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Emily Hill

Emily Mills, Emily Woodmansee, Emily Hill Mills Woodmansee

24 March 1836—18 October 1906

Emmeline B. Wells

Born 24 Mar. 1836 at Warminster, Wiltshire, England.1 Daughter of Thomas Hill and Elizabeth Slade.2 Baptized as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 25 Mar. 1852, in England.3 Emigrated from Liverpool, Lancashire, England, with her sister on the ship Thornton, arriving in New York City 14 June 1856.4 Migrated to the Salt Lake Valley with the Willie Handcart Company, arriving 9 Nov. 1856.5 Married first William Gills Mills, 15 June 1857, in Salt Lake City; one daughter.6 Deserted by her husband after he left for a mission to England; raised his adopted daughter, Alexandrina Bray.7 Married second Joseph Thomas Woodmansee, 7 May 1864, in Salt Lake City; eight children.8 Served as the secretary and treasurer of the Women’s Cooperative Mercantile and Manufacturing Institution.9 Wrote a poem titled “Song of the Sisters of the Female Relief Society,” May 1869, which was later put to original music by Janice Kapp Perry and retitled “As Sisters in Zion,” 1985.10 Wrote numerous poetic tributes, including to Mary Isabella Horne, 1880; EBW, 1882; and Eliza R. Snow, 1904.11 Associated with EBW regarding literary creations and during special occasion presentations, 1881, 1884, 1893.12 Wrote the poem “Give the ‘Mormons’ Their Rights” for the Women’s Mass Protest Meeting held in Salt Lake City, 6 Mar. 1886.13 Composed a poem for the Relief Society Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration, 1892.14 Died 18 Oct. 1906 in Salt Lake City.15

The First Fifty Years of Relief Society

16 Born near Warminster, Wiltshire, England; daughter of Elizabeth Slade and Thomas Hill. 17 Baptized, 1858. 18 Immigrated to the United States aboard the Thornton and traveled to the Salt Lake Valley with the Willie handcart company, 1856. 19 Married first William Gill Mills, 1857; one child; abandoned by husband, circa 1863. 20 Married second Joseph Woodmansee, 1864; eight children. 21 Died at Salt Lake City. 22 (See Document 3.16, 4.15, 4.28)

Footnotes

  1. 1 The Church of England, Christ Church, Warminster, Wiltshire, England, Parish Registers, 1831–1923, Baptisms, p. 15, Emily Hill, microfilm 950246, DGS 757289, image 22/709, FHL. “Endowments of the Living, 1851–1884,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Endowment House, vol. B, 1855–1857, p. 109, line 2642, Emily Hill, microfilm 1149524, DGS 7226465 (restricted access), FHL. “Family Tree,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org, accessed 7 Jan. 2020), Emily Hill (KWJC-LLR).

  2. 2 The Church of England, Christ Church, Warminster, Wiltshire, England, Parish Registers, 1831–1923, Baptisms, p. 15, Emily Hill, microfilm 950246, DGS 757289, image 22/709, FHL. “Endowments of the Living, 1851–1884,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Endowment House, vol. B, 1855–1857, p. 109, line 2642, Emily Hill, microfilm 1149524, DGS 7226465 (restricted access), FHL. 1851 England and Wales Census, Warminster, Wiltshire, England, p. 110, Emily Hill. “Family Tree,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org, accessed 7 Jan. 2020), Emily Hill (KWJC-LLR).

  3. 3 Emily H. Woodmansee, Papers, 1852–1906, MSS 2003, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University. “Endowments of the Living, 1851–1884,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Endowment House, vol. B, 1855–1857, p. 109, line 2642, Emily Hill, microfilm 1149524, DGS 7226465 (restricted access), FHL.

  4. 4 “Emily Hill,” Saints by Sea (https://saintsbysea.lib.byu.edu/, accessed 17 Dec. 2019).  

  5. 5 “Emily Hill,” Pioneer Database (https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/overlandtravel/, accessed 16 Dec. 2019). “Fourth Hand-Cart Company-Capt. J. G. Willie,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 15 Oct. 1856, 6.

