Mary Aikens Smith

Hi, this is Lauri again. I have some histories that I am going to add to this site. Where possible I will try to scan them on but this one I will just simply retype. It comes from the "Kinsman" a Jesse N. Smith Family Association. Dated August 1970. This was in some of the stuff that my dad (Ralph M. Smith or Milton Ralph Smith) had in his records that I inherited when my mother (Carol Rose Hiatt Smith) passed away. This is a history of Mary Aiken Smith who is the mother if Silas Sanford Smith, Jesse Nathaniel Smith and John Aikens Smith.

Mary Aikens Smith--Pioneer Mother

August 13, 1970 marked the 173rd anniversary of the birth of Mary Aikens Smith, mother of Jesse N. Smith (and Silas Sanford Smith and John Aikens Smith) and a noble pioneer, teacher, and community builder.

Mary was born in Barnard, Windsor County, Vermont--only a few miles from the birthplace of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet. Her parents, Nathaniel Aiken and Mary Tupper, were of sturdy New England stock with roots in England and Scotland. Her father served in the Revolutionary War under General George Washington.

After receiving her education in Vermont, Mary moved to the pioneer community of Stockholm, St. Lawerence Co., New York to teach school. There she met Silas Smith, a younger brother of Joseph Smith Sr., whose wife had died in 1826 leaving four children. On March 4, 1828, she was married to Silas (then 48), and to them were born three sons: Silas Sanford, Oct 26, 1830; John Aikens, July 6, 1832; and Jesse Nathaniel, Dec 2, 1834. In their home she also took card of her husband's aged parents, Asael and Mary Duty Smith. In the summer of 1830 the family was visited by Joseph Smith SR. who taught them the gospel, and Silas was baptized by his nephew Hyrum in the Summer of 1835.

The following spring Silas, Mary, along with Mary Duty Smith and others of the family, emigrated to join the Saints at Kirtland, Ohio. With then they took their three young boys and two sons of the first wife, Curtis and Stephen, but the latter soon returned to their former home. Silas' mother, aged 93, died on may 27 and was buried in a little plot near the Kirtland temple. On July 18, 1837 Mary Aikens Smith was baptized by Hyrum Smith.

During the next ten years this family suffered many privations for the gospel's sake. Because of opposition to the Mormons in Ohio, they set out on April 13, 1838 to follow the Prophet to Missouri. Before reaching far West, however, they were turned back the infamous "Exterminating Order" of Governor Lilburn Boggs, and spent a miserable winter on the west bank of the Mississippi River. There little John Aikens Smith died at the age of six. In February of 1839 Silas and other Mormon settlers crossed the river to Pittsfield, Illinois, but there Silas was taken ill and before he could take the family on to Nauvoo. Brother chandler rogers came to the relief of Mary and her two boys, taking them to Nauvoo where they first stayed with the family of Hyrum Smith, and later John Smith, youngest brother of Silas who became Patriarch to the Church after the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum. these kinsfolk assisted Mary and her sons in their destitute circumstances, and made it possible for them to emigrate with the Saints to Winter Quarters in 1846 and to Utah in 1847.

Of this widowed mother the following was written by her grandson, Hyrum, as a footnote to the first chapter of the Journal of Jesse N. Smith (1953):

Mary was a courageous woman of unusual faith and strength of character. She struggled heroically to rear her two boys, Silas and Jesse, to manhood. She seemed to know intuitively that a great destiny awaited them. She taught them to read and write and gave them the incentive to continue to study and improve themselves throughout their lives. Through her teachings and her wonderful example she helped her sons to acquire, early in life, a firm testimony of the truthfulness of Mormonism. To Mary Aikens Smith and her sons the Gospel of Jesus Christ was always the thing of greatest importance in their lives.

"She and her boys came to Salt Lake Valley in 1847 (in Parley Pratt's Company). In 1851 they were called by Brigham Young to help build the new settlement of Parowan on the southern frontier. They answered the call and there Mary spent the remaining 26 years of her useful and eventful life."

"With pride and satisfaction she watched her sons become prominent figures in the civic and religious activities of the community. They served with distinction in many fields: both filled foreign missions, served in the territorial legislature, in military and exploring expeditions, and both became capable Stake Presidents in Colorado and Arizona."

"Mary felt rewarded for her years of struggle and sacrifice by having her sons become respected leaders in affairs of both and church and state. She helped them with their families; taught the older children the three 'R's' and gave them many valuable lessons on good habits and proper behavior which they always remembered."

Mary died in Parowan April 27, 1877 at the age of 79 years, eight months, and was buried in Parowan Cemetery. the following tribute is engraved on the bronze tablet affixed to the Jesse N. Smith memorial Home in Parowan: "Dedicated to the memory of Mary Aikens Smith and her sons, Jesse Nathaniel and Silas Sanford, and to the memory of all the pioneer settlers who founded Parowan in 1851."

