Eliza Roxcy Snow

Vorlage:Infobox LDS biography Eliza Roxcy Snow (January 21, 1804 – December 5, 1887) was one of the most celebrated Mormon women of the nineteenth century. A renowned poet, she chronicled history, celebrated nature and relationships, and expounded scripture and doctrine. Snow was married in secret to Joseph Smith as a plural wife and was openly a plural wife of Brigham Young after Smith's death. Snow was the second general president of the Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1866 until her death and was the sister of Lorenzo Snow, the church's fifth president.

Early life

Born in Becket, Massachusetts, Snow was the second daughter of Oliver and Rosetta Snow. When she was two years old, her family left New England to settle on a new and fertile farm in the Western Reserve valley, in Mantua, Ohio. The Snow family valued learning and saw that each child had educational opportunities. Snow worked as secretary for her father in his office as justice of the peace.

Early church involvement

Vorlage:Auto images Snow's Baptist parents welcomed a variety of religious believers into their home. In 1828, Snow and her parents joined Alexander Campbell's Christian restorationist movement, the Disciples of Christ. In 1831, when Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, took up residence in Hiram, Ohio, four miles from the family's farm, the Snow family took a strong interest in the new religious movement. Snow's mother and sister joined Smith's Church of Christ early on; several years later, in 1835, Snow was baptized and moved to Kirtland, Ohio, the headquarters of the church. Upon her arrival, Snow donated her inheritance, a large sum of money, toward the building of the church's Kirtland Temple. 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, Snow taught school for Smith's family and was influential in interesting her younger brother, Lorenzo, in Mormonism. Lorenzo Snow later became an apostle and the church's fifth president.

Snow moved west with her family and the body of the church, first to Adam-ondi-Ahman, a short-lived settlement in Missouri, and then to Nauvoo, Illinois. 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 plural wife. Snow wrote fondly of Smith, "my beloved husband, the choice of my heart and the crown of my life". However, Snow had organized a petition in that same summer of 1842, with a thousand female signatures, denying that Smith was connected with polygamy and extoling his virtue. As Secretary of the Ladies' Relief Society, she organized the publishing of a certificate in October 1842 denouncing polygamy and denying Smith as its creator or participant. Years later, when Snow was informed that Smith's first wife, Emma, had stated on her deathbed that her husband had never been a polygamist, Snow was reported to have stated she doubted the story but "If ... [this] was really [Sister Emma's] testimony she died with a libel on her lips".

After Smith's death, Snow married Brigham Young as a plural wife. She traveled west across the plains and arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on October 2, 1847. There, childless Eliza became a prominent member of Young's family, moving into an upper bedroom in Young's Salt Lake City residence, the Lion House.

Relief Society service

Engraving of Eliza R. Snow

In 1842, Snow became the first secretary of the Nauvoo Ladies' Relief Society under the presidency of Emma Smith.

Snow was called by Young in 1866 to become the president of a reorganized Relief Society and to assist bishops in organizing Relief Societies in local wards and to "instruct the sisters". Snow traveled throughout Utah Territory encouraging women to attend meetings, sustain priesthood 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. 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 in establishing the Primary Association 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 congregations.

Snow died in Salt Lake City, and was buried in Brigham Young's family cemetery.

Poetry

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 under various pen names, including the Western Courier of Ravenna, Ohio, and the Ohio Star. A number of Snow's poems were set to music and have become important Mormon hymns, some of which appear in the current edition of the LDS Church's hymnal. One of her hymns, "Great is the Lord", was published in the first Latter Day Saint hymnal in 1835, the year of her baptism.

In Nauvoo, Snow gained unique distinction as a Mormon poet featured in local newspapers, and she was later called "Zion's Poetess." She continued to write poems as she journeyed to the Salt Lake Valley, documenting the pioneer trail and life in Utah. 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"
• "Invocation, or the Eternal Father and Mother" [retitled "O My Father"]
• "Be Not Discouraged"
• "My First View of a Western Prairie"
• "Mental Gas"
• "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. The poem, renamed "O My Father" after the first line, is included in the current LDS Church's hymnal, as are Snow's hymns "Great is the Lord"; "Again We Meet Around the Board"; "Awake, Ye Saints of God, Awake!"; "How Great the Wisdom and the Love"; "The Time Is Far Spent"; "In Our Lovely Deseret"; "Though Deepening Trials"; "Behold the Great Redeemer Die"; and "Truth Reflects Upon Our Senses".

Publications

• Eliza R. Snow: Poems: Religious, Historical and Political, Volume 1. F.D. Richards, 1856, OCLC 6549748 (archive.org). 
• George A. Smith, Lorenzo Snow, Paul A. Schettler, Eliza R. Snow: Correspondence of Palestine Tourists: Comprising a Series of Letters by George A. Smith, Lorenzo Snow, Paul A. Schettler, and Eliza R. Snow, of Utah: Mostly Written While Traveling in Europe, Asia and Africa in the Years 1872 and 1873. Deseret News Steam Printing Establishment, 1875, OCLC 85796473 (archive.org). 
• Eliza R. Snow: Poems: Religious, Historical and Political, Volume 2. The Latter-day Saints Printing and Publishing Establishment, 1877, OCLC 6549777 (archive.org). 
• Eliza R. Snow: Hymns and Songs: Selected From Various Authors, for the Primary Associations of the Children of Zion. Deseret News, 1880, OCLC 5330531 (archive.org). 
• Eliza R. Snow: Children's Primary Tune Book. Juvenile Instructor Office, 1880 (archive.org). 
• Eliza R. Snow: Bible Questions and Answers for Children. Juvenile Instructor Office, 1881, OCLC 228702929 (archive.org). 
• Eliza R. Snow: Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow, One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Deseret News, 1884, OCLC 4623484 (archive.org). 

Posthumous

• Eliza R. Snow: The Personal Writings of Eliza Roxcy Snow. University of Utah Press, 1995, ISBN 0-87480-477-9. 
• Eliza R. Snow: Eliza R. Snow: the complete poetry. Brigham Young University Press and University of Utah Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-8425-2737-8. 

See also

• Eliza R. Snow Performing Arts Center
• LDS fiction
• Mormon feminism

Further reading

• The Life and Labors of Eliza R. Snow Smith: with a full account of her funeral services. Juvenile Instructor Office, 1888, OCLC 10352533 (archive.org). 
• Palmer, Spencer J., Editor. "Eliza R. Snow's 'Sketch of my Life': Reminiscences of One of Joseph Smith's Plural Wives." BYU Studies 12 (Autumn 1971).

External links

• Eliza R. Snow at Joseph Fielding Smith Institute
• Biography at The Joseph Smith Papers Project.