The Church Historian's PressThe Church Historian's Press

Sarah Louisa Bouton

Louie B. Felt, Louie Ma Felt, Sarah L. Bowton, Sarah Louisa Felt, Sarah Louisa Benton, Sarah Louise Bouton, Sarah Louisa (Louie) Bouton Felt

5 May 1849—12 February 1928

Emmeline B. Wells

Born 5 May 1849 at Norwalk, Fairfield Co., Connecticut.1 Daughter of Joseph Bouton Jr. and Mary Rebecca Barto.2 Baptized as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 3 Oct. 1863.3 Migrated to the Salt Lake Valley in the William Henry Chipman pioneer company, arriving by 16 Sept. 1866.4 Married Joseph Henry Felt, 29 Dec. 1866, in Salt Lake City.5 With her husband, appointed to help colonize what would become known as the Muddy Mission (present-day Moapa Valley, Clark Co., Nevada), 1867–1869.6 President of the Salt Lake City Eleventh Ward Primary, 1878; president of the Eleventh Ward Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association (YLMIA), 1892.7 First counselor of the Salt Lake Stake YLMIA, 1878.8 First Primary general president, 1880–1925.9 Attended meetings and corresponded with EBW, by 1881.10 Accompanied her husband to the Eastern States mission, 1887.11 Attended training classes of the Utah Kindergarten Association; opened a private kindergarten, 1895.12 Established the Children’s Friend, by 1902; offered her home as collateral to finance the publication.13 Instrumental in organizing a children’s hospital, 1911, partially funded by pennies donated by Primary children, which became Primary Children’s Hospital.14 Died 12 Feb. 1928 in Salt Lake City.15

The First Fifty Years of Relief Society

16 Born at Norwalk, Fairfield County, Connecticut; daughter of Mary Barto and Joseph Bouton. 17 Baptized, circa 1858. 18 Migrated to the Salt Lake Valley, 1866. 19 Married Joseph H. Felt at Salt Lake City, 1866. 20 Appointed by Brigham Young to help colonize “the Muddy” (present-day Moapa Valley, Clark County, Nevada), 1867. 21 Returned to Salt Lake City, circa 1870. 22 Appointed the first president of the Salt Lake City Eleventh Ward Primary, 1878. 23 Served as treasurer in the Eleventh Ward Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association (Y.L.M.I.A.). 24 Appointed counselor to Mary Ann Freeze in the Salt Lake Stake Y.L.M.I.A., 1879. 25 Served as first general president of the Primary, 1880–1925. 26 Established the publication Children’s Friend, 1901. 27 Died at Salt Lake City. 28 (See Document 4.4, 4.5)

Footnotes

  1. 1 “Endowments of the Living, 1851–1884,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Endowment House, vol. F, 16 June 1866–25 Oct. 1868, pp. 78–79, line 4, Sarah Louisa Bouton, 28 Dec. 1866, microfilm 183405, DGS 5270328 (restricted access), FHL. “Family Tree,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org, accessed 20 Aug. 2018), Louie B. Felt (KWV2-6TZ).

  2. 2 “Endowments of the Living, 1851–1884,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Endowment House, vol. F, 16 June 1866–25 Oct. 1868, pp. 78–79, line 4, Sarah Louisa Bouton, 28 Dec. 1866, microfilm 183405, DGS 5270328 (restricted access), FHL. Missionary Department Missionary Registers, 1860–1959, vol. A, 25 Apr. 1860–27 Apr. 1894, p. 88, line 140, CR 301 22, image 97/160, CHL.

  3. 3 “Endowments of the Living, 1851–1884,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Endowment House, vol. F, 16 June 1866–25 Oct. 1868, pp. 78–79, line 4, Sarah Louisa Bouton, 28 Dec. 1866, microfilm 183405, DGS 5270328 (restricted access), FHL. Missionary Department Missionary Registers, 1860–1959, vol. A, 25 Apr. 1860–27 Apr. 1894, p. 88, line 140, CR 301 22, image 97/160, CHL.

  4. 4 “Sarah Louise Bouton,” Pioneer Database (http://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/overlandtravels, accessed 21 Aug. 2018).

  5. 5 “Sealings of Couples, Living and by Proxy, 1851–1889,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Endowment House, vol. D, 22 Nov. 1861–22 Dec. 1866, p. 685, lines 9186–9187, Joseph Henry Felt and Sarah Louisa Bouton, 29 Dec. 1866, microfilm 1149514 (restricted access), FHL.

  6. 6 Historical Department, Journal History of the Church, 7 Oct. 1867, p. 1. Janet Peterson, “Louie B. Felt Dedicating Her Life to Children,” Ensign, July 2014, 63. Augusta Joyce Crocheron, Representative Women of Deseret: A Book of Biographical Sketches (Salt Lake City: J. C. Graham, 1884), 57.  

  7. 7 Eleventh Ward, University West Stake, Eleventh Ward Manuscript History and Historical Reports, “Primary,” LR 2569 2, CHL. Augusta Joyce Crocheron, Representative Women of Deseret: A Book of Biographical Sketches (Salt Lake City: J. C. Graham, 1884), 59. Conrad A. Harwood, “A History of the Growth and Development of the Primary Association of the LDS Church from 1878 to 1928” (Master’s thesis, Brigham Young University, 1976), 186.

