Pioneer poet's 200th birthday
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BECKET, Mass. — On a day when members in Utah and elsewhere were celebrating the arrival of the pioneers to the Salt Lake Valley, members and a few friends were celebrating a tie to Church history in western Massachusetts.
Some 125 Latter-day Saints from Vermont, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts gathered July 24 with about 20 residents in Becket, Mass., to honor the 200th anniversary of the birth of Eliza Roxcy Snow. The venerable Church figure and poet, who served as the second Relief Society general president and the first after the saints entered the Salt Lake Valley, was born here Jan. 21, 1804, in a home that still stands today. Her birthplace is now marked by a plaque dedicated on this Pioneer Day and which has been placed on a large piece of granite in front of the Becket Athenaeum, a community building not far from the privately owned home at 1377 Fred Snow Road.
"It was a powerful experience," said Colleen Weist, chairwoman of the Eliza R. Snow Committee for the Pittsfield Ward, Springfield Massachusetts Stake, which includes the small community of Becket. "I think it's raised a great awareness of the Church presence in western Massachusetts and also of Eliza's powerful influence in the Church. These people (in Becket) had no idea what a powerful individual she was in the Church. It's just raised awareness of the roots of the Church (here) and of the congregation."
During the event on a cool, cloudy morning, a brief dedication ceremony was held, conducted by Bishop David Heath of the Pittsfield Ward. The Becket Athenaeum, which houses the town library and offices for the Becket Historical Commission, was presented the leather-bound book, Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow, written by Eliza R. Snow about her brother who became the fifth president of the Church. The book was donated and signed by the current Relief Society general president, Bonnie D. Parkin, and her counselors, Kathleen H. Hughes and Anne C. Pingree.
Also presented was a portrait of Eliza R. Snow to be hung in the Becket Athenaeum. Another portrait, donated by the Relief Society general board in conjunction with the Museum of Church History and Art in Salt Lake City, will be hung in the Relief Sosciety room of the Pittsfield Ward meetinghouse.
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