Eliza Roxcy Snow
Encyclopedia
Plural marriage
Polygamy was taught by leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for more than half of the 19th century, and practiced publicly from 1852 to 1890.The Church's practice of polygamy has been highly controversial, both within...
of Joseph Smith, Jr., was married openly for many years to polygamist Brigham Young
Brigham Young
Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...
, and was the second general president of the Relief Society
Relief Society
The Relief Society is a philanthropic and educational women's organization and an official auxiliary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . It was founded in 1842 in Nauvoo, Illinois, USA and has approximately 6 million members in over 170 countries and territories...
of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1866 until her death.
Born in Becket
Becket, Massachusetts
Becket is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,779 at the 2010 census.- History :...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
on 21 January 1804, Snow was the second daughter of Oliver and Rosetta Snow. When she was two years old, her family left New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
to settle on a new and fertile farm in the Western Reserve valley, in Mantua
Mantua Township, Portage County, Ohio
The village of Mantua, which became independent of the township in 1993, is located in southern Mantua Township.Formed from the Connecticut Western Reserve, Mantua Township covers an area of .-Notable people:...
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
. The Snow family valued learning and saw that each child had educational opportunities. Eliza worked as secretary for her father in his office as justice of the peace. She gained renown for her poetry in her early twenties, publishing in local newspapers, and winning awards for her work.
Early church involvement
Snow's BaptistBaptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
parents welcomed a variety of religious believers into their home. In 1828, Snow and her parents joined Alexander Campbell
Alexander Campbell (Restoration movement)
Alexander Campbell was an early leader in the Second Great Awakening of the religious movement that has been referred to as the Restoration Movement, or Stone-Campbell Movement...
’s Christian restorationist movement, the Disciples of Christ. When Joseph Smith, Jr., the Latter Day Saint prophet
Prophet
In religion, a prophet, from the Greek word προφήτης profitis meaning "foreteller", is an individual who is claimed to have been contacted by the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other people...
, took up residence in Hiram, Ohio
Hiram, Ohio
Hiram is a village in Portage County, Ohio, United States. It was formed from portions of Hiram Township in the Connecticut Western Reserve. The population was 1,242 at the 2000 census...
, four miles from the Snow farm in 1831, the Snow family took a strong interest in the new religious movement. Eliza's mother and sister joined the Latter Day Saint Church early on; several years later, in 1835, Eliza was baptized and moved to Kirtland, Ohio
Kirtland, Ohio
Kirtland is a city in Lake County, Ohio, USA. The population was 6,670 at the 2000 census. Kirtland is famous for being the early headquarters of the Latter Day Saint movement.-Origins of Kirtland:...
, which was at the time the headquarters of the Church. Upon her arrival, Eliza donated her inheritance, a large sum of money, toward the building of the Church's Kirtland Temple
Kirtland Temple
The Kirtland Temple is a National Historic Landmark in Kirtland, Ohio, USA, on the eastern edge of the Cleveland metropolitan area. Owned and operated by the Community of Christ, formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints , the house of worship was the first temple to be...
. In appreciation, the building committee provided her with the title to “a very valuable [lot]-situated near the Temple, with a fruit tree-an excellent spring of water, and house that accommodated two families.” Here Eliza taught school for Joseph Smith's family and was influential in interesting her younger brother Lorenzo Snow
Lorenzo Snow
Lorenzo Snow was the fifth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1898 to his death. Snow was the last president of the LDS Church in the nineteenth century.-Family:...
in the young Church. Lorenzo later became fifth President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Snow moved west with her family and the body of the Church, first to Adam-ondi-Ahman
Adam-ondi-Ahman
Adam-ondi-Ahman is an historic site along the east bluffs above the Grand River in Daviess County, Missouri. According to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , it is the site where Adam and Eve lived after being expelled from the Garden of Eden...
, a short-lived LDS settlement in Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, and then to Nauvoo
Nauvoo, Illinois
Nauvoo is a small city in Hancock County, Illinois, United States. Although the population was just 1,063 at the 2000 census, and despite being difficult to reach due to its location in a remote corner of Illinois, Nauvoo attracts large numbers of visitors for its historic importance and its...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. In Nauvoo, Snow again made her living as a school teacher. She secretly wed Joseph Smith, on 29 June 1842, as a plural wife
Plural marriage
Polygamy was taught by leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for more than half of the 19th century, and practiced publicly from 1852 to 1890.The Church's practice of polygamy has been highly controversial, both within...
. Eliza wrote fondly of Joseph “my beloved husband, the choice of my heart and the crown of my life”. (see List of the wives of Joseph Smith)
After Smith's death, Snow married Brigham Young
Brigham Young
Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...
as a plural wife. She traveled west across the plains and arrived in the Salt Lake Valley
Salt Lake Valley
Salt Lake Valley is a valley in Salt Lake County in the north-central portion of the U.S. state of Utah. It contains Salt Lake City and many of its suburbs, notably West Valley City, Murray, Sandy, and West Jordan; its total population is 1,029,655 as of 2010...
on 2 October 1847. There, childless Eliza became a prominent member of Young's family, moving into an upper bedroom in Young's Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...
residence, the Lion House.
