Cooperatives

Relief Society sisters were enterprising women who followed Brigham Young’s advice to be a self-sustaining people. They created, worked in, and managed cooperatives. These cooperatives provided women a unique opportunity to develop business acumen and financial and management skills. Many of the cooperatives were housed in Relief Society buildings which the women designed and financed (via fundraising)—and then managed the construction of.

Two of the most well-known cooperative ventures were (1) growing and storing wheat, and (2) sericulture, or raising silkworms to harvest silk.

Below is a sampling of items related to Relief Society cooperatives:

From The First Fifty Years of Relief Society:

Brigham Young, Discourse, April 8, 1868 (Excerpt)

Brigham Young’s talk asking women to participate in sericulture and help their husbands store wheat.

Committees on the Grain Movement, Minutes, November 17, 1876

An introductory history of the wheat-saving program and minutes of the progress of the wheat program within the wards.

First Presidency administrative files, 1878–1918/Relief Society, 1902–1907, CR 1 169

Contains a brief history of grain storage.

Brigham Young office files, Emmeline B. Wells letter, CR 1234 1

Emmeline B. Wells, writing from the office of the Woman’s Exponent, writes about grain storage.

Brigham Young Office files, Sarah M. Kimball letter, CR 1234 1

Sarah M. Kimball writing about grain storage.

Ogden 2nd Ward Relief Society circulars, 1872, LR 6392 27

Contains a circular from Wilford Woodruff, President of the Deseret Agricultural and Manufacturing Society, encouraging women to participate in exhibitions related to domestic production.

Silk association records, 1879–1898, 1906, LR 9629 36

Minutes of the Utah Stake Silk Association.

Deseret Silk Association minutes, 1875 June–1878 October, MS 14029

Minutes from the Deseret Silk Association, originally called the Sericulture Meetings.

Richfield Silk Association account book, 1879–1886, MS 2559

Account book of production and donations of the Richfield (Utah) Silk Association.

Susa Young Gates papers/History of Women files/Chapter LIV: “Mission of saving grain,” MS 7692

Susa Young Gates’s history of grain storage.

First biennial report of the Utah Silk Commission of the State of Utah for the years 1899–1900, 638.2 U89r 1901

Report of the Deseret Silk Association under the direction of the Relief Society.

Silk and the silk worm, a complete work of instruction on silk culture / by C. H. Rossiter, 638.2 R835s

Instruction on how to raise silkworms and the sericulture industry.