George A. Smith

Family Background

1817. June 26: Born George Albert Smith in Potsdam, New York, to Clarissa Lyman and future Church Patriarch John Smith. First cousin to Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, and Church Patriarch John Smith, and second cousin to President Joseph F. Smith and Apostle Amasa M. Lyman.

In 1841 he married Bathsheba W. Bigler; one year later he married Lucy Meserve, Zilpha Stark, Sarah Ann Libby, Hannah Marie Libby, and Nancy Clement, and, in 1857, Susan Elizabeth West. He was the father of twenty children, including Apostle John Henry Smith, and the grandfather of President George Albert Smith.

Convert

1832. A strict Congregationalist, Smith was converted through a Book of Mormon left at his home by his uncle Joseph Smith, Sr., and cousin Don Carlos Smith.

1833. He moved to Kirtland, Ohio, where he met Joseph Smith for the first time. Large for his sixteen years, he became a bodyguard for the Prophet. He hauled the first two loads of stone for the Kirtland Temple.

1834. A huge, clumsy seventeen-year-old, Smith joined Zion's Camp, outfitted in striped pantaloons made of feather ticking and awkward boots that wore blisters on his feet.

Missionary

1835. Ordained a seventy by Joseph Smith, Joseph Smith, Sr., and Sidney Rigdon. In the next nine years he served seven missions: Ohio-Pennsylvania-New York (1835), Ohio (1836), Virginia (1837), Kentucky-Tennessee (1838), England (1840), Middle and Eastern States (1843), and Michigan (1844).

During his 1838 mission he committed "the meanest act of my life." Delayed for several days on the Mississippi River below Saint Louis, the always hungry Smith observed a black servant baking potatoes in a stove. He offered to buy some, but was refused. When the servant left the stove unattended, Smith helped himself to some of the potatoes, carefully replacing each one with a piece of coal. The potatoes and "a little parched corn" were all he ate in three days.

Apostle

1839. At twenty-two, having previously served on the high council of the Adam-Ondi-Ahman Stake in Missouri, George A. Smith was called to the Quorum of the Twelve after the deposing of Apostles Orson Hyde and Thomas B. Marsh.

"Potato Saint"

1846. After his wife Nancy and four children died of scurvy in Winter Quarters, he began advocating use of the potato to prevent the disease.

1847. July: Arriving in the Salt Lake Valley with the pioneer company, Smith soon wrote in his journal, "Potatoes all planted. I planted first." His interest in the vegetable won him the affectionate nickname, "The Potato Saint."

Exploring the Salt Lake City Valley, he discovered the warm springs at the base of Ensign Peak. Impressed by the temperature of the water, he commented that "hell was not one mile from the place."

After a few weeks in the valley, Smith returned to Council Bluffs, where he and Orson Hyde presided over the Saints for several years.

"A Man Who Had No Quarrel With His Cook"

Five feet, ten inches tall, Smith weighed 250 pounds. An English traveler described him as "a huge, burly man, with a Friar Tuck joviality of paunch and visage, and a roll in his bright eye which, in some odd, undefined sort of way, suggested cakes and ale. He talked well, in a deep rolling voice, and with a dash of humour in his words and tone—he it was who irreverently but accurately likened the Tabernacle to a land turtle."

Lawyer

A member of the Council of Fifty, Smith was "elected" lieutenant governor of the "ghost state" of Deseret in 1849, became a member of the Utah territorial legislature (1850-1870), and served as president of the upper house (1864-1870). He also represented Utah in the 1856 statehood bid.

1851. A self-taught lawyer, Smith argued his first and most notorious case just weeks after being admitted to the Utah bar. Howard Egan, a Mormon school teacher, had joined the California gold rush in 1849. While he was away, James Monroe seduced one of his wives, who gave birth to an illegitimate child. Egan returned to Utah and killed Monroe "in the name of the Lord" because his "peace on earth" had been destroyed.

