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Show THE OGDEN VALLEY NEWS Page 20 Volume VI, Issue XI September 15, 2002 Mary Heathman Smith – Huntsville Midwife Compiled by Stanley Wangsgaard Ogden Valley Historian Mary Heathman Smith was born at Winkley, Devonshire, England, January 21, 1816. Her father Isaac Heathman, and mother Elizabeth Parker were wealthy farmers with a very fine farm. Mary Heathman Smith house in ??? Mary went to the National School until the age of 16. About that time her father took a bond for $20,000 for a dear friend who went broke. Her father had to sell his farm and home to pay the bond. Mary hired out to a titled Lady as her maid, and soon her father was appointed by the King of England to be the collector of customs at the port of Liverpool. This led them to Oxton. Mary and her brother Chester went with them. There is where she made the acquaintance of John A. Smith. They were married April 29, 1840 in the Church of England at Wood Church. Mary Smith joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1850, and John was baptized May 13, 1851. At that time they had four living children, one having died at birth. They lived in Oxton and belonged to the Birkenhead Branch of the Church. They were very active in Church affairs. By 1861 their family had grown to include nine living children. At this time, the family was filled with “the spirit of gathering,” having a desire to join with other saints in Utah. John left England in May 1861 to go to “Zion,” and prepare a home for Mary and the children he left behind. He arrived in Salt Lake City in September 1861. Mary had received training in a maternity hospital, and had done a good deal of nursing before John left for Utah. Therefore, to provide for her family, she went out nursing with Dr. Gordon. She received good wages, and saved enough money to pay the fare for herself and nine children from Liverpool to Winter Quarters on the Missouri River. They left Liverpool in May 1862, and were five weeks crossing the Atlantic Ocean. They landed in Castle Gardens in June 1862, along with six hundred other immigrants who were in the company. The.y stayed there two weeks so Mary could nurse her children back to health, as some of them had been very seasick. They left New York by railroad and arrived in St. Joseph on the Missouri River, then traveled by steam boat up the river to Winter Quarters, at Florence, Nebraska Territory. Here they stayed for two weeks, in order to let the oxen rest, which had just traveled from Salt Lake Valley, to be used by the Saints on their 1,000 mile trek back to Utah. There were 60 wagons in the ox-train with Henry W. Miller as Captain, a resident of Farmington, Utah. Edward Rishton was the team- Mary Heathman Smith, Huntsville's midwife during the second half of the 1800's. ster that drove the oxen and wagon the Smith Family traveled with. He was a resident of Huntsville, Utah. He may have influenced the family to later settle in Huntsville. Mary and the children arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in early October 1862. John Smith had started to build a house in the 20th Ward in Salt Lake. terms, that she would never consent to have this happen. Not only did she blame her husband, she also blamed the Church leaders who were encouraging the practice of polygamy. She discontinued her support of the Church, and stopped having her children baptized. Mary later constructed a small school house with a seating capacity of about twenty-five students and, as indicated in the Deseret News, 2 February 1880, became affiliated with the New West Education Commission, which was sponsored by the Congregational Church, and which, in Huntsville, was called the New West School. The majority of students were grandchildren of Mary Smith. The next largest group were children of Peter C. Wangsgaard, and a smattering of the Olsen’s, Thurston’s, Grow’s, and Hansen’s. There may have been other families whose children attended during the time of its existence from 1880 to 1893. Albert H. Garner told of a fight with a big grizzly bear just southeast of Huntsville: “This man by the name of John A. Smith, who used to be Justice of the Peace in Huntsville, and whose wife was Grandma Smith, the midwife, had some sheep killed by a bear. He came to town and got some men to go with him. They were armed with old time muzzle loading rifles. John Smith and Warren Richardson followed the HOLY TRINITY ABBEY MONASTERY HUNTSVILLE, UTAH OPEN HOUSE Monastery Bread & Honey Samples (14 Flavors) View the model Questions & Answers with the Monks, Architect and Builder. THE TRAPPIST MONKS OF HOLY TRINITY ABBEY INVITE YOU TO GET ACQUAINTED & REVIEW THE PLANS FORTHEIR PROPOSED NEW MONASTERY SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 14, 2002 DROP BY BETWEEN 4 - 7 PM HUNTSVILLE LIBRARY Copy of the original invitation for the dedication of the "Grandma Smith" memorial that stands in the Huntsville Town Park today. Only partly finished, the family moved in and lived there until the spring of 1864, when they made the move to Huntsville, Utah. In Huntsville, Mary Smith continued her profession as nurse and midwife. She was the only person with the ability to set broken limbs, care for the wounded, and administer to the sick in Ogden Valley. She became known as Grandma Smith. Some called her Granny Smith, and others in their biographies referred to her as Old Lady Smith. John Smith was a stone mason by trade, and helped construct the Rock Meeting House which was made of sandstone. The lumber for the roof was from a local sawmill. He secured land which he farmed, and milked a small herd of cows. During the 1860s, something took place to upset the family of John and Mary Smith that changed their life forever. John made known his desire to take a second wife. This made Mary so angry she told John, in no uncertain bear’s trail in the underbrush along the stream. Just as Warren stepped up on a beaver dam, he saw the bear. Smith ran up and fired, wounding the bear. The enraged animal rushed forward and seized Smith’s thigh, tearing back a large piece of flesh. Smith fell down a beaver hole and the bear turned and chased Warren, who jumped the slough. The bear fell in the slough and as he climbed out, Warren shot him in the mouth. The bear then slashed at Warren with his paw and ripped his homespun pants from the pocket to the ankle. Just then the other members of the party closed in and finished the grizzly.” John Smith’s wife, being a midwife and nurse, placed the flap of flesh back in place and bound it up, and his leg healed. However, he suffered from that wound for a long time, even until his death on February 28, 1871 at the age of fifty-three. It was thought that his trade as a stone mason contributed MIDWIFE cont. on page 21 |