Elvira A. Cowles Holmes

Elvira Annie Cowles (also spelled Coles) Holmes was a member of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo and served as the first treasurer.

She was born on November 23, 1813, in Unadilla, Otsego County, New York. Her family joined [http:/comeuntochrist.org The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] in 1830 and moved to Kirtland before they moved on to Nauvoo. She was a plural wife of Joseph Smith and after his death, she married Jonathon Cowles on December 1, 1844. They left for Winter Quarters in 1846. After her husband joined the Mormon Battalion, she traveled to the West with the [[Jedediah M. Grant|Jedediah Grant/Joseph Noble Company with her step-daughter and baby Lucy. The baby died on the plains.

After she was reunited with her husband, they settled in Farmington, Utah, where she died on March 10, 1871.