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Lucy Meserve Smith

Lucy M. Smith, Lucy Meserve Smith Smith

9 February 1817—5 October 1892

Emmeline B. Wells

Born 9 Feb. 1817 at Newry, Oxford Co., Maine.1 Daughter of Josiah Smith and Lucy Meserve Bean.2 Baptized as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by James C. Snow, Aug. 1837.3 Earned her way to Nauvoo, Hancock Co., Illinois, working in a cotton factory, 1843.4 Spun wool and worked for Emma Hale Smith, 1844–1845.5 Married George Albert Smith, 29 Nov. 1844, at Nauvoo; two sons who died in infancy.6 Taught school in Kanesville, Pottawattamie Co., Iowa; taught for six months in the Pawnee Mission School, Jackson Co., Iowa, 1847.7 Migrated to the Salt Lake Valley with the George A. Smith/Dan Jones pioneer company, arriving 27 Oct. 1849.8 Taught school in the Salt Lake City Seventeenth Ward, 1849–1885.9 Helped raise John Henry Smith after his mother died, 1851–1866.10 Lived in Provo, Utah Co., Utah Territory, beginning 1852; served as president of the Provo Relief Society, 1856.11 Expert in spinning, weaving, dying, sewing, quilting, and cutting.12 Organized women to create relief quilts and blankets for migrating handcart companies, winter 1856.13 Designed the award-winning silk flag for the Provo Brass Band, 1856.14 Set apart by Brigham Young as a missionary to Massachusetts, 4 Aug. 1873.15 Made an extended visit to close relatives in New England, Aug.–Nov. 1873.16 EBW dined in her Provo home, 18 Oct. 1874.17 Died 5 Oct. 1892 in Salt Lake City.18

The First Fifty Years of Relief Society

19 Born at Newry, Oxford County, Maine; daughter of Lucy Meserve Bean and Josiah Smith. 20 Baptized, 1837. 21 Lived at Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, by 1844; worked for Emma Smith, 1844–1845. 22 Married George Albert Smith as a plural wife, 1844; two children. 23 Moved to Winter Quarters, unorganized U.S. territory, 1846; taught school in Kanesville, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, and at the Pawnee Mission School in Bellevue, Jackson County, Iowa. 24 Migrated to the Salt Lake Valley, 1849. 25 Taught school in the Salt Lake City Seventeenth Ward, 1851. 26 Settled at Provo, Utah County, Utah Territory, 1852. 27 Taught school in Provo. 28 Served as president of the Relief Society in Provo. 29 Died at Salt Lake City. 30 (See Document 2.4)

Footnotes

  1. 1 Newry, ME, Town Clerk, Town and Vital Records, 1805–1891, Tax List, 1817, p. 1817, Josiah Smith, microfilm 11589, DGS 7724794, image 87/375, FHL. 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), 70 (restricted access). Lucy M. Smith, “Recollections of the Prophet Joseph Smith,” Juvenile Instructor, 1 Aug. 1892, 470. “Family Tree,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org, accessed 12 Mar. 2020), Lucy Meserve Smith (K2HF-ZF7).

  2. 2 Lucy Meserve Smith, Papers, 1848–1892, Family History and Autobiography, June 1889, pp. 11–12, MS 8270, images 22–23/78, CHL. “Lucy Messerve Smith,” Go Ye into All the World (https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/missionary/, accessed 11 Mar. 2020).

  3. 3 “Lucy Messerve Smith,” Go Ye into All the World (https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/missionary/, accessed 11 Mar. 2020). Lucy M. Smith, “Recollections of the Prophet Joseph Smith,” Juvenile Instructor, 1 Aug. 1892, 470. Zora Smith Jarvis, “Autobiography of Lucy Meserve Smith, Second Wife of George A. Smith,” in Ancestry, Biography, and Family of George A. Smith (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1962), 276.

  4. 4 Lucy Meserve Smith, Papers, 1848–1892, Family History and Autobiography, June 1889, p. 13, MS 8270, image 27/78, CHL.

  5. 5 Lucy Meserve Smith, Papers, 1848–1892, Family History and Autobiography, June 1889, pp. 14, 18, MS 8270, images 28–29/78, CHL.

  6. 6 Lucy Meserve Smith, Papers, 1848–1892, Family History and Autobiography, June 1889, p. 18, MS 8270, image 29/78, CHL. Zora Smith Jarvis, “Autobiography of Lucy Meserve Smith, Second Wife of George A. Smith,” in Ancestry, Biography, and Family of George A. Smith (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1962), 277, 278, 280. Lucy Meserve Smith, Papers, 1848–1892, Family History and Autobiography, June 1889, p. 4, MS 8270, image 13/78, CHL.

  7. 7 Lucy Meserve Smith, Papers, 1848–1892, Family History and Autobiography, June 1889, p. 25, MS 8270, image 37/78, CHL. Joyce Kinkead, ed., A Schoolmarm All My Life: Personal Narratives from Frontier Utah (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1996), 39–41.

  8. 8 “Lucy Meserve Smith,” Pioneer Database (https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/overlandtravel/, accessed 11 Mar. 2020). Lucy Meserve Smith, Papers, 1848–1892, Family History and Autobiography, June 1889, p. 35, MS 8270, image 50/78, CHL.

