Lot Smith papers, 1857-1962

Lot Smith (1830-1892) was a Mormon pioneer and frontiersman. Born in 1830 on 15 May 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 skill 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 plural marriage and had eight wives (Lydia McBride, Jane Walker, Julian P. Smith, Laura Burdick, Alice Ann Richards, Alice Bough, Mary Garns, and Diantha Mortensen) and fifty-two children.

In 1857 the President and U.S. Senate attempted to establish a non-Mormon government in Utah and sent Albert Johnson to replace Brigham Young as governor. Smith was sent on a special mission by 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 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 U.S. forces from reaching their destination and removing Young from office.

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 settlers initially understood that the Navajo had first choice to the water and land resources. Although relations with the Navajo were initially cooperative, the growing number of settlers in the Tuba City area began to cause conflict. When Smith arrived in the settlement, he fenced in his land in violation of the agreement between the Navajos and settlers. 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 fired, mortally wounding Lot Smith. Smith managed to return home and, about six hours later, died on the 21 June 1892.