Eliza Roxcy Snow
| Eliza R. Snow | |
|---|---|
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| 2nd Relief Society General President | |
| December 1866 – December 5, 1887 | |
| Predecessor | Emma Smith |
| Successor | Zina D. H. Young |
| 1st Secretary of the Relief Society | |
| 1842 – 1844 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Eliza Roxcy Snow January 21, 1804 Becket, Massachusetts, United States |
| Died | December 5, 1887 (aged 83) Salt Lake City, Utah, United States |
| Resting place |
Mormon Pioneer Memorial Monument 40°46′13″N 111°53′08″W / 40.7703°N 111.8856°W |
| Spouse(s) |
Joseph Smith (1842–44; sealed) Brigham Young (1844–77; deceased) |
| Parents | Oliver and Rosetta Snow |
| Signature | |
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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 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), which she reestablished in Utah Territory in 1866. She was also the sister of Lorenzo Snow, the church's fifth president.
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.
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.
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