Mom's Story Part 4b

In this part of her history Mom (Bess) tells about her mother's (Leonora's) parents

Mother’s Parentage:

Mother’s people were the “salt of the earth”. Her father, Joseph W. Smith was the eldest son of Jess N. Smith and Margaret Fletcher West Smith, and was a man of refinement and culture with an exceptional loyalty to his family and the Church. When only a young man, barely married a few days, he and his bride,

Sarah Ellen Marsden, answered a “call” to colonize Arizona. A bride of 18 years could well have been lonesome that December 1878, when she faced that cold winter in the barren, arid wasteland called Snowflake. A wagon box was her first home. Times gradually got better in spite of their sorrows and losses. Little baby Joseph, their first born, was only allowed to live a few months on this earth. Mother was the third daughter and the fourth child born to Joseph and “Nellie”, as grandmother was lovingly called. She was named, Leonora, after a cousin, Leonora Taylor, a relative of John Taylor. There were twelve children born in the family – nine girls and three boys. Most of the children grew to adulthood. Little Sariah died during the diphtheria epidemic. Mother’s childhood was happy, and she gained many valuable skills in homemaking and managing from her good parents.

Grandpa was a schoolteacher, banker, mail contractor, and farmer. But he allowed his sons and daughters to attend college and nearly all of them became teachers as they grew up. Mother was no exception. Grandma Smith was the epitome of cleanliness and efficiency. She was a woman with a wonderful ability to manage a big home and family with ease and dignity. Her hands were never idle. Mother was just like her in that respect. She was a master of organizational ability. Mother inherited her quick movements and her ability to dispatch work. Grandma was a polygamous wife; “Aunt Della” the other wife had eight children, so together the family numbered twenty children to care for. Grandma Smith also served thirteen years as Stake Relief Society President.