Minutes and Discourses, 17 March 1842
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Source Note
Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, Minutes, and JS, Discourses, , Hancock Co., IL, 17 Mar. 1842. Featured version copied [ca. 17 Mar. 1842] in Relief Society Minute Book, pp. 6–15; handwriting of ; CHL. Includes redactions. For more complete source information, see the source note for Nauvoo Relief Society Minute Book.
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Historical Introduction
On 17 March 1842 JS presided at the organizational meeting of the . Following a national trend in the creation of women’s benevolence, temperance, and moral reform societies, member suggested organizing a women’s society in , Illinois. Kimball proposed a sewing society with the objective of assisting with construction of the . About a dozen women met in Kimball’s home in early March 1842 and invited to draft a constitution for the new society. Decades later Kimball reminisced that when the constitution and bylaws were presented to JS, he responded, “This is not what the sisters want, there is something better for them. I have desired to organise the Sisters in the order of the [.] I now have the key by which I can do it.” Consequently, twenty women, including Kimball, Snow, and , met with JS and and on 17 March 1842 to organize the society.The society’s first and subsequent eight meetings (through 26 May 1842) were held in the main room of the upper story of JS’s on Water Street in . Referred to in the minutes as the “lodge room,” this was the same room in which the city’s lodge of Freemasons held its organizational meeting. This Masonic lodge was officially created, and JS initiated into it and raised a Master Mason, on 15 and 16 March 1842—the two days preceding the organization of the Female Relief Society. In a letter to the society two weeks after the first meeting, JS and other church leaders referred twice to the society members as Masons, suggesting the timing of the creation of the two organizations was not coincidental. Though not a member of the sororal organization, JS attended nine of the society’s meetings in 1842, delivering sermons at six of them.JS presided during the first part of the organizational meeting, and apostle served as the chair until the society’s officers were in place. During the meeting JS instructed the women about the purpose of the society—to care for the poor and to strengthen the morals and virtues of the community—and recommended that the women present choose a president for the society. was unanimously elected president, and she chose and as counselors. JS then gave extensive instruction to the society, referring to a July 1830 revelation that declared that Emma was “an Elect Lady” and indicating that she had been ordained to teach the female members of the community. JS gave instruction on parliamentary procedure for the business of the society. Emma Smith and her counselors replaced Taylor as chair and moderated debate regarding the formal name of the society, which they resolved would be the Female Relief Society of . The men left the meeting, at which time the society appointed further officers. When this business was concluded, the men returned and the society closed its meeting with prayer.A note in ’s handwriting on the title page of the society’s minute book states that apostle presented the book to the organization on the day of its first meeting. Richards served as secretary for the first part of the meeting and took minutes until the men withdrew so the society could appoint more officers. At that point Snow was appointed the society’s secretary and commenced taking minutes. Although Richards gave Snow the book sometime during this day, the cleanliness of the inscription and the fact that the entire account is in Snow’s handwriting suggest that Richards and Snow—after she was appointed secretary—first inscribed these minutes elsewhere, with Snow later copying them into the minute book. Snow probably inscribed the minute book version featured below soon after the meeting. The original notes on which this copy was based are apparently no longer extant.
Footnotes
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1
See Derr et al., First Fifty Years of Relief Society, 6, 24.
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2
Sarah Granger Kimball, Reminiscence, 17 Mar. 1882, in Derr et al., First Fifty Years of Relief Society, 495.
Derr, Jill Mulvay, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Kate Holbrook, and Matthew J. Grow, eds. The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women’s History. Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2016.
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3
Freemasonry was a strictly fraternal organization. Both of JS’s references to the women of the society as Masons related to the importance of society members being able to trust their fellow members and to keep the society’s business confidential. The letter, written and presented to the society on 31 March 1842, stated that “there may be some among you who are not sufficiently skilled in Masonry as to keep a secret.” Similarly, in concluding the authors warned, “Let that epistle be had as a private matter in your society & then we shall learn whether you are good masons.” (Letter to Emma Smith and the Relief Society, 31 Mar. 1842.)
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5
Revelation, July 1830–C [D&C 25:3, 7].
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6
The note reads: “This Book, was politely presented to the Society by Elder W. Richards; on the 17th of March, AD. 1842.” (Relief Society Minute Book, [4], in Derr et al., First Fifty Years of Relief Society, 27–28.)
Derr, Jill Mulvay, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Kate Holbrook, and Matthew J. Grow, eds. The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women’s History. Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2016.
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7
At the next meeting of the society, held 24 March, Emma Smith “read from the Book of records [the minute book], the proceedings of the first meeting of the Society.” (Relief Society Minute Book, 24 Mar. 1842, 17, in Derr et al., First Fifty Years of Relief Society, 38.)
Derr, Jill Mulvay, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Kate Holbrook, and Matthew J. Grow, eds. The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women’s History. Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2016.
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1
| Mrs | |
| Mrs. | Bathsheba W. Bigler Smith |
| Phebe Ann Baldwin Hawkes | Phebe M. Bartholomew Wheeler |
| Elizabeth Hughes Jones | |
| Sophia Bundy Packard | Margaret A Norris Cook |
| Philinda Eldredge Merrick | Athalia Rigdon Robinson |
| Sophia Robinson | |
| Leonora Cannon Taylor | |
| Sophia R. Marks | |
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