Her first marriage to James Harris ended in tragedy when his parents left the Church, and in looking for work he drowned in the ocean on a fishing excursion. She then became a plural wife to Bishop Newel K. Whitney, however he died two years after entering the Salt Lake Valley. Her third marriage was to Apostle Daniel H. Wells.
Emmeline was appointed one of two representatives from Utah to the suffrage convention in Washington, D.C., and she soon became friends with national suffrage leaders Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, who were impressed with her abilities. In 1899 she was invited by the International Council of Women to speak at its London meeting as a representative from the United States.
Emmeline Wells was nearly eighty-three years old when she was called as general president of the Relief Society in 1910, an organization she had previously served for twenty years as general secretary and as head of its grain storage program in the 1870s. In 1912 she was awarded an honorary doctorate of literature from Brigham Young University. In 1919 she was honored by a visit to her home by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and his wife; the occasion commemorated the sale of over 205,000 bushels of Relief Society wheat to the U.S. government during World War I.
Finally, at age ninety-three she suffered a stroke and then died three weeks later. A funeral was held in the tabernacle (the second woman to be so commemorated) and was later honored with a marble bust in the Utah State Capitol from the women of Utah.
Her first marriage to James Harris ended in tragedy when his parents left the Church, and in looking for work he drowned in the ocean on a fishing excursion. She then became a plural wife to Bishop Newel K. Whitney, however he died two years after entering the Salt Lake Valley. Her third marriage was to Apostle Daniel H. Wells.
Emmeline was appointed one of two representatives from Utah to the suffrage convention in Washington, D.C., and she soon became friends with national suffrage leaders Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, who were impressed with her abilities. In 1899 she was invited by the International Council of Women to speak at its London meeting as a representative from the United States.
Emmeline Wells was nearly eighty-three years old when she was called as general president of the Relief Society in 1910, an organization she had previously served for twenty years as general secretary and as head of its grain storage program in the 1870s. In 1912 she was awarded an honorary doctorate of literature from Brigham Young University. In 1919 she was honored by a visit to her home by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and his wife; the occasion commemorated the sale of over 205,000 bushels of Relief Society wheat to the U.S. government during World War I.
Finally, at age ninety-three she suffered a stroke and then died three weeks later. A funeral was held in the tabernacle (the second woman to be so commemorated) and was later honored with a marble bust in the Utah State Capitol from the women of Utah.
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