Representative Women of Deseret: A Book of Biographical Sketches

by Augusta Joyce Crocheron

WIFE OF APOSTLE GEORGE A. SMITH, OF REVERED MEMORY, WHO WAS ONE OF THE FIRST PRESIDENCY OF THE CHURCH OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS.

Bathsheba W. Smith is the daughter of Mark and Susannah Bigler, and was born at Shirnsten, Harrison Co., West Virginia, on May 3rd, 1822. Her father was from Pennsylvania, her mother from Maryland. The school facilities in her vicinity were limited. The county of Harrison was hilly, and the roads of primitive character; the mode of travel was chiefly on horseback riding, in which few could excel her.

In her girlhood she was religiously inclined, loved virtue, honesty, truthfulness and integrity; attended secret prayers, studied to be cheerful, industrious and happy, and was always opposed to rudeness.

During her fifteenth year some Latter-Day Saints visited the neighborhood, she heard them preach and believed what they taught. She knew by the spirit of the Lord, in answer to her prayer, that Joseph Smith was a prophet of the Lord, and that the Book of Mormon was a divine record. On the 21st of August, 1837, Bathsheba W. Bigler was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ, and the most of her father's family also, about the same time. They soon felt a desire to gather with the rest of the Saints in Missouri, her sister, Nancy, and family sold their property, intending to go in the fall, and Bathsheba was very anxious to go with them. Her father having not yet sold out his property, she was told she could not go. This caused her to retire very early, feeling very sorrowful. While weeping, a voice said to her, "Weep not, you will go this fall." She was comforted and perfectly satisfied, and the next morning testified to what the voice had said to her.

Soon after, her father sold his home and they all went to Missouri, to her great joy, but on their arrival there found the State preparing to war against the Saints. A few nights before they reached Far West, they camped with a company of eastern Saints, but separated on account of each company choosing different ferries. The company Sister Bathsheba and her family were in, arrived safely at their destination, but the others were overtaken by an armed mob; seventeen were killed, others were wounded, and some maimed for life. In a few days after their arrival there was a battle between the Saints and the mob, in which David W. Patten (one of the first Twelve Apostles,) was wounded, and he was brought to the house where they were stopping. Sister Bathsheba witnessed his death a few days after, and saw thousands of mobbers arrayed against the Saints, and heard their dreadful threats and savage yells, when our Prophet Joseph and his brethren were taken into their camp. The Prophet, Patriarch and many others were taken to prison; and the Saints had to leave the State. In the spring they had the joy of having the prophet and his brethren restored to them at Quincy, Illinois.

In the spring of 1840, the family of Sister Bathsheba moved to Nauvoo, where she had many opportunities of hearing the Prophet Joseph preach, and tried to profit by his instructions, and also received many testimonies of the truths which he taught.

On the 25th of July, 1841, Bathsheba W. Bigler was married to George A. Smith, the then youngest member of the Twelve Apostles, Elder Don Carlos Smith (brother of the prophet) officiating. George A. Smith was own cousin to the Prophet Joseph. When Sister Bathsheba first became acquainted with George A. Smith he was the junior member of the First Quorum of Seventies. On the 26th of June, 1838, he was ordained a member of the High Council of Adam Ondi Ahman, in Davis County, Missouri. Just about the break of day on the 26th of April, 1834, while kneeling on the corner stone of the foundation of the Lord's House at Far West, Caldwell County, Missouri, he was ordained one of the Twelve Apostles, and from thence started on a mission to Europe, from which he returned ten days previous to their marriage.

As the 4th of July, 1842, came on the Sabbath day, they celebrated the anniversary on Monday the 5th. There was a military display of the Nauvoo Legion, and a sham battle fought. George A. Smith was in the general's staff in the uniform of a chaplain. Sister Bathsheba watched the proceedings with great interest. On the 7th of July a son was born to them; they named him George Albert. Two months after, George A., as the Saints loved to call him, went on a mission to the Eastern States. On his previous mission (to England,) he injured his left lung, causing hemorrhage. In the fall of 1843, George A. and Bathsheba received their endowments and were united under the holy order of celestial marriage. Sister Bathsheba heard the Prophet Joseph charge the Twelve with the duty and responsibility of the ordinances of endowments and sealing, for the living and the dead. Sister Bathsheba met many times with her husband, Joseph and others who had received their endowments, in an upper room dedicated for the purpose, and prayed with them repeatedly in those meetings. In the spring of 1844, Mr. Smith went on another mission, and soon after he left persecution began in the city of Nauvoo which ended in the martyrdom of our beloved prophet and patriarch. Mr. Smith returned about the 1st of August, and on the 14th a daughter was born, and they named her Bathsheba.

Having become thoroughly convinced that the doctrine of plurality of wives was from God, and firmly believing that she should participate with him in all his blessings, glory and honor, Sister Bathsheba gave to her husband different wives during the year of his return home. She says of this; "Being proud of my husband and loving him very much, knowing him to be a man of God, and having a testimony that what I had done was acceptable to my Father in heaven, I was as happy as I knew how to be."

It would be in vain to describe how they traveled through snow, wind and rain, how roads had to be made, bridges built and rafts constructed, how our poor animals had to drag on day after day with scanty food; nor how we suffered from poverty, sickness and deaths, but the Lord was with us, His power was made manifest daily. Quoting from her, "My dear mother died on the 11th of March, 1844, and on the 4th of April I had a son born who lived but four hours." They arrived in Salt Lake Valley (now city) in October, 1849, after traveling over sterile deserts and plains, over high mountains and through deep canyons, ferrying some streams and fording others, but all was joy now. Sister Bathsheba went to her sister's house, and O, how delightful it did seem to be once more in a comfortable room with a blazing fire on the hearth, where the mountain's rude blasts nor the desert's wild winds could not reach them.