Emily Jane Bennett

from the collection of Emily Dunn Warwick

Emily Jane Bennett was born at Fillmore, Utah, January 27, 1854 and moved with her parents, Hyrum Bell and Martha S. Bennett, to Meadow in 1857.  During her life, she was always quiet and reserved and a modest woman.  She was such as a girl and those qualities never left her. 

In her younger days, she participated in the activities that the Church afforded.  She worked in the Relief Society with Martha S. Bennett as President.  She was always at Sunday School and sang in the Ward Choir under the direction of John Neild.  She attended her mother's school as a child and later told that the school children said, "Martha S. Bennett has eyes in the back of her head.  She can see anything that goes on behind her back!"

She was married to John A. Smith on June 1, 1877, in the St. George Temple.  They then resided at Paragonah for several months, when she was taken very ill.  They took her to her mother's home until her first daughter was born, and she remained there many months until her health was regained.  At this time, a call came from President Young to settle in Manassa, Colorado.  Father and Mother were called to go and, with the little child, they started with the company of road­ builders, under the leadership of Silas S. Smith, Sr. (via the Hole-in-the Rock Expedition, which was to the Grand Canyon country of Southern Utah).  They made roads, built bridges across streams, and, after three months, reached their destination.  In June, 1881, Silas S. Smith secured a grading contract with the railroad and went to Gunnison, Colorado. Silas S., Jr., and John A., and their families accompanied him, the women serving as cooks.  Ella and Stephen and, also, Jesse, were with them.  (I have a letter of Father's to Mother.)  In the summer of 1882, Silas S., with his wife, Eliza, and children, came to Manassa.  After Mother’s return to Manassa, they lived in a little log cabin with a lean-to on the spot where Wilford Jensen lives now.  The log cabin is located on Tom Bailey's lot, the lot which previously belonged to Margaret Haskell. 

She made a trip back to Meadow, Utah, with E.J., Sarah Ann, and Martha Eliza.  She and father attended Grandma Bennett's funeral in October, 1903.   

Mother did not aspire to public honors. She enjoyed making the home neat and spotless.  She was charitable and gave to the poor.  On May 4, 1904, she went with Father to the ranch for grain. On their return trip, a culvert had been removed from a ditch and Father did not know about it. In crossing the ditch, she was thrown from the wagon.  A wheel passed over her body.  She lived but a few hours after the accident. When she died, she left four girls, Emily Jane, Sarah Ann, Martha Eliza, and Lucy Elizabeth, and one son, John Aikens.