Smith argued that "in this territory it is a principle of mountain common law, that no man can seduce the wife of another without endangering his own life. … The man who seduces his neighbor's wife must die, and her nearest relative must kill him!" The jury declared Egan not guilty.

Colonizer

1851. Called to settle Parowan, Utah, and develop an iron works. En route, three of his oxen disappeared; one was found dead and another mortally wounded by eleven arrows. Seeing the oxen, "which had been in our service ever since we left Nauvoo," Smith and his wife shed tears. But when two starving Indian boys accused of the crime were brought to Smith, he fed them and persuaded the older boy to trade his twelve-year-old companion for the dead oxen.

Smith was the commanding military officer during the Walker and Black Hawk Indian wars in southern Utah. During the 1857 advance of the Utah Expeditionary Forces he warned that "the first man that ravishes or seduces a wife or daughter of mine, I fully intend to blow out his brains."

Historian

1854. Called to be Church historian and recorder at the death of Willard Richards. His grandfather described fourteen-year-old George as "a rather singular boy. When he comes here, instead of going to play as the rest of my grandchildren do, he comes into my room and asks me questions about what occurred seventy or eighty years ago."

Smith's memory was legendary. Brigham Young referred to him as a "cabinet of history," and Orson F. Whitney described him as "a walking encyclopedia of general information." His greatest contribution to Mormon history was completing the multi-volume History of the Church begun by Joseph Smith.

"Man-Who-Takes-Himself-Apart"

Describing himself to a New York cousin, Smith wrote, "When my wig is off there is scarcely a hair between me and heaven." He also wore glasses and false teeth. An acquaintance noted that Smith "sometimes astounded the Indians by slowly removing all these appendages before them, and he came to be called by the natives, 'Non-choko-wicher,' which means, takes himself apart."

Dixie Mission

1861. Accompanied Brigham Young, Erastus Snow, and others to establish the new "Dixie Mission" in southern Utah. Nearly 800 families—approximately 3,000 persons—were called to this mission over the next three or four years. The primary purpose of the mission was to produce indigo, madder, fruit, wine, tobacco, and especially cotton—a commodity in great demand since the outbreak of the Civil War. The first year 100,000 pounds of seed cotton were produced, and, in 1863, 56,094 pounds of ginned cotton. A factory was built in 1870 for cotton processing, but poor soil, unstable water supplies, and the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 made Utah cotton production unprofitable. Brigham Young named the principal settlement "Saint George" in honor of George A. Smith.

Member of the First Presidency

1868. October 7: Sustained as first counselor to President Brigham Young after the death of Heber C. Kimball. President Young described Smith as a "devoted friend, a wise counselor, and a life-long companion."

1870. During the first thirty-eight years of his ministry, George A. Smith delivered 3800 discourses. "No one ever wearied of his preaching. He was brief and interspersed his doctrinal and historical remarks with anecdotes most appropriate and timely in their application. Short prayers, short blessings, short sermons, full of spirit, was a happy distinction in the ministry of Geo. A. Smith."

On one occasion after a full day of conference meetings in Parowan, Smith reportedly prayed: "Heavenly Father bless all good people, Thy servant George A. is tired. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

Death

1875. September 1: Following a long illness which deprived Smith of his speaking voice and prevented sleep except in an upright position, he died of"lung disease" at the age of fifty-eight. His wife Bathsheba wrote, "He had a restless night, the following morning he walked into the front parlor twice. The last time he sat down in his chair and expired in about five minutes. … He was now through; all was quiet; his head lay against my bosom; good angels had come to receive his precious spirit. Perhaps our sons, prophets, patriarchs, saints beloved were there, but he was gone my light, my Sun, my life, my joy, my Lord, yea, almost my God; but I must not morn but prepare myself to meet him; but my hart sinks within my bosom nearly."

