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Emmeline B. Wells

Image of Emmeline B. Wells
The precocious young Emmeline was a well-educated child, graduating from New Salem Academy at age fourteen. She joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1842, and within two short years she married James Harris, moved from Massachusetts to Nauvoo, and gave birth to a son who survived only one month. Poverty stricken, James went to sea in search of work, but his letters home were intercepted by his mother. Believing she had been deserted, Emmeline became the plural wife of Newel K. Whitney and traveled with him and his family to Utah. Devastated by his death in 1850, she began teaching school to support herself and their two young daughters. In 1852 she married Daniel H. Wells as his seventh wife and bore him three daughters, but her financial stability was still not secure. Under the name Blanche Beechwood she began writing spirited essays on women’s rights for the Woman’s Exponent. She assumed the editorship of the paper in 1877, and during her thirty-seven-year tenure she argued Mormon women’s need for educational and vocational opportunities as well as for their right to practice polygamy. Her position allowed her to become a vital liaison between the Latter-day Saint community and national women’s groups, and she represented Utah at national and international women’s meetings, forming alliances with important suffrage leaders. Her Relief Society work included chairing the grain-saving committee from 1876 to 1880, serving more than twenty years as the general secretary and becoming its general president at age eighty-two. As a poet and short story writer she was often sentimental, writing on reminiscences of her Massachusetts home, family relationships, and matters of the spirit. Many of her pieces that had appeared over the years in the Woman’s Exponent were collected into one volume called Musings and Memories (1896). In 1912 her lifetime of contributions was recognized as she became the first Utah woman to receive an honorary degree from Brigham Young University. [from Discoveries: Two Centuries of Poems by Mormon Women, 101-2] Included in 75 Significant Mormon Poets
Emmeline Blanche Wells, Aunt Em; E.B.W.; Wells, E.B.; Wells, Emmiline B.
1828
1921
Author, Editor

29 Works by Emmeline B. Wells

Title Role Year Genre
Musings and Memories Author 1896 Poetry
Our Mountain Home So Dear Author Music Lyrics
Shadow-Land Author Poetry
Songs and Flowers of the Wasatch Editor 1893 Poetry
April Author 1882 Poetry
Twilight Riveries Author Poetry
Somewhere Author Poetry
The Dear Old Garden Author Poetry
A Fragment Author Poetry
Friendship Author Poetry
Real and Ideal Author Poetry
New Year Poem, Then and Now Author Poetry
Retrospection Author Poetry
April Author Poetry
At Last Author Poetry
Autumn Author Poetry
Autumn Leaves Author Poetry
Consolation Author Poetry
Eventide Author Poetry
Memory of the Sea Author Poetry
Mizpah Author Poetry
October Author Poetry
Old Letters Author Poetry
Shadows and Whisperings Author Poetry
Song of Summer Author Poetry
Sweet Memories Author Poetry
Trials and Happiness Author Poetry
Aunt Esther's Sweetheart Author Short Story
At Evening Author 1916 Poetry
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