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The Life Sketch of Elizabeth Jane Bybee Smith
Copied from the book Utah Pioneer Biographies
Volume 26; Utah 31


I was born the twenty-third of January, 1825, in Baron County, Kentucky. My parents were Byrum Bybee, who was born February 25, 1799, in Barren County, Kentucky, and Betsy Lane, who was born January 24, 1801, Washington County, Tennessee. They were not in the best of circumstances and since their four oldest children were girls, they had to work very hard to help support the family. There were twelve children in the family, six girls and six boys. Three of them died very young.

My father was a sickly man and his circumstances would not permit him to give his children a good education, as there were very few public schools. We had no conveniences, not even stoves, wash boards, or lamps. For lights we used candles made of tallow or a rag soaked in tallow. We often had to sew and knit by fire-light.

When my two older sisters were married in 1840, I was the oldest one left in the family and had to work very hard to help support the rest of the family. I will relate something of how the people had to work them; from the time children were seven Mother carded cotton with hand cards while my sister and I spun it with a large spinning wheel. We had to spin four cuts a day, one hundred forty-four threads in a cut. We also learned to spin flax and had to do the house work while Mother did the weaving. My mother also took the wool from the sheep's back and washed, carded and wove it into cloth for clothing and blankets and yarn for sweaters, socks, and stockings. Rich, as well as poor, had to make themselves useful in order to live.

In 1836, when I was ten years old, my father sold our home and moved from Kentucky into Indiana where we started a new home. There were many sugar-maple trees on the place, so we had plenty of sugar and molasses.

Alma Rabbit, a Mormon Elder, came into Indiana preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in 1840. I thought his doctrine was very strange. In 1841, two more Mormon Elders came into the state. After preaching in our settlement about three weeks, fifteen of us, including our family, decided to be baptized.

We moved to Nauvoo in 1842, where I attended school one season. I worked on a farm that belonged to the Prophet Joseph Smith for some time, and then went to a friend's house across the street to take care of a sick lady. The Prophet came to see her very often until she died. I know the Prophet and his family, and found them to be honest straight-forward people. They were just what they professed to be.

The Prophet's enemies were now after his life. He started across the river to go to Iowa, but some of his friends persuaded him to come back, calling him a coward. He turned and went back, telling his friends that he was going like a lamb to the slaughter. He and his brother Hyrum were taken to Carthage Jail and a mob was raised that killed them both. They leaned the Prophet's body against the well curb and were going to be-head him when a flash of lightening came from Heaven and paralyzed the man that was going to do the deed. Every one fled from Carthage. The two bodies were brought home and I saw them lying side by side in their coffins.

The people of Carthage tried in many ways without success, to get the blood stain from the floor of the Carthage jail. They thought that if a Mormon girl came and scrubbed the floor, the stains would come out. They came for me but neither I, nor any of the other girls would go.

I was married to Daniel Smith, July 4, 1844. He was a widower with seven children, four girls and three boys.

The mob was not yet satisfied. They were howling around until the fall of 1845, when they started driving the people of Nauvoo, burning their houses, barns, grain and everything they owned. Brigham Young sought protection from the government until the people could leave the state.

The people left Nauvoo in 1846. We crossed the Mississippi River on the sixteenth of February. Ice in flakes as large as tables were floating on all sides of the boat. We camped on Sugar Creek for about two weeks waiting for the main body of people to get together. The camps were finally organized and started west on untraveled roads. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. In May we stopped, planted gardens and bough provisions. Several days travel further on, we planted more gardens at what we called Garden Grove. A little farther on, some of the people stopped at Mt. Pisgah to prepare themselves for the journey West. We traveled on westward making roads and bridges until we came to Council Bluffs. There, the Government called five hundred to go to Mexico. There were hardly enough men to fill the call, so young men eighteen and nineteen years old went. We went on to Mosquito Creek, camped there a few days, and went on to the Missouri River, where we prepared to stay for the winter. It was known as Winter Quarters then, but is now called Omaha City.

A new organization was formed the next spring and the leaders went West to form the settlement. We were unable to leave Winter Quarters until 1850. During this time two girls and one boy were added to our family.

We finally started West again. In traveling up the Platte River, we found many Indians and buffalo by the thousands. The Indians didn't bother us as they thought the Mormon people were alright. The moving buffalo would make the earth shake, and the noise was deafening. My husband was appointed hunter of the company and always drove ahead of the rest of the wagons. I had to drive the wagon while he was out hunting.

