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Elvira Stevens

Elvira Huntington, Elvira Stevens Barney, Elvira Stevens Woodbury, Dr. Barney, E. S. Barney

17 March 1832—12 January 1909

Emmeline B. Wells

Born 17 March 1832 in Gerry, Chautauqua County, New York.1 Daughter of Samuel Cunnabell Stevens and Minerva Althea Field.2 Baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Joshua Holman, 1844.3 Moved to Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, 1844; orphaned the following year.4 Migrated to the Salt Lake Valley with the Brigham Young pioneer company, arriving September 1848.5 Married first John Stillman Woodbury, 23 December 1850, in the Salt Lake Valley.6 Accompanied her husband on a mission to Hawaii, 1851–1852; returned to California, 1852.7 Took in four foster children, 1855–1864.8 Taught school at San Bernardino, San Bernardino County, California, 1856.9 Divorced by June 1856.10 Married second Oliver Boardman Huntington, 28 December 1856, in Salt Lake City; divorced May 1860.11 Attended Wheaton College, 1864–1866, in Wheaton, DuPage County, Illinois.12 Married third Royal Barney, 6 January 1866, in Salt Lake City; divorced 1890; adopted one child.13 Served on a committee for the Deseret Silk Association, 1875.14 Appointed to the central grain storage purchasing committee under Emmeline B. Wells, November 1876.15 Attended Deseret University, 1878, in Salt Lake City.16 Served a mission to Philadelphia, where she continued her medical studies, 1879–1882.17 Taught classes in medicine and obstetrics to women, by 1883, and served as a visiting physician at Deseret Hospital, by 1884.18 Speaker at the Salt Lake City women’s mass meeting, 6 March 1886.19 Actively participated in the Utah Woman Suffrage Association with Emmeline B. Wells, 1889–1894.20 Interviewed Jane Manning James, by 4 October 1899.21 Author and editor of The Stevens Genealogy: Embracing Branches of the Family Descended from Puritan Ancestry, New England Families Not Traceable to Puritan Ancestry and Miscellaneous Branches Wherever Found, 1907.22 Died 12 January 1909 in Salt Lake City.23

The First Fifty Years of Relief Society

 

Born 17 March 1832 in Gerry, Chautauqua County, New York.24 Daughter of Samuel Cunnabell Stevens and Minerva Althea Field.25 Baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Joshua Holman, 1844.26 Moved to Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, 1844; orphaned the following year.27 Migrated to the Salt Lake Valley with the Brigham Young pioneer company, arriving September 1848.28 Married first John Stillman Woodbury, 23 December 1850, in the Salt Lake Valley.29 Accompanied her husband on a mission to Hawaii, 1851–1852; returned to California, 1852.30 Took in four foster children, 1855–1864.31 Taught school at San Bernardino, San Bernardino County, California, 1856.32 Divorced by June 1856.33 Married second Oliver Boardman Huntington, 28 December 1856, in Salt Lake City; divorced May 1860.34 Attended Wheaton College, 1864–1866, in Wheaton, DuPage County, Illinois.35 Married third Royal Barney, 6 January 1866, in Salt Lake City; divorced 1890; adopted one child.36 Served on a committee for the Deseret Silk Association, 1875.37 Appointed to the central grain storage purchasing committee under Emmeline B. Wells, November 1876.38 Attended Deseret University, 1878, in Salt Lake City.39 Served a mission to Philadelphia, where she continued her medical studies, 1879–1882.40 Taught classes in medicine and obstetrics to women, by 1883, and served as a visiting physician at Deseret Hospital, by 1884.41 Speaker at the Salt Lake City women’s mass meeting, 6 March 1886.42 Actively participated in the Utah Woman Suffrage Association with Emmeline B. Wells, 1889–1894.43 Interviewed Jane Manning James, by 4 October 1899.44 Author and editor of The Stevens Genealogy: Embracing Branches of the Family Descended from Puritan Ancestry, New England Families Not Traceable to Puritan Ancestry and Miscellaneous Branches Wherever Found, 1907.45 Died 12 January 1909 in Salt Lake City.46

Footnotes

  1. 1 E. B. W., “Woman’s Tribute to Dr. Elvira S. Barney,” Deseret Evening News (Salt Lake City), 16 Jan. 1909, 25.

