Zina D. H. Young

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Zina Diantha Huntington Jacobs Smith Young (31 January 1821 – 28 August 1901) was an American social activist and religious leader who served as the third general president of the Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1888 until her death.

Contents

[edit] Childhood

Zina Huntington was born in Watertown, New York the eighth child of William and Zina Baker Huntington. She was taught household skills, such as spinning, soap making, and weaving, and received a basic education. She developed musical talent by learning to play the cello. In 1835, when Zina Huntington was fourteen, her family was contacted by Hyrum Smith and David Whitmer, missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. With the exception of her oldest brother, the entire family joined the newly formed church. Zina was baptized by Hyrum Smith on August 1, 1835.

After receiving advice from Joseph Smith, Sr., Zina's father sold their property and relocated to the Church's headquarters in the community of Kirtland, Ohio. Zina was a member of the Kirtland Temple Choir. Nineteen months later, they moved again to Far West, Missouri. They arrived in Far West at a time of violence between Missouri residents and the newly arrived Mormons. After Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs issued the Extermination Order, Zina's father helped coordinate the evacuation of church members to Illinois. During an 1839 cholera epidemic in Nauvoo, Illinois, Zina and her mother became ill. Her mother died but she recovered after receiving care in the home of Joseph and Emma Smith. Zina was eighteen years old.

[edit] Marriage and children

According to historian Todd Compton, at the age of twenty, while openly being courted by Henry Bailey Jacobs, Zina received a secret proposal from the prophet, Joseph Smith, Jr. (Compton 1997, p. 77 – 79). As Smith was already married to his wife Emma, he explained to Zina that the Lord was restoring the ancient order of plural marriage (Van Wagoner 1992, p. 44). Zina declined the proposal and on March 7, 1841 she married Jacobs. Nauvoo mayor John C. Bennett conducted the ceremony.

Also, according to Compton, within months of her marriage to Jacobs, Joseph sent word to her that he had "put it off till an angel with a drawn sword stood by me and told me if I did not establish that principle upon the earth I would lose my position and my life" (quoted in Compton 1997, p. 80 – 81). They were sealed on October 27, 1841 (Compton 1997 p. 81 – 82). Jacobs was aware of the wedding, but they continued to live together when he wasn't away serving a mission (Compton 1997 p. 81 – 82). They had two sons, Zebulon William Jacobs was born January 2, 1842. DNA research has confirmed that Zebulon is not the son of Smith (Perego 2005). Henry Chariton Jacobs was born March 22, 1846 after Joseph's death.

Zina married Brigham Young on February 2, 1846, aged 25. They were married for thirty-one years and had one daughter, Zina Prescinda Young, who married Charles Ora Card and became the great-grandmother of novelist Orson Scott Card. She also reared four of Young's children by Clarissa Chase after their mother's death. (Compton 1997 p 84, 88, 90 – 91).

[edit] Church service and leadership

After the death of Joseph Smith, Jr., Zina Young joined the Mormon Exodus to the Rocky Mountains, arriving in Utah in September 1848. After migrating to the Salt Lake Valley, Zina Young became involved in a number of public service activities. She became a school teacher and studied obstetrics under Dr. Willard Richards. As a midwife, she "...helped deliver the babies of many women, including those of the plural wives of Brigham Young. At their request, she anointed and blessed many of these sisters before their deliveries. Other women in need of physical and emotional comfort also received blessings under her hands." (Ludlow, p. 654) In 1872, she helped establish Deseret Hospital in Salt Lake City and served on its board of directors and for twelve years as president. She also organized a nursing school, with courses in obstetrics. In 1876, Zina was appointed president of the Deseret Silk Association,[1] Utah's Silk Industry, a group which for 30 years attempted to cultivate silk worms and mulberry trees for the local production of cloth. She was also involved in LDS temple work, acting as matron to female temple workers.

When the LDS Relief Society was reorganized in 1880, Zina was selected as first counselor by President Eliza R. Snow. The new presidency was active in refining the society's organization and functions, and helped develop additional church auxiliaries, including the Young Ladies' Retrenchment Association and the Primary Association for Children. Zina was active in the temperance and women's suffrage movements, and, in the winter of 1881-82, attended the Women's Conference in Buffalo and a National Woman's Suffrage Association convention in New York. In addition to Snow, Zina counted other prominent women in the Relief Society as her friends, including Bathsheba Smith and Emmeline B. Wells. (Bradley and Woodward, p. 197)

In 1888, following the death of Eliza R. Snow, Zina succeeded her as the Relief Society's third general president and served as president until her death in 1901. In 1891, she was a vice president for the Utah National Council for Women. Zina died on August 28, 1901 at age 80.

[edit] References

  • Allen, James B.; Glen M. Leonard (1976). The Story of the Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book Company. ISBN 0-87747-594-6. 
  • Beecher, Maureen Ursenbach, editor (1979). "All Things Move in Order in the City: the Nauvoo Diary of Zina Diantha Huntington Jacobs". BYU Studies 19 (Spring): 285–320. 
  • Bradley, Martha Sonntag and Mary Brown Firmage Woodward, 4 Zina's: A Story of Mothers and Daughters on the Mormon Frontier. Signature Books, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2000. ISBN: 1-56085-141-4.
  • Compton, Todd (1997). In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith. Signature Books. ISBN 1-56085-085-X. 
  • Higbee, Marilyn, ed. (1993) "'A Weary Traveller': The 1848-1850 Diary of Zina D. H. Young." Journal of Mormon History 19 (Fall): 86-125.
  • Ludlow, Daniel H., editor (1992). Church History Selections from the Encyclopedia of Mormonism. Deseret Book Company. ISBN 0-87579-924-8. 
  • Moore, Carrie A.. "Research focuses on Smith family", Deseret Morning News, Deseret News, May 28, 2005. 
  • Peterson, Janet; LaRene Gaunt (1990). Elect Ladies: Presidents of the Relief Society. Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book Company. ISBN 0-87579-416-5. 
  • Perego, Ugo A.; Natalie M. Myers and Scott R. Woodward (2005). "Reconstructing the Y-Chromosome of Joseph Smith, Jr: Genealogical Applications". Journal of Mormon History 32 (2): 70–88. 
  • Van Wagoner, Richard S. (1992). Mormon Polygamy: A History. Signature Books. ISBN 0-941214-79-6. 

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Eliza R. Snow		 President of the Relief Society
of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
1888–1901		 Succeeded by
Bathsheba W. Smith
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General presidents of the Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
E.H. Smith (1842–1844) • Snow (1866–1887) • Young (1888–1901) • B.W. Smith (1901–1910) • Wells (1910–1921) • Williams (1921–1928) • Robison (1928–1939) • Lyman (1939–1945) • Spafford (1945–1974) • B.B. Smith (1974–1984) • Winder (1984–1990) • Jack (1990–1997) • Smoot (1997–2002) • Parkin (2002–2007) • Beck (2007– )
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