Annetta Smart

Life sketch: Annetta Hayter was born on 18 September 1822 in Portsmouth, England to Henry and Kezia Hayter, the youngest of seven children. Ann spent her childhood in an industrious, middle class farming community where her parents had lived their whole lives. On 24 October 1841, Ann married Henry Fleet, a schoolteacher five years her senior. In 1842, Ann and Henry moved across the channel to Normandy, France where Henry took up a teaching position. Three daughters were born to Ann and Henry while living in France: Mary Ann in 1842, Alice in 1844, and Louisa in 1845. In February 1845, Ann and Henry’s marriage, strained by Henry’s alcohol addiction, fell apart and they divorced.

At some point before her divorce, Ann had met Thomas Sharratt Smart from Staffordshire, England, who was also living and working in France. They married on 1 March 1845 and Thomas later legally adopted Ann’s three children. In late 1845, the Smart family decided to emigrate to America. They made the ocean crossing without incident and settled in St. Louis, Missouri, where two more daughters, Charlotte and Maria, were born to the family. While living in Missouri, Ann and Thomas came into contact with members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, leading to their conversion and baptism into the church in 1851. In 1852, Ann and Thomas decided to move again, this time to Utah to join the main body of their new faith. They joined the Allen Weeks Company, departing from Kanesville, Iowa (present day Council Bluffs, Iowa) on 13 July 1852. The Smarts traveled by wagon and ox team and made the journey without any major incidents beyond the expected hardships of the journey, arriving in Salt Lake City, Utah on 12 October 1852. After a short time in Salt Lake City, Ann and Thomas moved their family south to American Fork, where Thomas engaged in the tannery business. Two children were born to the family here, Thomas and Sarah. Around 1856 or 1857, the Smart family moved to Provo, where two more children were born, Eliza and Frances. Frances lived just three months and passed away.

Finally, in 1860 or 1861, Thomas and Ann were asked by church leaders to join a group going to settle the Cache Valley in southern Idaho. They moved their family to what would become Franklin, Idaho, where Ann’s last two children, William and Mary, were born. In 1869, Thomas, with Ann’s consent, began practicing polygamy and married a second wife, Marguerite Justet. As the matriarch of a large family in a frontier settlement, Ann worked hard raising and providing for her family. She was an active participant in the Relief Society, the women’s organization of the church, and in the social activities of her community. Ann was killed by a lighting strike in her farm home in Franklin, Idaho on 21 June 1876 at the age of 54. She was buried two days later in the family cemetery on her farm.