  6. 6 “Sealings of Couples, Living and by Proxy, 1851–1889,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Endowment House, vol. C, 1856–1861, pp. 190–191, line 1233, William Gill Mills and Emily Hill, 15 June 1857, microfilm 1149517, DGS 7226458 (restricted access), FHL. 1860 U.S. Census, Great Salt Lake City, Great Salt Lake Co., Utah Territory, p. 23, Emily H. Mills. Emily H. Woodmansee, Papers, 1852–1906, MSS 2003, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University.

  7. 7 Emily H. Woodmansee, Papers, 1852–1906, MSS 2003, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University.

  8. 8 “Sealings of Couples, Living and by Proxy, 1851–1889,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Endowment House, vol. C, pp. 323–324, line 6682, Joseph Woodmansee and Emily Hill, 7 May 1864, microfilm 1149571, DGS 7226458 (restricted access), FHL. 1880 U.S. Census, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., Utah Territory, p. 14, Joseph Woodmansee. Emily H. Woodmansee, Papers, 1852–1906, MSS 2003, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University.

  9. 9 “Classified Business Directory,” Salt Lake City Directory (Salt Lake City: R. L. Polk, 1899), 900.

  10. 10 Janice Kapp Perry, “As Sisters in Zion—Born a Century Apart,” Meridian Magazine, 3 Nov. 2009 (https://latterdaysaintmag.com/article-1-986/, accessed 1 Jan. 2020).

  11. 11 “Providence Is over All,” Selections from Writings of Pioneer Poets, YLMIA Literary Course, 1909–1910, Ruth May Fox Personal and Family Papers, 1869–2010, MS 31203, CHL. Myrlon Bentley Abegg, comp., The Poetry of Emily Hill Woodmansee (Orem, UT: By the author, 1986), copy at CHL. “A Demonstration of Respect,” Woman’s Exponent, 1 Mar. 1880, 145. “Appreciation,” Woman’s Exponent, 1 June 1882, 1. “She Is Not Dead,” Woman’s Exponent, Jan. 1904, 1. 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), 525–527.

  12. 12 EBW, Diary, 21 Jan. 1881; 8 Mar. 1881; 15 Dec. 1893; 26 and 28 Feb. 1894.

  13. 13 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), 525–527.

  14. 14 “The Fifth Anniversary,” Standard (Ogden, UT), 22 Mar. 1892, 6.

  15. 15 “Utah State Archives Indexes,” database and images, Utah State Archives (https://archives.utah.gov, accessed 16 Dec. 2019); Utah Department of Health Office of Vital Records and Statistics, Death Certificates, series 81448, file no. 1131/355 (1906), Emily H. Woodmansee. “Utah Pioneer Dead,” Salt Lake Tribune, 21 Oct. 1906, 36.

  16. 16 “Utah Death Certificate Index, 1904–1961,” database and images, Utah State Archives (http://archives.utah.gov, accessed Jan. 2015); from Utah Department of Health, Office of Vital Records and Statistics, series 81448, file no. 1151/355 (1906), Emily H. Woodmansee.

  17. 17 Utah death certificate, file no. 1151/355. Augusta Joyce Crocheron, Representative Women of Deseret: A Book of Biographical Sketches (Salt Lake City: J. C. Graham and Co., 1884), 82.

  18. 18 Crocheron, Representative Women of Deseret, 85.

  19. 19 Crocheron, Representative Women of Deseret, 85–86. “Saints by Sea,” database, 1840–1932, Saints by Sea (https://saintsbysea.lib.byu.edu, accessed May 2023), Emily Hill; extracted from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mormon Immigration Index CD (2000). “Emily Hill,” Church History Biographical Database, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, available at https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/chd/landing, accessed Jan. 2015.

  20. 20 Crocheron, Representative Women of Deseret, 86–87. 1860 U.S. census, Great Salt Lake City Ward 13, Great Salt Lake Co., Utah Territory, p. 191, Emily H. Mills; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com, accessed Jan. 2015); from NARA microfilm publication M653, roll 1313. “Family Tree,” database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org, accessed Jan. 2015), Emily Hill KWJC-LLR.

  21. 21 Crocheron, Representative Women of Deseret, 88.

  22. 22 Utah death certificate, file no. 1151/355. “Utah Cemetery Inventory,” database, Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com, accessed Jan. 2015), Emily Woodmansee; citing Utah State Historical Society, Utah Cemetery Inventory, Salt Lake City, UT.