  8. 8 Augusta Joyce Crocheron, Representative Women of Deseret: A Book of Biographical Sketches (Salt Lake City: J. C. Graham, 1884), 59.

  9. 9 Conrad A. Harwood, “A History of the Growth and Development of the Primary Association of the LDS Church from 1878 to 1928” (Master’s thesis, Brigham Young University, 1976), 179, 196. Jill Mulvay Derr, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Kate Holbrook, and Matthew J. Grow, eds., The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women’s History (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2016), 467, 470, 623. Janet Peterson, “Louie B. Felt Dedicating Her Life to Children,” Ensign, July 2014, 63. Heber J. Grant, Letter of Appreciation to Louie B. Felt, MS 5255, CHL.

  10. 10 EBW, Diary, 6 June 1881; 5 May 1892; 3 Nov. 1900; 23 Mar. 1901; 19 Feb. 1903.

  11. 11 Missionary Department Missionary Registers, 1860–1959, vol. A, 25 Apr. 1860–27 Apr. 1894, p. 88, line 140, CR 301 22, image 97/160, CHL.

  12. 12 Janet Peterson, “Louie B. Felt Dedicating Her Life to Children,” Ensign, July 2014, 62, 64. Dedication and Naming of 22 Buildings (Brigham Young University, 26 May 1954), 43, copy at CHL. 

  13. 13 Janet Peterson, “Louie B. Felt Dedicating Her Life to Children,” Ensign, July 2014, 64. Dedication and Naming of 22 Buildings (Brigham Young University, 26 May 1954), 43, copy at CHL.   

  14. 14 Janet Peterson, “Louie B. Felt Dedicating Her Life to Children,” Ensign, July 2014, 63–64. Dedication and Naming of 22 Buildings (Brigham Young University, 26 May 1954), 43, copy at CHL.  

  15. 15  “Utah State Archives Indexes,” database and images, Utah State Archives (https://archives.utah.gov/research/indexes, accessed 28 Aug. 2018), Department of Health, Office of Vital Records and Statistics Death Certificates, series 81448, file no. 247/430, 12 Feb. 1928, Louie Bouton Felt.

  16. 16 “Utah Death Certificate Index, 1904–1961,” database and images, Utah State Archives (http://archives.utah.gov, accessed Oct. 2014); from Utah Department of Health, Office of Vital Records and Statistics, series 81448, file no. 247/430 (1928), Louie Bouton Felt. “Family Tree,” database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org, accessed Aug. 2014), Sarah Louisa Bouton KWV2-6TZ.

  17. 17 Utah death certificate, file no. 247/430. “Family Tree,” database, Sarah Louise Bouton. “Mrs. Louie B. Felt Taken by Death,” Deseret News, Feb. 13, 1928, 1.

  18. 18 “Louie B. Felt,” Children’s Friend 18, no. 10 (Oct. 1919): 407.

  19. 19 “Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel,” database, 1847–1868, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel (http://history.ChurchofJesusChrist.org/chd/landing, accessed Apr. 2014), Sarah Louise Bouton. “Louie B. Felt,” Children’s Friend, 408.

  20. 20 “Mrs. Louie B. Felt Taken by Death,” 2:1. May Anderson, “Louie B. Felt,” Young Woman’s Journal 26, no. 3 (Mar. 1915): 146. Marion Belnap Kerr, “A Tribute to Louie B. Felt,” Children’s Friend 27 (Mar. 1928): 99.

  21. 21 “Louie B. Felt,” Children’s Friend, 408–409. “Mrs. Louie B. Felt Taken by Death,” 2:1.

  22. 22 1870 U.S. census, Salt Lake City Ward 13, Salt Lake Co., Utah Territory, p. 636A, Sarah Felt; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com, accessed Aug. 2014); from NARA microfilm publication M593, roll 1611. Anderson, “Louie B. Felt,”146.

  23. 23 “R.S. Reports,” Woman’s Exponent 7, no. 9 (Oct. 1, 1878): 66. Adelaide U. Hardy, “Living for a Purpose,” Children’s Friend 7 no. 12 (Dec. 1918): 476. “Louie B. Felt,” Children’s Friend, 413.

  24. 24 “Home Affairs,” Woman’s Exponent 7, no. 11 (Nov. 1, 1878): 84. Kerr, “A Tribute to Louie B. Felt,” 99.

  25. 25 “Home Affairs,” Woman’s Exponent 7, no. 21 (Apr. 1, 1879): 218–219. Kerr, “A Tribute to Louie B. Felt,” 99.

  26. 26 “Salt Lake Stake Relief Society Conference,” Woman’s Exponent 9, no. 3 (July 1, 1880): 21–22. Kerr, “A Tribute to Louie B. Felt,” 100. “Louie B. Felt,” Children’s Friend, 413–416.

  27. 27 “Louie B. Felt,” Children’s Friend, 414. “Mrs. Louie B. Felt Taken by Death,” 2:1.

  28. 28Utah death certificate, file no. 247/430. “Mrs. Louie B. Felt Taken by Death,” 2:1.