Lot Smith

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lot Smith (May 15, 1830–June 21, 1892) was a Mormon pioneer and frontiersman. Born in 1830 in Williamstown, Oswego County, New York, he became a close friend of Orrin Porter Rockwell and was known as "The Horseman" for his exceptional skills on horseback as well as for his help in rounding up wild mustangs on Utah's Antelope Island.

At sixteen, Smith joined the Mormon Battalion and served on the journey through the southwest to San Diego, where the group was mustered out of service. He then came back across the mountains to the Great Salt Lake, where he became a military leader in the Nauvoo Legion in Utah.

Smith practiced the Latter Day Saint doctrine of plural marriage, and had eight wives and 52 children.

[edit] Service in the Utah War

The President and US Senate had chosen to remove Young from office and sent his replacement to Utah, escorted by a contingent of 2500 Federal troops led by Gen. Albert Johnston. The army's orders were to support the installment of the new governor, using force against resistance if necessary.

Smith was sent on a special mission by then-governor Brigham Young, who hoped to delay the arrival of the new governor until he could receive additional information from Washington, D.C. Smith led a group of Legion rangers east across Wyoming along, a long stretch where the California, Oregon and Mormon Trails merge. Eventually he found the Union wagon train and destroyed several wagons. However, it only slightly delayed the US forces from reaching their destination and removing Young from office. The owners of the destroyed wagons Russell, Majors and Waddell were never reimbursed by the government and in 1860 they formed the Pony Express to stave off bankruptcy with a new government mail contract.

[edit] Settlement in Southern Utah

Smith was asked to help the development of the Mormon settlement of Tuba City, Arizona. Local Navajo Indians used the area for grazing and farming, and the Mormons initially understood that the Navajo had first choice to the water and land resources. Although relations with the Navajo were initially cooperative, the growing numbers of Mormons in the Tuba City area began to cause conflict.

However, when Smith arrived in the settlement, he fenced in his land in violoation of the agreement between the Navajos and Mormons. One day a herd of sheep broke his fence and started to graze. Smith came by and saw the sheep, became angry and tried to chase them away but failed to do so. Frustrated, he went home and returned with a pistol. During this time, the Navajo family who owned the herd began to gather their animals. When Smith returned, he killed several sheep and wounded others. He also shot at a Navajo woman and her daughter to "scare" them. The Navajo husband, angered at finding his sheep dead and family threatened, shot and killed several of Smith's cows. Smith then fired at the Navajo. The brother of the Navajo man returned fire, mortally wounding Lot Smith. Smith managed to return home and, about six hours later, died on June 21, 1892.