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Show Willard G. Smith - page 6 The Battalion finally reached San Diego, where they had an opportunity to rest, with plenty of food . From here they IPade a forced IParch to Santa Anna, where they fully expected to have an engagem2nt. with the enemy. Again those seeking prorrotion and notoriety were disappointed. The enemy had all fled to the rrc:Ytmtains by the tine the Battalion arrived. From here they narched to Los Angeles, and while the company was standing at rest in the street, there cane a ragged IPan , i n clothes much too large for him. He was dirty, a regular de relict vagabond. He accosted Capta;i.n Hancock saying, "Gentleman, I am glad to see you. I have been waiting here days for you for I heard there was a company of M:>rrrons coming." "Well," said Brother Hancock, "What can we do for you?" The man answered, "I hoped there would be sorreone in the company who had friends killed at Hauns Mill, who would kill rre, because I was there. I am the IPan. who shot that little boy's brains out in the blacksmith shop. His cries and pityful pleadings have never been from before my eyes and ears, and I want to die." Brother Hancock took him to father where he repeated his story. • • • tearing open his old army shirt, he threw himself down on his knees saying "I want to die; I want you to kill me." My father stepped back and said, "There is a just God in heaven who will avenge that crim2. I will not stain my hands with your blood." This man loitered around camp for days, begging to be killed, until the officers had him driven away. The Battalion was quartered at Los Angeles for sane tim2 and on July 4, 1847, they erected the first Arrerican Flag to fly in observance of IDs Angeles' first celebration of Independence Day. After a year's service, the Battalion boys were discharged. Father re-enl isted for six rronths guard duty, rrost of which was spent at San Diego. His term expired and he journeyed to Salt Lake, but as his rrother had not arrived with President Hess and Jacob Earl, he left for the east to help pioneers enroute west. They had a terrible trip, with little food and bitter cold. The ~1issouri River was filled with floating ice, defying all efforts to cross. Here in a deserted cabin they found a few frozen potatoes and finally were forced to boil the leather or raw hide of saddle packs and even their saddles, to make broth to sustain life. They subsisted on the last two days on ripe rose-hips, each encased in ice. From t..½is perilous situation they were finally rescued by the Saints who saw their cxmdi tion from the other side of the river and helped them to cross. While returning with this company, t..1-iey rret a group of people on their way to California and father was offered pay to act as their guide. He was glad to do this, as he had decided to return to the gold fields as soon as Spring cane. He had varied experiences in California, gold mining, a little ranching, finally t ried his hand at being a hotel proprietor. It was ten years beofre he returned to Salt Lake . By this tim2 he was a farrrer in the beautiful Willa:rrett Valley in Oregon and wanted to stay, but his rrother wanted him to return to his family and church. His brother Alma had been on a mission to the Sandwich Islands, now Hawaii, and he stopped to discuss this with Willard. Father decided to return to Utah. Father was home but a few rronths before he was called on a mission to England. I have often heard him laugh as he told of his preparations for that foreign mission--just a single suit, badly worn, one pair of shoes, a change of underwear and socks, in a little bag with a drawstring, and a little extra food for a few days' march--plus abiding faith and joy in being considered worthy of the call. He and his companions walked and worked their way from town to t own, state to state, finally reaching the Willard G. Smith - page 7 Atlantic Seaboard. Father had until nCM used tobacco heavily. As the ship got lll1der way, he walked to the side of the vessel and turned his pockets inside out, thus doing away with his supply and he testified that from then on all desire for tobacco left him. He was President of the Cheltenham Conference from 1860 until 1863. the voyage home he had charge of a canpany of saints who sailed from Liverpool. He worked for President Young for a year after his return. In March, 1865, he was ordained a High Priest and sent to "preside as Bishop over the settlerrents of Porterville, Richville, South M:.>rgan, Croydon and Milton. M'len father arrived in M:.>rgan Colll1ty he went to nake his home with the retiring Bishop, Thorras Jefferson 'Ihurston. Here he net my rrother, Hulda Cordelia Thurston, and they were S(X)n rnarried (April 15, 1865). As they left the Salt Lake Endowment House, they noted the flags were halfIPaSt. Soon they learned of the telegraph nessage which had carre, telling of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. ~lve children were born of the union of Willard and Hulda--nine living to maturity. On One episode in the life of Willard G. Smith not well known nor understood, nor even accepted by sorre of his descend.ants, occurred early in 1870 when he was 43 years old and presiding as Bishop over the M:>rgan area, later the M:>rgan Stake. He was advised by authority to either resign from his position of leadership or support the principle of plural narriage. Because he had returned only a few years earlier and was still in debt from his three years mission to Great Britain, his economic :situation was very poor. He was a rnarried man with two children, trying to put together a little acreage to farm. He had been appointed first Probate Judge in the area in 1865, but it was not very renunerative. He was also elected to the Utah House of Representatives, which convened every winter for only a few rronths--neither of these jobs brought ITUch financial help. At this tim2, with a Brother John Seaman, he was cutting and selling ties for the Union Pacific Railroad Co. which was atterrpting to join with the Southern Pacific Co. to canplete the first transcontinental roadway. Suitable lumber to meet specifications was not readily obtained and prepared. It was providing only a precarious livelihood. Havever, Willard was a firm believer in doing one' s best and then trusting in the IDrd to provide--so on May 10, 1870, he married Ingri Johnson in the Salt Lake Endowrcent House. Luckily he had been able that Spring to get three rooms finished on a brick hare, with a shingled r(X)f which was later enlarged and served the family lll'ltil they left M:.>rgan in 1902. It is still in full use, and well kept by its present owners. Grandrrother Cordelia Smith tells us breifly in her ".Menoirs", conpleted in 1926 when she was eighty years old, from notes and journals kept over the years, what little we knCM of this second wife's experiences. She says Ingri was a very nice yolll'lg woman from a large family who joined the church in Malma, Sweden. 'Ihere her father had taken a second. wife, which Ingri believed caused the death of their rrother. 'Ihe family later emigrated to the United States, but all fell away from the church except Ingri. Her father and sorre stayed in Qnaha, Nebraska, but two rrerrbers, a sister and a brother named John A. Johnson, rroved west to Rawlins, Wyoming. . Grandnother had given her consent to the marriage, but admits living it was a real trial of faith--shared also by Willard an:!. Ingri--as he was 'lmable to provide her with a hone of her own, and so all her three years were spent in the three room hone, housing also two daughters and by |
