In March 1842, shortly after the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo had been founded, JS counseled the women that the society was growing too rapidly and proposed “a close examination of every candidate” to ensure that “none should be received into the Society but those who were worthy.” He further cautioned them to proceed slowly, so that they might have “a select Society of the virtuous and those who will walk circumspectly,” and warned them to be “extremely careful in all their examinations or the consequences would be serious.” (Discourse, 31 Mar. 1842.)

In a later account, Eliza R. Snow echoed JS’s sentiment: “The Society soon became so popular that even those of doubtful character in several instances applied for admission, and to prevent imposition by extending membership to such ones inadvertently, stricter rules were adopted than seemed requisite at first. Each one wishing to join the Society was required to present a certificate of her good moral character, signed by two or more responsible persons.” (Eliza R. Snow, “The Female Relief Society,” Woman’s Exponent, 15 June 1872, 1:10. For an example of these petitions, see Susan Cuthbertson, Application to Nauvoo Female Relief Society, ca. Sept. 1843, in Derr et al., First Fifty Years of Relief Society, 149–150.)

Woman’s Exponent. Salt Lake City. 1872–1914.

Derr, Jill Mulvay, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Kate Holbrook, and Matthew J. Grow, eds. The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women’s History. Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2016.

Harriet Luce was married to John Luce. The couple had joined the church by April 1838 and moved to Nauvoo in 1841. Mary Wheeler Luce and her husband, Stephen Luce, joined the church in 1838 in Vinalhaven, Maine, and moved to Nauvoo by 1840. John and Stephen were brothers, making Harriet and Mary Luce sisters-in-law. (Woodruff, Journal, 13 Jan. and 7 Apr. 1838; 22 Aug. 1841; “List of Property in the City of Nauvoo,” 1841, Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL; 1840 U.S. Census, Hancock Co., IL, 182; Ward, “Female Relief Society of Nauvoo,” 151–152; see also Wood, “Utah’s Forgotten Pioneer,” 234–243.)

Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

Nauvoo, IL. Records, 1841–1845. CHL. MS 16800.

Census (U.S.) / U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population Schedules. Microfilm. FHL.

Ward, Maurine Carr. “‘This Institution Is a Good One’: The Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, 17 March 1842 to 16 March 1844.” Mormon Historical Studies 3 (Fall 2002): 87–203.

Wood, David Lyle. “Utah’s Forgotten Pioneer of 1847.” Journal of Mormon History 41, no. 2 (Apr. 2015): 226–258.

Mahala Ann Wallace Overton married Moses Overton in 1826. They moved to Jackson County, Missouri, by 1832. Mahala was widowed in 1834, and she and her children endured the forced expulsion of the Saints from Missouri in 1838. (Derr et al., First Fifty Years of Relief Society, 662; Patriarchal Blessings, vol. 3, p. 77; Johnson, Mormon Redress Petitions, 510.)

Derr, Jill Mulvay, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Kate Holbrook, and Matthew J. Grow, eds. The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women’s History. Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2016.

Patriarchal Blessings, 1833–. CHL. CR 500 2.

Johnson, Clark V., ed. Mormon Redress Petitions: Documents of the 1833–1838 Missouri Conflict. Religious Studies Center Monograph Series 16. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1992.

JS gave similar counsel in a discourse to the Relief Society two weeks earlier. (See Discourse, 26 May 1842.)

See Mark 2:14–17; and Luke 5:27–32.