Jesse Nathaniel Smith, Jr.
1861-1912
Jesse Nathaniel Smith, Jr. was born May 16, 1861 at Parowan, Utah. He was the seventh generation of an influential family of Smiths who came from England and settled Topsfield, Massachusetts. From father to son, they are: Robert, who migrated in 1638, Samuel, Samuel II, Asael, Silas, Jesse Nathaniel, and Jesse N., Jr.
Samuel held many positions including that of delegate to the Provincial Congress, and chairman of the “Topsfield Tea Party.” Asael was a free thinker and predicted that one of his descendants would “promote a work to revolutionize the world of religious thought.” His grandson, the Prophet Joseph, was that man.
Jesse N., his brother Silas S. and their widowed mother were called to settle in Parowan, Utah. The boys’ lives were parallel, Silas in Colorado and Jesse N. in Arizona. Jesse N. held many positions in both state and church, among them legislator and President of a Stake. He married Emma S. West, daughter of Samuel Walker West and Margaret Cooper. Jesse N., Sr. had five wives and 44 children. All but two of the children grew to maturity. Two of them died before marrying. The other forty all married in the temple. Their posterity, as of 1967, numbered about 6,000.
Jesse N., Jr. was sealed in infancy. His life was saved by the administration of the Elders and the application of home remedies He went to school two or three months each winter.
At age 17 he was recommended to attend the University of Utah to prepare to teach. He returned to his home town to take up his profession. During his first year he courted Mary Ann Mitchell, daughter of William C. Mitchell and Mary Ann Holmes. The Mitchells joined the Church in England, migrated to Utah and became community builders at Parowan. They did well, financially. Mary Ann was born February 10, 1863. Her mother took sick when she was nine years old and the girl assumed most of her care until she died five years later.
Jesse N., Jr.’s teaching was interrupted when his father was called to preside over the Eastern Arizona Stake. In the early spring of 1860 he helped his father move the family to Snowflake, Arizona. While there he worked with her father who had contracted to build a section of the Atlantic-Pacific railroad over the Continental Divide, near Ft. Wingate, New Mexico. Jesse then returned to Parowan to get his bride. They were married in the St. George Temple, October 14, 1880. From there they went to Snowflake where he took up his profession as a teacher, his wife working with him. Mary Ann returned as her family came along. Jesse N. III and Elias were born there. Jesse N., Jr. took up some land nearby which squatters jumped. Even though he knew there were Texas cattlemen hostile toward the Mormons, he rode up and claimed the land anyway. By diplomacy he persuaded them of the justice of his claim.
Jesse N., Jr. fell in love with one of his students, Nancy Ann Freeman. They were married September 11, 1884. Her parents, John Woodruff and Sarah Adeline Collins Freeman, were sturdy pioneer stock. They answered the call of the First Presidency to help colonize the St. George country. He was called to be Bishop of the Washington Ward until 1877 when he was called to help settle northern Arizona. He moved to Snowflake and became a prominent citizen of the town.
The Edmunds anti-polygamy law was being enforced with vigor. Many were being prosecuted. President John Taylor decided the Saints in Arizona who were vulnerable should go to Mexico to colonize. He called Alexander F. Macdonald to take charge of the project. Brother Macdonald took a company, which he located south of the border at Corralitos. President Taylor also instructed President Jesse N. Smith to warn the brethren liable to prosecution for polygamy to go to Chihuahua, Mexico, on the Casas Grandes River. He then appointed Apostle Moses Thatcher to be a committee to purchase lands.
President Smith organized a company to go immediately. His son Jesse N., Jr. being in a public position, joined the group. They left on February 10, 1885, and after 18 days of hard travel over mountains and rivers arrived at La Ascension, the site of the Mexican customhouse.
A meeting of the committee was called the next day at Corralitos to plan operations. For months the committee met and made explorations. Brother Smith was also appointed to preside over the camp at Ascension. This entailed helping with payment of duties. The camp entertained customs officials at the best dinner they could prepare. The officers reciprocated. Brother Smith signed bonds for the payment of duties by some of the colonists. He also had to join in giving surety for the payment of double duty imposed by the government in certain cases. He wrote a remonstrance to the Treasurer General who finally remitted the assessment.
On November 25, a conditional contract was signed for the purchase of 20,000 hectares of land in three locations for 12,000 Mexican pesos. Three days later Brother Smith returned to Arizona as other members of the committee had done. Jesse N., Jr. chose to dedicate his life to pioneering in the new country so he remained in Mexico. During the months he had been active in camp affairs, he rented land which he farmed. Jesse N., Jr. committed himself to learning the language, customs and legal procedures of this new land so that he could be of service as a mediator between the colonists and the Mexicans. He learned to speak the language fluently. He also did a great deal of studying in other fields and came to be known as one of the best-read men of the colonies.
It is unique that with all his training and culture, Jesse N., Jr. turned to raising cattle and horses. He moved to Colonia Juarez where he taught a class in grammar and raised a crop. Here he commenced his life as a gentleman-stockman by caring, with Lyman Wilson, for the town dry herd on the Tinaja Wash. Mary Ann’s daughter, Mary was born there. After two years the lack of feed and water required them to find new pastures, so Jesse N., Jr. (as he was always known) took the herd up into the Sierra Madre Mountains and located them on a ranch in the Corrales Basin.
At Tinaja, Mary Ann had made butter from cream that raised on milk set in pans. At Corrales she also made cheese. They pioneered cheese-making by using galvanized tubs for vats. Then Franklin Spencer joined them and they made cheese in shares. After they moved to Pacheco they continued the cheese-making, using their own cows. Nancy Ann’s sons, John Woodruff and Francis Clair, and Mary Ann’s son, William Cooke, were born at Corrales.
