Smith, Eliza (Roxey) Snow

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SMITH, Eliza (Roxey) Snow

Born 21 January 1804, Becket, Massachusetts; died 5 December 1886, Salt Lake City, Utah

Daughter of Oliver and Rosetta Pettibone Snow; married Joseph Smith, 1842 (died); Brigham Young, 1847

When Eliza Snow Smith, the second of seven children, was very young, her parents migrated to Ohio, where her father successfully took up farming. Smith received the most liberal education allowed a young woman at the time, attending the local schools of Ravenna, Ohio, and a grammar school taught by a Presbyterian minister. In her early teens, Smith began writing poetry. Her first efforts were published in local newspapers and journals under pen names. These verses are typical of her day—sentimental, religious, and didactic.

In the 1820s Smith and her parents joined the Reformed Baptist or "Campbellite" church, and she began a devoted study of the Bible. Smith converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints early in 1835, and left her family's home for the Mormon stronghold of Kirtland, Ohio, where she lodged with the Prophet Joseph Smith and his family. To support herself, Smith founded a select school for young girls in Kirtland. She played an active role in the life of the Mormon community, singing in the Kirtland Temple choir and writing songs and poems for the church.

In 1838 she followed Smith and his flock first to Missouri and then to Illinois, where she began her rise to prominence in the Mormon church. She was the first secretary of the Female (later Women's) Relief Society, a charitable and a spiritual organization associated with the Mormon church. Smith also served as an officer of the Nauvoo, Illinois, Temple and as president of the Nauvoo Endowment House, the building where the important religious ceremonies of the Mormon church took place.

It was in Nauvoo that Joseph Smith quietly introduced the doctrine of plural marriage to his most devoted followers. At first, Smith was repelled by the doctrine, but she came to "esteem it a precious, sacred principle—necessary to the elevation and salvation of the human family—in ridding women from the curse, and the world from corruption." Smith probably became the Prophet's fourth or fifth wife when she secretly wed him in 1842. Their marriage was kept secret until 1852 when Brigham Young, then head of the Mormon church, formally announced polygamy was an integral part of church doctrine.

After the murder of Joseph and the dispersal of the followers, Smith was among the first pioneering companies to reach the valley of the Great Salt Lake. During the course of the journey west, she kept a diary (published in the Improvement Era, 1943-44), and wrote patriotic, religious, and eulogistic poetry. Her poetry served as an inspiration to trail-weary Mormons, and encouraged them to continue on their way to the promised land: "Altho' in woods and tents we dwell / Shout, shout O Camp of Israel. / No Christian males on earth can bind / Our thoughts, or steal our peace of mind." On this trip westward, Smith, along with several of Joseph's widows, was married to Brigham Young.

Smith became the most beloved and powerful woman in Utah, as she increased her involvement with charitable, spiritual, and educational projects. In addition to publicly defending polygamy, Smith was an ardent feminist. As head of the Women's Suffrage Society, she worked to dispel the myth that Mormon women lived lives subject to their husband's wills. She worked hard to ensure Utah's women the right to political franchise and won success in 1870.

Smith continued to write poetry, hymns, and religious essays, published in several Utah journals, as well as practical educational texts while living in Utah. Her first volume of poetry, incorporating many of the poems she had written while on the trail from Illinois, was published in 1856, and a second volume was published in 1877. Smith compiled a number of hymnals for the church, containing some of her own hymns, the most popular of which was "O My Father, Thou that Dwellest." She contributed an account of the "assassination" of Smith and his brother and several poems to Lucy Smith's Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith (1853). With her brother Lorenzo Snow, the fifth president of the Mormon church, Smith wrote The Correspondence of Palestine Tourists (1875), the record of their missionary trip to the Middle East. Smith was reticent to write of her own experiences, but she did write an autobiographical sketch, which was published in the Relief Society Magazine (1944). Smith's best-known work, and an excellent source for historians interested in the foundations of the Mormon religion, is The Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow (1884).

Married in turn to the two most important figures in the history of the Mormon church, Smith made a name for herself through her own involvement in church affairs and education, and she pointed with pride to Utah women's right to vote and active participation in church affairs as evidence of Mormon women's freedom and equality. In addition, Smith wrote poems and songs for the church; she provided the young Mormon church with its chief hymns.

Other Works:

The Story of Jesus (1845). Poems, Religious, Historical, and Political (2 vols., 1856 and 1877). Bible Questions and Answers for Children (1883). Recitations for the Primary Associations (edited by Smith, 1887). Hymns and Songs: Selected from Various Authors for the Primary Associations of the Children of Zion (edited by Smith, 1888). Recitations for the Primary Associations in Poetry, Dialogues, and Prose (edited by Smith, 1891).

A copy of Eliza Snow Smith's 1847 diary and her autobiographical sketch are in the Bancroft Library at the University of California.

Bibliography:

Brodie, F. M., No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet (1971). Crocherson, A. J., Representative Women of Deseret (1884). Gates, S. Y., and L. D. Widstoe, Women of the Mormon Church (1926). Hill, D., Joseph Smith: The First Mormon (1977). Tullidge, E., The Women of Mormondom (1877).