Eliza Roxcy (Snow) Young (1804 - 1887)

Born 21 Jan 1804 in Becket, Berkshire, Massachusetts, United States

Ancestors

Wife of Joseph Smith Jr. — married 29 Jun 1842 (to 27 Jun 1844) in Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois, USA

Wife of Brigham Young — married 3 Oct 1844 in Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois, United States

Died 5 Dec 1887 at age 83 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah Territory, USA

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Chet Snow [send private message] and Dee Christophel D'Errico [send private message]

Biography

Eliza (Snow) Young was a Latter Day Saint pioneer.

Eliza became a member of the LDS Church between 1830 - 1848.

Eliza (Snow) Young is Notable.

Eliza Roxcy Snow was born on January 21, 1804 in Becket, Berkshire, Massachusetts.^[1]She was the daughter of Oliver Snow III and Rosetta Pettibone. Eliza is thought to have been Joseph Smith's first polygamous wife, married by Brigham Young, on June 29 1842 in Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois. ^[2]

Eliza R. Snow taught a select school for girls in Kirtland, Geauga Co., Ohio. She boarded with the family of the Prophet Joseph Smith Jr. and gave most of her means toward the building of the Kirtland Temple. In 1838, she left Kirtland with the persecuted Saints for Far West, Caldwell, Missouri, where she remained for some time nursing her brother, Lorenzo Snow, through a severe illness. She then journeyed on to Quincy and then to Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois where again she resided in the home of the Prophet, whom she married June 29, 1842. On June 12, 1847, when the Saints were leaving Nauvoo for their "New Zion" near the Great Salt Lake, she started with the second company and arrived at journey's end in October of that year.^[3] Eliza lived in the Old Fort at Salt Lake City for twenty-two months. On June 29, 1849, she married Joseph Smith's successor, Brigham Young.

During her childhood she began writing poetry and her great literary ability was soon recognized. Nine volumes of prose and poetry were published by this remarkable woman.

"Our life is a cup where the sweet with the bitter,

And bitter with the sweet oft commingle again;

Where we're meeting and parting and parting and meeting,

Pain changes to pleasure and pleasure to pain.

When stern duty demands of my husband long absence,

In spite of my judgement my feelings will mourn;

But the time wears away, though it seems with slow motion,

And my heart beats with joy when I hail his return."

Eliza R. Snow

At the time of death of Brigham Young….30 Aug 1877…

“Eliza R. Snow sat a bit apart, a slight and fragile figure resembling a piece of Dresden china in the black silk dress with lace trim. [John] Taylor greeted her with genuine warmth. She was the widow of both Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, venerated as the first lady of Mormondom. As president of The Relief Society she held the highest office open to women; she had written some of the church’s most–loved hymns and was considered its poet laureate.” ^[4]

She passed away on December 5, 1887 at her home in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah Territory, USA. ^[5]

Additional Biography

Eliza Roxcy Snow was a one-year old baby and her sister, Abigail Leonora Snow, was but four years old in 1805 when they were taken from their natal New England by their parents, who moved to the pioneer settlement of Mantua, Portage County, in the wilderness of northeastern Ohio. ^[6] Five more children were born to the Snow family in Mantua, and they lived there for almost thirty years.

Mantua in 1830 was one of a cluster of villages in Portage County visited by missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, organized 6 April 1830 by an attractive and very charismatic young man, Joseph Smith Jr., who preached a new vision of Christianity, inspired by prophetic visions he had experienced. Smith's mission flourished, and in the fall of 1830 more than 100 settlers of the region were baptized in the Mormon faith. The members of the closeknit Snow family were Baptists who, in true pioneer fashion, often offered hospitality to anyone who passed through or visited their village. In the winter of 1830-31 they entertained a friend and follower of Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, through whom Eliza later met Joseph Smith Jr., himself. Meanwhile Eliza's parents became so dedicated to the new revelations that they and their oldest daughter, Leonora, were converted to the Mormon faith and were baptized in it in 1831. ^[7]

