Clarissa West Smith
Born 21 Apr. 1859 in Salt Lake City.[1] Daughter of George Albert Smith and Susan Elizabeth West.[2] Earned a teaching certificate from the University of Deseret, 1875.[3] Married William Nugent Williams, 17 July 1877, in Salt Lake City; eleven children.[4] Served as secretary of the Salt Lake City Seventeenth Ward Relief Society, 1895–1897, and as president, 1897–1904.[5] Served as secretary of the Salt Lake Stake Relief Society, 1904–1908.[6] First attended Reaper’s Club, a women’s organization that promoted social, spiritual and intellectual development, 22 Nov. 1897.[7] Founding member of the Utah chapter of Daughters of the Revolution with EBW, 30 Mar. 1898; served as treasurer.[8] Founding Member of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers, organized 11 Apr. 1901.[9] Served as treasurer of the general Relief Society under President Bathsheba W. Smith, 1901–1911.[10] Served as Salt Lake Stake Relief Society president, 1904–1908.[11] Served as first counselor to general Relief Society president EBW, 1910–1921.[12] Attended the National Council of Women in New Orleans, 1903; in Toledo, 1906; and in Washington DC, 1925.[13] Attended the International Congress of Women in Rome, 1914.[14] Served as general president of the Relief Society, Apr. 1921–Oct. 1928.[15] Died 8 Mar. 1930 in Salt Lake City.[16]
[1] “Endowments of the Living, 1851–1884,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Endowment House, vol. H, p. 63, Clarissa West Smith, 11 Aug. 1873, microfilm 183407, DGS 5270330 (restricted access), FHL. “Family Tree,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org, accessed 7 Mar. 2018), Clarissa West Smith (KWC5-KR4).
[2] “Endowments of the Living, 1851–1884,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Endowment House, vol. H, p. 63, Clarissa West Smith, 11 Aug. 1873, microfilm 183407, DGS 5270330 (restricted access), FHL. History of Relief Society, 1842–1966 (Salt Lake City: General Board of Relief Society, 1967), 14.
[3] “Sketch of Clarissa Smith Williams,” Relief Society Magazine 8, no. 7 (July 1921): 378. Ralph V. Chamberlin, The University of Utah: A History of Its First Hundred Years, 1850–1950 (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1960), 106. History of Relief Society, 1842–1966 (Salt Lake City: General Board of Relief Society, 1967), 14.
[4] “Sealings of Couples, Living and by Proxy, 1851–1889,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Endowment House, vol. L, William, Nugent Williams and Clarissa West Smith, 16 July 1879, microfilm 183402, DGS 5270325 (restricted access), FHL. History of Relief Society, 1842–1966 (Salt Lake City: General Board of Relief Society, 1967), 14. “Sketch of Clarissa Smith Williams,” Relief Society Magazine 8, no. 7 (July 1921): 379.
[5] “Sketch of Clarissa Smith Williams,” Relief Society Magazine 8, no. 7 (July 1921): 379. Seventeenth Ward Relief Society, Minutes and Records, 1856–1973, vol. 9, 1886–1907, pp. 187, 217, 220–221, 462–463, CHL.
[6] “Sketch of Clarissa Smith Williams,” Relief Society Magazine 8, no. 7 (July 1921): 379.
[7] EBW, Diary, 22 Nov. 1897. Jill Mulvay Derr, “Scholarship, Service, and Sisterhood: Women’s Clubs and Association, 1877–1977,” in Women in Utah History: Paradigm or Paradox?, ed. Patricia Lyn Scott and Linda Thatcher (Logan: Utah State University Press, 2005), 254, 257.
[8] EBW, Diary, 30 Mar. 1898.
[9] Flora B. Horne, “Daughters of the Utah Pioneers: History of the Society of Daughters of the Utah Pioneers,” Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine 3, no. 2 (Apr. 1912): 96–98. “Sketch of Clarissa Smith Williams,” Relief Society Magazine 8, no. 7 (July 1921): 379.
[10] “Sketch of Clarissa Smith Williams,” Relief Society Magazine 8, no. 7 (July 1921): 379. History of Relief Society, 1842–1966 (Salt Lake City: General Board of Relief Society, 1967), 38. EBW Diary, 10 Nov. 1901.
[11] Salt Lake Stake Relief Society, Minutes and Records, 1882–1973, reel 2, 1893–1933, pp. 1, 215, 223, LR 604 14, CHL.
[12] History of Relief Society, 1842–1966 (Salt Lake City: General Board of Relief Society, 1967), 39. EBW, Diary, 16 June and 30 Aug. 1902. “Sketch of Clarissa Smith Williams,” Relief Society Magazine 8, no. 7 (July 1921): 379.
[13] “Sketch of Clarissa Smith Williams,” Relief Society Magazine 8, no. 7 (July 1921): 379. EBW, Diary, 19 Mar. 1903. “National Council of Women Quinquennial Campaign, Utah Division,” Relief Society Magazine 12, no. 5 (May 1925): 224–225.
[14] “Sketch of Clarissa Smith Williams,” Relief Society Magazine 8, no. 7 (July 1921): 379. Amy Brown Lyman, “Clarissa S. Williams,” Relief Society Magazine 15, no. 12 (Dec. 1921): 639. “Notice,” Relief Society Magazine, vol. 1, no. 7 (July 1914): 13.
[15] History of Relief Society, 1842–1966 (Salt Lake City: General Board of Relief Society, 1967), 14, 42–43, 52. Amy Brown Lyman, “General Conference of Relief Society,” Relief Society Magazine 8, no. 6 (June 1921): 319–320. Amy Brown Lyman, “Clarissa S. Williams,” Relief Society Magazine 15, no. 12 (Dec. 1928): 639.
[16] “Utah State Archives,” database and images, Utah State Archives (https://archives.utah.gov/research/indexes, accessed 8 Mar. 2018), Department of Health, Office of Vital Records and Statistics Death certificates, Series 81448, Clarissa Smith Williams. History of Relief Society, 1842–1966 (Salt Lake City: General Board of Relief Society, 1967), 14.