Temple Ordinances and Mission to England

Wilford and Phebe were sealed on November 11, 1843. In the next few weeks, Wilford received his endowment and Phebe received her washings, anointings, and endowment. In August 1844, Phebe and Wilford left Nauvoo for England so he could preside over the missionary work there. While living in England, Phebe gave birth to Joseph Carter on July 18, 1845. The Woodruffs returned to Nauvoo in April 1846 in time to assist in the dedication of the Nauvoo Temple before joining the Saints in Iowa to avoid persecution.

Plural Marriage

Between 1846 and 1877 Wilford was sealed to additional wives. When Phebe wrote her short autobiography, she discussed her initial opposition to polygamy, describing that she “wrestled with [her] Heavenly Father in fervent prayer.” She then recorded, “The answer came. Peace was given to my mind. I knew it was the will of God.”

In January 1870 when Congress was considering legislation against polygamy, Phebe spoke at the “Great Indignation Meeting” held in Salt Lake City and said, in part, “If the rulers of the nation will so far depart from the spirit and letter of our glorious Constitution as to deprive our prophets, apostles and elders of citizenship, and imprison them for obeying this law [of plural marriage], let them grant this, our last request, to make their prisons large enough to hold their wives, for where they go we will go also.” The following month Phebe was named to a committee to promote women’s suffrage.

Trials and Mission to New England

Within the space of a month during the winter of 1846, Phebe suffered through the deaths of two more of her children. In the spring of 1847, Phebe remained in Iowa with their three living children while Wilford accompanied the first pioneer expedition to the Salt Lake Valley. On October 28, 1847, three days before Wilford returned to his family in Council Bluffs, Phebe delivered a baby girl, Shuah, who passed away a few months later while Phebe and Wilford were presiding over the missionary work in the Eastern States. During this mission, twenty of Phebe’s family members were baptized, including her father.

After their mission they left with a company of Saints they had gathered, arriving in the Salt Lake Valley on October 14, 1850. Phebe was finally able to establish a permanent home in Salt Lake City, later named the Valley House, where she lived for the rest of her life. In 1851, Phebe gave birth to her fifth daughter, Beulah, and two years later had her fourth son, Aphek, but he died within a few hours. Of her nine children, only five lived beyond the age of two years.

Death

Phebe lived to the age of 78, dying after a fall that caused a serious head injury. Wilford had been in hiding but risked arrest to visit her after her accident. On November 9, 1885, realizing her serious condition, he “blessed her and anointed her for her burial.” His wife of more than 48 years died a few hours later. Under these difficult circumstances, although he watched from the office window, Wilford wrote, “I was not permitted to attend her funeral without being arrested for my religion, and imprisoned . . . I saw the procession as it passed the office, I saw the hearse that carried my wife . . . to the grave. . . . Persecution is raging against the Latter Day Saints. I am perfectly willing for my wife to lie down and go to sleep and be freed from any of the persecution from the wicked. I hope I may prove true and faithful unto the end that I may meet with her and our friends in the Celestial Kingdom of God.”