Joseph F. Smith, to whom George A. had been a surrogate father, was nearly overcome with grief. Presiding over the European Mission, he wrote from England, "At first I could not weep. Words seemed like mockery. My soul revolts at them, and would bury itself for a while in the grave with 'Uncle George.' … Oh! Why should he go! Who needed him so much as bleeding, persecuted Israel? … Israel needed him! The world needed him! and yet God has taken him, and the world is emptier than it was by one who was a prophet, seer and revelator and a King and Priest unto the Most High God." Buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.

Sources
Church News, 30 May 1951.
Gleave, Ray Haun. "The Effect of the Speaking of George A. Smith on the People of the Iron Mission of Southern Utah." Master's thesis, Brigham Young University, 1957.
Jenson, Andrew. LDS Biographical Encyclopedia. 4 vols. Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson Historical Company, 1901-1936.
Journal of Discourses, 1:95-97, 2:360, 3:24-25, 15:97.
Ludlow, Fitz Hugh. The Heart of the Continent:A Record of Travel Across the Plains and in Oregon, with an Examination of the Mormon Principle. New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1870.
McCarthy, Justin. Reminiscences. New York and London, 1889.
Palmer, William. "Pioneers of Southern Utah." Instructor 79 (January 1944):21-24.
Pusey, Merlo J. Builders of the Kingdom: George A. Smith, John Henry Smith, George Albert Smith. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1981.
Quinn, D. Michael. "Organizational Development and Social Origins of the Mormon Hierarchy, 1832-1932: A Prosopographical Study." Master's thesis, University of Utah, 1973.
Salt Lake City, Utah. LDS Church Archives. Journal History, 29 July 1847, 12 June 1858.
_____. Bathsheba Smith Autobiography.
_____. George A. Smith Journal and Letter Collection.
Whitney, Orson F. History of Utah. 4 vols. Salt Lake City: George Q. Cannon and Sons Co., 1892.

	A Book of Mormons Richard S. Van Wagoner and Steven C. Walker Copyright 1982, Signature Books Salt Lake City, Utah Contents


	George A. Smith (1817-1875)

				George A. Smith was the "Potato Saint" and member of the First Presidency. Photograph courtesy LDS Church Archives.


