January 21, 1804
On this day, Eliza Roxcy Snow, “poetess of Zion” and one of the Mormon faith’s most celebrated women, was born in Becket Massachusetts.
One of the original members of the 1847 Mormon migration to the Salt Lake Valley, Snow (left) already played a significant role in church leadership.
Well educated and experienced as a clerical assistant, she was the first 
secretary of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, a philanthropic and educational organization. which founder Joseph Smith (right) established. Smith’s first wife, Emma was appointed president.
Following Smith’s death in 1844, murdered at age 38 by a lynch mob, the Relief Society disbanded. Three years later Brigham Young (below right) led the Nauvoo community West. Snow, declaring that she had secretly wed Smith in 
1842, became one of Young’s plural wives and accompanied the group on its arduous 2000-mile trek.
In addition to her poems of faith and inspiration, Snow wrote extensively in her journals during their travels. Events of mid-June along the Platte River in southeastern Nebraska described the hardships faced by emigrants.
“Sat. 19th Our division under J[edediah M.] Grant leave the Horn—we soon come in sight of the com[pany] that started yes[terday]. Near the place of their last night encampment they found the carcass of a man recently kill’d, and pick’d by the wolves—many papers were found which designated him to have been an Officer from St. Louis. —We encamp’d on the Platte river—about 15 ms. from where we cross’d the [Elk] Horn. The pole of Liberty with the white flag waving was erected by the com. that preceded us—we saw it several miles distant.”
Having arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, two decades later Snow was once again commissioned to lead a church-wide relief effort. Traveling throughout Utah Territory, she assisted local bishops in establishing relief organizations using the Nauvoo model. Under her presidency, the society sent women to medical school, trained nurses and founded Deseret Hospital. “What is the object of the relief society?” Snow wrote, “to do good. . .not only in relieving the poor but in saving souls.”
Snow died on December 5, 1888 in Salt Lake City at the age of 84 and is buried at Salt Lake’s Mormon Pioneer Memorial. The year after her death, the LDS Relief Society numbered 22,000 members located in 400 congregations.
Snow’s brother, Lorenzo, (right) whom she brought to Mormonism as a young man, served as the fifth president of the Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints from 1898 to 1901, leadership that bridged two centuries.
Eliza’s legacy also include many of her verses which were set to music and remain a part of Mormon worship.
Pioneer Memorial Museum, 300 North Main Street. Salt Lake City, houses the world’s largest collection of artifacts on a single subject – memorabilia of Salt Lake Valley pioneers. It includes early hand-crafted objects to elaborate 
furnishings that arrived by ox cart. Administered by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers, founded in 1901, provides a step back in time with exhibits from Johnston’s Army, the Mormon Battalion and the Spanish-American War. Open Monday through Saturday from 9 to 5, admission is free. For more information go to dupinternational.org.
© Text Only – 2017 – Headin’ West LLC – All photos – public domain or fair use.