Introduction 9

their meeting and falling in love; they were married on June 30, 1897, as described in the Deseret News : “President Woodruff, though feeling quite feeble today, went to the temple and performed the ordinance of marriage between his son Abraham Owen Woodruff and Miss Helen May Winters." President Woodruff also recorded this event in his journal:

June 30th I slept fairly well the latter part of the night & this morning. Felt better of myself. Arose shaved & dressed myself and went to the office. Attended a special meeting of the Board of Directors of Z. S. B. & T co at 10.30 am. Declared a dividend for 6% for the past six months. This afternoon at the Temple I performed the marriage ceremony uniting Miss Helen Winter to my son A. O. Woodruff, and then drove home. There was a family gathering at the residence of Br Heber J Grant this evening. I did not attend.

On October 7, 1897, a month before Owen’s twenty-fifth birthday, President Woodruff called him to be an apostle. Owen’s appointment was sustained by the church membership at that October General Conference, and he was then set apart by his father. This assignment entailed traveling to various LDS congregations to dedicate buildings, call church leaders, and generally oversee the operations of the church. Owen also served on the General Board of the Sunday School as part of his apostleship and on business boards such as the Logan Knitting Factory. Thus, within only three months of their marriage, young Owen and Helen became prominent members of the church’s religious and social hierarchy.

Helen May Winters, born September 24, 1873, grew up in Pleasant Grove, Utah, the youngest of eight children. Today the graves of her parents, Oscar Winters and Mary Ann Stearns, retain a prominent place in the city’s cemetery, as befitting two of the founders of Pleasant Grove. One of Helen’s sisters described her as “always the one who first came out of the gloom if a shadow fell upon the household, and who by her very nature and presence brought the sunshine back again.” Helen attended district schools, later took a course at the Brigham Young Academy in Provo, Utah, and taught in the public schools of Sevier and Summit counties. She returned to school as a student at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, where she became acquainted with Owen.

Like Owen, Helen was no stranger to polygamy. Her grandmother, Mary Ann Frost Stearns Smith Pratt, became a bride in April 1832, a mother in April 1833, and a widow by August 1833. Alone in Kirkland, Ohio, she married Parley P. Pratt after the death of his wife Thankful. He later married ten other wives, only one with the prior knowledge