	Family Background 1817. June 26: Born George Albert Smith in Potsdam, New York, to Clarissa Lyman and future Church Patriarch John Smith. First cousin to Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, and Church Patriarch John Smith, and second cousin to President Joseph F. Smith and Apostle Amasa M. Lyman. In 1841 he married Bathsheba W. Bigler; one year later he married Lucy Meserve, Zilpha Stark, Sarah Ann Libby, Hannah Marie Libby, and Nancy Clement, and, in 1857, Susan Elizabeth West. He was the father of twenty children, including Apostle John Henry Smith, and the grandfather of President George Albert Smith. Convert 1832. A strict Congregationalist, Smith was converted through a Book of Mormon left at his home by his uncle Joseph Smith, Sr., and cousin Don Carlos Smith. 1833. He moved to Kirtland, Ohio, where he met Joseph Smith for the first time. Large for his sixteen years, he became a bodyguard for the Prophet. He hauled the first two loads of stone for the Kirtland Temple. 1834. A huge, clumsy seventeen-year-old, Smith joined Zion's Camp, outfitted in striped pantaloons made of feather ticking and awkward boots that wore blisters on his feet. Missionary 1835. Ordained a seventy by Joseph Smith, Joseph Smith, Sr., and Sidney Rigdon. In the next nine years he served seven missions: Ohio-Pennsylvania-New York (1835), Ohio (1836), Virginia (1837), Kentucky-Tennessee (1838), England (1840), Middle and Eastern States (1843), and Michigan (1844). During his 1838 mission he committed "the meanest act of my life." Delayed for several days on the Mississippi River below Saint Louis, the always hungry Smith observed a black servant baking potatoes in a stove. He offered to buy some, but was refused. When the servant left the stove unattended, Smith helped himself to some of the potatoes, carefully replacing each one with a piece of coal. The potatoes and "a little parched corn" were all he ate in three days. Apostle 1839. At twenty-two, having previously served on the high council of the Adam-Ondi-Ahman Stake in Missouri, George A. Smith was called to the Quorum of the Twelve after the deposing of Apostles Orson Hyde and Thomas B. Marsh. "Potato Saint" 1846. After his wife Nancy and four children died of scurvy in Winter Quarters, he began advocating use of the potato to prevent the disease. 1847. July: Arriving in the Salt Lake Valley with the pioneer company, Smith soon wrote in his journal, "Potatoes all planted. I planted first." His interest in the vegetable won him the affectionate nickname, "The Potato Saint." Exploring the Salt Lake City Valley, he discovered the warm springs at the base of Ensign Peak. Impressed by the temperature of the water, he commented that "hell was not one mile from the place." After a few weeks in the valley, Smith returned to Council Bluffs, where he and Orson Hyde presided over the Saints for several years. "A Man Who Had No Quarrel With His Cook" Five feet, ten inches tall, Smith weighed 250 pounds. An English traveler described him as "a huge, burly man, with a Friar Tuck joviality of paunch and visage, and a roll in his bright eye which, in some odd, undefined sort of way, suggested cakes and ale. He talked well, in a deep rolling voice, and with a dash of humour in his words and tone—he it was who irreverently but accurately likened the Tabernacle to a land turtle." Lawyer A member of the Council of Fifty, Smith was "elected" lieutenant governor of the "ghost state" of Deseret in 1849, became a member of the Utah territorial legislature (1850-1870), and served as president of the upper house (1864-1870). He also represented Utah in the 1856 statehood bid. 1851. A self-taught lawyer, Smith argued his first and most notorious case just weeks after being admitted to the Utah bar. Howard Egan, a Mormon school teacher, had joined the California gold rush in 1849. While he was away, James Monroe seduced one of his wives, who gave birth to an illegitimate child. Egan returned to Utah and killed Monroe "in the name of the Lord" because his "peace on earth" had been destroyed. Smith argued that "in this territory it is a principle of mountain common law, that no man can seduce the wife of another without endangering his own life. … The man who seduces his neighbor's wife must die, and her nearest relative must kill him!" The jury declared Egan not guilty. Colonizer 1851. Called to settle Parowan, Utah, and develop an iron works. En route, three of his oxen disappeared; one was found dead and another mortally wounded by eleven arrows. Seeing the oxen, "which had been in our service ever since we left Nauvoo," Smith and his wife shed tears. But when two starving Indian boys accused of the crime were brought to Smith, he fed them and persuaded the older boy to trade his twelve-year-old companion for the dead oxen. Smith was the commanding military officer during the Walker and Black Hawk Indian wars in southern Utah. During the 1857 advance of the Utah Expeditionary Forces he warned that "the first man that ravishes or seduces a wife or daughter of mine, I fully intend to blow out his brains." Historian 1854. Called to be Church historian and recorder at the death of Willard Richards. His grandfather described fourteen-year-old George as "a rather