Dates

• Existence: 1837 - 1914

Biography

Diana Eldredge Smoot (1837-1914) was a Latter-Day Saint convert and pioneer, the daughter of Ira Eldredge and Nancy Black. She was a plural wife of Abraham O. Smoot, and mother of thirteen.

Diana Eldredge Smoot, daughter of Ira Eldredge and Nancy Black, was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on March 28, 1837. She grew up on a suburban farm. In 1840, when she was three or four, her father joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (her mother was converted at this point but not baptized due to family opposition). In 1846, after the Saints were driven from Nauvoo, the family followed them to Council Bluffs, where her father outfitted Ephraim Hanks and Joseph Baxter for the Mormon Battalion (being unable to join himself due to family responsibilities) and distributed dry goods to the families of those who joined it. The family started for the Salt Lake Valley in the spring of 1847, arriving in September, and the following spring, Diana's mother was baptized. Diana witnessed the cricket plague of 1848 and its miraculous end that summer.

Diana married Abraham Owen Smoot in Salt Lake City, Utah on May 6, 1855 (his fourth wife) and they had thirteen children, ten of whom survived to adulthood: Abraham Owen II, Nancy, Olive, Elizabeth, Joseph Edmund, Ella Deseret, Vilate, Orson Parley, Horace Alma, and Wilford. The family lived in Sugar House where Abraham was bishop, then moved south to Pond Town avoid the invasion of Johnston's Army in 1856; here Abraham again served as bishop until the resolution of the conflict between the U.S. Government and the Saints allowed them to return to Salt Lake City in 1858. In 1868, Abraham was called to Provo to be its Stake President; Diana and family followed later, and here Diana lived for the rest of her life. She died in Provo, Utah on January 29, 1914 and was buried in Provo City Cemetery.

Citation:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=25163393, accessed November 26, 2013 (parents Ira Eldredge, Nancy Black; born in Indiana March 28, 1837; married Abraham Owen Smoot, seven children listed: Olive, Joseph Edmund, Ella Deseret, Vilate, Orson Parley, Horace Alma, and Wilford; died in Provo, Utah, January 29, 1914; buried Provo City Cemetery).

http://www.geni.com/people/Abraham-Smoot/6000000011342974498, accessed November 26, 2013 (married in Salt Lake City, Utah on May 6, 1855; three additional children: Abraham Owen II, Nancy, Elizabeth; Abraham married to Margaret McMeans, Sarah Gibbens, Emily Hill, then Diana Eldredge)

Diana E. Smoot autobiography [MSS SC 1587], 1912 (born in Indianapolis; grew up on farm; father joined LDS Church in 1840, mother converted but not baptised - family opposition; family followed Saints to Council Bluffs 1846, father helped outfit two members of Mormon Battalion, helped families of other soldiers; family traveled to Salt Lake Valley, spring-September 1847; mother baptized spring 1848, survived cricket plague and gull miracle summer 1848; lived in Sugar House, Abraham bishop; moved to Pond Town 1856, Abraham bishop until 1858; conflict resolved with U.S. Government, family returned to SLC; husband called as Provo Stake President 1868, family followed; Diana in Provo rest of life)

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