Family History: Eunice Elizabeth Fuller Smith

EUNICE ELIZABETH FULLER SMITH

1872 – 1933

Eunice Elizabeth was born April 8, 1872 in Salt Lake City to Annie Elizabeth Preece and Reuben Colton Fuller.  At that time they lived in part of an old adobe house on 6^th South and West Temple—Jane Smith and her four year old son Frank lived in the other part.   Eunice was moved with her parents to a farm at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon owned by the wealthy Walker family.  Eunice was often alone since the Walker farm was far from neighbors, though she had two faithful bulldogs.  She sometimes accompanied her father in the winters when he brought fish into town for the Walker family.  This gave her a chance to visit her grandparents (and her young admirer, Frank Smith).  She began school in Salt Lake City when she was eight, living with her grandparents.  (She was an only child until age 12 then had two sisters and one brother.)  She had brown hair that was thick and long, fair skin and clear blue eyes.   Among other talents, she played the piano.

On August 24, 1888 Eunice (aged 16) married Francis Harper (Frank) Smith in the Salt Lake Endowment House.   Eunice’s parents gave her a cow as a wedding present.  Frank and Eunice’s first child, Leo, weighed only 3 ½ pounds.    With Eunice’s good care and feeding, he “grew rapidly”.  Two years later Nellie was born, a beautiful and healthy baby.  She was awarded first prize ($20 gold piece) at the Utah State Fair in the baby contest.   Frank quit his job at ZCMI in 1890 and with a wagon they moved to Bear Lake, Idaho to make a home on 132 acres.  At first they lived in a small home with a dirt roof.  Eunice had never anticipated being a farmer’s wife but she adapted and soon made a pleasing though simple home.  Though young she had a talent for homemaking.   There were many Bannock Indians living in this area of the country which worried Eunice as a young mother.  They sometimes came to her door demanding bread and sugar.  Travelers  to Oregon often camped nearby.  Baby Frank was born the winter of 1892-93.   When Leo was 5 he and his mother killed a porcupine which had come in their door.   In the winter of 1893-94 there were snow drifts six feet high and the family was snow bound for weeks.  In the winter of 1894-95 Eunice was the accompanist for an adult choir which met in their home,  directed by Frank who was a skilled musician.  Money earned from the music lessons helped, as did the happy sociability of making music together.  Eunice had to manage carefully to provide for her family’s needs, making all of her children’s clothing.  Nothing was wasted (old overalls were quilted to make children’s mittens, rags made rugs).

During a blizzard on March 2, 1895 Eunice gave birth to Evan Fowles, surrounded by quilts hung to keep the snow off during the delivery.   The blizzard was so fierce that when Frank drove the midwife home he could not return to his own home until the storm abated—and during the storm two strangers had sought refuge with Eunice and children.  After three years in Idaho the family left for the Ashley Valley.  They had three wagons and hired a young man to help drive a load of furniture.  He complimented  Eunice saying, “I wish to rear my family, when I have one, just as you are rearing yours.”  They traveled along the Old Oregon trail and encountered a large bear which frightened their horses.  Along steep areas Eunice and her little ones walked ahead of the wagons.  In places the trail had been washed away and poles had to be lashed under the wagon bed to take the wagons around steep hillsides.  Eunice became sick, her face swollen and painful so they set up camp.  A traveler came by and camped nearby to help, steeping sagebrush in hot water and putting the hot packs on the swollen parts of Eunice’s body.   Frank kept the hot packs on during the days and the stranger at night for several weeks before Eunice was able to resume her journey. 

Their first home was a log room but in spring they built a two-room frame house in Maeser, with extra rooms added as the family increased.  There was an apple orchard and a cherry orchard near the home.   Annie was born in Vernal on May 12, 1897.   The last six of Eunice’s twelve children were born attended by a physician.   The children fondly remember their parents.   Their mother kept a well-organized home with each child responsible to help.   Annie remembers the joy of new rugs made from rags each year.   Mother sometimes set out a box of ZCMI buttons to entertain the children.  Sundays were special day.  Eunice often prepared a large meal and older children could invite a friend to join them.  An accidental fire burned down their home and it was not rebuilt until 1913, finished in 1915.  In the meantime, the Uintah Reservation was open for settlement and the family moved to a 160 acre tract.  Pioneering this was hard on Eunice for her health was not good and Frank was often away working on building projects in Vernal and the surrounding towns.  Evan was kicked by a horse near his eyes—a serious accident though no permanent damage was done.  Eunice’s parents homesteaded nearby and often visited.  Indians also came almost daily begging for food.  There were also many snakes which sometimes came into the house or the cellar to drink milk.  After “proving up” they were able to move back to their old homestead.  Eunice assisted with the finishing of their new home in Maeser.  She loved flowers and kept a garden.  

According to Mazie, her mother was “one of the few personages who were permitted while upon this earth to receive visits from Heavenly Beings.  She had this privilege on two separate occasions.  To those who have seen her face as she related these instances, there can never be any question that she received visitations  from beyond the veil.”  

Eunice died March 6, 1933 in Mazie’s home, after a year of declining health.   Grand-daughter Jean Johnstun Haws recalls being told that her grandmother had erysipelas, an acute streptococcus infection.  

Children of Eunice and Frank Smith:

Leo (1889-1957); Nellie (1891 – 1973); Frank (1893 – 1957); Evan (1895 – 1966); Annie (1897 - 1977); Mazie (1899 -  1988); Lola (1902 – 1972); Lucy (1904 - 1991); Marvin (1908 – 1961);  Eunice (1910- 2001); Milton Rae (1914- 1994); Shirley (1916 - 1983).

EUNICE ELIZABETH FULLER SMITH – Summary history by Merikay Smith, Dec. 2010

Based on “Mother:  Eunice Elizabeth Fuller Smith,” 22 pages typed (unattributed but presumed by Mazie Smith Christensen); Oral history of Annie Elizabeth Smith Johnstun taken by Jean Haws; “Recollections of My Long and Busy Life,” by Francis Harper Smith,  9 pages. 


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