Smith, William B. Rev. 1811 - 1893

SMITH, GRANT, SANBORN, BOLSINGER, SURPRISE

Posted By: Reid R. Johnson (email)
Date: 3/11/2022 at 12:23:56

Elkader Register, Thur., 23 Nov. 1893. Condensed from a much longer obit.

William B. Smith was born in Royalton, Vermont, on the 13th of March, 1811, and died at Osterdock on the 13th inst. at the ripe old age of 82 years and 9 months, respected, beloved and regretted by all who had known him in life. Funeral services were held in his little church at Osterdock, conducted by Rev. Wm. Kephart, and the remains laid to rest in the Bethel graveyard.

At the age of five he came with his parents to Palmyra, New York, and from there to Kirtland, Ohio, where in 1832 he began to preach that faith in Christ to which he clung till the end of his life. In that year he was married to Miss Caroline Grant, who bore him two children, who have preceded him to the silent shore. In 1834 he, with others, went to Missouri, where he remained for some time before returning east to be among his early friends. About this time he lost his wife. After a time he again married, to Miss Eliza Sanborn, who bore him three children, William and Edward, who now reside in Minnesota, and Mrs. May Bolsinger, who resides near Colesburg. Losing this second wife, he again married in 1889, to Mrs. Rosa Surprise, who survives him.

For nearly a third of a century he lived in and about Elkader, known and respected by all. When the Civil War broke out he hastened to the front, joined the Union Army and served three years.

He was the youngest brother of Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet, and he clung to his brother's religion. When his two brother's, Joseph and Hiram were shot at Nauvoo, he was in Philadelphia, where he had organized a little society. On the news of his brother's death he came west and found Brigham Young had assumed the scepter of the church and was about to establish polygamy among the flock, which he denounced and ever after refused to have anything to do with that branch of Mormonism. As there are many different creeds in Christian countries, it has been the habit or custom among them to assail each other in the most bitter terms, and so it was with this new faith of Mormonism and the whole of this Smith family were assailed and denounced.

In the death of our old friend has perished the last of the Mormon Smiths, and whatever may have been the conduct of the others, yet his whole life has been one of rectitude and honor, devoted to his God, his fellow men, and the land that gave him birth, and let no one now cast reproach upon it.

Samuel Murdock.