Emmeline Blanche Woodward (Harris Whitney) Wells was born Emmeline BlancheWoodward in 1828 in Petersham, Massachusetts. A precocious child, she acquiredan exceptional education for her time and place, graduating at age fourteenfrom the New Salem Academy and teaching school briefly thereafter. Convertingto the Mormon Church in 1842, she married James Harris the next year, and in1844 they migrated to Nauvoo, Illinois, then Church headquarters. After thedeath of her son Eugene Henri and the desertion of her husband, she marriedNewel K. Whitney as a plural wife, traveling to Utah with the Whitney family in1848. Whitney's death in 1850 left her with two young daughters whom shesupported by teaching school.

Emmeline became the seventh wife of Daniel H. Wells in 1852, bearing threemore daughters. Her marital experiences taught her the need to be self-reliantand she became an early advocate of women's rights, writing under the nom deplume, Blanche Beechwood, for theWoman's Exponent, a semi-monthlyperiodical established in 1872 for Mormon women. "I believe in women,especially thinking women," she wrote, and dedicated her energies to working intheir behalf.

Becoming editor of theExponent in 1877, she used the publication forthe next thirty-seven years to support woman suffrage and educational andeconomic opportunities for women as well as to report news of the MormonWomen's Relief Society, which she served as general secretary for twenty-twoyears before becoming general president in 1910 at the age of 82. Appointed byBrigham Young in 1876 to head a grain-saving program, she received personalcommendation in 1919 from President Woodrow Wilson for selling the wheat to thegovernment during World War I. A strong supporter of polygamy, Emmelinedefended the practice before numerous congressional committees and in audienceswith three United States Presidents.

For nearly thirty years she represented Utah women in the National Woman'sSuffrage Association and the National and International Councils of Women,while spearheading the successful effort to include woman suffrage in the stateconstitution. She wrote numerous short stories and poems, most published intheWoman's Exponent, later compiling her poetry, her favorite literarymedium, into a single volume, Musings and Memories. In 1912 she becamethe first Utah woman to receive an honorary degree, awarded her by BrighamYoung University.

Known for her executive talents, her superb memory, and her indefatigableenergy, she served as liaison between Mormon and non-Mormon women and helpeddispel much of the hostile criticism of her people. At her death in 1921 shewas eulogized as the state's "foremost woman," as "unyielding as her nativegranite in her devotion to duty." On her hundredth birthday, representativeUtah women of all faiths and political persuasions posthumously recognized herachievements by placing a bust of her in the rotunda of the state capitolbuilding, the only woman so honored. The inscribed tribute is simple but apt:"A Fine Soul Who Served Us."