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Jane Snyder

Jane Snyder Richards

31 January 1823—17 November 1912

Emmeline B. Wells

Born 31 Jan. 1823 in Pamelia, Jefferson Co., New York.1 Daughter of Isaac Snyder and Lovisa Comstock.2 Married Franklin D. Richards, 18 Dec. 1842, in Hancock Co., Illinois; six children.3 Living in Nauvoo, Hancock Co., by 1843.4 Migrated to the Salt Lake Valley with the Willard Richards pioneer company, arriving 10 Oct. 1848.5 Moved to Ogden, Weber Co., Utah Territory, 1868.6 Served as president of the Relief Society in Ogden, 1872–1877.7 Served as president of the Weber Stake Relief Society, 1877–1908.8 Served as a member of the executive board of Deseret Hospital with EBW, 1882–1892.9 Appointed as a counselor to Relief Society general president Zina D. H. Young, 1888–1901, serving with EBW, who was the corresponding secretary.10 Delegate to the National Council of Women in Washington, DC with EBW and others, 1891.11 Appointed as one of the “lady managers” for Utah at the Chicago World’s Exposition in 1893.12 Died 17 Nov. 1912 in Ogden.13

The First Fifty Years of Relief Society

14 Born at Pamelia, Jefferson County, New York; daughter of Lovisa Comstock and Isaac Snyder. 15 Baptized in Indiana, 1840. 16 Settled at Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, circa 1842. 17 Married Franklin D. Richards, 1842; six children. 18 Joined the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, 1844. 19 Migrated to the Salt Lake Valley, 1848. 20 Settled in the Salt Lake City Fourteenth Ward. 21 Moved to Ogden, Weber County, Utah Territory, 1869. 22 Appointed president of the Ogden Relief Society, 1872. 23 As president of the Weber Stake Relief Society, served as the first female stake officer in the church, 1877–1908. 24 Served as first counselor to Zina D. H. Young in the general Relief Society presidency, 1888–1901. 25 Died at Ogden. 26 (See Document 1.2, 3.26, 3.28, 4.11, 4.20, 4.27, first mentioned here)

Footnotes

  1. 1 “Jane S. Richards,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Early Church Information File, 1830–1900, card 55, microfilm 1750709, FHL. Record of Members Collection, 1836–1970, Ogden Second Ward, Record of Members, Part 1, 1893–1905, p. 26, Jane Snyder Richards, CHL. “Family Tree,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org, accessed 5 Feb. 2018), Jane Snyder (KWJC-RG2).

  2. 2 Jane S. Richards,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Early Church Information File, 1830–1900, card 55, microfilm 1750709, FHL. Record of Members Collection, 1836–1970, Ogden Second Ward, Record of Members, Part 1, 1893–1905, p. 26, Jane Snyder Richards, CHL.

  3. 3 Hancock Co., IL, County Clerk, Marriage Register, 1829–1915, vol. A1, 1829–1849, p. 60, no. 666, Franklin D Richards and Jane Snyder, 18 Dec. 1842, microfilm 954177, DGS 4661306, image 68/356, FHL. “Family Tree,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org, accessed 5 Feb. 2018), Jane Snyder (KWJC-RG2).

  4. 4 Jane Snyder Richards, Journal, Richards Family Collection, 8–9, CHL. General Church Recorder, Far West and Nauvoo Elders’ Certificates, 1837–1838, 1840–1846, 7, 9, 67, CHL.

  5. 5 “Jane S Richards,” Pioneer Database (https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/overlandtravel, accessed 31 Jan. 2018).

  6. 6 Jane Snyder Richards, Journal, Richards Family Collection, 47, CHL. 1870 U.S. Census, Ogden, Weber Co., Utah Territory, p. 44, Jane S. Richards.

  7. 7 “Passing Events, Sister Jane Snyder Richards,” Improvement Era, May 1910, 668.

  8. 8 “Passing Events, Sister Jane Snyder Richards,” Improvement Era, May 1910, 668.

  9. 9  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) 499.

  10. 10 Jill Mulvay Derr, Janath Russell Cannon, and Maureen Ursenbach Beecher, Women of Covenant: The Story of Relief Society (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1992), 128. History of the Relief Society, 1842–1966 (Salt Lake City: General Board of the Relief Society, 1966), 59.

  11. 11 EBW, Diary, 16 and 25 Feb. 1891. Carol Cornwall Madsen, Emmeline B. Wells: An Intimate History (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2017), 311.

  12. 12  Carol Cornwall Madsen, An Advocate for Women: The Public Life of Emmeline B. Wells, 1870–1920 (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2006), 387–388.

  13. 13 “Utah Death Certificate Index, 1904–1961,” database and images, Utah State Archives (https://archives.utah.gov, accessed 17 Nov. 2017); from Utah Department of Health, Office of Vital Records and Statistics, series 81448, file no. 337, (1912), Jane Snyder Richards. “Mrs. Richards Is Dead; Weber Loses by Demise; Prominent Woman in Ninetieth Year Taken by Death,” Salt Lake Herald-Republican, 18 Nov. 1912, 1.

  14. 14 “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. 337/263 (1912), Jane Synder Richards. Jane S. Richards, autobiographical sketch, manuscript, Mar. 30, 1881, p. [1], CHL. Andrew Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia (Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson Memorial Assoc./Deseret News, 1936), 4:195.

  15. 15 Utah death certificate, file no. 337/263. Richards, autobiographical sketch, [1]. “A Noble Woman Called by Death,” Deseret Evening News, Nov. 18, 1912, 5. Jenson, LDS Biographical Encyclopedia, 4:195.

  16. 16 Richards, autobiographical sketch, [3]. Edward W. Tullidge, Women of Mormondom (New York: Tullidge and Crandall, 1877), 410.

  17. 17 Richards, autobiographical sketch, [4]. Tullidge, Women of Mormondom, 410.

  18. 18 Richards, autobiographical sketch, [4]. Jenson, LDS Biographical Encyclopedia, 4:195. “A Noble Woman Called by Death,” 5.

  19. 19 Nauvoo Relief Society Minute Book, 1841–1846, CHL, entry for Mar. 9, 1844.

  20. 20 Richards, autobiographical sketch, [5]. “A Noble Woman Called by Death,” 5. “Jane Snyder Richards,” Church History Biographical Database, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, available at https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/chd/landing, accessed Dec. 2014.

  21. 21 Annie Wells Cannon, “Jane Snyder Richards: In Memoriam,” Woman’s Exponent 41, no. 3 (Nov. 1, 1912): 17–18.

  22. 22 Richards, autobiographical sketch, [7]. Tullidge, Women of Mormondom, 410.

  23. 23 Richards, autobiographical sketch, [8]. Tullidge, Women of Mormondom, 410.

  24. 24 Tullidge, Women of Mormondom, 411. Cannon, “Jane Snyder Richards,” 17–18. Jenson, LDS Biographical Encyclopedia, 4:195. “A Noble Woman Called by Death,” 5. Weber Stake Relief Society, Minutes, July 19, 1877, vol. 6, pp. 3–5, in Relief Society Minutes and Records, 1867–1968, Weber Stake, CHL. History of the Relief Society in Weber County, 1887, in Richards Family Collection, 1837–1961, CHL, 3.

  25. 25 Cannon, “In Memoriam,” 17–18. “A Noble Woman Called by Death,” 5. Jenson, LDS Biographical Encyclopedia, 4:195.

  26. 26 Utah death certificate, file no. 337/263. “A Noble Woman Called by Death,” 5. “Family Tree,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org, accessed Jan. 6, 2016), Jane Snyder KWJC-RG2.