Lot Smith

Born in 1830 in Williamstown, Oswego County, New York, Lot, with his parents and other children in the family, left New York to be with other members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The Smith family lived across the Mississippi River from Nauvoo, Illinois, and were neighbors with Brigham Young's family. Lot was 14 years old when Joseph Smith, beloved as a prophet, was murdered. In 1846, while the family fled the continuing persecution of Mormons, Lot's mother was one of many Mormons who died and were buried in Iowa Territory.

At 16, Smith joined the Mormon Battalion and served during the Mexican–American War, making a journey, one of the most arduous overland marches in American history, from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, through the southwest to San Diego, where the battalion was mustered out of service.

After mustering out in California, other members of the Mormon Battalion worked at Sutter's Mill and discovered gold. Smith amassed a quantity of gold, then came back across the mountains to the Great Salt Lake and Farmington, Utah, where he married, became a military leader in the Nauvoo Legion in Utah and was distinguished in campaigns to stop Indian depredations.^[6]

In 1850, when Brigham Young called for the extermination of the Timpanogos, Smith volunteered as part of the Mormon militia. On February 8, in what was known as the Battle at Fort Utah, the army attacked the Timpanogos village. On the second day of fighting, he was chosen as part of 16 men to make a charge on a Timpanogos log house, from which the Timpanogos were trying to defend themselves. They successfully took the log cabin, and the Timpanogos retreated.^[7] They were able to pursue and kill around 100 Timpanogos people^[8] and enslave around 40.^[9]

The President and US Senate had chosen to remove then-governor Brigham Young from office based on reports from federal officials assigned to Utah who had abandoned their assignments and returned to the east. Young's replacement as governor of Utah territory Alfred Cumming was escorted by a contingent of 1,400 Federal troops led by Gen. Albert Johnston as part of what was called the Utah Expedition. The army's orders were to support the installment of the new governor, using force as necessary as resistance was expected based on the official's reports.

Smith was sent on a special mission by Young, who hoped to delay the arrival of the troops in the hope that a diplomatic breakthrough could be reached before the troops reached Salt Lake City. Smith led a group of Nauvoo Legion rangers east across Wyoming along the stretch where the California, Oregon and Mormon Trails merge. Mormons, including Orrin Porter Rockwell harassed the army by burning the grass along the route, stampeding the army mules, and driving off their cattle. Fort Bridger, Wyoming was burned to the ground. Smith ordered the Union wagon trains of supplies to turn around but they complied only while he was in sight. Then, in one night, Smith and his men burned three wagon trains of supplies (food, clothing, gunpowder and whiskey for an entire army). Lot Smith and his rangers held off the Federal soldiers until an early blizzard and cold winter weather set in. The army was forced to winter near the ruins of Fort Bridger, Wyoming.

Smith's efforts and the weather stopped the army — without Mormon troops harming any soldiers on the Federal side. A diplomatic settlement brokered by Col. Thomas L. Kane and the Utah War Peace Commission, allowed Governor Cumming to take office peaceably and protected the civilian population from the army.^[10]

Lot Smith commanded a company of volunteer militia mustered mainly from the Nauvoo Legion that, at the request of Abraham Lincoln, guarded the telegraph line in conjunction with the U.S. Army during the Civil War. The Utah Volunteer Cavalry Company served under orders for 90 days during the summer of 1862 and was mustered out of federal service in August having experienced no combat.^[11]

Lot Smith was the first sheriff of Davis County, Utah. He also served in the Utah Territorial Legislature, serving in the lower house and upper house of the legislature.^[12][13][14]

Smith was asked to help the development of the Mormon settlement along the Little Colorado River. Smith led a large group that arrived in the spring of 1876 settling Sunset, Arizona and Brigham City, Arizona near present-day Winslow. Up river, Obed and St. Joseph (now Joseph City, Arizona) were colonized. Local Indians were befriended, Lot Smith became highly respected among the Navajo Indians.^{[citation needed]} The establishment of settlements at the Sunset Crossing of the Little Colorado River was important in facilitating the subsequent Mormon colonization of eastern and central and southern Arizona, eastern New Mexico and even northern Mexico and southern Colorado.^{[citation needed]} All branches of the Honeymoon Trail fanned out from this point. Lot Smith established a United Order at Sunset and became the first LDS Stake President in Arizona. Flash floods, droughts, crop failures, internal dissension, anti-Mormon sentiment and prosecution of polygamous leaders, and the Aztec Land & Cattle Company or Hashknife Outfit all took their toll on the small settlements. Tensions rose. Although Smith's inspiring oratory was appreciated, some ran afoul of his temper and others found him heavy-handed and resented his domineering.^{[citation needed]}

Residents gravitated toward the timbered land closer to the Mogollon Rim. Lot Smith built a home at Smith Spring near Mormon Lake and directed the establishment of a dairy, sawmill and ranching operations in the area.