Eliza was twenty-six years old that year. She was a very intelligent, strong-willed person whose leadership and talent for writing were recognized early in life. She put off a decision about the Church for four more years, but once converted in 1835, she too, was baptized into the LDS Church; and she never looked back.^[8] Shortly thereafter Eliza Snow moved to Kirtland, Geauga Co., Ohio, a village about thirty miles north of Mantua, where she taught school and served as governess to Joseph Smith's children by his first wife, Emma (Hale) Smith. ^[9]

In spite of the enthusiastic crowds that Joseph Smith drew to his sermons, the majority of Americans and their established churches repudiated his doctrines vehemently, and often with force. He was tarred and feathered by a mob as early as 1832; he was forced to flee from Kirtland in 1838, was expelled with all Latter-day Saints from a town named Far West, Missouri, in 1839, by the governor of that state. Yet only one year later he found asylum in western Illinois, where he and his followers built a new town, Nauvoo, with great hopes that they were at last on friendly ground.

Settlement was swift; the State of Illinois chartered Nauvoo and granted it the right of local government. A university and a military organization called the Nauvoo Legion, comparable to a militia company, were established. Joseph Smith was commissioned Lt. General of the Nauvoo Legion. A Mormon temple was built. The city rapidly grew to a population of 20,000. ^[10] On 29 June 1842, at a time when prospects for the future of the Latter-day Saints looked promising, Eliza R. Snow became Joseph Smith's second wife. It was a "plural marriage," so recently sanctioned for the Latter-day Saints by Joseph Smith that it was kept secret for several years from everyone, even from the Saints. ^[11]

In 1844 a few disgruntled former members of the Latter-day Saints founded a newspaper in Nauvoo for the sole purpose of exposing alleged misdeeds of the prophet. Only one issue of the paper was published. As soon as it came out, the Nauvoo town council pronounced the paper a nuisance and banned the distribution of any remaining copies. Officers of the law were dispatched to confiscate any copies still at the printers, and in the process the whole printing establishment was wrecked. At this, the printer obtained a warrant for the arrest of Joseph Smith, claiming that he was responsible for the wreckage of the office. Smith was also, no doubt unjustly, accused of having a hand in the May 1842 assassination attempt on Lucius Boggs' life. He was the Missouri Governor that had forced the Saints out of Caldwell County in 1838.^[12]

Since Joseph Smith was the head of the Nauvoo Legion there was a strong possibility of an armed clash if the police were to try to arrest him; and the Governor of Illinois managed to persuade Joseph to turn himself in and rely on the police and the stout walls of the jail to serve as safeguards against the mob. Joseph reluctantly agreed to surrender. On Friday, 21 June 1844, Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were voluntarily imprisoned in the jail at Carthage, Illinois, the County Seat of Hancock County, in which Nauvoo was located. The next six days were spent in negotiations between Joseph Smith's accusers and the Governor of Illinois over the question of how best to try the distinguished prisoner.

Finally, on Wednesday 27 June 1844, the governor issued his order for a trial to be held two days later, on 29 June. The accusers were not to be placated, however. At about four o'clock that afternoon, after the departure of the governor, a large number of men gathered about two miles from Carthage and began to move swiftly toward the town. A soldier on lookout saw the men coming but by the time he was able to clamber down from his lookout station in the jail's cupola and had run to warn the police, the pounding of feet on the stairs, the sound of bullets against wood, and the crash of the door breaking down foretold the instant death of Hyrum Smith, and the nearly instant death of Joseph Smith. Both were killed by rifle shots. Two men who were in the room with them were injured, but survived. ^[13]

In the aftermath of the tragic disaster, the Latter-day Saints regrouped under the leadership of Brigham Young and at first considered whether they could somehow regain some of the wide acceptance they had formerly enjoyed in Nauvoo. It soon became apparent that was not going to be possible, so all hands set to work to organize the greatest exodus to the wilderness ever forced upon American citizens by their fellowmen. At this point, Eliza Snow's strength of character became visible to all. Eliza had been appointed on 17 March 1842 by Joseph Smith to be secretary of the first Relief Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to serve with Joseph's first wife, Emma Smith, who was first president of the Relief Society, and the two women became fast friends. It was the first executive job Eliza had had for the Saints, and it was to be followed by many more such assignments during her long life. Three months after she was appointed, she married Joseph Smith, and from that time on, even after the death of Joseph, she was in a position to know what was going on in leadership circles in the church.

