John M. Macfarlane (1833-1892) was an Mormon hymnwriter, choral director, and civic leader.

John M. Macfarlane, son of Annabella Sinclair Haight and John Macfarlane, was born in Stirling, Scotland on October 11, 1833. His father died when he was thirteen; the family subsequently moved to Glasgow and then emigrated and crossed the plains to the Salt Lake Valley in about 1852; John settled in Cedar City the following year. In December 1854, he married Ann Chatterley; they bore ten children, only five of whom survived to adulthood. He also took plural wives in Agnes Eliza (Tillie) Heyborne on October 9, 1866 (nine children, one died), and Elizabeth Jane (Lizzie) Adams in 1879; she gave birth to seven children, losing two in infancy. He was a member of the Iron County Militia, served as Iron County superintendent of schools from 1866-1868, and served as director of the choir he was encouraged to establish in St. George. Over the course of his life, he composed two well-known LDS hymns, "Far, Far Away on Judea's Plains" and "Dearest Children, God is Near You" (music only).

He made his living as a farmer, teacher, surveyor and builder, and attorney. In the community, Macfarlane served as a district judge, was the first postmaster of Toquerville (first south of Cedar City, in fact), surveyed throughout southern Utah and eastern Nevada, was a defense attorney in the trial of John D. Lee, and served as County Prosecuting Attorney and District Attorney. In 1879, he was elected probate (county) judge in the Utah Territory until he was forced to go into hiding as a polygamist in 1883. In 1888, he helped to found the academy which became Dixie State College. He moved to Mexico with wife Lizzie, where his wife Tillie and children joined him in 1891. In 1892, he returned alone to St. George for medical treatment, and died there on June 4 due to heart failure as a complication of diabetes.

Abraham Owen Smoot was born February 17, 1815, to George W. Smoot and Ann Rowlett of Owenton, Kentucky. He was a Mormon pioneer, mayor of both Salt Lake City and Provo, Utah, and an early supporter of Brigham Young Academy. On November 11, 1838, in the aftermath the siege, Smoot married Maragret Thompson McMeans. Over the course of his life, he took five additional wives: Sarah Gibbens and Emily Hill in 1846, Diana Caroline Tanner Eldredge in 1855, Anne Kristine Mauritzen in 1856, and Hannah Caroline Rogers. He had twenty-seven children, three of whom were adopted. Among his most notable children was Reed Smoot, Brigham Smoot, Ida Smoot Dusenberry, and Zina Beal Smoot.

Reed Smoot (1862-1941) was a Utah politician, Senator, successful businessman and an apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and son of Anne Kristine Mauritzen and Abraham Smoot. On September 17, 1884, Reed married Alpha M. Eldredge who was the daughter of Mormon pioneers named General Horace Sunderlin Eldredge and Chloe Anoinette Refield Eldredge. Together Reed and Alpha had 6 children. After her death in 1928, Reed married Alice Taylor Sheets.

Brigham Smoot (1869-1946) was another son of Anne Kristine Mauritzen and Abraham Smoot, a businessman and missionary in Tonga.

Ida Smoot Dusenberry (1873-1955) was a daughter of Anne Kristine Mauritzen and Abraham Smoot, wife of George Albert Dusenberry and teacher at Brigham Young University. She was a counselor of the General Board of the Relief Society for 25 years.

Zina Beal Smoot Whitney (1859-1900) was the daughter of Emily Hill and Abraham Smoot. She was well known through association of her husband, Orson F. Whitney, who was a Mormon apostle.