Relief Society Foundations

The Relief Society, the Church’s organization for adult women, which began in Nauvoo as a way to serve those in need, has grown into a worldwide sisterhood with members living in more than 100 countries. Two restored homes in Nauvoo help tell the stories of remarkable women who are part of that origin story: Sarah Granger Kimball and Lucy Mack Smith. Sarah Granger Kimball’s interactions with Joseph Smith show us how a small group of Latter-day Saint women helped prepare the prophet to receive the will of the Lord and create an organization for the women of the Church. Joseph’s mother, Lucy Mack Smith, became an early and prominent member of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo. Her influence on her son and the Restoration is immeasurable. She consistently supported her son’s prophetic mission throughout her life.

Early in 1842, Sarah Kimball noted that “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints was poor in worldly goods and earnest in devotion to the labors required.”¹ Help was especially needed on the construction of the temple, which was only three feet in height at the time and which Sarah could see on the hill when she looked out of her parlor window.

One day, Sarah was speaking with Margaret Cook, a seamstress doing work for the Kimballs. Church leaders had recently made calls for “provisions, clothing, bedding and general supplies for the workmen [at the temple site] and their families.”² Margaret expressed a desire to provide needlework; Sarah offered to provide the cloth. They realized that others might want to contribute and discussed organizing a sewing society to “aid in the erection of the Temple.”³ A few days later about a dozen women gathered in Sarah’s parlor. They chose Eliza R. Snow to write bylaws and a constitution for their emerging organization, which they then asked the Prophet Joseph to review.

When Joseph read the constitution and bylaws, he commented that they were “the best he had ever seen.” However, he then added, “This is not what you want.” Joseph let these sisters know that their offering was accepted by the Lord but that He had something better for them. In fact, the Lord directed Joseph to “organize the women under the priesthood after the pattern of the priesthood.”⁴

Until this point, the organizational structures revealed to Joseph had focused on priesthood quorums and offices held by men in the Church. Soon, women would be given charge over their own all-female organization. By organizing both women and men “according to the law of Heaven,” the Saints were prepared to receive further light and knowledge in the temple.⁵ Unlike in Kirtland, both men and women participated in the temple ordinances introduced in Nauvoo. Sarah and Margaret’s inspired actions truly had not only prepared the temple for the people but also the people for the temple.

On March 17, 1842, 20 women, including Sarah Kimball and Margaret Cook, met on the upper floor of Joseph and Emma’s Red Brick Store. The prophet led their meeting, assisted by two members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. In this initial meeting of the Relief Society, Emma Smith was elected president by unanimous vote. Joseph explained that Emma’s calling was a fulfillment of a revelation he had received 12 years earlier—now recorded in Doctrine and Covenants 25.

The Female Relief Society of Nauvoo grew in membership. They met frequently, including five additional meetings with Joseph Smith, who provided prophetic counsel to the society. He taught the sisters that they were “not only to relieve the poor, but to save souls.”⁶ Today, as members of a worldwide Relief Society, Latter-day Saint women continue to work together to help those in need and save souls.

Another woman who had a great influence on the Latter-day Saint movement was Lucy Mack Smith, mother of Joseph Smith Jr. She moved into the home in Nauvoo that now bears her name in April 1846, when she was 70 years old and after many Nauvoo residents had departed west. Lucy devoted much of her final years to preserving the memory of her son Joseph and bearing testimony of his prophetic mantle.

Lucy’s stalwart support of her son Joseph and of the Church he founded led others to refer to her as Mother Smith during her time in Nauvoo. In addition, Mother Smith was considered a “mother in Israel.”⁷ In 1833, a blessing from her son Joseph gave this title to Lucy: “And blessed also, is my mother, for she is a mother in Israel. … For her soul is ever filled with benevolence and philanthropy; and notwithstanding her age, she shall yet receive strength and be comforted in the midst of her house: and thus said the Lord, She shall have eternal life.”⁸

The title remained Lucy’s even after Joseph’s death. During the October 1845 general conference of the Church, Lucy requested an opportunity to address the congregation. In this, the first account of a woman speaking in general conference, she urged the Saints to guide their children in truth with love and kindness. She then asked the congregation if they considered her a mother in Israel. Brigham Young arose and put the question to a vote and “one universal ‘yes’ rang throughout” the unfinished Nauvoo Temple where they met.⁹

Lucy Mack Smith was foremost among exceptional women whose leadership, spiritual gifts, and strength of character helped bring about the Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ. By the fifth meeting of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, Lucy Mack Smith was an active member of the organization. She and other women in Nauvoo helped lay a foundation of righteousness for the Church, fulfilling in part the divine call to establish Nauvoo as a cornerstone of Zion. The story of the Relief Society demonstrates how women of the Church have been a force for good from its earliest days, continually nurturing the landscape of Latter-day Saint faith.