By the fall of 1845 every member of the families of Latter-day Saints who was physically able was hard at work building wagons, packing and storing durable supplies, stitching warm clothing,and preserving food for the trek west which had been decided by a conference of leaders of the church. The pressure from their foes in Nauvoo was constant, and the deadline for departure was finally moved up to February 1846 for all who could possible be ready by then, even though they would have to leave in the depth of winter. At about this time, Eliza Snow (by then a widow) became one of the plural wives of Brigham Young. As such, she was eligible to leave Nauvoo in the first contingent for the west. Brigham Young arranged for Eliza to travel with the family of one Colonel Markham that included the Colonel's wife and six teenage children. Their goal was to get as far west as possible with the supplies on hand and then build winter quarters in which they could spend the next winter in preparing for their final move to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake in Utah Territory.

On the trail Eliza sewed; she wrote poems, hymns, and letters; and kept a daily journal. She also spent a lot of time visiting other women. Her journal reveals a remarkable talent for seemingly effortless writing of long vigorous, very rhythmic, poems, some of which were obviously meant to be hymns and all of which revolved around the theme of thankfulness for being aware of God's great gift of life and love, a gift that totally outweighed any disaster. Her daily remarks reflected the same philosophy but were also sprinkled with wry remarks about the unfairness of the oppression suffered by the Saints, always ending on an upbeat reminder that in the long run all who resolutely met such woe were the winners under God's care. ^[14].

Two Mormon scouts saw the Great Salt Lake Valley on 19 July 1847, and for the next forty years, immigrants arrived in the valley by the thousands upon thousands - many of them were destitute - on horseback, in wagons drawn by horses or oxen. and for four miserable years (1856-1860) even on foot, pulling handcarts.^[15]

Brigham Young appointed Eliza R. (Snow) Young as President of all Relief Societies in the far-flung wards of the Mormon Church early in the history of the Church, with primary responsibility for promoting junior and senior societies in the burgeoning new churches and in overseeing the activities of existing Societies through correspondence and, in many cases, by actual visits to churches in other locations, even some in other countries. In 1872 she made a Grand Tour to Palestine, stopping in England to visit some of the wards there on the way. Very early in her term of office Eliza Snow established the first Primary School for children in the church. And she was always interested in furthering the welfare of women; she organized ward auxiliaries, a territorial fair, medical education classes, a silk industry, a woman's commission store for marketing home manufactured goods, and was founder and director of a hospital.^[16]

In a revealing exchange of correspondence with one of her young nieces who wrote to confess that she had contemplated marriage but had rejected the opportunity and had doubts as to whether she had done the right thing, Eliza answered:

To be sure, while unmarried, one cannot be fulfilling the requisition of maternity, but let me ask: Is it not as important that those already born should be cultivated and prepared for use in the Kingdom of God, as that others should be born? ^[17]

Accompanying all her other efforts were the writings of Eliza R. Snow, as she signed herself. Joseph Smith had called her "Zion's poetess," and she retained that status all her life. She published two volumes of poems and several other works, including a biography of her brother, Lorenzo Snow, and a collection called "Correspondence of Palestine Tourists". One of her biographers states, "She also wrote many poems and orations for singers and speakers to present at festive celebrations. One can hardly find a Fourth of July program without at least a toast by Eliza, or a New Year's Day newspaper without her versified summary of the year just past." ^[18]

For the funeral of Eliza Snow in 1887, The Tabernacle Assembly Hall was draped in purest white, a fitting fulfillment of one of the lovely lines she wrote:

