Nineteen-year-old Bathsheba Smith was the youngest attendee at the first Relief Society meeting in Nauvoo. She loved the temple, and felt that serving in the Lord’s house was one of the most important things she could do as Relief Society President; she served in the Nauvoo Temple, the Salt Lake Endowment House, the Manti Temple, the Logan Temple, and the Salt Lake Temple. She was a woman of great faith and love.
The eighth of nine children, Bathsheba Smith was born in West Virginia on May 3, 1822 to Mark and Susannah Ogden Bigler. As a young girl, she traded names with her best friend as a symbol of their friendship, and used her friend’s surname, Wilson, or the initial W, in place of her own maiden name. When missionaries knocked at her home, they found the family ready to receive the gospel. Bathsheba was baptized on August 21, 1837.
One of the missionaries who brought the Bigler family the “good news” was George A. Smith, cousin of the prophet. Six months later, they agreed to be married. Shortly afterwards, George was called to serve a mission in England, and did not return until 1841. By that time, the family had moved to Nauvoo (by way of Far West, Missouri and Quincy, Illinois). When the two were married on July 25, 1841, two weeks after his return, George was the youngest member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
George served numerous missions throughout their marriage. He left for the Eastern states only two months after the birth of their son, George A. Smith, Jr., in 1842. They corresponded frequently, and their letters show their love and devotion to one another despite the distance between them.
George and Bathsheba were one of the first couples to receive the temple endowment and learn of the celestial order of marriage. They were sealed in January 1844. Bathsheba had a strong testimony of plural marriage, and gave her husband five wives, “believing he would not leve them less because he loved me more.” Indeed, when the Saints left Nauvoo and settled in Winter Quarters, Bathsheba chose to stay and care for her husband’s wives and children – her sisters, as she called them – despite a desire to go on to the Salt Lake Valley with her husband. She remained in Winter Quarters for three years while her husband traveled back and forth, helping other Saints go west.
In 1860, Bathsheba was grief-stricken over the news that her only son had been killed by Indians. Only a few months later, her daughter, Bathsheba, married and moved out. However, she had all but adopted her neice, who lived with her for many years. George died fifeen years later.
When Zina Young was sustained as Relief Society president, she selected Bathsheba as her second counselor. Following Bathsheba’s death in 1901, President Joseph F. Smith called Bathsheba as the fourth president of the Relief Society. The women continued with the nursing classes established by Zina Young. They also introduced mothers’ classes, believing that women in the church ought to learn to be self-sufficient. Accordingly, lessons on marriage, child rearing, honesty, reverence, prenatal care, obedience, and industry were taught. Though Bathsheba was not a leader in the women’s sufferage movement, she did support the local efforts with talks and articles. She encouraged work to be done on a central office for the Relief Society, and moved the organization into the newly built Bishop’s Building in 1909, where it remained until 1956. She passed away at the age of 88 on September 20, 1910, the last of the original twenty members of the Relief Society and still strong in the faith.
Related Articles:
Relief Society Presidents: An Introduction
Relief Society Presidents: Emma Hale Smith
Relief Society Presidents: Eliza Roxy Snow
Relief Society Presidents: Zina D. H. Young