singular boy. When he comes here, instead of going to play as the rest of my grandchildren do, he comes into my room and asks me questions about what occurred seventy or eighty years ago." Smith's memory was legendary. Brigham Young referred to him as a "cabinet of history," and Orson F. Whitney described him as "a walking encyclopedia of general information." His greatest contribution to Mormon history was completing the multi-volume History of the Church begun by Joseph Smith. "Man-Who-Takes-Himself-Apart" Describing himself to a New York cousin, Smith wrote, "When my wig is off there is scarcely a hair between me and heaven." He also wore glasses and false teeth. An acquaintance noted that Smith "sometimes astounded the Indians by slowly removing all these appendages before them, and he came to be called by the natives, 'Non-choko-wicher,' which means, takes himself apart." Dixie Mission 1861. Accompanied Brigham Young, Erastus Snow, and others to establish the new "Dixie Mission" in southern Utah. Nearly 800 families—approximately 3,000 persons—were called to this mission over the next three or four years. The primary purpose of the mission was to produce indigo, madder, fruit, wine, tobacco, and especially cotton—a commodity in great demand since the outbreak of the Civil War. The first year 100,000 pounds of seed cotton were produced, and, in 1863, 56,094 pounds of ginned cotton. A factory was built in 1870 for cotton processing, but poor soil, unstable water supplies, and the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 made Utah cotton production unprofitable. Brigham Young named the principal settlement "Saint George" in honor of George A. Smith. Member of the First Presidency 1868. October 7: Sustained as first counselor to President Brigham Young after the death of Heber C. Kimball. President Young described Smith as a "devoted friend, a wise counselor, and a life-long companion." 1870. During the first thirty-eight years of his ministry, George A. Smith delivered 3800 discourses. "No one ever wearied of his preaching. He was brief and interspersed his doctrinal and historical remarks with anecdotes most appropriate and timely in their application. Short prayers, short blessings, short sermons, full of spirit, was a happy distinction in the ministry of Geo. A. Smith." On one occasion after a full day of conference meetings in Parowan, Smith reportedly prayed: "Heavenly Father bless all good people, Thy servant George A. is tired. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." Death 1875. September 1: Following a long illness which deprived Smith of his speaking voice and prevented sleep except in an upright position, he died of"lung disease" at the age of fifty-eight. His wife Bathsheba wrote, "He had a restless night, the following morning he walked into the front parlor twice. The last time he sat down in his chair and expired in about five minutes. … He was now through; all was quiet; his head lay against my bosom; good angels had come to receive his precious spirit. Perhaps our sons, prophets, patriarchs, saints beloved were there, but he was gone my light, my Sun, my life, my joy, my Lord, yea, almost my God; but I must not morn but prepare myself to meet him; but my hart sinks within my bosom nearly." Joseph F. Smith, to whom George A. had been a surrogate father, was nearly overcome with grief. Presiding over the European Mission, he wrote from England, "At first I could not weep. Words seemed like mockery. My soul revolts at them, and would bury itself for a while in the grave with 'Uncle George.' … Oh! Why should he go! Who needed him so much as bleeding, persecuted Israel? … Israel needed him! The world needed him! and yet God has taken him, and the world is emptier than it was by one who was a prophet, seer and revelator and a King and Priest unto the Most High God." Buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery. Sources Church News, 30 May 1951. Gleave, Ray Haun. "The Effect of the Speaking of George A. Smith on the People of the Iron Mission of Southern Utah." Master's thesis, Brigham Young University, 1957. Jenson, Andrew. LDS Biographical Encyclopedia. 4 vols. Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson Historical Company, 1901-1936. Journal of Discourses, 1:95-97, 2:360, 3:24-25, 15:97. Ludlow, Fitz Hugh. The Heart of the Continent:A Record of Travel Across the Plains and in Oregon, with an Examination of the Mormon Principle. New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1870. McCarthy, Justin. Reminiscences. New York and London, 1889. Palmer, William. "Pioneers of Southern Utah." Instructor 79 (January 1944):21-24. Pusey, Merlo J. Builders of the Kingdom: George A. Smith, John Henry Smith, George Albert Smith. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1981. Quinn, D. Michael. "Organizational Development and Social Origins of the Mormon Hierarchy, 1832-1932: A Prosopographical Study." Master's thesis, University of Utah, 1973. Salt Lake City, Utah. LDS Church Archives. Journal History, 29 July 1847, 12 June 1858. _____. Bathsheba Smith Autobiography. _____. George A. Smith Journal and Letter Collection. Whitney, Orson F. History of Utah. 4 vols. Salt Lake City: George Q. Cannon and Sons Co., 1892.