Mother, daughter, granddaughter, and great-granddaughter—an impressive line of prominent women all named Zina. One converted to Mormonism in New York in 1835. The next married Joseph Smith and Brigham Young successively and served as the church’s general Relief Society president. The third assisted her husband, Charles Ora Card, in founding Cardston, Alberta. The fourth married future church apostle Hugh B. Brown.

Collectively this extended family had a significant impact on a large region of the American West. Individually each helped shape her particular era. Zina Young and Zina Card worked tirelessly for woman’s suffrage, and they encouraged women to study nursing and to become involved in industry. The two promoted drama and literature, and they inspired others through their speeches and expressions of spirituality, including speaking in tongues. They helped Mormon women feel good about themselves, and in the process they made the territory not only habitable but livable.

“This intimate account of the four-generation female dynasty of Zinas runs parallel to the traditional story of the LDS church, depicting a woman’s world, where revered men visit occasionally. The Zinas were central to all the important LDS female movements: spiritual gifts, celestial marriage, suffrage, the Relief Society, as well as motherhood and education. The authors have turned this rich, compelling record into a cohesive and illuminating window on the past.”
• CLAUDIA L. BUSHMAN, Adjunct Professor of History, Columbia University

“A rare view of a family of women from the beginnings of Mormon history, Four Zinas traces with a fine line the inter-generational strings which bind the heart. We need this book—because the authors offer an unprecedented analysis that stretches over both time and geography. It is an extraordinary story.”
• VALEEN TIPPETTS AVERY, Associate Professor of History, Northern Arizona University