Person:Lot Smith (3)

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Lot Smith (May 15, 1830 – June 20, 1892) was a Mormon pioneer, soldier, lawman and American frontiersman. He became known as "The Horseman" for his exceptional skills on horseback as well as for his help in rounding up wild mustangs on Utah's Antelope Island. He is most famous for his exploits during the 1857 Utah War.

Smith practiced the Latter-day Saint doctrine of plural marriage, and had eight wives and 52 children. Invalid seal-to-parents temple code: S.L..

The following short biography is found in Andrew Jenson's BiographicalEncyclopedia, vol. 1, p. 803- 806:

SMITH, LOT, president of the Little Colorado Stake of Zion from 1878 to 1887, was born May 15, 1830, in Williams township, Oswego county, New York, son of Wm. 0. Smith and Rhoda Hough. He joined the Church at an early day, and marched to California as a member of the famous Mormon Battalion. After his arrival in Great Salt Lake valley, he became a resident of Farmington, Davis county, where he lived for many years. He was ordained a Seventy at an early day and was for a long time a president of the 74th quorum of Seventy. In 1869-71 he filled a mission to Great Britain. In the absence of a biographical sketch of Lot Smith we copy the following from an article written soon after his death by an intimate friend, Elder C. L. Christensen, a Navajo interpreter and Indian missionary: "For the consolation of his family and friends I wish to say, there never was a man that held the life and liberty of man more sacred than did Lot Smith. During the Echo Canyon war he played a brave and noble part, and did it well under the circumstances. He had instructions from Pres. Brigham Young to 'shed no blood,' and not even to fire a gun unless absolutely in self defense. Lot was so prompt in carrying out this advice that several men in his charge left him and went home, they having a desire of gaining fame otherwise than according to the advice that Lot held and kept most sacred. I am conscientious before God in saying that he shed no blood while he lived, except it may have occurred in fighting the Ute Indians, during the battle near Provo city in an early day, with which all are familiar who read the history of Utah. Lot served his country in the fear of God and with good will to man in the Mormon Battalion. He was, perhaps, the youngest man that bore arms in that military body, being only sixteen years of age, but being large in stature he was accepted. He gave the following account of himself, which I think worth reading: 'One day when we had marched a long distance without water, and nearly famished, we beheld a dry lake at a distance, sometimes called a mirage. It looked so much like a lake of water to those who never saw one that we bad full assurance of speedy relief. It no doubt bad this effect, at least it stimulated us to press on, but to our horror it was only dry land, and we traveled fully six miles across this delusion and still found no water, and night had fully come.' The writer does not remember whether it was a willow or wire grass patch that gave them occasion to still hope, but 'digging down about eight feet,' Lot said, "we found abundance to supply all our wants. After this was attended to, I was selected to go back with a keg of water on a mule to help those who had fallen by the way, who numbered quite a few. I had instructions not to give any one any water till I got back to the last man, and then I was to work back to the company, having very particular instructions how to administer this sacred, life-saving fluid. I soon met a man who was anxiously enquiring for water, distance, etc. I put him off, also the second, third, and fourth, I think, but from this on I could no longer stand their pleadings. I watered them all and had some left, so I had a drink when I got through a distance of twelve or fourteen miles. I was careful in giving them water, though many drank quite heartily. The Lord surely blessed my little keg of water in a marvelous manner. For my disobedience to orders I was tied behind a wagon and made to walk in trying circumstances which rather humiliated me, but I felt I could not have done less. This was the act of a small official by the name of Dykes.' When God rewards those who give the least of his children a drink of water, I think this hero will not be tied behind a wagon. I have traveled hundreds of miles with this good man. If any were sick he was sympathetic and ready to help; if any wagons were stalled he was the first to roll up his sleeves to lift, dig and push. If animals were sick he was an expert. He was extremely fond of a good horse. When camping time came, noon or night, animals were the first to receive his attention; then meals were attended to, and all must fare alike. He would always call the camp to order and have prayer offered to God, and if he himself did the praying, it was an earnest, thoughtful appeal to his Heavenly Father; but he never slighted his brethren; they, too, must take their turn. He was very kind, though he could not look upon the deeds of his fellow man with the charity and forbearance that some men can. He rebuked rather sharply, being of a quick temper, or, rather, he hastily put his foot down on all manner of iniquity, and his rebukes were generally kindly received, as all knew they were intended to elevate and better mankind. And this is how his friends looked upon him. His earnest desire was to have all things go right, and nothing short of this would satisfy him; hence his peculiar mode was considered and his advice generally adhered to. The poor he never passed by unnoticed or uncared for. Feed, grain, seed grain, flour and other provisions have been amply furnished by him to hundreds without any return. He was kind to the stranger and amply adapted to entertain them; Jew or Gentile, all were treated kindly. He was very interesting and entertaining, both in public and in private, and any one could depend upon him for sound doctrine. He was a wise man in general things, though he had not much school learning, but the book of nature, both in regard to man and beast, and all the wonders of God were studied by him and his experience was world wide. He enjoyed life well. He had the thorns and the thistles, the ups and the downs and many sore trials, but he despised none of God's dealings, but a treacherous man was to him a loathing and the only thing I have ever known him to hate. Brother Lot was tried sorely in the latter part of his life, and none but the angels can tell this story correctly. He had his leg crushed into a pulp in a horse power, and had a whole year or more of suffering through this painful calamity. This had somewhat of a tendency to impair his once strong memory. He lost two beautiful