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Margaret Thompson McMeans

Margaret Smoot, Margaret Adkinson, Margaret Thompson McMeans Adkinson Smoot

16 April 1809—1 September 1884

Emmeline B. Wells

Born 16 Apr. 1809 in Chester Co., South Carolina.1 Daughter of Anthony McMeans and Esther Hunter.2  Married first William Adkinson, 28 Dec. 1826, in Roane Co., Tennessee; one child.3 Baptized as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Warren Parrish, 5 Nov. 1834, in Paris, Henry Co., Tennessee.4 Moved to Far West, Jackson Co., Missouri, 1837.5 Married second Abraham Owen Smoot, 12 Nov. 1838, in Far West.6 Joined the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, Hancock Co., Illinois, 9 June 1842.7 Migrated to the Salt Lake Valley, arriving by 25 Sept. 1847.8 President of the Salt Lake City Twentieth Ward Relief Society, 1868–1872.9 President of the committee to draft resolutions at the Woman’s Great Indignation Meeting, held in the Salt Lake Tabernacle in protest of the passage of the Cullom Bill, 13 Jan. 1870.10 Moved to Provo, Utah Co., Utah Territory, Oct. 1872.11 Acted as an agent for the Woman’s Exponent in Provo, by 1 Jan. 1874.12 Called on EBW at her home, 14 Feb. 1876; accompanied her to a meeting of the Utah territorial legislature, 17 Feb. 1876.13 President of the Utah Stake Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association, 1878.14 President of the Utah Stake Relief Society, 1878–1884.15 President of the Utah Stake Silk Association, 1879–1882.16 Traveled to Payson, Utah Co., with EBW for church meetings, 7 Nov. 1881.17 Died 1 Sept. 1884 in Provo.18 

The First Fifty Years of Relief Society

19 Born in Chester County, South Carolina; daughter of Esther Hunter and Anthony McMeans. 20 Married first Charles Adkinson, 1826; one child. 21 Baptized in Tennessee, 1834. 22 Moved to Far West, Caldwell County, Missouri, 1837. 23 Widowed, 1838. 24 Married second Abraham Owen Smoot, 1838. 25 Moved to Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois. 26 Joined the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, 1842. 27 Migrated to the Salt Lake Valley, 1847. 28 Served as president of the Salt Lake City Twentieth Ward Relief Society, 1868–1872. 29 Moved to Provo, Utah County, Utah Territory, 1872. 30 Served as president of the Utah Stake Retrenchment Society, president of the Utah Stake Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association, and president of the Utah County Silk Association. 31 Served as president of the Utah Stake Relief Society, 1878–1884. 32 Died at Provo. 33 (See Document 1.2, 3.13, 3.15–3.17, 3.23, 4.28, first mentioned here)

Footnotes

  1. 1 Margaret T. Smoot, Autobiographical Sketch, 1881, pp. 1–17, MS 3479, CHL. Temple Records Index Bureau, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Nauvoo Temple Endowment Register, 10 December 1845 to 8 February 1846 (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1974), 26 (restricted access). “A Touching Tribute: Biographical Sketch of ‘Ma’ Smoot,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 10 Sept. 1884, [1]. “Family Tree,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org, accessed 12 Mar. 2020), Margaret Thompson McMeans (L8PP-C9G). 

  2. 2 Margaret T. Smoot, Autobiographical Sketch, 1881, pp. 1–17, MS 3479, CHL.  

  3. 3 “A Touching Tribute: Biographical Sketch of ‘Ma’ Smoot,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 10 Sept. 1884, [1]. Margaret T. Smoot, Autobiographical Sketch, 1881, pp. 1–17, MS 3479, CHL. 

  4. 4 “A Touching Tribute: Biographical Sketch of ‘Ma’ Smoot,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 10 Sept. 1884, [1]. Margaret T. Smoot, Autobiographical Sketch, 1881, pp. 1–17, MS 3479, CHL. 

  5. 5 Margaret T. Smoot, Autobiographical Sketch, 1881, pp. 1–17, MS 3479, CHL. “A Touching Tribute: Biographical Sketch of ‘Ma’ Smoot,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 10 Sept. 1884, [1].

  6. 6 Caldwell Co., MO, Recorder’s Office, Marriage Records, 1860–1974, Abraham O. Smoot and Margaret T. Atkinson, 12 Nov. 1838, microfilm 2437719, DGS 7425248, item 1, image 24/988, FHL. “A Touching Tribute: Biographical Sketch of ‘Ma’ Smoot,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 10 Sept. 1884, [1].

  7. 7 Relief Society Minute Book, Mar. 1842–Mar. 1844, pp. 61, 64, MS 3424, images 84, 87/270, CHL.