  2. 2 E. B. W., “Woman’s Tribute to Dr. Elvira S. Barney,” 25; Augusta Joyce Crocheron, Representative Women of Deseret, a Book of Biographical Sketches, to Accompany the Picture Bearing the Same Title (J. C. Graham, 1884), 76.

  3. 3 Elvira Stevens Barney entry, no. 1985, Missionary Department, Missionary Registers, 1860–1959, book B, p. 50, Church History Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City (Church History Library hereafter CHL); Crocheron, Representative Women of Deseret, 77.

  4. 4 Crocheron, Representative Women of Deseret, 77; Laron A. Wilson, “Biographical Sketch of Dr. Elvira Stevens Barney,” in Elvira Stevens Barney, The Stevens Genealogy: Embracing Branches of the Family Descended from Puritan Ancestry, New England Families Not Traceable to Puritan Ancestry and Miscellaneous Branches Wherever Found (Skelton Publishing, 1907), 257.

  5. 5 Wilson, “Biographical Sketch of Dr. Elvira Stevens Barney,” in Barney, Stevens Genealogy, 258–261; Crocheron, Representative Women of Deseret, 77; John Pulsipher, Autobiography, ca. 1865–1874, typescript, 33, 44, CHL; Edward Leo Lyman, Susan Ward Payne, and S. George Ellsworth, No Place to Call Home: The 1807–1857 Life Writings of Caroline Barnes Crosby, Chronicler of Outlying Mormon Communities, Life Writings of Frontier Women (Utah State University Press, 2005), 87.

  6. 6 Endowment House Sealings of Couples, Living and by Proxy, 1851–1889, microfilm 183374, sealing record A, p. 781, 23 Dec. 1850, FamilySearch Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City (FamilySearch Library hereafter FSL).

  7. 7 Wilson, “Biographical Sketch of Dr. Elvira Stevens Barney,” in Barney, Stevens Genealogy, 262–266; Historical Department, Journal History of the Church, 26 July 1851, CHL; George Q. Cannon, Journal, 20 Aug. and 15 Dec. 1851, Journal of George Q. Cannon, Church Historians Press, churchhistorianspress.org/george-q-cannon.

  8. 8 Wilson, “Biographical Sketch of Dr. Elvira Stevens Barney,” in Barney, Stevens Genealogy, 266.

  9. 9 Wilson, “Biographical Sketch of Dr. Elvira Stevens Barney,” in Barney, Stevens Genealogy, 266.

  10. 10 Lyman, Payne, and Ellsworth, No Place to Call Home, 412, 541n36.

  11. 11 Oliver Boardman Huntington, Journal, 28 Dec. 1856, May 1860, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT.

  12. 12 Crocheron, Representative Women of Deseret, 80; Wilson, “Biographical Sketch of Dr. Elvira Stevens Barney,” in Barney, Stevens Genealogy, 266.

  13. 13 Endowment House Sealings of Couples, Living and by Proxy, 1851–1889, microfilm 1149514, vol. D, p. 575, 6 Jan. 1866, FSL; Divorce certificate for Royal Barney and Elvira Stevens, 15 Apr. 1890, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., UT, in “Dr. Elvira Stevens,” 1832–1909, Memories, Individual Record, Family Tree database (Ancestor ID LHV7-V1T), FamilySearch, available at familysearch.org; Crocheron, Representative Women of Deseret, 80; Wilson, “Biographical Sketch of Dr. Elvira Stevens Barney,” in Barney, Stevens Genealogy, 266; 1880 U.S. Census, 6th Ward Ann Arbor, Washtenaw Co., MI, enumeration dist. 225, p. 82A.

  14. 14 “Home Affairs,” Woman’s Exponent, 15 June 1875, 13.

  15. 15 Relief Society Committee of the General Board, “A Brief History of the Grain Storing by the Women of Zion,” ca. 1906, p. 2, CHL; Jill Mulvay Derr, Janath Russell Cannon, and Maureen Ursenbach Beecher, Women of Covenant: The Story of Relief Society (Deseret Book, 1992), 103.

  16. 16 Crocheron, Representative Women of Deseret, 81.

