Church Service
Wells was selected as general secretary for the Relief Society by President Eliza R. Snow and served for twenty-two years in the position under succeeding presidents. In her youth in Nauvoo, Wells briefly knew the LDS Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr.. In 1905, as Relief Society Secretary, she wrote the following to the young women of the Church:
| “ | In the Prophet Joseph Smith, I believed I recognized the great spiritual power that brought joy and comfort to the Saints. . . .He was beyond my comprehension. The power of God rested upon him to such a degree that on many occasions he seemed transfigured. His expression was mild and almost childlike in repose; and when addressing the people, who loved him it seemed to adoration, the glory of his countenance was beyond description. At other times the great power of his manner, more than of his voice (which was sublimely eloquent to me) seemed to shake the place on which we stood and penetrate the inmost soul of his hearers, and I am sure that then they would have laid down their lives to defend him. I always listened spell-bound to his every utterance—the chosen of God in this last dispensation. ("Young Woman's Journal", Dec. 1905) | ” |
Wells was appointed by Brigham Young in 1876 to head a Church based grain-saving program, and managed the church wide program until the beginning of World War I. In 1919, Wells received a personal visit in her Salt Lake City home from US President Woodrow Wilson who presented her a commendation for selling the collected wheat to the government for the war effort.
Wells was called as the Relief Society organization's general president in 1910 at the age of 82. She served for eleven years, administering service issues related to the world war and dealing with issues relating to growth and administrative expansion. To her sorrow, the Relief Society Board declined to continue their support of the Women's Exponent, and the publication closed in 1914. Ill health led her to be released in 1921, at the age of 93. Wells died three weeks later and was buried at the Salt Lake City Cemetery. Wells's first counselor Clarissa S. Williams succeeded her as Relief Society general president.
Wells authored the text of the Latter-day Saint hymn Our Mountain Home So Dear, which is hymn #33 in the LDS Church hymnal.
Read more about this topic: Emmeline B. Wells
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