Emmeline B. Wells

Na fanau i Petersham, Masakuseta, i le 1828, na faaalia e Emmeline Blanche Woodward le tomai ao laitiiti i lana aoga ma se meaalofa mo le tusitusi. Ina ua pe a ma le 14 tausaga, na auai lona tina ma uso laiti e toalua i Le Eklaesia a Iesu Keriso o le Au Paia o Aso e Gata Ai. Na tauivi Emmeline ma lana lava filifiliga pe mulimuli i ai. Sa fefe o ia i le malosi o le tetee i le Ekalesia i lona nuu ae na tosina o ia i le savali o le Toefuataiga. Na filifili o ia e papatiso i se vaitafe aisa ia Mati 1842.¹ Ina ua uma ana aoga ma faiaoga mo se taimi, na faaipoipo Emmeline ia James Harvey Harris ma siitia atu i le aiga o Harris i Navu. Ina ua ia laa ese mai le vaasitima i Navu ia Me i le 1844, na i ai iina Iosefa e faafeiloaia tagata fou ua taunuu. “O le manatu e tasi na faatumuina lou agaga,” na ia tusia mulimuli ane, “o le, ua ou vaai i le Perofeta a le Atua.”²

Atatosi o Emmeline B. Wells.

Na matuai tofotofoina lava le naunautai ma le malosi o Emmeline i isi nai masina na sosoo ai: na fasiotia Iosefa Samita, na o ese le aiga o Harris mai le Ekalesia, na maliu le pepe muamua a Emmeline faatoa fanau mai, ma o lana tane, o James, na tuua Navu e saili galuega ae lei toe foi mai lava. Na maua e Emmeline le lagolago mai le Au Paia o Navu, ae maise lava le aiga o Newel K. ma Elizabeth Ann Whitney. I le 1845 na faamauina ai o ia o se ava faaautaunonofo ia Newel, ona sopoia lea o laufanua laugatasi faatasi ma le au Whitney. Ae ui i lea, o Newel, le tama o le fanau teine matutua a Emmeline, na feoti i le 1850. Na faaalia e Emmeline lona agaga tutoatasi e ala i le talosaga atu ma faaipoipo ia Daniel H. Wells (na mulimuli ane avea ma fesoasoani ia Polika Iaga i le Au Peresitene Sili) e avea ma ana ava faaautaunonofo lona tolu.³ Na la maua faatasi ni afafine se toatolu. Na ia tusia i ana api talaaga ia luitau o le ola i faaipoipoga faaautaunonofo i se tane na pisi i ona tiute faalenuu ma faalelotu.

I le 1873, i le mavae ai o tausaga o tausia lona aiga, na amata e Emmeline se matata i le tusitala e ala i le auina atu o se tusiga fou i le Woman’s Exponent. E oo atu i le 1875, ua avea o ia ma faatonu fesoasoani o le Exponent ma na vave ae tauaveina le tulaga atoa o se faatonu. I le fa sefulu tausaga i le Exponent, i le lolomiina o tusi faafaatonu, lipoti, solo, ma tala o soifuaga o le tele o tamaitai, na aapa atu ai Emmeline i tamaitai o le Au Paia o Aso e Gata Ai ma isi faatuatuaga, ma faalauiloa ai mataupu faalenuu ma faalelotu. Na ia lolomiina foi lana tuufaatasiga o solo i se voluma na taua o le Musings and Memories.

E ala i ana galuega i le Exponent, na avea Emmeline ma se tagata lauiloa i taitai o le Aualofa, Sosaiete o le Mutuale Faaleleia a Tamaitai Talavou, ma le Peraimeri. Na ia malaga faatasi ma i latou i le teritori atoa lava, ma aoao atu ma faiaoga i taitai i le lotoifale. I le 1876 na valaaulia ai o ia e Polika Iaga e taitaia le polokalama o le teuina o saito i le Ekalesia atoa.⁴ Na ia auai malosi foi i le mau a le atunuu mo le aia tatau a tamaitai e palota, ma faatuina ni sootaga ma taitai e pei o Susan B. Anthony ma Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Na ia galue faatasi ma le Aufono a Tamaitai a le Atunuu ma le Nuu, ma sui tulaga i faalapotopotoga a tamaitai mai Sisifo.⁵ I lana galuega lautele na ia feiloai ai ma le peresitene lona ono o le I.S.⁶ Na tusia e Emmeline i lana api talaaga i le 1878, “Ou te naunau e faia mea uma i lou malosi e fesoasoani e faalelei ai le tulaga o ou lava tagata, ae maise lava tamaitai.”⁷

