Author: JENSEN, Stuart David Classification: ORIGINAL: FamilyHistory Location: USA, Utah, Salt Lake, Salt Lake City Date Range: BTWN 1900 and 1994 Eulogy given by (Living) at the funeral of SMITH, Joseph G. Document Entry Number: 1
Information: Remarks in memory of Joseph G. Smith. Presented by Stuart D. Jensen, grandson. Funeral at Larkin Mortuary, Salt Lake City, June 17, 1994.
Transcription: About 1815, a young man named Richard Smith left his home in Bristol England to look for work. Just a few years later, a young John Pryor, distressed over the ongoing potato famine in his homeland, left Northern Ireland in search of better conditions. Both men settled in adjoining counties of Scotland, both found work, and both married Scottish women. These two men were the grandfathers of my grandfather, Joseph G. Smith. The prevalent occupation of the area was mining: coal, ironstone and lime, and as such both families made their living. The men were not warmly welcomed to their new home. The time period in which the two came to Scotland involved the largest influx of newcomers that the area had ever experienced. Most of the new settlers were Irish. The Scots did not appreciate the newcomers marrying their women, taking their jobs, and expanding the Catholic presence in the area. Antagonism between the Scots and the newcomers found frequent expression in violence. The families lived in humble circumstances, and it was not uncommon for 6 year old sons to be working as drawers in the coal mines alongside their fathers. Their homes never had more than one window and very few of the children were educated. However, through all of this, the two families grew. Richard Smith's and Christina Martin's family was blessed with ten children. The year 1846 was a happy and a terrible year for the Smith family, their son Andrew, Grandpa's father, was born in March, but sickness hit the family shortly thereafter, and Christina, Richard's wife, and two of their daughters, Agnes and Janet, died. Andrew lived with his father for the next fourteen years, right up to the time when Richard Smith died of general debility at the age of 71. Andrew helped bury his father in a churchyard of Polmont, Scotland, and he then went to live with his sister Mary. By this time Andrew was already a seasoned coal miner. Just across the county line from the Smiths, John Pryor was raising his family. He married Jane Watson, and they had twelve children. All of the sons became miners, and most of the daughters became farm servants. John Pryor and Jane Watson also suffered their hardships. Within three years, they lost two sons, both were eight months old, one to whooping cough and one to bronchitis. John Pryor mined coal for the entire 31 years he lived in Scotland. And he died at the age of 56. A very common practice among the miners of Lanarkshire was to employ their daughters as servants on farms of more wealthy landowners. Such was the case with our Jane Pryor, Grandpa's mother, the fourth daughter of the Pryor family. I do not know how or where great grandfather Andrew Smith met Jane Pryor, but for the second time in as many generations they left all they had in Scotland to seek a new home in America. Andrew and Jane settled in Scofield, Utah and they stuck to the profession they knew, coal mining. Andrew took advantage of his new surroundings and did well in Scofield as he became part owner in one of the mines there. Joseph G. Smith, my Grandfather, was born in Scofield in 1900, the last child of a family of nine children. What did the "G" stand for? Well, if you asked him he would have replied with a chuckling voice, "G stands for Gosling, because I was hatched on a rock." The truth was that when he entered the University of Utah to eventually earn his masters degree in Education, he was told that there were too many Joseph Smiths enrolled, and he had to pick a middle initial to distinguish him from the others. As were his forefathers, Grandpa was a hard worker. Calvin comments that "one thing Dad did was teach us to work hard, to do the job well, and to always finish the job. I learned what work was when Dad put Roger and me on the two man saw cutting firewood." After having attended the same three public schools together while growing up, Grandpa married his schoolroom sweetheart, Christie Larsen in 1923. Once his college education was complete, the family moved to Delta, Utah where Grandpa took a teaching position. After being there only a few years, they moved to Kanab, and Grandpa became a school principal. Both sons, Calvin and Roger were born while the family was living in Kanab. Sylvia and Carol were born after the family had moved back to Salt Lake City. Here Grandpa took a job teaching biology, zoology, and mathematics at South high school, a job he would keep for many years. Grandpa ran a strict household. Sylvia and Carol remember being so excited on Christmas Eve night that they could not sleep, so they would sneak downstairs to see if Santa had come yet. On their way they had to pass their parents room, so they would lie down on the floor and scoot down the hall past the doorway. They knew