Born 10 July 1804 in Harmony, Pennsylvania, Emma Hale was the seventh of nine children raised by Elizabeth and Isaac Hale. Elizabeth Lewis Hale encouraged Emma to obtain an education, beginning in a new log schoolhouse in Harmony and continuing at an all girls' school for an additional year. According to Valeen Tippetts Avery and Linda King Newell in their biography Mormon Enigma, Emma returned to Harmony to teach, probably in the "same log structure where she sat as a wiggly child." [1]
"As a young woman, Emma was physically and emotionally strong, with a streak of independence. . .she attended the local Methodist Episcopal Church with her parents and sang the hymns in her lyric soprano voice." [2] A visitor to the Hale home described Emma as "fine looking, smart, [and] a good singer." [3]