Chapter VI Samuel SMITH History SLC

Sarah Jane INGRAM (Ingraham) SMITH.
Second wife of Samuel SMITH.
Older sister of third wife Fanny INGRAM SMITH.

CHAPTER VI The Years in Salt Lake City

Only four days after their arrival in Salt Lake City, Mary Ann, who had been heavy with child during the latter part of their exodus, gave birth to their seventh child (which was only the third to survive). This infant girl was named Maretta. She was destined to be the first female child of Samuel and Mary Ann who would grow to maturity, marry and have children of her own.

Samuel immediately found work in the bustling community: not in Salt Lake City proper, but about ten miles South in the Big Cottonwood area. There was a variety of work to be done, and Samuel pitched in to do his part.

Irrigation was a big factor in that primarily farming area. Samuel was employed as the watermaster and it was his job to parcel out the precious irrigation water to the settlers along his canal route. It is likely that he farmed in the area as well and also helped survey acreage and undertook other projects of that nature to help care for his family.

He was also called as the ward clerk of the Big Cottonwood ward. When the twenty-third quorum of Seventy was organized, he was called and set apart as one of its seven presidents.

The Ingraham Family
We now return to a coverage of the affairs of the Ingraham (on some records, Ingram) family. This is necessary so we can see how the Smith and Ingraham families became intertwined. William and Susannah Griffith Ingraham joined the LDS Church in England in 1839. William, who was born in about 1792 (NP), had an earlier wife named Margaret Lewis whom he married December 28, 1813. (NP) She later passed away. He then married Susannah.

It was Parley P. Pratt who was instrumental in convincing the Ingrahams to emigrate to America. As mentioned earlier, not only did the Ingrahams and at least five of their children emigrate, but Susannah's brother Richard and his wife Mary Griffith also set sail for America. The Griffith couple came on the "Swanton" (along with the Smiths) while the Ingrahams came on the "Yorkshire" [Note 7] which arrived two months after the "Swanton" docked in New Orleans.

By May 10th, 1843 the two families were reunited in New Orleans and ready to begin their travels upstream. We are not sure just where or when William and Susannah

Fanny Ann, shortly after her arrival in America, changed her name to Frances Ann because, in her words, 'Everybody's dog, horse or cow was named Fanny.' She recalled the arduous years of her young childhood in these words: 'I lived with my Uncle and Aunt for about five years. We moved from place to place as he (Richard Griffith) was a horse trader and went where he could get work.' The family was not well off. Frances Ann recalled: 'At one time we lived near a great forest where several kinds of nuts grew. We children gathered them in sacks for winter. We would toast them in the hot ashes on a winter evening. We did not have it very good for we were poor."

Eventually the Griffith-Ingraham family made it to Nauvoo. The children seemed quite happy there and though they were very young, they had vivid recollections of that era. Frances later wrote: "I was acquainted with the Prophet Joseph Smith. He would pat me on the shoulder and say 'You will grow to be a woman and be a mother in Zion,' which has literally been fulfilled.' (Francis bore a total of 13 children.)

Though just a small child, Frances also clearly remembered when the bodies of Joseph and Hyrum were brought back to Nauvoo from Carthage.

The family, like so many other, was driven out of Nauvoo by heartless mobbers. Frances recorded: 'One night I remember well was when the Mob came and drive us out of our home and set fire to it. We grabbed our clothes and fled across the fields barefooted as they would not give us time to dress."

After a long and arduous journey (during which Mary Griffith died of cholera), the Griffith-Ingraham family made it across the plains. They entered the Salt Lake Valley in the fall of 1848, the children 'walking most of the way as did most of the other children that crossed the plains," Frances later wrote. 'We had one cow yoked to an ox. [Before she died] Aunt Mary would put [the cowls] milk in a churn and the jolt of the wagon would churn it into butter. Then we would have buttermilk for supper as it would still be sweet and it was good to drink ... We gathered what they called buffalo chips to cook with."

About a year after they arrived in Utah, Richard Griffith got "gold fever" and went to California (against the strong advice of Brigham Young and other Church leaders.) He was never heard of again. Richard Ingraham, the girl's brother, went to work in the mines. He never married and eventually died of "leading." [Note 8] After their uncle Richard Griffith left, the children were left to fend for themselves. At the age of eight or nine, Frances went to work for whomever would hire her. Her specialty was tending children, though she was only a child herself. For pay she received her room, board and some clothing that was too small for other members of the family.

The first place she worked was for a lady by the name of Sarah Ford. She worked almost continuously from then on, making her home with the Jessie Turpin family (Jesse had married Samuel's sister Louisa Jane Smith on April 16, 1846) at times when she was unemployed. She had no formal schooling but learned to read and spell at the fireside listening to others. She never learned to write (except to sign her name which she did beautifully).

Sarah Jane Ingraham was older than Frances, but she was much more shy and reserved. She too was left on her own when her uncle Richard went to the gold fields of California. However, she was befriended by a widow lady who arrived in Salt Lake in 1850: that widow was none other than Sarah Wooding Smith, the mother of Samuel Smith.

Polygamy had become an openly practiced program after Brigham Young became the prophet. Samuel was instructed to prepare himself to participate in that new order. After prayerful thought, both he and Mary Ann were fully convinced that it was a true principle and he chose Sarah Jane Ingraham as his second wife. Sarah Jane was one month short of her 16th birthday when she became Samuel's wife: Samuel was 34. The date of the wedding is a little hazy: some records say May of 1852 while others peg it a year later. [Note 9] They were, we are confident, married by Heber C. Kimball in the Endowment House since it would be nearly 40 years before the Salt Lake Temple would be completed. (Construction on the Salt Lake Temple was begun April 6, 1853 and was completed exactly 40 years later when the building was dedicated April 6, 1893.)

Sarah Jane was a very attractive woman; slender, with pretty brown eyes, long eyelashes and beautiful brown hair. She was of a quiet, retiring disposition, not given at all to quarreling. In fact, there were times when she would not defend herself even when such action was justified.

Though Sarah Jane was very attractive, she had few photos taken of herself. Someone once offended her by an offhanded remark about her dress and from that time on she refused to have her picture taken.

Though Sarah Jane was not destined to live long, she was a very active supporter of gospel principles. She brought a total of nine children into the world. Thyrza Ann was born November 20, 1853 in Big Cottonwood. She was likely the only child of Sarah Jane's to be born in the Salt Lake City area for it was not long afterward that the family moved to Brigham City.

During the years between 1850 and 1855, Mary Ann gave birth to her final two children. Hannah Line Smith was born October 10, 1852, Big Cottonwood, Salt Lake County, Utah. Hannah, who was the couple's ninth child, lived but nine years, dying December 15, 1861 in Brigham City, Utah. On February 15, 1855, in Salt Lake, Mary Ann had David John Smith, their tenth and last child. He lived only five months, passing away July 12, 1855 in Salt Lake.

Now that Mary Ann's childbearing years had drawn to a close, she turned her attention to helping the younger wives as well as raising her surviving children (Samuel Lorenzo, Hyrum James and Maretta). In the following chapter we will examine the relationship of the younger wives to Mary. We will also discuss the peculiar yet successful family relationship they all enjoyed.