29 October 1878


Rockport Relief Society; Rockport Schoolhouse, Rockport, Utah Territory

Single-story, log school

Rockport schoolhouse, Rockport, Utah Territory. (Used by permission, Lagoon Amusement Park History Project.)

this meeting was called on account of <our> being visited by Sisters E. R. Snow and Elizabeth [A.] Davis.

[. . .] Prest [Ann] Bryant then gave the meeting into the hands of Sisters Snow, and Davis, and other Sisters. Sister E. R. Snow then said that as the Prest had required it of her, she would speak, but would rather hear the Bretheren, if it was not a Sisters meeting but as it was we must never shirk a duty; and if we never tried to get over our nervous feelings, we should never overcome, urged the Sisters to attend their meetings, and they would be able to make home happier, told us to be clean in our homes for the Lord does not love a dirty Saint, and in meeting together we shall obtain the spirit of God. said it was necessary for us to feed the spirit just as much as to feed the body.

She also urged the sisters to wear home made articles of Clothing, said we were called on to sustain home-Industry and we must do our best to make it popular. to devote ourselves to the kingdom of God that everything we have may belong to Zion spoke of how the Lord works for the good of his saints if we will only do as his servants wishes us that the Lord overrules things for the good [n.p.] of his people if she got clothes and food of the plainest kind she tryed to be thankful and if homemade proud of them for the Sisters to persevere in this and they would be blest that there were things exhibited at the fair this year pronounced by everybody to be superior to imported articles, said as we were going to be organized into a Stake she wanted to see some interested in the manufacture of straw if we only made our own hats it would be a great deal towards helping along. said if the Mulberry would not grow here so we could raise silk for the brethren to raise white touse wheat that was the best for straw. the rye in this country was too brittle to braid to do the best they could if it was but little.

She did not know whether we had began but to try and store some wheat (Sister Bryant said we had) she was glad to hear it said it was a blessing to us wished us to still continue there was none of us that knew what we could do till we tryed. spoke of a Meeting held in the Masonic Hall Nauvoo in the days of Joseph [Smith].

Wished the Sisters to be kind to one another and in their families that home may be happy to be persevering in our home industries said she presided over the Relief Society in her own Ward when she was there but she was away a great deal wished the Sisters to seek first the kingdom of God and the dollars and Cents shall be added unto us prayed to the Lord to bless all of us as a relief Society with his spirit that we may make as it were a stake of Zion she felt that he had blessed us now. Amen [n.p.]

Source Note

Rockport Ward, Summit Stake, Relief Society Minutes (1873–1889), vol. 1, n.p., CHL (LR 7582 21); Sarah Staker, Secretary.

See also “Report of a Missionary Tour,” Woman’s Exponent 7, no. 13 (1 Dec. 1878): 103.

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29 October 1878, Rockport Relief Society; Rockport Schoolhouse, Rockport, Utah Territory, The Discourses of Eliza R. Snow, accessed December 14, 2024 https://chpress-web.churchhistorianspress.org/eliza-r-snow/1870s/1878/10/1878-10-29-b