Person:Tennessee Thompson (1)

Thomas Cox Smiths endowment date is wrong therefore I question Tenessee's Endowment date. New and Complete Gazetteer of the U.S. (1854), p.266 COLUMBUS, a thriving post-town, capital of Lowndes county, Mississippi, on the left bank of the Tombigbee river, 140 miles N. E. from Jackson, and 28 miles below Aberdeen. The river is navigable at all seasons for steamboats, which make frequent passages between this place and Mobile. Columbus is surrounded by a fertile planting district, and has an active business. Large quantities of cotton are shipped here annually. It contains a court house, an United States land-office, several churches, and 1 newspaper office. Population in 1850, 2611; in 1853, about 3000.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF TENNESSEE ANN THOMPSON SMITH. Written March 3rd, 1935, (all by myself) Age 84 years.

    I was born in the Southern States, Mississippi, Laude County in the year 1851.  My parents named William Rilley Thompson and Isabell Willey Thompson.  They gave me the name Tennessee Ann Thompson.  They died while I was young. Mother died in 1861, Father died in 1867.  You see I was thrown in another family after mother died my Father married a widow McDonough. (Always know in the Smith family as Grandma Mack).  She had a sister in Utah, Dellia Ann Cox, and immigrated out there after the war (the civil war) as there was so much distress in our county.  Utah was at that time a territory, but we did not escape hard times for the Mormons had been driven from their homes.
    I lived in my early childhood in the troublesome war times.  I had three brothers, to step brothers and my father all in that bloody war.  One brother and one stepbrother were killed.  We never heard any more than that they were killed in the fire and din of the battlefields. I had many relatives, so many I could not enumerate now, who passed through the sore trials, hardship and suffering of that civil war.  The poor faithful Negroes also passed thru many hardships.  The war lasted four years.  The southern States did not plant very much during that time and the suffering was intense towards the end of the war. At the beginning of the war every able bodied man enlisted.  All were patriots to the cause of the South and none afraid to die in defending their homes, children and slaves, therefore, many things were neglected and fields were left uncultivated.  The enemy then came in and confiscated their property and freed the Negroes. There was nothing to do but take care as best they could and be patient.
    We sold out and started to go to Texas.  We traveled with ox teams with covered wagons, plodding slowly all thru Mississippi bottoms.  Camped at night many times on the bank of the river.  We had to drive our wagons on to a long steam boat to cross.  Many other rivers we rowed over on flat boats fastened to cables before we struck the Red River.  We landed in Louisiana in a region where there was another river that passed thru the rich farming district. The cotton and corn grew as so high you could not see a man on horseback out in it.  We lived in this state four years because of sickness.  My stepmother was taken sick so we could not continue the journey any further.  Finally, when she was able to go on she, in a marvelous way, received a letter from her sister in Utah, from the one I have mentioned hereto before.  So we all came here to Utah.      None of us had heard the Latter Day gospel or the Mormon doctrine and I assure you all we were soon converted.  My eldest sister and youngest brother were all of my people that came to Utah. I had to leave all my other brothers, sisters, dear friends, school mates.  We took a steamboat right from our door and went as far as Omaha. Then took the train to Salt Lake.
    When we landed in Ogden we learned that the train had preciously made only three or four trips to Salt Lake from Ogden.  Salt Lake then was small. (When I went back and saw the improvement and went down to New Orleans and saw the Mississippi empty into the Gulf of Mexico)
    It is wonderful, Beaver was the place we came to live.  I tell you no one could imagine how I felt surrounded with Mountains and rocks, not much timber, or at least I could not see a tree. The timber grows in the mountains here, and where I lived in Louisiana the country was level and the boundless plain filled with timber.  All around us beautiful trees with all kinds of flowers, also there were all kinds of wild fruit, grapes, plumbs, cherries, haws, mulberries, persimmon, crab apples, and all kinds of small fruit and nuts that grew wild.  The people there in the South had planted all kinds of fruit, had so much of it they did not know what to do with all of it.  A tropical country growing everything you planted, all kinds of sugar cane, some rice, Louisiana grew vast areas in sugar cane, cane that was so different from the cane growing here.     Well I have given you a sketch of my early life, now I will tell you of my life after I came to Utah.  When I came here the Mormons were practicing polygamy.  The federal government had sheriffs out to arrest and catch the men also the women and put them in jail if they could prove they were living with any other wife, except the first one. So you see the men had as hard a deal as the women had. Then the church tried to live the United Order.  All this transpired after I came here.  I tell you I felt almost discouraged as I was just in my teens and had left a very true friend in Louisiana, however, I decided to make the best of it and soon met many admirers and of the many suitors finally I chose Mr. T. C. Smith, as you all know for my husband.  We were married in 1870.  We first were married by Judge Cox, and after the birth of our first two children we then went to the Saint George Temple and were sealed, and also had our two children sealed to  us.  This was all new to me but as I was converted to the Mormon doctrine sealed sure thought it was the only thing.  Our first few years of married life were hard and sometimes it seemed we could not keep the wolf from the door, but it seemed the Lord was on our side as I have mentioned before.
     The church gave out an edict that the people should join the United Order.  My husband an I joined and we lived in Beaver Order until it broke up.  Then we moved on to the Sevier and took up land and commenced to farm.  The first crop Tommy planted the frost killed every kernel sown in the soil.  It was impossible to raise much of anything. There had not been any lucerine raised here.  The wind blew with a blast, it was sever, we could not sow the fine seed of the lucerine, even the grain that was sown in the brush cleared soil, the wind blew up.  If we planted trees, the wind swayed them to and fro so hard they could not take root.  We did not grow potatoes, so when you compare conditions and the elements with the prevailing atmosphere and climate today you can readily agree with me everything had been tempered for the good of the people. Then there was a company of Mormons, of Latter day Saints, moved here by the name of King and tried to establish the United Order.  This was in 1877 or 1878.  My husband and I joined and worked in it as long as it ran.  They all were united and worked so well until the leader died. After his death they soon broke up.  There were over one hundred people living in this Kingston Order, and the members cooked and ate together as one big family.  They had a large mess hall and a separate kitchen where they cooked the meals.  The order had a large brick oven and one man did all the baking of the bread.  In the mess hall they had four or five long tables which seated over a hundred.  The married ladies and girls assisted in the cooking.  The young ladies set the tables, and the older ones were divided up in this manner: There were five married ladies and five single to take the work one week.  They then would be released and the same number appointed to take this responsibility of doing this routine work.  Every member of the order was given a task to perform.  I had the privilege of cooking in that Order. I had four children at the time.  The order had Sunday School and day school and Relief Society meetings.  I worked as second counselor in the Kingston Ward until we moved over on this side of the river, (West side)  and then Iworked about 15 years in the Circleville Ward as first counselor.  It was here that our tenth child came to brighten our home.
     Our oldest boy filled a mission in the Southern States.  He was gone two years, two months.  I could tell a great deal more but will close for this time.  You see my married life came in thru all the hardships of pioneer life, but thru all the trials raising our ten children we raised all to be grown, sent them to school, gave them the best we could afford.  They all passed thru the district schools, and five of them went to high school.  We did not have the opportunities you all have today.  If we had enjoyed these educational benefits the children could have received a better opportunity.  I have often heard their father say:  "If I cannot give all my children everything, and I know that I cannot, I will try and give them an honorable name." and I know that he did.  I also raised my youngest son's family.  His wife died and left two children, a boy and a girl that I raised.  We raised all of them so they could have an honest name.

1.   Julia M. Bowman.