"Bury me quietly when I die. But, as one of her biographers notes, her vibrant personality and sense of humor shine more clearly through her epitaph, "I would not be forgotten, quite." ^[19]

Sources

1. ↑ "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FZ2T-BG4 : 14 January 2020), Roxey Eliza Snow, 1804.
2. ↑ Affidavits about celestial marriage, 1869-1915 / 40 Affidavits on Celestial Marriage, Book number 1, 1869 / Eliza Roxcy Snow affidavit https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/42ea32db-a645-400a-96d8-4761cb655d7c/0/0
3. ↑ LDS Pioneers Overland Travel Database: Eliza Roxcy Snow
4. ↑ The Kingdom or Nothing, Samuel W. Taylor 1967, pg. 7.
5. ↑ "Utah, Cemetery Abstracts," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QLL6-VT63 : 13 February 2020), Eliza R Snow Smith, 5 Dec 1887; citing Death, Utah Territory, United States, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.
6. ↑ See profile Oliver Snow III for more about this Snow family and its intimate relationship with Joseph Smith Jr. and the early LDS Church.]
7. ↑ Jane McBride Choate, "Eliza R. Snow," in The Friend, a magazine published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, October 1986, pp. 34-35.
8. ↑ BYU Nauvoo Community Project
9. ↑ See preceding Note.
10. ↑ [The Encyclopedia Americana, 8th ed., q.v. "Mormons"]
11. ↑ Maureen Ursenbach Beecher, in Claudia L. Bushman, ed., Mormon Sisters, pg. 36.
12. ↑ Attempted Assassination of Lilburn Boggs Article on Wikipedia
13. ↑ Carmer, The Death of the Prophet, in "American Heritage," v. 14, 1:48, 85-89.
14. ↑ [Kenneth W. Godfrey, Audrey M. Godfrey, Jill Mulvay Derr, Women's Voices, 150-1641
15. ↑ [My Kingdom Shall Roll Forth, Readings in Church History. Published by The Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints, 2nd. ed., 23-38]
16. ↑ Beecher, in Bushman, pg. 35.
17. ↑ Beecher, in Bushman, pp. 25-26.
18. ↑ See preceding Note: pp. 35-36.
19. ↑ Beecher, in Bushman, pg. 39.

• Tom Bredehoft, Pettibone Registry, page 189,317-320, see K. Pontius.
• Information developed from Find A Grave Memorial# 6319439 .
• Our Pioneer Heritage Vol 1, Brigham Young His Wives and Family
• "Ancestral File v4.19," database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.2.1/9MXD-3F8
• Wikipedia contributors, "Eliza R. Snow," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eliza_R._Snow&oldid=728579972 (accessed July 11, 2016).
• BYU Nauvoo Community Project
• LDS Pioneers Overland Travel Database: Eliza Roxcy Snow
• United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-DRBW-M1R?cc=1401638&wc=95R8-BZ4%3A1031298601%2C1031343301%2C1031343302 : 9 April 2016), Utah Territory > Great Salt Lake > Great Salt Lake county > image 105 of 180; citing NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.)
• "United States Census, 1870," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-XHRQ-1J9?cc=1438024&wc=922H-319%3A518653001%2C518869601%2C518919401 : 22 May 2014), Utah Territory > Salt Lake > Salt Lake City, ward 18 > image 6 of 8; citing NARA microfilm publication M593 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
• "Utah, Salt Lake County Death Records, 1849-1949," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-62TV-5D?cc=1459704&wc=MXM9-4MS%3A42342501 : 22 May 2014), 004139695 > image 112 of 222; Management and Archives, Salt Lake City.

Marriage Source(s)

• Gary James Bergara, "Identifying the Earliest Mormon Polygamists, 1841-1844" (Stanford, California: Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, 2005), p. 66.
• Joseph F. Smith, Affidavits on Celestial Marriage, Book 1, p. 25.
• Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day,Nauvoo Temple, "Sealings and adoptions of the living, 1846-1857" (Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1958), p. 581.
• Brigham Young, Brigham Young Office Files, 1832-1878,