Relief Society service
Relief Society
The Relief Society is a philanthropic and educational women's organization and an official auxiliary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . It was founded in 1842 in Nauvoo, Illinois, USA and has approximately 6 million members in over 170 countries and territories...
in 1842 under the presidency of Emma Smith. Called by Young in 1866 to help bishops organize Relief Societies in local wards and to "instruct the sisters," Eliza traveled throughout Utah Territory
Utah Territory
The Territory of Utah was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 4, 1896, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Utah....
encouraging women to attend meetings, sustain priesthood
Priesthood (Mormonism)
In the Latter Day Saint movement, priesthood is considered to be the power and authority of God, including the authority to act as a leader in the church and to perform ordinances, and the power to perform miracles. A body of priesthood holders is referred to as a quorum.Priesthood denotes elements...
leaders, and support Young's economic programs.
Snow’s presidency emphasized spirituality and self-sufficiency. The Relief Society sent women to medical school, trained nurses, opened the Deseret Hospital, operated cooperative stores, promoted silk manufacture, saved wheat, and built granaries. In 1872 Snow provided assistance and advice to Louisa L. Greene in the creation of a woman's publication loosely affiliated with the Relief Society—the Woman's Exponent
Woman's Exponent
Woman's Exponent was a newspaper published from 1872 until 1914 in Salt Lake City. Its purposes were to uplift and strengthen women of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and to educate those not of the Mormon faith about the women of Mormonism...
. Snow's responsibilities also extended to young women and children within the Church. She was a primary organizer for the Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Association in 1870 and assisted Aurelia Spencer Rogers
Aurelia Spencer Rogers
Aurelia Read Spencer Rogers was the founder of Primary, the children's organization and official auxiliary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...
in establishing the Primary Association
Primary Association
The Primary is a children's organization and an official auxiliary within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...
in 1878.
Snow served as president of the Relief Society until her death in 1887. By 1888, the Relief Society had more than 22,000 members in 400 local wards and branches.
Snow died on December 5, 1887, in Salt Lake City, and was buried in Brigham Young's family cemetery.
Poetry
Eliza R. Snow wrote poetry from a young age, one time even writing school lessons in rhyme. Between 1826 and 1832 she published more than 20 poems in local newspapers, including the Ravenna, OhioRavenna, Ohio
* Chris Bangle; automobile designer* Bill Bower, last surviving pilot of the Doolittle Raid* David D. Busch; best-selling author* William Rufus Day; U.S. Supreme Court justice* Calvin Hampton; Classical organist* Robert B...
Western Courier and the Ohio Star, using various pen names. A number of Snow's poems were set to music and have become important LDS hymns
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hymns
This article is about LDS church hymns in general, for the book, see Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Latter-day Saint hymns come from many sources, and there have been numerous hymn books printed by the Church since its organization in 1830...
, some of which appear in the current edition of the LDS Hymnal
Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (1985 book)
Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the official hymn book of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ....
. One of her hymns, "Great is the Lord", was published in the first Latter-day Saint Hymnbook in 1835, the year of her baptism. In Nauvoo
Nauvoo, Illinois
Nauvoo is a small city in Hancock County, Illinois, United States. Although the population was just 1,063 at the 2000 census, and despite being difficult to reach due to its location in a remote corner of Illinois, Nauvoo attracts large numbers of visitors for its historic importance and its...
, Eliza R. Snow gained unique distinction as a Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
poet featured in local newspapers, and she was later called "Zion's Poetess." She continued to write poems as she crossed the plains, documenting the pioneer trail and life in Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
. The first of her two volumes of Poems, Religious, Historical, and Political appeared in 1856, followed by the second in 1877. Some of her poems include:
- "How Great the Wisdom and the Love" (text)
- "Invocation, or the Eternal Father and Mother" ("Oh, My Father") (text)
- "Be Not Discouraged" (text)
- "My First View of a Western Prairie" (text)
- "Mental Gas" (text)
- "Think not When You Gather to Zion Your Troubles and Trials are Through"
- "O Awake! My Slumbering Minstrel"
- "Truth Reflects upon Our Senses"
One of her best-known poems, "Invocation, or the Eternal Father and Mother," was written soon after the death of her father and just over a year after the death of Joseph Smith.. This poem, renamed "O My Father
O My Father (hymn)
"O My Father" is a Latter-day Saint hymn written by Eliza R. Snow who felt inspired to write it after Joseph Smith, Jr. had taught her the principle of heavenly parents...
", is included in the current LDS Hymnal
Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (1985 book)
Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the official hymn book of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ....
along with How Great the Wisdom and the Love and Truth Reflects upon our Senses.
Publications
- Snow, Eliza R. "Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow, One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." Salt Lake City, Deseret News, 1884.
- --Reprinted 1999, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City.
- Snow, Eliza R. Poems: Religious, Historical and Political. 2 vols. (Liverpool: F.D. Richards, 1856).