Relief Society General President
1866–1887

Eliza R. Snow served as the Nauvoo Relief Society’s first secretary and later carried the organization’s Book of Records to the Salt Lake Valley. She was a gifted writer and poet who wrote many Church hymns and supported education. She was also vigorously involved in temple work. In 1866 President Brigham Young called her to help bishops organize a Relief Society (and later a Primary and an organization for young women) in every ward and branch of the Church. Sister Snow’s presidency emphasized spirituality and self-sufficiency. The Relief Society sent women to medical school, trained nurses, opened the Deseret Hospital, operated cooperative stores, promoted silk manufacture, saved wheat, built granaries, and began publishing the Woman’s Exponent. By 1888 the Relief Society had more than 22,000 members in 400 wards and branches. Sister Snow was sealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith in Nauvoo and later married Brigham Young.