Ann Coleman Smith

Emory Clarence Smith 's Grandmother

Ann Coleman Smith

Ann Coleman, daughter of Prime and Sarah Coleman, and wife of Joseph J. Smith, was born in Oldin, Bedfordshire, England on the 2nd day of October 1833. When she was about eight years old in 1841 the family home was visited by Mormon Missionaries. She was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Bedfordshire, England by Elder John S. Thornton in December 1842, and in 1843, together with her father’s family, consisting of the following members: Elizabeth Coleman Jacobs, Rebecca Coleman Evans, Martha Coleman Southwick, Prime Coleman, George Coleman, and William Coleman, migrated to America, on the sailing ship “Swanton”, being in the 19th Company of saints to emigrate, with Lorenzo Snow as Captain.
After disembarking at New Orleans, Louisiana she traveled on the river boat Amaranth up the Mississippi River to Nauvoo, Illinois, arriving May 12, 1843. Where the family temporarily made their home on the Hyrum Smith farm. Her father and older sister died of typhoid fever only a few weeks before the martyrdom of the brothers Joseph and Hyrum Smith in 1844. She was personally acquainted with the Prophet Joseph Smith, and his brother, Hyrum, and went through the persecutions the Saints were compelled to undergo at that time.
Ann Coleman at the age of 13 was one of those in the Bishop David Evans Company who were forced to evacuate their homes at Nauvoo, Illinois because of mob threats and violence. After several years of nomadic existence on the western banks of the Mississippi Bishop David Evans married her to Joseph J. Smith at Marysville, Missouri, January 1, 1850.
In May the red headed girl, in company with her husband, moved to Council Bluffs, Iowa. On June 13, traveling in the David Evans Wagon company, she crossed the Missouri River, and started across the plains with ox teams, for Utah, arriving in the fall of 1850 (September 17). She lived in Salt Lake City one winter, and then moved to Lehi, Utah where they settled.
Ann was the mother of fourteen children, ten sons, and four daughters. Joseph worked as a blacksmith, specializing in the making of iron parts and tires for wagons and buggies. He also helped in the erection and construction of several Lehi mills improvising, installing and repairing the machines necessary to their successful operation.
Ann, Joseph and family soon homesteaded a quarter section of land several miles north of Lehi on Dry Creek near the present day gravel pit north of the cemetery. While they were building their farmhouse, they lived that first winter in a cave. The house and barn still stand and belong in the family. They had a sawmill there for a few years using the water from Dry Creek for power. Ann and Joseph were among the first in the area to go in to the bee keeping industry.
Busy with farm work in the summer and engaged with blacksmithing in the winter months they accumulated stock in many of the pioneer industries and enterprises. The family was considered well to do by their neighbors in those days.
Ann was very industrious and enterprising in the settling and building up of this country, passing through all the hardships and trying times of early pioneer life. She was a dutiful, and considerate wife, a kind and loving mother, and was respected by all who knew her.
Ann died 1 Oct. 1909, being 76 years old. She is buried in the old Lehi Cemetery.