  17. 17 Elvira Stevens Barney entry, no. 1985, Missionary Department, Missionary Registers, book B, p. 50, CHL; Crocheron, Representative Women of Deseret, 81; Wilson, “Biographical Sketch of Dr. Elvira Stevens Barney,” in Barney, Stevens Genealogy, 270.

  18. 18 John Taylor, George Q. Cannon, and Joseph F. Smith, “To the Presidents of Stakes and the Bishops of Wards,” Deseret Evening News, 16 June 1883, [3]; Derr, Cannon, and Beecher, Women of Covenant, 107; “Deseret Hospital,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 13 Aug. 1884, 473.

  19. 19 “Mass Meeting,” Ogden (UT) Daily Herald, 8 Mar. 1886, 1.

  20. 20 Emmeline B. Wells, Diary, 12 Jan. 1889 and 3 Feb. 1894, Diaries of Emmeline B. Wells, Church Historian’s Press, churchhistorianspress.org/emmeline-b-wells; Jennifer Reeder and Kate Holbrook, eds., At the Pulpit: 185 Years of Discourses by Latter-day Saint Women (Church Historian’s Press, 2017), 80–81; Elvira S. Barney, “Prayer,” Woman’s Exponent (Salt Lake City), 15 Nov. 1889, 94; “Editorial Notes,” Woman’s Exponent, 1 and 15 Feb. 1894, 92.

  21. 21 Elvira Stevens Barney, “Jane Manning James,” Deseret Evening News, 4 Oct. 1899, 6.

  22. 22 Barney, Stevens Genealogy.

  23. 23 “Barney, Elvira Stevens,” 12 Jan. 1909, file no. 61, in Utah State Archives Name Indexes, Utah Department of Health, Office of Vital Records and Statistics Death Certificates, 1904–present, series 81448, Utah Division of Archives and Records Service; Utah, Salt Lake County Death Records, 1849–1966, DGS 4139806, vol. E, p. 15, no. E57, 12 Jan. 1909, FSL; E. B. W., “Woman’s Tribute to Dr. Elvira S. Barney,” 25.

  24. 24 E. B. W., “Woman’s Tribute to Dr. Elvira S. Barney,” Deseret Evening News (Salt Lake City), 16 Jan. 1909, 25.

  25. 25 E. B. W., “Woman’s Tribute to Dr. Elvira S. Barney,” 25; Augusta Joyce Crocheron, Representative Women of Deseret, a Book of Biographical Sketches, to Accompany the Picture Bearing the Same Title (J. C. Graham, 1884), 76.

  26. 26 Elvira Stevens Barney entry, no. 1985, Missionary Department, Missionary Registers, 1860–1959, book B, p. 50, Church History Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City (Church History Library hereafter CHL); Crocheron, Representative Women of Deseret, 77.

  27. 27 Crocheron, Representative Women of Deseret, 77; Laron A. Wilson, “Biographical Sketch of Dr. Elvira Stevens Barney,” in Elvira Stevens Barney, The Stevens Genealogy: Embracing Branches of the Family Descended from Puritan Ancestry, New England Families Not Traceable to Puritan Ancestry and Miscellaneous Branches Wherever Found (Skelton Publishing, 1907), 257.

  28. 28 Wilson, “Biographical Sketch of Dr. Elvira Stevens Barney,” in Barney, Stevens Genealogy, 258–261; Crocheron, Representative Women of Deseret, 77; John Pulsipher, Autobiography, ca. 1865–1874, typescript, 33, 44, CHL; Edward Leo Lyman, Susan Ward Payne, and S. George Ellsworth, No Place to Call Home: The 1807–1857 Life Writings of Caroline Barnes Crosby, Chronicler of Outlying Mormon Communities, Life Writings of Frontier Women (Utah State University Press, 2005), 87.

  29. 29 Endowment House Sealings of Couples, Living and by Proxy, 1851–1889, microfilm 183374, sealing record A, p. 781, 23 Dec. 1850, FamilySearch Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City (FamilySearch Library hereafter FSL).

  30. 30 Wilson, “Biographical Sketch of Dr. Elvira Stevens Barney,” in Barney, Stevens Genealogy, 262–266; Historical Department, Journal History of the Church, 26 July 1851, CHL; George Q. Cannon, Journal, 20 Aug. and 15 Dec. 1851, Journal of George Q. Cannon, Church Historians Press, churchhistorianspress.org/george-q-cannon.