Silas Sanford Smith

I have recently been reading a book by Gerald N. Lund called "The Undaunted" after reading his series "The Work and the Glory" and loving them I was anxious to read this one. As I read the first series I tried to imagine my own ancestors and what they might have experienced during the same time period. This book, however, has one of our ancestors in the book Silas Sanford Smith. After hearing a negative story from a former ward member about Silas Sanford and his relationship to Brigham Young I found this to be much different than the man I was told about. I really enjoyed the book and getting a feel about what the "San Jaun Mission" really went through beyond the Hole in the Rock. Thanks to my Great Granfather Silas Sanford Smith and his faithfulness and strength of character. (I found this article today as I searched for more information about him, he is the father of George Essex Smith.)


Silas Sanford Smith


Born: October 26, 1830, in Stockhom, St. Lawrence County, New York
Died: October 11, 1910, in Layton, Utah
Married: Clarinda Ricks, (July 9, 1851)
Married: Sarah Ann Ricks, (March 17, 1853)
Married: Martha Eliza Bennett, (July 19, 1865)
Father: Silas Smith
Mother: Mary Aikens


Childhood
Silas Sanford Smith was born October 26, 1830 in St. Lawrence County, New York. His father, Silas Smith, was an uncle to the Prophet Joseph Smith (being a younger brother to Joseph Smith, Sr.). He was baptized into the LDS Church in 1835 by his nephew, Hyrum, and remained faithful to it until his death. For the next twelve years, the Silas Smith family moved many times as a result of the persecutions suffered by the early Church. First was a move to Kirtland, Ohio, and two years later, a move to Missouri, from which they were driven by mobs in 1839. Silas Smith (Sr.) died at this time due to illness incurred during the family’s flight from Missouri. i Silas Sanford was nine-years-old at the time. He, his mother, and younger brother Jesse Nathaniel, eventually settled in Nauvoo, and were there at the time of the Prophet Joseph Smith’s martyrdom. In 1847 they crossed the plains in the Perregrine Sessions’ company and arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in late September, 1847, a month before Silas Sanfords’ seventeenth birthday.

Marriage, Military, and Missionary Work
In 1848, Silas Sanford built a home on North Temple, but did not stay there long. The next year he built another home near Farmington, in Davis County, where he raised crops during the years of 1850-51. In July 1851, he married Clarinda Ricks, and a few months later was called by the Church to settled in Parowan, to which the young couple embarked willingly that fall. Together, Silas and Clarinda became the parents of five children.ii

In 1853, Silas Sanford Smith married a second wife, Sarah Ann Ricks, sister to Clarinda, with whom he had four children. At the time of this second marriage, Silas Sanford was serving in the military fighting in the Indian War of 1853. The next year, however, he was called on a mission to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii). In order to afford the passage fare to the Islands, Silas worked for three months in San Francisco before departing. As a missionary he likewise worked hard and dedicated himself to learning the native language and preaching the gospel. He even served as a counselor in the mission presidency for a time before he returned home in 1856.

A Military and Civic Leader
Upon his return, Silas Sanford moved his family to Paragoonah, in Iron County, and became active again in military service. He gained the rank of major and was in charge of organizing and training local residents to defend their settlements. He learned to speak several Indian languages, and gained a reputation for being a fair-minded diplomat. Silas Sanford participated in the Black Hawk Indian War of 1860-1865, and was considered a wise military leader. In 1866, he led a group of seventy-six to establish a defensive fort – named Fort Sanford – in the area of Panguitch.iii

In 1859, at age twenty-eight, Silas Sanford Smith was elected to the Utah Territorial Legislature as a representative. He served in this capacity for almost twenty consecutive years, during which time he also held the offices of U.S. Deputy Marshal, selectman, and probate judge.iv In addition to these civic responsibilities, Silas Sanford served as a bishop in Paragoonah for several years.

Both of his wives – Clarinda and Sarah Ann – passed away within three months of each other, leaving Silas Sanford a widower with nine children. So in 1864 he married Martha Eliza Bennet – known as Eliza – who proved herself a capable step-mother to nine, and eventual mother of twelve children of her own.

President of the San Juan Mission
In 1879, Silas Sanford Smith was called to preside over the San Juan Mission in San Juan County, Utah. He had been praised by Elder Erastus Snow, one of the Twelve Apostles of the L.D.S. Church, in a letter to Church President John Taylor, as someone who would “make a discreet presiding officer to lead settlements on the San Juan.”v Likewise, Kumen Jones, a member of the Hole-in-the-Rock Expedition, wrote in later years of Silas S. Smith as a “prudent, wise, resourceful man, particularly well equipped by nature and experience for a leader in that undertaking.” Jones noted that Smith’s familiarity with Indian languages and peoples, experience in civic legislation, and understanding of L.D.S. Church organization and history made him “the right man for that difficult work.” vi

Under Smith’s leadership, an exploring party set out on April 14, 1879 to select a site suitable for settlement along the San Juan River. The group consisted of twenty-six men, two women, and eight children. They traveled almost 300 miles southward on rough but existing roads until reaching the settlement of Moenkopi, in present-day Arizona, where they rested for a week and prepared to travel in a north-easterly direction toward the San Juan River. This leg of their journey was much more difficult and dangerous due to rugged terrain, which lacked a good road, the deficiency of water in the region, and the presence of hostile and troublesome Indian tribes. Yet in spite of these trials, on June 2, 1879, the exploring party set up camp at Montezuma, and spent the next few months preparing the area for settlement. In August, most of the exploring party departed, under Smith’s leadership, and returned to Paragonah via the Old Spanish Trail, completing what had become near to a thousand-mile journey. However, they did not waste time getting organized for a return trip to the San Juan, as it was hoped the area could be reached again before winter set in.