where every squeaky board was in the floor and, of course, they avoided the noisy steps. About the second or third trip, however, would be interrupted with a stern, "You kids get to bed and stay there until 5:00a.m." Grandpa was a disciplinarian, but he also had his soft side. Like when he would take the kids to the movies and sit and hold their hands during the show. Or like when he would get a big kick out of secretly rehiding the kids Easter baskets once they had proudly presented their find at the front table. Grandpa loved to hold the little babies. He would carry the babies around the house showing them different objects and saying things like, "Isn't this a pretty picture?", or even, "Isn't this a nice light switch?" An early tradition of the Smith family was the 4th of July picnic. For numerous years the family would go up to the canyon behind Mount Timpanogas or up Millcreek canyon. They would arrive early enough to eat breakfast and then spend the day in the canyon. In the evening it was back to Grandpa's house to watch the Liberty Park fireworks display from Grandpa's front yard. Roy and Selma remember that Grandpa was always the one who led everyone up the trail to the glacier and waterfall on the backside of Timpanogas. During one of these picnics, when Mike was seven months old, Grandpa carried him all the way up to Timpanogas cave. Cousin Rich remembers playing baseball with Grandpa and his brothers and sister in the backyard of Grandpa's house on Fillmore street. They didn't have a bat or a ball, so they used a broom stick as a bat, and they made the ball out of rolled up socks strapped together by rubber bands. I remember sneaking up on Grandpa resting in his neat old car in Liberty park during summer lunch hours. While not teaching school, he worked for the mosquito abatement, and often passed his lunch hour in the park. Several of us cousins remember talking to Grandpa with him sitting in his big red chair, usually with his leg slid over the armrest. On many occasions we would be asked how our day went, and that would lead to one of those, "Well, my boy, life was much harder when I was your age..." kind of talks. Sylvia remembers taking long walks with her father even into adulthood. The walks were accompanied by long talks, and occasionally an ice cream treat. Grandpa loved to walk. He walked to work every school day, over two miles each way. And he regularly walked the kids to Derk's Field to see the baseball games. Grandpa was a determined man. One cold winter day he was removing snow from the roof of the house. He reached for a snow drift just beyond his reach and down he went. He suffered a compound fracture in his arm. Bones were exposed, and it was not a pretty sight. He came in the house and asked Grandma to "just pull it back into place." Grandma refused, and off to the hospital they went. The break was so bad that the doctors told him he would likely not have full use of his arm again. Specifically, they said he would never be able to touch his nose again. Well, that sounds like a challenge just suited to Grandpa! He entered a therapy program to build up his arm, and three to four times a day, at home, he would have the kids help lift his arm up over his shoulder. Grandpa did regain almost full usage of that arm. Many Sunday drives were taken and Grandpa would whistle, "Beautiful Dreamer," while they rode. To this day, Sylvia, enjoys listening to a man whistle. In his later years, Grandpa cared much for the elderly and the sick. He visited his sister Zella regularly at her rest home. Zella's son, Wayne, will never forget the kindness Grandpa showed his mother. "She knew that she could call her brother, and he would always help her." Grandpa did volunteer work at Holy Cross Hospital, and he was a volunteer valet for several years helping move patients at the VA hospital. Sylvia wrote a father's day card for Grandpa this year, and she wanted it shared with him now. It reads... Grandpa taught honesty, and hard work. Just as his forefathers before him, he worked hard for his family. With the passing of Joseph G. Smith, an era is closing. First, Grandpa was the last surviving child of Andrew Smith and Jane Pryor. Second, he belonged to the first generation of Smiths that were able to build their lives in a country without having to move to a new homeland. And he and his brother were the first to receive formal educations. Third, Grandpa was the first son for at least two generations that never had to work in the coal mines. His older brother James was killed in a mine accident, and his older brother Andrew worked in the Scofield mines as a boy, but Grandpa never did. He is the last of a heritage of which we can be proud. Common, hard working people, who founded and built this country. Today, partially due to their sacrifices, we have opportunities that Richard Smith's or John Pryor's families could only dream of. Remember, it is the blood and sweat of the common people that make the world a beautiful place for those who consider themselves royalty. I personally offer my thanks and love, to my grandfather, and to all those who preceded him.