Primary (LDS Church) - History

History

Primary was first organized in 1878 by Aurelia Spencer Rogers in Farmington, Utah, and adopted churchwide in 1880 under the direction of Louie B. Felt who served as the president of the organization through 1925. Rogers was concerned because younger Latter-day Saint children had too much unsupervised time due to the long hours that fathers and older sons kept on the farms and mothers and older daughters in the home. In particular, Rogers felt that the younger boys in the community were becoming unruly and mischievous. With permission from church leaders and under the initial direction of General Relief Society President Eliza R. Snow, Rogers organized a Primary Association for her local Farmington congregation on August 11, 1878. Two weeks later, the first meeting was held on August 28, with 215 children in attendance. That day, boys were specifically taught not to steal fruit from orchards and girls were taught not to hang on wagons. In addition, they were given lessons on faith, manners, obedience, and other worthy principles.

May Anderson, the second general president of the Primary Association from 1925 to 1939, initiated what became Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City (now part of Intermountain Healthcare). Anderson also helped establish kindergartens in Utah. In the 1970s as a result of the Priesthood Correlation Program, the Primary Association was renamed Primary.

Since 2010, the general presidency of the Primary has been composed of Rosemary M. Wixom, President; Jean A. Stevens, First Counselor; and Cheryl A. Esplin, Second Counselor.