Ina ua faatulagaina le aufono autu a le Aualofa i le 1880, na auauna atu Emmeline o se failautusi e ala i au peresitene eseese e toatolu. I le 1910 ma valaaulia ai o ia o le Peresitene Aoao lona lima o le Aualofa, ma i le 1913 i lalo o le taitaiga a Wells, na faatuina ai e le aufono aoao a le Aualofa le autu “e le uma le alofa.”⁸ Na auauna atu Emmeline o se peresitene seia latalata lava i lona maliu i le 1921.

Atatosi o Emmeline B. Wells mulimuli ane i le olaga.

Punaoa o le Ekalesia

Carol Cornwall Madsen, “Emmeline B. Wells: A Fine Soul Who Served,” Ensign, July 2003, 16–23.

“Charity Never Faileth,” in Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2011), 61–80.

Talaaga o le Soifuaga

O lomiga nei o loo tuuina atu ai nisi faamatalaga e uiga i lenei autu. I le faasinoina atu po o le faafesootaia o oe i nei punaoa, matou te le faamaonia pe faamautinoa atu le anomea po o manatu o tusitala.

Carol Cornwall Madsen, An Advocate for Women: The Public Life of Emmeline B. Wells, 1870–1920 (Provo and Salt Lake City: Brigham Young University Press and Deseret Book, 2006).

Madsen, Emmeline B. Wells: An Intimate History (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2017).

Carol Cornwall Madsen and Cherry B. Silver, “‘I Believe in Women, Especially Thinking Women’: Emmeline Blanche Woodward Wells (1828–1921),” in Richard E. Turley Jr. and Brittany A. Chapman, eds., Women of Faith in the Latter Days: Volume 2, 1821–1845 (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2012), 384–97.

Autu Fesootai: Relief Society, Young Women Organizations, Primary, Church Periodicals, Women’s Suffrage

Faamatalaga

1. Emmeline B. Wells travel diary 1885–1886, Dec. 18, 1885, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.

2. Emmeline B. Wells, in “Joseph Smith, the Prophet,” Young Woman’s Journal, vol. 16, no. 12 (Dec. 1905), 555.

3. Emmeline B. Whitney [Wells] letter to Daniel Wells, Mar. 4, 1852, Daniel H. Wells Papers, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.

4. Emmeline B. Wells, “The Mission of Saving Grain,” Relief Society Magazine, vol. 2, no. 2 (Feb. 1915), 47.

5. Emmeline B. Wells, “A Glimpse of Washington: The Woman’s National Council,” Woman’s Exponent, vol 19, no. 17 (Mar. 1, 1891), 132–33; see also Jill Mulvay Derr, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Kate Holbrook, and Matthew J. Grow, eds., The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women’s History (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2016), 579–88.

6. With her husband, Daniel H. Wells, Emmeline met Ulysses S. Grant and James A. Garfield in 1875 (five years before Garfield’s election to the U.S. presidency). Emmeline had private audiences with Rutherford B. Hayes in 1879, Grover Cleveland in 1886, and Theodore Roosevelt in 1902, and in 1919 Woodrow Wilson visited her at home to commend her war efforts during World War I. She also attended the inauguration of William McKinley in 1901.

7. Emmeline B. Wells diary, January 4, 1878, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.

8. Relief Society General Board Minutes, 1842–2007, July 3, 1913, Church History Library, Salt Lake City; Jill Mulvay Derr, Janath Russell Cannon, and Maureen Ursenbach Beecher, Women of Covenant: The Story of Relief Society (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1992), 194.