  9. 9 Lucy Meserve Smith, Papers, 1848–1892, Family History and Autobiography, June 1889, pp. 38, 43, MS 8270, images 51, 58/78, CHL. Zora Smith Jarvis, “Autobiography of Lucy Meserve Smith, Second Wife of George A. Smith,” in Ancestry, Biography, and Family of George A. Smith (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1962), 280.

  10. 10 Lucy Meserve Smith, Papers, 1848–1892, Family History and Autobiography, June 1889, p. 58, MS 8270, image 71/78, CHL. Zora Smith Jarvis, “Autobiography of Lucy Meserve Smith, Second Wife of George A. Smith,” in Ancestry, Biography, and Family of George A. Smith (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1962), 282–283. Joyce Kinkead, ed., A Schoolmarm All My Life: Personal Narratives from Frontier Utah (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1996), 41–42.

  11. 11 Lucy Meserve Smith, Papers, 1848–1892, Family History and Autobiography, June 1889, pp. 38–39, 52, MS 8270, images 50–52, 65/78, CHL. Zora Smith Jarvis, “Autobiography of Lucy Meserve Smith, Second Wife of George A. Smith,” in Ancestry, Biography, and Family of George A. Smith (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1962), 280–282.

  12. 12 Lucy Meserve Smith, Papers, 1848–1892, Family History and Autobiography, June 1889, pp. 60–61, MS 8270, images 73–74/78, CHL.

  13. 13 Lucy Meserve Smith, Papers, 1848–1892, Family History and Autobiography, June 1889, pp. 53–54, MS 8270, images 66–67/78, CHL.

  14. 14 Lucy Meserve Smith, Papers, 1848–1892, Family History and Autobiography, June 1889, pp. 55–56, MS 8270, images 68–69/78, CHL. “List of Prizes,” Deseret News, 20 Oct. 1858, 144.

  15. 15 “Lucy Messerve Smith,” Go Ye into All the World (https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/missionary/, accessed 11 Mar. 2020).

  16. 16 Zora Smith Jarvis, “Autobiography of Lucy Meserve Smith, Second Wife of George A. Smith,” in Ancestry, Biography, and Family of George A. Smith (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1962), 283.

  17. 17 EBW, Diary, 18 Oct. 1874.

  18. 18 “Utah Death Registers, 1847–1966,” p. 136 (1892), Lucy M. Smith; citing series 21866, from Utah Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Utah State Archives and Records Service, Salt Lake City. “A Choice Spirit Called Home,” Deseret Evening News, 5 Oct. 1892, 5.

  19. 19 Nauvoo Temple Endowment Register: Dec. 10, 1845, to Feb. 8, 1846, p. 70 (1845), Lucy Smith, FHL microfilm 962798, item 1, FHL.

  20. 20 Zora Smith Jarvis, comp., Ancestry, Biography, and Family of George A. Smith (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1962), 274. Nauvoo Temple Endowment Register, p. 70 (1845). Lucy Meserve Smith named both Newry and nearby Bethel, Maine as her birthplace. See “Recollections of the Prophet Joseph Smith,” Juvenile Instructor 27, no. 15 (Aug. 1, 1892): 470; “A Choice Spirit Called Home,” Deseret Evening News, Oct. 5, 1892, 5. Tax records confirm that Josiah Smith was living in Newry during the year of Lucy’s birth. “Town and Vital Records, 1805–1891,” Josiah Smith, 1817, n.p., citing town records, 1805–1836, Newry, Maine; FHL microfilm 11589, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.

  21. 21 “Recollections of the Prophet Joseph Smith,” Juvenile Instructor 27, no. 15 (Aug. 1, 1892): 470. “A Choice Spirit Called Home,” 5. Jarvis, Ancestry, Biography, and Family, 276.

  22. 22 Jarvis, Ancestry, Biography, and Family, 277.

  23. 23 Jarvis, Ancestry, Biography, and Family, 277. “A Choice Spirit Called Home,” 5. “Family Tree,” database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org, accessed Jan. 2015), Lucy Meserve Smith K2HF-ZF7 and George Albert Smith KWJC-6PQ.

  24. 24 Jarvis, Ancestry, Biography, and Family, 278. Joyce Kinkead, ed., A Schoolmarm All My Life: Personal Narratives from Frontier Utah (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1996), 39–41.

  25. 25 “Lucy Meserve Smith Smith,” Church History Biographical Database, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, available at https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/chd/landing, accessed Jan. 2015).

  26. 26 Jarvis, Ancestry, Biography, and Family, 280.

  27. 27 Ibid.

  28. 28 Kinkead, A Schoolmarm All My Life, 41.

  29. 29 Lucy Meserve Smith, “Historical Sketches of my Great Grandfathers,” microfilm of manuscript, n.p., in Lucy Meserve Smith papers, 1848–1892, CHL. Jarvis, Ancestry, Biography, and Family, 281–282.

  30. 30 “Utah Cemeteries and Burials,” database, Utah Division of State History (https://ushpo.utah.gov/cemetery, accessed May 2023), Lucy M. Smith. “A Choice Spirit Called Home,” 5.