Margaret Fletcher (West) SMITH

Margaret Fletcher West Smith, 1838-1864, the second wife of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, who died in Parowan in her 26th year, is characterized in this portrait as a young pioneer mother, filled with love, faith, and courage. The portrait was created in 1978 by Edward Silas Smith after study of photographs of her elder sister, Emma, (another plural wife of Jesse Nathaniel Smith) and of Margaret's two children, since no contemporary likeness of Margaret is known to exist.

Margaret Fletcher West (from Ancestry.com)

Birth: Margaret Fletcher West was born May 22, 1838, at Chalk Level, Benton County, Tennessee

Marriage: Margaret became Jesse Nathaniel Smith’s second wife, January 27, 1856, and they were married by Apostle George A. Smith, at Parowan, Iron County, Utah.

Children: Margaret and Jesse had two children, Margaret Adelaide, born July 13, 1857, in Parowan, and Joseph West, September 6, 1859, in Minersville, Beaver, Utah.

Residences: Margaret and Jesse lived three years in Parowan. Then April 22, 1859, they moved to Minersville. Jesse laid out the town of Minersville, built a cabin and farmed there for two summers. He had a company that shipped lead ore out of Minersville. Upon receiving a mission call to Denmark, September 12, 1860, Jesse took Margaret and children back to Parowan to live with her parents.

Death: Margaret died February 1, 1864, leaving her two children, four and a half year old son and six and a half year old daughter for her sister Emma (Jesse Nathaniel Smith’s first wife) to raise. Margaret died of apparent acute appendicitis.

GEDCOM Note

Margaret Fletcher West Headstone located in Parowan Utah Cemetery. Biography of Margaret Fletcher West Smith - by Margaret Smith Larson The Kinsman - July 1958 - Margaret Fletcher West Smith The 44 children of Jesse N. Smith and Emma West, Margaret West, Janet Johnson, Augusta Outzen, and Emma Larson. Numbered in order of birth.