On February 12, 1891, Jesse N. Smith Jr. was ordained the first Bishop of the Pacheco Ward. He had moved into town to teach school. Mary Ann also taught. As Bishop, he took the lead in community, as well as church, activities. Handling tithing was the hardest of his jobs. Tithing and fast offerings were paid in kind, as with livestock, crops, eggs and butter, all of which had to be sold or consumed. He frequently went to the city of Chihuahua to sell tithing stores as well as his own crops and cheese.
Three sources of anxiety plagued the community: Indians, Mexicans, and “Black Jack,” the cattle rustler. Mexicans killed the wife of Brother Macdonald in Garcia. They also killed Brother Heaton who was guarding his molasses. Indians killed the wife and shot one of boy of the Thompson family. Indians annoyed and threatened the colonists in many ways. Bishop Smith kept horse and Winchester in readiness at all times for an Indian raid.
Eventually, in the interest of the education of his family, he moved them to Colonia Dublan. There he bought a large farm of about 100 acres. He bought a home for Nancy and later built a house on the farm for Mary Ann. Then misfortune came. The cattle with which he expected to pay for his new home were driven off before he could round them up. After 16 years of married life he had to start all over again financially with 13 in the family. But this also meant he had lots of help, and two crops could be raised on the land each year: grain in the winter and another field crop in the summer. With family organization and hard work, they managed to survive.
Jesse N., Jr. was called on a three month MIA mission to the Gila Valley in 1898-1899. He was called upon to strengthen the faith of the faithful and encourage those of less conviction to increase their activity in the Church. After his return he moved Mary Ann into a brick home in town. Before this, the Mexicans stole a great deal of his stacked grain but when he built good stockyards in town and hired Mexicans to work for him they became friendly and trustworthy.
In 1900 he took a contract to haul lumber from the sawmill near Pacheco to Terrazas. He moved Mary Ann to Brown’s Ranch. The two older boys hauled the lumber down the dugway to the ranch where it was loaded onto trailer wagons with two, three, and four teams in tandem. It was here that Jesse N., Jr.’s life was miraculously saved. A flying board from a heavy wind struck him on the back of the next at the base of the skull. Although he was thought to be dead he was administered to and his life was restored. He related how his spirit left his body and hovered over it. He saw his wives and little children and pleaded to be able to return and care for them. He heard the blessings of the Elders and was permitted to return to life.
The contracted completed, Jesse N., Jr. moved his outfits to Naco, in Sonora. He hauled coal to the mines at Nacozari and brought back ore. Later, he worked on the railroad. Here he put to good use his knowledge of Spanish and of Mexican law. He helped many people to cross the border both ways. At Colonia Morelos he and the older boys hauled ore from Cananea to Douglas for three months. He returned to Dublan on the fall of 1901.
On May 18, 1902, Jesse N. Smith, Jr. was set apart as Stake Sunday School Superintendent of the Juarez State, a position he held until his death. It was said that he was the best Stake Superintendent in the Church at the time. He traveled much by team visiting the schools, a distance of some 200 miles from one end of the Stake to the other. He wrote letters of instruction and encouragement. Another thing that made his ministry successful was his ability to choose men and women of character to serve on his board. These included Harry L. Payne, Junius Romney, Ben F. LeBaron, Gaskell Romney, Willard Call, L. Paul Cardon, Wilford Farnsworth, Edward Payne, William G. Sears, Ed McClellan, Verda Pratt, Lucile Robinson, Ada Mortensen and Myra Longhurst.
In 1904 Jesse N., Jr. was made superintendent and manager of the Dublan stock pasture. He fenced around the lakes which furnished water; when the water dried up in the summer he pumped it with a horse-powered centrifugal pump. His boys did most of the riding and the pumping. He also imported well-bred horses which he sold. A proup of men came in from the States and established ranges nearby. They created problems at times, but he maintained respectable relations with them. After trying to involve him in a “maverick” incident, one of the men said to Jesse N., Jr.’s son, “Your father is too honest to be a cattleman.” Mary Ann gave birth to Joseph Holmes and Sara at this time. Sadie died. Elias died also.
The Mexican Revolution was a sore trial to Jesse N., Jr. At first he was able, because of his use of their language, to prevent soldiers from taking his horses. But when sickness came upon him he was forced to watch them ride off on his last horse with his own saddle. He worried a great deal about the welfare of others. One Sunday at noon, he suddenly said, “I must go to Diaz; they are having trouble.” Although he couldn’t get out of bed, he continued to talk about it. Within the hour word came that Will Adams was killed at Diaz.
His sickness lingered for a year. He had suffered at intervals form the blow of the flying board. On one occasion when he was very sick his family in Snowflake called a special fast. Local Elders were called to administer to him at the appointed time and he recovered. But gradually his entire nervous system succumbed to the frailty of his condition. Jesse N. Smith, Jr. died on August 13, 1912, just two weeks before the Exodus. At the funeral, his remains were carried into and out of the meetinghouse between two rows of Sunday School children.
After Jesse N., Jr.’s death, the wives took their children to the United States at the time of the Exodus. Mary Ann, with seven children, visited Snowflake, her former home, then moved to Parowan, the home of her children. There, her sons built her a home near her brothers. She sold it to follow her boys when they went to college. She died at Virden, New Mexico, at the home of her daughter in 1949. Nancy Ann gathered her children at El Paso, then joined them at Virden, New Mexico, a town they helped settle. They provided her a home in which she lived until her death in 1951. As of 1967, all but five of the children had passed on – all strong in the faith and activity of the Church.
William Cooke Smith, son
Stalwarts South of the Border, Nelle Spilsbury Hatch, page 620