Zina Diantha Huntington Jacobs Smith Young
Learning about the life of Zina D.H. Young is like reading the female perspective of early church history. Zina was in the thick of it all - the church's origins, its major settlements and exoduses,...
View ArticleBonus: This year's RS Birthday Celebration Talk
Every year since my current ward discovered my obsession with the history of mormon women, I've been asked to speak at the RS birthday celebration activity. I love it. These women's lives speak to me...
View ArticleLucy Stringham Grant
Lucy Stringham was the first wife of Heber J. Grant, who would go on to become the 7thpresident of the church. She would die after a long fight with illness at age 34 in 1893, and she wouldn't live to...
View Article"Sister More"
I've been fascinated recently with accounts of early Mormon women prophesying. These women received mixed responses from those around them – sometimes their messages were doubted, but often those that...
View Article2014 Theme: Global
Most practicing Mormons can give you a basic synopsis of life for the early US converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – gathering to Nauvoo, handcart companies, etc. But this year,...
View ArticleDesideria Quintanar de Yanez
As I'd mentioned in last year's posts, spiritual gifts in the contemporary Mormon church tend to look differently than they did in the early church, whether in how we practice them (i.e. speaking in...
View ArticleRosa Clara Friedlander Logie
Rosa Clara moved from the English Channel Islands to Sydney, Australia in 1849, when she was eleven years old. Two years later, LDS missionaries arrived, and her family were among their earliest...
View ArticleMarie Madeleine Cardon Guild
I've been impressed that many of the isolated sisters I've been studying have been blessed with spiritual gifts that have guided them. Marie Cardon Giuld's conversion demonstrates this.Marie was born...
View Article2015 Theme: Influence
The role of a bishop's wife in a student ward (or any ward, for that matter) is nebulous. In some of my student wards, they have played pivotal roles, and in others, I don't think I even met them. I...
View ArticleAurelia Read Spencer Rogers
At the end of this month, I will have spent five consecutive years serving in various primary callings, and I couldn't be more pleased about it. I love the primary. I love focusing on the core of the...
View ArticleEmily H Higgs
In the Young Woman's Journal, Emily H. Higgs began her summary of the first LDS Girls Camp experience with the following lines: “It is quite generally recognized that conditions surrounding our girls...
View ArticleEmmeline Wells - Welfare Edition
OK, OK, I know I wasa bitobsessivein talkingaboutEmmeline Wells when I started this blog in 2008. I love that woman. That said, this year I am talking about women that developed our contemporary...
View ArticleSarah Granger Kimball
In honor of the anniversary of the Relief Society's organization, I'm reposting this from 2013. It was originally given as a talk at a ward Relief Society activity.171 years ago, a woman named Sarah...
View ArticleEmma Smith's Contributions
The full biographical treatment on Emma Smith is clearly out of the reach of this blog post, but I'm going to briefly talk about three major ways that Emma Smith impacted contemporary worship in the...
View Article2016 Theme: They matter to me
Confession: as a teenager, I hated Mormon history.Growing up in the shadow of Winter Quarters, we heard a lot about pioneers. We had pioneer youth conference, pioneer firesides, and even had activities...
View ArticleSarah Granger Kimball
I’d planned to go sequential and show my spiritual development over time through my involvement with women’s history this month, but after watching Tyler Glenn’s video, my heart is breaking, and this...
View ArticleEliza R Snow
Most elements of my girls camp experiences were fairly similar from year to year – skits, first aid certification, hikes, pranks, devotionals, testimony meetings, etc. However, we did something a...
View ArticleEmmeline Wells
A few years back, my ward celebrated the Relief Society’s birthday by having several women perform a brief biography in character and lead a breakout group discussion following. I was asked to do...
View Article2017 Theme: In the beginning
175 years ago, twenty women sat together in the upper room of a red brick store. They were organized under the pattern of the priesthood, and counseled by Joseph Smith to encourage “the brethren to...
View ArticlePhilinda Clark Eldredge Merrick Keeler
Philinda Merrick had known tragedy by the time she joined that first Relief Society meeting. Driven from her home in Missouri in 1838, her family had stopped in Haun’s Mill on its way to gather to...
View ArticleSarah M Kingsley Howe Cleveland
When Joseph Smith called for suggestions on the name for the women’s organization of the church, Sarah M Cleveland, newly ordained to serve as a counselor to Emma Smith, brought forward the name “The...
View ArticleSophia Bundy Packard
Sophia Bundy Packard and her husband, Noah, were introduced to the church by their neighbors, the Jolly family. They had originally pitied the Jolly family for their belief in the “gold bible,” and...
View ArticleElvira Cowles (Holmes)
At the first Relief Society meeting, Elvira Cowles was nominated as the treasurer for the society. Elvira was diligent in her work. The Relief Society minutes are peppered with accounts and resources...
View ArticleDesdemona Fullmer (Smith Benson McLane)
After joining the church, Desdemona Fullmer fled persecution after persecution. She arrived in Kirtland during a period when many were apostatizing, yet she stayed true. A year later, she joined the...
View ArticleMartha McBride Knight Smith Kimball
On her 37th birthday, Martha Knight joined Philinda Merrick, a woman who had already or would soon become her sister wife, at the founding meeting of the Relief Society. She would contribute to the...
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