The Grain Mission: Harvesting More than Wheat
One of the most successful pioneer “home industry” endeavors was the Relief Society wheat project. In 1876, Brigham Young assigned Emmeline B. Wells to direct a project for women to gather and store wheat as a hedge against want and famine. He said to her: “I want the sisters to save the grain, and I want to give you a mission. I want you to begin by writing the strongest editorial that you can possibly write upon the subject.” (“The Mission of Saving Grain,” Relief Society Magazine [Feb. 1915], 47).
Emmeline, who served as associate editor, then editor, of the Woman’s Exponent and later as the fifth general Relief Society president, wrote: “Who is there that can feel there things as deeply as a mother can; think what it would be to hear your little one cry for bread.” (Woman’s Exponent [1 Nov. 1876], 84.) She asked Relief Society sisters to glean wheat from fences, ditch banks, and harvested fields, and to solicit funds to buy wheat.
Emmeline said, “We began that very year, and though we were laughed at, we did buy grain.” (“The Mission of Saving Grain,” 48.) An amazing 10,000 bushels were stored the first year. Much more wheat was gathered, purchased when market prices were low, and stored in subsequent years.
The Relief Society had complete autonomy over their wheat: Church President John Taylor sent a letter to bishops stating that the women “were the proper custodians. . . and that no Bishop has any right. . . to take possession of this grain.” (“Grain Saving in the Relief Society,” Relief Society Magazine [Feb. 1915], 58).
Speaking about the wheat project at the 1914 Relief Society conference, Emmeline likened this work to that of Joseph of Egypt: “The work that has been done in the saving of grain is unusual and unique for women. Joseph in Egypt was not the only one that saved grain for a great people.” (“The Mission of Saving Grain,”Relief Society Magazine [Feb. 1915], 49).
The Relief Society acquired or built granaries and gave wheat to the poor, sold or loaned seed to farmers, and shared their precious grain following drought and disaster. For example, the sisters provided wheat to drought-ravaged Southern Utah in 1898-99 and shipped 16 train carloads to San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake and fire. The Relief Society sold 200,000 bushels of much-needed wheat to the United States government during World War I for $1.20 a bushel. (Jill Mulvay Derr, Janath Russell Cannon, Maureen Ursenbach Beecher, Women of Covenant: The Story of Relief Society [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1992], 212.
On September 30 1978, Barbara B. Smith, then general Relief Society president, gave the wheat and wheat funds, amounting to more than two million dollars, to President Spencer W. Kimball. She said, “It is with great pride in the accomplishments of the past and with tenderness of heart that we, the women of Zion, place our wheat and wheat assets at your disposal, President Kimball, to be used for grain storage purposes under your administration, through the General Church Welfare Committee.” (Ibid., p. 355. This transfer marked the conclusion of the remarkable Relief Society wheat project begun more than a half century before.