Benjamin Mark Smith(kwj8-4k5) & Elizabeth Agnes Wood(kwj8-4kp) Midway Fort Family by Jerry Duke Heber Valley Heritage Foundation

Benjamin Mark Smith was born January 1, 1834, near Nashville, Tennessee. His father, Warren Smith, was born on October 7, 1809, in Nashville, Tennessee and his mother, Lydia Alexander, was born on February 1,1810, in Dresden, Tennessee. Mark was the middle child with two older siblings, Mellissa and Charles, and two younger, Martha Selinda and Abinadi Jefferson.

Mark’s father and mother became members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints in 1836, in Tennessee, and the family moved to Far West, Missouri, in 1837, just in time to be faced with the severest persecutions. They were forced to leave the state by the governor’s executive extermination order. Before them lie an exhausting 250-mile journey in the middle of winter having made no provisions for such an event. The Saints were encamped on either side of the Mississippi River just out of the Missouri border and in a most precarious situation.

Mark’s mother, sick and exhausted from the journey, died on February 1, 1839. Lydia left behind a husband and five children.

In 1840, Warren married a lady who had a husband and a son murdered at the Haun’s Mill Massacre. Her deceased husband was also named Warren Smith and was a blacksmith, the same occupation as her new husband. That is quite a coincidence and has caused mistakes in genealogical research. Warren worked as a policeman in Nauvoo, perhaps there were already too many blacksmiths. Amanda and Warren had three children while living in Nauvoo, two of which survived to adulthood. In 1844, Warren married a second wife, Rachel M Blackburn, and she and Warren were the parents of two sons. She divorced Warren prior to leaving Nauvoo. This marriage had created quite a rift between Amanda and Warren. The divorce did not patch things up.

After the mass exodus from Nauvoo by the church’s membership, the family sheltered in Council Bluffs, Iowa for three years. In 1850, the Smith’s joined the Shadrack Roundy Company traveling to Utah. They started on June 22 and arrived in Salt Lake City on September 10. They kept a count of the graves they encountered along the way, 429.

Shortly after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, Amanda Smith met with Brigham Young and asked him for a divorce from Warren Smith which was granted. She did not remarry and lived in Salt Lake City most of her life. She died on June 30, 1886, in Richmond, Cache. Utah Territory where her son, Willard Gilbert Smith, lived.

Warren married Mahala Jane Dudley, a recent widow, probably sometime in 1851. Warren was called by Brigham Young to settle in the Carson Valley in Nevada in 1853. Mark Smith was at this time nineteen years of age. Between 1853 and 1866, Mark made three trips between the Carson Valley and American Fork, Utah. He had two sisters living in American Fork. Mark in 1854, returned to American Fork and there met Elizabeth Agnes Wood, and they were married on February 28, 1855.

Elizabeth was born July 11, 1836, in Osnabruck Township, Stormont, Upper Canada, British North America, the daughter of David and Catherine Wood.

David Wood was born in South Glengarry Township, Stormont Dundas and Glengarry, Ontario, Canada on July 6, 1799. Catherine, maiden name, Crites, was born in Osnabruck, Stormont Dungas and Glengarry, Ontario, Canada on December 4, 1797. Both of their families were loyalists of King George during the Revolutionary War and moved from New York to Canada because they were no longer welcome in their neighborhoods during and after the war. One of the family members even escaped a death sentence and then fled to Canada during the war.

It’s surmised that between sixty and eighty thousand former American Colonists became expatriates in Canada during and after the war. They were compensated to an extent for their losses by the British Crown.

David and Catherine were married on March 17, 1818, in Cornwall, Stormont Dundas and Glengarry, Ontario. They raised a large family in Canada and David was a prosperous farmer. They produced sugar from their forests of maple trees. On February 2, 1840, David and Catherine and some of the children who had reached the age of eight became baptized members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Their daughter, Margaret Polly, married a member of the Church in 1839, but was still unbaptized until this date. Their daughter Sarah, though just thirteen at the time, was baptized the previous day. The other children were baptized at a later date or in some cases vicariously. It appears that some of the baptisms were not recorded when they occurred or perhaps recorded but lost thus requiring rebaptism.

They made the long trek from Ontario to Nauvoo, Illinois, in the spring of 1840, leaving a comfortable existence in exchange for life as religious outcasts filled with perpetual uncertainty. They had many tragedies happen to their family while in Nauvoo resulting in the death of several of their children in separate events. David toiled as a carpenter constructing the temple only to be forced out of their beautiful city by mobs in 1846. Through these trials Catherine was a rock. She has been described as “quiet, complacent, compliant, devoted companion and mother”. Some of these qualities may seem derogatory, but for Catherine they were not. David and Catherine received their endowments prior to their expulsion. They were endowed exactly sixteen years to the day from their baptisms on February 2, 1846. They moved just across the Mississippi River in Iowa for a short time and then on to Council Bluffs. The 1850 US Census found them in Pottawattamie County, Iowa with three of their youngest children.

Church leadership became concerned with the number of members who were still in Iowa and encouraged members to renew their efforts to move west to Utah. For some there were financial concerns and health problems that had caused the delays, but some had grown comfortable in their location and were holding back perhaps lacking the commitment to again move on to an unknown future. Many made the move to Utah in 1850-1853. Some, not just a few, stayed and either later joined the reorganized church or just became disassociated with the Church altogether.

David made a trip to Utah to assist others while his family remained in Iowa. In 1852, he led a large group including his family to the Salt Lake Valley arriving on October 1, 1852. They lived in American Fork, Utah, prior to moving to the Heber Valley in 1859.

Mark Smith and Elizabeth Wood, after their marriage, relocated to Nevada later in 1855, and they had their first child, a daughter in 1856 in Carson City. Once again Mark and Elizabeth headed for American Fork when Brigham Young asked all outlying members to gather in Utah with the approach of Johnston’s Army. They had their next child while in American Fork, a girl, Martha Ann, born on December 12, 1858. Mark and family along with father-in-law David Wood and brothers-in-law, settled in Midway, Utah in 1859.

Mark was less excited about locating here permanently. He thought that one winter spent in Provo Valley was enough. He also thought there were too many rattlesnakes. In 1860, they moved back to Nevada, but instead of stopping, they continued to Sacramento, California where a daughter, Amanda Agnes, was born on October 11, 1860. They had two sons born while living in Sacramento. FamilySearch shows one of these sons, Mark Alexander Smith, born in Midway, Utah in 1864; I believe this to be incorrect because there are several accounts that indicate that Mark and Elizabeth did not return to Utah until 1866. Mark Alexander Smith was probably born in Sacramento.

Benjamin Mark Smith must have changed his opinion concerning Midway for he returned in 1866, lived in the Midway Fort near the southeast corner next to his father-in-law. He lived the rest of his life and raised his family in Midway. Perhaps Elizabeth had something to do with the transformation. After leaving the fort, they settled on a farm south of Midway, approximately where the current fish hatchery is located. Later in life they moved into Midway.

Mark died February 15, 1912, and Elizabeth died February 4, 1911

Benjamin Mark Smith homesteaded 160 acres depicted below in the dark orange. This Homestead was authorized by United States President Chester A. Arthur on August 1, 1883.