Brief History of Fredrick Thomas Smith

FREDRICK THOMAS SMITH

Fredrick Thomas Smith was born December 28, 1865 in St. Thomas, Nevada while his parents were on an Indian Mission for the Church on the Muddy. He was the son of Thomas Sasson Smith and Amanda Hollinghead Smith. On this mission to the Indians, the settlers lived out among the Indian people. Thomas Sasson “had a way" with the Indians and was highly regarded by them. The family had a little adobe house with a dirt roof. Thomas Sassin became ill with a fever and was sent back for a time to the settlements to the north to see if he could regain his health. He had to leave Amanda in the care of the other settlers there. While he was gone Fredrick Thomas was born. The Indian women and children loved that little white baby. They would come and peek in at the door at the mother and baby. The children, as the baby grew, would take him by the hours. Amanda was so worried that they, some day, wouldn't bring her baby back. He began to understand Indian as soon as he did English. The children would tell him to do something in Indian language and he would do as they told him. The squaws loved him too. His mother tells how he learned to talk Indian before he did English. Thomas Sassin’s health didn‘t improve, and so he had to take his family back North. They moved to Farmington when Fredrick was small. This was his parents original home.

Thomas Sassin had three wives. One wife died before he married Amanda. His one wife Polly stayed in Farmington while the other family went to St. Thomas, Nevada with him.

Fredrick lived in Farmington until he was nineteen years old when his father was called to Wilford to help settle that area. Thomas Sassin was the first bishop of Wilford Ward. President Wilford Woodruff organized it and set Bro. Smith apart.

Fred had a beautiful bass voice and belonged to the first choir in Wilford and belonged to a choir until the time of his death.

He married Sarah Ann Higbee on January 8, l886. After she moved to Wilford, he didn't ever go with anyone else but her they both liked to tell.

He did more in helping settle this new country than most anyone. There was hardly a canal in the whole country that he didn't help build because he always had a good team of horses. He took a contract also to help build the road to Yellowstone Park and spent months. This was the railroad.

He was always working in some organization in the church. He was a counselor in the Bishopric when he moved to Canada. He was always trying to help those in need.

They raised part of their family in Wilford and moved to Canada in 1910 where Sadie was born.
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(We can fill in on Fred's life story as we read Sarah Ann's account of their life in Canada.)
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As Fred and Sarah Ann grew older, they settled down in Cardston to a good life. Times were still hard and Fred did more than he should have done at his age. They hauled their coal from the mine some distance from Cardston. He was at the mine to get a load of coal. He was on the platform just
ready to be loaded and a rush of coal came down and frightened the horses. They bolted and overturned the wagon and Fred was badly injured. He was almost killed then but lived to come home" to his dear wife and companion to see her again. He was tenderly nursed by his family day and night. He was hurt on March 5, 1935 and quietly died April T, 1935.
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Before he was hurt a month or more, he took Vera, his niece, out into the garden to get come things.
He was so proud of that garden. He told her he had something to tell her. Not long before his mother, who was dead, came and said, "You haven It long to live. Get busy and do your genealogy work”. He told Vera he wanted her to get to work too and take care of that work for the family after he died. Vera Smith began to work feverishly at that assignment. She accomplished a tremendous amount of that work before she was taken with cancer. She too knew that her time was limited quite a while before she died, and worked unceasingly.


(Grandma Smith told me this story of Grandpa when she was down from Canada on her last visit with us. - Marie)

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GRANDPA SMITH'S ACGIDENT
as told by Rosa Birch to me (Marie)

Father went to the Beazer mine east of Cardston March 7, 1935 to get a load of coal. H went alone because Lloyd couldn’t go with him.

He drove four head of horses. As he drove up to the mine, one of the horse got frightened and crowded the opposite horse off the platform and they were on a side hill and the other horse got off too. They rolled over and the wagon hurt grandpa and a horse fell on him. He was critically injured. The men at the mine saw the accident. They took him home in a car and. He lived until April 7--a month.

He suffered terribly all the time. Ersal, Lloyd, Delbert, and Uncle Jont took turns taking care of him day and night and couldn't have been more kind and attentive than they were all the time. Mother said his chest must have been crushed and he spit blood most of the time. The doctors said it would be fatal if they operated. They didn't dare do it.