 1804 - 1887 (83 years) Submit Photo / Document
Has 18 ancestors but no descendants in this family tree.
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| Name |
Eliza Roxey Snow |
| Birth |
21 Jan 1804 |
Becket, Berkshire, Massachusetts, United States  |
| Gender |
Female |
| Initiatory (LDS) |
16 Dec 1845 |
NAUVO |
| FamilySearch ID |
KWVC-BTV |
| Death |
5 Dec 1887 |
Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, United States |
| Burial |
Mormon Pioneer Memorial Monument, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, United States |
| Person ID |
I86743 |
mytree |
| Last Modified |
25 Feb 2024 |
| Father |
Oliver Snow, III, b. 18 Sep 1775, Becket, Berkshire, Massachusetts, United States d. 17 Oct 1845, Walnut Grove Township, Knox, Illinois, United States (Age 70 years) |
| Mother |
Rosetta Lenora Pettibone, b. 22 Oct 1778, Simsbury, Hartford, Connecticut, United States d. 12 Oct 1846, Walnut Grove Township, Knox, Illinois, United States (Age 67 years) |
| Marriage |
6 May 1800 |
Becket, Berkshire, Massachusetts, United States |
| Family ID |
F29419 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Family 1 |
Joseph Smith, Jr, b. 23 Dec 1805, Sharon, Windsor, Vermont, United States d. 27 Jun 1844, Carthage, Hancock, Illinois, United States (Age 38 years) |
| Marriage |
29 Jun 1842 |
Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois, United States |
| Family ID |
F29421 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Last Modified |
21 Nov 2024 |
| Family 2 |
Brigham Young, b. 1 Jun 1801, Whitingham, Windham, Vermont, United States d. 29 Aug 1877, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, United States (Age 76 years) |
| Marriage |
3 Oct 1844 |
Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois, United States |
| Family ID |
F29351 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Last Modified |
21 Nov 2024 |
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| Event Map |
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 | Birth - 21 Jan 1804 - Becket, Berkshire, Massachusetts, United States |
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 | Marriage - 29 Jun 1842 - Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois, United States |
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| Marriage - 3 Oct 1844 - Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois, United States |
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 | Initiatory (LDS) - 16 Dec 1845 - NAUVO |
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 | Death - 5 Dec 1887 - Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, United States |
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 | Burial - - Mormon Pioneer Memorial Monument, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, United States |
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| Notes |
- She was one of the most celebrated Latter Day Saint women of the ninetee n th century. A renowned poet, she chronicled history, celebrated natur e an d relationships, and expounded scripture and doctrine. Snow was marr ied t o Joseph Smith as a plural wife and was openly a plural wife of Bri gham Y oung after Smith's death. Snow was the second general president o f the Re lief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint s (LDS Chur ch), which she reestablished in Utah Territory in 1866. She w as also th e sister of Lorenzo Snow, the church's fifth president.
Snow's Baptist parents welcomed a variety of religious believers into th e ir home. In 1828, Snow and her parents joined Alexander Campbell's Chri st ian restorationist movement, the Disciples of Christ. In 1831, when Jo sep h Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, took up residenc e in H iram, Ohio, four miles from the family's farm, the Snow family too k a str ong interest in the new religious movement. Snow's mother and sis ter join ed The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints early on; sev eral year s later, in 1835, Snow was baptized and moved to Kirtland, Ohio , the head quarters of the church. Upon her arrival, Snow donated her inh eritance , a large sum of money, toward the building of the church's Kirt land Temp le. In appreciation, the building committee provided her with t he title t o "a very valuable [lot]-situated near the Temple, with a frui t tree-an e xcellent spring of water, and house that accommodated two fam ilies." Here , Snow taught school for Smith's family and was influentia l in interestin g her younger brother, Lorenzo, in Mormonism. Lorenzo Sno w later became a n apostle and the church's fifth president.
