E. A. W. High Priestess

“In the Spring the work of giving endowments commenced and President Young called Sister E. A. Whitney and myself to officiate in the ordinances of the House of the Lord.  The position seemed as natural to me, as if I had always been accustomed to it.  We both enjoyed the labor very much for we loved the work and the Lord blest us with His Spirit.  We seemed to live above everything earthly or trivial while engaged in those spiritual duties, and we had many comforting dreams as well as other manifestations that the Lord approved of our ministrations.  O, it is heavenly to be thus employed; angels seemed to watch over us, for had we not made every sacrifice willingly that we might serve our Father in heaven and keep His Holy commandments?  Sister Whitney was abundantly blest with gifts and graces in spiritual things, and I loved her as my mother, a mother in Israel to all the daughters in Zion, especially those who had entered into the new and everlasting covenant. …” 
(Woman’s Exponent, Volume 12, p. 67) 

“Mother Whitney … was designated by the prophet Joseph Smith as ‘the sweet songstress of Zion.’  She was among the first members of the Church to receive the gift of tongues, which she always exercised in singing.  The Prophet said that the language was the pure Adamic tongue, the same that was used in the garden of Eden, and he promised that if she kept the faith, the gift would never leave her.  It never did, and many who heard her sing never forgot the sweet and holy influence that accompanied her exercise of this heavenly gift.  The last time she sang in tongues was on the day she was 81 years old. … At a meeting held in the Kirtland Temple, Sister Whitney sang in tongues and Parley P. Pratt interpreted, the result being a beautiful hymn descriptive of the different dispensations from Adam to the present age.  She is said to be the second of her sex to receive the endowments, being a High Priestess in the House of the Lord, in which capacity she served until a short time before her death, or until she was obliged to relinquish her labors on account of ill health.  In that position it became her privilege to bless hundreds, perhaps thousands, of the daughters of Zion.” 
(L.D.S. Biographical Encyclopedia 3:563-564) 

Voices Of Women, Rhea Kunz, pg. 114 & 115   

It is getting increasingly difficult to deny that the women in the early church did indeed hold the priestesshood. 

This post is part of a series of posts on Women in the Priesthood.

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