  8. 8 “Margaret Thompson Smoot,” Pioneer Database (https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/overlandtravel/, accessed 17 Mar. 2020). “A Touching Tribute: Biographical Sketch of ‘Ma’ Smoot,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 10 Sept. 1884, [1]. Margaret T. Smoot, Autobiographical Sketch, 1881, pp. 1–17, MS 3479, CHL. 

  9. 9 Twentieth Ward, Ensign Stake, Twentieth Ward Manuscript History and Historical Reports, 1856–1982, “Relief Society,” LR 9455 2, CHL. “A Touching Tribute: Biographical Sketch of ‘Ma’ Smoot,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 10 Sept. 1884, [1]. 

  10. 10 Jill Mulvay Derr, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Kate Holbrook, and Matthew J. Grow, eds., The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women’s History (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2016), 313. 

  11. 11 “A Touching Tribute: Biographical Sketch of ‘Ma’ Smoot,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 10 Sept. 1884, [1]. Margaret T. Smoot, Autobiographical Sketch, 1881, pp. 1–17, MS 3479, CHL. 

  12. 12  “Agents and Correspondents,” Woman’s Exponent, 1 Jan. 1874, 120. 

  13. 13 EBW, Diary, 14 and 17 Feb. 1876.

  14. 14  “Local and Other Matters: Mutual Improvement,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 12 June 1878, 293.

  15. 15 Provo Utah Central Stake, Manuscript History and Historical Reports, 1849–1977, June 1865–Oct. 1897, vol. 1, part 2, LR 9629 2, image 165/344, CHL. “A Touching Tribute: Biographical Sketch of ‘Ma’ Smoot,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 10 Sept. 1884, [1]. Biographical Sketch of Margaret Thompson McMeans Smoot, p. [4], MS 11115, CHL.

  16. 16 Utah Stake, Silk Association Records, 1879–1898, 1906, pp. 1, 2, 27, 33–34, LR 9629 36, images 4, 5, 30, 36–37/118, CHL. “A Touching Tribute: Biographical Sketch of ‘Ma’ Smoot,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 10 Sept. 1884, [1]. Biographical Sketch of Margaret Thompson McMeans Smoot, p. [4], MS 11115, CHL.

  17. 17 EBW, Diary, 7 Nov. 1881.

  18. 18 Provo, UT, City Cemetery, Registration of Deaths and Burials, 1858–1915, pp. 44–45, Margaret Thompson Smoot, 1 Sept. 1884, microfilm 1654388, DGS 7857440, image 46/1042, FHL. “Random References,” Ogden (UT) Daily Herald, 2 Sept. 1884, [3]. “A Touching Tribute: Biographical Sketch of ‘Ma’ Smoot,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 10 Sept. 1884, [1]. 

  19. 19 Nauvoo Temple Endowment Register: Dec. 10, 1845, to Feb. 8, 1846, p. 26 (1845), Margaret T. Smoot, FHL microfilm 962798, item 1, FHL. “Utah Cemeteries and Burials,” database, Utah Division of State History (https://ushpo.utah.gov/cemetery, accessed May 2023), Margaret Thompson Smoot.

  20. 20 Margaret T. Smoot, autobiographical sketch, 1881, [p. 1], CHL. “Utah Cemeteries and Burials,” database, Margaret Thompson Smoot.

  21. 21 “Family Tree,” database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org, accessed Jan. 2015), Margaret Thompson McMeans L8PP-C9G and Charles Adkinson L85V-WC5. Olive Smoot Bean, biographical sketch of Margaret Thompson Smoot, n.d., n.p., CHL.

  22. 22 Ibid.

  23. 23 Smoot, autobiographical sketch, [1].

  24. 24 “Family Tree,” database, Charles Adkinson.

  25. 25 Bean, biographical sketch, n.p.

  26. 26 Smoot, autobiographical sketch, [1].

  27. 27 Nauvoo Relief Society Minute Book, 1841–1846, CHL, entry for June 9, 1842.

  28. 28 “Margaret Thompson McMeans Smoot,” Church History Biographical Database, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, available at https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/chd/landing, accessed Jan. 2015.

  29. 29 Bean, biographical sketch, n.p. [Homespun], “A Touching Tribute: Biographical Sketch of ‘Ma’ Smoot,” Deseret Evening News, Sept. 3, 1884.

  30. 30 Bean, biographical sketch, n.p.

  31. 31 Bean, biographical sketch, n.p. Helen Adele Durrant Sovine and LaRue Baldwin Smith, comps., Happiness in the M.I.A.: A History of the Young Women’s Mutual Improvement Association in Utah Stake (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1972), 3, appendix.

  32. 32 Bean, biographical sketch, n.p.

  33. 33 “Utah Cemeteries and Burials,” database, Margaret Thompson Smoot. “A Touching Tribute.”