One morning, my husband brought in a large buffalo calf. We drove several miles ahead of the rest of the company in search of water to dress the meat and finally saw a pond of water about a half a mile from the main road. Turning the horses loose we dressed the meat. It was warm weather and the flies were very bad. The horses strayed to the foothills several miles away so that my husband had to go after them, leaving me and two children alone. He didn't know whether we would be dead or alive when he returned. Before my husband reached the hills, he met a large buffalo bull coming to water. He had left his rifle in the wagon and had nothing to protect himself with. After trying every way to scare him away my husband decided to take off his shoes and give the old fellow a race to the wagon. As luck would have it, the buffalo suddenly decided to go the other way. During this time, a pack of wolves had smelled the fresh meat and were howling around on the other side of the pond several rods away. The sun was going down and it was a very gloomy and desolate sight. I saw a man going along the road not knowing whether he was an Indian or a white man. He went on without bothering us. By the time my husband returned with the horses it was so dark that we couldn't follow the road. Some of the men were searching for us, shooting their guns for a signal. We answered the shot and were soon reunited with the camp amid much rejoicing.

A few days later when we were camped near a spring, we heard a terrible billowing and roaring. The very ground that we were standing on shook. The men and boys went to a nearby hill and looking over the plains saw a herd of thousands of buffalo on the stampede for water. Most of the people were terribly frightened. Some were laughing, some singing, some crying, others yelling and praying, while the more level headed brought torches to frighten the buffalo and held the horses and oxen to keep them from stampeding. The leaders of the herd seemed frightened when they saw us and turned off in another direction. I think the Lord was surely with us in protecting his people.

Farther west the Indians were fighting among themselves so Brigham Young thought it best to send word for the company to get together and look out for trouble. The Indians bothered no white people at this time.

I was never happier in my life than the day we arrived in Utah and found peace, although it was a terribly lonesome and desolate looking place. For two or three years it looked like nothing but starvation. The Mountaineers had offered a thousand dollars for the first ear of corn or bushel of wheat that was raised in the valley. The people prospered and the Valley bloomed like a rose. Grain, vegetables and fruit grew in abundance. Settlements were built all around. We moved to South Weber, Utah where we remained until 1863.

Our next move was to California by ox team. The Indians were very troublesome and we had several narrow escapes. We camped for three days at Fish-Springs waiting for the soldiers to come. The Indians were killing white people on all sides. One day one of our oxen strayed away and my oldest son, then about fifteen, went after it. He found it about two miles from camp, and got back safely. Meanwhile, the stage picked up a man that had been killed about two or three miles from camp.

When we stopped at Egan Station, about two days drive from Fish Springs, we found fifteen or twenty scalps of men, women and children hanging on the side of the barn. The men at the station wanted us to stay there that night but we were afraid to. Several days later the Indians burned the station, killed the men and took the stage.

Several miles from Egan Station there was large rock that projected over the road. We were afraid of being ambushed by Indians on the other side, but went through safely at night. The soldiers, being mounted on large American horses, were far ahead of us by this time. We were near the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and had no trouble after crossing them.

We settled on an island about a hundred miles north of Sacramento. It was a terribly lonely place for me, especially after my husband died, leaving me with six children to care and provide for. We had only been there about five years, and our financial affairs were not so good. By the help of the Lord I managed fairly well.

The island was a terrible place for the children. They had to go three miles through heavy timber to school. There were many mountain lions, wolves, wild cats, and other wild animals. Rattlesnakes were very thick and my children were often without shoes. During high water time, we were often surrounded by water for days at a time with no way to get out. We stood in the doorway and could see waves higher than the house. A great many times we expected to be washed away.

One time there was a great commotion among the chickens. My oldest son and myself took the gun and the dog and went out to see what was wrong. A large wild cat bounded away into the trees. We followed it from tree to tree until we were about a half a mile from the house. The cat hid in a large oak tree and I went under the tree to try to find it. My son, who was farther back saw the cat and told me to get back so it wouldn’t jump on me. He could see well enough by the moonlight to shoot it. It weighed twenty-five pounds. I could tell many other experiences with wild animals, but since others have to do my writing for me, I will not.

In 1875, one of my daughters came to Utah to visit. She decided to stay, and was married five years later. I came back to Utah to live in 1880, which I might not have done had my daughter went back to California. I lived ten months in Lewiston, nine or ten years in Hooper, where I was president of the primary for several years, and then returned to Lewiston, where I have lived since.

I have had eleven children and mothered twenty. Seven were from my husband's first wife and three from his third wife. I am the grandmother of fifty-seven children, and the great grandmother of twelve, at the age of eighty-three. My husband's third wife and one of the children died so I raised the other two.

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