This story was published in the book "Our Pioneer Heritage Vol. II" by Kate B. Carter. -1959-

Allen Freeman Smithson was born February 11, 1816 in Pendleton District, Anderson county, South Carolina. He was the son of Bartley and Sarah Weatherford Smithson. On April 9, 1840 he married Letitia Holladay, daughter of John Holladay and Catherine Higgins. She was born November 24, 1824 in Marion county, Alabama. They were the parents of four children before they started on the westward journey with other Mississippians who had accepted the teachings of the Latter-Day Saint Church. The children were: John Bartley, born October 6, 1841; Sarah Catherine, born February 18, 1843; James David, born September 19, 1844. These three children were born in Fayette, Alabama while the fourth child, Mary Emma was born March 1, 1846 at Marion, Alabama. The Smithson family wintered (1846-1847) in Pueblo, Colorado coming into the valley of the Great Salt Lake late in July, 1847.

Several months after their arrival another child, Lehi, was born March 20, 1848. The following year Letitia became ill and passed away August 15, 1849, leaving Allen with five small children to care for. Jennett Burton Taylor, who arrived with her parents in the valley in the late summer of 1847, came into the motherless home and cared for the children. She was born in Darlington county, South Carolina, May 2, 1826, the daughter of Kenyon and Esther Traywick Taylor and was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Nauvoo, Illinois on the 18th of March, 1846. On the 16th of December, 1849, Jennett Burton Taylor married Allen Freeman Smithson in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City.

Their first son, Nephi, was born 16 September, 1850 in Salt Lake City. In the Biographical notes compiled by her daughter, Elizabeth Jennett (Smithson) Smith, she states that "her mother was very sick at that time, and one day as she was lying in bed, a strange man entered the room and asked to administer to her. After he had administered to her, he immediately left the room. Father stepped outside to see where the man had gone, and he was nowhere in sight--and he had left but a few seconds before! Mother and Father thought that he was one of the three Nephites.

"A short time afterwards they moved to San Bernadino, California. After living there about six years, they were called back to Utah, where they settled in Beaver in 1857. In 1858, they were called to go to Dixie in Southern Utah. There Father raised cotton which Mother carded, spun, and wove into cloth on a hand loom. Mother made all the family's clothing--jeans, Father's coats and trousers, and cloth for the children's clothes. She had a large family to care for, eleven sons and three daughters, besides the five children by Allen Freeman Smithson's first wife."

In 1871, Allen was called by Erastus Snow to Pahreah, Kane county, Utah to help settle that locality. He was made bishop of this community and retained that office until he died

September 27, 1877. Jennett Burton died in Layton, Arizona,

May 29, 1912.

A letter sent by Apostle Erastus Snow to Allen Freeman Smithson asking him to help establish a settlement on the Pahreah Creek in Kane county, Utah as follows:

St. George, Dec. 5,1871

Brother Allen Smithson

Washington, Washington county,

Dear Sir:

Bro. Thomas Smith desires you to accompany him to the Pahreah and if you can do so without feeling oppressed we shall be glad to have you go and assist in establishing that settlement. In making that change we wish to better the conditions of our brethren and not make them worry, and we hope there will be enough who will feel satisfied to extend the line of our settlement at the Colorado. We do not ask you to go if you do not feel satisfied so to do.

Very respectfully

(Signed) Erastus Snow.

The Daughters of Utah Pioneer records show that his son, James David Smithson, moved to Woodruff, Arizona where he passed away January 1, 1892 Safford, Graham County, Arizona.

Mr. Spencer Clawson,

Dear Sir:

I have heard that you are one of the committee for the semi-centennial of the pioneers of Utah. I suppose that I am one of the pioneers. My name is Mary E. Smith. My father's name is Allen Smithson. We stopped at Pueblo for a time and then came on in to Salt Lake valley in 1847, but I was very small then and do not recollect the name of the captain or any dates.

I will give the names of my father's family that came in with him. My oldest sister Sarah C. Couch. She lives at Muskegee Indian Territory; J. B. Smithson, my oldest brother, lives in San Bernadino, California. I have another brother, J. D. Smithson, living at Woodruff, Navajo county, Arizona. I have a younger brother but he was born in Salt Lake valley. I believe that our captain's name was Brown but I could not say for certain. I have heard my father say that he saw the first adobe made in the valley.

(Signed) Mary E. Smith

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