  31. 31 Wilson, “Biographical Sketch of Dr. Elvira Stevens Barney,” in Barney, Stevens Genealogy, 266.

  32. 32 Wilson, “Biographical Sketch of Dr. Elvira Stevens Barney,” in Barney, Stevens Genealogy, 266.

  33. 33 Lyman, Payne, and Ellsworth, No Place to Call Home, 412, 541n36.

  34. 34 Oliver Boardman Huntington, Journal, 28 Dec. 1856, May 1860, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT.

  35. 35 Crocheron, Representative Women of Deseret, 80; Wilson, “Biographical Sketch of Dr. Elvira Stevens Barney,” in Barney, Stevens Genealogy, 266.

  36. 36 Endowment House Sealings of Couples, Living and by Proxy, 1851–1889, microfilm 1149514, vol. D, p. 575, 6 Jan. 1866, FSL; Divorce certificate for Royal Barney and Elvira Stevens, 15 Apr. 1890, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., UT, in “Dr. Elvira Stevens,” 1832–1909, Memories, Individual Record, Family Tree database (Ancestor ID LHV7-V1T), FamilySearch, available at familysearch.org; Crocheron, Representative Women of Deseret, 80; Wilson, “Biographical Sketch of Dr. Elvira Stevens Barney,” in Barney, Stevens Genealogy, 266; 1880 U.S. Census, 6th Ward Ann Arbor, Washtenaw Co., MI, enumeration dist. 225, p. 82A.

  37. 37 “Home Affairs,” Woman’s Exponent, 15 June 1875, 13.

  38. 38 Relief Society Committee of the General Board, “A Brief History of the Grain Storing by the Women of Zion,” ca. 1906, p. 2, CHL; Jill Mulvay Derr, Janath Russell Cannon, and Maureen Ursenbach Beecher, Women of Covenant: The Story of Relief Society (Deseret Book, 1992), 103.

  39. 39 Crocheron, Representative Women of Deseret, 81.

  40. 40 Elvira Stevens Barney entry, no. 1985, Missionary Department, Missionary Registers, book B, p. 50, CHL; Crocheron, Representative Women of Deseret, 81; Wilson, “Biographical Sketch of Dr. Elvira Stevens Barney,” in Barney, Stevens Genealogy, 270.

  41. 41 John Taylor, George Q. Cannon, and Joseph F. Smith, “To the Presidents of Stakes and the Bishops of Wards,” Deseret Evening News, 16 June 1883, [3]; Derr, Cannon, and Beecher, Women of Covenant, 107; “Deseret Hospital,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 13 Aug. 1884, 473.

  42. 42 “Mass Meeting,” Ogden (UT) Daily Herald, 8 Mar. 1886, 1.

  43. 43 Emmeline B. Wells, Diary, 12 Jan. 1889 and 3 Feb. 1894, Diaries of Emmeline B. Wells, Church Historian’s Press, churchhistorianspress.org/emmeline-b-wells; Jennifer Reeder and Kate Holbrook, eds., At the Pulpit: 185 Years of Discourses by Latter-day Saint Women (Church Historian’s Press, 2017), 80–81; Elvira S. Barney, “Prayer,” Woman’s Exponent (Salt Lake City), 15 Nov. 1889, 94; “Editorial Notes,” Woman’s Exponent, 1 and 15 Feb. 1894, 92.

  44. 44 Elvira Stevens Barney, “Jane Manning James,” Deseret Evening News, 4 Oct. 1899, 6.

  45. 45 Barney, Stevens Genealogy.

  46. 46 “Barney, Elvira Stevens,” 12 Jan. 1909, file no. 61, in Utah State Archives Name Indexes, Utah Department of Health, Office of Vital Records and Statistics Death Certificates, 1904–present, series 81448, Utah Division of Archives and Records Service; Utah, Salt Lake County Death Records, 1849–1966, DGS 4139806, vol. E, p. 15, no. E57, 12 Jan. 1909, FSL; E. B. W., “Woman’s Tribute to Dr. Elvira S. Barney,” 25.