Family Histories: Thomas Price Smith

Thomas Price Smith

1806 – 1896

We call upon the saints of the Norwich and Worcestershire Conferences to manifest their sense of the years of untiring exertion made on their behalf

 by Elder Thomas Smith, their father and founder in the Gospel.

(Millennial Star: 1 Nov 1851 – Vol 13, No1, page 335)

Thomas was born on October 18, 1806, in the village of Deerhurst, England.  His parents, William Smith and (Sarah) Virgin Price, had 3 daughters and 4 sons.  Their family has been traced back to 1678, to Edward Smith of Kinsham in Bredon, Worcestershire.  Thomas’ mother read scriptures to her children daily.  Thomas wrote, ‘when I was young I was drawn by the spirit of the Lord in some measure to love the Lord.’  Thomas worked as a farm laborer earning just 10 shillings to £1 per week.   He became a preacher at age 21 in the Wesleyan Church.  

Thomas married Ann Taylor on November 17, 1827 in Deerhurst.  They had five children:  Job Taylor born Dec. 2, 1828; Mary born Dec. 25, 1831; John and Anna  born Dec. 2, 1833 (died Dec. 9 and Dec. 13, 1833); John born 1835.  Mother Ann died soon after John’s birth.  At age three Job was given to his Uncle George and Aunt Mary Bundy.  After the death of wife in 1835, Thomas, who been a Wesleyan preacher, was dissatisfied with their teachings and broke away from the faith.  In about 1838 he and 550 others organized as the United Brethren.

Thomas was baptized into the LDS Church April 8, 1840.  Within three months of being baptized he was called to care for the newly organized branch in Deerhurst.

Six months later he was ordained an elder and called to serve a mission in his area. Thomas converted and later married Mary Dugard Feb. 10, 1843.  Mary was disinherited from wealth when she joined the LDS Church.  Mary suffered privations and hardships, caring for Thomas’ two children as well as her own, often with her husband gone for weeks at a time.  Only two of her ten children survived to adulthood.  Thomas was an effective missionary and was President of the Worcestershire Conference in the late 1840s.  A difficult situation arose for Thomas who asked the rich members to donate to help the poor, and received enough for a farthing each for 20 people a week.  The rich complained, church authorities investigated and Thomas “corrected” his teachings.  (It seems that a small portion of the funds received helped support his family, who were among the poor.  Serving the church full-time for more than ten years took great faith and willingness to go without on the part of Thomas and his wife.  Often missionaries were fed as they traveled from place to place, but not the family left behind.) 

In 1842, a Norwich minister made a prophecy that God would soon set the children of Israel free with “the renewal of the covenant – in a prophet’s voice – and in the establishment of a priesthood with power to administer….”  He expected this to happen between 1844 and 1847.  Thus the people were prepared for the message of the Restoration when in 1847 Thomas made a request to serve in Norwich (200 miles from Worcestershire) where the gospel was not yet taught.  Apostle Orson Spencer called Thomas as the first Mormon missionary in Norfolk.  He was greeted in a miraculous way there when a woman, Mother Teasdel, stopped him on the street to say she had seen him in a dream and was directed by the Spirit to invite him to her home where he taught her and others the gospel.  Thomas soon rented a hall for regular meetings.  Within a year he baptised 130 people and built a chapel in the city.  In 1848 he was called to serve as President of the Norwich Conference.   In his service he walked miles (as many as 70 at a time) from village to village, traveling without purse or script, relying on strangers and the Lord.   He was threatened with prison if he preached in one particular minister’s village. Thomas’ response was, ‘I fear God , not man and I WILL NOT BE STOPPED.’  Meetings were sometimes disrupted with banging, jeering and shouting or stones were thrown.  Thomas wrote that during one “riot” he was hurt and managed to escape with his life.   By January 1850 a total of 457 saints had joined the Church in the Norwich Conference.  Thomas requested permission to leave England for Utah.  Son Job Smith was to preside over the Bedfordshire Conference.  After 10 years of service “impaired” in health and with “scanty subsistence for the gospel’s sake”, Thomas had been the means by which hundreds joined the Church in England. 

Thomas and his family, traveling under the Perpetual Emigration Fund, boarded the The Kennebec in January 1851.  Due to weather conditions departure was delayed and daughter Eliza died January 10.  Thomas made the overland trek to Utah with the Abraham Smoot company.   A note in Thomas’ journal during a time of cholera:  ‘I was fully engaged in administering to the sick, burying the dead, appointing men to look after the cattle as well as other duties.’   They arrived in Utah in September 1852.  In February 1854, Thomas Smith and his wife received their endowments and were sealed together.  In July 1854, he married a second wife, Sarah Driver. Thomas Smith responded to B. Young’s call to settle Iron County.  He married Patience Kee, one of his first converts in Norwich, in May 1855 by Apostle George A. Smith. 

Thomas was described as zealous in his faith, generous and kind natured.  He also loved to garden and kept the best team of horses around.  He prospered once settled in Utah.  He had 7 wives (Ann Taylor, Mary Dugard, Sarah Driver, Patience Kee, Susannah Fish, Phebe Kee, and Elizabeth Hunting) and 26 children and adopted three others.  Thomas died at age 90 in Parowan, Utah in 1896.

THOMAS PRICE SMITH – Summary history by Merikay Smith, December 2010

Job Smith Diary and autobiography, 1849-1877; 1828-1913, BYU, online.

“The Journal of Thomas Price Smith,” edited by Robert Smith Melville, 1993.

  A Brief History of Thomas Price Smith, by Ron Larter, 70 pages (online).

“Disowned Bride,” Church News, March 14, 1981 (about Mary Dugard).

“Some Information Pertaining to the Lives of Thomas Price Smith and Mary (Dugard) Smith,” unattributed, 2 pages (refers to Thomas as “grandfather”).

Thanks to Merikay Haws Smith for researching, writing, and sharing this history.