The responsibility of how best to move the main body of settlers to Montezuma fell upon President Smith. His experience with the exploring party had created doubt as to the best route to take. The southern route through Moenkopi was dangerously dry, difficult, and filled with Indian unrest. Yet the northern trail was considered too long, as it almost doubled the mileage required to get there. In the end, Silas Sanford made the decision to attempt a “short-cut” across the virtually unexplored region southeast of Escalante, based on reports he had received from several men who had traversed part of the territory in question. It was this decision that eventually led the expedition to Hole-in-the-Rock, and the arduous journey that followed it.

President Smith arrived at Forty-mile Spring, south of Escalante, on November 24, 1879, and a few days later sent a group of twelve men to discover a way to cross the Colorado River. Winter snows deterred them from considering turning back to Escalante and abandoning the promise of a “short-cut.” The scouts reported back to President Smith of the possibility of descending through the Hole-in-the-Rock to the riverbed, and then ferrying the wagons across the Colorado. David E. Miller, noted historian of the Hole-in-the-Rock expedition, writes that Smith probably did not make the decision to press on through the Hole-in-the-Rock completely on his own. Rather, given his character and the sizable consequences such a decision would have upon the whole company, President Smith likely involved the “leading men of the company” in counseling him and praying with him in order to make the best decision for the group.vii

Ironically, however, Silas Sanford Smith was absent from the expedition for most of actual trek through Hole-in-the-Rock and the unknown wilderness beyond. Shortly after the task of blasting through the stone cliffs had begun, Smith departed for Salt Lake City to procure funds and supplies. His ties the Territorial Legislature helped him secure nearly 1,000 pounds of blasting powder needed to widen and shape the Hole-in-the-Rock, along with other supplies and funds. Platte D. Lyman, who had been formerly called as his assistant in August of that year, assumed leadership of the expedition in Smith’s absence, which was prolonged due to a case of pneumonia brought on by “fatigue and exposure.”viii On April 28, 1880, however, Silas Sanford Smith began his journey back to the San Juan. He did not settle in Bluff, but continued on to Montezuma in the hopes of finding good enough land to plant corn.ix He remained president of the San Juan Mission until he was released in 1882.

President of the San Luis Stake
A year after he was released from the San Juan Mission, Silas Sanford Smith was called to preside over the San Luis Stake in Conejos, Colorado. He served in this calling until 1892. During these years, his past experience in civic affairs served him well, as he spent much time and effort aiding the saints of Conejos County to receive legal titles to their lands. The county land surveyor had removed their lands from the private settlement sphere, and returned them to the public domain as mineral lands. The ensuing land dispute between the Mormon settlers and the land office, in combination with widespread prejudice against the Saints for their practice of polygamy, created an atmosphere of tension and frustration that Silas Sanford Smith sought to dispel. x

A Life Well-Lived
In 1900, Silas Sanford Smith moved his family to Layton, Utah, where he farmed and raised livestock until his passing, on October 11, 1910. Since then, he has been lauded by many for his exemplary life. He built thirty-five homes during his eighty-year life span, fathered twenty-one children, served faithfully in civic and religious offices, and exemplified the qualities of a true leader.

Researched and written for the Hole-in-the-Rock Foundation by:
C.S. M. Jones LLC, Family Heritage Consulting.


i George A. Smith, “A Discourse by Elder George A. Smith, Joseph Smith’s Family – Details of George A. Smith’s Own Experience, Etc., Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, August 2, 1857.” Journal of Discourses, Vol. 5 available full-text at http://relarchive.byu.edu/MPNC/

ii “Silas Sanford Smith,” Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah(Salt Lake City, Utah: Western Epics, 1966)Vol. 2, 1170.

iii Lamont Crabtree, “Silas S. Smith – Mission President and Expedition Leader,” The Incredible Mission, Crabtree, c. 1980, 157.

iv Andrew Jenson, ed., “Silas Sanford Smith,” Latter-Day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia (Salt Lake City, Utah: Western Epics, 1971),vol. 1: 802.

v Erastus Snow to John Taylor, letter dated December 29, 1878, quoted in David E. Miller, Hole in the Rock: An Epic in the Colonization of the Great American West (Salt Lake City, Utah: University of Utah Press), 13-14.

vi Kumen Jones, The Writings of Kumen Jones, (n.d.),2, 26.

vii David E. Miller,66.

viii Silas Sanford Smith, Diary, 1879-1880, 5.

ix Ibid., 5, 8.

x Jenson, 802.