Big Horn Stake Relief Society

Last month (March 17th) was the 174th anniversary of the founding of the Relief Society, first called the "Female Relief Society of Nauvoo."  It's so awesome that the original minute book has been digitized and is now available online
https://history.lds.org/article/women_in_church_history_research_guide?lang=eng

First page of the Relief Society Minute Book

So this minute book is pretty famous among Mormon historians.  After the Mormons were driven out of Nauvoo, the Relief Society stopped meeting.  It was reestablished in 1867, with Eliza R. Snow as President.  She had been secretary of the Nauvoo R.S., and this minute book was hers.  She used her minute book to help the various Relief Society groups throughout Utah and other colonies and use it as a guide to their new fledgling groups.

To honor the anniversary of Relief Society and the availability of the Nauvoo Relief Society minute book, I thought I would share my own exciting find.  The minutes of the Big Horn Stake (Wyoming) Relief Society!

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The Big Horn Stake Relief Society was organized in May 1901, one year after Mormon settlers from Utah and Idaho began arriving in the Big Horn Basin.  I was so excited to find this primary source document at the Cowley Museum last summer.  They also have the Lovell Ward Relief Society Minutes.  

It was fun to see names I recognize; many of these women's descendants still live in the Big Horn Basin.  I even saw my own great-grandmother's name: Eliza Asay!  I think she offered a prayer or something.  It's been a while since I saw it.

I took pics of every page, and I was going to post more pictures, but some of them are sideways & I can't figure out how to turn them right in blogger.