Eliza R. Snow. How many members of the church today recognize the name? More importantly, how many women in the church today know of Eliza R. Snow? More than ever, women in the church today need great and good role models, and Snow certainly stands out as the pre-eminent LDS woman in 19th century Mormondom.
Eliza was the sister of Lorenzo Snow, fifth president of the church; secretary of the Nauvoo Relief Society; and general president of the Relief Society when it was re-established in the Utah territory. Eliza helped establish the Primary and Young Women organizations. She was a brilliant leader, active in promoting women's rights and female suffrage in the 19th century, and a valiant defender of the faith. Her life and poetry has been exquisitely chronicled by Jill Mulvay Derr and Karen Lynn Davidson in "Eliza R. Snow: The Complete Poetry."
Born in 1804, Eliza grew to adulthood in Mantua, Ohio, and was a local poet of some repute. She was of a religious bent and in 1828 became a follower of Alexander Campbell's movement devoted to replicating the primitive gospel of Jesus Christ. In 1831, Sidney Rigdon introduced the Snow family to Joseph Smith. They were intrigued by the Prophet and his message but carefully studied his teachings and doctrine before committing to baptism, Eliza four years later in 1835, and Lorenzo in 1836.
Eliza joined with the Saints in Kirtland and in an act demonstrating her faith donated all her sizable inheritance for the building of the Kirtland Temple. With the Saints she was driven from Kirtland, to Missouri, to Nauvoo, Ill., and trekked across the plains to settle in Utah. She used her poetic gifts to chronicle the experience of LDS life in those crucial early years; everything from poems turned into hymns, birthday missives, funeral tributes, historical accounts, sublime doctrinal expositions and so much more.
For three years, during the era of intense discord in Kirtland, Eliza wrote little. Then Joseph Smith interceded to request that she use her talents to write for and about the LDS experience. Eliza never looked back. We can be grateful that she took up her pen and pursued her desire to be of use in the church by elucidating the doctrines of Christ's gospel and bearing testimony of the Restoration through the spare and precise language of poetry.
We get a small flavor for her ability to espouse doctrine in the first and fourth verses of the hymn, "O My Father":
O my Father, thou that dwellest In the high and glorious place,
When shall I regain they presence And again behold thy face?
In thy holy habitation, Did my spirit once reside?
In my first primeval childhood, Was I nurtured by thy side…
When I leave this frail existence, When I lay this mortal by,
Father, Mother, may I meet you In your royal courts on high?
Then, at length, when I've completed All you sent me forth to do,
With your mutual approbation Let me come and dwell with you.
Truths about the pre-existence, preparation for mortality, duty to God and the existence of family — of a mother and father in heaven — are beautifully expressed.
Providing insight into the early Utah experience, "In Our Lovely Deseret" presents a model for children in the church desirous to have the Lord's protection:
That the children may live long And be beautiful and strong,
Tea and coffee and tobacco they despise,
Drink no liquor, and they eat But a very little meat;
They are seeking to be great and good and wise …
They must not forget to pray, Night and morning every day,
For the Lord to keep them safe from every ill,
And assist them to do right, That with all their mind and might,
They may love him and may learn to do his will.
Eliza died in 1887 at age 83, a legendary figure both in and outside the church. She was renowned as "Zion's Poetess" and her death was noted in the New York Times. At her funeral in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square, at her request, a choir sang her words: "No note of sorrow to prompt a sign: Bury me quietly when I die."
As a worthy model for women today, Eliza R. Snow provides the consummate example of a woman willing to adhere to gospel principles, trust in God and act in faith. Her life and prodigious accomplishments demonstrate the myriad blessings that come when women choose to become disciples of Christ.