Eliza R. Snow: She Reorganized the Relief Society Across the Entire Church After 20 Years of Dormancy

Eliza Roxey Snow (1804–1887) was appointed first secretary of the Relief Society when it was organized by Joseph Smith in March 1842 in Nauvoo. When Joseph was martyred in 1844 and the Saints were forced west, the Relief Society was disbanded — and lay dormant for over two decades.

In 1866, Brigham Young called on Eliza to reorganize the Relief Society throughout the entire Church. She accepted, and what followed was one of the most remarkable organizational achievements in the history of the women's movement worldwide.

Eliza traveled personally — by horseback, wagon, and later rail — to ward after ward across the Utah Territory, visiting settlements from Cache Valley in the north to the Dixie settlements in the south. She reorganized or established Relief Societies in ward after ward. She set apart officers, instructed women in their duties, and spiritually energized the sisterhood.

At every stop, she also exercised her spiritual gifts — speaking in tongues, prophesying, blessing women with healings, and ministering with the laying on of hands. Her tours were spiritual revivals as much as administrative reorganizations. Women who had never experienced such ministry were transformed.

In a letter to a Relief Society officer, Eliza wrote: 'Tell the sisters to go forth and discharge their duties in humility and faithfulness and the Spirit of God will rest upon them, and they will be blest in their labors. Let them seek for wisdom instead of power and they will have all the power they have wisdom to exercise!!!'

By the time of her death in 1887, she had personally visited and reorganized dozens of wards and had established the Relief Society as the foundation of women's spiritual life in the Church. She served as General Relief Society President for 21 years. Her successor was Zina Diantha Huntington Young.