1842 - The Prophet Joseph Smith organizes the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, with Emma Smith as president, Sarah M. Cleveland as first counselor, Elizabeth Ann Whitney as second counselor, and Eliza R. Snow as secretary.  The Society had its inception when several women, led by Sarah M. Kimball, organized to make shirts for the men working on the Nauvoo Temple.  They planned to organize like other women's groups of the day, but the Prophet Joseph stated they needed to be organized after the same pattern as the priesthood.  Joseph stated that by selecting Emma as the president, it fulfilled an earlier revelation identifying her as an "elect lady."  Joseph also stated that "the Church was never perfectly organized until the women were thus organized" (Relief Society Magazine, March 1919, p. 129).  The organizations objective was "the relief of the poor, the destitute, the widow and the orphan, and for the exercise of all benevolent purposes" (History of the Church, 4:567).