"In the spring of 1840 our family moved to Nauvoo, in Illinois. Here I continued my punctuality in attending meetings, had many opportunities of hearing Joseph Smith preach, and tried to profit by his instructions, and received many testimonials to the truth of the doctrines he taught. Meetings were held out of doors in pleasant weather, and in private houses when it was unfavorable. I was present at the laying of the cornerstones of the foundation of the Nauvoo temple, and had become acquainted with the prophet Joseph and his family.
"On the 25th of July, 1841, I was united in holy marriage to George Albert Smith, the then youngest member of the quorum of the twelve apostles, and first cousin of the prophet (Elder Don Carlos Smith officiating at our marriage). My husband was born June 26th, 1817, at Potsdam. St. Lawrence county, N. Y. When I became acquainted with him in Virginia, in 1837, he was the junior member of the first quorum of seventy. On the 26th day of June, 1838, he was ordained a member of the High Council of Adam-Ondi-Ahman, Davies county, Missouri. Just about the break of day, on the 26th of April, 1839, while kneeling on the corner-stone of the foundation of the Lord's house in the city of Far West, Caldwell county, Missouri, he was ordained one of the twelve apostles. Two days after we were married, we started, carpet bag in hand, to go to his father's, who lived at Zarahemla, Iowa Territory, about a mile from the Mississippi. There we found a feast prepared for us, in partaking of which my husband's father, John Smith, drank our health, pronouncing the blessings of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob upon us. I did not understand the import of this blessing as well then as I do now."
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Here we meet another of these Spartan women of Mormondom in the person of Louisa F. Wells, the senior wife of Lieutenant-General Daniel H. Wells.
In July, 1837, her father, Absalom Free, who had embraced Mormonism in Fayetteville, St. Clair county, Ill., in the year 1835, emigrated with his family to Caldwell county, Mo.
In Caldwell, Brother Free purchased a farm and built a good house. He was of the well-to-do farmer class. With his ample means he soon collected a fine farming outfit, and before him was the promise of great prosperity.
The saints had been driven out of Jackson county, and mobs were ravaging in Davies county, but there was peace in Caldwell until the Fourth of July, in 1838, when the anti-Mormons, who were waiting and watching for a pretext, took occasion, from some remarks made by Elder Sidney Rigdon, in a commemorative speech at the celebration, to commence a crusade against the city of Far West.
When the father of Louisa joined the organization for defence of the city of Far West, he left a sick son at home, with the women folks of his own and five other families, who had gathered there. These were left to defend their homes.
Louisa and her sister Emeline, with their cousin, Eliza Free, stood guard, on a ridge near the house, for three weeks, night and day, to warn the families of the approach of the mob. This sister Emeline is the same who was afterwards so well known in Utah as the wife of Brigham Young.
While thus standing guard, one day, the girls saw a troop of horsemen near, marching with a red flag and the beating of drums. They had with them a prisoner, on foot, whom they were thus triumphantly marching to their camp. They were a troop of the mob. The prisoner was grandfather Andrew Free, though at the time the sisters knew it not.