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LDS Biographical Encyclopedia, Andrew Jenson, Vol. 2, p.710
Smith, Mary Fielding, wife of Patriarch Hyrum Smith, was born July 21, 1801, in Honeydon, Bedfordshire, England, the daughter of John Fielding and Rachel Ibbotson. She joined the Methodist Society when very young and continued a faithful and zealous member of that organization till May, 1836, when by the instrumentality of Elder Parley P. Pratt she became acquainted with the principles of the everlasting gospel and was baptized in connection with her brother Joseph and her sister Mercy Rachel by Parley P. Pratt, near Toronto, Upper Canada, to which place she had immigrated in the year 1834. In 1837 she moved to Kirtland, Geauga county, Ohio, where she shortly afterwards married Hyrum Smith, entering upon the important duties of stepmother to five children, which task she performed with unwavering fidelity under the most afflictive and trying circumstances. On the 1st of November, 1838, while she was in a delicate state of health, her husband was betrayed by Col. Geo. M. Hinkle into the hands of the mob at Far West, and on the day following she was informed that she had seen her husband "for the last time". From this time she was confined to her bed of affliction for four months. November 13, 1838, she gave birth to her son Joseph F. (now the President of the Church). In January, 1839, she was taken in a wagon on her sick bed to see her husband, then confined by the mob as a prisoner in Liberty Jail, Clay county, Missouri. In February, following, still confined to her bed, she was driven from Far West out of the State of Missouri, together with the rest of the saints. After much suffering, she arrived in Quincy, Illinois, where she remained until the arrival of her husband, April 22, 1839. In May, following, she moved with her husband to Commerce (afterwards Nauvoo). May 14, 1841, her daughter Martha Ann was born. In 1843 she set on foot the "Sisters' Penny Subscription" for the purpose of buying nails and glass for the Nauvoo Temple. By the massacre at Carthage, Illinois, June 27, 1844, she was left a widow and the sole guardian of a large family and dependents, for whom by her indefatigable exertions, she provided the means of support and removal from Nauvoo in the fall (September) of 1846 to Winter Quarters, and from there to Great Salt Lake Valley in 1848. In the spring of 1850 she took up land and made a farm about six or seven [p.711] miles south of the Temple Block, Salt Lake City, afterwards Sugar House Ward, and on what later became the county road, and in the course of two years she made a comfortable home and acquired considerable property. While on a visit to the City in 1852, she was suddenly taken ill and called at Pres. Heber C. Kimball's home, expecting soon to be better, but where she continued to fail until September 21, 1852, when she died. Her last wish was that she might live for the sake of her children. Sister Smith was a devout saint and truly a mother in Israel. She possessed great faith and all those peculiar qualifications which support and invigorate the mind in adversity. She endured afflictions and overcame difficulties with a degree of patience and perseverance worthy of imitation. She was buried in the cemetery, east of Salt Lake City, September 23, 1852. |
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