ed. James A. H. Murray et al., 12 vols., 1933, reprint [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970], 8:756.)

[21]Indigo bush (Psorothamnus fremontii or Dalea fremontii) grows natively throughout Utah as a perennial shrub with vivid blue and purple flowers. Indigo bush could be used to make a colored dye and also had a practical medicinal use: the roots could be boiled into a tea to treat gastrointestinal problems or internal hemorrhaging. (Daniel E. Moerman, Native American Medicinal Plants: An Ethnobotanical Dictionary [Portland: Timber Press, 2009], 395–396; Raymond M. Turner et al., Sonoran Desert Plants: An Ecological Atlas [Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2005], 335; P. A. Rydberg, Flora of the Rocky Mountains and Adjacent Plains [New York: By the author, 1917], 482–483.)

[22]Joseph Smith told the women of the Nauvoo Relief Society, “After this instruction, you will be responsible for your own sins. It is an honor to save yourselves— all are responsible to save themselves.” (Document 1.2, entry for Apr. 28, 1842.)

[23]Hymn 291, Collection of Sacred Hymns [1841], 321.