boys in the last few years; one was drowned and one scalded with lye water till he died. An enemy of his hired a man to kill him, but failed, and various and rapid were his trials. He was a good provider and has a number of his children on a fair way to becoming thoroughly educated. He was a large man in stature, over six feet in height when in the prime of life, but was not quite so tall latterly. He weighed from 200 to 215 pounds. He drank no tea nor coffee, used no tobacco and drank no liquor. While with him in St. George, I have seen him refuse to drink a drop of wine with his old-time friends. He never profaned, and always rebuked those that did. However, he would sometimes treat a household of those who desired it to the amount of $40 to $50. He was a good frontiersman, active and ambitious and performed noble work at Sunset in the interest of the Arizona mission and its final success. His policy toward the Indians was that of Brigham Young: 'Feed them, not fight them,' and many were the good and instructive letters he received from Pres. Young in that early day which he would read in public and always advise the people to carry them out punctually. Lot said at one time in my hearing: 'All who feel like cursing an Indian and saying that the only good Indian is a dead one, are released to go home.' He meant all he said, and hundreds of Indians came down and farmed at Sunset, and he was not a whit behind in showing them all about farming. He visited the different tribes often and always enquired of their welfare and asked if any of our people were intruding on their rights, often enquiring if we were welcome in their land. He was a fairly good Spanish interpreter and always gave them good advice, encouraging them to allegiance to this great government, etc. He was kind to them, feeding them and aiding them otherwise and he stood high with the Navajo chiefs. When Sunset was abandoned he moved in part to Moencoppy, where he found a different stripe of Navajoes, a people who know no law, a people who were not subdued by the government at the last big fight. They hid up near the Navajo Mountains where live those who committed the depredations in southern Utah and killed Whitmore and Geo. A. Smith, jun., and stole many sheep and horses. The writer has seen many mares, valued at from $100 to $250 each, stolen in Utah, and came nearly losing his life for making mention of this fact at one time. While I lived at Moencoppy eight years, I saw them let their sheep into gardens and orchards, breaking fruit trees till they died, and all we could do was only to plead with them kindly, sometimes with good effect for a time, but soon this failed, and they would steal fruit, melons, grain in the shock, corn in the field, ride on our horses, stealing the bells from their necks, the hobbles off their legs, etc., breaking the dams in our reservoirs, destroying our crops and causing the loss of our water, and a hundred other things. Brother Lot Smith passed through all this and more also, and I will assure the reader that Lot Smith died defending the right." Lot Smith was killed by Indians at Tuba City, Arizona, June 21, 1892. The following statement concerning his tragic death is culled from a statement made by G. W. Palmer, of Farmington, Davis county, and published in the "Deseret News" (weekly), Vol. 45, p. 230: A short time previous to the unfortunate event, a "Gentile" trader came to the neighborhood of Lot Smith's residence, at Tuba, Arizona, to obtain the wool clip from the Navajo's sheep. He ingratiated himself with the Indians, and among other things told them they had as much right to the grazing lands outside their reservation as the white men had, and their sheep were as free to pasturage as the white men's cattle. The Navajos, particularly the young bucks, became very saucy and brought their sheep off the reservation, intruding upon the lands taken up by white settlers. This man has the reputation of having incited Indians to drive off a rancher, some time ago, that they might have a good place at which to wash and shear their sheep so that he could get the wool. On the morning of the day when the shooting occurred, an Indian told a man named D. Claws and others, five miles from Tuba, that "maybe, pretty soon, Navajos kill and clear out some white men," and that they had "talked about it two days." Claws laughed at him and made fun of his threat, and he said, "We kill one white man, anyhow." Two hours after this, Lot Smith was shot. It appears that the Indians had let down the bars of his pasture and turned in their sheep. Lot went on horseback to his grazing grounds and tried to turn the sheep out, but they "bunched" up and he could not succeed. He went back to the house and returned, this time having a revolver in his belt. He got off his horse and tried again to drive them out, but failing again he became angry and drawing his pistol, fired twice into the flock, killing six sheep. In a moment half-a-dozen Navajos, who had been riding, arose and fired at his cows, shooting five, and other Indians appeared in the hills. Lot started back home on horseback and had just passed a point where there was a large rock, when an Indian, who had been riding up on the hill with a rifle on his shoulder and had watched for him till he passed this rock, fired from behind it, striking Lot in the back, the ball going through his body in a slanting direction. The wounded man rode on, and seeing a white man at a distance, beckoned to him. The blood was running in a stream as he rode rapidly to his house. He alighted, entered, unbuckled his belt and went into another room without a word. The man he beckoned soon arrived, and when he and the family went into the room the stricken man exclaimed, "This is the last of me." His dying words were: "God bless the wives and children." The older Navajoes greatly deplored the act, which had taken from them a good friend. Elder Smith was shot about 4 o'clock p. m. and died at 10 o'clock the same night. He left a large family and a wide circle of friends to mourn his loss. His body rested in a quiet corner in Tuba City, Arizona, about ten years. But according to the wish of his children his remains were exhumed and shipped to Farmington, Davis county, Utah (where he had spent many years of his life), and there interred with appropriate ceremonies April 8, 1902.

!BURIAL: Reinterred in Farmington, Davis, Utah 8 Apr 1902

!MILITARY: Mormon Battalion, Company E

1.   The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Ancestral File (TM). (June 1998 (c), data as of 5 JAN 1998).
2.   Family Search. 1880 United States Census and National Index. (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Intellectual Reserve, Inc., 2001).

   Arizona, Apache, Sunset, Page 31D

   Age 50, Farmer