Snow moved west with her family and the body of the church, first to Ada m -ondi-Ahman, a short-lived settlement in Missouri, and then to Nauvoo , Il linois. In the 1930s Alice Merrill Horne wrote in her autobiograph y tha t when she was a girl she overheard a conversation that in Missour i durin g the 1838 Mormon War, Eliza Snow was brutally gang-raped by eigh t Missou rians, which left her unable to have children. Later, accordin g to Alic e Merrill Horne, Joseph Smith offered her marriage as a plura l wife "a s a way of promising her that she would still have eternal offs pring an d that she would be a mother in Zion. "
In Nauvoo, Snow again made her living as a school teacher. After Smith ' s death, Snow claimed to have secretly wed him on June 29, 1842, as a p lu ral wife. Snow wrote fondly of Smith, "my beloved husband, the choic e o f my heart and the crown of my life". However, Snow had organized a p etit ion in that same summer of 1842, with a thousand female signatures , denyi ng that Smith was connected with polygamy and extolling his virtu e. As Se cretary of the Ladies' Relief Society, she organized the publish ing o f a certificate in October 1842 denouncing polygamy and denying Smi th a s its creator or participant. Years later, when Snow was informed th at Sm ith's first wife, Emma, had stated on her deathbed that her husban d had n ever been a polygamist, Snow was reported to have stated she doub ted th e story but "If... [this] was really [Sister Emma's] testimony sh e died w ith a libel on her lips".
After Smith's death, Snow married Brigham Young as a plural wife. She tr a veled west across the plains and arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on Oct ob er 2, 1847. There, childless Eliza became a prominent member of Young' s f amily, moving into an upper bedroom in Young's Salt Lake City residen ce , the Lion House.
The first Relief Society of the LDS Church was organized by Joseph Smi t h in Nauvoo, Illinois on March 17, 1842, as a philanthropic and women' s e ducational organization. Snow served as the organization's first secr etar y, with Smith's wife, Emma, as president. The organization was origi nall y known as "The Female Relief Society of Nauvoo." It later became kn own s imply as "The Relief Society." For the next three years, Snow kep t copiou s notes of the organization's meetings, including Joseph Smith' s teaching s on how the organization should operate. Members of the origi nal Relie f Society stopped meeting shortly after Smith's death in 1844 , and the or ganization soon became defunct.
Brigham Young led a migration of LDS Church members to the Salt Lake Val l ey in 1847, and for the next twenty years attempts were periodically ma d e to reestablish the organization. Until 1868, however, activity was li mi ted, and no sustained, church-wide Relief Society existed.
In 1868, Young commissioned Snow with reestablishing the Relief Societ y . For the next several years, Snow traveled throughout the Utah Territo r y helping LDS bishops organize Relief Societies in their local wards, u si ng the notes she took as secretary in Nauvoo as the founding principle s o f the reestablished Relief Society. "What is the object of the Femal e Rel ief Society?" Snow wrote on one occasion. "I would reply--to do goo d--t o bring into requisition every capacity we possess for doing good, n ot on ly in relieving the poor but in saving souls." Local Relief Societi es soo n fell under the umbrella of a church-wide, general Relief Societ y of whi ch Snow served as president until 1887.
Snow's presidency emphasized spirituality and self-sufficiency. The Reli e f Society sent women to medical school, trained nurses, opened the Dese re t Hospital, operated cooperative stores, promoted silk manufacture, sa ve d wheat, and built granaries. In 1872, Snow provided assistance and ad vic e to Louisa L. Greene in the creation of a woman's publication loosel y af filiated with the Relief Society—the Woman's Exponent. Snow's respon sibil ities also extended to young women and children within the church . She wa s a primary organizer for the Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement A ssociatio n in 1870 and assisted Aurelia Spencer Rogers in establishing t he Primar y Association in 1878.
Snow served as president of the Relief Society until her death in 1887 . B y 1888, the Relief Society had more than 22,000 members in 400 loca l cong regations.
Snow died in Salt Lake City, and was buried in Brigham Young's family ce m etery.
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Has 18 ancestors but no descendants in this family tree.
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