Sarah Melissa Granger Kimball (1818-1898) was founder of the Ladies’ Society of Nauvoo, a suffragist, an advocate of women’s rights,
All Prints Come Rolled without a Frame
The Story
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Author: Richards, Mary Stovall
Sarah Melissa Granger Kimball (1818-1898) was founder of the Ladies’ Society of Nauvoo, a suffragist, an advocate of women’s rights, ward Relief Society president for forty years, and a strong presence in the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for much of the nineteenth century. Described by one of her associates as possessing “the courage to say what she thought,” Sarah Kimball labored for the advancement of women, arguing that “education and agitation are our best weapons of warfare” (Woman’s Exponent 20 [1 May 1892]:159 and 18 [15 Feb. 1890]:139, respectively). Such militancy was tempered, however, by her strong commitment to the Church and her loyalty to its leaders. Indeed, she saw little discrepancy between her devotion to the Church and her dedication to women’s rights, since Joseph Smith’s “turning of the key” of power to women in 1842 had, in her view, led to the beginnings of the national women’s rights movement.
